Composer: Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai Andreevich
Dates: 1844-1908
Song title: K moey pesne [To my song = An mein
Lied]
Opus, no., etc.: op.25, Nr.1
Music collection title: Dva romansa [Two songs]
Imprint(s): St. Petersburg: Büttner, 1877
Analysis: The A section consists of a series of agitated, short vocal phrases, which move mostly by descending half-steps and /or thirds followed by rising tritone skips; this amounts to the "leitmotif" of the song. The piano part here highlights the general agitation with right hand syncopated chords against interior pedal tones and chromatically descending bass line in quarter and half notes. After a pause the B section begins meno mosso with somewhat more melodic vocal phrases, punctuated by full-measure rests alternating with rising legato eighth-note figures in the piano part. This creates a halting quasi-recatitive effect, illustrating the loss and resignation of the text. The descending 2nds part of the "leitmotif" returns in the B section's second half, falling in sighs through more than an octave, an effective device for portraying the sorrow of the "one song" that remains from the poet's love. After another pause the third stanza commences, Tempo I, with the return of the agitato "leitmotif," and follows essentially the same harmonic and melodic pattern as the beginning of the song. Greater agitation is emphasized in the piano by continuous 8th note triplets in both hands, as the song is sent away to find the beloved. The postlude fades away, continuing chromatic triplet figures over a pedal point for 2 measures, ending on a pianissimo arpeggiated D major chord.
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Copyright © 2000, Peter W. Shea