In some musical works, when introducing the "New Russian School of Music" - "Powerful Group", which had a profound influence on the development of Russian national music in the 1860s, a Kuyi, also translated as Gu Yi or The members of Gui Yi's "group" are all written by translators in Taiwan Province of our country, and the translation methods have their own merits, which are not mistranslations. But our mainland readers and even music lovers will definitely be lost in the fog when they see this "three benefits", not knowing who they are referring to. What the author wants to introduce now is the Russian composer whose translation name is "Guy", which has been established in mainland China and is familiar to readers.
In terms of artistic achievements in music creation, Guy is slightly inferior to the other four members of the "Group", but he has made an invaluable contribution to the "Group"'s ideological construction and to promote the "Group" to establish advanced creative principles; In terms of the genre and number of creations, in addition to operas, he also has more than 250 songs and music to show, which is among the best in the "group", which may have something to do with his longevity. He was 78 years old at the age of 78. He also wrote children's operas "Ivanuska the Fool" and "Puss in Boots".
Guy is an outstanding Russian composer, but he is not of Russian ethnicity. His father is a French officer and his mother is a Lithuanian, so his name is quite Western - Caesar Guy. Guy was born in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, in 1835. He loved music since he was a child. He began to learn music at the age of 10. At the age of 15, he studied music theory and composition under the guidance of the Polish composer, conductor and founder of national opera, Moniuszko (1819-1872), but he did not study for a long time. Time moved to Petersburg with his parents. In 1851, he first studied at the Engineering Center School, and later at the Military Engineering College. After graduating in 1857, he stayed at the school as a tutor, became an associate professor in 1878, and was promoted to a meritorious professor in 1891. He taught courses in topography and fortification successively. During the Russo-Turkish War from 1877 to 1878, Guy was sent to the battlefield as a fortification expert to guide the construction of Russian army positions.
The above resume shows that Guy's main business is the teaching and actual construction of military engineering, but his love for music and the acquaintance of the famous composer Dalgomeisky, the leader of the "power group" Balakirev and outstanding The art critic and thinker Stasov, under their influence and guidance, devoted himself to music creation, and eventually became another outstanding "amateur" composer of the "Powerful Group".
In 1856 Guy joined the "Powerful Group" and actively promoted the progressive and innovative movement of Russian music. Since 1864, he has published music review articles in the influential newspapers at that time, "Petersburg Gazette", "Voice", "Citizen", "News and Markets" and even foreign newspapers. He also participated in "Music Review" from 1885 to 1888. "Editor work, from 1889 to 1895 participated in the "Actor" magazine's music column work. The 1860s and 1870s were the most glorious period of Guy's music criticism activities. He often published articles in the name of "New Russian Music School". The practice of not thinking about progress and ignoring the young art of the motherland. Guy asserts that it will be the Russian composers who will drive the progress of music, and that "music will be revitalized and ushered in a new era because of us". During this period, Guy's music criticism activities played an indispensable role in the ideological construction of the "Group" and the creation of the members of the "Group". However, at the same time, due to the limitations of his ideological viewpoints and the one-sided influence and personal extremes in the dominant thoughts of the "group", Guy's criticism of the academic school was unfair, and he completely denied the music of 18th century classical music and German composition. Wagner, Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, and some other outstanding composers of the 19th century. Afterwards, the sharpness of his comments was moderated, but mixed with conservative biases, which affected him to correctly evaluate the excellent works of Mussorgsky and Borodin. After 1900 Guy ceased his commentary activities and published only occasional articles.
Guy denounced classicism but had a soft spot for Western romanticism, even more than his love for Russian national traditions. His creations were influenced by romantic masters Schumann, Chopin and French opera. The most valuable of Guy's colorful works are the chamber vocal ballads, and his finest romantics, such as the poet Maikov (1821-1897), based on Pushkin's poems "The Statue of the Imperial Village" and "The Burned Letter". The romantic songs composed in "What Are You Thinking in a Quiet Night", "The Harp in the Wind" and "I Want to Live" are all full of poetic and picturesque, and their meticulously carved melodies are captivating. On the other hand, Guy's romantic songs based on the poems of the French poet Musset and the great writer Hugo are too exaggerated when expressing passion, and tend to be frivolous in salon style.
In addition to romantics, Guy's opera creations were also well received by the New Russian School of Music. His main works include "Captive of the Caucasians" in 1857-1858, "The Children of the Lord" in 1859, and 7 years of writing from 1861. "William Ratcliffe" (based on Heine's epic poem), "Angelo" (based on Hugo's play of the same name) in 1875, "Pirates" in 1889, "Salarius" in 1898, 1900 "The Day of the Plague, When the Chinese Banquet Blooms" in 2003, "Miss Fifi" in 1903, and "Matheo Falconnell" in 1907 (based on the French short story master Mérimé's novel of the same name, the poet Zhukovs Key's translation), "The Captain's Daughter" in 1909 (based on Pushkin's novel of the same name).
When William Ratcliffe premiered in 1869, Rimsky-Korsakov, the Group's most prominent composer, wrote in a review: "William Ratcliffe is a This is a very good work, like Dalgomeisky's "The Mermaid", Glinka's "Ruslan" and "Dedication to the Tsar" (ie "Ivan Susanin"), will be in the art palace It has a well-deserved seat in it..." The opera, however, was not a real success, as its antiquated romantic subject matter and its lyrical musical language did not match the maniacal passion of its characters. The same shortcomings are also manifested in other operas such as "Angelo" and "Salarius". In his later works, such as "The Day of the Plague, When the Chinese Banquet Blooms" and "Miss Fifi", the composer's strong interest in the realism in opera is shown. Realism is a genre of realism in Italian literature, opera and plastic arts at the end of the 19th century. It is close to naturalism. It is characterized by depicting the lives of the poor and peasants, focusing on depicting the feelings and dramatic conflicts of the characters, and has a strong emotional color.
Due to his preference for Western romanticism, most of Guy's instrumental works are soothing piano miniatures. Therefore, the famous Russian music critic, professor of the Moscow Conservatory of Music and Petersburg Conservatory of Music, has a relationship with the "Powerful Group". Laroche (1845-1904), who had a heated debate, called him "the composer of the Schuman school".
In his last years, Guy had a passion for composing children's music because of his acquaintance with the female music educator Doromanova. He successively composed 13 children's choruses for female voices, several children's suites dedicated to educators, and wrote 4 children's operas "Snow Warrior", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Puss in Boots" and "Ivanushka the Fool" (or "Ivan the Warrior").
Finally, it must be pointed out that Dalgomesky’s 1866 opera “The Stones” was based on Pushkin’s poem of the same name, and Mussorgsky’s 1874 1874 opera was based on Gogol’s novel “A Night Talk at Dikonka” "Sorochinsk Bazaar" (translated "Soroqince Bazaar") was not completed due to the premature death of the composer, but it has become a handed down work in Russian opera. This is related to Guy's hard work. inseparable. The former was continued by Guy and Rimsky-Korsakov, and the latter was continued by Guy, Riadov, and Rimsky-Korsakov.
Although Guy's achievements in music creation are not a giant in the music world, he is still outstanding, especially in his more than 30 years of music criticism writings, although there are biased opinions and arguments, but the flaws do not hide the flaws. The development of Russian national music, He still played an indispensable role in defending the creative principles of the "Powerful Group", so later generations called him the spokesperson of the "Powerful Group".
The most commendable thing is that, like Borodin, another member of the "group", Bao is an elite in the fields of chemistry and medicine and has gone down in history as a composer, while Guy is an expert in military engineering and has been awarded the rank of general of the engineering army. Although he was old, he still worked tirelessly to create music, and he did not stop writing until he was old (Guy died in March 1918). This is also a glorious example that Guy left to the world as an "amateur composer"!
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