Русское зазеркалье (двуязычная версия)

Russian Romance is a specific musical subgenre that is often described as sentimental sung poetry. It was developed in the Russian empire by such composers as Alexander Alyabyev or Alexandr Varlamov. Over the nineteenth century, the genre has become immensely popular in all strata of the Russian society except peasants who had their own folk songs. (Truth be told, agricultural workers comprised the majority of population till the very fall of Tsarist Russia in 1917.) It also blossomed during the so-called Silver Age of Russian culture, meaning the first two decades of the twentieth century, and it was no less than Sergei Rakhmaninoff who composed romances at this time. In the early Soviet era the genre was much less favoured, for obvious reasons (could you please explain them to me?), but we can speak of something like a new wave of interest for romance songs in the 1970s. Some performers still keep this genre alive in the twenty-first century, Pelageya Telegina and Oleg Pogudin being arguably the most talented of them.

Nothing happens without a good reason. I wish you could share with me your thoughts on why the Russian romance as a musical genre bloomed in Imperial Russia. You can do so during the second part of our lesson. Meanwhile, I will give you the easiest and probably the least romantic explanation. Most of young people want to make an impression on the opposite sex, to create new acquaintances, to show themselves off in the partner market, today as much as two hundred years ago. How can you do so if you have no Tinder, no Instagram, and no Facebook to post photos of your half-naked body or pseudo-profound quotes on? All you can do is to engage in an intelligent conversation or to sing a song thus exhibiting your feelings and/or talents. (Just think of why young girls in Jane Austen’s novels sing so much in the presence of young beaux.) To catch an attractive partner some two centuries back, you would have to be either talented or clever. Don’t you believe that social media of today that generously spare us the necessity of developing our social, creative, and academic skills basically turn us into halfwits? It also applies to most of technical devices, invented to ‘simplify’ our lives. Please see it as a question for our discussion, even if it seems rude to you. Here is a quick tip for you: visualise a very old lady on my place and try to be patient with her ‘retarded ideas.’

Because different social classes made use of romance songs, several types of the Russian romance have developed. A salon romance with its refined poetry and elaborate music was often contrasted to the lower-class ‘cruel romance’ that, while pretending to be as ‘genteel,’ often became the caricature of the former. Allow me to give you a humoristic description of the latter genre from The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky.

A single male voice suddenly sang a verse in a sweet falsetto, accompanying himself on the guitar:

An invincible power

Binds me to my flower.

Lord have me-e-e-ercy

On her and me!

On her and me!

On her and me!

The voice stopped. A lackey tenor, with a lackey trill.

<…>

Apparently the man had the upper hand and the woman was flirting with him.

<…>

‘I like any verses terribly, if it’s nicely put together,’ the female voice went on. ‘Why don’t you go on?’

The voice sang again:

More than all a king’s wealth

Is my dear one’s good health.

Lord have me-e-e-ercy

On her and me! On her and me! On her and me!