What does the word romance mean? What is romance? Genre characteristics of romance

What is romance, history of romance

IN musical art There is a chamber genre that can rightfully be considered unique - its name is “romance”. This vocal miniature has been very popular since its appearance and reflected all the significant processes taking place in the life of society. In our country, romance has a very difficult fate- he was banned, but he again triumphantly returned to concert stages. Nowadays, romance continues to delight listeners with its melody, sincerity and warmth.

What is romance?

A romance is a work of usually lyrical content, belonging to the chamber-vocal genre, it is written for the voice and an accompanying vocal part of an accompanying instrument.

A romance is similar to a song, but there are some differences that make it a romance.

• The romance is more melodious and its melodic line is very expressive.
• In a romance, everything is significant. The content of a poetic text should be melodic, touching, or sometimes even tragic. A beautiful and sensual vocal part is always closely connected with the text. The romance's accompaniment is a full-fledged participant in the ensemble.
• The form of the romance, just like that of the song, is strophic, that is, couplet, however, various kinds of expansions are possible here, and this suggests that the musical periods of the romance can be both even and odd number beats
• There is usually no chorus in a romance.

Popular romances

"Nightingale"- music by A. Alyabyev, lyrics by A. Delvig. Romance, which belongs to the masterpieces of chamber music vocal genre, Alexander Alyabyev wrote it while imprisoned on a false charge of murder in 1825. Thanks to its soulful and surprisingly expressive melody, this vocal miniature has gained extraordinary popularity throughout the world. There are no virtuosic vocal passages in the musical original of the romance; they were subsequently added by the performers.

"Nightingale" - listen

"I remember wonderful moment» - music M. Glinka , words by A. Pushkin. This pearl, which is classic example Russian romance, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka dedicated to Catherine Kern, for whom he had deep feelings. In its turn,Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was inspired to create the magnificent poetic basis of the romance by Catherine’s mother, Anna Kern. The melody of the romance is elegant, soulful and melodious; it expressively reveals the romantic feelings of the lyrical hero.

“I remember a wonderful moment” - listen

"Among the noisy ball" music P.I. Tchaikovsky , words by A.K. Tolstoy. Written in the waltz genre, this vocal composition by the brilliant Russian composer immediately gained great popularity. Romance having a beautiful melodic line, is very expressive and lyrical, but most importantly, it is written so conveniently that it can easily be performed in home music playing.

“Among the noisy ball” - listen

"Burn, burn, my star…"- music by P. Bulakhov, lyrics by V. Chuevsky. Russian romance, recognized throughout the world, which has a large number of arrangements, both pop and “academic”. Despite the fact that the composition was composed in the middle of the nineteenth century, after the revolution it was banned, as it was very popular among White Guard officers.

“Shine, burn, my star...” - listen

"Black eyes" music by F. Herman, lyrics by E. Grebenka. This world-famous romance has been translated into many languages. The popularity of the composition is due to the fact that it is about passionate love that drives people crazy. It is useless to resist it, since such love is inexplicable, and it is stronger than death.

“Dark Eyes” - listen

History of romance

The history of romance dates back to the distant Middle Ages. Around the 13th, and perhaps in the 14th century, poets traveled along the roads of sunny Spain, composing and singing songs that were significantly different from the church chorales generally accepted at that time, performed in Latin. Firstly, the Spanish troubadours composed their texts on themes filled with love and lyrical content, for example, they told about the exploits of brave knights in the name of sublime love to beautiful ladies. Secondly, these songs were performed on “romance”, as it was called then Spanish and thirdly, they were distinguished by their special melodiousness. Gradually, such melodic poems set to music became widespread in countries neighboring Spain. There, troubadours also composed so-called “secular” poems - ballads telling about important historical events and exploits folk heroes, and, undoubtedly, among their poetic creations occupied an important place love lyrics. The minstrels, in the Spanish style, began to decorate all this with elegant melodies and sing them to the musical accompaniment of some instrument, calling their songs romances. More than one century has passed, and the term “romance” is firmly rooted in different countries, denoting both a melodious poem of a lyrical nature and a work characterizing the genre of vocal music.

The romance flourished in the second half XVIII century, when such great poets as I. Goethe, G. Heine, F. Schiller worked. Their works, full of lyricism, reflecting deep feelings and spiritual impulses, were willingly used by many composers as literary basis for his chamber vocal compositions. For example, the outstanding Austrian composer Franz Schubert, laid the foundations musical romanticism, wrote 60 of his vocal works to the words of Goethe and 40 to the words of Schiller. Schubert passed the baton to others composers of the 19th century centuries and romance schools were formed in Europe, the prominent representatives of which in Austria and Germany were I. Brahms , R. Schumann , and H. Wolf, and in France - G. Berlioz , J. Bizet, C. Gounod and J. Massenet. Romantic composers in their work clearly gave preference to the romance genre, since it was in it that they could turn to inner world person, reflect his emotional experiences. In addition, for expansion expressive means in description storyline and poetic images, the authors combined their vocal miniatures into cycles, since this made it possible to give a more detailed description of the main characters. Among the most popular combined vocal compositions, special mention should be made of such cycles as “To a Distant Beloved” L.V. Beethoven , « Beautiful miller's wife " And " winter journey "F. Schubert, "The Love of a Poet" and "The Love and Life of a Woman" by R. Schumann.

It is important to note that in the 19th century the romance genre received intensive development in Russia, and in the second half of the century in countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Norway and Finland. He was vividly represented in the works of B. Smetana, A. Dvorak , K. Szymanowski, J. Sibelius, E. Griga .

In the 20th century, such remarkable Western European composers as C. Debussy , A. Schoenberg, M. Ravel , M. de Falla, F. Poulenc , D. Milhaud.

Romance in Russia

Now no one can answer the question of when “romance” came to Russia, but art historians suggest that it happened in the second half of the 18th century. However, the fact that he arrived in our country from France is reliably known, since initially the term “romance” was used to refer to a vocal work of lyrical content written in poetic text on French. It should be noted that at that time Russian composers wrote quite a lot of vocal miniatures based on poems by French authors. True, similar works were also composed in Russian, but they were called “Russian songs”.

Having taken root on fertile soil, “romance” quickly began to merge with Russian culture, and soon this word began to be used to describe lyrical, sensual, love songs, created not only by composers, but also simply by amateur musicians. In those days, there was widespread interest in amateur music-making and songwriting. Representatives of the nobility and people of various ranks considered it obligatory to have some kind of musical instrument among their household items: violin , guitar , harp or piano. At the same time, romantic sentiments dominated in European and, accordingly, Russian art. In such favorable conditions, in the first half of the 19th century, the genre of Russian romance was formed, the most important role in the development of which was played by amazing Russian poetry, represented by the work of such brilliant poets as V. Zhukovsky, E. Baratynsky, A. Delvig, K. Batyushkov, N. Yazykov, A. Pushkin, and then M. Lermontov and F. Tyutchev. The founders of Russian romance are rightfully considered to be the composers A. Alyabyev, A. Varlamov, A. Gurilev and P. Bulakhov. Following them are talented masters of the chamber vocal genre, who with their creativity raised vocal miniature to the heights of truly classical art, among them M. Glinka, A. Borodin , A. Dargomyzhsky, M. Mussorgsky, N. Rimsky-Korsakov , P. Tchaikovsky, S. Taneyev, S. Rachmaninov . Further, the traditions of great composers continued R. Gliere , Y. Shaporin, N. Myaskovsky, and in Soviet time D. Shostakovich , S. Prokofiev, G. Sviridov.

It is important to mention that along with the classical romance, which was the fruit of the creations of professional composers and was divided into various genre variants, including elegies, ballads and barcarolles, in the cities and suburbs of Russia, where their own subculture flourished, other types of romance developed, such as urban ( everyday), “cruel” and gypsy. They enjoyed recognition and existed as folklore, that is, they were composed by authors from among the people. This type of composition gained the greatest popularity in the first quarter of the 20th century. It was at this time that Boris Fomin, Yakov Feldman and Marie Poiret wrote masterpieces that were later admired by the whole world, including “The Long Road”, “I was Driving Home”, “Coachman Don’t Drive the Horses”. After October revolution Romances in Russia, and then in the USSR, were banned as alien to proletarian ideology and a relic of the past. Famous performers were subjected to persecution and even repression. The gradual revival of romance began during the war years, but a special rise in the genre was observed in the 70s of the last century.

Among famous performers Russian romance, it is necessary to especially note A. Vertinsky, A. Vyaltseva, N. Plevitskaya, V. Panina, P. Leshchenko, A. Bayanova, I. Yuryeva, T. Tsereteli, V. Kozin, N. Slichenko, V. Baglaenko, V. Ponomarev, N. Bregvadze, V. Agafonov, O. Pogudin.

Interesting Facts

• It is important to note that in Germany the name romance did not catch on; there similar works were called in the German manner - Lied. In France, the name “romance” was initially used together with the name “chanson”, and then G. Berlioz designated the genre of chamber vocal work with the term “melodie”.
• Composers use the word “romance” not only for vocal works. Instrumental works with this name by D. Shostakovich, G. Sviridov, A. Khachaturian also gained great recognition. These are sensual, filled with great sincerity and melodically very beautiful musical compositions.
• One of the varieties of Russian romance is “urban”, which is also called everyday romance, has been very popular in Russia since its inception. It is believed that it was the “urban romance” that formed the basis of such widespread song genres in our country as the art song, Russian chanson and thieves’ song.
• The popular Russian romance "The Long Road", the music for which was written by Boris Fomin, was first heard by foreigners performed by the famous variety artist Alexander Vertinsky. The Europeans liked the composition so much that after some time Eugene Ruskin composed words for it in English language. The single was recorded and in the fall of 1968 it was recognized as a No. 1 hit in Britain. At the present time, versions of this Russian romance exist in almost thirty, both European and Asian languages.
• The authors of the famous Russian romance “Coachman, Don’t Drive the Horses” were the Russified German Nikolai von Ritter and the Jewish musician Yakov Feldman. The composition, written in 1915, was first performed by the then popular singer Agrippina Granskaya. The success and then the growing popularity of the romance were so overwhelming that the following year a silent film was made based on the plot of this vocal work. However, the recognition of the composition was short-lived, a revolution took place and the new authorities recognized the romance as ideologically alien, and therefore it was banned and expelled from the stage.
• In addition to the popular varieties of Russian romance, such as classic, urban, cruel and gypsy, there were also other subtypes of this genre, for example: Cossack, White Guard, actor's, salon, noble, ironic and romance - the answer.
• It was no coincidence that Eldar Ryazanov gave his film adaptation of Alexander Ostrovsky’s play “Dowry” the title “ Cruel romance"after all, the favorite themes of this vocal genre were tragic outcome. Of course, the musical design of the film contains a lot of romances, which were written by the outstanding composer Andrei Petrov. Among the vocal compositions of the film, special mention should be made of “And finally, I will say” to the words of B. Akhmadulina, “Under the caress of a plush blanket” to the words of Marina Tsvetaeva, “The Shaggy Bumblebee” - to the words of R. Kipling, translated by T. Kruzhkov.

Currently, interest in romance does not fade away. Melodies that gained recognition in ancient times are still very popular today. Today we often listen, enjoying their charm and pristine freshness in concert halls, television programs and radio broadcasts. Romance is not going to retreat; on the contrary, it unobtrusively captivates everything more people of different ages to your beautiful world genuine feelings wise thoughts and real passions.

Video: listen to Romances

We are accustomed to thinking that a romance is a small lyrical piece of music. The meaning of the word “romance” is somewhat broader and takes us back centuries to the Iberian Peninsula, to Spain, which became the birthplace of romance.

Spain and the rest of Europe

In Spain, initially a romance is a poem that awakens feelings, imagination, and always in a native language, different from Latin. Then the poem turned into folk song, which naively and simply talked about an event or experience.

The national spirit was always present in the music. Later they began to form into interconnected groups, which were called romanceros. Their topics are usually divided into 4 groups:

• Historical ones that told about the struggle for the independence of the homeland.
• Knightly, in which specific heroes were glorified.
• Moorish. They told about the fall of the heretical Moors
• Folk songs that touched on love, humor and others everyday scenes from life.

So the poem quite quickly moved from a literary genre to a musical one and began to travel around Europe. In France XVIII centuries, a romance is a love song, in England it is a ballad. In Russia, the romance was first performed in French, even if the music was written by a Russian composer.

What is the difference between a romance and a song?

In a romance, the melody is more closely connected with the verse than in a song.

Instrumental accompaniment on a guitar or piano becomes equal to the textual content, it fully emphasizes its rhythm and size, highlights poetic images. Thus, a romance is not a song, but a special musical genre.

Development of romance

When great poets (Goethe, Heine) and composers (Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Berlioz, Bizet, Glinka, Mussorgsky) began working on the romance, national schools began to emerge. What is romance in music? It is defined approximately this way: a short piece of music for voice, written to lyric poetry. The main thing about it is the melodious melody written for the voice. This is the standard for great composers and operatic voices.

In parallel, there was a development of high Russian romance by our great composers based on poetry wonderful poets. But if you ask: “What is romance in music?” - the definition will remain the same. It still requires understandable rhythmic text and a beautiful melodious melody.

Russian classical romance

This genre is beginning to develop very actively in early XIX century. Let's remember those who created them. Our outstanding composers romances are still popular among listeners today.

One of the most prominent is the composer Pyotr Petrovich Bulakhov (1822 - 1885). His works are sung all over the country: “My Bells”, “In a difficult moment of life”, “Here is a big village on the way”, “Don’t awaken memories”, “No, I don’t love you” and “Shine, burn, my star” . The latter was banned during Soviet rule, since it was associated with the name of A. Kolchak, who was even credited with its authorship.

A. A. Alyabyev (1787 - 1851) created more than two hundred romances, among them such famous ones as “The Nightingale,” which, decorated with virtuoso cadenzas, was loved by Pauline Viardot. It entered the repertoire of such European vocalists as G. Sontag and A. Patti. Feed him, very loved " evening call, evening Bell" and "Beggar". He also wrote romances based on Pushkin’s poems: “ Winter road", "Two Crows", "Singer". This is undoubtedly the best in the composer's work.

A. E. Varlamov (1801 - 1848) contributed to further development Russian romance, paying attention to the poetry of Lermontov (“The Lonely Sail Whitens”). His work “At dawn, don’t wake her up” is very popular.

A. L. Gurilev (1803 - 1858) worked in the same years. His “You Can’t Understand My Sorrow” was performed with amazing soulfulness by the Soviet chamber singer V. Ivanova. “No, it’s not you that I love so passionately,” “Darling Joy,” “At the Dawn of a Foggy Youth” are far from a complete list of the composer’s popular works.

The work of our composers is closely connected with the best lyric poets of that time. Each of them was excited by the images and themes created by the imagination of A. Pushkin.

Romances based on Pushkin's poems

During his lifetime, Pushkin had the opportunity to hear at least seventy musical works based on his poems. The first was A. N. Verstovsky, who wrote “The Black Shawl,” which was translated into foreign languages. Later he would produce The Old Husband, an extremely dramatic work.

M. I. Glinka, having first created “I am here, Inesilya,” later turned to the poem “I Remember a Wonderful Moment,” which will acquire a very special love from listeners.

A. S. Pushkin himself turned to the music of M. Glinka and set his poem “Don’t sing, beauty, in front of me” to its melody.

No less than eleven romances will be written by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, combining brilliant lyrical tests with magical music. We will name only three: “For the shores of the distant fatherland”, “My voice for you” and “What is in my name for you”.

P. I. Tchaikovsky was especially impressed by “Zemfira’s Song” and “The Nightingale”.

Vintage romances

We can call the works of the above-mentioned composers ancient romances, and in addition, the composer Evgeny Dmitrievich Yuryev, separated from us by a century, who wrote the most tender and subtle romance “In moonlight" And also the wild and rollicking “Hey, coachman, drive to the Yar.” You can remember the cruel and urban romance, as well as the ever-popular gypsy.

We hear these democratic works from the stage and in everyday life. They are melodic. A professional singer fills them with special spiritual content, while a home performer is attracted by the melody, drama or lyricism of the text and not being too demanding on the quality of the voice.

Its main characteristics and components, as well as the history of the origin and development of the ancient genre. The role of Mikhail Glinka in the development of Russian romance.

Beautiful lyrical performances accompanied by live music have always touched the hearts of listeners and classics connoisseurs. It's amazing how such a short piece of music can touch the deepest strings of our soul. Romance is an amazing combination of poetry and music that has found many admirers. In the melodic-poetic genre, there are three varieties: barcarolle (rhythmic song), elegy (reflective song), ballad (plot song).

Romance is an ancient genre

Its history goes back to the Middle Ages. The term “romance” itself originated in medieval Spain. During that period of history, a genre of secular songs appeared, usually poetry famous poets eras of romanticism, set to music and conveying deep emotions. By the way, today the words “romance” and “song” are identical in many languages.

Over time, this gained such popularity that single works began to be combined into entire vocal cycles. It is symbolic that the first such cycle was created by the genius of world music and the father of classics - Beethoven. His idea was picked up and continued no less famous musicians such as Brahms, Schumann and Schubert.

Main characteristics of romance

A romance is a musical poem similar to a song. But still there are significant differences in the construction of the work itself. For example, there is absolutely no chorus, or, as it is also called, a refrain. Although practice shows that there are exceptions to the rules. It is interesting that the romance is usually performed solo, less often by a duet, and almost never by a choir.

A special distinguishing feature of this genre is its semantic load. His lines always carry a certain story that is close to both the author and his listeners. This could be an autobiographical story about an unhappy love story, or the author’s reflections on one or another life theme. Romance is not an exclusively melancholic genre. There are many examples of satirical and funny poetic narratives set to music.

A little about Russian romance

After a while, with the appearance of wealthy people in the homes musical instruments, romance seeped into Russian culture. Perhaps this was inspired by the spirit of romanticism that permeated the entire early nineteenth century. It was very much to the taste of the demanding public, and it was immediately picked up by such composers as Varlamov ("At dawn, don't wake her up"), Gurilev ("The bell sounds monotonously"), Alyabyev ("The Nightingale"). Some of them considered it necessary to introduce a spirit of freedom and cheerfulness into Russian romance and at the same time allowed the performer to demonstrate his vocal abilities. The accompaniment here is just a background, but organically connected with the poetic basis.

It's sad, but Soviet era his cultural development was suspended because severe censorship believed that the ideology propagated in romances had a detrimental effect on the worker Soviet man. Vintage romances were not welcomed, their subject matter was considered “decadent”. The trend was patriotic, folk and humorous songs with simple melody.

Nevertheless, romances in some of their forms, for example, “urban”, continued to exist, passed on from mouth to mouth ordinary people. It was thanks to them that over time the long-awaited revival of this genre took place, which occurred around the seventies.

Russian composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka made an invaluable contribution to the history of Russian romance. As is known, he wrote more than eighty works different directions. Glinka's romances are unique masterpieces, the creation of which only such talented and gifted individuals as Mikhail Ivanovich can create. His favorite romances were based on poems by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. He always appreciated good poetry and realized that true romance could not exist without it.

The most significant work- the opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila” based on Pushkin’s poem of the same name, which did not receive universal recognition, but revealed the composer’s full potential. And Glinka’s famous romances based on the poems of the great Russian poet - “I remember a wonderful moment”, “I am here, Inesilya”, “Heart Cup”, “For health, Mary”.

Today there are millions of fans of the world-famous genre. Thanks to the love and support of the public, he does not stand still, but develops and moves forward every day. Of course, no matter how much time passes, romance will remain one of the leading and most important areas of chamber music.

An increasing number of people find in it something close to themselves, some kind of outlet in their experiences and problems. It is comforting to know that romance has not faded into the background over time; it continues to remain a favorite vocal genre.

With instrumental accompaniment. The origin of the romance is due to Spain, where the term “romance” itself arose, which at that time denoted a secular song in Spanish (Roman) not based on a religious plot, hence the name romance. IN late XIX century, the romance began to be performed solo with the accompaniment of a vihuela or guitar.

It is impossible to tell everything about Russian romance, because this genre is so loved by our compatriots, and a huge number of works have been created in this genre. Romance came to Russia from France in the second half of the 18th century. This period saw the heyday of Russian poetry and new genre in vocal art it came in handy, having absorbed characteristic Russian poetic features. The very concept of Russian romance appeared much later, when folk song melodies penetrated the minds of educated Social Democrats. Exactly at Russian folk art and the origins of the Russian romance as a separate genre in vocal art. The song creativity of the mid-18th - 19th centuries that has come down to us is mostly represented by anonymous authors. In those days, this genre was transmitted orally, so both the words and the melody changed. Over time, people began to appear who tried to put together works of the new genre and record them. Perhaps they themselves brought something to these works. Later, many composers began to turn to the romance genre. The most famous Russian composers who wrote in the genre of Russian romance are Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Alyabyev, Varlamov, Glinka, Gumilyov, Dargomyzhsky, Cui, Sviridov and many others. A.S. Pushkin had a very strong influence on the development of Russian romance. Great amount romances written on his poems.

Subsequently, composers began to combine romances into vocal cycles, thereby creating larger works in form, which often used contrasting musical and poetic images, which would be impossible to fit into the size of one romance.

Further development of the romance genre in the 20th century begins with the expansion of new tasks: the development of new musical forms, a new synthesis of music and poetry. A new genre is emerging - “poem with music”. S.I. Taneev, S.V. Rachmaninov, N.K. Medtner, S.S. Prokofiev have such works. To achieve an approach to the intonations of natural speech, composers use both prose and works written in “blank verse”. Also, the instrumental part of the Russian romance begins to develop, this was especially clearly expressed in the piano parts, which, along with the melody and poem, performed an important musical-figurative function. Folklore themes also penetrate into the romance, which is clearly expressed in the work of composer I.F. Stravinsky. Further Soviet composers continue to develop the classical direction of the vocal poetic genre, strengthening the song principle in the Russian romance and bringing the romance closer to the song.