So, this is the man we are going to acquaint you with in this edition of the program.

Alexander Dargomyzhsky… A composer regarded by his famous colleagues in the composing realm as one of the global figures in Russian art. As to why – lets try and find out. 

The 50-ies of the 19th century. A time when Dargomyzhsky won recognition. The turbulent epoch when national composing schools were being formed, early in the 19th century, had died down by then. These were already very much in evidence – the German, French, Italian and Russian ones. A common checkpoint had been selected: the basis for every one of these schools were traditions of national folk music. 

There was a different idea accosting people’s minds at the time – the reform of the opera theatre. The world was thirsting for one thing: the emergence of the musical drama. The new gurus of the opera were Verdi and Wagner. And in Russian art such a composer was Alexander Dargomyzhsky.

Each one of these composers selected their own route in music. Dargomyzhsky summed up the essence of his notions of musical drama with perfect clarity: “I want every sound to directly signify a word, I want the truth.” The minute details of intonation in human speech, emotions, psychological conditions, reflected in music – such was his credo. 

A psychological drama of unbelievable impact - his opera “The Mermaid” – was the first result of Dargomyzhsky’s searchings. The family tragedy, the death of a young girl, and a father who goes insane with grief… Quite possibly the opera stage was presenting such an opera for the first time…

The searchings, meanwhile, continued. Dargomyzhsky conceived an opera based on Pushkin’s drama “The Stone Guest” (this is a world-famous story-line about Don Juan). Yet again come innovations: Dargomyzhsky decided to retain the entire text of the remarkable literary original unadulterated. Even centuries later few dared to risk such audacity: Shostakovich, for one. Though, on the heels of Dargomyzhsky there was Mussorgsky’s tentative experiment – his uncompleted opera “The Marriage” based on Nikolai Gogol’s comedy.

Dargomyzhsky’s “Stone Guest” was likewise uncompleted due to the composer’s untimely death. In line with his will the opera was finished by his younger friends – Cui and Rimsky-Korsakov. It was in the days of the premiere of the “Stone Guest” that Mussorgsky pronounced the sacramental words “Dargomyzhsky is my great teacher of musical Truth”.

Let us try to recapture the atmosphere in which these global musical innovations were born. Dargomyzhsky’s house, where gathering almost every night under one roof were the people destined to create musical history: Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin. “Dargomyzhsky’s circle” is how they themselves referred to this gathering of theirs. Outwardly they didn’t much differ from the characteristic for those times soirees – when new books were read, heated arguments raged, and a great deal of music-making went on. Dargomyzhsky – an excellent singer and pianist – was always in the focus of attention…

We cannot imagine the Russian 19th century without romance. Many romances by Dargomyzhsky were born right here, when the musicians gathered for their soirees…

National color in composing efforts – this was also a subject that came up for discussion among these musicians. These were no futile scholastic debates, but quite practical discussions – how to ‘speak out’ naturally, without quoting from folk melodies, in the language of one’s people – this is something Dargomyzhsky could demonstrate to his younger colleagues, who believed themselves to be his pupils, right before their eyes.

Alas, these days Dargomyzhsky’s music is much less known than the compositions of his followers – Mussorgsky or Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin or Tchaikovsky. Yet, let us recall yet again that they personally elevated Dargomyzhsky to the highest of pedestals. Tchaikovsky wrote: “Dargomyzhsky is my teacher. His soul was an inexhaustible wellspring of wonderful melodic thoughts. He likewise taught me that composing is in equal measure the fruit of natural instinct and hard labor – when one perceives one’s target and strives to reach it.”
 

01/26/2006