Signs of a New Era: the "Female" Vocal Cycle during the Renewal of Russian Music of the 1960s and 1970s

Shkirtil' Lyudmila Vyacheslavovna Professor of Vocal Art, St. Petersburg Mussorgsky music college 191028, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Mokhovaya str., 36, of. Mokhovaya 36 serovyuri2013@gmail.com Other publications by this author

In her seminal work "Cycle as genre and Form", E. Ruchevskaya noted that mutations of the cyclic form can be closely related to periods when new relationships between genres and new relationships of hierarchical levels of the style system arise: "The cyclic form is conditioned, closely related to the general stylistic and form-forming trends in each epoch. It, this form, reacts to any changes no less acutely than the fret, harmony, timbre. The cycle as a genre and form then becomes an arena for the search for new concepts and forms" ^{[1, p. 486]}. Our research is devoted to the vocal cycle in a special era — the radical renewal of Russian music. Stylistic innovation was expressed, along with other factors, in a comprehensive expansion of the genre palette. Chamber music becomes a "search arena" in Soviet music of the 1960s and 1970s, as if the authors are competing with each other: who will make it more interesting, more technological, more individual. It is in chamber genres, and, above all, in the chamber-vocal cycle, "the composers of this time see the most fertile sphere of the application of creative imagination due to the inherent versatility of chamber writing, the ability to flexible modifications" ^{[2, p. 365]}.

"The vocal solo cycle, unlike the instrumental sonata—symphonic cycle, and the established types of vocal-symphonic cycles, and even opera, does not have as a basis typological meaningful roles and the ratio of typical form schemes" ^{[1, p. 478]}. Indeed, the artistic concept of the vocal cycle, its dramaturgy, and finally, its integrity is formed anew every time, it is always a new, original phenomenon. The unity of centrifugal and centripetal forces, which makes up the integrity of the vocal cycle so important for performers and listeners, depends not only and not so much on the stylistic preferences of the author of the music, but on the "meaningful roles" that form "forms-schemes". The literary basis, without any doubt, is a significant part of the plan, but other signs of the era are also important. Thus, the chamber-vocal cycle in the years of the renewal of Russian music becomes a reflection of the time itself, its unique musical and poetic chronicle.

According to E. Ruchevskaya, "the emergence of a solo [vocal] cycle <...> is completely natural just at the time when the freedom of the author's style in the works of both composers, its fullest expression reaches its highest point. In the artistic fact, the subjective principle seems to pull the scales of the style system to its side" ^{[1, p. 477]}. The freedom of the author's style in the period under review seems to have been limitless, as well as a variety of creative ideas and musical and technological techniques. There has never been an epoch in the history of Russian music that was distinguished by such a strong subjective principle, such a powerful influence on the style system. The necessary conditions for the emergence of the chamber-vocal cycle as a mass phenomenon have thus been created. And the composers met the expectations of the "thaw".

A special perspective of our research is the "female" vocal cycle, which received a powerful impulse to development in the 1960s and 1970s, associated with "thematic", "plot" enrichment, with the appearance and discovery of a new rich poetic stream (first of all, the poetry of A. Akhmatova and M. Tsvetaeva, folk art). The vocal cycles of B. Tishchenko, A. Schnittke, V. Gavrilin, S. Slonimsky, E. Denisov, G. Banshchikov, A. Petrov, B. Tchaikovsky, G. Sviridov, A. Kneifel, D. Shostakovich, G. Okunev became an "acute reaction" to the epoch-making social, stylistic, literary changes that entered the lives of Soviet composers. In our work, we will analyze these outstanding works, identify their instrumental, poetic, performing virtues, but first, briefly turn to the main trends in the renewal of Russian music that came with the Khrushchev "thaw".

The political and social changes in Soviet society that occurred after the twentieth Congress of the CPSU — the debunking of the "cult of personality", the official condemnation of Stalin's repressions, some change or "softening" of ideological guidelines, a certain improvement in the standard of living led to the rapid development of science, art, literature. Music, among other arts, fully and directly reflected the changes in society. S. Slonimsky recalled that "after the memorable twentieth party congress, it became easier to breathe. Not only the all-powerful idol collapsed. All the threads entangling freedom of will, choice and conscience were broken <...> in the future, no ruler was an authority for me, no theory was mandatory, no worldview was suitable for everyone, no artistic style was the only possible one" ^{[3, p. 117]}. In one of the later interviews, B. Tishchenko was in tune with him: "Why did we turn out? Not only us, but in general, all the "sixties"? We have grown up on this breath of freedom" ("Monologue of the soul. Boris Tishchenko": documentary / directed by I. Chaplin, T. Andreeva. Saint Petersburg: GTRK "Saint Petersburg", 2009).The craving for new artistic information turned out to be exceptionally great, young authors absorbed the hitherto unknown: "dodecaphony, which had long passed the zenith of its development (the principles of which Schoenberg formulated in the early 20s), was "discovered".

The composers got acquainted with aleatorics, sonoristics, electronic and concrete music, with numerous new techniques of sound production and new instruments, often borrowed from folk music of South America, Africa, Asia. After many years of oblivion, Igor Stravinsky and Paul Hindemith, composers of the Novovensky school Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern were rediscovered. Compositions by composers of the Polish school Witold Lutoslawski and Krzysztof Penderecki, Frenchman Olivier Messiaen, American Charles Ives appeared on the stage" ^{[4, p. 88]}. E. Ruchevskaya is echoed by one of the most courageous and tireless fighters for "new" music S. Slonimsky: "The Picasso exhibition, Remarque's books, Dudintsev's Not by Bread Alone, concerts of foreign guest performers, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess — everything went into the piggy bank of New thinking, everything influenced. Stravinsky's symphony of psalms and Honegger's "Liturgical" in the recordings shown at the Union of Composers caused excitement and a revision of ideas about symphonism, about pop-song thematism, non-development" ^{[3, p. 123]}.

Young "sixties" composers aspired to individual creative results, boldly experimented with harmony, rhythm, meter, fret, texture, timbre, form - the key elements of the musical language. Being a "non—public expression" is the motto of the generation, but senior colleagues also actively participated in the broad process of renewal, enriching their experience with fresh stylistic findings. Advanced Western "technologies" were interpreted with varying degrees of orthodoxy, but the demand for new knowledge, the desire for concepts of a different level and type, the broad intellectualization of the composer's craft, spiritual content proved to be in demand by many and many, regardless of age and position in the firmly built hierarchical structure of Soviet music.

We have deliberately limited the study of chamber vocal music to only two decades, they are the most important. It was this period of intensive renewal that turned out to be extremely saturated with the most complex and multi-vector problems: musical-stylistic, ideological, general aesthetic. The composers responded to the request of time with outstanding artistic results. Deep meditation, confessional, a kind of creative "egoism" became important components of the lyrical self-expression of Soviet authors. Their spiritual potential was in demand by society, actively influenced the development of society. It was at this time that the late cycles of D. Shostakovich, romances to the poems of A. Akhmatova, S. Slonimsky, "The Russian Notebook" by V. Gavrilin, songs to the poems of M. Tsvetaeva, B. Tishchenko, "Zveniden" by Yu. Falik, "The Last Spring" by B. Tchaikovsky, "Departed Russia" by G. Sviridov were created and performed for the first time. For everyone who is closely connected with modern performing practice, the answer to the question of the exceptional importance of the 1960s and 1970s in chamber vocal creativity is obvious. All these compositions are extremely interesting to the modern performer-researcher, and the bright glow of that era, like distant beacons, shows us the way in the modern, not so generous with discoveries musical world.  

It would be too bold to say that the "female" vocal cycle in the period under review sought to become a new genre — the main features are preserved here regardless of "gender" (a cycle of songs or romances united by a common musical and poetic idea). And yet, the inexhaustible flow of outstanding vocal cycles for the female voice, which arose in the 1960s and 1970s, forces us to take a much closer look at the trends of the time, identify the main types, point out the origins, and outline the scope of this amazing artistic phenomenon. Most of the chamber-vocal repertoire of modern performers is based on the works of the "thaw" period — the most important sign of the quality and relevance of this music, its spiritual wealth, the skill of its creators.  Let's name several main types of chamber-vocal cycles for female voices, clearly understanding that none of them exists in a "pure" form, that it is the synthesis (sometimes complex) of various impulses that leads to an outstanding creative result.

"When the poet, describing the lady, / Begins: "I was walking down the street. The corset has dug into the sides,"— Here "I" do not understand, of course, directly — / That, they say, a poet is hiding under the lady. / I'll tell you the truth in a friendly way: / The poet is a man. Even with a beard." In the ironic poem by Sasha Cherny (well known to us thanks to his interpretation in the "female" cycle of D. Shostakovich ^[4]), we are talking about a literary device, a kind of "gender mask".   We will begin our study of "female" vocal cycles with the rapid appearance on the Soviet literary scene of women's poetry of the highest level, first of all, the poems of M. Tsvetaeva and A. Akhmatova.

The first official collection of M. Tsvetaeva was published in the USSR in 1961 ^[5], it became a life-giving source, which was touched by "both old and young", an inexhaustible storehouse of new poetic words and rhythm, strong emotions, genuine feelings, free from the tired "officialdom". For a long time, the "Favorites" of 1961 remained the only collection of M. Tsvetaeva printed in the USSR. The next edition appeared already at the time of "perestroika", in 1988.

Unlike Tsvetaeva, who committed suicide in 1941, A. Akhmatova turned out to be an older contemporary of many authors of music for her poems, her legacy in the USSR was a little more lucky: limited editions of poems and poems appeared three times, in 1940, 1958 and 1961 (we do not mean pre-revolutionary editions or those released at the very beginning of 1920-x). B. Katz in the book "Anna Akhmatova and Music" [XX] provides a photographic list of musical compositions based on her poems, and it impresses with its volume. It seems that none of the members of the Union of Composers ignored the poet's work (Akhmatova emphatically called herself a poet, not a poetess). Vocal cycles, individual songs and romances, cantatas appeared by the dozens, many entered the treasury of Russian chamber music. Note also that most of them were created after Akhmatova's death, after 1966.

Here is a (far from complete) list of domestic chamber vocal cycles on poems by A. Akhmatova and M. Tsvetaeva, created in the 1960s and 1970s, it gives a very definite idea of the extraordinary interest that Soviet composers felt in their work. Please note that the list includes only monopoetic vocal cycles and compositions created for voice and piano, that all these opuses were published officially (this is important in the realities of Soviet musical life) by the publishing house "Soviet Composer" separately or in collections, that they were all performed in concerts, and some opuses became real performing "hits".

On poems by A. Akhmatova: "Four Romances on poems by A. Akhmatova" by M. Minkov (1965) for soprano and piano; "Midnight Poems" by B. Terentyev (1968), vocal cycle for soprano and piano; "Circle" by S. Grinberg (1970), vocal cycle for soprano and piano; "Six Romances on poems by A. Akhmatova" by S. Slonimsky (1970) for soprano and piano; "Five Romances to poems by A. Akhmatova" by A. Bogatyrev (1971) for soprano and piano; "Five Poems by Anna Akhmatova" by Yu. Falik (1972) for soprano and piano; "Muse. Creativity and Fate" by S. Wolfensohn (1973), a notebook of poems for soprano and piano; "Ten Poems by A. Akhmatova" by S. Slonimsky (1974) for soprano and piano; "Two Romances on poems by Anna Akhmatova" by E. Firsova (1977) for soprano and piano; "Eight Poems by A. Akhmatova" by V. Basner (1978) for mezzo-soprano and piano; "Rosehip blooms" by V. Gurkov (1979), vocal cycle for soprano and piano; "There my shadow remained" by G. Gontarenko (1980), vocal cycle for mezzo-soprano and piano (1980); "Midnight Poems" by D. Smirnov (1980), chamber cantata for two pianos and mezzo-soprano.

On poems by M. Tsvetaeva: "Three poems by Marina Tsvetaeva" by A. Schnittke (1965) for mezzo-soprano and piano; "Vocal cycle on poems by Marina Tsvetaeva" by A. Nikolaev (1967) for mezzo-soprano and piano; "Vocal cycle on poems by M. Tsvetaeva" by G. Okunev (1967) for soprano and piano; "Three Songs on poems by Marina Tsvetaeva" (1970) by B. Tishchenko for mezzo-soprano and piano; "Five Songs on poems by M. Tsvetaeva" by M. Tariverdiev (1971) for mezzo-soprano and piano; "Vocal cycle on poems by M. Tsvetaeva" by J. Metallidi (1966) for mezzo-soprano and piano; "Six Poems by Marina Tsvetaeva" by D. Shostakovich (1973), vocal suite for mezzo-soprano and piano. 

So, the first and most popular type of "female" vocal cycle is compositions based on poems by M. Tsvetaeva and A. Akhmatova. A monologue or utterance, the "cry of the soul" of a lover, wife, sister, mother, a view of the world through women's eyes, a knowledge of it with a woman's heart — this is the basis of most chamber-vocal works of our research.

Next, let's recall the "new folklore wave", first of all, "Lamentations" by E. Denisov (1966) and "The Russian Notebook" by V. Gavrilin (1965), "Songs of the free Woman by S. Slonimsky (1959), music for "Northern Studies" (songs of grandmother Ulyana, 1969) and "Cold" (1974) by B. Tishchenko, Varvara in R. Shchedrin's opera "Not only Love" (1961). The authors developed a folk layer, synthesized fresh approaches to folklore, to its genre diversity, intonational flexibility, harmonic language, timbre. The exponent of a folk song or a lament, a chastushka or a rite is mainly a female voice, it is to him that composers entrust their cycles. And again, this statement is on behalf of girls, women mourning the death of a loved one, embarking on a wild dance, longing for unfulfilled happiness or cursing their fate: themes and plots that are in demand by Russian life at all times.

The world of childhood, a variety of counting books, nicknames, lullabies, but also maternal warmth or school pranks also belongs to female voices. Among the outstanding examples of such vocal cycles are "Five Funny Children's Songs" by A. Petrov (1962), "The Road" by B. Tishchenko (1974), "Stupid Horse" by A. Kneifel (1980).

A special layer of Russian musical history is the creation of a vocal cycle (regardless of the type of poetry) "for" a particular performer (in our case, a performer). For G. Vishnevskaya, her powerful and wide-range rich voice, her passionate nature, D. Shostakovich composed his "Satires" (1960) and the "Blokov Suite" (1966), wrote "Four Poems by I. Brodsky" (1965) and "Pushkin's Lyrics" (1972) by B. Tchaikovsky; the final version was created for E. Obraztsova "The Departed Russia" (1977) by G. Sviridov; the Leningrad singer M. Elik is dedicated to a vocal cycle on poems by A. Blok (1965) by V. Veselov, N. Romanova — "Zveniden" by Yu. Falik, N. Yureneva — "Three songs on poems by M. Tsvetaeva" (1970) by B. Tishchenko and two cycles on poems by A. S. Slonimsky's Akhmatova — "Six Poems" (1970) and "Ten Poems" (1974), E. Gorokhovskaya — "Eight poems by A. Akhmatova" (1978) by V. Basner; two popular "Spanish" cycles were composed especially for Z. Dolukhanova — "Spanish Songs" (1956) by D. Shostakovich and "Guitar Crying"M. Minkov (1973); the cycle "Stupid Horse" (1980) by A. Knaifel is marked by the author's remark as "fifteen stories for a singer and a pianist" and the musical community knew these very specific "singer and pianist" — T. Melentyev and O. Malov. His cycle on poems by A. Akhmatova for several voices, piano and percussion (1973) is also dedicated to the "Muse" of A. Kneifel (T. Melentyeva).

It is also necessary to mention the extraordinary flexibility of the female voice, a much wider vocal range compared to the male. Such technical characteristics are in demand in modern music when it is necessary to sing complex intervals, chromatics, when the melodic line is whimsical, and harmonic connections are blurred. Ensemble sensitivity, great opportunities for diverse dynamics (the ability to sing, including in the upper register on the piano) — all this motivated domestic authors to create chamber vocal works for female voices.

So, we can distinguish the following main types of "female" vocal cycles in Russian music of the 1960s and 1970s:

1. Works on poems by M. Tsvetaeva and A. Akhmatova;

2. Fruitful compositional searches in line with the "new folklore wave";

3. Vocal sphere related to music for children and youth;

4. Initiation cycles designed for specific outstanding performers.                  

  So far we have been talking about the typology of the "female" vocal cycle, but there are also other serious reasons (from the area that we will designate as socio-economic in relation to the field of musical art), thanks to which the authors choose a female voice as the main performer of their offspring. It is no secret that there are significantly fewer male singers, and the best of them are in great demand in opera, in cantata-oratorio practice, etc. The appearance in the life of D. Shostakovich of bass E. Nesterenko, a deeply intellectual musician with an excellent voice, a wide range, capable of learning complex modern texts, stimulated the great composer to create his late vocal cycles for bass and piano. But are there many such masters in the domestic concert practice? Let us recall in this connection the numerous attempts of D. Shostakovich to persuade the soloist of the Kiev Opera B. Gmyrya to sing the premiere of "Five Poems by E. Dolmatovsky" in the first half of the 1950s: the famous and beloved bass did not have the opportunity to see the notes, the author of the music even specially went to the "negotiations" in the capital of Ukraine.

A tenor with good "tops" is doomed to shine in opera, why should he waste precious time learning a complex modern work, and even a chamber one? There are a lot of female singers, they are by definition less capricious, their voices are more flexible, the ranges are wider, and the fees are more modest, they are ready to "get involved" in any musical work. Is this not a sufficient reason to put the words "vocal cycle for soprano (mezzo-soprano) and piano" on the title page of the score, even if the poetry is "male"? Let's add here the need to speak before the procurement commissions of the Ministries of Culture of the USSR and the RSFSR (this Soviet practice, already forgotten by many, also required serious and free, for the most part, singing resources) and we will get quite convincing evidence in favor of the idea we expressed about the advantages of creating chamber vocal music for female voices.

A separate topic is the lack of a serious school of chamber singing in the USSR. A singer who performs a stylistically verified and accurate German song or a French romance of the XIX century in the original languages has always remained a "black sheep" in the monolithic vocal landscape of the country. What can we say about the most complex modern, sometimes avant-garde composer's fantasies. A practicing musician, an accompanist pianist, a vocal teacher, all those who have faced the realities of Soviet chamber performance will confirm our conclusions. But it is all the more necessary to talk about those "tectonic" shifts, changes that happened in the Soviet chamber-vocal cycle in the 1960s and 1970s.

The "female" vocal cycle, which received a serious impetus to development in the 1960s and 1970s, associated with the discovery of a new rich poetic tradition - the work of A. Akhmatova and M. Tsvetaeva, with the search for authenticity in folk art in the spirit of the "new folklore wave", with the appearance of bright performers of modern music on the domestic vocal horizon — G. Vishnevskaya, E. Obraztsova, N. Yureneva, Z. Dolukhanova, L. Davydova and others, became a special sign of the era, one of the powerful spiritual stimuli of the time of change, a kind of musical representation of the broad movement of renewal in the national musical culture. 

You can simply select and copy link from below text field.