Spiritual Horizons of the "Thaw": on the Question of New Poetry in the "Female" Vocal Cycle in Russian Music of the 1960s and 1970s

Shkirtil' Lyudmila Vyacheslavovna Professor of Vocal Art, St. Petersburg Mussorgsky music college 191028, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Mokhovaya str., 36, of. Mokhovaya 36 serovyuri2013@gmail.com Other publications by this author

The powerful stylistic renewal that began in Russian music at the turn of the 1960s under the influence of various "thaw" processes affected not only the liberation from stagnant technological canons, the acquisition of avant-garde writing skills or the appeal to genuine folk experience. The genre palette was widely enriched and it is noteworthy that to a greater extent this affected the sphere of the universal and flexible modifications of the chamber vocal cycle. One of the most important stimuli of his undoubted dawn was the obvious saturation of vocal music with fresh "plots" and themes. Spiritual horizons were constantly expanding, new poetry played a major role here.

"At the turn of the 1960s, the "floodgates" of modern world literature opened, "thick" magazines ("Foreign Literature", "New World") began to publish poetry works and unknown novels by Western writers unexpected in their incarnations, poetry of the Russian Silver Age was rediscovered, a young, talented galaxy of domestic writers appeared, in public in the space, some taboo issues for discussion were removed. The creativity of the "sixties" composers associated with the word literally "choked" with previously unauthorized opportunities to raise interesting topics, expand the range of literary images, compose on modern texts, the spirit and semantics of which were in harmony with their own avant-garde technological discoveries" ^{[1, p. 173]}. Interest in translated poetry has grown many times, and not only to Western European, but also "exotic" — there were compositions on poems by Latin American, Arab poets, increased attention to ancient literature.

It should be noted that not only the work of the "Sixties" was "choked" with previously forbidden themes, new poetic worlds manifested themselves in the vocal works of D. Shostakovich, V. Salmanov, N. Peiko, B. Tchaikovsky, G. Sviridov, B. Arapov and many other masters who were not connected by too close creative ties with the fruitful aspirations of the post-war generation of composers.

The central theme of our research is the "female" vocal cycle, which means the poems of M. Tsvetaeva and A. Akhmatova. Why exactly did their work turn out to be so in demand in Soviet music of the 1960s and 1970s, so significantly enriched the chamber vocal genre?

M. Tsvetaeva's poetry is difficult for musical interpretation, it seems to resist attempts to translate it into a song or a romance. It is rooted in the tradition of the poets of the Silver Age worshiping the precious word itself, sometimes worshiping to the detriment of the intonational integrity of the poem: it can be difficult to sing, "omuzykalit". In Tsvetaeva's poetry, there are enough colloquial and vulgar expressions that seriously complicate the search for a musical equivalent, much of her work is contextual, and the author's "I" appears in a very contradictory unity that cannot be expressed in any one emotional key. However, Tsvetaeva has poems filled with song or chastushechnymi rhythms, close to romance.

Let's venture to assume that such a significant interest in her poetry arose as a result of the "surprise effect". Tsvetaeva's pre-revolutionary literary activity and fame were crossed out by emigration in 1922, her piercing lyrics were not heard in Soviet Russia (but she was not published much in emigration, her last lifetime edition was published in 1928. A brief and tragic return in 1939 did not change anything, besides, she turned out to be the wife of the "enemy of the people" S. Efron, who was repressed and shot before the war. Tsvetaeva's name returned from prohibitions and deaf non-existence only at the very beginning of the 1960s. Literature of such high quality stirred up the musical community, it was a completely different spiritual world, compared to which the "products" of many Soviet poets (first of all, "official" ones) faded into the background. The exuberant poetic temperament ("The immensity of my words is only a faint shadow of the immensity of my feelings" ^[2]), so difficult to embody on music paper, fascinated Soviet authors who yearned for the sincerity, spontaneity, intimacy of Tsvetaev's poetic speech.

A. Akhmatova is another matter. It was not published much, but it was not forgotten. Since 1951, it was restored in the Union of Soviet Writers, and in 1955 even allocated a small house to work in the resort village of Komarovo near Leningrad. Talented young poets, composers, and writers gathered here at her place. From time to time, musical works were created on Akhmatova's poems (there were also very famous authors among them), but the wide flow of vocal literature that happened in the "thaw" years and does not dry up to this day is amazing.

In Russian lyrics, it is not easy to indicate poetry more closely related to classical literature than Akhmatova's poems. In this connection, we will give an idea about the poems of the poet, the astute researcher of Akhmatova's creativity V. Zhirmunsky: "the simplicity and transparency of their artistic form, the truthfulness and authenticity of feeling, the objectivity of the artistic method with all the unique personal originality — these features of her poetry continue the traditions of Russian realistic art of the XIX century, complicated by all the wealth of spiritual and artistic discoveries of our time, but devoid of any ostentatious innovation" ^{[3, p. 25]}.

It was the continuation of the traditions of Russian classical art, along with the modern figurative and semantic richness and the "objectivity of the artistic method" that so strongly attracted Russian composers of the 1960s and 1970s. The insatiable demand for new poetry led to a radical revision of priorities in Soviet music. And although the intonation structure of Akhmatova's lines does not differ in the melodiousness inherent in symbolists (in her poetry there are enough "sound dissonances", rhythmic interruptions, colloquial, everyday turns), this does not mean a rejection of "musicality". The traditional melodiousness of Russian verse does not disappear from Akhmatova, she only changes the forms of her existence.

And one more thought that allows us to explain why the responses to the poetry of M. Tsvetaeva and A. Akhmatova so often take the form of a chamber-vocal cycle: their individual poems are connected by invisible threads, they merge into one whole, into one cycle long in life, into one poem of fate. Let us cite in confirmation the exact words of the outstanding Soviet literary scholar, textual critic B. Eichenbaum: "these poems are linked together in our imagination, generate the image of a living person who marks every new feeling, every new event in his life with a record. There are no special topics, no special departments and cycles — it's as if we have a solid autobiography, a solid diary" ^{[4, p. 87]}.

The absence of a single storyline in the poetic heritage of M. Tsvetaeva and A. Akhmatova allowed the composers to arbitrarily compose parts in cycles, guided by the logic of constructing a musical form, the logic of tempo, rhythmic, dynamic, harmonic contrasts, the logic (requiring an expanded poetic space) of the movement of the plot, in which there is an exposition, a tie, development, climax, denouement, epilogue etc.  (among the most striking examples are "Six Poems by M. Tsvetaeva" by D. Shostakovich, "Five Poems by Anna Akhmatova" by Yu. Falik). The quality of poetry, spiritual height, confessional became powerful initial impulses, then musical and technological means of working with modern poetry were included, and here the most important role was played by moments of craft, creative intuition and artistic expediency.

Was the poetic and plot variety that entered Russian music at the turn of the 1960s solely due to the desire of composers to explore, study and use in music the structural and rhythmic organization of modern verse, its original forms and intonation? Give modern music modern literature? Speak the language of contemporaries? Of course not. Firstly, domestic authors, as we have already noted, were also keen on other subjects, for example, "ancient", a lot of translated poetry was included in the music, where the rhythmic-intonation side did not play such a significant role. And secondly (here we will quote the statement of the authority in the field of studying the vocal heritage of V. Vasina-Grossman), "in a poetic work, no matter how clearly and clearly its structure is "viewed", there are still possibilities of creating not one single, but several musical structures. The choice of one or the other depends on which side of the poetic text the composer perceives as "dominant". Depending on this, even the very function of music in a vocal composition can change: from simply ignoring the text to revealing all its most complex compositional elements, the deepest subtext. The composer's goal may also be different: either to merge his voice with the poet's voice, or to compare these voices as complementary, and sometimes contrapuntal" ^{[5, p. 339]}.

As we can see, the structure, rhythm, and form of a poetic text can be interpreted by the authors differently, it depends on artistic goal-setting, on, continuing the thought of V. Vasina-Grossman, the composer's "dominants". To "merge" or "compare" the voices of music and poetry is an interesting task, but it does not depend on the degree of modernity of literature. The "dominant" of the Russian composers of the period under review was the spiritual beginning, novelty (it could be, for example, hitherto unknown English romantic poetry or ancient Greek myth), originality of the idea. In Russian culture, it seemed, there had never been such a strong movement "against the current". In this connection, let's look at the panorama of musical and poetic plots of the 1960s and 1970s.  

B. Tishchenko is among the leaders of the appeal to new poetry. He was the youngest of the galaxy of the "sixties", A. Naiman, E. Rein, O. Shestinsky, A. Kushner gathered in his apartment for literary and musical "parties", he met with A. Akhmatova and considered her, along with D. Shostakovich, the most important person in his life. Tishchenko was the first Russian composer to set to music a poem by a close friend, future Nobel laureate I. Brodsky ("Floating in an inexplicable melancholy / Among a brick garden / The night boat is unquenchable / From the Alexander Garden" — "Christmas Romance" based on poems by I. Brodsky from the cycle "Sad Songs", 1962), was the first in the USSR to interpret the poetry of M. Tsvetaeva (Symphony No. 2 "Marina", 1964), was the first to write music on forbidden texts by A. Akhmatova, secret, from samizdat ("Requiem", 1966). The sixth vocal symphony by the Leningrad author is based on poems by A. Naiman, A. Akhmatova, M. Tsvetaeva, O. Mandelstam and V. Levinson.

Tishchenko composed music for folk texts ("Suzdal", "Northern Studies", "Cold"), Old Russian ("Yaroslavna"), studied the eastern poetic tradition. In his creative legacy there are several a capella choirs on translations from Chinese traditional lyrical poetry yuefu (1959). In "Sad Songs" (1962), the composer addresses six (!) poets (two romances of the cycle are based on folk texts), among them the British classic P. Shelley, the Hungarian romantic Sh. Petefi, the surrealist singer Turk M. Andai, the creator of the Japanese love lyrics of the VIII century O. Yakamochi, the already mentioned I. Brodsky and M. Lermontov. In the vocal cycle "The Road" (1974) for mezzo-soprano and piano, a number of songs were created based on translations from O. Driz, who wrote in Yiddish. The circle is unusually wide and this is also a sign of the times. We counted more than fifty authors (including theatrical productions) on whose texts Tishchenko composed music. And only A. Akhmatova remained an unshakable constant in this list — the composer turned to her poems constantly, in different periods of his intense creative activity.

The son of a famous writer, himself an excellent publicist, musical preacher and musicologist S. Slonimsky has been communicating in the circles of the country's literary elite since childhood. The space of his compositional stylistic worlds in the 1960s and 1970s is limitless, but the poetic horizons are also unusually wide. Among the priorities in vocal music is A. Akhmatova (we will single out two most important "female" cycles: "Six Poems" (1970) and "Ten Poems" (1974)), but also the poetry of I. Bunin, S. Yesenin, O. Mandelstam, Vs. Rozhdestvensky, D. Kharms, M. Tsvetaeva, E. Reina, Japanese lyrics, folk texts — Slonimsky was one of the leaders of the "new folklore wave", recorded folk tunes in numerous expeditions in the Pskov, Leningrad, Vologda regions.

In 1967, the composer composed "Psalms of David", monologues for soprano, oboe, French horn and harp and "Song of Songs" by Solomon, which he designated as a lyrical fragment for soprano, tenor, chamber choir, oboe, French horn and harp. Both texts are from the Old Testament. In 1975, "Songs of the Troubadours" were created for soprano, tenor, four block flutes and lute based on the texts of Old German and Old Versailles poetry.

No less interesting are the literary searches of the composer outside the boundaries of chamber and vocal music. At the turn of the 1970s, Slonimsky composed the ballet "Icarus" based on the plot of an ancient Greek myth - a beautiful theme, but quite rare in the then Soviet musical realities. In 1972, the opera "The Master and Margarita" by M. Bulgakov was completed, which "broke through" to the stage with great difficulty, even serious intercession of D. Shostakovich, who "defended" the work of a junior colleague before party officials, was required — Bulgakov's compositions were not considered fully "ideologically sustained" in the USSR (the official publication of the novel took place only with the beginning of the next "thaw" — "perestroika", the texts went exclusively in samizdat). In the late 1970s, Slonimsky was attracted as an opera libretto by the tragic fate of the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart, filled with dramatic twists and events.

G. Banshchikov "opened" G. Lorca to Soviet listeners. In 1961, his first and only vocal cycle for soprano and piano based on the poet's poems was released, in 1965 the cantata "In Memory of Garcia Lorca" was created. The Leningrad author's six cantatas demonstrate his broadest literary outlook, in addition to Lorca, he used poems by D. Kedrin, S. Vallejo, A. Blok, Y. Baltrushaitis and I. Brodsky. The premiere of the cantata "Ashes in the Palms" (1974) with texts by S. Vallejo became a notable event in the musical life of Leningrad. The poems of the outstanding Peruvian surrealist, a prominent representative of Latin American modernism, opened a wide field for cutting-edge vocal and instrumental possibilities in terms of rhythms, original texture and timbre solutions. But the most important thing here is the freshness of the plot, the novelty of the images. Vallejo's poems are one of the peaks of Spanish—language lyrics of the twentieth century. In the USSR, they were first published in 1966 ("Black Heralds" — Moscow: Fiction, 1966), and this is also a very significant result of the "thaw" literary discoveries.   

A. Kneifel in the early 1960s was an indomitable avant—garde artist. His literary horizons are bold and unusual. There is a ballet production based on the cartoons of the Danish communist H. Bitstrup, popular in the USSR (1966), and the choreographic scene "The Penitent Magdalene" (1967), and the story of the infanticide Medea in the footsteps of the ancient Greek tragedy Euripides (1969). During these years, Kneifel composed chamber-vocal music based on the poems of R. Burns translated by S. Marshak and on the epigrams of Marshak himself. The "female" vocal cycle "Stupid Horse" (1980) was created based on the texts of the children's poet V. Levin, humorous, subtle, aphoristic. Regretting that all the best English literature has already been translated into Russian by K. Chukovsky, S. Marshak and B. Zahoder, Levin "pretends" to be a translator of previously unknown English ballads ("the newest"). The poet writes these short "ballads" immediately in Russian, offering the British (if they want) to translate them "back" into English. 

The playful beginning, the polygenre, the theatricality of Yu. Falik's music strongly demanded an appropriate literary "framing". Falik's ballets of the 1960s demonstrate the breadth of his interests and tastes, "metamorphoses" ("Metamorphoses" is the title of Y. Falik's autobiographical book) of his artistic world.  The Concert for wind and percussion "Buffoons" (1966) is based on folklore tradition, the ballet "Til Ulenspiegel" (1967) is the legend of a medieval Flemish joker and joker, the choreographic tragedy "Oresteia" (1968) is the composition of the "father of European drama" by the ancient Greek poet Aeschylus. The choral works that have become a significant part of Falik's artistic heritage are written to the words of A. Pushkin, A. Akhmatova, N. Gumilev, I. Severyanin, M. Tsvetaeva, B. Pasternak and reflect a completely different poetic element. Among the composer's literary co-authors are anonymous creators of the texts of the traditional Catholic Mass and masters of the early Middle Ages.

Falik's "female" vocal cycles of the 1970s were created based on the poems of the composer's favorite poets of the Russian Silver Age. In "Five Poems by A. Akhmatova" for soprano and piano (1972), the composer used Akhmatova's very early acmeist compositions of 1911-1915. Akhmatova has just begun to be published, Falik's appeal to the style of the young poet is both interesting and remarkable. "Zveniden" for mezzo-soprano and piano (1979) was written on poems by M. Voloshin, A. Akhmatova, M. Tsvetaeva, V. Mayakovsky, Sasha Cherny, I. Severyanin, O. Mandelstam, I. Annensky, I. Bunin, V. Kamensky. We have before us a musical collection, an anthology of Russian poetry of the twentieth century, a significant period of its heyday in all the variety of styles and directions.

The composers of the so-called "Moscow Troika" (this witty name was invented by the conductor and propagandist of "new" music G. Rozhdestvensky, thus uniting E. Denisov, A. Schnittke and S. Gubaidulina) were in the 1960s in relentless style searches. Their literary spaces are truly limitless, their imagination is indomitable. The list of vocal music by E. Denisov speaks about the originality of the author's approaches. Over two decades, since the 1960s, the composer has created numerous vocal cycles based on poems by Russian poets of the XVIII century, I. Bunin, O. Mandelstam, E. Baratynsky, A. Pushkin, the classic of European lyrics of the XX century Hungarian avant-garde and surrealist A. Jozef, A. Blok, V. Solovyov.

Some of Denisov's vocal cycles outgrow the framework of piano accompaniment, becoming a kind of vocal-instrumental cantatas. With "The Inca Sun" (1964, for soprano and instrumental ensemble), the composer's wide fame began in the USSR and abroad. The composition is based on the poems of the Chilean G. Mistral, who combined in her work the Spanish poetic traditions with the attitude of the Indians, with the primitive emotionality of the indigenous peoples of Latin America. The Inca Sun is one of the peaks of the Soviet avant—garde, a complex interweaving of bizarre sonoristics and serial technology. "Italian Songs" to the words of A. Blok (1964) is another Denisov cycle for soprano and tiny instrumental composition (violin, flute, French horn and harpsichord). All the poems are taken from the poet's "Italian Poems" (1909), these are mainly philosophical reflections on the relationship between being and art, about beauty, about time. In music — "Webern crystals", watercolor, purity of lines.

"Cry" (1966) for soprano, piano and percussion written on folk texts. Despite the radical style, the cycle became an important milestone in the movement of the "new folklore wave". "Five Stories about Mr. Koiner" (1973) for tenor and seven instruments based on texts by B. Brecht. "Life in Red" (1973) is a vocal cycle for voice and ensemble based on poems by Frenchman B. Vian, author of shocking, modernist compositions. Denisov knew French perfectly, his opera "Foam of Days" by Vian (1981) was written in French at all. In addition to writing, Vian performed as a jazz musician, trumpeter and singer. In "Life in Red", the composer noted this hypostasis of his with a new imaginative and stylistic layer - allusions to the songs of French chansonniers.      

"Three Poems by Marina Tsvetaeva" by A. Schnittke for mezzo-soprano and piano (1965) became one of the first appeals of Russian composers to the works of the poetess. Three parts of the cycle — "My posture is simple" (1920), "Black as a pupil" (1916) and "Opened veins" (1934) — three poems from different periods of Tsvetaeva's tragic fate. Sharp rhythms and rhymes, wordplay and aphorism, open emotionality, some kind of "inner" power, rich "sound instrumentation", all this is in Schnittke's selected compositions, all this attracted and excited artists. 

The creation of "Magdalene" for soprano and piano (1977) based on verses from the novel "Doctor Zhivago" by B. Pasternak is a rather risky step for the composer. The book about the death of the Russian intelligentsia was still banned in the USSR and was published only in samizdat or abroad.

In his stylistically most important vocal and orchestral works of the 1970s, Schnittke turns to original texts in Latin and Old German, he needs authentic material, pure sounding (even if incomprehensible) words. In Requiem (1975) he uses old vocal genres. According to the composer, "the Latin text carries a magical load, its impact is strong both on the person who knows the details, the meaning of each word, and on the uninitiated. This is music in itself." ^{[6, p. 110]}. In Minnesang (1977), the author includes melodies of medieval minnesingers: "I wanted to create a picture of some magical action that takes place on the basis of this music. And the text that I have kept unchanged here — in Middle High German — this text is incomprehensible even to a modern German, it does not matter here, it turns into phonemes, expressing not something plot, but some kind of mood. <...> I am convinced that the authenticity of the material is of great importance. Elusive, unrecognizable, they will give a greater effect than if I composed it myself," Schnittke said about his composition ^{[6, pp. 101-102]}. As we can see, this is an absolutely new approach to the sounding word, it dissolves into instrumental colors and becomes music itself.

"Phacelia" for soprano and piano to the words of M. Prishvin (1957) is the only "textbook" vocal cycle by S. Gubaidulina, her very early work. Prishvin's "Phacelia" is a poem about unrequited love and happiness, about the nature and torments of creativity, a kind of poems in prose, small essays, innovative art for its time, as, however, all the work of S. Gubaidulina is innovative. The literary basis of her cantatas "Night in Memphis" (1968) and "Rubayat" (1969) are ancient Egyptian texts and poems by prominent Persian poets of the XI — XIV centuries. In "Steps" (1972), the orchestra musicians recite a mystical and philosophical passage from the cycle of R. M. Rilke "The Life of the Virgin Mary", and in the Concert for Pop and Symphony Orchestras (1975) they whisper a poem by A. Fet. In the finale of the orchestral "Hour of the Soul" (1977), the sublime lines of M. Tsvetaeva sound.

"Four Poems by I. Brodsky" for soprano and piano, created by B. Tchaikovsky in 1965, as it is known, were removed from the premiere show at the Moscow Philharmonic right on the day of the concert — the author of the poems was already serving time in a colony near Arkhangelsk at that time. The composer, not counting on the speedy "rehabilitation" of the poet, instrumented the composition (Four preludes for chamber orchestra). The poems came to the composer by chance, from his school teacher in literature, handwritten from a Samizdat collection ^[7]. B. Tchaikovsky, according to his upbringing, according to his creative aspirations, was infinitely far from the Leningrad poetic underground, the style, spirit, subjects of I. Brodsky's early poetry were unusual for him. In addition, there were serious risks to associate themselves with the name of a "parasite", "imaginary poet", a dissident person. What attracted the composer in these clean intonation, sharply simple (and absolutely, by the way, apolitical) lines? 

Brodsky's poetry is very difficult for musical embodiment, not all attempts were successful, but in the cycle of B. Tchaikovsky, the "chemistry" of the word and music (with very different stylistics), the organicity of their fusion, and the final romance "Stanzas" ("Neither country nor churchyard / I don't want to choose. / To Vasilievsky Island / I will come to die"), in our opinion, belongs to the best pages of Russian chamber vocal music at all.

B. Tchaikovsky and N. Zabolotsky are another major milestone in the Soviet vocal cycle. In "Last Spring" (a cycle for mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet and piano, 1980), the composer uses the late poems of the poet who went through public persecution, arrest, camps, betrayals of loved ones, illnesses — piercing statements about the life around us, about late love, about the cycle of everything that exists in nature. These poems are close to tradition, they are musical and emotional. In an earlier cantata "Signs of the Zodiac" based on poems by F. Tyutchev, A. Blok, M. Tsvetaeva and N. Zabolotsky (1974), the author turned to a completely different style of the poet, using in the last part both the famous and mysterious poem of the early period of Zabolotsky's work. "The signs of the zodiac are fading ..." — chaos, absurdity, confrontation of words, phantasmagoric visions, but also a naively playful view of the world, fresh and clean, almost childish.   

G. Sviridov in "Departed Russia (for mezzo-soprano and piano, 1977) showed "his", unknown to the general public, S. Yesenin: "izbyanaya" Russia, patriarchy, evangelical, pagan, folklore themes, longing for "departing" Russia, "heavenly garden", "transfigured souls" — all this it was unexpected, exciting, bright, poetic. Sviridov's Russia is also "bell-shaped", sonorous, strong. "The Departed Russia" is one of the most significant musical and poetic symbols of the 1960s and 1970s, a composition that raises the vocal cycle to previously unattainable heights. 

Sviridov's courageous civic act was the cantata "It's Snowing" (1964) based on poems by Boris Pasternak (the poet had to refuse the Nobel Prize due to threats of deprivation of citizenship, with unprecedented harassment in the press and society). Moreover, the composer included the poem "Soul" (1956) in the composition, as a result of which the sensitive and obsequious musical censorship had to intervene: in the score of 1975 (All-Union Publishing House "Music"), the line "You are a skin in our time" was replaced by "You are difficult in our time". We should also note the composer's remarkable interpretations of the finest lyrics by A. Isaakian, the Armenian "singer of folk grief, love and sadness" and previously unknown poems by A. Blok.

D. Shostakovich is one of those rare masters who complicated, developed, and enriched their language throughout their creative life (we do not mean the brief period after the memorable events of 1948 associated with the Resolution of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) "On the opera The Great Friendship by V. Muradeli", when the composer had to "simplify" for the sake of elementary physical survival). His attitude to poetic sources was also constantly updated and "complicated". If in the 1950s his literary co-authors were A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, M. Svetlov, E. Dolmatovsky, then the Thirteenth Symphony (1962) based on E. Yevtushenko's poems turned the ideas not only about what a modern symphony could be, but also about Soviet poetry of that time. The compositions of a very young author, among the plots — the tragedy of Babi Yar, among the lines — "Fears are dying in Russia", the composer opened new spiritual horizons to society, was at the forefront of "thaw" freedom. The vocal Fourteenth Symphony (1969) on the poems of G. Lorca, G. Apollinaire, V. Kuchelbecker and R. M. Rilke has even more novelty: unexpected poetic names, the theme of death (violent, premature, sudden), eleven parts-moments of a diverse, rich and complex-changeable world.

And what about the late vocal cycles?  A. Blok, M. Tsvetaeva, Michelangelo's sonnets, F. Dostoevsky's "Demons" are fresh, interesting, exciting, difficult texts that reveal life in all its manifestations and bring a unique shade of wise sadness and summing up to the work of D. Shostakovich in recent years.

The wave of interest of Russian composers in chamber and vocal music, which arose in the 1960s and 1970s, is primarily associated with the hitherto unprecedented wealth of poetic themes and images, the emergence of modern literature. Spiritual horizons expanded rapidly, original texts entailed fresh genre and technological solutions. The new poetic "information", as well as scientific information, liberated the creative forces of musicians, demanded a new language, style, form. According to S. Slonimsky, "after the memorable twentieth party Congress, it became easier to breathe. Not only the all-powerful idol collapsed. All the threads entangling freedom of will, choice and conscience were broken <...> in the future, no ruler was an authority for me, no theory was mandatory, no worldview was suitable for everyone, no artistic style was the only possible one" ^{[8, p. 117]}.  

The choice of a new literary path in music was conscious and absolutely independent for each composer. Age and artistic preferences did not play a significant role: these could be the early poems of I. Brodsky by B. Tchaikovsky, the "social" works of the young E. Yevtushenko by D. Shostakovich, the "forbidden" texts of B. Pasternak in the cantata by G. Sviridov, or the poetry of A. Akhmatova in the cycles of S. Slonimsky and Y. Falik, M. Tsvetaeva in the works of A. Schnittke and S. Gubaidulina. The youngest authors — G. Banshchikov, A. Kneifel, V. Martynov, and the luminaries of the Russian school of composition — N. Peiko, V. Salmanov, B. Arapov - also turned to the new literature. No one was left out of the unique poetic renewal in the Soviet musical history.

Ancient Greek tragedy, medieval Persian authors, Russian folk art, European romantic tradition, surrealism, modernism, ancient Russian literature, poets of the Silver Age, the cantos of the Petrine era, Soviet classics, young authors of the domestic underground, poems of "enemies of the people" who returned from the camp oblivion, Latin American poets, Old German and Old Versailles texts, ancient Egyptian, ancient Sumerian poetry, The Old Testament, A. Pushkin and V. Kuchelbecker, M. Lermontov and M. Prishvin, B. Brecht and B. Vian, G. Lorca and R. M. Rilke, G. Apolliner and F. Dancer — this is not a complete list of literature and authors who entered Russian music in the 1960s and 1970s.