Melodeclamation |

from the Greek melos – song, melody and lat. declamation – declamation

The combination of expressive pronunciation of the text (ch. arr. poetic) and music, as well as works based on such a combination. M. found application already in antich. drama, as well as in the “school drama” of the Middle Ages. Europe. In the 18th century scenes appeared. proizv., completely based on M. and called. melodramas. In the subsequent time, M. was often used in operatic works (the scene in prison from Fidelio, the scene in Wolf Gorge from The Free Shooter), as well as in drama. plays (music by L. Beethoven to Goethe’s Egmont). From con. 18th century Under the influence of melodrama, the genre of independent musical composition of the concert plan (in German called Melodram, in contrast to the stage musical composition, called Melodrama), as a rule, was developed for reading (recitation) accompanied by a piano player, less often accompanied by an orchestra. For such M., usually ballad texts were chosen. The earliest examples of such M. belong to I. R. Zumshteg (“Spring Celebration”, for a reader with orc., 1777, “Tamira”, 1788). Later, M. was created by F. Schubert (“Farewell to the Earth”, 1825), R. Schumann (2 ballads, op. 122, 1852), F. Liszt (“Lenora”, 1858, “The Sad Monk”, 1860, “Blind singer”, 1875), R. Strauss (“Enoch Arden”, op. 38, 1897), M. Schillings (“Song of the Witches”, op. 15, 1904) and others.

In Russia, music as a concert and variety genre has been popular since the 70s. 19th century; among the authors of Russian. M. – G. A. Lishin, E. B. Vilbushevich. Later, A. S. Arensky (poems in prose by I. S. Turgenev, 1903) and A. A. Spondiarov (Sonia’s monologue from A. P. Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya, 1910) wrote a series of musical instruments for a reader with an orchestra. In the owls time M. was used in the collective oratorio “The Way of October” (1927), in a fairy tale for a reader and symphony. orchestra “Peter and the Wolf” by Prokofiev (1936).

In the 19th century a special kind of musical instrument arose, in which, with the help of musical notations, the rhythm of recitation is precisely fixed (Weber’s Preciosa, 1821; Milhaud’s music for Oresteia, 1916). The further development of this kind of M., which brought it closer to recitative, was the so-called. a related melodrama (German gebundene Melodram), in which, with the help of special signs (instead of , instead of, etc.), not only the rhythm is fixed, but also the pitch of the sounds of the voice (“King’s Children” by Humperdinck, 1st edition 1897 ). With Schoenberg, “connected melodrama” takes the form of the so-called. verbal singing, it. Sprechgesang (“Lunar Pierrot”, 1912). Later, an intermediate variety of M. appeared, in which the rhythm is precisely indicated, and the pitch of the sounds is indicated approximately (“Ode to Napoleon” by Schoenberg, 1942). Diff. types of M. in the 20th century. also used Vl. Vogel, P. Boulez, L. Nono and others).

References: Volkov-Davydov S. D., Brief guide to melodeclamation (first experience), M., 1903; Glumov A.N., On the musicality of speech intonation, in: Questions of Musicology, vol. 2, M., 1956.