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CHILDREN'S MUSIC IN THE WORKS OF RUSSIAN COMPOSERS
Gabdulmanova Ilnura Minislamovna
Teacher of the Piano Department of the Children's
School of Music and Arts №19 in Buka, Tashkent Region
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13822159
Children's music by Russian composers, even after first-class compositions
appeared in it, had a hard time making its way in this conservative world.
The first outstanding collection of music for children in Russian music was
"Children's Album (24 Easy Pieces)" by Tchaikovsky. The appearance of this
opus is not an accidental phenomenon in the creative biography of the
composer. Tchaikovsky devoted much time and effort to teaching. In his
teaching activities, Tchaikovsky showed a broad outlook, advanced artistic
views and a thoughtful attitude to specific methodological problems. He sought
to make learning lively and exciting. All this contributed to the fact that, without
being a teacher, the composer was able to create piano-pedagogical works that
are distinguished not only by their outstanding artistic quality but also
extremely useful in terms of educating students.
The author sought to awaken in the child a love for Russian folk music, for
the common man. He introduced a small Russian folk cycle, located in the middle
of the "Album": No. 11 - "Russian Song", No. 13 - "Kamarinskaya".
"Kamarinskaya" gained the greatest popularity. The piece is written in the
folk spirit. At the beginning, the transparent sonority of plucked instruments is
imitated, in the culminating construction - the second variation. The play "A
peasant plays the accordion" is colorful. Thematically it develops through the
use of typical improvisational techniques of variation, characteristic of folk
music. The miniature ends unusually for its time - with a multiple repetition of
its main harmony - the dominant seventh chord, which plays the role of a tonal
foundation.
The theme of the first piece of the "Russian cycle" was an authentic folk
song - "Are you my little head, my little head", included by the composer in his
collection "50 Russian Folk Songs" for piano for four hands. Tchaikovsky also
created a whole series of pieces based on French, German and Italian songs (the
genre picture “The Organ Grinder Sings” is a simplified version of the Italian
song from “Interrupted Dreams” op. 40). Some pieces arose as everyday
sketches during travels abroad. Once in a letter from Florence, the composer
wrote: “My brother and I heard singing in the street in the evening and saw a
crowd, into which we made our way. It turned out that a boy of about ten or
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eleven was singing to the accompaniment of a guitar. He sang in a wonderful,
rich voice, with such completeness, with such warmth that even real artists
rarely have. The most curious thing was that he sang a song with words of a very
tragic nature, which sounded unusually sweet from the lips of a child... It was
delightful”
1
.
To emdiv children's games, the composer uses common musical genres,
which gives the pieces a lifelike concreteness. At the same time, in connection
with certain program tasks, each of them is interpreted differently. The small
"puppet cycle" stands out for its particularly subtle individualization of familiar
compositional patterns.
It is interesting to compare two waltzes. The first of them has the character
of a miniature ballroom scene, which is emphasized by the presence of several
contrasting themes-images (the middle section with its colorful features of a
comic folk dance stands out especially).
"New Doll" is an example of the psychologization of dance. The joyful
excitement of a child's soul is conveyed by the rapid waves of melody and
intermittent, quivering accompaniment.
Among the typical images of the children's world captured by Tchaikovsky,
we note the images of folk tales. "Baba Yaga" is especially colorful.
The dry staccato sonority creates an impression of rigidity and prickliness,
inextricably linked in our imagination with the image of a fierce witch. The
furious "attacks" of the eighth notes, as if breaking against the sforzando chords,
give it a shade of dullness (a similar impression is created in Mussorgsky's "The
Hut on Chicken Legs" by the steady return to the sound of G). The harmonic
language of the piece plays a significant expressive role. As in most fairy-tale
images of Russian composers, it makes extensive use of the tritone (this interval
was used to characterize Baba Yaga by both Dargomyzhsky and Mussorgsky). It
is introduced, however, in such a way that one of Tchaikovsky's favorite
harmonic comparisons arises8, thanks to which this phrase acquires the
character of an individual stylistic stroke of the composer.
The "Album" is interesting for its piano writing.
In the children's musical
literature of that time, the presentation of the traditional accompaniment type of
classical sonatinas in the form of decomposed chords was still widespread. Like
Schumann, Tchaikovsky enriches the fabric of most of his pieces with
polyphonic elements. He tirelessly ensures that the parts of both hands are given
melodic life. Even in pieces sustained in chord movement
("The Horse Game",
1
Чайковский П. И. Переписка с фон Мекк, т1 стр 124
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"Winter Morning", "Nanny's Tale"),
melodic moves are constantly encountered,
sometimes imitations of a melody in the middle voices. In the melodious lyrical
miniatures, the bass is often activated ("
Sweet Dream", "The Doll's Illness
"). In the
"Album" there are no self-sufficient pianistic effects. At the same time, in a good
children's performance, some pieces even seem virtuosic. The composer's
remarkable sense of the expressive possibilities of the performer, which
manifested itself in the most diverse genres of creativity, was also reflected here.
Thus, the texture of the "Song of the Lark" is based on small positional figures
and grace notes, which capable children can learn to play clearly and at a fast
tempo already at the early stages of training. Located in a high register, these
figures and embellishments, if performed appropriately, make a vivid
impression, especially at the end of the piece, where a continuous chain of grace
notes evokes associations with the cheerful chirping of birds (
a similar effect was
noted when analyzing the "Song of the Lark" from "The Seasons").
The development of Russian piano music for children in the subsequent
period followed mainly the path of continuing the traditions of Tchaikovsky and
Schumann.
The best compositions are characterized by genuine artistry, the author's ability
to tell a child about the truth of life in the language of sounds, to emdiv the rich
world of human feelings with the most modest means. These traditions were
constantly enriched. The range of images and the genre sphere of music
noticeably expanded. The coloring of the compositions became more colorful
and emotionally intense. The texture underwent a very significant development.
The traditional writing with intrusive Alberti figurations in the left hand,
widespread in children's music of the 19th century, was eliminated. Following
the path of Schumann and Tchaikovsky, composers increasingly saturated the
fabric with polyphony, melodized the part of the left hand, used the movement
of voices from one hand to the other. Much was done in the development of
virtuoso texture - finding effective techniques of presentation, ensuring the
brilliance and color of the sound even when performed by pianistically less
advanced students. Most of these techniques were based on the development of
the principles of martellato playing by distributing the figurative movement
between both hands and comparing the timbres of different registers in
application to the capabilities of young pianists.
References:
1. Alekseev A. Methods of Teaching Piano Playing. – M., 2001.
2. Barenboim L. Issues of Piano Pedagogy and Performance. – L., 1998.
3. Gedike A. F. Collection of Articles and Memoirs. M. 1989 p. 21
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4. Igumnov K. N. My Performance and Pedagogical Principles. [Summary of the
Report] (Introductory Article; publication by Ya. I. Mil'shtein), "SM", 1998, No. 4.
P. 59
5. Lyubomudrova L. "Methods of Teaching Piano Playing". "Music", 1992.
6. Kogan G. M. Work of a Pianist. Moscow. 1979
7. Trigulova A. Kh. Subject Integration and Its Importance in the Professional
Training of a Future Music Teacher. Young Scientist No. 12 (198) March 2018 -
pp. 173-175.
