Dargomyzhsky, Alexander (EN)

Dargomyzhsky Alexander Sergeyevich, *14 (2) February 1813 Troitskoye (Tula Governorate), †17 (5) January 1869 Saint Petersburg, Russian composer. He was born into a family distinguished by literary and artistic interests. His father, Sergei Nikolayevich Dargomyzhsky, a graduate of the Institute of Nobility at Moscow University, published poetry and prose translations in his youth. His mother, Maria Borisovna (née Princess Kozlovskaya), was a poet and dramatist. Of Dargomyzhsky’s five siblings, his brother Erast, a violinist who died young, and his sisters Erminia and Lyudmila, both harpists, displayed notable musical talent. Dargomyzhsky spent his early childhood on the family estate of Tverdunovo in the Smolensk region, where he became acquainted with Russian folk song traditions. From 1818 he resided permanently in St. Petersburg. In accordance with his father’s wishes, he pursued a civil service career, rising from clerk (1827) to titular councilor (1843). His general education was provided by private tutors. He began his musical studies in 1819 with L. Wohlgeboren. From 1821 to 1828, he studied piano with A. T. Danilevsky, continuing his training from 1828 to 1831 under F. Schoberlechner. During this period, he also studied violin with P. G. Vorontsov and, as he later recalled in his autobiography, learned the “rules of vocal art” in classes with B. A. Zeibig, a tenor and director of a German opera troupe. In the early 1830s, Dargomyzhsky established a broad performing career in the leading literary and musical salons of St. Petersburg. He performed as a pianist (both soloist and accompanist), a tenor, and as a violinist and violist in string quartets. His earliest piano compositions, including the Valse brillante (published 1831), were written somewhat incidentally to his performing activities. Only after meeting M. Glinka (March–April 1835) did Dargomyzhsky abandon public performance and devote himself fully to composition, undertaking what he described in a letter to N. B. Golitsyn (13 May 1836) as “compositional attempts of all kinds.” He pursued intensive self-education in composition, drawing on Glinka’s notes from his studies with S. Dehn as well as Dehn’s theoretical writings. Although closely associated with Glinka, Dargomyzhsky sought an independent aesthetic direction. During this period, his outlook was strongly influenced by French Romanticism. The works of Victor Hugo were particularly significant and inspired several compositions: Lucrèce Borgia (1837), his first operatic project, later abandoned on Zhukovsky’s advice; Esmeralda (1838–41), a grand Romantic opera based on Hugo’s original libretto; the piano fantasy Le rêve de l’Esmeralda (published 1839), composed independently of the opera and based on the refrain of his earlier song O ma charmante (published 1836) to Hugo’s text; and the song Dieu, qui sourit (1846). Despite the publication of several piano works – including the Variations on a Folk Theme (1836) and Two Mazurkas (1840) – as well as an orchestral performance of the Bolero (1839), Dargomyzhsky was known primarily as a composer of vocal music. The growing popularity of his songs, set to texts by Delvig, Timofeev, Yazykov, and Pushkin and published individually from 1831 onward, prompted the publisher F. Lee to issue a collected edition of 30 romances and songs (five notebooks, 1843–44). Dargomyzhsky’s increasing engagement with Pushkin’s works is further reflected in the cantata Torzhestvo Bakha (performed 1846). In the autumn of 1844, he embarked on a journey to Berlin, Brussels, and Paris (October 1844–March 1845), returning via Vienna, Leipzig, and Warsaw (April 1845). As documented in surviving correspondence and entries in an autograph album, the purpose of this trip was to establish musical contacts and, in particular, to become acquainted with the works and leading representatives of contemporary grand opera, including Meyerbeer, Halévy, Auber, and Donizetti. In Brussels, Dargomyzhsky formed a close friendship with F. J. Fétis, who introduced him to local musical circles. Favourable articles about the composer appeared in L’Éclair and L’Émancipation, and Fétis also recommended him in a letter to M. Schlesinger published in the Parisian Revue et Gazette Musicale (1844, no. 52). In Paris, Dargomyzhsky met Victor Hugo and Hector Berlioz. Upon returning to St. Petersburg, he renewed efforts to stage Esmeralda and began collecting material for Rusalka, on which he worked for eleven years (1845–55). Work was interrupted during a period of depression, from which he was revived by the “brilliant and unexpected success” of a composer’s concert in St. Petersburg (9 April 1853), featuring Pauline Viardot and Maria Kalergis. Following the premiere of Rusalka (1856), Dargomyzhsky resumed organising musical evenings. He established close contacts with members of the “Mighty Handful” and with poets and satirists associated with the journal Iskra. The radical artistic and social views of these circles contributed to a reorientation of his aesthetic outlook. In songs to texts by V. Kurochkin, publisher of Iskra (Stary korporal, Chervyak), and P. Weinberg (Titulyarny sovetnik), composed in the spirit of the “Natural School,” he aligned himself decisively with artistic realism. With the founding of the Russian Musical Society (1859), Dargomyzhsky became one of its leading figures, serving first as a board member and, from 1867, as president of its St. Petersburg branch. In the autumn of 1864, he undertook a second journey abroad, visiting Warsaw, Berlin, Leipzig, Brussels, Paris, and London, and returning to St. Petersburg in May 1865. In 1866 he began work on the chamber opera The Stone Guest, based on Pushkin’s “Little Tragedy.” The innovative character of this work attracted the attention of composers of the “Mighty Handful,” who from the spring of 1868 attended Dargomyzhsky’s weekly musical soirées. At one such gathering (15 November), a rehearsal performance of The Stone Guest was given, with the composer singing the role of Don Juan, Mussorgsky as Leporello, A. Purgold as Laura and Donna Anna, K. Veliaminov as the Monk and the Commander, and N. Purgold at the piano. Progressive heart disease prevented the completion of the opera. In accordance with Dargomyzhsky’s wishes, it was finished and subsequently staged after his death by César Cui and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1872).

Dargomyzhsky maintained a long-standing friendship with Stanisław Moniuszko. They met in St. Petersburg (1849, 1856) and Warsaw (1864) and remained in correspondence, informing one another about their current works. Notably, Halka and Rusalka reveal a striking thematic affinity, while the song Stary kapral (“The Old Corporal”), composed independently by both composers, sets the same text by Pierre-Jean de Béranger. In Dargomyzhsky, Moniuszko found not only an “elder brother,” as he wrote to A. Iwański (1856), but also an active advocate of his music. Dargomyzhsky frequently included Moniuszko’s compositions – songs and the cantata Nijoła – in the programmes of his musical soirées. He also promoted Moniuszko’s work in print, publishing an article devoted to his music in the newspaper Sankt-Peterburgskie vedomosti.

To situate Dargomyzhsky merely within the Glinka tradition, or to assign him the role of an intermediary between the composer of Ivan Susanin and the members of the “Mighty Handful,” is to diminish the originality of his achievement and to invite misinterpretation. Such assessments were not uncommon among his contemporaries, including Tchaikovsky and Laroche. Even within Balakirev’s circle, which was generally sympathetic toward him, only a limited number of works – such as Paladin, the Eastern Aria (“O, deva rozy”), and The Stone Guest – met with unequivocal approval. A closer examination of Dargomyzhsky’s music reveals less what he shares with Glinka than what distinguishes him from him: a critical and analytical disposition, a pronounced experimental impulse, a preference for dramatic tension and expressive detail, and a striving toward musical realism. Above all, his music is characterised by an exceptional sensitivity to the precise correspondence between word and sound – a principle he ultimately formulated as his artistic credo: “I want the sound to express the word directly; I want truth” (letter to L. Belenitsina, 9 December 1857). Having embraced the primacy of the vocal element, Dargomyzhsky devoted comparatively little attention to instrumental composition. His piano works were largely occasional and consisted mainly of dance forms of a semi-functional character (waltzes, mazurkas, polkas, contredanses, quadrilles). Only in a small number of compositions did he engage with large-scale form and Romantic pianistic texture, notably in works based on folk material, such as the Variations on ‘Vinyat menya v narode’, and on national themes, as in the Fantasia on Themes from Glinka’s Opera “Ivan Susanin”. A more programmatic approach appears in the piano fantasy Le rêve de l’Esmeralda, inspired by the dialogue between Esmeralda and Gringoire in Victor Hugo’s novel Notre-Dame de Paris. He returned to the idea of instrumental dialogue in the scherzo Pylkost’ i khladnokrovie (“Ardour and Composure”), which seeks to portray a conversation – as indicated by its subtitle – “written from nature.” In his orchestral works, Dargomyzhsky drew upon the model of the “Russian scherzo” established by Glinka in Kamarinskaya, intensifying its folkloric orientation and characteristic colour. He incorporated diverse ethnic elements – Russian (Baba-Yaga), Ukrainian (Malorossiysky kazachok), and Karelian (Chukhonskaya fantaziya) – while enriching them with vivid orchestral effects. Dargomyzhsky found his fullest artistic expression in vocal music, in his operas and more than 100 songs. These works clearly trace his creative evolution: from early lyrical pieces in the manner of Glinka (Ya vas lyubil) and Varlamov (Tuczki Niebiesnyje) to mature achievements of musical realism, including the distinctly Gogolian scene-songs Titulyarny sovetnik (“The Titular Councillor”) and Chervyak (“The Worm”), as well as the dramatic songs Stary kapral (“The Old Corporal”) and Paladin. A decisive turning point was Melnik (“The Miller”), to a text by Pushkin – a scene-song combining a comic situation, sharply drawn characters, and an ironic punchline delivered through a piano cadenza. Elements of genre dramatisation had already appeared in earlier works (Slyozy and Nochnoy zefir), but in Melnik, coloured by the intonation of Russian speech and folk song (cf. Po ulitse mostovoy), Dargomyzhsky for the first time drew consciously on expressive devices derived from Russian stage performance practice. These techniques were later employed to heighten comic or dramatic effect. Two- or three-part choral interjections, notated on an additional staff, also serve theatrical purposes. Although these passages have no independent performance function, they contribute significantly to scenic characterization. In Stary kapral, for example, the choral element is realised by the pianist; yet it plays a crucial structural role in completing the dramatic situation. The protagonist’s vocal line, interrupted mid-word by a gunshot, is continued by a “chorus of comrades,” thereby intensifying the realism of the scene. Other instances of choral participation in solo songs draw on folk traditions, such as the ritual procession (Dushechka) and the feast song (Stolnaya pesnya). A comparable dramatisation of lyrical form appears in several vocal duets and trios. These include stylised folk-entertainment scenes (the duet Devitsa i krasavitsa) as well as works approaching operatic dialogue (the trios Skazhi, chto ty tak zadumchiv?). Dargomyzhsky engaged with virtually every major genre and stylistic type of Russian vocal lyric. He drew upon the Gypsy romance (Ne skazhu nikomu), the salon romance (La sincère; Golubye glaza), the so-called “Russian song” (Bez uma; Oy, tikh, tikh), and authentic folk song (Likhoradushka). He cultivated the lyrical monologue (Mne grustno), the elegy (Ona pridyot), the serenade (Odelas’ tumanami S’yera-Nevada), and the ballad – which he sometimes designated as a “fantasy” (Svad’ba). Alongside native stylistic elements, Dargomyzhsky incorporated foreign colouration. These include Spanish influences (Ispansky romans), Polish elements (O, milya deva, a vocal mazurka to the poem Rozmowa by Adam Mickiewicz), and oriental idioms – whether of specific ethnic provenance (Lezginskaya pesnya) or more freely stylized (Vostochny romans; O, deva rozy).

Dargomyzhsky was more a realist than a melodist. While preserving the natural inflection of the vocal line, he frequently adopted a recitative-like style. The piano part is shaped in close accordance with the poetic motivation and psychological subtext of the text. His compositional focus lies primarily in the delineation of a dramatic situation or in the vivid visualisation of an image (as in Vertograd). He relied on comparatively simple means of musical expression and characterisation, occasionally employing stylised or intentionally conventional formulae (Skroy menya, burnaya noch’), sharp contrasts, and emphatic, concise harmonic-rhythmic gestures (notably in Paladin) as well as exotic colour through the use of whole-tone (Vostochny romans).

Dargomyzhsky’s operas, composed at different stages of his career, reflect distinct aesthetic orientations. Esmeralda arose from his fascination with French grand opéra; yet he was drawn less to its decorative spectacle than to the psychological substance of dramatic conflict. Although he later judged the score to be stylistically heterogeneous and “banal, as is often the case with Halévy and Meyerbeer,” he acknowledged that in scenes of heightened tension “a language of power and truth had already emerged,” one he subsequently sought to cultivate in vocal works set to Russian texts (letter to L. Belenitsina, 30 November 1859). In Rusalka, Dargomyzhsky articulated his conception of realistic opera. While retaining certain features of Romantic opera — elements of fantasy and ballet episodes — he concentrated primarily on the psychological drama of the central characters (Natasha and the Miller), enriching their portrayal through the incorporation of folk texts and songs. The integration of folk material, genre scenes (notably the choruses in Acts I and II), and dynamically shaped recitative disrupted the conventions of closed vocal numbers and traditional “number opera.” Arias, ariosos, and recitative passages alike are permeated by speech-derived intonation — a defining feature that reaches full maturity in his final work, the psychological drama The Stone Guest. Dargomyzhsky conceived The Stone Guest independently of Wagner’s operatic theories. He foregrounded the vocal dimension and allowed monologues and dialogues to unfold freely through an advanced recitative technique. Concessions to closed forms occur only in two of Laura’s songs in Act I (Odelas’ tumanom Granada and Ya zdes’, Inesilya) and in the duet of Act II (Veshchak k luchshemu). The orchestra is entirely subordinated to the requirements of vocal declamation and concise dramatic characterization, employing devices such as leitmotivic reference, whole-tone formations, augmented triads, and harmonically flexible procedures. The opera initially provoked bewilderment. Tchaikovsky described it as “a pathetic miscarriage of a bold talent” (Russkie vedomosti, 1873, no. 198). Within Balakirev’s circle, however, Dargomyzhsky’s experiment aroused sustained interest and directly influenced Mussorgsky’s Zhenit’ba (The Marriage) and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart i Salieri. The principles of “musical truth” that Dargomyzhsky developed — particularly in his vocal works, though also in his orchestral compositions — were assimilated by numerous Russian composers. Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 2 includes a finale explicitly subtitled “in the style of Dargomyzhsky.” His music also attracted attention abroad, prompting transcriptions and arrangements by Liszt (Slavyanskaya tarantella), Adolph Henselt (Ya v derevne), Theodor Kullak (Mne grustno), and Charles-Auguste de Bériot (Dushechka). Yet perhaps no composer grasped the full significance of Dargomyzhsky’s achievement more profoundly than Mussorgsky, who, in dedicating two of his songs (Eryomushka’s Lullaby and S nyaney), hailed him as “the great teacher of musical truth.”

Writings and letters:

O muzykie polskogo kompozitora g. S. Moniuszko, “Sanktpeterburgskie vedomosti,”1861, No. 241; Autobiography (1864), “Nuvellist” 1866 No. 6, “Muzyka i teatr” 1867 No. 9, “Russkaja starina” 1875 Nos 2–7 (ed. W. Stasov), “Artist” 1894 No. 35, 37, 39; Awtobiografija, pisma, vospominanija sovremennikov, ed. N. Findeizen, St. Petersburg 1921, 2nd ed. 1922; Izbrannye pisma, ed. M. Piekielis, Moscow 1952; Pisma Dargomyzskogo Stanislawu Moniuszko, ed. M. Piekielis, “Sovetskaja muzyka” 1963 No. 2.

Literature:

A. Serov “Rusalka”, opera A.S. Dargomyzhskogo, “Muzykalnyj i teatralnyj vestnik” 1856 No. 24, 26, 28, 32–34, 36–39, also in: Izbrannye stat’i, vol. 1, Mocow 1950; C. Cui ‘Kamennyi gost’ Pushkina i Dargomyzhskogo, “Sanktpeterburgskie vedomosti” 1872 No. 55, also in: Izbrannye stat’i, vol. 1, Leningrad 1952; P. Trifonov A. S. Dargomyzhskij po ego avtobiografii, pis’mam i proizvedenijam, “Vestnik Evropy” 1886 vol. 11–12; S. Bazunov A. S. Dargomyzhskij, ego zhizn’ i muzykal’naja dejatel’nost’, St Petersburg, 1894. I. Korzukhin, A. S. Dargomyzhskij, Artist, 1894, nos. 33–34, 36, 38. N. Findeizen, A. S. Dargomyzhskij, Moscow, 1904. G. Timofeev, A. S. Dargomyzhskij, ego sem’ja, ego pervye shagi na kompozitorskom poprishche, “Muzykalnyj sovremennik”, 1917, vols. 7–8. C. Cui, “Rusalka,” opera Dargomyzhskogo, in: Muzykal’no-kriticheskie stat’i, vol. 1, St Petersburg, 1918. A. N. Drozdov, Aleksandr Sergeevich Dargomyzhskij, Moscow, 1929. Z. Ewald, Romansy Dargomyzhskogo, in: Russkij romans, opyt intonatsionnogo analiza, ed. B. Asaf’ev, Moscow, 1930. I. A. Martynov, A. S. Dargomyzhskij, Moscow–Leningrad, 1944. M. Piekelis, Dargomyzhskij i narodnaja pesnja, Moscow, 1951. I. Belza, List S. Moniuszki do A. S. Dargomyzhskogo, “Muzyka”, 1954, nos. 5–6. S. I. Shlifshtein, Dargomyzhskij, 3rd rev. and enl. ed., Moscow, 1960. M. Piekelis, A. S. Dargomyzhskij i ego okruzhenie, 2 vols., Moscow, 1966–73. G. R. Seaman, History of Russian Music, vol. 1: From its Origins to Dargomyzhsky, New York, 1967. G. Maszewski, O nekotorykh chertakh vyrazitel’nosti vokal’nogo pis’ma A. S. Dargomyzhskogo, in: “Voprosy teorii i estetiki muzyki,” vol. 8, ed. J. Kremlev, Leningrad, 1968. R. Allorto, A. S. Dargomyski e la conquista del recitativo melodico, Chigiana, vols. XXVI–XXVII, 1969–70. R. Taruskin, Realism as Preached and Practiced: The Russian Opera Dialogue, “The Musical Quarterly,” vol. LVI, 1970. A. Kandinsky, A. S. Dargomyzhskij, in: Istorija russkoj muzyki, collective work, vol. 1, Moscow, 1972. J. Baker, Dargomyzhsky, Realism and “The Stone Guest,” “The Music Review”, vol. XXXVII, 1976. A. Kandinsky, Russkaja klassika v Bol’shom teatre SSSR, Sovetskaja muzyka, 1977, no. 7 (including Rusalka and Kamennyi gost). F. Monfort, Quelques mots au sujet du personnage de “Don Juan” et de l’opéra “L’hôte de pierre” de Dargomysky, “Bulletin de la Société liégeoise de musicologie,” vol. XXVII, 1979.

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