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Postludium
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Postludium The manuscript of this study had already been accepted by Slavica Publishers when one of the reviewers kindly provided me with his comments which led to two major changes in chapters 3 and 5. In response to the reviewer’s com-‐‑ ments, a few pages have been added (chapter 5), containing a broader com-‐‑ parison between “Last Love” and the Russian art song of the time, in particu-‐‑ lar, Bulakhov’s song “Gori, gori, moja zvezda….” The key argument is that due to its music-‐‑related genre “Last Love” is as simple and easy to read as Bulakhov’s music piece to sing (Ginzburg 1993, 43–80). Concerning the metrics and composition of “Last Love,” a final example of the musicological method of analysis is provided below. It aims to show that most likely Tjutchev’s metrical experimentation within three stanzas went even further than thought previously: in the direction of music compo-‐‑ sition. We know from chapter 5 that in agreement with Shengeli’s concept, the initial stanza of “Last Love” is totally iambic, and not at all unusual. The final stanza is similar to the opening one. Hence, in regards to metrics, it is the central stanza that requires explanation. It is important to mention that this research on Tjutchev actually began with “Last Love.”1 What initially stimulated me to contribute to the exami-‐‑ nation of “Last Love” from a musicological viewpoint was one particular line in the central stanza: line 2, “Лишь тAм, нa зAпaде, брOдит сиЯнье …”; moreover, it was not the line itself but the variety of its scholarly inter-‐‑ pretations. Many noted the presence of amphibrachic feet: A. Kubarev (1837), A. Belyj (1910), L. Sabaneev (1923), and K. Pigarev (1962), among others. Kubarev, Belyj, and Sabaneev approached “Last Love” from a clearly pro-‐‑ musicological position. For instance, Sabaneev proposed to explain line 4 in stanza 3 with tri-‐‑syllabic feet as “valse-‐‑looking”: “Ты и блаженство, и безнадежность.” 1 It began within the author’s early work on the interdisciplinary associations in the analysis of literature and music (Ginzburg 1993). In addition to “Last Love,” only Tjutchev’s “Insomnias” were analyzed: in them an analogy with a musical composi-‐‑ tion was noted (ibid.). Meanwhile “Last Love” was proposed to have some features of song. Other literary works (Heimito von Doderer’s prose, Seven Variations, and T. S. Eliot’s poetic Quartets) were more directly oriented in their genre to music, as one can tell from their titles (ibid.). 194 TJUTCHEV’S LYRICS Comparison: 1 2 3 / 1 2 3 / 1 2 3 / 1 2 (3) St. 3, l. 4: TY i bla-‐‑ /zhEnst -‐‑vo /\ / I bez-‐‑na-‐‑ /dEzh-‐‑nost’ /\; St. 2, l. 2: LIsh’ tam na / zA -‐‑pa-‐‑de/ brO -‐‑dit si-‐‑ / jAn’ -‐‑e … Even such an experimental version by Sabaneev seems more acceptable for reading than that proposed by Pigarev (1962): his interpretation of line 2— “Лишь тAм на зAпаде / брOдит сиЯнье…”—requires the original commas to be ignored, and one caesura to be added. This caesura2 may cause reader’s confusion: the otherwise disproportionately long line displaying a few extra-‐‑ syllables turns out to be not only non-‐‑commeasurable with the rest of the poem (which begins in iambic tetrameter, “O, kak na sklone nashikh let…”), but also almost unreadable. At the same time, G. Shengeli’s lejma (similar to Kvjatkovskij’s pause)3 helps us read this line in the most natural manner in agreement with Tjutchev’s punctuation:“Лишь тAм,/\ на зAпаде, брOдит сиЯнье….” In my 1993 study the following partiture of the whole poem was proposed: 1 О, как на склоне наших лет /4 2 Нежней мы любим /\ и суеверней…/\ 3 Сияй, сияй, прощальный свет / 4 Любви последней, /\ зари вечерней! /\ 5 Полнеба обхватила тень,/ 6 Лишь тAм, /\ на западе, бродит сиянье,—/ 7 Помедли, помедли, вечeрний день,/ 8 Продлись, продлись, очарованье./\ 9 Пускай скудеет в жилах кровь, / 10 Но в сердце не скудеет нежность… /\ 11 О ты, последняя любовь! / 12 Ты и блаженство, /\ и безнадежность. /\ In its metrical composition “Last Love” resembles a music form ABA, or A[bcb]A, in which the meter in the opening part, A, is two quarters (2/4); then it changes from 2/4 to 3/4 in the central part, and finally returns to 2/4: 2 Apparently, the caesura in Pigarev’s analysis is understood similarly to Kvjatkov-‐‑ skij’s pause and Shengeli’s lejma (approximately equal to one syllable) as opposed to a pause which Tomashevskij termed “irrational” (иррациональная пауза) (Kvjatkovskij 1966, 198–201). 3 After the word “tam.” 4 “/” is an intonational, or “irrational,” pause which takes no time ; “/\” is a lejma. [3.138.204.208] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 16:40 GMT) POSTLUDIUM 195 A B A A b c b A 2/4 à 3/4 à 2/4 Likewise, in the central stanza of LL there is a transition from iambic (two-‐‑syllabic) to...