NATURE AND MUSIC: WINTER

Caesar Cui. Winter
Robert Schumann. in winter
Antonio Vivaldi. Seasons - Winter

1st lesson

Program content. To instill in children a sense of the beauty of nature and music.

Progress of the lesson:

P a g o g Nature is so beautiful in winter! Everything around turns white and silver. The trees dress up in fluffy white snow clothes:

Here is the north, the clouds are catching up,
He breathed, howled - and here she is
The sorceress winter is coming.
She came and fell apart; shreds
Hanged on the branches of oak trees;
Lay down in wavy carpets
Among the fields, around the hills;
Brega with a still river
She leveled it with a plump veil;
Frost flashed. And we are glad
To the pranks of Mother Winter.
(A.S. Pushkin)

Wonderful Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi has four concertos for violin and orchestra called “The Four Seasons”. These concerts have names: “Spring”, “Summer”, “Autumn”, “Winter”. Each concert consists of three parts. Let's listen to one of the parts of another concert - “Winter”. What kind of winter do you see when you hear this music? (The second part of the concert sounds.)

Children. Beautiful, sparkling snowflakes.

Pedagogical: What is the nature of music?

Children. Delicate, light.

P e d a g o g Yes. In the orchestra you can hear abrupt sounds that flicker and glow, like a magical winter outfit of nature. Against this background, violins sing warmly, tenderly, sincerely. (A fragment sounds.) The Russian poet Sergei Yesenin has a poem in which he talks about the Russian birch tree in winter with tenderness, love, and admiration. When you listen to this part of A. Vivaldi’s concerto, you remember the lines:

Birch
White birch
Below my window
Covered myself with snow
Exactly silver.
On fluffy branches
Snow border
The brushes have blossomed
White fringe.
And the birch tree stands
In sleepy silence,
And the snowflakes are burning
In golden fire.
And the dawn is lazy
Walking around
Sprinkles branches
New silver.

2nd lesson

Program content. Teach children to distinguish character musical works with similar names.

Progress of the lesson:

Educator: You listened to one of the parts of A. Vivaldi’s concert “Winter”. What kind of music suits your mood? (A fragment plays.)

Children. Delicate, light, beautiful, like snowflakes flickering in the sun.

P a g o g This music was written for orchestra and solo violin. Now you will hear two works with similar names. One of them is for piano. This is R. Schumann's play “In Winter”. The other is for voice and piano. This is a song by the Russian composer Ts. Cui based on the poems of the poet E. Baratynsky “Winter”. What mood is conveyed in these works? (Both works are performed.) What does Ts. Cui’s song sound like?

Children. Sad, mournful, pitiful.

Educator: The picture of a harsh winter evokes despondency and regret about the summer: the stream is frozen under ice, an evil wind is blowing, nature is numb. (A song is performed.) And what is R. Schumann’s play? (Does it.)

Children. Also sad, plaintive.

P a g o g Yes, these works are very similar in mood. One of them is vocal, the other is piano. In R. Schumann's play, the mood brightens only in the middle part. It seems that the sun is peeking through or snowflakes are flickering, shimmering. (Performs a fragment.) But then the sad, plaintive intonations return again (a fragment is played). How consonant with this music is the poem of the poet Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet!

Just yesterday, blazing in the sun,
The forest was the last to tremble its leaves,
And the winter, turning lushly green,
She lay like a velvet carpet.
Today summer suddenly disappeared;
White, lifeless all around,
Earth and sky are all dressed
Some kind of dull silver.
Fields without herds, forests dull,
No scanty leaves, no grass.
I don't recognize the growing strength
In the diamond ghosts of foliage.
As if in a gray cloud of smoke
From the kingdom of cereals by the will of fairies
Transported incomprehensibly
We are in the kingdom of rock crystals.

Draw at home the picture of winter that seemed to you when you listened to the music of C. Cui, R. Schumann and A. Vivaldi.

3rd lesson

Program content. Teach children to distinguish between shades of mood and changes in the nature of music in works.

Progress of the lesson:

Educator. You listened various works about winter - a bright, gentle concert by A. Vivaldi, its second part (a fragment is played), the sad, mournful play by R. Schumann “In Winter” (performs a fragment) and a sad, plaintive song of Ts. Cui, similar in nature (performs a fragment) . Sometimes in winter it blows in bad weather strong wind, the blizzard howls:

The storm covers the sky with darkness,
Whirling snow whirlwinds;
Then, like a beast, she will howl,
Then he will cry like a child,
Then on the dilapidated roof
Suddenly the straw will rustle,
The way a belated traveler
There will be a knock on our window.
(A.S. Pushkin)

Or Sergei Yesenin has the following lines:

The snowstorm sweeps the white path.
He wants to drown in the soft snow.
The playful wind fell asleep on the way;
Nor go to the forest,
Neither pass.

In the first part of A. Vivaldi’s concert “Winter,” which you will now get acquainted with, a picture of a harsh winter, stormy and blizzard, is depicted. (The first part plays.)
At the beginning you heard uniform abrupt chords, annoying sounds of a blizzard, sharp short gusts of wind; The snow is blowing, stinging snowflakes are falling. Nature, shackled by the cold, is frozen in a daze (sounds fragment).

Against this mysterious background, a violin sings piercingly, anxiously, confusedly, plaintively (a fragment sounds). Gusts of wind and a blizzard suddenly arrive. The music sounds insistently, excitedly and furiously (a fragment and the entire part are performed).

Antonio Vivaldi himself wrote the following poems for this music:

Numb over the fresh snow,
Under the sharp wind blowing in the pipe,
Run, stamping your boots.
And shivering and shivering in the cold.

(Reproductions of paintings that are consonant and contrasting in mood with the music can be used.)

Presentation

Included:
1. Presentation - 15 slides, ppsx;
2. Sounds of music:
A. Vivaldi. Seasons - Winter. Part 1, mp3;
A. Vivaldi. Seasons - Winter. Part 2, mp3;
C. Cui. Winter (performed by children's choir"Harmony"), mp3;
C. Cui. Winter. Solo, mp3;
R. Schumann. Winter (piano performance), mp3;
R. Schumann. Winter (symphonic performance), mp3;
3. Accompanying article - lesson notes, docx;
4. Sheet music for independent performance by the teacher, jpg.

Extracurricular activity on the topic:

"Winter in the works of Russian poets, artists and composers"

Target: nurturing love for native nature on the works of Russian poets, artists and composers.

Tasks: introduce the works of Russian poets, reproductions of paintings by Russian artists, and the music of Russian composers;

form an idea of ​​the use artistic means and techniques for describing nature;

instill aesthetic taste;

develop students' speech;

Equipment: portraits of poets; reproductions of paintings by Russian artists; musical work by P. I. Tchaikovsky “The Seasons”; computer presentation.

Progress of the event.

Ved. Hello guys! The theme of our event is “Winter in the works of Russian poets, artists and composers.”

Reading of Ivan Savvich Nikitin's poem "Meeting Winter".

Meeting winter.

Hello, guest - winter!

We ask for mercy

Sing songs of the north

Through forests and steppes.

We have freedom -

Walk anywhere;

Build bridges across rivers

And lay out the carpets.

We won't get used to it -

Let your frost crack:

Our Russian blood

It burns in the cold!

Ved. Three winter months, three magical painters, somehow came together: December, January, February. They got together and argued: which of them draws better? They argued and argued and decided to choose the Red Sun as the judge: “It lives high in the sky, it has seen many wonderful things in its lifetime, let it judge us.”

The sun agreed to be the judge. The painters got to work. The first to volunteer to paint the picture was December. December has spread gray clouds across the sky and let’s cover the earth with fresh fluffy snow! One day I painted everything around.

The fields and hills turned white. Thin ice the river covered itself, became silent, and fell asleep, like in a fairy tale.

December walks through the mountains, through the valleys, wearing large soft felt boots, stepping quietly, inaudibly. And he looks around - now here, now there a magical picture will correct.

Ved. Winter has fascinated many artists. Igor Grabar also wrote many paintings about her. And among them is “Winter Landscape” (a reproduction of I. Grabar’s painting “Winter Landscape” is on display).

IN
units Guys, what is a landscape? A landscape is a view of some area, a drawing, a painting depicting nature. The landscape can be drawn or written. Artists use brushes and paints to show the extraordinary beauty of nature, and poets describe it verbally.

Artists are seekers of beauty. They know how to see the beauty in what we usually remain indifferent to. In your picture

“The First Snow” (a reproduction of the painting is demonstrated) Arkady Plastov was able to show the joy of children who saw the first snow. The snow swirls smoothly in the air and falls to the ground, covering it with a warm blanket. As if in a quiet voice she sings a song: “Sleep, earth, you are probably tired - the harvest was generous in the fall! Sleep now until spring, rest.”

Let us remember the poems by Ivan Zakharovich Surikov “Winter” and Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet “Mom! Look from the window -..” consonant with this picture.

Reading of I. Surikov’s poem “Winter”

Winter.

White snow fluffy

Spinning in the air

And the ground is quiet

Falls, lies down.

And the next morning it's snowing

The field turned white

Like a veil

Everything dressed him.

Dark forest - what's with the hat?

Covered up weird

And fell asleep under her

Strong, unstoppable...

Become the days are short,

The sun shines little

The frosts are here,

And winter has come.

Reading A. Fet's poem "Mom! Look from the window - ..."

* * *

Mother! Look from the window -

You know, yesterday it was not for nothing that a cat

Wash your nose:

There is no dirt, the whole yard is covered,

It has brightened, turned white, -

Apparently there is frost.

Non-prickly, light blue

Frost is hung along the branches, -

Just take a look!

Like someone is too shabby

Fresh, white, plump cotton wool

I removed all the bushes.

Now there will be no argument:

Over the skids, and up the hill

Have fun running!

Really, mom? You won't refuse

And you yourself will probably say:

“Well, hurry up and go for a walk!”

Ved. Now listen to how Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky painted December in his work “The Seasons”.

Music is playing.

Ved. They say December is the time for gloomy skies. Among the people there are notable days of this month.

December 25 - Spiridon Solstice. The sun turns towards summer, and the bear in its den turns over on its other side.

Ved. I started drawing second winter paintings January. He looked into the forest. “I’ll decorate it so much that the Sun will fall in love with it!” - said January.

He dressed the pines and fir trees in heavy snow coats; he pulled snow-white hats down to their eyebrows; I put downy mittens on the branches. The forest heroes stand next to each other, stand decorously, calmly.

Reading of the poem by Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev "The Enchantress in Winter..."

*
* *

Enchantress in Winter

Bewitched, the forest stands -

And under the snow fringe,

motionless, mute,

Wonderful life it shines.

And he stands, bewitched, -

Not dead and not alive -

Enchanted by a magical dream,

All entangled, all shackled

Light down chain...

Is the winter sun shining

On him your ray with a scythe -

Nothing will tremble in him,

It will all flare up and sparkle

Dazzling beauty.

Ved. Guys, not only poets wrote about winter, but also prose writers. We present to your attention an excerpt from the work of Ivan Sergeevich Sokolov-Mikitov “Blizzard Winter”.

Reading a passage.

Winter is blizzard.

(Excerpt.)

Frost walks around the yard, tapping and rattling. The night is starry, the windows are blue, Frost painted ice flowers on the windows - no one can draw them like that.

Oh yes Frost!

Frost walks: sometimes he knocks on the wall, sometimes he clicks on the gate, sometimes he shakes off the frost from the birch tree and scares away the dozing jackdaws. Frost is bored. Out of boredom, he will go to the river, hit the ice, begin to count the stars, and the radiant stars are golden winter.

In the morning the stoves will be flooded, and Frost is right there - blue smoke in the gilded sky has become frozen pillars over the village.

Oh yes Frost!

Ved. Such a house on the outskirts of the village is shown to us in his painting “Sunny Day” by Vladimir Serov (a reproduction of the painting appears on the screen).

Ved. Let it be small and grayish in color. It is decorated with snow-white snowdrifts, slender trunks of tall birches, whitened with silvery frost. Someone's footprints are visible. There is silence all around. I just want to bask in this cozy rural house. Of course, the wood is crackling in the oven, it smells like fresh bread and milk.

Ved. Listen to P. I. Tchaikovsky's composition "January".

Ved. People say: “January wears a sheepskin coat all the way to his toes, paints intricate patterns on the windows, amuses his eyes with snow, and hurts his ears with frost.”

January is a month of holidays and fun.

Reading of Alexander Alexandrovich Blok's poem "Dilapidated Hut".

A dilapidated hut.

Dilapidated hut

It's all covered in snow.

Grandma-old lady

Looking out the window.

To the naughty grandchildren

Knee-deep snow.

Fun for the kids

Fast sled run...

They run, laugh,

Making a snow house

They ring loudly

There will be a snow house

Frisky game...

My fingers will get cold, -

It's time to go home!

Ved. Guys, what winter fun do you know?

A reproduction of Fedot Sychkov’s “Winter Games” appears on the screen.

Ved. What was most offensive to January was that even small children were not afraid of him. They ride on sleds, play in snowballs, sculpt things out of snow, build mountains, water them with water, and even in the cold they call out: “Come and help.” Out of anger, January will pinch one child by the ear, another by the nose, they will even turn white, and the boy will grab the snow, let’s rub it - and his face will flare up like fire.

Nobody is afraid of old man January.

Ved. Listen to another poem by S. A. Yesenin about winter.

Reading of Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin's poem "Powder".

Powder.

I'm going. Quiet. Rings are heard

Under the hoof in the snow,

Only gray crows

They made noise in the meadow.

Bewitched by the invisible

The forest sleeps under dream tale,

Like a white scarf

The pine tree has tied up.

Bent over like an old lady

Leaned on a stick

And above the very top of your head

A woodpecker is hitting a branch.

The horse is galloping, there is a lot of space,

The snow is falling and the shawl is laying down.

Endless road

Runs away like a ribbon into the distance.

Ved. And this is how Vladimir Serov draws in winter evening a trip on troikas (a reproduction of V. Serov’s painting “Christmastide. A trip on troikas” appears on the screen). Looking at the picture, you involuntarily become infected with this Christmastide fun, it seems that the snow is hitting our cheeks, we feel the cool frosty air, we hear the neighing of horses. There are huge blue and white snowdrifts all around. I just want to get into a sleigh and rush across a wide white field.

In January, as was said, there are many holidays.

January 7 - Christmas. If there are high snowdrifts on this day, then this is have a good year, if there is a thaw, then this means an early and warm spring.

January 25 is Tatiana's day. If the sun shines on this day, it means early arrival of birds, snow - a rainy summer.

Ved. Now it's time to paint a picture of February. It's February: everything around - both bushes and trees - is covered with snow. Under its weight, the young trees bent into an arc and spread across the path in white arches. You have to move under such an arch with caution so as not to touch it, otherwise the whole mass of snow will fall on you.

February is popularly called blizzard.

H
shadow of the prose of Georgy Alekseevich Skrebitsky "February" (excerpt).

February.

(Excerpt.)

What a blizzard it is outside! It’s snowing, and the wind whirls it around, lifts it up again, and drives it across the field in a white spinning whirlwind. Winter has finally cleared up - apparently it wants to pour out all its remaining snow onto the fields and forests. It has been pouring and pouring out for the third day now. The entire village was covered with snow right up to the roofs. Try to get it away from the houses, from the barns, from the barnyard! Apparently, it is not without reason that people have long noticed that February is the snowiest, most blizzard month.

Ved. February is a fierce month, he asks how he is wearing shoes.

Reading of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin's poem "Blizzard".

Blizzard.

At night in the fields, to the tunes of a blizzard,

Birch and spruce trees are dozing, swaying...

The moon shines between the clouds over the field, -

A pale shadow comes and melts...

I imagine at night: between the white birches

Frost wanders in the foggy glow.

At night in the hut, to the tunes of a blizzard,

The creaking of the cradle can be heard quietly...

For months the light in the darkness is silver, -

Flows through the frozen glass of the shops...

I imagine at night: between the branches of birches

Frost looks into the silent huts.

Ved. Let's listen to how P.I. saw February in his musical work. Chaikovsky.

A piece of music plays.

Ved. February is changeable: sometimes it will be January, sometimes it will be March. In his painting, Igor Grabar depicts a wonderful February day (a reproduction of a painting by I. Grabar is demonstrated " February blue"). Something unusual is happening in nature. She is celebrating some unprecedented holiday of the azure sky, pearl birches, coral branches, sapphire shadows on lilac snow. Everything is covered with snow. It is impossible to take your eyes off this fantastic beauty of the winter landscape

Reading of the poem by Sergei Aleksandrovich Yesenin “Winter sings - howls, ..”

* * *

Winter sings and echoes,

The shaggy forest lulls

The ringing sound of a pine forest.

All around with deep melancholy

Sailing to a distant land

Gray clouds.

And there's a snowstorm in the yard

Spreads a silk carpet,

But it's painfully cold.

Sparrows are playful,

Like lonely children,

Huddled by the window.

The little birds are cold,

Hungry, tired,

And they huddle tighter.

And the blizzard with a mad roar

Knocking on the hanging shutters

And he gets angrier.

And the tender birds are dozing

Under these snowy whirlwinds

At the frozen window.

And they dream of a beautiful

In the smiles of the sun is clear

Beautiful spring.

Ved. And yet, no matter how raging winter is, it won’t have much time left to reign in our area. Even in the air you can already feel the approach of spring. And the sun begins to warm up slightly.

February also has its own signs.

So three wizard-painters work in turn: December, January and February. And each of them does it well in their own way. Sunny will never decide whose picture is better.

Or maybe everything is good in its own way? If so, then the wizard-painters have nothing to argue about; Let each of them paint a picture for themselves in their turn. And we will look at their work and admire it.

So, my friends, I would like to conclude: winter - beautiful time year, it’s not in vain that great poets, artists, composers created musical masterpieces, artistic canvases and dedicated beautiful poems to this time of year. All we have to do is enjoy these poems, paintings, music and this time of year.

Pictures of the changing seasons, the rustling of leaves, bird voices, the splashing of waves, the murmur of a stream, thunderclaps - all this can be conveyed in music. Many famous people knew how to do this brilliantly: their musical works about nature became classics musical landscape.

Natural phenomena, musical sketches of flora and fauna appear in instrumental and piano works, vocal and choral works, and sometimes even in the form of program loops.

“The Seasons” by A. Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi

Vivaldi's four three-movement violin concertos dedicated to the seasons are without a doubt the most famous nature music works of the Baroque era. The poetic sonnets for the concerts are believed to have been written by the composer himself and express the musical meaning of each part.

Vivaldi conveys with his music the rumble of thunder, the sound of rain, the rustling of leaves, the trills of birds, the barking of dogs, the howling of the wind, and even the silence of an autumn night. Many of the composer's remarks in the score directly indicate one or another natural phenomenon that should be depicted.

Vivaldi “The Seasons” – “Winter”

"The Seasons" by J. Haydn

Joseph Haydn

The monumental oratorio “The Seasons” was a unique result creative activity composer and became a true masterpiece of classicism in music.

Four seasons are sequentially presented to the listener in 44 films. The heroes of the oratorio are rural residents (peasants, hunters). They know how to work and have fun, they have no time to indulge in despondency. People here are part of nature, they are involved in its annual cycle.

Haydn, like his predecessor, makes extensive use of the possibilities different instruments to capture natural sounds such as summer thunderstorms, grasshoppers and frog choruses.

Haydn associates musical works about nature with the lives of people - they are almost always present in his “paintings”. So, for example, in the finale of the 103rd symphony, we seem to be in the forest and hear the signals of hunters, to depict which the composer resorts to a well-known means - . Listen:

Haydn Symphony No. 103 – final

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“Seasons” by P. I. Tchaikovsky

The composer chose the genre of piano miniatures for his twelve months. But the piano alone is capable of conveying the colors of nature no worse than the choir and orchestra.

Here is the spring rejoicing of the lark, and the joyful awakening of the snowdrop, and the dreamy romance of white nights, and the song of a boatman rocking on the river waves, and the field work of peasants, and hound hunting, and the alarmingly sad autumn fading of nature.

Tchaikovsky “The Seasons” – March – “Song of the Lark”

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“Carnival of Animals” by C. Saint-Saens

Among musical works about nature, Saint-Saëns’ “great zoological fantasy” stands out for chamber ensemble. The frivolity of the idea determined the fate of the work: “Carnival,” the score of which Saint-Saëns even forbade publication during his lifetime, was performed in its entirety only among the composer’s friends.

The instrumental composition is original: in addition to strings and several wind instruments, it includes two pianos, a celesta and such a rare instrument in our time as a glass harmonica.

The cycle has 13 parts describing different animals, and a final part that combines all the numbers into a single piece. It’s funny that the composer also included novice pianists who diligently play scales among the animals.

The comic nature of “Carnival” is emphasized by numerous musical allusions and quotes. For example, “Turtles” perform Offenbach’s cancan, only slowed down several times, and the double bass in “Elephant” develops the theme of Berlioz’s “Ballet of the Sylphs”.

Saint-Saëns “Carnival of the Animals” – Swan

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Sea elements by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov

The Russian composer knew about the sea firsthand. As a midshipman, and then as a midshipman on the Almaz clipper, he made a long journey to the North American coast. His favorite sea images appear in many of his creations.

This is, for example, the theme of the “blue ocean-sea” in the opera “Sadko”. In just a few sounds the author conveys the hidden power of the ocean, and this motif permeates the entire opera.

The sea reigns both in the symphonic musical film “Sadko” and in the first part of the suite “Scheherazade” - “The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship”, in which calm gives way to storm.

Rimsky-Korsakov “Sadko” – introduction “Ocean-sea blue”

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“The east was covered with a ruddy dawn...”

Another favorite theme of nature music is sunrise. Here two of the most famous morning themes immediately come to mind, having something in common with each other. Each in its own way accurately conveys the awakening of nature. This is the romantic “Morning” by E. Grieg and the solemn “Dawn on the Moscow River” by M. P. Mussorgsky.

Grieg's imitation of a shepherd's horn is picked up string instruments, and then by the whole orchestra: the sun rises over the harsh fjords, and the murmur of a stream and the singing of birds are clearly heard in the music.

Mussorgsky's Dawn also begins with a shepherd's melody, the ringing of bells seems to be woven into the growing orchestral sound, and the sun rises higher and higher over the river, covering the water with golden ripples.

Mussorgsky – “Khovanshchina” – introduction “Dawn on the Moscow River”

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It is almost impossible to list everything in which the theme of nature is developed - this list will be too long. Here you can include concertos by Vivaldi (“Nightingale”, “Cuckoo”, “Night”), “Bird Trio” from Beethoven’s sixth symphony, “Flight of the Bumblebee” by Rimsky-Korsakov, “Goldfish” by Debussy, “Spring and Autumn” and “Winter road" Sviridova and many others musical paintings nature.

The change of seasons is a theme that from time immemorial has attracted the attention of artists working in various types art. Meanwhile, musicians, as well as poets, often interpret it in a philosophical manner, drawing a parallel between objective weather changes and the subjective feeling of the transience of human life.

They pay special attention to winter, depicting it as the last stage of existence before going into oblivion. In their imagination, with the onset of winter, the earth falls under the power of destructive elements, and from the depths of the human subconscious the black forces of universal loneliness creep out. However, there are authors who perceive winter cheerfully, finding in it a source of such pleasures as sleigh rides, masquerades, New Year's Eve, Maslenitsa celebrations...

Let's try to trace the path along which composers of the 18th-20th centuries moved, depicting winter in their instrumental opuses. The dominance of “pure music” in these works in most cases forces the authors to point in the right direction associative thinking performers and listeners with the help of preliminary texts. For these purposes, they often use poetic epigraphs or titles, occasionally indicating the connection of their music with any specific plot (libretto, script).

XVIII century

“Winter is hard, but moments of joy

Sometimes they soften her harsh face...

How happy is the one whom warmth and light

She sheltered her native hearth from the winter cold, -

Let the snow and the wind be angry there, outside..." - these lines are included in the sonnet, which is preceded by one of the most famous works classical music dedicated to winter. They are the program for Antonio Vivaldi’s fourth violin concerto, which concludes his four-movement cycle “The Seasons”.

A. Vivaldi (1678–1741) – largest representative Italian music of the high baroque era. In his instrumental concerts, in particular in “Winter”, the principles of program symphonism are brilliantly anticipated, which a hundred years later will be embodied in “ Pastoral Symphony» Beethoven. In the 19th century they were developed by romantic composers, and in the 20th century by the impressionists.

The themes of the three-movement violin concerto “Winter” by A. Vivaldi are unusually clear, concrete, emotional and melodic in Italian style. Anxiety and sublime enlightenment, dramatic tension and the charm of peace are replaced in this work so talentedly that even after the end of listening they continue to excite the imagination. It is also important that the musical language of this work echoes the language of the best works of the authors of the 20th century, created in line with neoclassicism. That is why any of the violin concertos combined by A. Vivaldi into the “Seasons” cycle is currently in demand by listeners.

19th century

“I no longer live in myself, I am part of what I see,” these lines from a poem by J. Byron, which were often quoted by the greatest romantic composer Franz Liszt (1811–1886), can be an epigraph to many of his works created during creative flourishing. The final edition of “Etudes of Higher Performance”, a cycle consisting of 12 virtuoso plays, the final of which is “Blizzard,” belongs to this time. This composition brings to mind the composer’s amazing confession: “... some vague, but very real relationship, an inexplicable but true relationship, has been established between me and natural phenomena.”

In the above-mentioned sketch, the author clearly embodies the romantic idea of ​​a proud and suffering personality, finding an echo of his own tossing in natural phenomena. Compositionally, this is expressed quite clearly: in the composition one can clearly hear the interdependence of the melody-declamation, which bears the imprint of a personal tragedy, and the texture depicting the world engulfed in a whirlwind of snow. All this was done so skillfully and talentedly that it gives reason to consider “Blizzard” one of the brightest musical sketches romantic era.

In Russian music of the 19th century, perhaps the most interesting pages, dedicated to winter, belong to the pen of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). His attitude towards this time of year was already evident in his first symphony, created at the age of 26. Two parts of this work have programmatic titles: “Dreams on a Winter Road” and “Gloomy Land, Foggy Land.” In none of the next five symphonies did Tchaikovsky decide to resort to words, since even without this he inner life will be in front of everyone. Meanwhile, the very first fragment of the author’s first symphony indicates that we have before us a composer of a lyrical direction. In this regard, it is significant that, already a recognized master, Tchaikovsky wrote: “The symphony... is the most lyrical of all musical forms... Shouldn’t it express everything that there are no words for, but that asks from the soul and that wants to be expressed?

Many researchers of P. Tchaikovsky’s work associate the images of his first symphony with the paintings of I. Levitan. It is known that the second part of the symphony was created by the composer under the impression of his trip along Lake Ladoga to the island of Valaam and a trip to the Imatra Falls in the summer of 1860. It is significant that in both parts of this work the image of a winter road running along a gloomy edge merges with lyrical reflections hero. About this work, art critic G. Sherikhova writes: “Tchaikovsky begins his first symphony with the most delicate watercolor, complementing it with subtle pen strokes... Through this unsteady drawing of nature, the unprotected beauty of the living human soul shines through, for which every rough intrusion is as destructive as for the natural peace."

P. Tchaikovsky creates no less visual pictures of winter in the piano cycle “The Seasons,” where a piece with a literary epigraph is dedicated to each month. Thus, January (“At the Fireplace”) is preceded by A. Pushkin’s lines from the poem “The Dreamer” (1815):

And a peaceful corner

The night has dressed itself in darkness,

The fire goes out in the fireplace,

And the candle burned out.

February - “Maslenitsa” - lines by P. Vyazemsky from the poem “Maslenitsa on the Other Side” (1853):

Soon Maslenitsa is brisk

A wide feast will begin.

December - “Christmas time” - words from V. Zhukovsky’s ballad “Svetlana” (1811):

Once on Epiphany evening

The girls wondered:

A shoe behind the gate,

They took it off their feet and threw it away.

These plays are a kind of catalog musical language author. “At the Fireplace” is an essay in which one can trace the confidential intonations characteristic of opera arias composer. “Maslenitsa” bears the imprint of the author’s symphonic scherzos, and “Christmastide” is one of the most captivating waltzes for which P. Tchaikovsky is so famous.

Another instrumental waltz that became last decade business card Russian genius, is the “Snow Flake Waltz” from the ballet “The Nutcracker”. A new surge of interest in this work was facilitated by the talent outstanding artist Andrei Shemyakin (b. 1943): he, together with conductor Valery Gergiev, performed at the Mariinsky Theater in 2001 new production"The Nutcracker". In it, A. Shemyakin not only immersed the audience in the bizarre and terrible world of images of Hoffmann’s fairy tale, but also confronted him with the fact of outright “sacrilege” - he released “snowflakes” onto the stage, dressed in black tights, dotted with dazzling white mugs. As a result, the artist achieved an incredible visual effect: dark background scenery, the outlines of the dancers’ figures seemed to dissolve, and the “snowballs” scattered across their clothes sparkled and swirled, creating the illusion of a blizzard of unimaginable beauty. Shemyakin said that the image of black snowflakes was born to him after he saw a snow whirlwind through the window against the background of the night sky.

Composers of the Russian school have always been close to the images of the fatal element that dominates human life, and in the paintings of winter they found a worthy embodiment for them. In the list of works related to this topic, one can fully include Rachmaninov’s etude-painting in E flat minor op. 33, Scriabin's study in F sharp major op. 42, snowstorm scene from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “Kashchei the Immortal”.

Meanwhile, there is a work dedicated to the seasons, in which winter found its devoted admirer. It's about about Alexander Glazunov (1865–1936) and his ballet “The Seasons” (1900), conceived in the spirit of performances at the French court of the 16th-17th centuries. Glazunov's talent as a “musical painter” brightly illuminated this entire work, but was revealed with particular force when describing the images of winter. It is known that N. L. Rimsky-Korsakov, the author of the operas “The Snow Maiden” and “The Night Before Christmas,” after the rehearsal of Glazunov’s first film “The Seasons,” said: “This is one of the best winters in Russian music!” In this regard, I would like to quote the words of A. Glazunov, written by him in Paris shortly before his death: “There was no snow...”, “I miss the northern winter, you won’t get snow here...”, “It’s a pity that I won’t see the northern winter again.” and the sleigh, which I really miss!”

The founder of impressionism in European music was Claude Debussy (1862–1918) - French composer And musical critic. A convinced pantheist, he repeatedly voiced his creative credo: “the beauty of nature can excite the artistic imagination of a composer.”

Debussy's need to convey in sounds the changing state of nature and magic colors her elusive beauty pushed the composer to search for new expressive means. This affected not only the musical language in the narrow sense of the word, but also the images themselves, which in his works are full of various symbolism. The author’s goal is to excite the imagination of listeners, directing it into the sphere of all kinds of associations. A clear illustration of this is his prelude “Steps in the Snow.” The theme of the play is “a frozen step, as if “frozen” into the texture, which hypnotizes the listener, does not let go of his attention, forcing him to continuously watch how the trajectory of the mournful path along the snow-covered plain is drawn and lost in the distance” (E. Denisov). Many researchers believe that this degree of concentration of expressiveness elevates the motif of “Steps” to the level of “allegory of Time and Fate.”

Unlike “Steps in the Snow,” which is considered perhaps the most mysterious and strange prelude by C. Debussy, his play “The Snow is Dancing” from the “Children’s Corner” suite is clear and understandable. Complementing the author’s series of various toccatas, it is notable for its unusual impressionistic coloring, which “allows it to be classified as one of the most interesting and innovative pages of the cycle.” The piano writing of the play “Snow is Dancing” is transparent and elegant, which is most likely due to the “childish” nature of this music. In style it is close to the clavier works of composers of the 17th century, in particular the miniatures of L. Couperin (1626–1661).

XX century

The music of the outstanding Russian composer Georgy Sviridov (1915–1998), created for the film based on Pushkin’s story “Blizzard,” is also associated with images of winter. The orchestral suite, compiled by the author in 1974 from the music for this film, brought its author popular love. Of this work, “Waltz” is the most popular - it perfectly matches the spirit of Pushkin’s story, revealing the innocence of its heroes, who are characterized by an integral, harmonious perception of life.