Why did folklorists call the master's play a satirical drama? Master

Answer left by: Guest

8.beringia 9.varvochronology 10.grain grater

Answer left by: Guest

Belkin's stories" are conceived as a parody of the canons of romantic literature. Pushkin takes common romantic plot cliches and “turns” them around. The conflict in The Stationary Caretaker is deliberately banal. A military man visits the permanent yard, seduces the daughter of the station superintendent and takes her away with him. According to all the canons of romantic literature, the story must certainly end tragically. Pushkin follows this tragedy almost to the very end, intensifying the tragedy. But at the very end it turns out that Dunya is happy, she has children and a loving husband. In “The Peasant Young Lady,” another common plot is taken - the enmity of two families. The situation is escalated, but then also resolved in a completely non-romantic way - everything turns out to be as good as possible. In Belkin's Tales, the romantic view of reality is contrasted with real life and common sense. Pushkin ridicules the “romantic inclinations” of his heroes, contrasts them with a normal life, in which there is joy, pleasant everyday little things, and “rich estates”, and “connections”, which is not so little for a normal, fulfilling life

Answer left by: Guest

The work "The Snow Queen" is a fairy tale because in fairy tales the characteristic element is poetic fiction, and the main thing is fantasticality. A fairy tale does not have to be reliable. The action in it can be transferred anywhere. The storyteller himself creates a world with his own rules, where he takes the reader. Mostly, fairy tales depict fantastic persons, or real phenomena that are presented in a fantastic consecration. There is also necessarily moralizing and propaganda justice, kindness, truth.
Now let's compare the work "The Snow Queen" with the signs that we wrote.
The fairy tale is not reliable (we don’t know if it was true that there was a boy who was stolen by the Snow Queen, and now he has ice instead of a heart), the action is transferred as the author wants. The storyteller created a world with his own rules (with good characters who helped the girl (Gerda, it seems), and with negative characters who did not like the girl). In this work there is a fantastic person - the snow queen, and real situations that are presented in a fantastic light (robbery of a carriage by robbers).
And of course, moralizing, when they defeat the snow queen, the moral is this: you need to treat your loved ones well, lovingly, etc.
We conclude: the work “The Snow Queen” is a fairy tale.

Answer left by: Guest

Metaphors:
the dawn does not burn with fire;
it (the dawn) spreads with a gentle blush;
the night grew;
darkness poured down.
Epithets:
The sun - not fiery, not hot, as during a sultry drought, not dull crimson, as before a storm, but bright and welcomingly radiant - floats up peacefully under a narrow and long cloud, shines freshly and plunges into its purple fog.
Around noon there usually appear many round high clouds, golden-gray, with delicate white edges.
Avatars:
playing rays;
the mighty luminary rises cheerfully and majestically;
vortex-gyres walk along roads through arable land;
I was immediately overcome by an unpleasant, motionless dampness;
the night was approaching.

Current page: 1 (book has 15 pages total) [available reading passage: 10 pages]

Font:

100% +

Literature. 7th grade. Textbook-reader. In two parts. Part I
(Author-compiler T. F. Kurdyumova)

The art of words and their forms. Types and genres of fiction

The art of distant antiquity was syncretic 1
Syncretic - holistic (undivided), compare with synthetic - holistic (united).

It combined and merged movement (dance), words (singing), sound (music), and color (pictures). Time passed, and independent types of human creative activity arose: literature, ballet and opera, theater, painting and architecture.

The art of words – literature – occupies a major role among all arts. The world of fiction is very diverse. Many types of artistic works are familiar to you. This is a fairy tale and a story, a song and a riddle, a story and a fable...

In art, there is a special term “genre” to designate different types of artistic works. Genre is a specific type of work of art in literature, fine arts, and music.

Each of us, even knowing nothing about genres, will never mistake a poem for a play. It is probably clear to everyone what distinguishes, for example, a fairy tale from a proverb. This is both the size of the work and a way to reflect the life around us: in a fairy tale - events and heroes, and in a proverb - an aphoristic judgment. You can name other features of these genres. In literature, over the centuries, signs have developed that make it possible to distinguish works of one genre from another.

Genres of literature are combined into three large groups, which are called genera of literature. The main types of fiction are epic, lyric and drama. We classify each work of art into one of these three categories.

Works that narrate events are called epic. The genres of epic works are the familiar story, tale, novel, fairy tale.

Works that reflect life, conveying the feelings and thoughts of the author, are called lyrical. The genres of lyrical works are extremely numerous: message, song, romance, epigram, elegy, madrigal, epitaph, etc.

Works that are intended to be staged are called dramatic works. Among these genres are the familiar comedy, as well as tragedy and drama.

There are genres that combine the characteristics of both epic and lyrical works. We call such works lyroepic.

Lyric epic works contain both a description of events and an expression of the author’s feelings. These include a poem, a ballad, and sometimes a fable.

The fate of genres in the history of literature is different. Some live for a very long time, others have just appeared, and the age of some genres has already ended. In this academic year, you will not only get acquainted with the features of long-familiar genres, but also meet some new genres and follow the history of genres that managed to live a long life in literature.

Questions and tasks

1. Try to explain what unites the works placed in each column.

2. Name the types of literature and describe them.

3. How can we explain the abundance of genres of each type of literature? Why do some genres appear while others disappear?

Enter the following concepts into the appropriate columns of the previous assignment: legend, idyll, tale, romance, thought, essay, hymn, ode, anecdote, canzone. Find explanations of unknown terms in the dictionary of literary terms.

Folklore

Bylina. Folk drama. Children's folklore.

Genres of folklore

Oral folk art preceded written literature. All works of folklore existed only in oral transmission, and this largely determined the genre features of folklore works, their composition, and performance techniques.

The origins of epics and tales, legends and fairy tales go back to the distant past. For a long time there have been no storytellers or bahari 2
Bahar is a teller of fables, stories, fairy tales in Ancient Rus'.

More than a century has passed since folklorists began recording oral works. These records are carefully stored in scientific publications, and in processed form they are familiar to you from collections of legends, epics, fairy tales, riddles, proverbs and other works of folk art.

You are now reading folklore texts that were passed down orally from one storyteller to another centuries ago.

Folklore is often perceived as a memory of the past, as something long gone from our lives. Of course, the antiquity of its appearance is indisputable. But it is also indisputable that oral folk art is alive, and proof of this is the emergence of new genres. You probably don’t need to think long about which genre of folklore - epic or ditty - was born earlier. Even the first reading convinces us that these are works from different eras. Indeed, the ditty appeared relatively recently, finally taking shape at the end of the 19th century. This means that it must be said that folklore, having emerged as an art phenomenon in ancient times, lived and was enriched by new works and new genres at different times.

The modern reader (and not just the listener!) chooses a fairy tale from the entire wealth of works of folklore, uses a rich set of proverbs and sayings, has fun with riddles, uses the song genre, actively responds to ditties and anecdotes...

Folk drama

Folk drama has been revived again in puppet theaters, and its techniques for depicting the lives of heroes are successfully used in animation. In addition to funny puppet shows with a mischievous hero, the folk theater knew heroic and historical plays, as well as satirical dramas.

Get acquainted with the satirical drama "The Master", recorded in the village of Tamitsa, Onega district, Arkhangelsk province in 1905. As you read the text, think about whether this work can be considered both a play and a game at the same time.

Characters

Master, in a red shirt and jacket; straw epaulets on the shoulders; on the head there is a straw hat with cut out paper figures; in his hands is a cane decorated with paper figures. The gentleman has a big belly and his jacket is not buttoned.

Farmer, an overcoat on his shoulders, a shoulder strap in his hands, a hat on his head.

Panya, kumachnik - red sundress, white shirt and white apron, double-row silk belt; on the head there is a “bandage” with ribbons, in the hands there is a fan and a scarf.

Horse, a man, has a tail made of straw attached to him.

Amazing people: half a dozen or seven boys about twelve years old; faces covered in soot.

Bull, doesn’t particularly dress up, but sneaks in from the Fofans (masked participants in the game).

Petitioners, usually Fofans from the public.

The game begins like this: the players approach the house where, for example, a party is taking place. They open the door and the first one runs into the hut Horse and whips the audience with a chase; everyone in the hut stands on benches, some climb onto the floors, and thus the hut becomes free for action. The whole company enters the hut behind the Horse and goes singing to the front corner; A lantern is carried in front of them. In the front corner Master stands facing the people, with one hand next to them Panya, on the other hand - Farmer. People and Fofans (mummers) from the street come in behind the players and stand all over the hut.

Master.

Master, hostess,
Viceroy, viceroy,
Good fellows,
Red girls
Hello!

All (answer). Hello, hello, Mr. Master, hello!

Master.

Master, hostess,
Viceroy, viceroy,
Good fellows,
Red girls
Do you have any requests between yourselves?

All. Yes, yes.

Master. Come, come!

One of the Fofans comes up, pretending to be a petitioner.

Petitioner. Mister master, accept my request.

Master. Who are you?

Petitioner (called a fictitious name, the name of some guy in the village). Vladimir Voronin.

Master. What are you asking for?

Petitioner. To Paraskovya I ask: in the summer Parashka loves me, and in the winter another guy loves Vasily.

Master. Come here, Paraskovya. Why do you love two people at once?

Paraskovya- also the real name of some girl in the village. Instead, one of the Fofans comes up to the Barin’s call and begins to argue and swear with the petitioner. They say whoever wants to do what... The Master and the Tax-Taker consult out loud which of those on trial is guilty and who should be punished: the guy or the girl; For example, a girl is found guilty. The master says: “Come on, Paraskovya, lean against your back!” Paraskovya obeys the court's decision and turns her back. The farmer punishes her with a whip. After the first petitioner, another appears and puts out some other request about the neighbor, about the wife, and so on. The basis for the requests is usually some fact that actually exists in the village, which, of course, is exaggerated, brought to the point of ridiculousness, to the point of absurdity, and thus the trial is a satire on local life and morals, sometimes very evil, sometimes cruel. When there are no more petitioners and all requests have been considered, court decisions have been made and sentences have been executed, the sale of the Horse begins.

Master. Kupchinushka, do you have a horse to sell?

Farmer. Yes, yes.

Lead Horse. The master leads the Horse around the hut, watches him run, looks him in the mouth, pokes him in the sides, makes him jump over a stick and decides to buy him.

Master. How much do you want for a horse?

Farmer.

One hundred rubles in money
Forty magpies
Salty………
Forty anbars
Ice cream cockroaches,
Arshin of butter,
Three skeins of sour milk,
Michalka Tamitsyna nose,
Our Kozharikha's tail.

Master.

I’ll find a hundred rubles in my pocket,
And forty forty
Salty frogs,
Forty anbars
Dry cockroaches
Will you, laymen?

All. We will exact, we will exact.

The master gives the money and takes the Horse.

The whole company leaves for another party, of which three or four go around in the evening.

Questions and tasks

1. Why did folklorists call this play-game a satirical drama?

2. Describe the main characters of the show, their appearance, characters.

1. Try to get involved in the game: act as Fofans and come up with comic accusations against one of the participants in the game. It can be any student in your class: after all, the point of the game is to include familiar participants with problems familiar to everyone.

2. Decide whether this play is more of a stage performance or a game.

Children's folklore

From an early age you get acquainted with works of children's folklore. These are counting rhymes, teasers, fables, horror stories, family stories and much more.

Children's folklore is works of oral folk art created by children and for children.

Origin of the surname

Our family keeps old documents. Among them there is a document from which we know that at the beginning of the nineteenth century my ancestors lived in the Smolensk province in a village called Rakity and were peasants. The village was called so because it was located in a place where there were many small rivers and ponds, along the banks of which there grew a lot of beautiful trees, which were called brooms. These trees have branches that bend down to the water, forming a thick green wall. All residents of the village had the same surname - Rakitins - after the name of the village. Therefore, they did not call each other by their last names, but only by their first names. Lazy people were called only by name - Proshka, Afonka, etc., but hardworking people and old people were called respectfully by name and patronymic. And everyone always knew who they were talking about.

Questions and tasks

1. Write a story about the origin of your last name.

2. Give an explanation of the origin of the last name of one of your friends.

Children's tricks

Previously, there were almost no buttons, and those that were sold were very expensive. Grandmother took nickels, covered them with fabric and sewed them on instead of buttons. And my mother and her sister tore off these “buttons,” took out the patches and went to the movies with them.

Questions and tasks

1. Why did the mother tell her daughter about this way of getting money for movie tickets?

2. Think about funny experiences involving grandparents in your family.

* * *

Early in the morning, in the evening,
At noon, at dawn
Baba rode on horseback in a painted carriage.

And behind her at full speed,
With quiet steps,
The wolf tried to swim across
A bowl of pies.

This fable was first recorded in the 19th century, in 1863. But even now the guys create similar works.

* * *

That part of speech
which fell from the stove,
Hit the floor -
It's called a "verb".

* * *

Given: Sasha climbs out the window.
Let's say we won't let him in.
You need to prove how he will get out.

The short comic works that we reminded you of are part of the school folklore that your peers create.

Questions and tasks

1. How do you explain the appearance of such fables? Why were they called fables?

2. In what class could the one who composed these fables be in?

3. Have you come across or created similar jokes yourself?

Remember the genres of children's folklore you know.

Give examples.

Hold a children's folklore competition in the classroom - works created by the students themselves.

Final questions and assignments

1. What types of literature do you think works of folklore gravitate towards most? Why?

2. Are there any works of folklore that you are familiar with that you learned not from a book, but through oral speech? Name them.

1. What artistic features of folklore do you think are the most characteristic?

2. What genres of folklore do you use in your own speech?

1. What genres of folklore still live today in people’s oral speech?

2. Is it possible for new genres of folklore to emerge today? What is your opinion? Prove you're right.

Ancient literature

Homer
(c. 8th century BC)

Ancient literature spans several centuries. Its beginning is the 18th century BC. Homeric period of ancient literature – XVIII–VIII centuries. BC.

Homer is a legendary ancient Greek poet. Seven Greek cities argued among themselves for the right to be considered the birthplace of this blind creator of the Iliad and Odyssey: Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Pylos, Argos, Athens. Rome, Babylon and Mycenae claimed their rights to the place of his birth, without even considering it necessary to enter into a dispute on this issue.

The evidence of his life is unique. Even the usual indication that Homer was blind is questioned: in his poems there are too many visible signs of time - they are saturated with the bright colors of living life and this is evidenced at least by the abundance of epithets that a blind man would not use... There is an assumption that about Blind Homer began to be talked about after a monument was erected in Alexandria on which he was depicted as blind, since this emphasized his wisdom and insight.

There is a story about how he competed with Hesiod: his poetry and performance were impeccable, but he praised war, while Hesiod sang about peaceful labor. The listeners wanted peace, and therefore the singer of a peaceful theme won the competition.

Homer, who lost, retired to the island of Chios. If during the competition Hesiod asked him difficult questions and received poetic answers (the Greeks thought that Homer always spoke only in verse), then here he received a joke question from the fishermen and, unable to solve it, died of chagrin.

His grave is still shown on the island of Chios.

Dante called him "the king of poets." The Russian translator of the Iliad, N. I. Gnedich, considered it “the most excellent encyclopedia of antiquity.”

The poetic meter in which the Iliad and Odyssey were written is hexameter.

Hexameter - in ancient versification - six-foot dactyl. Dactyl is a three-syllable meter with stress on the 1st syllable. In this case, a caesura is used - it usually cuts the 3rd foot.

This is how it looks in the poem: “Wrath, goddess, sing / to Achilles, son of Peleus...”

The translation of these poems has long lived in Russian literature. The Iliad was translated into Russian by N. I. Gnedich; “The Odyssey” - V. A. Zhukovsky. Gnedich's friend, the fabulist Krylov, studied Greek in order to be a useful assistant in this important matter.

The heroes of the poems are endowed with individual traits: Achilles is quick-tempered, but he is characterized by many other qualities - the author finds 46 epithets for them. Most often he is “swift-footed”...

When describing characters and events in poems, comparison and hyperbole are also actively used. Since the heroes of the poems are heroes, even the strongman Patroclus cannot lift the spear of Achilles; neither Telemachus nor Penelope's suitors can string the bow of Odysseus.

Both poems - “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” - reproduce Ancient Greece, depicting in detail the life and customs of a distant era. But if the Odyssey talks more about “peace”, then the Iliad talks more about “war”.

The plot of the Iliad is based on a description of the tenth year of the Trojan War. It is called the “Iliad” after another name for Troy - Ilion. The plot reproduces only a small part of the events of the many years of war, but the descriptions of places and circumstances turned out to be so accurate and detailed that, following these instructions, the archaeologist G. Schliemann succeeded - many centuries later! – find the location of historical Troy.

Let us recall the plot of the Iliad, which you know from history lessons. The commander of the Greek troops, Agamemnon, and the most glorious fighter of his army, Achilles, are in a quarrel. Therefore, Achilles does not participate in the battles and the Trojans are close to victory. To help out his army, Achilles’ friend Patroclus goes into battle, wearing Achilles’ armor to intimidate his opponents. In a duel with Hector he dies. Achilles, deprived of armor, cannot enter the battle. The goddess Thetis, his mother, turns to Hephaestus, the blacksmith god, who forges new armor for Achilles. In a duel with Hector, he wins and, after the requests of the unfortunate father, gives him his son’s body. The poem ends with Hector's burial.

Questions and tasks

1. What scenes of the living life of that time are depicted especially vividly by the lines of the Iliad? Name them and read the fragments with these descriptions from the text.

2. When does the reader first meet the main character of the Iliad, Achilles? Read these lines.

1. The poem contains 46 epithets that characterize Achilles. Name a few that you think are most important for assessing it.

2. What role does the image of Achilles' shield play in the description of the events of the poem?

3. How is the technique of hyperbole used to describe the shield of Achilles?

1. Describe Achilles as a victorious warrior and as a hero.

2. What important principles of human behavior are affirmed by the poem?

3. How to explain why the poem was used for many years as the main textbook for the younger generation?

Renaissance Literature

Tragedy.

The World and Man in the Renaissance

The Renaissance, or Renaissance (Italian name), in the cultural history of European countries covers the 14th – early 17th centuries. This is the era of transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age, the turning point of which is the affirmation of the beauty and harmony of the universe, faith in the creative capabilities of man and the power of his mind.

Boundless faith in the intrinsic value of the individual was the basis of the teachings of Renaissance thinkers, so they began to be called humanists (from the Latin homo - man). They realized that every person is endowed not only with reason, but also with feelings (passions). This explains their desire for a multifaceted knowledge of man and the world.

The Renaissance gave the world a huge number of titans of thought: scientists, artists, writers. Among them, a special place belongs to W. Shakespeare.

William Shakespeare
(1564–1616)

The great English playwright and poet, who appeared at the end of the Renaissance, is still one of the most famous writers. He is the author of tragedies, historical chronicles, comedies and lyrical works (sonnets). The world created by this author is huge: in it the duration and course of human life are measured by the clock of historical time, historical events are closely connected with the fate of man.

There is extremely little documented evidence of the life of William Shakespeare. The writer’s biography is still a mystery to scientists. The scarcity of reliable facts about Shakespeare has given rise to many biographical legends. The man who defined the face of his time, who wrote a gallery of contemporary human types, himself remained in the shadows. Literary researchers offer us, the readers, no less than thirty names of those who can be considered the creators of Shakespeare's plays. But these scrupulous long-term searches are another confirmation of the significance of his work.

Readers and viewers of many generations have become devoted fans of this author's talent. However, Europe discovered Shakespeare only in the 18th century: in the 30s, Voltaire recognized him and made him famous in France, and in the early 70s in Germany, Goethe discovered him for himself and for the subsequent romantic era. Thus, Shakespeare enters European culture, embodying the ideals of the “universal genius,” making possible a new look at history, which in his plays appears for the first time as the world history of mankind.

If Hamlet and Othello, King Lear and Macbeth are the heroes of Shakespeare’s later tragedies, then Romeo and Juliet are the young heroes of the very first tragedy he wrote. The confrontation between two families and the love of children from warring houses came together in the play named after them - “Romeo and Juliet”. In the finale, they die, defeating enmity with love, because they did not betray either her or themselves.

A tragedy is a play in which there is a sharp clash of personality with other people or circumstances, leading to the death of the hero.

Folklore as a special type of art is a qualitatively unique component of fiction. It integrates the culture of a society of a certain ethnicity at a special stage in the historical development of society.

Folklore is ambiguous: it reveals both boundless folk wisdom and folk conservatism and inertia. In any case, folklore embodies the highest spiritual powers of the people and reflects elements of national artistic consciousness.

The term “folklore” itself (from the English word folklore - folk wisdom) is a common name for folk art in international scientific terminology. The term was first coined in 1846 by the English archaeologist W. J. Thomson. It was first adopted as an official scientific concept by the English Folklore Society, founded in 1878. In the years 1800-1990, the term came into scientific use in many countries of the world.

Folklore (English folklore - “folk wisdom”) - folk art, most often oral; artistic collective creative activity of the people, reflecting their life, views, ideals; poetry created by the people and existing among the masses (legends, songs, ditties, anecdotes, fairy tales, epics), folk music (songs, instrumental tunes and plays), theater (dramas, satirical plays, puppet theater), dance, architecture, fine and arts and crafts.

Folklore is creativity that does not require any material and where the means of realizing the artistic concept is the person himself. Folklore has a clearly expressed didactic orientation. Much of it was created specifically for children and was dictated by the great national concern for young people - their future. “Folklore” serves the child from his very birth.

Folk poetry reveals the most essential connections and patterns of life, leaving aside the individual and special. Folklore gives them the most important and simple concepts about life and people. It reflects what is generally interesting and vital, what affects everyone: human work, his relationship with nature, life in a team.

The importance of folklore as an important part in education and development in the modern world is well known and generally accepted. Folklore always responds sensitively to people's needs, being a reflection of the collective mind and accumulated life experience.

Main features and properties of folklore:

1. Bifunctionality. Each folklore work is an organic part of human life and is determined by practical purpose. It is focused on a specific moment in people's life. For example, a lullaby - it is sung to calm and put a child to sleep. When the child falls asleep, the song stops - it is no longer necessary. This is how the aesthetic, spiritual and practical function of a lullaby is manifested. Everything is interconnected in a work; beauty cannot be separated from benefit, benefit from beauty.

2. Polyelement. Folklore is multi-elemental, since its internal diversity and numerous relationships of an artistic, cultural-historical and socio-cultural nature are obvious.

Not every folklore work includes all artistic and figurative elements. There are also genres in which there is a minimum number of them. The performance of a folklore work is the integrity of the creative act. Among the many artistic and figurative elements of folklore, the main ones are verbal, musical, dance and facial expressions. Polyelementity manifests itself during an event, for example, “Burn, burn clearly so that it doesn’t go out!” or when studying a round dance - the game “Boyars”, where movements take place row by row. In this game all the main artistic and figurative elements interact. Verbal and musical are manifested in the musical and poetic genre of the song, performed simultaneously with choreographic movement (dance element). This reveals the polyelement nature of folklore, its original synthesis, called syncretism. Syncretism characterizes the relationship, integrity of the internal components and properties of folklore.

3.Collectivity. Absence of author. Collectivity is manifested both in the process of creating a work and in the nature of the content, which always objectively reflects the psychology of many people. Asking who composed a folk song is like asking who composed the language we speak. Collectivity is determined in the performance of folklore works. Some components of their forms, for example, the chorus, require the mandatory inclusion of all participants in the action in the performance.

4. Illiteracy. The orality of the transmission of folklore material is manifested in the unwritten forms of transmission of folklore information. Artistic images and skills are transferred from the performer, the artist, to the listener and viewer, from the master to the student. Folklore is oral creativity. It lives only in the memory of people and is transmitted in live performance “from mouth to mouth.” Artistic images and skills are transferred from the performer, the artist, to the listener and viewer, from the master to the student.

5.Traditionality. The variety of creative manifestations in folklore only outwardly seems spontaneous. Over the course of a long time, objective ideals of creativity were formed. These ideals became those practical and aesthetic standards, deviations from which would be inappropriate.

6.Variability. Variation network is one of the stimuli of constant movement, the “breathing” of a folklore work, and each folklore work is always like a version of itself. The folklore text turns out to be unfinished, open to each subsequent performer. For example, in the round dance game “Boyars”, children move “row by row”, and the step may be different. In some places this is a regular step with an accent on the last syllable of the line, in others it is a step with a stamp on the last two syllables, in others it is a variable step. It is important to convey the idea that in a folklore work creation - performance and performance - creation coexist. Variability can be considered as the changeability of works of art, their uniqueness during performance or other forms of reproduction. Each author or performer complemented traditional images or works with his own reading or vision.

7. Improvisation is a feature of folklore creativity. Each new performance of the work is enriched with new elements (textual, methodological, rhythmic, dynamic, harmonic). Which the performer brings. Any performer constantly introduces his own material into a well-known work, which contributes to the constant development and change of the work, during which the standard artistic image crystallizes. Thus, the folklore performance becomes the result of many years of collective creativity.

In modern literature, a broad interpretation of folklore as a set of folk traditions, customs, views, beliefs, and arts is widespread.

In particular, the famous folklorist V.E. Gusev in his book “Aesthetics of Folklore” considers this concept as an artistic reflection of reality, carried out in verbal, musical, choreographic and dramatic forms of collective folk art, expressing the worldview of the working masses and inextricably linked with life and everyday life. Folklore is a complex, synthetic art. His works often combine elements of various types of art - verbal, musical, theatrical. It is studied by various sciences - history, psychology, sociology, ethnography. It is closely connected with folk life and rituals. It is no coincidence that the first Russian scientists approached folklore broadly, recording not only works of verbal art, but also recording various ethnographic details and the realities of peasant life.

The main aspects of the content of folk culture include: the worldview of the people, folk experience, housing, costume, work, leisure, crafts, family relationships, folk holidays and rituals, knowledge and skills, artistic creativity. It should be noted that, like any other social phenomenon, folk culture has specific features, among which we should highlight: an inextricable connection with nature, with the environment; openness, the educational nature of Russian folk culture, the ability to contact the culture of other peoples, dialogicality, originality, integrity, situationality, the presence of a targeted emotional charge, preservation of elements of pagan and Orthodox culture.

Traditions and folklore are a wealth developed over generations and conveying historical experience and cultural heritage in an emotional and figurative form. In the cultural and creative conscious activity of the broad masses, folk traditions, folklore and artistic modernity merge into a single channel.

The main functions of folklore include religious - mythological, ceremonial, ritual, artistic - aesthetic, pedagogical, communicative - informational, social - psychological.

Folklore is very diverse. There is traditional, modern, peasant and urban folklore.

Traditional folklore is those forms and mechanisms of artistic culture that are preserved, recorded and passed on from generation to generation. They capture universal aesthetic values ​​that retain their significance outside of specific historical social changes.

Traditional folklore is divided into two groups – ritual and non-ritual.

Ritual folklore includes:

· calendar folklore (carols, Maslenitsa songs, freckles);

· family folklore (wedding, maternity, funeral rites, lullabies, etc.),

· occasional folklore (spells, chants, spells).

Non-ritual folklore is divided into four groups:

· folklore of speech situations (proverbs, sayings, riddles, teasers, nicknames, curses);

Poetry (ditties, songs);

· folklore drama (Petrushka Theatre, nativity scene drama);

· prose.

Folklore poetry includes: epic, historical song, spiritual verse, lyrical song, ballad, cruel romance, ditty, children's poetic songs (poetic parodies), sadistic rhymes. Folklore prose is again divided into two groups: fairy-tale and non-fairytale. Fairy-tale prose includes: a fairy tale (which, in turn, comes in four types: a fairy tale, a fairy tale about animals, an everyday tale, a cumulative fairy tale) and an anecdote. Non-fairy tale prose includes: tradition, legend, tale, mythological story, story about a dream. The folklore of speech situations includes: proverbs, sayings, well wishes, curses, nicknames, teasers, dialogue graffiti, riddles, tongue twisters and some others. There are also written forms of folklore, such as chain letters, graffiti, albums (for example, songbooks).

Ritual folklore is folklore genres performed as part of various rituals. Most successfully, in my opinion, the definition of the ritual was given by D.M. Ugrinovich: “Rite is a certain way of transmitting certain ideas, norms of behavior, values ​​and feelings to new generations. The ritual is distinguished from other methods of such transmission by its symbolic nature. This is its specificity. Ritual actions always act as symbols that embody certain social ideas, perceptions, images and evoke corresponding feelings.” Works of calendar folklore are dedicated to annual folk holidays that were of an agricultural nature.

Calendar rituals were accompanied by special songs: carols, Maslenitsa songs, vesnyankas, Semitic songs, etc.

Vesnyanka (spring calls) are ritual songs of an incantatory nature that accompany the Slavic ritual of calling out spring.

Carols are New Year's songs. They were performed during Christmas time (from December 24 to January 6), when caroling was going on. Caroling - walking around the courtyards singing carols. For these songs, carolers were rewarded with gifts - a festive treat. The main meaning of the carol is glorification. Carolers give an ideal description of the house of the person being celebrated. It turns out that before us is not an ordinary peasant hut, but a tower, around which “stands an iron tyn”, “on each stamen there is a crown”, and on each crown “a golden crown”. The people living in it are a match for this tower. Pictures of wealth are not reality, but a wish: carols perform, to some extent, the functions of a magic spell.

Maslenitsa is a folk holiday cycle that has been preserved by the Slavs since pagan times. The ritual is associated with seeing off winter and welcoming spring, lasting a whole week. The celebration was carried out according to a strict schedule, which was reflected in the name of the days of Maslenitsa week: Monday - “meeting”, Tuesday - “flirt”, Wednesday - “gourmet”, Thursday - “revelry”, Friday - “mother-in-law’s evening”, Saturday - “mother-in-law’s gatherings” ", resurrection - "seeing off", the end of Maslenitsa fun.

Few Maslenitsa songs have arrived. According to theme and purpose, they are divided into two groups: one is associated with the rite of meeting, the other with the rite of seeing off (“funeral”) Maslenitsa. The songs of the first group are distinguished by a major, cheerful character. This is, first of all, a majestic song in honor of Maslenitsa. The songs accompanying the farewell to Maslenitsa are in a minor key. The “funeral” of Maslenitsa meant farewell to winter and a spell, welcoming the coming spring.

Family and household rituals are predetermined by the cycle of human life. They are divided into maternity, wedding, recruiting and funeral.

Maternity rites sought to protect the newborn from hostile mystical forces, and also assumed the well-being of the baby in life. A ritual bath of the newborn was performed, and health was charmed with various sentences.

Wedding ceremony. It is a kind of folk performance, where all the roles are written and there are even directors - a matchmaker or a matchmaker. The particular scale and significance of this ritual should show the significance of the event, play out the meaning of the ongoing change in a person’s life.

The ritual educates the behavior of the bride in her future married life and educates all participants in the ritual. It shows the patriarchal nature of family life, its way of life.

Funeral rites. During the funeral, various rituals were performed, which were accompanied by special funeral lamentations. Funeral lamentations truthfully reflected the life, everyday consciousness of the peasant, love for the deceased and fear of the future, the tragic situation of the family in harsh conditions.

Occasional folklore (from the Latin occasionalis - random) - does not correspond to generally accepted use, and is of an individual nature.

A type of occasional folklore are conspiracies.

CONSPIRACIES - a folk-poetic incantatory verbal formula to which magical power is attributed.

CALLS - an appeal to the sun and other natural phenomena, as well as to animals and especially often to birds, which were considered the harbingers of spring. Moreover, the forces of nature were revered as living: they make requests for spring, wish for its speedy arrival, and complain about winter.

COUNTERS are a type of children's creativity, small poetic texts with a clear rhyme-rhythm structure in a humorous form.

The genres of non-ritual folklore developed under the influence of syncretism.

It includes folklore of speech situations: proverbs, fables, signs and sayings. They contain a person’s judgments about the way of life, about work, about higher natural forces, and statements about human affairs. This is a vast area of ​​moral assessments and judgments, how to live, how to raise children, how to honor ancestors, thoughts about the need to follow precepts and examples, these are everyday rules of behavior. In a word, their functionality covers almost all worldview areas.

RIDDLE - works with hidden meaning. They contain rich invention, wit, poetry, and a figurative structure of colloquial speech. The people themselves aptly defined the riddle: “Without a face in a mask.” The object that is hidden, the “face,” is hidden under a “mask” - an allegory or allusion, a roundabout speech, a circumlocution. Whatever riddles you can come up with to test your attention, ingenuity, and intelligence. Some consist of a simple question, others are similar to puzzles. Riddles are easily solved by those who have a good idea of ​​the objects and phenomena in question, and also know how to unravel the hidden meaning in words. If a child looks at the world around him with attentive, keen eyes, noticing its beauty and richness, then every tricky question and any allegory in the riddle will be solved.

PROVERB - as a genre, unlike a riddle, is not an allegory. In it, a specific action or deed is given an expanded meaning. In their form, folk riddles are close to proverbs: the same measured, coherent speech, the same frequent use of rhyme and consonance of words. But a proverb and a riddle differ in that a riddle needs to be guessed, and a proverb is a teaching.

Unlike a proverb, a PROVERB is not a complete judgment. This is a figurative expression used in an expanded sense.

Sayings, like proverbs, remain living folklore genres: they are constantly found in our everyday speech. The proverbs contain a capacious humorous definition of the inhabitants of a certain area, city, living nearby or somewhere far away.

Folklore poetry is an epic, a historical song, a spiritual verse, a lyrical song, a ballad, a cruel romance, a ditty, and children's poetic songs.

EPIC is a folk epic song, a genre characteristic of the Russian tradition. Such epics are known as “Sadko”, “Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber”, “Volga and Mikula Selyaninovich” and others. The term “epic” was introduced into scientific use in the 40s of the 19th century. folklorist I.P. Sakharov. The basis of the plot of the epic is some heroic event, or a remarkable episode of Russian history (hence the popular name of the epic - “old man”, “old woman”, implying that the action in question took place in the past).

FOLK SONGS are very diverse in composition. In addition to songs that are part of the calendar, wedding and funeral rites. These are round dances. Game and dance songs. A large group of songs are lyrical non-ritual songs (love, family, Cossack, soldier, coachman, bandit and others).

A special genre of song creativity is historical songs. Such songs tell about famous events in Russian history. The heroes of historical songs are real personalities.

Round dance songs, like ritual songs, had a magical meaning. Round dance and game songs depicted scenes from wedding ceremonies and family life.

LYRICAL SONGS are folk songs that express the personal feelings and moods of the singers. Lyrical songs are unique both in content and in artistic form. Their originality is determined by their genre nature and specific conditions of origin and development. Here we are dealing with a lyrical kind of poetry, different from epic in the principles of reflecting reality. ON THE. Dobrolyubov wrote that folk lyrical songs “express an inner feeling excited by the phenomena of ordinary life,” and N.A. Radishchev saw in them a reflection of the people’s soul, spiritual sorrow.

Lyrical songs are a vivid example of the artistic creativity of the people. They introduced a special artistic language and examples of high poetry into the national culture, reflected the spiritual beauty, ideals and aspirations of the people, and the moral foundations of peasant life.

CHASTUSHKA is one of the youngest folklore genres. These are small poetic texts of rhymed verses. The first ditties were excerpts from large songs. Chatushka is a comic genre. It contains a sharp thought, an apt observation. The topics are very diverse. The ditties often ridiculed what seemed wild, absurd, and disgusting.

CHILDREN'S FOLKLORE is usually called both works that are performed by adults for children, and those composed by the children themselves. Children's folklore includes lullabies, pesters, nursery rhymes, tongue twisters and chants, teasers, counting rhymes, nonsense, etc. Modern children's folklore has been enriched with new genres. These are horror stories, mischievous poems and songs (funny adaptations of famous songs and poems), jokes.

There are different connections between folklore and literature. First of all, literature traces its origins to folklore. The main genres of drama that developed in Ancient Greece - tragedies and comedies - go back to religious rites. Medieval romances of chivalry, telling about travels through imaginary lands, fights with monsters and the love of brave warriors, are based on the motifs of fairy tales. Literary lyrical works originate from folk lyrical songs. The genre of small action-packed narratives - short stories - goes back to folk tales.

Very often, writers deliberately turned to folklore traditions. Interest in oral folk art and passion for folklore awoke in the pre-romantic and romantic eras.

The tales of A.S. Pushkin go back to the plots of Russian fairy tales. Imitation of Russian folk historical songs - “Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich...” by M.Yu. Lermontov. N.A. Nekrasov recreated the stylistic features of folk songs in his poems about the difficult lot of peasants.

Folklore not only influences literature, but also experiences the opposite effect. Many original poems became folk songs. The most famous example is the poem by I.Z. Surikov “Steppe and steppe all around..”

Folklore drama. These include: Parsley Theater, religious drama, nativity scene drama.

VERTEP DRAMA got its name from the nativity scene - a portable puppet theater in the shape of a two-story wooden box, whose architecture resembles a stage for performing medieval mysteries. In turn, the name, which came from the plot of the main play, in which the action developed in a cave - nativity scene. Theater of this type was widespread in Western Europe, and it came to Russia with traveling puppeteers from Ukraine and Belarus. The repertoire consisted of plays with religious themes and satirical scenes - interludes that were improvisational in nature. The most popular play is "King Herod".

PETRUSHKA THEATER – glove puppet theater. The main character of the play is the cheerful Petrushka with a large nose, a protruding chin, a cap on his head, with the participation of which a number of scenes are played out with various characters. The number of characters reached fifty, these are characters such as a soldier, a gentleman, a gypsy, a bride, a doctor and others. Such performances used techniques of folk comic speech, lively dialogues with play on words and contrasts, with elements of self-praise, using action and gestures.

The Petrushki Theater was created not only under the influence of Russian, Slavic, and Western European puppet traditions. It was a type of folk theater culture, part of the extremely developed entertainment folklore in Russia. Therefore, it has a lot in common with folk drama, with the performances of farce barkers, with the verdicts of the groomsmen at the wedding, with amusing popular prints, with the jokes of the raeshniks, etc.

The special atmosphere of the city's festive square explains, for example, Petrushka's familiarity, his unbridled gaiety and indiscriminateness in the object of ridicule and shame. After all, Petrushka beats not only class enemies, but everyone in a row - from his own fiancée to the policeman, often beats him for nothing (a blackamoor, an old beggar woman, a German clown, etc.), and in the end he gets hit too: the dog mercilessly tugs at his nose. The puppeteer, like other participants in the fair, square fun, is attracted by the very opportunity to ridicule, parody, beat, and the more, louder, more unexpected, sharper, the better. Elements of social protest and satire were very successfully and naturally superimposed on this ancient basis of laughter.

Like all folklore entertainments, “Petrushka” is filled with obscenities and curses. The original meaning of these elements has been studied quite fully, and how deeply they penetrated into the folk culture of laughter and what place swearing, verbal obscenity and demeaning, cynical gestures occupied in it, is fully shown by M.M. Bakhtin.

Performances were shown several times a day in different conditions (at fairs, in front of booths, on city streets, in the suburbs). "Walking" Parsley was the most common use of the doll.

For the mobile folk theater, a light screen, dolls, miniature backstage and a curtain were specially made. Petrushka ran around the stage, his gestures and movements creating the appearance of a living person.

The comic effect of the episodes was achieved using techniques characteristic of the folk culture of laughter: fights, beatings, obscenities, the imaginary deafness of a partner, funny movements and gestures, mimicking, funny funerals, etc.

There are conflicting opinions about the reasons for the extraordinary popularity of the theater: topicality, satirical and social orientation, comic character, simple play that is understandable to all segments of the population, the charm of the main character, acting improvisation, freedom of choice of material, the sharp tongue of the puppet.

Parsley is a folk holiday joy.

Parsley is a manifestation of popular optimism, a mockery of the poor at the powerful and rich.

Folklore prose. It is divided into two groups: fairy tale (fairy tale, anecdote) and non-fairy tale (legend, tradition, tale).

FAIRY TALE is the most famous genre of folklore. This is a type of folklore prose, the distinctive feature of which is fiction. Plots, events and characters in fairy tales are fictitious. The modern reader of folklore works also discovers fiction in other genres of oral folk art. Folk storytellers and listeners believed in the truth of tales (the name comes from the word “byl” - “truth”); the word “epic” was invented by folklorists; Popular epics were called “old times.” Russian peasants who told and listened to epics, believing in their truth, believed that the events depicted in them took place a long time ago - in the time of mighty heroes and fire-breathing snakes. They did not believe fairy tales, knowing that they told about something that did not happen, does not happen and cannot be.

It is customary to distinguish four types of fairy tales: magical, everyday (otherwise known as novelistic), cumulative (otherwise known as “chain-like”) and fairy tales about animals.

MAGIC TALES differ from other fairy tales in their complex, detailed plot, which consists of a number of unchanging motifs that necessarily follow each other in a certain order. These are fantastic creatures (for example, Koschey the Immortal or Baba Yaga), and an animated, human-like character denoting winter (Morozko), and wonderful objects (a self-assembled tablecloth, walking boots, a flying carpet, etc.).

Fairy tales preserve the memory of ideas and rituals that existed in deep, deep antiquity. They reflect ancient relationships between people in a family or clan.

EVERYDAY TALES tell about people, about their family life, about the relationship between the owner and the farmhand, the gentleman and the peasant, the peasant and the priest, the soldier and the priest. A commoner - a farm laborer, a peasant, a soldier returning from service - is always more savvy than a priest or landowner, from whom, thanks to cunning, he takes money, things, and sometimes his wife. Usually, the plots of everyday fairy tales are centered around some unexpected event, an unforeseen turning point that occurs thanks to the hero’s cunning.

Everyday tales are often satirical. They ridicule the greed and stupidity of those in power. They do not talk about wonderful things and travels to the distant kingdom, but talk about things from peasant everyday life. But everyday fairy tales are no more believable than magical ones. Therefore, the description of wild, immoral, terrible actions in everyday fairy tales does not evoke disgust or indignation, but cheerful laughter. After all, this is not life, but a fable.

Everyday fairy tales are a much younger genre than other types of fairy tales. In modern folklore, the heir to this genre was the anecdote (from gr.anekdotos - “unpublished”

CUMULATIVE TALES built on repeated repetition of the same actions or events. In cumulative (from Latin Cumulatio - accumulation) fairy tales, several plot principles are distinguished: accumulation of characters in order to achieve the necessary goal; a heap of actions ending in disaster; a chain of human or animal bodies; escalation of episodes, causing unjustified experiences of the characters.

The accumulation of heroes helping in some important action is obvious in the fairy tale “Turnip”.

Cumulative tales are a very ancient type of fairy tale. They have not been studied enough.

TALES ABOUT ANIMALS preserve the memory of ancient ideas, according to which people descended from animal ancestors. Animals in these fairy tales behave like people. Cunning and cunning animals deceive others - the gullible and the stupid, and this trickery is never condemned. The plots of fairy tales about animals are reminiscent of mythological stories about heroes - rogues and their tricks.

Non-fairy tale prose is stories and incidents from life that tell about a person’s meeting with characters of Russian demonology - sorcerers, witches, mermaids, etc. This also includes stories about saints, shrines and miracles - about the communication of a person who has accepted the Christian faith with forces of a higher order.

BYLICHKA is a folklore genre, a story about a miraculous event that supposedly happened in reality - mainly about a meeting with spirits, “evil spirits”.

LEGEND (from Latin legenda “reading”, “readable”) is one of the varieties of non-fairy tale prose folklore. A written legend about some historical events or personalities. Legend is an approximate synonym for the concept of myth; an epic story about what happened in time immemorial; The main characters of the story are usually heroes in the full sense of the word, often gods and other supernatural forces are directly involved in the events. Events in the legend are often exaggerated, and a lot of fiction is added. Therefore, scientists do not consider legends to be completely reliable historical evidence, without denying, however, that most legends are based on real events. In a figurative sense, legends refer to the events of the past, covered in glory and arousing admiration, depicted in fairy tales, stories, etc. As a rule, they contain additional religious or social pathos.

Legends contain memories of ancient events, an explanation of some phenomenon, name or custom.

The words of Odoevsky V.F. sound surprisingly relevant. remarkable Russian, thinker, musician: “We must not forget that from an unnatural life, that is, one where human needs are not satisfied, a painful state occurs... in the same way, idiocy can occur from inaction of thought..., a muscle is paralyzed from an abnormal state of the nerve, “In the same way, a lack of thinking distorts artistic feeling, and the lack of artistic feeling paralyzes thought.” In Odoevsky V.F. you can find thoughts about the aesthetic education of children on the basis of folklore, consonant with what we would like to implement in our days in the field of children's education and upbringing: “... in the field of human spiritual activity I will limit myself to the following remark: the soul expresses itself either through body movements, shapes , colors, or through a series of sounds forming singing or playing a musical instrument"

Barin is a drama created by the people and called satirical. The basis for the appearance of this drama was Christmastide and the Yuletide disguises of the Horse and the Bull. The popularity of this play-game is that anyone can stage it, so in class we played the heroes of folklore, where there was a proud, arrogant gentleman, a cunning appraiser, and fashionable Panya. We also had a Petitioner who humiliated himself in front of the Master and an amazing audience who watched everything that was happening in amazement. The play turned out to be wonderful, but the drama Barin itself came to us in a slightly distorted anti-barin direction, although in other versions, probably, the social problem was felt and revealed in the play more acutely.

Why was Barin's play called a satirical drama?

Most likely, it was called satirical because here the heroes of the play, the peasant people who played the roles, wanted to laugh at their fellow villagers. They mocked the shortcomings of their neighbors, over those disputes, and even quarrels that, like it or not, arose in the life of the peasants, but the game helped to solve the problem peacefully.

MUTUAL GENEROSITY
Paderewski, who was walking along the streets of Paris, was stopped by some dirty-looking ragamuffin.
— Should I clean your shoes?
“Thank you,” Paderewski replied, “no need.” But if you wash your face and hands, you will receive twenty francs from me.
The boy immediately ran to the nearest pump and a minute later came back relatively clean.
“Here are your twenty francs,” said Paderewski and handed him the coins. The boy looked at the great pianist and, sighing, returned the money.
- No, better save them for the hairdresser who will cut your long hair!

HURRY GURY AGAINST STEINWAY
When Paderewski was touring North America, he was offered by telegraph to perform in a small town for a fairly significant sum. Paderewski gladly accepted this offer. But when, on the appointed day and hour, he arrived at the concert to a packed hall, it turned out that on the stage there was only... a mechanical piano like a large organ-organ. Finding a piano was out of the question. Disruption of the concert threatened trouble. Having ventured, Paderewski sat down at the piano, bowed, grabbed the handle and turned it until all the “numbers” were played. Deafening cries of “bravo” and “encore” eloquently testified to the delight of the audience. When, the next day, in another city, Paderewski gave a concert at the real Steinway, his performance was received by the public with great enthusiasm, but... still not the same as at the previous concert.

ABLE STUDENT
Paderewski once came to a small American town. Walking around, he saw a modest sign on one unprepossessing house: “Miss Jones teaches how to play the piano. Lesson - one dollar." At this time the teacher herself was performing a Chopin nocturne with major errors. Paderewski came to her, silently sat down at the piano and played a nocturne.
When the next day Paderewski stopped again near a familiar house, he saw a large sign:
“Miss Jones. Student of the great Paderewski. Lesson - five dollars."

BEGINNER ORPHEUS
- Newly-minted Orpheus! - Paderewski's fans shouted after his performance in Warsaw.
“I beg your pardon, gentlemen,” the maestro objected. - There is some difference between me and Orpheus.
- Which?
“Orpheus touched not only animals, but also stones with his music.

IMMEDIATE DESIRES
Once Paderewski gave a concert in London. It was stuffy in the hall, and two ladies asked to open the windows. A strong draft formed. Paderewski addressed the ladies:
- I have to ask you to close the windows. You can’t get two pleasures at once: listening to good music and killing the pianist.
INCOMPLETE
Once, the French composer Claude Debussy had the opportunity to attend a performance of Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” at the Paris Opera with his close friends. Friends cheerfully recalled their youthful extravagances, including the once fashionable selfless adoration of Wagner. One of his school friends counterfeited Claude:
“At last I see a true Wagnerian!”
“Oh, leave it alone,” he grinned. “How many times have you had to feast on chickens, but I haven’t heard you start cackling!”

INCONSISTENCY
When the Italian composer Pietro Mascagni conducted the premiere of his new opera at La Scala in Milan, he noticed that a countess he knew had left the theater after the second act. The next day, the composer expressed his displeasure to the countess.
“Don’t be offended, my dear,” answered the countess, “after all, I must adhere to the rules of good manners and always leave the theater after the second act!”
After some time, she invited the composer to an amateur opera performance, where she performed a small part in the last act.
- Well, how did I sing? - the countess turned to Mascagni after the performance.
“I believe that you violated the rules of good manners,” said Mascagni, “for you should have left the theater after the second act...”

CLEVER LISTENER
The German composer and conductor Richard Strauss once wrote an original work - a musical joke for an orchestra. The meaning of this joke was that during the performance, the orchestra members take turns leaving the stage, ultimately leaving only one conductor on it.
During Strauss' stay in Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary), famous for its mineral waters, the local orchestra decided to perform the above-mentioned work in honor of the composer.
When the musicians began to leave the stage one by one, one of the listeners sitting next to the composer whispered in his ear:
- You see how Carlsbad salts work!
WHO WILL WIN
One day Richard Strauss's father, a famous horn player, said to the young conductor:
— Remember: we are watching how you stand at the console, how you open the score. And before you even have time to raise your wand, we already know who will be the master here - you or us.
GUARANTORS
While filling out a questionnaire received in 1933 from the Imperial Chamber of Music, Richard Strauss came across the following question: “How else can you prove your specialty as a composer? Name two famous composers as guarantors. We reserve the right to request copyright manuscripts from guarantors.” An angry Strauss wrote: “Mozart and Wagner.”

CERTAIN EVERY SECOND
The daily routine, which Richard Strauss adhered to with German punctuality, included, in addition to composing, orchestrating and conducting, the obligatory playing of cards.
When some artistic puritan reproached Strauss for spending a lot of unproductive time on this game, the composer thought about it and finally agreed:
- You're right! Always have to shuffle the cards!

COMMON INTERESTS
Once at a reception hosted by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, one of those present drew attention to the fact that most of the guests invited by the composer belonged to business circles.
-What do you have in common with these people? - he asked the owner of the house. -What can you talk to them about?
“Of course, about music,” answered the composer. — I can’t talk about music with musicians. They are too busy organizing their own affairs.

THERE ARE NO HAPPY HOURS
Jean Sibelius loved to celebrate holidays, and they lasted for weeks in his house. Once Finnish conductor Robert Kajanus came to visit his old friend. We had a blast! On the third morning, Kayanus woke up in terrible anxiety: he remembered that in the evening he had to conduct a tour concert in St. Petersburg! Hurry up to wash, shave and catch the first train! When the next day Kayanus returned to Järvenpää to see Sibelius, the owner met him with a dissatisfied, reproachful look, was silent, sighed heavily and finally said sadly:
- Listen, Robert, how can this be? We're hanging out here, having fun, and you? Aren't you ashamed to sit in the bathroom for so long?
TOUGH DILEMMA
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov treated beginning composers with great patience and attention. Only once he could not stand it and said to the young man who was bombarding the composer with his mediocre opuses:
“Dear sir, I got the impression that you were offered a choice: compose music or go to the gallows.”

BEST TIME
A performance of Claude Debussy's symphonic poem "The Sea" was once attended by the author himself and another famous French composer, Erik Satie. When the orchestra played the first movement, which is called “On the Sea from Dawn to Noon,” Debussy asked his colleague how he liked the music. Sati, smiling, replied:
— Around half past ten it was very beautiful.
DELICATE CONDUCTOR
During his stay in America, Arturo Toscanini conducted in New York. Once he made a remark to a singer performing with an orchestra.
“But I am a great artist,” exclaimed the offended diva, “do you know about this?”
Toscanini answered politely:
- Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about this...
WHAT IS GOOD?
They say that Toscanini once said to one of the enthusiastic admirers of his talent:
“I’m not as good a conductor as you think.” It's just that the conductors you've heard do it a little worse.

ENVIRABLE FEE
Arturo Toscanini and Pietro Mascagni were invited to take part in a large music festival dedicated to the memory of Verdi. Mascagni, who was jealous of Toscanini's conducting fame, accepted the invitation on the condition that he would receive a higher fee than Toscanini.
“Let it be at least one lira more,” Mascagni insisted.
The festival committee agreed.
Receiving the fee, Mascagni was surprised to find that he received... one lira. Toscanini conducted for free.
A DIFFICULT SITUATION
Toscanini was asked why there was never a single woman in his orchestra.
“You see,” answered the maestro, “women are very annoying.” If they are beautiful, they disturb my musicians, and if they are ugly, they disturb me even more!
THERE WILL BE NO FALSE!
Toscanini was very nervous during rehearsals. He once conducted a symphony in which the harpist had to play a single note just once.
And the harpist managed to fake it!
Toscanini decided to repeat the entire symphony, but when the harp’s turn came, the musician stumbled again.
Enraged, Toscanini left the hall.
In the evening there was a concert. The unlucky harpist takes his place in the orchestra and removes the case from the harp. And what does he see? All strings have been removed from the harp.
There is only one left: the right one.
SHORT-LASTING WATCHES
Toscanini used to get angry during rehearsals and break all the objects that came to his hand. When one day, during a particularly unsuccessful rehearsal, he threw his very expensive watch on the floor and trampled on it with his heel, the orchestra members decided to give the conductor two pairs of cheap watches. Toscanini accepted the gift with gratitude and soon used it “for its intended purpose”: at the next rehearsals, the clock was smashed to pieces.
THE VICTIM WAS FOUND
The trial of two young composers, authors of fashionable songs, was heard in Vienna. One accused the other of stealing the melody from him. They invited an expert, the famous composer Ferenc Lehár. When he got acquainted with the manuscripts of both composers, the judge asked:
- So, Mr. Expert, who was the victim?
“Jacques Offenbach,” answered Legare.
FOR THE BENEFITS OF THE BUSINESS
Once Ferenc Lehár conducted an orchestra in a provincial town that performed his works. After the first rehearsal, the composer remarked to the director of the concert hall:
— In your orchestra, the trumpeter and drummer play so loudly that the violins and cellos are almost inaudible.
“This is exactly what we are trying to achieve,” explained the director, “you don’t know our violinists and cellists yet!”
PUSHKIN'S MISTAKE
“Eugene Onegin” was shown at the Bolshoi Theater. Several young actresses listened to the performance backstage. During the scene of Tatyana’s letter, one of them indignantly said that she did not understand Tatyana - how could she write a letter to Onegin and not Lensky! Standing nearby, singer Olenin, who performed the part of Onegin, smiled and said:
- Dear young ladies, don’t judge Pushkin so harshly. He didn’t know that Sobinov would sing Lensky.
GENTLE HINT
After the performance of Schubert's Trout Quintet, the German composer and pianist Max Reger, who played the piano part, received a basket of trout as a gift from a fan. Reger sent him a letter of gratitude, in which he jokingly noted that in the next concert he would perform Haydn’s “Bull Minuet.”

ROMANCES AND FINANCE
The famous Italian singer Enrico Caruso was supposed to receive a significant amount from the check. When he arrived at the bank, it turned out that he did not have any documents with him.
The cashier flatly refused to pay the money. Caruso thought for a moment, made a decision and... the bank employees heard an aria from the opera “Tosca” in a magnificent performance. This turned out to be completely enough, and the cashier immediately made the payment.
Leaving the bank, Caruso remarked:
“I have never tried so hard to sing in my life as I do now.”
THE VOICE IS NOT ALL YET
At the performance of Pagliacci, where the “high society” of Italy was present, the tenor singing the role of Harlequin suddenly fell ill.
Caruso, who was in the hall, without hesitation for long, took a place behind the stage (as expected during the course of the action) and brilliantly performed Harlequin’s serenade. Usually, each appearance of Caruso on stage was accompanied by enthusiastic applause, but this time the audience in the hall was silent.
After the performance, Caruso with a bitter smile said to Titta Ruffo, who performed the part of Tonio in the play:
“You see what an enlightened public means.” She only values ​​those names that she reads in black and white on posters...
CONVICTION
When Caruso first arrived in America, he was attacked by journalists who bombarded him with a wide variety of questions. One of them asked the singer what he thought about trade relations between Italy and the United States. Caruso replied:
“I’ve never thought about this, but I’m convinced that I’ll learn about my opinion on this matter tomorrow from your newspaper.”
POLITE PUBLIC
A young but very confident tenor once said to Caruso:
- Yesterday at the opera my voice was heard in all tiers of the theater!
“Yes,” answered Caruso, “I saw how the public gave way to him everywhere.”
WITHOUT SEPARATION FROM PRODUCTION
Caruso purchased the house and brought in workers to renovate it. One day, when he was rehearsing and humming songs and arias, a contractor came in:
- Just a minute... Do you want the house renovation to be completed as soon as possible?
“Of course,” Caruso replied.
- Then stop singing. Otherwise, the masons cannot work; all they do is listen to you sing.
ALMOST SPIRITISM
“No man is as famous as he thinks,” said the great Caruso.
One day, during a trip, Caruso's car broke down and he was forced to stop with a farmer. When the singer identified himself, the farmer jumped up, shook Caruso’s hand and said excitedly: “Could I ever have thought that I would see the great traveler Robinson Caruso in my little kitchen!”

RESOURCEFULNESS
Caruso says in his memoirs that he often forgot the words of the aria he was performing on stage. One day this happened on the stage of the La Scala theater in Milan. Instead of the necessary words, the soloist had to sing: tra-la-la, tra-la-la.
After the performance, Caruso sat backstage with a thoughtful look. Seeing the director, who was seething with anger and was ready to cause him a big scandal, Caruso patronizingly patted the director on the shoulder and said:
- Yes, your happiness is that, among other things, I am also a good poet, and I managed to so successfully choose a rhyme for tra-la-la.
ATMOSPHERIC CHANGES
Caruso came to several performances in Paris. After the first performance, the singer caught a cold and was unable to sing. The director of the opera began to be indignant:
- Well, what should I do? I don’t understand how you managed to catch a cold in the summer?
- Do not understand? “I’ll explain,” the singer snapped. - Firstly, the hall was warmed up by the enthusiasm of the public, then - a storm of applause and, finally, a cool reception from critics! Isn't this enough?
QUIET PROFESSION
Few people know that, being very nervous before each of his performances, Caruso calmed himself down by drawing caricatures of his colleagues.
“As a cartoonist, you would achieve no less fame,” they told him.
“Yes,” answered the singer, “besides, I would have to worry less!”
WORTHY REPLACEMENT
After Caruso's death, his impresario began to look for a replacement for the great singer. A young man appeared as a candidate. After listening to him, the impresario exclaimed:
- Oh, sir, you could well replace the late Enrico!
- Do you think so? — the flattered young man admired.
- Yes, if you had died instead of him.
OVERHEARD SYMPHONY
The famous Soviet musicologist B. L. Yavorsky talked about an interesting episode that testifies to the phenomenal memory of Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov.
One day A.K. Glazunov came to S.I. Taneyev. He became acquainted with the achievements of Moscow musicians, and then agreed to perform the first part of the symphony that he had just written. Sergei Ivanovich went out, locked all the doors, then returned and asked Glazunov to start. The author performed the first part, after which conversations and discussions began. Some time has passed. But suddenly Sergei Ivanovich said: “Oh, I locked all the doors... maybe someone came.” He went out and after a while returned with Rachmaninov.
“Let me introduce you to my student,” he introduced Rachmaninoff, “he is a very talented person and has also just composed a symphony.”
Rachmaninov sat down at the piano and played... the first movement of Glazunov's symphony. Surprised Glazunov asked:
- Where did you meet her, I didn’t show her to anyone?
And Taneyev says:
“He was sitting in my bedroom, I locked him there.”
WEDDING MUSIC
“In the summer of 1889,” recalls F.I. Chaliapin, “I married the ballerina Tornagi in a small rural church. After the wedding, we had some kind of funny Turkish feast: we sat on the floor on carpets and played mischief like little kids. There was nothing that is considered obligatory at weddings: no richly decorated table with a variety of dishes, no eloquent toasts, but there were many wildflowers and a lot of wine.
In the morning, at about six o'clock, a hellish noise erupted at the window of my room - a crowd of friends led by S.I. Mamontov was performing a concert on stove views, iron dampers, on buckets and some shrill whistles. It reminded me a little of Cloth Settlement.
- Why the hell are you sleeping? - Mamontov shouted. “People don’t come to the village to sleep!” Get up, let's go into the forest to pick mushrooms.
And again they pounded on the shutters, whistled, and shouted. And S. V. Rachmaninov conducted this chaos.”
DIALOGUE
Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was always indignant at people who consider the artist’s work easy.
“They remind me,” said the singer, “of one cabman who once drove me around Moscow:
- And you, master, what are you doing? - asks.
- Yes, I’m singing.
- That's not what I'm talking about. I ask, what are you working on? Singing is what we all sing. And I sing when I get bored. I ask - what are you doing?
INAPPROPRIATE REQUEST
During one of Chaliapin's tours around Europe, a famous music critic came to his hotel. He was met by Chaliapin's friend:
— Fyodor Ivanovich is busy now. But I can answer all your questions.
— Chaliapin’s plans for the future?
- We are going to Milan, where we will sing Mephistopheles at La Scala, then we will give a concert in London in honor of the English king, then...
“Everything is fine, Peter,” Chaliapin’s voice thundered from the next room. - Just don’t forget to take me with you!
A RESPECTFUL REASON
Chaliapin performed on American stages for some time. One day he arrived in some provincial town. Journalists met him at the station, bombarding him with the usual questions. When they departed to convey the information received to the newspapers, a lady appeared near Chaliapin, who introduced herself as an ardent admirer of his talent. A quarter of an hour passed, but the exalted person did not express the slightest intention to leave the singer alone.
Chaliapin began to figure out how to get rid of the annoying fan. Suddenly a photographer appeared.
— Is it possible to ask Mr. Chaliapin to smile?
Chaliapin immediately took advantage of this opportunity and turned to his uninvited interlocutor:
— Forced to say goodbye to Mrs. You heard that the photographer asked me to make a pleasant facial expression.

GOLDEN THROAT
Chaliapin, having arrived on tour in the United States, had to undergo inspection at New York customs. In line with the official who was inspecting the luggage, he was recognized.
“This is the famous Chaliapin,” someone said, “he has a golden throat...
Hearing such a remark, the customs official demanded that an x-ray of the “golden throat” be immediately taken.
THE MAGIC OF THE VOICE
Once Chaliapin was invited to a concert of an American millionaire singer.
The next day, the millionaire asked Chaliapin how he liked his wife’s voice. The great singer replied:
- Oh, the voice is simply magical, magical!
- Is it true? Why did you leave the hall immediately after her speech began?
“Precisely because I could not resist the magical power of your wife’s voice,” answered Chaliapin.
KIND WITH HEALTHY
An elegant and at the same time very portly lady makes her way through the crowd of people towards Chaliapin, leaving the opera house in Copenhagen after a performance.
- Mister Chaliapin? I am Baroness Unterguten. Be so kind as to call my driver Karol loudly and loudly!

AT PREFERENTIAL STARTS
One billionaire invited Chaliapin to perform at his evening and asked about the fee.
“A thousand dollars,” was the singer’s answer.
- Okay, you will receive your thousand dollars, but on the condition that you only perform your act and will not remain among the guests.
“You should have said this right away,” Chaliapin chuckled. “If I don’t need to be with your guests, I’ll sing for five hundred dollars.”

WE TALKED...
Once at an official reception, Maurice Ravel sat next to a composer who did not like his music. The neighbors remained stubbornly silent. Finally, Ravel cleared his throat and said peacefully: “Dear colleague, do you mind if we talk about some other topic now?”

VICTIM OF FINE TASTE
One English pianist, who went on tour in the Middle East, suddenly returned to his homeland. Upon his return, he explained to conductor Beecham that he had left because he had been shot at twice by the Arabs.
- What are you saying? - Beecham was surprised. “I never imagined that Arabs are so well versed in music!”
SINCERE REPLY
The famous Soviet composer Reinhold Moritsevich Gliere was once invited to head the jury of a vocal competition. Many singers took part in the competition, more different than good. After the audition, Gliere was asked who he liked best in the competition.
“Accompanists,” the composer admitted candidly.
THE POWER OF INTUITION
The Polish composer Mieczyslaw Karlovich was a passionate lover of fishing. One day he wanted to fish for trout. Since he did not have a fishing permit, he chose a secluded place near the river and cast his fishing rod there. But it was not there. After a while, the branches behind him parted and the head of the river watchman poked out from behind them. In a stern tone, the guardian of the law asked the musician:
- By what right do you fish for trout here?
“My dear,” he calmly answered, “I do this under the influence of the irresistible, incomprehensible power of brilliant intuition that dominates the pitiful creature.”
The guard was confused.
“I beg your pardon,” he said a little later, taking his cap off his head, “can you really keep track of all the new instructions?”
ADVANTAGES OF A SINGER
Dramatic actor and singer of the Galician pre-revolutionary theater Ivan Rubchak was a talented performer of the role of Ivan Karas in the opera “Cossack beyond the Danube”. Rubchak sang from the heart, played the same way, although sometimes he mixed up some things. Therefore they said about him:
- Rubchak should be allowed to sing even in dramas, so that listeners do not notice that he does not know the roles by heart.

IF THIS IS NOT TRUE...
One of the popular works of the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, “Nights in the Gardens of Spain,” was created in Paris. Admiring the freshness and richness of the orchestral colors of this score, the French composer Paul Dukas once asked the author:
- Well, okay, Monsieur de Falla, are the nights in Spain really so magical?
“Perhaps I exaggerated a little in some respects.” But I was living in Paris then!
YOU CAN DO IT
Ukrainian composer Stanislav Lyudkevich was supposed to go to Kolomyia for some kind of musical celebration. I got into the carriage, drove off and... having already driven quite far, I realized that I was on the wrong train and was going in the completely opposite direction. When the composer, with great difficulty, got through by phone from some town in Kolomyia to apologize for the unexpected delay, he was reassured:
“Don’t worry, dear professor, our celebrations will take place, as we told you, in two weeks.” You still have plenty of time!

CLARIFICATION
Once one of his friends turned to the Ukrainian musician, folklorist and writer Khotkevich:
- Gnat Martynovich, I forgot what you like to celebrate more - name days or birthdays?
- Name days and birthdays of your friends.
THE BENEFITS OF IMITATION
Once at a reception, Charlie Chaplin performed a very complex opera aria for the assembled guests. When he finished, one of the guests exclaimed:
- Amazing! I had no idea that you sing so wonderfully.
“Not at all,” Chaplin smiled, “I never knew how to sing.” I was just imitating the famous tenor I heard at the opera.

ELOQUETIVE SOUNDS

When the Hungarian Soviet Republic was proclaimed in March 1919, the country's outstanding composers Zoltan Kodály and Béla Bartók joined the management of the Budapest Academy of Music. In August of the same year, counter-revolutionaries seized power. Bartók and Kodály were suspended, but for now they were getting paid.
— How do you evaluate this attitude towards us? - Bartok asked his colleague.
— It’s very simple: silence is golden.
Bartok raised an eyebrow questioningly.
- Well, do you intend to remain silent?
- Oh, I try to remain silent. But I can’t vouch for my notes!
STRANGE CONCERT
The famous Romanian composer and violinist George Enescu was also a good pianist.
One day, when Enescu was living in Paris, an acquaintance of his, a very mediocre violinist, approached him with a request to accompany him at a concert.
After some hesitation, Enescu agreed. On the way to the concert, he met his friend, the famous pianist Gieseking.
Laughing, Enescu told him about the upcoming performance and unexpectedly asked:
- Listen, why don't you come with me?
- I wonder what I will do there?
- Well, at least turn over the sheet music for me.
Friends went together.
The next day a review appeared in the newspaper: “We had a strange concert yesterday. The one who was supposed to play the violin played the piano; the one who was supposed to play the piano leafed through the notes; and the one who was supposed to turn the pages for some reason played the violin.”

WELCOME GUEST
George Enescu led an intense concert career as a virtuoso violinist and conductor, so there was very little time left for composition studies. In addition, numerous invitations to perform at home concerts were annoying.
One day, when Enescu was working on a new work, another kind invitation was received to a dinner party with an unambiguous hint not to appear without a violin.
“To hell with all the concerts,” the composer became furious and asked the neighbor to give the hostess of the evening a violin and a laconic note that said:
“Honorable madam! I am very sorry that I cannot be with you today, as I suddenly felt very unwell. Fortunately, the main character of the evening - my violin - is healthy. Please accept it for me.
Your humble servant".
MUSICAL MIRACLE
American conductor Leopold Stokowski said after one of the concerts:
- This orchestra performed a miracle! He destroyed the work, of whose immortality I was convinced, in an hour and a half!

ART REQUIRES SACRIFICE
Coming to Paris, Stokowski often visited a small restaurant, the owner of which fed the conductor expensive dishes and a very cheap fee. One day Stokowski asked:
“To what do I owe your extraordinary kindness?” After all, I'm not poor.
“I love music very much,” the owner exclaimed passionately, “and I’m ready to make any sacrifice for its sake!”
Stokowski left the restaurant touched and suddenly noticed a sign in the window: “Daily breakfasts, lunches and dinners in the company of the great Stokowski.”
WRONG ADDRESS
One aspiring composer invited Imre Kalman to the premiere of his operetta. After the performance, he approached the respected master and asked his opinion about his composition.
“You see,” Kalman said sadly, “I’m used to listening to the opinions of others about my own writings.”
AN UNENVIABLE PLACE
One of the acquaintances of the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski turns to him with a question:
- Maestro, don’t you think it’s devilishly boring to do nothing all your life, just compose?
“Yes, it’s a little boring,” agreed the composer, “but it’s even worse to do nothing all my life and just listen to what I compose!”

EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE
Once among the students of Heinrich Gustavovich Neuhaus there was a conversation about Beethoven's sonatas. One of the students emphatically declared that he was tired of Beethoven’s “Appassionata.” The professor who was present looked reproachfully at the student and said:
- Young man, it’s you who are tired of her, not she who’s tired of you!

CORRECT STRESS
The young but already famous pianist asked Neuhaus’s opinion about his playing. The professor told him:
— You are talented, but on your playing it says: “I play Chopin,” but it should be heard: “I play Chopin.”

LACK OF SIMILARITY
Admiring the beauty of one of the participants in the International Competition. P.I. Tchaikovsky in Moscow (but a very mediocre pianist), someone said:
- Look, this is the spitting image of the Venus de Milo!
“Yes,” confirmed Neuhaus, “only for greater resemblance it would be necessary to beat off the hands.”
THE MOST DIFFICULT
Arthur Rubinstein was asked what was the most difficult thing for him when he was learning to play the piano. The pianist replied:
— Payment for lessons.
LOST OPPORTUNITY
A New York millionaire, posing as a great lover and connoisseur of music, staged a concert by Arthur Rubinstein at his home. The pianist chose only minor works for his performance and ended the concert with a Chopin nocturne, playing it with particular soulfulness and tenderness.
After the concert, the owner, thanking Rubinstein, casually remarked:
- I forgot to warn you, maestro, that you can play louder, because I have no neighbors, I occupy this whole house alone...
A GENTLEMAN'S ACTION
One day in London, an unknown lady burst into Rubinstein’s backstage. She briefly said that she was in love with music and demanded a ticket to the evening concert. Having repeated her demand three times, despite Rubinstein’s gentle assurances that there were no tickets at all, she sat down in the chair with the intention of leaving it only when the ticket was in her hands.
“Madam,” Rubinstein finally gave in, “you are forcing me to make concessions.” There is truly one, and only one, seat in the hall that I can offer you.
- You are a true gentleman, maestro. Where is that place?
- At the piano, madam.
GIGLI IS WORRIED
The famous Italian singer Beniamino Gigli underwent surgery under anesthesia.
Out of excitement, the artist began to count out of place: “One... five... eight...” The doctor asked him to count more carefully, to which Gigli replied:
- Mister Doctor, do not forget that I am in a very difficult situation - I do not have my prompter with me.
GENTLE GAME
Once in the Moscow “Cafe of Poets” Prokofiev played his piano piece “Obsession”.
At that time, Mayakovsky was in the cafe - he was sitting at one of the tables and was enthusiastically drawing something. At the end of the evening, Prokofiev received his portrait with the inscription: “Sergei Sergeevich plays on the most tender nerves of Vladimir Vladimirovich.”

NASTY “KING”
In 1919, the Chicago Opera House was preparing to stage Prokofiev's opera The Love for Three Oranges. The “orange kings” became interested in this event. One of them offered the theater management a large sum to allow him to hang a poster in the foyer. The poster showed huge oranges. The inscription below read:
“These oranges inspired Sergei Prokofiev. He only eats fruit from our company!”
SOMEONE ELSE'S ESSAY
Once Prokofiev attended a concert. While performing his symphonic picture “Dreams,” the orchestra was terribly out of tune. After the concert, the embarrassed conductor approached the composer with an apology:
“Aren’t you very angry, Sergei Sergeevich, for all the false notes that were taken?”
“For goodness sake,” answered the composer, “there wasn’t a single right note here at all.” I mistook this essay for someone else’s!
RELIABLE METHOD
One day, a student complained to his composition teacher, professor of the Leningrad Conservatory N. N. Cherepnin, that his romance was not working out, and asked for advice.
A short answer followed:
- Do it very simply: write ten romances and throw them into the oven, the eleventh will come out good.

AN EXCEPTION
Talking to a reporter, violinist Misha Elman remarked with a smile:
“When I made my debut in Berlin as a thirteen-year-old boy, everyone said then: “Is this really not an exception? At this age!..” Now that I’m seventy years old, everyone is saying the same thing again.
A LESSON FOR THOSE LATE
One of the oldest German conductors, Hermann Scherchen, is famous for his punctuality. He demands the strictest discipline from the orchestra members performing under his direction. At the same time, Scherchen is no stranger to humor, as evidenced by an incident that occurred in Zurich.
Arriving at the first rehearsal of a symphony concert with a local orchestra, the conductor discovered that the musicians were late. Finally, it seemed like everyone had gathered. But then the conductor said that the first trumpet player was missing, that it was impossible to start work without him and therefore he would have to wait. They sent for the trumpeter. And when, a quarter of an hour later, the trumpeter ran into the hall and, muttering an apology, began hastily flipping through the sheet music, Scherkhen calmly tapped the console with his baton and... turned to the strings:
- So, gentlemen, let’s start with Mozart’s “Little Night Serenade”!

LADY CRITIC
One French ballerina performed in a small ballet written by A. Honegger and A. Helle. But, quite naturally, a star cannot sacrifice his personal success to modern music. As a result, her performance ended to the sounds of three Chopin mazurkas. At the end of the performance, a lady who knew Arthur Honegger a little came up to him and, clasping his hands, exclaimed with excitement:
- How amazing your ballet is! Yes! Yes! Trust me! True, the beginning didn’t turn my head, but the three small numbers at the end...
- How I approve of you, madam, and what proof of the infallibility of your taste: those were three mazurkas by Chopin...
In response, the composer received a smile of tenderness:
- Ah... I recognize you in this... You say that out of modesty!

COLD SHOWER
In the pre-war years, one temperamental student studied with Professor Boris Nikolaevich Lyatoshinsky. One day he brought his teacher sketches of the score of a major symphonic work and began, animatedly gesturing, to explain his plan.
“Here violins and cellos will sing... But here,” the student clenched his fist and waved it energetically, “here three trombones will menacingly lead the theme in unison!”
“Well, why,” objected the professor, “for such a topic, one oboe is enough...
GALLANT SUFFERING
Once, during a composition lesson in the class of B. N. Lyatoshinsky, the conversation turned to sentimentalism in music. We remembered the characteristic titles of many popular publications at the beginning of our century, such as “What the Violin Cried About,” “Broken Heart,” “Wounded Eagle.” At the next lesson, the professor took out some old sheet music from his briefcase. The cover showed a sullen prisoner with a spectacular beard. Below was the title:
"The Night Before the Execution." Melodic waltz.

SURNAME IS REQUIRED
One day, one of the listeners began to argue with the modern German composer Carl Orff, furiously cursing his works:
- Why are you so interested in noise? Remember Mozart: how much tenderness there is in his music! Even his name itself speaks about this! Listen: Mozart! You are German, you know that zart is tenderness!
- So what? - Orff objected. - Listen to how my name sounds: - Orf-f, ends in ff. You are a musician, you know what this means - fortissimo!
CLEAR BOTHIUS
The German composer Paul Hindemith gave lectures on musical aesthetics for many years, which were a great success among listeners. One day his words about the ancient Roman philosopher and music theorist Boethius received strong approval:
“Dear sirs,” Hindemith began, casting a sly glance at the reporters who were feverishly recording the text of his lecture, “old Boethius called the one who understood music, and not the one who only writes about it, a theorist!”
WRONG STUDENT
American composer George Gershwin, who gained worldwide popularity, unexpectedly decided to learn from one of the modern masters of composition. Gershwin went to Paris and approached the famous French composer Maurice Ravel. He looked at the respected guest in surprise:
“I could give you a few lessons, but tell me frankly, why do you need to become a secondary Ravel, being already a primary Gershwin?”
TWO IN ARITHMETIC
Albert Einstein and Hans Eisler met in the same house. Knowing that Einstein played the violin, the hostess asked him to play something in an ensemble with Eisler. Eisler sat down at the piano, Einstein began tuning the violin. Several times the composer began the introduction, but Einstein could not get on time. All attempts to start together were unsuccessful. Closing the lid of the piano, Eisler jokingly remarked:
“I don’t understand how the whole world can call a man great who can’t count to three!”

NOT FOR FAME
“I remember, before the revolution,” says Dmitry Yakovlevich Pokrass, a famous Soviet songwriter, “my brother Daniil and I wrote romances as teenagers and brought them to one person who ran a music store. He listened to the romances and shrugged his shoulders: either he didn’t really like them, or he was embarrassed by the age of the composers. At this time a woman came in, looked at the sheet music and said: “What talented romances!” And they bought them from us, these works... This woman... was our mother! She had twelve of us...

ALIEN "BEFORE"
In the central aria of Faust from Gounod's opera of the same name there is a very difficult place: “to” the third octave. By the end of this aria, tenors often run out of steam and either take the final “C” with great tension, or don’t take it at all. The famous tenor Roman Isidorovich Charov told how, while still a young singer, from the first wings he took this ill-fated “C” for an Italian celebrity - a tenor-guest performer, and in the meantime he turned his head so that the misled audience attributed all the laurels to the expense of guest performer

IF YOU CAN'T - DON'T TRY IT
Ivan Semenovich Kozlovsky excellently performed the role of Pinkerton in Puccini's opera Cio-Cio-san. The final duet of the first act performed by him is truly a song of triumphant love, a powerful release of surging feelings. Finishing the duet, the singer picked up Cio-Cio-san in his arms and carried him across the entire stage.
After Kozlovsky, many performers of the role of Pinkerton wanted to imitate him, and not his ability to sing or generally hold himself on stage, but precisely the “power move”. Once on tour, some tenor, a short man, decided to demonstrate the same ending. The performer of the role of Butterfly was a wonderful singer, but a very overweight lady. When the action was approaching the finale, the orchestra members, who had somehow learned about the singer’s intentions, jumped up from their seats in advance, not paying attention to the conductor who was throwing lightning: the “guest performer” grabbed the frightened Madame Butterfly in his arms, quickly rushed forward... and crashed onto the unnaturally green stage grass. But this did not break his energy. He stood up and again tried to show off his “strength” - and again he failed, accompanied by cheerful laughter from the audience.
ANSWER TO THE ESSENTIAL
The young composer wrote music for the operetta and asked Isaac Osipovich Dunaevsky to listen to it. He agreed. The first act passed, the second - Dunaevsky didn’t say a word. Finally the entire score is played. Silence reigned. The young composer could not stand it and asked:
- Why don’t you tell me anything?
- But you didn’t tell me anything either! — answered Dunaevsky.

AND WHO KNOWS HIM!
The Ukrainian singer Lydia Kolodub, famous in the pre-war years, said:
“Once, at one of the academic concerts, I performed Tchaikovsky’s romance “If only I knew.” Feeling terrible excitement, I forgot all the words except the first line.
I had to sing a romance, endlessly repeating the same thing: “If only I knew, if only I knew, if only I knew, if only I knew...”
And indeed, if I had remembered the words at that time, the romance might have looked a little different!
EXACT TIME
Famous American jazz player Louis Armstrong says;
— When I was young, when I just started performing, I didn’t have a watch. Often at night, to find out what time it was, I would start playing my trumpet loudly. He played until one of the neighbors started knocking on the wall and cursing loudly: “What kind of disgrace is this, at night, at three o’clock, playing the trumpet!” This way I could always find out the exact time.
FROM TWO EVIL
Louis Armstrong was once invited to see Bernard Shaw. When the guest arrived, the owner greeted him and said to him:
“I apologize for not being able to keep you busy as I would like: I have a terrible migraine.”
- Maybe I can play something for you? - asked the trumpeter.
“I’m very sorry, but it’s better if I stay with my migraine!”
I FELT
The popular Polish singer Jan Kiepura, sitting in a Berlin cafe, started talking with his random neighbor. The stranger said his last name, and Kepura - his.
“I’m very glad that I was able to meet you, Mr. Kepura,” the singer’s interlocutor said politely.
The artist liked it. He began to talk about the USA, from where he had recently returned.
- Imagine, in a very decent society they ask me: “Who are you?” I answer: “Kepura.” You won't believe it, but none of those present knew who I was.
- What ignorance! And what did you do?
- He got indignant and left.
The stranger expressed his indignation for a long time and sympathetically, and then said:
- Think about it, you won’t recognize such a famous pianist!
WOE TO THE DEFEATED
One of the first professional concert performances of Sergei Yakovlevich Lemeshev was participation in a brigade for servicing Crimean resorts in 1926. At that time, Mayakovsky was in Crimea... The poet did not like going to concerts at all. But one day, Lemeshev recalls, going out onto the stage, I saw his huge figure. Mayakovsky stood to the side, leaning against the front door and prepared to listen carefully. Knowing his direct character and aversion to group concerts, I not only felt terrible embarrassment, but was simply taken aback, not immediately deciding to sing. And how glad I was when the next day Mayakovsky himself came up to me, praised yesterday’s performance and invited me to play a game of billiards with him!
Having heard a lot about his billiard records, I warned that I would be a bad and boring partner: what, really, is the interest in beating your opponent in no time! Vladimir Vladimirovich replied:
- It’s okay, I’ll give you four balls in advance.
And off we went. He smashed the pyramid with terrible force, warning that the loser would crawl under the billiard table and sing something there. I had no choice but to accept this condition. Then Mayakovsky took down four balls hanging over the pockets and put them towards me. Then, to my complete amazement, the game turned out poorly for him.
It so happened that after almost every shot he “substituted” another ball for me, which I scored without difficulty. As a result, I won and before I knew it, Vladimir Vladimirovich climbed under the billiards and began singing “The Song of the Indian Guest” in a bass voice!
BLESSING TO THE TENOR
Lemeshev told the actor B.V. Shchukin about his dream - to sing all of Tchaikovsky - and asked whether this looks too bold? Shchukin warmly supported this idea, but asked what exactly was confusing the singer.
“But of course,” said Lemeshev, “for example, the romance “I bless you, forests” was written by the author for bass, and I have a light lyrical voice!
To this Boris Vasilyevich responded, not without humor:
- Why is it necessary to bless forests with bass? You can bless them with a tenor!

DISCOVERING FAME
Ukrainian Soviet composer Konstantin Fedorovich Dankevich once objected to a critic who said that praising authors only brings them harm:
— Don’t be afraid to praise the composer. Fame is like sulfuric acid: it won’t spoil a noble metal, but a bad one will corrode it.
A CHILD IS A CHILD
In the “Memoirs” of the famous Russian conductor and musical and public figure A. B. Hessin, there is a page related to the arrival of the seven-year-old Italian “wunderkind” - conductor Willy Ferrero - on tour in St. Petersburg.
“The hall of the former noble meeting, crowded with a public greedy for sensation, created unprecedented success for Ferrero...
I can’t help but remember: a tragicomic incident occurred at the concert, for which I was indirectly to blame... I fell in love with the boy very much and during the concert I presented him with a large railway with rails, a semaphore and other attributes. Willie was so carried away by her during the intermission that he flatly refused to conduct the second part of the concert.
“What is it worth to you,” he begged me almost in tears, “to conduct the second section, because you are also a good conductor!”
It took a lot of effort to persuade him to continue the concert.”
BIG HOPES
Several decades ago, there was a well-known music critic in Paris who extorted money from artists in exchange for friendly reviews. One day he was approached by the soloist of the Opera Comique - Batel. He asked an influential critic to write a favorable review of his performance of a new role in the upcoming premiere, but emphasized that he was now in a difficult position; He cannot pay it off right away, but he will pay it off a hundredfold next month. The reviewer generously assured the artist that he could count on him. Soon a large article appeared, but Batel was mentioned only at the very end: “Mr. Batel is a promising artist. We’ll soon see whether he lives up to our hopes or not!”

MEETING AT "ENCORS"
At one time, composers Nikita Bogoslovsky and Sigismund Katz performed in various cities with joint author concerts, where each of them was given a section. One day, two concerts were supposed to take place at the same time, but in different places. There was only one way out: during the intermission, each of the authors had to have time to get to the place of another concert by car.
And so the concert begins. Bogoslovsky cheerfully comes out onto the stage and bows:

There is unanimous applause in the hall: the authors are known only by their last names. Then the composer talks about “himself”, about “his” creativity, brilliantly imitating the mannerisms, gestures, facial expressions, voice intonations, and favorite words of his colleague. With the same amazing skill of transformation, he performs Katz’s popular songs “The Lilac is Blossoming”, “The Bryansk Forest Was Noisy in the Harsh Place” and others to his own accompaniment.
The first part ends amid thunderous applause. Bogoslovsky immediately gets into the car and leaves for another concert. And here, after the intermission, the second part begins. Katz comes cheerfully onto the stage and bows:
— Hello, I am composer Sigismund Katz.
There is bewildered silence in the hall, someone’s laughter can be heard. The somewhat embarrassed author, not understanding what is going on, strives in every possible way to establish contact with the audience: word for word he repeats a story already known to the public about himself and his work. Finally, he sits down at the piano and begins to sing his songs. But the further you go, the more cheerful excitement grows in the hall, and eventually Homeric laughter begins.

VENGEANCE IS ME, AND I WILL RETURN
“I was in Leningrad on New Year’s Eve,” says Honored Artist Ilya Nabatov. — After the concert, suddenly a telegram: “Leave Moscow due to tours abroad.” In the morning I pack my suitcase, rent out a hotel room, and talk to Moscow on the phone. Moscow expresses surprise: no telegram was sent. All clear. I called the hotel administrator: “Do you have a composer staying at your hotel?” It turns out he lives. I call the restaurant and order a New Year's table on behalf of the composer. In the evening the composer calls. “I invite you to a New Year’s meeting... Some impudent guy played a prank on me, I had to pay for the table. It’s a shame, you know, especially because the menu is ordered for diet purposes.” “The thing is,” I answer, “I have catarrh of the stomach.”
We celebrated the New Year with joy...
ACCURATE INFORMATION
In a small town, after the first concert of the Polish pianist Barbara Hesse-Bukowska, a reporter from the local newspaper approached her.
— What works do you especially love and perform more often than others? - he asked.
“Mazurkas, polonaises and waltzes by Chopin,” answered the pianist.
Looking through the newspaper the next day, she saw a large headline: “Hesse-Bukowska prefers dance music.”
RECIPROCITY
Polish violinist and composer Grazyna Bacewicz was rehearsing her violin concerto with an orchestra. Because of the trumpeter, one place was not working out. In the end, the orchestra member received a solid scolding. We started again. And then the trumpeter, forgetting about the soloist’s keen hearing, muttered through his teeth:
“If Batsevich were my wife, I would give her poison!”
Resolutely waving her bow, the violinist immediately retorted:
“And I would accept him if you were my husband!”
TIME FORWARD!
Associate Professor of the Saratov Conservatory Arseny Petrovich Shchapov could play all thirty-two Beethoven sonatas to his students from memory, with the exception of the Twenty-ninth Sonata, which he played from notes. He once promised students to play a Liszt piano sonata, warning them to pay special attention to the tempo side. At the next lesson, he played this most complex, deeply thought-provoking piece, but none of the students noticed the peculiarities of its tempo interpretation. Then the teacher said:
- During Liszt’s time, this sonata was played in 31 minutes, Neuhaus plays in 29 minutes, I played in 28 minutes, and modern boy competitors manage to run through it in 24 minutes! And strangely enough, no one notices this!
SWEET PUNISHMENT
They say that pianist Yakov Zak once decided to play a little joke on his friend, pianist Emil Gilels, and on his behalf ordered him a huge cake from the store with home delivery. The next day, Gilels invited his friend to visit him, without giving the appearance that he was angry for his trick. Soon the owner needed to leave for a minute, he apologized and left. The lock clicked and the guest was locked up. Five minutes later, the owner of the house called the guest and said that he was leaving for two days. If his friend wants to eat, then in the kitchen buffet there is... a huge cake. Two days later the cake was, of course, eaten.

TALENT RECOGNITION
The famous singer Mario Lanza was supposed to perform in a provincial American town. On the posters, among other works, it was written: “I. Brahms. "Blacksmith".
A few minutes before the start of the concert, a heroic-looking fellow entered the artist's room and presented the singer with a huge loaf of bread.
The artist was very touched and began to thank him, but the hero interrupted him:
“I’m the local blacksmith and I can give you a more valuable gift if you insert a couple of lines into one of your songs about how I also fix radios and motorcycles.”
NOT EXPECTED
In the United States in 1962, the millionth long-playing record was sold with a recording of Tchaikovsky's First Concerto performed by Van Cliburn.
For the first time in the history of American recording, a classical music disc achieved such a circulation. Before that, million-dollar records were the privilege of jazz singers.
“I never thought that I would reach the level of a rock and roll performer,” Van Cliburn admitted.
DRAW
Ukrainian composer Andrei Yakovlevich Shtogarenko was once asked:
— Did you listen to the new symphony of the young composer yesterday?
- Yes.
— I wonder how the audience and the orchestra reacted?
- What should I tell you? We tied...
WHO IS FIRST?
American violinist Isaac Stern, who was touring in the Soviet Union, was asked:
— What is your opinion about David Oistrakh?
- Of course, tall! This is the second violinist in the world!
- Who's first?
- First? There are many firsts, in every country!

ONE GOD
In Vienna, a press conference of the famous conductor Herbert von Karajan was broadcast on television. One of the West German correspondents asked the maestro the following question:
— Mr. Karayan, what is the influence of religion on your work?
Karayan replied:
- I have only one god - music!
GRANDMASTER OF SINGING
Honored coach of the USSR, Riga master Alexander Koblenz, was together with ex-world champion Mikhail Tal at the interzonal tournament in Portorož. One weekend there was a walk, and Koblenz, who has a pleasant voice, performed arias in Russian and Italian. A lady came up to the coach and said:
- Thank you for the pleasure! With your singing you reminded me of a great artist.
- Caruso? - Koblenz asked impatiently.
- No, Vasily Smyslova.