That was easy sound

The practical use of language is almost indifferent to this side of it. The sounding word surprises us in childhood. The child sometimes repeats a word for a long time, amazed at the composition of its sounds: “pe-juice, pe-juice” - and as if he wants to either enter into this sound himself, or completely absorb it into himself. He feels: the sound of the word can reveal something else, something very important to communicate about this "sand" in which he plays; maybe the secret of this free-flowing, shiny, dry substance is hidden in the sound? In sound we are met by the darkness of the language, its unsigned opacity. Here he himself is a thing, like other things in the world, and not a "system for designating things." But in practical speech, we do not need this darkness, and the speakers walk on this water of sound as if on dry land.

In prose, the word already sounds, and especially expressive - someone else's, exotic word. Gogol was the master of such a word: let us remember in The Inspector General: “Labardan-s, labardan-s!” or "hemorrhoidal complexion" in "Overcoat". The words of Saltykov-Shchedrin are sonorous. About the prose of the modern era, the poetic prose of Bely, Bunin, Nabokov, about the prose of Vas. Rozanov can talk for a long time. The sonority of such prose is close to verse.

However, in any case, combination of words, the movement of speech in prose does not occur according to sound laws. If a prose writer does not argue, he will never say, like Pushkin: "Sound does not go to sound." No, he does not succeed in something else, but not the combination of sounds. Prose has its own rhythm, and the writer of prose obeys it, but this is not the rhythm of syllables, not the rhythm of weak and strong beats, not the rhythm of sound repetitions and contrasts.

Quite the sound of the word, the word as sound awakens in the verse. One can recall Mandelstam's remark in "A Conversation about Dante" that a word is a long journey that we make in a dream: having said sun and having received a semantic result, we do not notice how we have come all this way. In poetry, in the hands of a poet, the word makes us wake up and experience in reality how long the path of the word from sound to "meaning" is - and how it is not accidental. The journey itself may seem much more interesting to us than the final destination, because what is the destination? We "understood": we matched the word with something in the mind and connected it with some thing in the world. That's all. Much more interesting is how we got there.

Here is an example of one of the most elegant Russian verses in terms of sound:

Only roses wither,
Breathing Ambrosia,

flies to Elysium Their light soul.

We suddenly realize that in the center, in the core of the word amv-rose-ia , the same rose sounds. We hear the modulation of this consonance rose- in lis- in the third line: flies to Elysium. This modulation is a leap into another world, Roses are no more roses. And the last, fourth line of stanza "Their light soul" is almost silent. In contrast to her bright consonances s, r how ethereal this Russian word sounds soul ! It is as if there is no sound at all, one breath. Pushkin always felt the brightness and festivity of the consonance "r-z-l": "Forests clad in crimson and gold" . So, when this bright chord disappears, if we carefully listen to these verses, we finally experience the word - soul - not in a dream. We woke up to the perception and awareness of sound - soul : experiencing the word soul as sound. And with that, we woke up to experience its inner form: soul - spirit - breath . In other languages, the word meaning soul will have a different sound and a different internal form. Not so quiet. Hearing the sound as a phenomenon of the internal form of the word (we will talk about it later) is an innate skill of poetic thought: the mere fact that words are close in sound is already a sufficient argument for the poet in favor of their relationship in meaning. We hear, for example, "glamor of the eyes" - and the question immediately arises: are these two words related, eyes and charm ? Naturally, in this case we will get a false etymology, which is called folk or poetic. But often in sound rapprochement there is a penetrating conjecture, behind which the exact science, linguistics, hardly keeps up. As in the poems of Ivan Zhdanov:

It's nice to heal and kiss,
To be whole…

(“Love glides like a bat”)

Inner form kiss (Old Russian and Slavic meaning: to welcome) – “to make whole”, “to heal”.

Continuing our comparison with prose: a sonorous word in verse, a sonorous poetic word comes to life due to its place in the general sound system. It would have sounded differently in a different setting. Let's listen to the second stanza of the same poem by Pushkin:

And where the waves of sleep are
Oblivion is carried,
Their shadows are fragrant
They bloom over Summer.

The sound appeared again, everything became louder again after the fading, inhaling line "their light soul" . c appeared, s - bright sounds, but r disappeared. In the entire second stanza p is excluded! The whole stanza in its sound carries the image of mythical immortality - the life of a shadow, but at the same time life is full in its own way, because this shadow is fragrant; fragrant shadows . Soul of a rose - breath, fragrance, ambrosia .

She does not disappear even on the banks of the Lethe, she is stronger than oblivion (Leta in Pushkin is always first of all - oblivion:

Perhaps it will not sink in Leta
stanza composed by me).

The sound of the word Elysius is poured throughout this second stanza. This word, first appearing in the third line of the initial stanza, takes over the entire next stanza, and almost every word of it carries its sounds. You can also say this: the entire second stanza, as if from grain, unfolds from the word Elysius .

There is a hypothesis that this Elysium itself is not the last
the reality that Pushkin does not need him in and of himself - as, for example, Tyutchev needed him in his line:

My soul is Elysium of shadows.

Here Elysius means what it means: the space of the blissful afterlife existence of souls, shadows. But Pushkin needs Elysium for something else: for an indirect mention of the name: Eliza, Elizabeth . This poem is included in the circle of poems dedicated to Elizabeth Vorontsova, in the love cycle. Here is another variation on the theme of “the happy death of a rose” (recall that a rose is a symbolic flower of Aphrodite): “Not a Paphos rose”:

But a happy rose,
Faded on Persians
Eliza of my. ..

Himself Elysius is comprehended as a sound "allegory" of Eliza, Elizabeth; this name, in turn, is understood as associated with Elisius (again, “false etymology”! Greek in origin Elisius and Hebrew Elisabeth have nothing in common; they “married” in the sounds of the Russian language). The second life of the rose, the blissful immortality of her shadow, her soul, her ambrosia is associated with her beloved, Elizabeth. Here comes to mind the biblical verse from the Song of Songs: "Your name is myrrh poured out." From the comments of biblical scholars, we can add: this very likeness of the name and fragrant ointment, perhaps, is prompted by the sound: shem - name, shemen - oil.

So, the sound of our eight-line is filled with a hidden name. In this case, we are dealing with anagram .

The great linguist Ferdinand de Saussure proposed the idea of ​​the anagram as the basis of sound construction in ancient poetry. A certain name, usually sacred, the name of the one to whom the hymn is dedicated, is not called directly, but is scattered into its constituent sounds (letters), and these sounds are distributed in a confused order according to the words of the hymn. And in late poetry one can find such constructions: some unnamed, concealed name is scattered over the words of the verses, so that the whole is its anagram. Finding such anagrams is a fascinating philological exercise. But we can say with confidence that anagramming is not a universal and not the only law of the sound organization of a verse.

So, verse as sound reality, verse as sound or sounds . Sounds and rhythms were called verses: words they were usually not called. Pushkin spoke of the poet's passion: "For sounds do not spare life", not for words . He wrote about waiting for inspiration:

looking for an alliance
Magical sounds, feelings and thoughts...

Word sounds, of course! And we hear that in these lines he has already found the desired union: all three elements came together in one shock sound to .

It is possible to completely separate the verse sound from the verbal, linguistic matter. Samples of purely sound writing are given, in their so-called "zaumi", by Russian futurists. It may have its own charm; he was found, for example, by Fr. Pavel Florensky. Such a composition awakens us to experience the preciousness of speech sound in itself, its, so to speak, immanent pregnancy with meaning, its experiential power: in the way it inevitably provokes meaning or our effort to find meaning, to understand. We cannot but try to guess sound sequences (as, for example, Khlebnikov's Bobeobi, Veomi, Lieei :

Bobeobi lips were sung
Veomi's eyes sang.
Pieeo eyebrows sang.
Leeeey - the appearance was sung.
Gzi-gzi-gzeo the chain was sung.
So on the canvas of some correspondences
A face lived outside the extension) –

we cannot help but try to “read” a human face. But if Kruchenykh's self-guided sound and, moreover, Khlebnikov's "playing on the strings of the world's alphabet" captivates us and leads us somewhere, then the latest transformation of poetry into an arbitrary combination of sounds (Sound Poetry) usually causes mortal boredom. You can stay with just sounds and call it poetry - but in this case, its fundamental and paradoxical task is canceled: to play two opposing elements, meaning and sound. At the same time, to play them as “two majorities” (P. Valeri), that is, to provide both elements with maximum freedom of expression.

It is worth thinking about this: when we say: “it sounds!”, “these verses sound!”, we do not mean at all a successful phonetic selection of sounds. The Chinese, as I heard, in such cases, admiring the impeccable verse, say: “It flies!”, “The verse flies!” You can also say this: “it shines!”. Pushkin says both:

Every verse in your story
Sounds and shines like a gold coin.
(“To Baratynsky”)

When we say “it sounds!”, it means that the word appears to us in the halo of some special power, some kind of victorious dynamics. One physical sound is not enough for this.

In recent decades, European criticism has been talking about letter the most, constantly discussing the topics of letter and text . One could say: poetry and literature in general seemed to be silenced for the second time, leaving for the “pleasure of the text” (a written text, of course). The first time it happened was when the poet stopped singing and accompanying himself, when his "lyre" and "song" became a metaphor. The compiler of the "Iliad" undoubtedly sang its verses, like Demodocus depicted by him, like Little Russian kobzari, but it is already difficult to imagine that Virgil sang his "Aeneid". The troubadours composed their songs along with the music, but Dante is already looking for a musician who would put his canzones to music. One might think that in the times of "writing" and "text" poetry completely loses its connection with sound, with voice. As we spoke about the experiments of purely sound poetry, so there are experiments of purely visual poetry, which cannot be voiced in the design (the first experiments of this kind also belong to the Russian avant-garde; they are being studied by the American Slavist J. Janechek ² ; this impossibility of voicing a letter or the variability of this voicing is played out very deeply in the verbal scores of Elizaveta Mnatsakanova).

But I believe that writing in itself is not at all the opposite of sound. Here are Bunin's poems:

... at the world churchyard
There are only letters.
(“Word”)

How do they sound when it comes to inscriptions? But the letter actually sounds! Whenever I came across words on ancient sarcophagi, the ones I could read were the Greek greeting Khaire! (Χαίρε) or Latin Salve! - they certainly sounded in my mind. Moreover, even the letter that we cannot read sounds, since the rules for reading it are unknown to us, the alphabet is unfamiliar. Looking at an inscription made by a human hand, we feel a certain (potential, hidden) sound of these letters, sound of the utterance. Silence surrounds us when we encounter pre-literate culture - as in Sardinian nuraghe - and this is a strange and unsettling feeling. Like in an empty cage from which a bird has flown.

How to define what sound is? Anton Webern in his lectures resorts to Goethe's definition of color. Goethe defines color as "regularity of nature perceived by sight" - Webern by analogy speaks of sound as "regularity of nature perceived by ear". Poor definition, isn't it? But what can be added here? It may be that this is not only a regularity, but also the action of nature, its energeia - and in the case of sound it is even more obviously than in the case of color. Sound is harder to avoid than color; he acts more forcefully. Surely this is the case with acoustic sound, it is like color. But is the sound of language (that is, the sound of poetry) perceived by the ear ? And before talking about real sonority and the patterns of this sonority in verse, I want to draw attention to one phenomenon that poets often talk about. This is that the composition is preceded by a certain sound.

² Gerald Janecek. The Look of Russian Literature: Avant-Guarde. visual experiments. 1900–1930 Princeton, 1984 modern.

keyboards

All historical keyboards differed from modern pianos in a much less powerful sound and much more clarity.

Harpsichord - a keyboard-plucked instrument, the string is plucked with a plectrum (originally with a pen), fixed in such a way that the sound becomes even, i.e. dynamic gradations cannot be done. However, the role of agogics increases many times over, and a good performer can create a dynamic effect by combining registers, changing manuals (keyboards), the same agogics and developed touch.

The harpsichord is timbre closest to the lute and other baroque and renaissance plucked instruments, which had a certain influence on it. For polyphony, it is also an almost ideal instrument, since its acoustic nature suggests maximum clarity in the appearance of sound.

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The clavichord has ingeniously simple mechanics, in some ways closer to the piano than the harpsichord. Its very design eliminates the possibility of loud sound, but it has dynamic capabilities. J.S. Bach considered it his favorite instrument. The tradition of using the clavichord as a domestic instrument has never been broken, for example, Beethoven and Schumann both had clavichords.

In this instrument, contact with the string is maintained all the time while the key is held, even vibration is possible (German Bebung). Playing the clavichord can create emotions of incredible depth and truly touch the listener.

The ideal auditorium for clavichord is a few people sitting around, maximum (in conditions of good acoustics) - 60-70 people. The popularity of the clavichord was enormous. An interesting historical fact: Elizabeth of England was very proud that she played it well.

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Tangentenflugel had piano-like mechanics (the tangent - in this case, a wooden plate fixed in the same way as a hammer - automatically bounces off the string when touched). It is more "percussive" than the clavichord, its dynamics are brighter. The design also incorporated timbre changes (una corda effects and moderators) and pedal effects.

W. A. ​​Mozart greatly appreciated the Tangentenflugel. However, like the clavichord, this type of instrument could not develop in the direction of increasing the strength of the sound, and therefore remained unchanged, but also one of the best instruments for music of its time (ca.1730-1780).

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Hammerklavier - keyboard-percussion instrument. "Hammerklavier" is a German name corresponding to the words "pianoforte" in Italy, "piano" in England, "clavier" in Germany, "clavichord" in Russia of the 18th-19th centuries. In modern Russia, the German name has taken root, where the first part (hammer, i.e. hammer) indicates the difference between this mechanics and the harpsichord (where the plectrum plucks the string)

It is believed that the Florentine master Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the instrument in 1709year, however, instead of a hammer, a strip of parchment rolled into a circle was used (due to the elasticity of which its mechanics were very close to the double rehearsal mechanism invented by Sebastien Erard in 1822).

Early piano makers experimented a lot with the mechanics, shape of the instrument, added additional designs to create new sound effects. But all these instruments had a lighter and stiffer hammer compared to later instruments. All early pianos were straight-stringed and had no frame.

The result of this design was a brighter and lighter sound, although much less powerful than a modern grand piano, as well as a much greater "transparency" in the middle register, which was very important for chamber music. These design features were largely preserved during the further evolution of the piano in the direction of increasing dynamic power during the 19th century.

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strings

Marina Katarzhnova

teacher of baroque and modern violin classes

Types of violin instruments in the 18th century:

a) pachettes (tuning higher by otkavu)
b) treble (tuning higher by a quart)
c) standard instruments (modern)
d) bass or bassoon violins (tuning lower than usual, 5 strings, sometimes used for playing bass parts in an ensemble)

Form varied for a long time. There could be no resonator holes, or they were located below the middle of the instrument. The stand could be low and sometimes without thread, its place on the instrument also changed.

In 1564, Andreas Amati made one of the first extant instruments that had the qualities of modern instruments.

1540-1660 - Renaissance instruments. They vary in size and shape.
1660-1760 - baroque. Their sizes are already more standard.
Altos varied in size, a tradition that has survived to this day.
1760-1820 - classical, closest in characteristics to the modern.

Neck angle and length, instrument weight, neck thickness, bridge configuration, and deck space changed. The deck could consist of blocks or a single piece, its thickness varied. The neck could be hollow or made from a single piece of wood. The length and thickness of the darling has also undergone significant changes.

In the middle of the 17th century, the development of the repertoire greatly spurred the development of the instrument.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, they played gut turners. Winding on strings appeared in the 17th century in England, but was not popular. A little later, the Italians began to actively use this invention.

Violin accessories - chinrest and bridge - are also modern trends.
The bridge was played with in the 20th century, chin guards were introduced in the 18th century. The chinrest was introduced by L. Spohr.

Early bows were very sensitive to humidity and temperature, the tension was often regulated only by pressing a finger on the hair, or the shoe was moved, which was fixed by hooking on a toothed cremaler plate. The screw was often missing.

The length gradually increased, but was connected with the aesthetics of music-making. The French played dance music and it was more convenient to make small strokes with a short bow. The Italians promoted the culture of singing on the instrument, so the design of their bow had a longer cane.

In the second half of the 18th century, the cane was bent inward, which gave more freedom for the stroke variety. Around 1730, Tartini carried out a reform, introduced many jumping strokes, and the length of the cane also increased. In the second half of the 18th century, the violinist Kramer came up with a design with a straight reed and a right angle bow head. In the 19th century, the bow configuration was already formed, which is used by modern violinists to this day.

Varieties of violin instruments in the 18th century:

a) pachettes (tuning higher by otkavu)
b) trebles (tuning higher by a quart)
c) standard instruments (modern)
d) bass or bassoon violins (tuning lower than normal tuning, 5 strings, sometimes used for playing bass parts in an ensemble)

The form varied for a long time. There could be no resonator holes, or they were located below the middle of the instrument. The stand could be low and sometimes without thread, its place on the instrument also changed.

In 1564, Andreas Amati made one of the first extant instruments that had the qualities of modern instruments.

1540-1660 - Renaissance instruments. They vary in size and shape.
1660-1760 - baroque. Their sizes are already more standard.
Altos varied in size, a tradition that has survived to this day.
1760-1820 - classical, closest in characteristics to the modern.

Neck angle and length, instrument weight, neck thickness, bridge configuration, and deck space changed. The deck could consist of blocks or a single piece, its thickness varied. The neck could be hollow or made from a single piece of wood. The length and thickness of the darling has also undergone significant changes.

In the middle of the 17th century, the development of the repertoire greatly spurred the development of the instrument.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, they played gut turners. Winding on strings appeared in the 17th century in England, but was not popular. A little later, the Italians began to actively use this invention.

Violin accessories - chinrest and bridge - are also modern trends.
The bridge was played with in the 20th century, chin guards were introduced in the 18th century. The chinrest was introduced by L. Spohr.

Early bows were very sensitive to humidity and temperature, the tension was often regulated only by pressing a finger on the hair, or the shoe was moved, which was fixed by hooking on a toothed cremaler plate. The screw was often missing.

The length gradually increased, but was connected with the aesthetics of music-making. The French played dance music and it was more convenient to make small strokes with a short bow. The Italians promoted the culture of singing on the instrument, so the design of their bow had a longer cane.

In the second half of the 18th century, the cane was bent inward, which gave more freedom for the stroke variety. Around 1730, Tartini carried out a reform, introduced many jumping strokes, and the length of the cane also increased. In the second half of the 18th century, the violinist Kramer came up with a design with a straight reed and a right angle bow head. In the 19th century, the bow configuration was already formed, which is used by modern violinists to this day.

Marina Katarzhnova

baroque and modern violin teacher

We also recommend listening to the recording of Marina Katarzhnova's seminar
on the history of violin development.

Baroque violin (Solo), Rachel Podger

Listen

Baroque violin (in ensemble), Stefano Montanari

908 9039 9038 9033 Plantier

Listen 9000

On a modern instrument for each note there is a separate hole and a valve in it, and on a historical wind instrument (no matter which one), as a rule, there are only 6 holes and two valves. And with the help of these small possibilities, you need to play all the notes with various fingering options. It's not harder, it's just different. You need to turn on the memory.

Both the clarinet, and the flute, and the oboe for the first 100-150 years existed with such a valve system. She arranged for Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Handel... The entire XVIII century for wind instruments - keys up to three signs; it usually doesn't get any harder. XIX century - technological revolution, experiments with various additional valves begin. Music becomes more complex harmonically: new keys, complex chromatisms.

Sophisticated tools can be called an improvement, but when you add something, you are bound to lose something. Instruments of the 19th century are brighter, louder, but in the 18th century they were fuller, rounder, darker (not so piercing), their task was to merge with each other, with the strings, not to solo. The paints characteristic of the Baroque simply did not come in handy in the 19th century.

On a modern instrument there is a separate hole for each note and a valve in it, but on a historical wind instrument (no matter which one), as a rule, there are only 6 holes and two valves. And with the help of these small possibilities, you need to play all the notes with various fingering options. It's not harder, it's just different. You need to turn on the memory.

Both the clarinet, the flute, and the oboe existed for the first 100-150 years with such a valve system. She arranged for Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Handel... The entire XVIII century for wind instruments - keys up to three signs; it usually doesn't get any harder. XIX century - technological revolution, experiments with various additional valves begin. Music becomes more complex harmonically: new keys, complex chromatisms.

Sophisticated tools can be called an improvement, but when you add something, you are bound to lose something. Instruments of the 19th century are brighter, louder, but in the 18th century they were fuller, rounder, darker (not so piercing), their task was to merge with each other, with the strings, not to solo. The paints characteristic of the Baroque simply did not come in handy in the 19th century.

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