Igor Stravinsky - Two Melodies of Gorodetsky [with score]

Two Melodies of Gorodetsky - for soprano and piano
Written by Igor Stravinsky in 1908


Thanks to Thomas Van Dun for the preparation of this score video.    / thomasvandun  


Performed by Olga Romanko (soprano) and Victor Samoilenko (piano)


00:05​ - I. Spring (The Cloister)
05:54​ - II. A Song of the Dew (Mystic song of the ancient Russian flagellants)


'The Two Melodies, Op. 6, two songs for mezzo-soprano and piano setting texts by Sergey Gorodetsky were among the works which Stravinsky wrote while a composition student of Rimsky-Korsakov. In his Chronicles of My Life, Stravinsky referred to Gorodetsky as "one of a group of writers who, by their talent and their freshness, were destined to put new life into our somewhat old-fashioned poetry." Upon hearing the Two Melodies, however, Rimsky-Korsakov is quoted as saying "What pleasure can anyone have in composing music to the words of such false Russian folk language?" Apparently, Rimsky didn't like Stravinsky's music much better than he liked the poetry he set: "For me, all this 'lyrical impressionism' is contemporary decadence. It is full of mist and fog, but meager in content of ideas.." Both songs are described by commentators as works of faded sentimentality. The first, "Spring" (The Cloister), is supposedly sung by a bell-ringer's daughter about to enter a convent after having been jilted by her lover. The second "A Song of the Dew" (Mystic Song of the Ancient Russian Flagellants) is supposedly sung by virgins collecting morning dew in order to obtain marriageable men. Stravinsky's music is slightly more modern-sounding than his Faun and Shepherdess, Op. 2, of a few years earlier but hardly more modern sounding than the Symphony in E flat major, Op. 1 or the Scherzo fantastique, Op. 3.' - James Leonard