Taneyev was great and brilliant for his moral personality and his exceptionally sacred attitude towards art.
L. Sabaneev
In Russian music of the turn of the century, S. Taneyev occupies a very special place. An outstanding musical and public figure, teacher, pianist, the first major musicologist in Russia, a man of rare moral virtues, Taneyev was a recognized authority in the cultural life of his time. However, the main work of his life, composing, did not immediately find true recognition. The reason is not that Taneyev is a radical innovator, noticeably ahead of his era. On the contrary, much of his music was perceived by his contemporaries as outdated, as the fruit of “professorial learning”, dry desk work. Taneyev’s interest in the old masters, J. S. Bach, W. A. Mozart seemed strange and untimely; his commitment to classical forms and genres was surprising. Only later did an understanding of the historical correctness of Taneyev come, who was looking for a strong support for Russian music in the pan-European heritage, striving for a universal breadth of creative tasks.
Among the representatives of the old noble family of Taneyev there were musically gifted art lovers - such was Ivan Ilyich, the father of the future composer. The family supported the boy's early-discovered talent, and in 1866 he was admitted to the newly opened Moscow Conservatory. Within its walls, Taneyev became a student of P. Tchaikovsky and N. Rubinstein - two major figures in musical Russia. The brilliant completion of the conservatory in 1875 (Taneev was the first in its history to be awarded the Big Gold Medal) opens up broad prospects for the young musician. This is also diverse concert activity, and teaching, and in-depth composing work. But first, Taneyev travels abroad.
His stay in Paris and contact with the European cultural environment had a strong impact on the sensitive twenty-year-old artist. Taneyev undertakes a severe re-evaluation of what he has achieved in his homeland and comes to the conclusion that his education, both musical and general humanitarian, is insufficient. Having outlined a solid plan, he begins to work hard to expand his horizons. This work continued throughout his life, thanks to which Taneyev was able to become on par with the most educated people of his time.
The same systematic purposefulness is inherent in Taneyev’s composer activity. He wanted to practically master the treasures of the European musical tradition and rethink it on his native Russian soil. In general, as the young composer believed, Russian music lacks historical rootedness; it must learn the experience of classical European forms - primarily polyphonic. A student and follower of Tchaikovsky, Taneyev finds his own path, synthesizing romantic lyricism and classicist rigor of expression. This combination is very significant for Taneyev’s style, starting from the composer’s earliest experiments. The first peak here was one of his best works - the cantata “John of Damascus” (1884), which laid the foundation for the secular variety of this genre in Russian music.
Choral music is an important part of Taneyev's legacy. The composer understood choral genre as a sphere of high generalization, epic, philosophical reflection. Hence the large touch, the monumentality of his choral compositions. The choice of poets is also natural: F. Tyutchev, Ya. Polonsky, K. Balmont, in whose poems Taneyev emphasizes the images of spontaneity, the grandeur of the picture of the world. And there is some symbolism in the fact that Taneyev’s creative path is framed by two cantatas - the lyrically penetrating “John of Damascus” based on the poem by A.K. Tolstoy and the monumental fresco “After the Reading of the Psalm” on Art. A. Khomyakov, the final work of the composer.
Oratorio is also inherent in Taneyev’s largest creation - the opera trilogy “Oresteia” (after Aeschylus, 1894). In his attitude to opera, Taneyev goes against the grain: with all the undoubted connections with the Russian epic tradition (“Ruslan and Lyudmila” by M. Glinka, “Judith” by A. Serov), “Oresteia” is outside the leading trends opera house of its time. Taneyev is interested in the individual as a manifestation of the universal; in ancient Greek tragedy he is looking for what he was generally looking for in art - the eternal and ideal, a moral idea in a classically perfect embodiment. The darkness of crimes is opposed by reason and light - the central idea of classical art is reaffirmed in the Oresteia.
The Symphony in C Minor, one of the pinnacles of Russian instrumental music, carries the same meaning. Taneyev achieved in the symphony a genuine synthesis of Russian and European, primarily Beethovenian, traditions. The concept of the symphony asserts the victory of a clear harmonic beginning, in which the harsh drama of the 1st movement is resolved. The cyclic four-part structure of the work and the composition of individual parts are based on classical principles, interpreted in a very original way. Thus, Taneyev’s idea of intonational unity turns into a method of branched leitmotif connections that ensure a special cohesion of cyclic development. In this one can feel the undoubted influence of romanticism, the experience of F. Liszt and R. Wagner, interpreted, however, in terms of classically clear forms.
Taneyev’s contribution to the field of chamber instrumental music is very significant. The Russian chamber ensemble owes its heyday to him, which largely determined the further development of the genre in Soviet times in the works of N. Myaskovsky, D. Shostakovich, V. Shebalin. Taneyev’s talent perfectly suited the structure of chamber music-making, which, according to B. Asafiev, is characterized by “its own bias in content, especially in the sublime intellectual sphere, in the area of contemplation and reflection.” Strict selection, savings expressive means, the precision of writing required in chamber genres has always remained an ideal for Taneyev. Polyphony, organic to the composer's style, finds wide application in his string quartets, in ensembles with the participation of piano - Trio, Quartet and Quintet, one of the composer's most perfect creations. The exceptional melodic richness of the ensembles, especially their slow parts, the flexibility and breadth of thematic development, close to the free, flowing forms of folk song.
Melodic diversity is characteristic of Taneyev's romances, many of which have gained wide popularity. Both the traditional lyrical and pictorial, narrative-ballad types of romance are equally close to the composer’s individuality. Demanding about the picture of a poetic text, Taneyev considered the word to be the defining artistic element of the whole. It is noteworthy that he was one of the first to call romances “poems for voice and piano.”
The high intellectualism inherent in Taneyev’s nature was most directly expressed in his musicological works, as well as in his broad, truly selfless pedagogical activity. Taneyev's scientific interests stemmed from his ideas as a composer. Thus, according to B. Yavorsky, he “was keenly interested in how such masters as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven achieved their technique.” And naturally, the largest theoretical research Taneyev’s “Movable counterpoint of strict writing” is dedicated to polyphony.
Taneyev was a born teacher. First of all, because he developed his own creative method completely consciously and could teach others what he had learned himself. In this case, the center of gravity became not individual stylistics, but general, universal principles of musical composition. That is why the creative appearance of the composers who passed through Taneyev’s class is so different. S. Rachmaninov, A. Scriabin, N. Medtner, An. Alexandrov, S. Vasilenko, R. Glier, A. Grechaninov, S. Lyapunov, Z. Paliashvili, A. Stanchinsky and many others - Taneyev managed to give each of them the common basis on which the student’s individuality flourished.
Taneyev’s diverse creative activity, which was untimely interrupted in 1915, was of great importance for Russian art. According to Asafiev, “Taneev... was the source of the great cultural revolution in Russian music, the last word which is still far from being said..."
S. Savenko
Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev - largest composer turn of the XIX century and XX centuries. Student of N. G. Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky, teacher of Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Medtner. Together with Tchaikovsky, he is the head of the Moscow school of composers. His historical place is comparable to that occupied by Glazunov in St. Petersburg. In this generation of musicians, in particular, the two named composers began to show a convergence of creative traits of the New Russian School and Anton Rubinstein's student - Tchaikovsky; among the pupils of Glazunov and Taneyev this process will further advance significantly.
Taneyev's creative life was very intense and multifaceted. The activities of Taneyev - a scientist, pianist, teacher - are inextricably linked with the work of Taneyev the composer. Interpenetration, testifying to the integrity of musical thinking, can be traced, for example, in Taneyev’s attitude to polyphony: in the history of Russian musical culture, he appears both as the author of innovative studies “Moving counterpoint of strict writing” and “The Doctrine of the Canon”, and as a teacher of the counterpoint courses he developed and fugues at the Moscow Conservatory, and as the creator musical works, including for piano, in which polyphony is a powerful means of figurative characterization and shaping.
Taneyev is one of the greatest pianists of his time. His repertoire clearly revealed educational principles: the complete absence of virtuoso pieces of the salon type (which was rare even in the 70s and 80s), the inclusion in the programs of works that were rarely heard or played for the first time (in particular, new works by Tchaikovsky and Arensky). He was an outstanding ensemble player, performed with L. S. Auer, G. Wieniawski, A. V. Verzbilovich, the Czech Quartet, and performed piano parts in chamber works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and his own. In the field of piano pedagogy, Taneyev was the immediate successor and continuator of N. G. Rubinstein. Taneyev's role in the formation of the Moscow pianist school is not limited to teaching piano at the conservatory. The influence of Taneyev's pianism on the composers who studied in his theoretical classes and on the piano repertoire they created was great.
Taneyev played an outstanding role in the development of Russian vocational education. In the field of music theory, his activity went in two main directions: teaching compulsory courses and educating composers in music theory classes. He directly linked mastery of harmony, polyphony, instrumentation, and a course of forms with compositional skill. Mastery “acquired from him a meaning that exceeded the boundaries of craft and technical work... and contained, along with practical data on how to embody and build music, logical studies of the elements of music as thinking,” argued B.V. Asafiev. Being the director of the conservatory in the second half of the 80s, and in subsequent years an active figure music education Taneyev was especially concerned about the level of musical theoretical training of young performing musicians and about the democratization of the life of the conservatory. He was among the organizers and active participants of the People's Conservatory, many educational circles, and the scientific society “Music Theoretical Library”.
Taneyev paid much attention to the study of folk music. He recorded and processed about thirty Ukrainian songs and worked on Russian folklore. In the summer of 1885, he traveled to the North Caucasus and Svaneti, where he recorded songs and instrumental tunes of the peoples North Caucasus. The article “On the Music of the Mountain Tatars,” written on the basis of personal observations, is the first historical and theoretical study of the folklore of the Caucasus. Taneyev actively participated in the work of the Moscow Musical and Ethnographic Commission and published in collections of its works.
Taneyev’s biography is not rich in events - no twists of fate that dramatically change the course of life, no “romantic” incidents. A student of the Moscow Conservatory of the first class, he was associated with his native educational institution for almost four decades and left its walls in 1905, in solidarity with his St. Petersburg colleagues and friends - Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. Taneyev's activities took place almost exclusively in Russia. Immediately after graduating from the conservatory in 1875, he traveled with N. G. Rubinstein to Greece and Italy; lived in Paris for quite a long time in the second half of the 70s and in 1880, but later - in the 1900s - he traveled only to a short time to Germany and the Czech Republic to participate in the performance of his compositions. In 1913, Sergei Ivanovich visited Salzburg, where he worked on materials from the Mozart archive.
S.I. Taneyev is one of the most educated musicians of his time. The expansion of the intonation base of Taneyev’s work, characteristic of Russian composers of the last quarter of a century, is based on a deep, comprehensive knowledge of musical literature of different eras - knowledge that he acquired primarily at the conservatory, and then as a listener of concerts in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Paris. The most important factor in Taneyev’s auditory experience is his pedagogical work at the conservatory, the “pedagogical” way of thinking as the assimilation of the accumulated artistic experience of the past. Over time, Taneyev began to form his library (now kept in the Moscow Conservatory), and his acquaintance with musical literature acquires additional features: along with playing, “eye” reading. Taneyev’s experience and outlook is that of not only a concert listener, but also a tireless “reader” of music. All this was reflected in the formation of the style.
The initial events of Taneyev’s musical biography are peculiar. Unlike almost all Russian composers of the 19th century, he did not begin his musical professionalization with composition; His first works arose in the process and as a result of systematic student studies - and this also determined the genre composition and stylistic features of his early works.
Understanding the peculiarities of Taneyev’s work requires a broad musical and historical context. One can speak quite fully about Tchaikovsky without even mentioning the creations of the masters of the strict style and baroque. But it is impossible to illuminate the content, concepts, style, and musical language of Taneyev’s works without turning to the works of composers of the Dutch school, Bach and Handel, Viennese classics, and Western European romantic composers. And, of course, Russian composers - Bortnyansky, Glinka, A. Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky, and Taneyev's contemporaries - St. Petersburg masters, and a galaxy of his students, as well as Russian masters of subsequent decades, right up to the present day.
This reflects Taneyev’s personal characteristics, which “coincided” with the characteristics of the era. The historicism of artistic thinking, so characteristic of the second half and especially the end of the 19th century, was highly characteristic of Taneyev. Studies of history from a young age, a positivist attitude to the historical process were reflected in the circle of Taneyev’s reading known to us, in the composition of his library, in the interest in museum collections, especially ancient casts, organized by his close acquaintance I. V. Tsvetaev (now the Museum fine arts). In the building of this museum, both a Greek courtyard and a Renaissance courtyard appeared, to display Egyptian collections - an Egyptian hall, etc. Planned, necessary multi-style.
A new attitude to heritage formed new principles of style formation. Architecture style second half of the 19th century Western European researchers define centuries with the term “historicism”; In our specialized literature, the concept of “eclecticism” is affirmed - not at all in an evaluative sense, but as a definition of “a special artistic phenomenon inherent in the 19th century.” The architecture of the era lived on “past” styles; architects looked in both Gothic and Classicism for starting points for modern solutions. Artistic pluralism manifested itself in a very multifaceted way in Russian literature of that time. Based on the active processing of various sources, unique, “synthetic” stylistic alloys were created, as, for example, in the work of Dostoevsky. The same applies to music.
In the light of the above comparisons, Taneyev’s active interest in the heritage of European music, in its main styles, appears not as “relictness” (a word from a review of this composer’s “Mozartian” work - the Quartet in E-flat major), but as a sign of his (and future!) time. In the same row is the choice of an ancient plot for the only completed opera “The Oresteia” - a choice that seemed so strange to opera critics and so natural in the 20th century.
An artist’s predilection for certain areas of imagery, means of expression, and stylistic layers is largely determined by his biography, mental make-up, and temperament. Numerous and varied documents - manuscripts, letters, diaries, memoirs of contemporaries - illuminate Taneyev’s personality traits with sufficient completeness. They paint the image of a person who harnesses the element of feelings with the power of reason, who is keen on philosophy (most of all Spinoza), mathematics, chess, who believes in social progress and the possibilities of a rational arrangement of life.
In relation to Taneyev, the concept of “intellectualism” is often and rightly used. It is not easy to take this statement from the realm of the perceptible to the realm of evidence. One of the first confirmations is a creative interest in styles marked by intellectualism - High Renaissance, late Baroque and classicism, as well as to the genres and forms that most clearly reflected general laws thinking, primarily sonata-symphonic. This is the unity of consciously set goals and artistic decisions inherent in Taneyev: this is how the idea of “Russian polyphony” sprouted, carried out through a series of experimental works and giving truly artistic shoots in “John of Damascus”; This is how mastery of the style of the Viennese classics took place; the features of the musical dramaturgy of most large, mature cycles were determined as a special type of monothematicism. This type of monothematism itself brings to the fore the processuality that accompanies the mental act to a greater extent than the “life of feelings”, hence the need for cyclical forms and special concern for finals - the results of development. The defining quality is the conceptuality and philosophical significance of music; The nature of thematicism has evolved in which musical themes are interpreted more as a thesis to be developed rather than as an “in-itself” musical image (for example, of a song nature). Taneyev’s intellectualism is also evidenced by his work methods.
Intellectualism and faith in reason are inherent in artists who, relatively speaking, belong to the “classical” type. Essential features of this type creative personality manifest themselves in the desire for clarity, affirmation, harmony, completeness, for the disclosure of patterns, universality, and beauty. It would be wrong, however, to imagine Taneyev’s inner world as serene, devoid of contradictions. One of the important driving forces For this artist there is a struggle between artist and thinker. The first considered it natural to follow the path of Tchaikovsky and others - to create works intended for performance in concerts, to write in an established manner. This is how many romances and early symphonies arose. The second was irresistibly drawn to reflection, to theoretical and, no less, historical understanding of the composer’s work, to scientific and creative experiment. Along this path, “Dutch Fantasy on a Russian Theme”, mature instrumental and choral cycles, and “Moving Counterpoint of Strict Writing” arose. Taneyev's creative path is largely a history of ideas and their implementation.
All these general provisions are concretized in the facts of Taneyev's biography, in the typology of his musical manuscripts, the nature of the creative process, the epistolary (where an outstanding document stands out - his correspondence with P. I. Tchaikovsky), and finally, in the diaries.
Taneyev's compositional heritage is large and varied. The genre composition of this heritage is very individual - and at the same time very indicative; it is important for understanding the historical and stylistic problems of Taneev’s work. Absence of programmatic symphonic works, ballets (in both cases - not even a single idea); only one completed opera, and an extremely “atypical” one at that literary source and the plot; four symphonies, of which the author published one - almost two decades before the end of his creative career. Along with this - two lyrical and philosophical cantatas (partly a revival, but one might say the birth of a genre), dozens of choral works. And finally, the main thing - twenty chamber-instrumental cycles.
Taneyev, as it were, gave some genres on Russian soil new life. Others were filled with a significance that was not inherent in them before. Other genres, changing internally, accompany the composer throughout his life - romances, choirs. As for instrumental music, different periods creative activity one genre or another comes to the fore. It can be suggested that in the years of maturity of the composer, the chosen genre primarily has a function, if not style-forming, then, as it were, “style-representing”. Having created his fourth symphony in C minor in 1896–1898, Taneyev wrote no more symphonies. Until 1905, his exclusive attention in the field of instrumental music was given to string ensembles. IN last decade In life, ensembles with the participation of piano take on leading importance. The choice of performing staff reflects a close connection with the ideological and artistic side of music.
Taneyev's composer biography demonstrates tireless growth and development. The path traveled from the first romances related to the sphere of home music-making to the innovative cycles of “poems for voice and piano” is enormous; from small and simple three choirs, published in 1881, to grand cycles of op. 27 and op. 35 to the words of Y. Polonsky and K. Balmont; from early instrumental ensembles that were not published during the author’s lifetime, to a kind of “chamber symphony” - a piano quintet in G minor. The second cantata, “After the Reading of the Psalm,” both completes and crowns Tanei’s work. This is a truly final work, although, of course, it was not intended as such; the composer intended to live and work for a long time and intensively. We know of Taneyev’s specific plans that have not come to fruition.
In addition, a huge number of plans that arose throughout Taneyev’s life remained unrealized. Even after three symphonies, several quartets and trios, a sonata for violin and piano, dozens of orchestral, piano, and vocal pieces were published posthumously - all this was left by the author in the archive - even now it would be possible to publish a large volume of disparate materials. This is the second part of the quartet in C minor, and materials from the cantatas “The Legend of the Council of Constantia” and “Three Palms” from the opera “Hero and Leander”, and many instrumental pieces. A “counterparallel” arises with Tchaikovsky, who either rejected the idea, or plunged headlong into the work, or, finally, used the material in other works. Not a single sketch with any design could be abandoned forever, because behind each there was a vital, emotional, personal impulse, a piece of oneself was invested in each. The nature of Taneyev’s creative impulses is different, and the plans for his compositions also look different. So, for example, the plan for an unrealized plan for a piano sonata in F major provides for the number, order, tonality of parts, even details of the tonal plan: “Side part in the main tone / Scherzo f-moll 2/4 / Andante Des-dur / Finale.”
Tchaikovsky also happened to draw up plans for future major works. The project for the symphony “Life” (1891) is well known: “The first part is all impulse, confidence, thirst for activity. Should be short (final death- the result of destruction). The second part is love; the third is disappointment; the fourth ends with a fade (also short).” Like Taneyev, Tchaikovsky outlines parts of the cycle, but there is a fundamental difference between these projects. Tchaikovsky's plan is directly related to life experiences - most of Taneyev's intentions realize the meaningful possibilities of the expressive means of music. Of course, there is no reason to separate Taneyev’s works from living life, its emotions and conflicts, but the measure of mediation in them is different. This kind of typological differences was shown by L. A. Mazel; they shed light on the reasons for the lack of clarity of Taneyev’s music and the lack of popularity of many of its beautiful pages. But they, we would add, also characterize a composer of a romantic type - and a creator who gravitates towards classicism; different eras.
The main thing in Taneyev’s style can be defined as a plurality of sources with internal unity and integrity (understood as the correlation between individual sides and components musical language). Various things are radically processed here and are subordinated to the dominant will and purpose of the artist. The organicity (and the measure of this organicity in certain works) of the implementation of different stylistic sources, being an auditory category and thus, as it were, empirical, is revealed in the process of analyzing the texts of the works. In the literature about Taneyev, a fair idea has long been expressed that his works contain influences classical music and the work of romantic composers, the influence of Tchaikovsky is very strong, and it is this combination that largely determines the originality of Taneyev’s style. Combination of traits musical romanticism and classical art - the late Baroque and Viennese classics - was a kind of sign of the times. Personality traits, the appeal of thoughts to world culture, the desire to find support in the ageless foundations of musical art - all this determined, as mentioned above, Taneyev’s attraction to musical classicism. But his art, which began in the era of Romanticism, bears many of the hallmarks of this powerful 19th-century style. The well-known confrontation between individual style and the style of the era was reflected quite clearly in Taneev’s music.
Taneyev is a deeply Russian artist, although the national nature of his creativity manifests itself more indirectly than among his older (Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov) and younger (Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Prokofiev) contemporaries. Among the aspects of the multifaceted connection of Taneyev’s work with the broadly understood folk musical tradition, we note the melodic nature, as well as - which, however, is less important for him - the implementation (mainly in early works) of melodic, mode-harmonic and structural features of folklore samples.
But other aspects are no less important, and the main one among them is to what extent the artist is the son of his country at a certain moment in its history, to what extent he reflects the worldview and mentality of his contemporaries. The intensity of the emotional transmission of the world of Russian people in the last quarter of the 19th - first decades of the 20th centuries in Taneyev’s music is not so great as to embody the aspirations of the time in his works (as can be said about the geniuses - Tchaikovsky or Rachmaninov). But Taneyev had a definite and fairly close connection with time; he expressed the spiritual world of the best part of the Russian intelligentsia, with its high ethics, faith in the bright future of humanity, its connection with the best in heritage national culture. The inseparability of the ethical and aesthetic, restraint and chastity in reflecting reality and expressing feelings are distinguished by Russian art throughout its development and act as one of the features of national character in art. The educational nature of Taneyev's music and all his aspirations in the field of creativity is also part of the cultural democratic tradition of Russia.
Another aspect of the national origin of art, which is very relevant in relation to Taneyev’s legacy, is its inseparability from the professional Russian musical tradition. This connection is not static, but evolutionarily mobile. And if Taneyev’s early works evoke the names of Bortnyansky, Glinka, and especially Tchaikovsky, then in later periods the names of Glazunov, Scriabin, and Rachmaninov were added to those mentioned. Taneyev’s first works, the same age as Tchaikovsky’s first symphonies, also absorbed a lot from the aesthetics and poetics of “Kuchkism”; the latter interact with the trends and artistic experience of younger contemporaries, who themselves were in many ways heirs of Taneyev.
Taneyev's reaction to Western "modernity" (more precisely, to the musical phenomena of late romanticism, impressionism and early expressionism) was in many ways historically limited, but also had important consequences for Russian music. Taneyev and (to a certain extent, thanks to him) other Russian composers of the beginning and first half of our century moved towards new phenomena in musical creativity was accomplished without a break with what was generally significant that had been accumulated in European music. This also had a downside: the danger of academicism. IN best essays Taneyev himself did not realize it in such a capacity, but in the works of his numerous (and now forgotten) students and epigones it became clear. However, the same can be noted in the schools of Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov - in those cases where the attitude towards heritage was passive.
The main figurative spheres of Taneyev’s instrumental music, embodied in many cycles: effective-dramatic (first sonata allegri, finales); philosophical, lyrical-meditative (most clearly - Adagio); scherzoous: Taneyev is completely alien to the spheres of the ugly, evil, and sarcasm. High degree objectification of the inner world of man reflected in Taneyev’s music, showing the process, the flow of emotions and reflections create a fusion of the lyrical and epic. Taneyev's intellectualism and his broad humanitarian education were manifested in his work in a multifaceted and profound way. This is, first of all, the composer’s desire to recreate in music a holistic picture of existence, contradictory and unified. The foundation of the leading constructive principle (cyclic, sonata-symphonic forms) was a universal philosophical idea. Content in Taneyev's music is realized primarily through the saturation of the fabric with intonational and thematic processes. This is how one can understand the words of B.V. Asafiev: “Only a few Russian composers have form in a living, unceasing synthesis. This was S.I. Taneyev. He bequeathed to Russian music in his legacy a remarkable implementation of Western symmetrical schemes, reviving the flow of symphonism in them...”
An analysis of Taneyev's major cyclical works reveals the mechanisms of subordinating the means of expressiveness to the ideological and figurative side of music. One of them, as mentioned, was the principle of monothematicism, which ensures the integrity of the cycles, as well as the final role of the finals, which have special meaning for the ideological, artistic and musical features of Taneev’s cycles. The meaning of the last parts as a conclusion, a resolution of the conflict is ensured by the purposefulness of the means, the strongest of which is the consistent development of the theme and other themes, their combination, transformation and synthesis. But the composer asserted the “finality” of finales long before monothematicism reigned as a leading principle in his music. In the Quartet in B flat minor op. 4, the final statement in B-flat major is the result of a single, constructed line of development. In the Quartet in D minor op. 7 an arch is created: the cycle ends with a repetition of the theme of the first part. Double fugue of the finale of the quartet in C major op. 5 unifies the thematic theme of this part.
Other means and features of Taneyev’s musical language, primarily polyphony, have the same functional significance. There is an undoubted connection between the composer's polyphonic thinking and his appeal to the instrumental ensemble and choir (or vocal ensemble) as the leading genres. The melodic lines of four or five instruments or voices suggested and determined the leading role of thematicism, which is inherent in any polyphony. The contrasting thematic connections that emerged reflected and, on the other hand, provided a monothematic system for constructing cycles. Intonation-thematic unity, monothematism as a musical-dramatic principle and polyphony as the most important way of developing musical thoughts are a triad, the components of which turn out to be inseparable in Taneyev’s music.
Taneyev’s tendency towards linearism can be discussed primarily in connection with polyphonic processes, the polyphonic nature of his musical thinking. Four or five equal voices of a quartet, quintet, or choir imply, among other things, a melodically mobile bass, which, while the harmonic functions are clearly expressed, limits the “omnipotence” of the latter. "For modern music“, the harmony of which gradually loses its tonal connection, the connecting power of contrapuntal forms should be especially valuable,” wrote Taneyev, revealing, as in other cases, the unity of theoretical understanding and creative practice.
Along with contrast, imitative polyphony is of great importance. Fugues and fugue forms, like Taneyev’s work as a whole, are a complex alloy. S.S. Skrebkov wrote about the “synthetic features” of Tanei’s fugues using the example of string quintets. Taneyev's polyphonic technique is subordinated to holistic artistic goals, and this is indirectly evidenced by the fact that in his mature years (with the only exception - the fugue in the piano cycle op. 29) he did not write independent fugues. Taneyev's instrumental fugues are part or section of a large form or cycle. In this he follows the traditions of Mozart, Beethoven, and partly Schumann, developing and enriching them. In Taneyev's chamber cycles there are many fugue forms, and they appear, as a rule, in the finales, moreover, in a reprise or coda (quartet in C major op. 5, string quintet op. 16, piano quartet op. 20). The final sections are also strengthened by fugues in variation cycles (for example, in the string quintet op. 14). The tendency to generalize the material is evidenced by the composer’s commitment to multi-themed fugues, the latter often incorporating the thematic themes of not only the finale itself, but also the preceding parts. This achieves purposefulness and cohesion of the cycles.
A new attitude to the chamber genre led to the enlargement and symphonization of the chamber style, its monumentalization through complex, developed forms. In this genre area, various modifications of classical forms are observed, primarily the sonata, which is used not only in the extreme, but also in the middle parts of the cycles. So, in the quartet in A minor op. 11, all four movements include sonata form. The divertimento (second movement) is a complex three-movement form, with the outer movements written in sonata form; at the same time, the Divertimento also has features of a rondo. The third movement (Adagio) approaches a developed sonata form, comparable in some respects to the first movement of Schumann's sonata in F sharp minor. Often there is an expansion of the usual boundaries of parts and individual sections. For example, in the scherzo piano quintet in G minor, the first section is written in a complex three-part form with an episode, the trio is a free fugato. The tendency towards modification leads to the appearance of mixed, “modulating” forms (the third movement of the quartet in A major, op. 13 - with features of a complex three-part and rondo), to an individualized interpretation of parts of the cycle (in the scherzo piano trio in D major, op. 22, the second section - trio - cycle of variations).
It can be assumed that Taneyev’s active creative attitude to problems of form was also a consciously set task. In a letter to M. I. Tchaikovsky dated December 17, 1910, he, discussing the direction of the work of some of the “newest” Western European composers, asks the questions: “Why is the desire for novelty limited to only two areas - harmony and instrumentation? Why, along with this, is not only nothing new noticeable in the field of counterpoint, but, on the contrary, this side is in great decline compared to previous times? Why in the field of forms not only do the possibilities inherent in them not develop, but the forms themselves become smaller and fall into decay? At the same time, Taneyev was convinced that the sonata form “surpasses all others in its diversity, richness and versatility.” Thus, the views and creative practice of the composer demonstrate the dialectic of stabilizing and modifying tendencies.
Emphasizing the “one-sidedness” of development and the associated “corruption” of the musical language, Taneyev adds in the quoted letter to M. I. Tchaikovsky: “I have no soul for the works of the newest modernists, not at all because I wished for stagnation in music and was hostile to to novelty. On the contrary, I consider repeating what was said a long time ago to be useless, and the lack of originality in the essay makes me completely indifferent to it<...>. It is possible that, over time, current innovations will ultimately lead to the degeneration of the musical language, just as the corruption of the Latin language by barbarians led, after several centuries, to the emergence of new languages.”
“The Epoch of Taneyev” is not one, but at least two eras. His first, youthful compositions are “the same age” as Tchaikovsky’s early works, and the latter were created simultaneously with the quite mature opuses of Stravinsky, Myaskovsky, and Prokofiev. Taneyev grew up and was formed in decades when the positions of musical romanticism were strong and, one might say, dominant. At the same time, seeing the processes of the near future, the composer reflected the tendency towards the revival of the norms of classicism and baroque, which manifested itself in German (Brahms and especially later Reger) and French (Franck, d’Indy) music.
Taneyev’s belonging to two eras gave rise to the drama of an apparently prosperous life, and a lack of understanding of his aspirations even among close musicians. Many of his ideas, tastes, and preferences seemed strange then, divorced from the surrounding artistic reality, and even retrograde. Historical distance makes it possible to “fit” Taneyev into the picture of his contemporary life. It turns out that its connections with the main needs and trends of Russian culture are organic and multiple, although they do not lie on the surface. Taneyev, with all his originality, the fundamental features of his worldview and attitude, is the son of his time and his country. The experience of the development of art in the 20th century allows us to discern promising features of the musician that anticipate this century.
For all these reasons, the life of Taneyev’s music was very difficult from the very beginning, and this was reflected both in the very functioning of his works (the quantity and quality of performances) and in their perception by his contemporaries. Taneyev's reputation as a composer of insufficient emotionality is largely due to the criteria of his era. Lifetime criticism provides enormous material. The reviews reveal both the characteristic perception and the phenomenon of “untimeliness” of Taneev’s art. Almost all the most prominent critics wrote about Taneyev: Ts. A. Cui, G. A. Laroche, N. D. Kashkin, then S. N. Kruglikov, V. G. Karatygin, Yu. D. Engel, N. F. Findeizen, A.V. Ossovsky, L.L. Sabaneev and others. The most interesting reviews are contained in letters to Taneyev from Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, in letters and “Chronicles...” of Rimsky-Korsakov.
There are many insightful opinions in the articles and reviews. Almost everyone paid tribute to the outstanding skill of the composer. But “pages of misunderstanding” are no less important. And if in relation to early works numerous reproaches of rationalism and imitation of the classics are understandable and to a certain extent fair, then the articles of the 90s and early 900s are of a different nature. This is mostly criticism from the perspective of romanticism and, in relation to opera, psychological realism. The assimilation of styles of the past could not yet be assessed as a pattern and was perceived as retrospective or stylistic unevenness, heterogeneity. Student, friend, author of articles and memoirs about Taneyev - Yu. D. Engel wrote in his obituary: “Following Scriabin, the creator of the music of the future, death takes away Taneyev, whose art was most deeply rooted in the ideals of the music of the distant past.”
But in the second decade of the 20th century, a basis had already emerged for a more complete understanding of the historical and stylistic problems of Taneev’s music. In this regard, the articles by V. G. Karatygin are of interest, and not only those dedicated to Taneyev. In a 1913 article, “Recent Trends in Western European Music,” he linked—speaking primarily of Franck and Reger—the revival of classical norms with musical “modernity.” In another article, the critic expressed a fruitful thought about Taneyev as a direct successor to one of the lines of Glinka’s legacy. Comparing the historical mission of Taneyev and Brahms, the pathos of which was the exaltation of the classical tradition in the era of late romanticism, Karatygin even argued that “the historical significance of Taneyev for Russia is greater than Brahms for Germany,” where “the classical tradition has always been extremely durable, strong and defensible " In Russia, the truly classical tradition coming from Glinka was less developed than other lines of Glinka’s creativity. However, in the same article, Karatygin characterizes Taneyev as a composer “several centuries late to be born into the world”; The critic sees the reason for the lack of love for his music in its inconsistency with “the artistic and psychological foundations of modernity, with its pronounced aspirations for the primary development of the harmonic and coloristic elements of musical art.” The bringing together of the names of Glinka and Taneyev was one of the favorite thoughts of B.V. Asafiev, who created a number of works about Taneyev and saw in his work and activities a continuation of the most important trends in Russian musical culture: “...What life denied the inquisitive Glinka - to summarize achieved by studying the beautifully harsh in his work - then S. I. Taneyev, both theoretically and creatively, fulfilled for him through a number of decades of the evolution of Russian music after the death of Glinka.” The scientist here has in mind the application of polyphonic technique (including strict writing) to Russian melodic music.
The concepts and methodology of his student B. L. Yavorsky were largely based on the study of Taneyev’s compositional and scientific creativity.
In the 1940s, the idea arose of a connection between the work of Taneyev and Russian Soviet composers - N. Ya. Myaskovsky, V. Ya. Shebalin, D. D. Shostakovich - belonging to Vl. V. Protopopov. His works are the most significant contribution after Asafiev to the study of Taneyev’s style and musical language, and the collection of articles he compiled, published in 1947, served as a collective monograph. G. B. Bernandt’s documented biographical book contains a lot of materials covering the life and work of Taneyev. The monograph by L. Z. Korabelnikova “The Work of S. I. Taneyev: Historical and Stylistic Research” is devoted to the consideration of the historical and stylistic problems of Taneyev’s composer heritage on the basis of his rich archive and in the context of the artistic culture of the era.
Born in Vladimir on November 13 (25), 1856 into a noble family (his uncle Alexander Sergeevich Taneyev was a chamberlain of the court and an amateur composer; his brother Vladimir Ivanovich was a famous economist and public figure; his cousin was the maid of honor of the court, Anna Vyrubova). At the age of ten he entered the newly opened Moscow Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1875 with a gold medal in piano classes by N. G. Rubinstein and composition by P. I. Tchaikovsky. Taneyev was Tchaikovsky's favorite student and his close friend until the end of Pyotr Ilyich's days, often performing his works, as well as their editor and arranger. After an educational trip abroad, he taught music theoretical subjects at the Moscow Conservatory, and then piano; in 1885–1888, at the request of Tchaikovsky, he headed the conservatory; later he taught special courses in polyphony and musical form. In 1905, as a sign of solidarity with N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, who was fired from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he left the Moscow Conservatory and continued private lessons with students. Among Taneyev's conservatory students are composers S.V. Rachmaninov, A.N. Skryabin, N.K. Medtner, S.M. Lyapunov, R.M. Glier, A.T. Grechaninov and many others; most of them constantly turned to Taneyev for advice even after completing their studies. Taneyev’s social circle included not only musicians; he met with Leo Tolstoy several times (several times he spent his summer holidays in Yasnaya Polyana, without, however, becoming a “Tolstoyite”), was keenly interested in the poetry of symbolism (especially its rhythmic aspect) and was personally acquainted with young Moscow poets; Taneyev's original hobby was studying Esperanto (most of his Diaries were written in this language).
After the death of N.G. Rubinstein and P.I. Tchaikovsky, Taneyev became a central figure musical life- as a teacher, pianist (soloist and especially a magnificent ensemble player), conductor, scientist and, most importantly, a musician of enormous outlook, impeccable taste and a person of the highest moral purity and responsibility. In the period after 1905, he was one of the founders of the People's Conservatory, a founder and member of the Musical Theoretical Library society, an employee of the Musical Ethnographic Commission at Moscow University, etc. From the beginning of the 1890s, he worked on studying the polyphony of the strict style of the old Western masters, because he believed that it was the development of these techniques and forms that could further enrich Russian music, which in its historical development had passed the period of the strict style (Taneev considered this path especially desirable for Russian sacred music, and he himself made several experiments in in this direction). The result of his work was a large-scale study of the Mobile Counterpoint of Strict Writing (1889–1906; published in 1909) and the unfinished and posthumously published Doctrine of the Canon.
As a composer, Taneyev was the recognized head of the Moscow school. Among other things, he contributed greatly to the rapprochement of the St. Petersburg and Moscow branches of Russian music (for example, he often performed works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov and other St. Petersburg authors in Moscow and he himself entered the St. Petersburg Belyaev Circle). In Taneyev's style, the influence of Tchaikovsky is noticeable (especially in his early works), as well as reliance on Western European classics (Bach, Beethoven).
Taneyev’s compositional heritage is large in scale and diverse in genres, it includes opera (Oresteia, the first opera of the mature Russian school on an ancient plot, staged in 1895), and symphony (four symphonies, among which the most interesting is the Fourth, 1898), and original vocal lyrics (including poems by Taneyev’s contemporaries – symbolist poets). The greatest achievements are associated with choral, cantata genres and chamber ensembles. Taneyev is the author of the best Russian vocal and symphonic works of this period: the lyrical cantata John of Damascus to the verses of A.K. Tolstoy (1884) and the monumental canvas After reading the psalm to the verses of A.S. Khomyakov (1915), as well as excellent individual works and cycles for unaccompanied choir to poems by Russian poets, where complex polyphonic technique is brilliantly used. The same can be said about his numerous ensembles (about 20 works: trios, quartets, quintets), where the strict and sublime type of Taneyev’s thinking is especially clearly felt, not devoid of either vivid drama or chaste lyricism.
Russian composer, pianist, music scientist, teacher
Born in Vladimir on November 13 (25), 1856 into a noble family (his uncle Alexander Sergeevich Taneyev was a chamberlain of the court and an amateur composer; his brother Vladimir Ivanovich was a famous economist and public figure; his cousin was the maid of honor of the court, Anna Vyrubova). At the age of ten he entered the newly opened Moscow Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1875 with a gold medal in piano classes by N. G. Rubinstein and composition by P. I. Tchaikovsky. Taneyev was Tchaikovsky's favorite student and his close friend until the end of Pyotr Ilyich's days, often performing his works, as well as their editor and arranger. After an educational trip abroad, he taught music theoretical subjects at the Moscow Conservatory, and then piano; in 1885–1888, at the request of Tchaikovsky, he headed the conservatory; later he taught special courses in polyphony and musical form. In 1905, as a sign of solidarity with N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, who was fired from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he left the Moscow Conservatory and continued private lessons with students. Among Taneyev's conservatory students are composers S.V. Rachmaninov, A.N. Skryabin, N.K. Medtner, S.M. Lyapunov, R.M. Glier, A.T. Grechaninov and many others; most of them constantly turned to Taneyev for advice even after completing their studies. Taneyev’s social circle included not only musicians; he met with Leo Tolstoy several times (he spent his summer vacation in Yasnaya Polyana several times, without, however, becoming a “Tolstoyite”), was keenly interested in the poetry of symbolism (especially its rhythmic aspect) and was personally acquainted with young Moscow poets; Taneyev's original hobby was studying Esperanto (most of his Diaries were written in this language).
After the death of N.G. Rubinstein and P.I. Tchaikovsky, Taneyev turned out to be a central figure in musical life - as a teacher, pianist (soloist and especially an excellent ensemble player), conductor, scientist and, most importantly, a musician of enormous outlook, impeccable taste and a person of the highest moral purity and responsibility. In the period after 1905, he was one of the founders of the People's Conservatory, a founder and member of the Musical Theoretical Library society, an employee of the Musical Ethnographic Commission at Moscow University, etc. From the beginning of the 1890s, he worked on studying the polyphony of the strict style of the old Western masters, because he believed that it was the development of these techniques and forms that could further enrich Russian music, which in its historical development had passed the period of the strict style (Taneev considered this path especially desirable for Russian sacred music, and he himself made several experiments in this direction). The result of his work was a large-scale study of the Mobile Counterpoint of Strict Writing (1889–1906; published in 1909) and the unfinished and posthumously published Doctrine of the Canon.
As a composer, Taneyev was the recognized head of the Moscow school. Among other things, he contributed greatly to the rapprochement of the St. Petersburg and Moscow branches of Russian music (for example, he often performed works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov and other St. Petersburg authors in Moscow and he himself entered the St. Petersburg Belyaev Circle). In Taneyev's style, the influence of Tchaikovsky is noticeable (especially in his early works), as well as reliance on Western European classics (Bach, Beethoven).
Taneyev’s compositional heritage is large in scale and diverse in genres, it includes opera (Oresteia, the first opera of the mature Russian school on an ancient plot, staged in 1895), and symphony (four symphonies, among which the most interesting is the Fourth, 1898), and original vocal lyrics (including poems by Taneyev’s contemporaries – symbolist poets). The greatest achievements are associated with choral, cantata genres and chamber ensembles. Taneyev is the author of the best Russian vocal and symphonic works of this period: the lyrical cantata John of Damascus to the verses of A.K. Tolstoy (1884) and the monumental canvas After reading the psalm to the verses of A.S. Khomyakov (1915), as well as excellent individual works and cycles for unaccompanied choir to poems by Russian poets, where complex polyphonic technique is brilliantly used. The same can be said about his numerous ensembles (about 20 works: trios, quartets, quintets), where the strict and sublime type of Taneyev’s thinking is especially clearly felt, not devoid of either vivid drama or chaste lyricism.
Born on November 13, 1856 in Vladimir, died on June 6, 1915 in Dyudkovo, Zvenigorod district, Moscow province.
Composer, pianist, teacher, music scientist, musical and public figure.
Director of the Moscow Conservatory (1885-89).
He belonged to a family of nobles, dating back to the 15th century. His father - Ivan Ilyich Taneyev - landowner, state councilor, master of literature, doctor, amateur musician. From the age of 5 he studied piano, first with M.A. Miropolskaya, then at V.I. Polyanskaya (nee Voznitsyna). After moving to Moscow, he entered the newly opened conservatory (1866). With his relatively mature and serious playing (among the works played by Taneyev at the examination audition was J. Field’s nocturne in B major), the 9-year-old pianist gained special favor from the selection committee: “A child of the province, plump from the courtship of his father and mother, dressed in in the fashion of that time, in a velvet Cossack shirt, in a colorful checkered silk shirt, half-belted, in slouchy trousers, the future student from his first appearance attracted the sympathy of the professors” (Lipaev I.V.S. 3). Until 1869 he studied in junior classes with E.L. Langer (piano, elementary music theory and solfeggio). In 1869-75 he continued his studies in N.G.’s piano class. Rubinstein, harmony, instrumentation and free composition by P.I. Tchaikovsky, counterpoint, fugue and music. forms N.A. Huberta. Among the works of the conservatory years is the Symphony in e minor, marked by the great influence of Tchaikovsky. In 1875 he graduated from the Conservatory with a large gold medal; Taneyev's name is the first on the honors board for students of the conservatory.
In 1874 he performed publicly for the first time at a musical evening in the house of Prince Golitsyn. After graduating from the conservatory, he played a lot in concerts as a solo pianist and ensemble player. In January 1875, at the 7th Symphony Meeting of the IRMS, for the first time in Russia, he performed J. Brahms's First Piano Concerto (conducted by Rubinstein). In June - July 1875, in 1876-77 and 1880 he made trips (the first of them with Rubinstein) to Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland. In Paris I talked with I.S. Turgenev, G. Flaubert, E. Zola, C. Gounod, C. Saint-Saëns and others. In 1876 he made a concert tour together with L.S. Auer in the cities of Central and Southern Russia (later he played in an ensemble with G. Wieniawski, A. V. Verzhbilovich, with the Czech Quartet, in piano duets with A. I. Ziloti, P. A. Pabst, etc.). Later, in 1908 and 1911-12, he toured performing his compositions in Germany and Austria-Hungary. He gained fame as the first performer of all major works for piano by Tchaikovsky (with the exception of his First Piano Concerto). After Tchaikovsky's death, he completed, orchestrated, edited and performed a number of his works. He also performed his own compositions. He had friendly relations with composers of the St. Petersburg school (since the mid-1890s). ON THE. Rimsky-Korsakov, in particular, dedicated the cantata “Svitezianka” (1897) to Taneyev. Taneyev, in turn, dedicated the First String Quintet to Rimsky-Korsakov. A.K. Glazunov dedicated the Fifth Symphony to Taneyev, Taneyev - to Glazunov - Symphony in C minor. M.P. Belyaev published many of Taneyev’s compositions and contributed to their performance at Russian symphony concerts, Russian quartet evenings and at meetings of the St. Petersburg Chamber Music Society. Taneyev communicated with L.N. Tolstoy in Yasnaya Polyana (summer 1895 and 1896) and in his Moscow house.
Taneyev’s special passion for the work of V.A. is known. Mozart - the ability not only to perfectly feel, perform, but also to explore his music (see: Der Inhalt des Arbeitsheftes von W.A. Mozarts eingenhändig geschriebenen Übungen mit den Unterweisungen durch seinen Vater im strengen Kontrapunkt und reinen Satz... // Verfasst von S.I. Tanejew. Salzburg . 1914; Russian translation: Contents of a notebook of Mozart’s own exercises in strict counterpoint // In memory of Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev... M.-L., 1947).
In Taneyev’s composer’s work they found a continuation of the tradition of Russian classics - M.I. Glinka, Tchaikovsky, as well as Western European composers (J.S. Bach, L. Van Beethoven, etc.). At the same time, he anticipated many trends in the musical art of the 20th century. Characteristic of Taneyev was his attraction to moral and philosophical issues (cantatas “John of Damascus”, 1884; “After the Reading of the Psalm”, 1915; opera-trilogy “Oresteia”, 1894, etc.). The best examples of chamber-instrumental compositions of Russian music include trios, quartets, and Taneyev’s quintets. Most of the works embody the principle of intonational unity of the sonata-symphonic cycle, largely associated with monothematicism (Fourth Symphony, chamber instrumental ensembles). The author of over 40 a cappella choirs, Taneyev actually revived this once widespread in Russian music of the 17th-18th centuries. genre. A notable phenomenon of Russian music is Taneyev’s romances (55).
Pedagogical activity
In 1878-1905, Taneyev’s activities were inextricably linked with the Moscow Conservatory. At first he taught harmony and instrumentation there, and in 1881-88 he taught a piano class. In 1883, as a result of Hubert's departure from the Conservatory, Taneyev had to take a free composition class (until 1888). Over time, he left for himself only a special class of counterpoint and fugue (from 1888) and musical form (from 1897). At the same time (1883) he was elected to the Committee of Professors for the Management of the Moscow Conservatory. In 1885-89, thanks to the efforts of Tchaikovsky, he was appointed director of the Moscow Conservatory. Over the years, he was able to significantly improve the state of the financial affairs of the conservatory, update the teaching staff, increase the level of academic discipline and requirements for admission exams, and improve the curricula. He significantly increased the importance of the choral and orchestral classes, which made it possible to restore and continue the practice of staging opera performances by students of the conservatory, which was interrupted after Rubinstein’s death. Among the especially famous ones is the production of Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” (1884), the preparation for which was supplemented by interesting lectures of a general theoretical and aesthetic order.
Of greatest importance was the creation by Taneyev of a coherent system of musical theoretical education at the Moscow Conservatory. He developed programs for courses in harmony, instrumentation, counterpoint and fugue, forms, free compositions (different from the programs of the St. Petersburg Conservatory). In 1902 he created a draft curriculum for general and special music theory: 1st year - counterpoint and instrumentation are mandatory (for theorists - special); 2nd year - fugue, special instrumentation; 3rd year - forms; Years 4 and 5 - free composition. Significantly enriched the methods of teaching musical theoretical disciplines. He introduced the unity of educational, practical and scientific components into their teaching (especially in the course of counterpoint and fugue). He sought a connection between theoretical education and composing and performing creativity. Stimulated the development of the theory of performing arts, in particular the creation of the “Encyclopedia of Piano Technique by Y.V. Weinberg." Author of the major work “Movable counterpoint of strict writing” (Leipzig, 1909; dedicated to G.A. Laroche; 2nd ed. edited by S.S. Bogatyrev. M., 1959), conceived for educational and practical purposes. Since the late 1990s. worked on the book “The Doctrine of the Canon” (not completed; published by V.M. Belyaev; M., 1929). As a result, according to the memoirs of A. S. Arensky, the level of even general courses in musical theoretical disciplines was so high at the Moscow Conservatory that “any of the bad students [of the Moscow Conservatory] could outshine the one who was considered among the successful ones [at the St. Petersburg Conservatory]. Conservatory]" (Korabelnikova L.Z. S. 86). As a teacher, he was known for his sensitive and tactful attitude towards the individuality of the student and therefore had a huge number of students. Among them are famous composers, musicologists, conductors, teachers: A. Alexandrov, V. Bulychev, S. Vasilenko, R. Glier, N. Zhilyaev, G. Konyus, N. Ladukhin, S. Lyapunov, N. Medtner, Z. Paliashvili, S. Rachmaninov, K. Saradzhev, I. Sats, A. Scriabin, Y. Engel, B. Yavorsky and many others. An excellent pianist himself, he continued the traditions of Rubinstein in the field of piano pedagogy. Among the students is El. Gnesina, K. Igumnov, A. Koreshchenko, N. Mazurina, M. Untilova.
In 1905, as a sign of protest against the authoritarian methods of managing the conservatory, Taneyev left it and never returned there, despite numerous requests from professors and students. One of the founders and teachers of the Moscow People's Conservatory (1906). He continued to give lessons privately (always free of charge), remaining a prominent figure in the musical life of Moscow. Taneyev’s social circle included K.A. Timiryazev, A.G. Stoletov, Ya.P. Polonsky, V.E. Makovsky, Andrey Bely, A.M. Vasnetsov, V.Ya. Bryusov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I.V. Tsvetaev and many others. etc.
A major public figure. He worked as a member of the Ethnographic Department and the Musical Ethnographic Commission of the Society of Lovers of Natural History, Anthropology and Ethnography at Moscow University (since 1901). Attached great importance to studying folk music. In the 1880s recorded from A.A. Gatsuk and arranged 27 Ukrainian songs, also harmonized whole line Ukrainian songs from the collection of N.A. Yanchuk. The result of a trip to Svaneti (1885), during which Taneyev managed to record songs and instrumental tunes from Prince I. Urusbiev, became the first historical and theoretical study in Russia of the musical folklore of the peoples of the North Caucasus ([“On the Music of the Mountain Tatars”] // Bulletin of Europe. Book 1. 1886. pp. 94-98).
Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev was born on November 25, 1856 in Vladimir. Taneyev spent his childhood in a highly cultural environment: a rich home library, the custom of speaking with his family in three languages, literary and musical evenings at home. Taneyev’s musical talent manifested itself very early; impeccable hearing, memory, not a childishly strong attraction to music. All these qualities distinguished him at the Moscow Conservatory. N. G. Rubinstein, having become Taneyev’s teacher, spoke about him like this: “Taneev is one of the very few chosen ones - he will be a magnificent pianist and a wonderful composer.” The most brilliant future for the young musician was predicted by his other teacher, in composition - P. I. Tchaikovsky. In a review of his first performance, he wrote “Taneev brilliantly met the expectations of the conservatory that raised him...”
The creative friendship between teacher and student continued after Taneyev graduated from the conservatory. Pyotr Ilyich highly valued the judgment of his talented student, who was always calm, reasonable, and possessed a subtle artistic taste. “I don’t know anyone who would stand above Taneyev in my opinion and heartfelt attitude,” he admitted. Contemporaries were attracted to Taneyev not only by his musical talent and inquisitive mind, but also by his spiritual purity, the wonderful combination of directness of expression and delicacy, gentleness of address, strict adherence to principles, uncompromisingness and genuine kindness and cordiality. Is it surprising that Rubinstein, whose house was the center of the cultural life of Moscow, invited young Taneyev to his place, where he, along with the professors of the conservatory, was an invariable soloist and member of ensembles.
Taneyev’s biography is not rich in events - no twists of fate that dramatically change the course of life, no “romantic” incidents. A student of the Moscow Conservatory of the first class, he was associated with his native educational institution for almost four decades and left its walls in 1905, in solidarity with his St. Petersburg colleagues and friends - Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. Taneyev’s activities are mainly connected with Russia. He lived in Paris for quite a long time in the second half of the 1870s and in 1880, but later - in the 1900s - he traveled only for a short time to Germany and the Czech Republic to participate in concerts. In 1913, Sergei Ivanovich visited Salzburg, where he worked on materials from the Mozart archive. So, in 1875, after brilliantly graduating from the conservatory in two specialties - piano and composition - the young musician, having performed with great success in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, left for Paris, where he would spend about a year. Concert performances, attending lectures at the Sorbonne, communicating with famous musicians and artists, into whose society he was accepted as an equal, made the young man’s life interesting and significant.
But gradually all this, and above all, the laurels of the pianist-performer, ceased to bring satisfaction, I became more and more fascinated by the composition, the desire to concentrate on creative work. Upon returning from abroad, Taneyev in a short time created such deep, interesting works, such as the cantata “John of Damascus”, Symphony in D minor, symphonic overture “Oresteia” (he later wrote an opera on this plot), several chamber ensembles. The music of the cantata “John of Damascus” (on poetic text A. Tolstoy). Dedicated to the memory of Nikolai Rubinstein, who died shortly before in Paris, the cantata expresses deep philosophical thoughts about the value of human life, about its inevitable end, and is imbued with deep compassion.
In the 1880s, Taneyev enthusiastically studied Russian musical folklore. He recorded and processed about thirty Ukrainian and Russian songs. In the summer of 1885, he traveled to the North Caucasus and Svaneti, where he recorded songs and instrumental tunes of the peoples of the North Caucasus. The highly educated musician perfectly comprehended all the diversity of Russian folk polyphony, which has no analogues in world musical culture. Taneyev retained his passion for folk art for almost his entire life. “Russian melodies should be the basis of musical education,” he believed. - I think that the time will come when conservatories will not blindly teach what they teach in Leipzig or Berlin, but will understand that we have different tasks than the Germans and the French, that we must not forget about the existence of Russian songs, that we must apply to the circumstances among which you find yourself.”
Teaching work, as well as management of the conservatory, was occupied by great place in the life of Taneyev. He was an outstanding teacher. Taneyev gave away his enormous knowledge in various fields of musical science with great willingness and with exceptional methodicality, being an example of conscientiousness and self-discipline. He was a great friend of the students, because he saw in them the future of Russian music.
Of Taneyev's many students, it is worth highlighting those who were the pride of Russian music and did a lot for its further development: S. Rachmaninov, A. Scriabin, N. Medtner, S. Lyapunov, R. Gliere... This list could be continued. How many times did Taneyev fuss with Belyaev, recommending this or that composition of the novice composer for publication! How many people did he help by doing extra work and never charging a fee? And this despite the fact that “... his cash, - according to Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky, - in general, were on the very brink comfortable existence and needs. And there were periods when this line was violated towards the latter.”
Tremendous energy and erudition, as well as intelligence and tact, allowed Taneyev to do a lot of useful things for his students and for the conservatory as a whole. But, despite being very busy with performing, teaching, and research work, Taneyev continued to devote a lot of time and effort to composition.
Among best works composer's opera "Oresteia", completed in 1895 and revealing a new and interesting page in the history of opera. Three plot-related tragedies of the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus - “Agamemnon”, “Choephori”, “Eumenides” - served literary basis libretto for three acts with the same titles and one common one - “Oresteia”. Thanks to such independence of three acts, this opera is often called a musical trilogy. In this plot, the composer was attracted by the universal human ideas of the victory of a bright, wise principle over the dark laws of bloody revenge and evil. Musical style"Orestei" - complex fusion, assimilation different traditions. This artistic experience of Taneyev attracted the attention of many musicians - not only in Russia - and influenced the work of composers of subsequent generations.
In 1896-1898 he wrote the Fourth Symphony, which marked his creative maturity. The symphony was highly appreciated by Glazunov, Lyadov, and Rimsky-Korsakov. The latter wrote to the author after the publication of the score: “I consider your symphony to be the most beautiful modern work, noble style, wonderful form and wonderful development of musical thoughts.” Romances, which reflect the intimate lyrical experiences of a person, occupied a significant place in Taneyev’s work. But if in the romances of the 1870-1880s (“People are sleeping”, “In the Invisible Haze”, “The Restless Heart Beats”) the influence of Tchaikovsky is noticeable, then those created later, at the beginning of the century, bear the stamp of symbolist poetry, the understatement, uncertainty of some images due to the poetic content of the poems (“When, whirling, autumn leaves”, “Stalactites”, “Birth of a harp”).
One of the peaks of the composer's quartet work is the Sixth Quartet in B-flat major, completed by Taneyev in 1905. Asafiev called it “a condensed encyclopedia of Taneev’s mastery.”
Throughout his work, Taneyev appears as an artist of extraordinary integrity and deeply humaneness. This was one of his best works and, unfortunately, his last - the cantata “After the Reading of the Psalm.” Cantata is a monumental polyphonic composition, the content of which was determined by ethical ideas about human personality, about the high destiny of man, about the inexhaustible possibilities of his soul, mind... And at the same time - the affirmation of the thought of creative work, unity with nature - a symbol of eternal, enduring beauty, life.