Article / Arts, architecture and construction - Drama, music and film industry

Brodova I.A.

«THE MUSIC OF THE WORDS» AS MEANINGFUL UNITY

Yaroslavl State Theatre Institute, Yaroslavl, Russia, Pervomayskaya, 43,

150000

The article discusses the conception of the "music of the words" as a

meaningful unity by the example of comparative analysis of the A.S. Pushkin's
"Boris Godunov" tragedy and M.P. Musorgsky’s opera created on its basis,
and V.E. Meyerhold’s unrealized performance. The article formulates the main
criterias for the interpretation of the conception in order to introduce it as an
art history term.
Key words are: the conception of the "music of words", the equivalential
intonation sound statuses in music and speech sound score speech, voice
notes, the music of the verse as a letter-sound synthesis, music as a semantic
tone of speech.

The ”music of the words" - a conception, which is fairly often occurs in a

variety of texts, and it hasn’t yet been the subject of a special artistic research.
The lack of common criterias of its interpretation leads to the use of the term
as a kind of metaphor, ambiguously interpreted in the context of a statement.
More questions about the interaction between the music and the words occurs
when these terms are separated, and the authors, referring to the evidence of
their relationship, are opposing "the conceptual nature of the word" and
"emotional nature of music."
This article proposes us to consider one of the possible interpretation of
the conception of «music of the words» as a meaningful unity by the
example of comparative analysis of the tragedy of A.S. Pushkin's "Boris
Godunov" tragedy, M.P. Musorgsky’s opera created on its basis, and V.E.
Meyerhold’s stage play, where "Pushkin’s word’s music " is taken as a
reference point.

All three authors are focusing on the musical and speech intonations,
which are, as told by academic Asafiev, "give closely related with the
manifestations of human mental life material to the artist" [1, p. 7].
It’s well known that the music and the speech intonations has a sound nature.
It is proposed to take as a common feature three "sound intonation statuses"
that can be equivalently related:
• Music and Speech sounds as an acoustic (objective) status;
• musical note and the letter as a landmark (semantic) condition;
• musical tone and letter-sound synthesis as a conceptual (symbolic) state.
As a result, the music of the words can be considered as an acoustic
identity, creating a "sound score" speech, and as a semantic component,
when "voice notes" appear in the process of pronouncing the words and,
finally, as a kind of symbolic meaning, that is born in the process of replacing
a letter-sound synthesis by a musical tone.
The choice of Pushkin's "Boris Godunov" tragedy is not accidental, because
it has most fully revealed the Pushkin’s word’s music. It’s confirmation should
be sought in the well-known poet’s article "On folk drama and the drama"
Martha, The Posadnik's Wife '"[6, p. 119], where he presented his views on
the nature of the dramatic art. In particular, Pushkin wrote that drama
manages passions and outpourings of the human soul, and that it nourishes
the imagination. At the same time, Pushkin had paid special attention to the
"likelihood of feelings in the given circumstances" as a crucial requirement for
the drama playwright.
Many researchers admired musical and poetic Pushkin’s ear, his phonetic
technique that emphasized the expression of poetic statement, when,
according to the L. Feinberg’s words, "no one - not even the slightest detail of
the music of the verse - could not escape from his creative attention."

If using the above triads as the principle of musical and poetic expression of
Pushkin, it can be stated that the essence of music of the words in "Boris
Godunov" is covered by the credibility of various " intonation sound statuses "
through a kind of sonic instrumentation verse, that is born as a result of a
thorough musical and sound processing letter -sound synthesis of poetic
speech, through the notes of the human soul in the tragedy’s given
circumstances.
Pushkin’s word’s music has a huge potential meaning, enabling different
ways to interpret this. A striking example is a well-known Pushkin’s word’s
music readings performed by Musorgsky and Meyerhold.
First we need to see that all the compared products refer to different kinds of
art: the Pushkin’s tragedy - the play, Musorgsky’s folk musical drama – an
opera, Meyerhold’s version – the dramatic stage play.
One of the unifying principles of the works can be scenic action. However,
the stage action, as you know, in the theater (musical and dramatic) is present
in reality, in the drama - only potentially. For this reason, it cannot be seen as
a common component of various works of art.
The music can become another unifying factor, but in musical theater
music, of course, is the basis. In drama it’s declared potentially - and the
director can avoid it in the process of staging the play. And in the drama
theater music is also used randomly and episodically. For this reason, music
also can’t be a universal component of all three works.
Thus, the only component really presented in all three works is the Word.
Consequently, the music becomes a kind of "semantic tone" with no work
regarding to a particular type of art.
Since the word is the primary source of Pushkin, the identification of the
word’s music begins with a tragedy "Boris Godunov." Numerous changes to
the text during its creation shows painstaking work of the poet on the word:
"As Montagne, I can say about my work – Pushkin wrote, - C` est une oeuvre
bonne de foi (this is a well-done product) "[5, p. 88].

The search for precision of thought, dynamic scenario, the severity of the
conflict in the dialogues have led to the fact that a single word can’t be
removed from the Pushkin's tragedy or replaced by another, otherwise an
internal movement of the spirit will be lost, and the text informativeness will
disappear.
As the information content of the text cannot be seen in the aspect of the
triad: a thing as the spoken word - a sign of the semantics of the spoken
word - the concept as symbolic meaning of a spoken word, from the point of
view of making words the entire audio range tragedy can be divided into two
triads. One of them is related with the onstage action trunk: the sound - the
subject, the sound – the means of characteristics, the sound - the
personage. Another triad can be correlated with the onstage action on the
extension: the word-sound - the outpouring of the waves of the human
soul, the word-note - a sign of the human experience, the word-tone - the
meaning of the spiritual movement (action).
Let’s check how the above triads can help us to clarify music Pushkin’s
word’s music.

In the first scene of the "Kremlin Chambers" tragedy in haste,

"commonplace" dialogue of two boyars music is manifested in latent form as a
kind of "music of the facts," as a reflection on the situation in the country
tensed political situation (... How do you think, what will alarm end with?). The
"external word" does not coincide with the "inner word" that we do not hear,
but guessing in the atmosphere created by the constant increase in the tone
of tension. And it is not due to changes in pitch of voice tone, but rather a
means of variation in meaning, for example, by bringing evidence (... Who
else? Who bribed Chepchugov in vain? Who had sent both Bitiagovskys with
Kachalov?).

The opposition of internal unrest and external tranquility characters is

stored in the second stage - the "Red Square", the music of the words is
manifested as a "spoken inner speech" (... Oh, my God, who will rule us? Oh
woe to us!). In this situation, a sound of "note trepidation", already familiar to
us from the first scene, sound new. Music words in the third stage - "Maiden
field. Novodevichy Convent "- this is the combined sound of "Music of internal
and external disturbances "- pumping a sound of tension that has
accumulated in the first two scenes. In this scene Pushkin pays special
attention to audio instrumentation. The key point of the scene is the noise,
creating an atmosphere of obvious anxiety and revealing true the musical
potential, which was started in the prologue (The people howled, they are
falling down as the waves ...)
Noise, which is specified by Pushkin in music words like notes of howling
and crying, gradually acquires a different meaning, emphasizing the shift from
passive contemplation to action (note of the request, note of the requirements
to ascend the throne.) However, the paradox of the situation is that not all
people in this noisy crowd are aware of the meaning of howling and crying (-
What are they crying there for? Well, how do we know?).
Let’s recall that according to the plot of the play people were forcibly
rounded up to the Novodevichy Convent and were made crying and asking
Boris to become a Tsar. The easiest way to create the appearance of a
personal interest in this "political show" – a pointless screaming. Regarding
this, Pushkin makes a clear dividing line between the notes of screaming,
howling and crying. You can even create a hierarchy in the degree of noise
clarify the meaning of action: meaninglessness of screaming to howling as a
cross between the screaming and crying and finally to crying, which can be
born only when sincerely recognizing the ongoing dramatic situation. But
Pushkin does not condemn all the people of insincerity crying. The proof of
this is the music of despair and confusion in the word’s music. Concluding
sound instrumentation stage, he succeeds in the final notes of howling and
wailing notes of triumph and joy, notes of triumph, thus removing the tension
out (He’s got the Crown! He’s the Tsar! He has agreed! Boris is our Tsar!
Long live Boris!).

There is an imaginary (symbolic) being of sound in Pushkin word’s music,

which is achieved by visually-graphic techniques (... they are falling down as
the waves). The waves in the context of the play are the word-symbol to
represent not only the look of the crowd, which is comparable with the sea but
the internal state of the people, united by a common experience as well. It is
no accident that Pushkin chose the key word-waves- to characterize the
people. The sound of waves moving in the music of the words is a kind of
substitute tone of excitement.

The word’s music emphasizes in the stage of "The night. The cell in the
Chudov Monastery" where the story of Pimen is epic like, traditionally
performed with instrumental accompaniment. Graduation noise in the story
Pimen - yelling, crying, screaming - like hierarchy of noise in the scene of "The
Maiden field. Novodevichy Convent ": cry (yell) - scream (howl) - weeping
(crying). Similar to the music of speech is enhanced by the degree of
specificity of meaning: a scream - almost does not give the exact tone of what
is happening, the cry - the tone of something terrible, and finally, sobbing
(notes of pain and suffering) just points to a tragic tone.

The word’s music should be noted particularly in the music scene

"Lobnoe Mesto," where people are presented as an active force, a crier is
pulled out of its mass - a man throwing a rebellious cry (notes of riot) with high
pulpit (People! To the Kremlin! To the Palace! Go bind Boris, the whelp!).
Pushkin reaches this stage yield stress of making words by bringing the noise
to the level of battle cry (not scream, not yell). The battle cry sounds like an
order with no alternative. Being terrible, it doesn’t not give any time for the
awareness and the future proposed action.

Pushkin completes his tragedy with people’s silence. However, in this

apparent lack of word’s music we can hear the words of V. Belinsky "terrible
tragic voice of a new Nemesis, the court utters his victim on a new one ..." [2,
p. 453].

If a word in the text of Pushkin’s "Boris Godunov" is the only a carrier of

music, then Musorgsky’s opera, in addition to the dramatic words, has a
theatrical music, interpreting the music of Pushkin's word’s music. Following
the "instructions" of the poet, Musorgsky plunges Pushkin's words in a
different art (and historical) environment, which is captured in different from
Pushkin's tragedy semantic emphasis.

Despite the reverent attitude to Pushkin's poetry, composer for making

the word’s music maximally close to the "truth of feeling" of his
contemporaries, essentially changed the text of Pushkin's tragedy. First of all,
Mussorgsky moves from descriptive poetic words to music and scenic verbal
action inherent in musical theater. For this reason, the music of Pushkin's
words inevitably lost its original meaning. Moreover, Mussorgsky consciously
sought unlock uncluttered and organized strictly rhythmic verse form of
dramatic text Pushkin so that rhythmically free direct words would allow,
through its flexibility and the enhanced expression of the music, to see the
"inaccessible" poetic word musical and theatrical expression.

In the name of live feelings authenticity Musorgsky very often begins to

be actively opposed the music of Pushkin's words. Per line organization of
Pushkin's words often varies rhythmically through cuts, extensions, or other
arrangement of words by the composer. For example, iambic pentameter,
which Pushkin mentions in his preface to the play, a composer replaces by
free verse, more natural for speech - catchy phrases, thus creating a different
sense of space and of the organic, from Mussorgsky's point of view of music,
revealing expression of Pushkin's words.

Just like Pushkin, Musorgsky worked very hardly with the words through
its meaning, taking the concept of the opera concept into consideration.
Making much changes in the text of the tragedy even by writing the whole
scenes, Mussorgsky, however, kept the main thing - Pushkin's approach to
the music of words, with the fine differentiation of the human experience.
Pushkin's principles of making the dialogues based on naturalness and ease
were also close to Musorgsky. In this direction, the composer went on Pushkin
by a kind of naturalization opera and scenic images, create the illusion of
"right now" moving action: Pushkin: - What are they crying there for? - Well,
how do we know?. Mussorgsky: - What a cry? - Won! How do I know?

While comparing similar scenes of a play and an opera, it turns out that
for all the discrepancies with the original Mussorgsky, however, carefully
preserves every scrap of Pushkin’s music of the words (unawareness action,
feigned tears, ignorance of the people, etc.). Every hint of Pushkin's word’s
music is growing in a musically-active situation. For example, the intentional
use of the composer lexically harsh language, the saturation of its interjections
followed by "dramatic development" in solo and choral dialogue not only took
the composer away from the line of Pushkin's words, but also helped him to
create an equivalent of Pushkin's drama.

In accordance with his vision of making word’s music, Mussorgsky

changed not only the notes in the music of Pushkin's words, but its tone, that
can be most clearly seen in the solo scenes of the opera. Thus, the composer
significantly rethought the scenic view of Tsar Boris’ monologue. From the
throne oration, it turned down to a sincere praying – the note for etiquette
transformed to the note of self-introspection without losing efficiency. This
semantic modulation (first - spiritual, then - a royal) – is visual proof of how
Musorgsky puts semantic emphasis according to his vision of Pushkin's music
of the words.

Real-sounding word in Musorgsky’s opera allowed him, unlike Pushkin,

to extremely dilute the conflicting parties. At one pole - a musical fixation of
earthy folk dialects, on the other - oratorically upbeat melodic monologues of
Tsar Boris, caused by moral and philosophical position of a single individual.
Musorgsky saw every verse like micro-form in a unique musical garb, and in
many cases, it can explain the adjustments of Pushkin's text. For example,
the pathetic, oratorical tone of the words of Tsar Boris in Pushkin's play "So
may I rule my people for the glory" Mussorgsky converts epic and
philosophical in the opera "So I rule my people in the glory."

Similarly, the composer comes to folk dialects, subtly differentiating not

only its sound structure, but also the semantics. So there was, for example, a
gallery of female characters: the woman wailing ("Oh, dashing, very hoarse"),
shrewish woman ("You see, what a noblewoman"), sprightly woman with
unapologetic speech patter ("Yelled more than all, she used and lay in store
"). For the details of their musical and speech pattern a gesture and posture
can be seen. And just like on the beautiful canvas or in the pages of a literary
work, the external image as it is translated in our perception of the sphere-
shaped psychological that is endowed with musical spoken word symbolic
meaning.

Meyerhold, unlike Musorgsky, wanted to perform a play based on the

tragedy in the Pushkin Drama Theatre, but, unfortunately, the plan, which he
nurtured for many years, has not been fully realized. For this reason, we can
only speak hypothetically about Meyerhold’s music reading of Pushkin's
words, based on his statements and experience in radio performance "The
Stone Guest" in the spring of 1935 with the actors of State Theater of
Meyerhold.

The main means of expression of the "Boris Godunov" play, as it was

planned by Meyerhold, was the power of the sound of Pushkin's verse. By
working with the actors, he required the grasp science respect for the text,
which cannot be "dressed up", that is to break the "line of the so-called
beautiful words," which is fundamentally different from that of Musorgsky’s
approach to Pushkin’s text that allows relatively free treatment to it.

Music director heard Pushkin's words, especially in a poetic rhythm. He

even involved the famous and influential poet, V.A. Piast, instructing him to
make rhythmic matrix performance of the play. Piast divided the Pushkin's text
into conventional signs, marked with different pause time and caesuras,
distributed stresses, identified areas of high and low voice, widely using the
terminology of music [3, p. 214-217].

The unique "melodic and rhythmic score" of "Boris Godunov" became

the basis for Meyerhold's work with the actors, as all efforts were directed at
achieving directed intonational precision sound of Pushkin's words. However,
Meyerhold admitted lack of actual playing music accompanying Pushkin’s
word. It mostly had to be felt, that the music is the "sound" it’s in the "rhythm
of their voices," in speech gestures and pauses of actors. In the opinion of
Meyerhold, the music of Pushkin's words cannot only become the main
expression means of the show, but some of his formative principle.

Admiring the beauty of the diversed musical Pushkin's words’ beauty,

the director, however, could not completely abandon the proposed special
musical setting performance. For this reason, he turned to the S.S. Prokofiev.
By arranging the contract, Meyerhold asked the composer to write music not
only for the performance, but also to exercise control over his sound side.

A distinctive feature of Meyerhold’s work with composers was that he

usually took a ready-made music and used it to compose the play. In the case
with Prokofiev it was his "Scythian Suite", in the light of which Meyerhold
heard the music of Pushkin's words. Meyerhold gave his comments and
explanations on each painting as a kind of musical explication to Prokofiev
with the requirement to compose the music with fully preserved musical
concept of the future performance, namely, the director supposed to apply to
counterpoint speech scores of Piast and music of Prokofiev as the leading
point of "Boris Godunov".

According to the concept of Meyerhold, "pairing" the above lines in the

actors’ action had to fully identify the music of Pushkin's words. Inextricable
link stage process with moving music of Pushkin's verse, he explained that
Pushkin himself while working on "Boris Godunov" sought special musical
sonority of each word. The director, in turn, demanded the actors to perform
Pushkin's verse, as "words are somewhere on the lips, and the words, like a
juggler's balls, slide and fly through the air" [4, p. 311].

Unlike Mussorgsky, who created original melodies based on Pushkin's

verse, Meyerhold called to accurately follow the melody of Pushkin's poetic
speech. "The movement of the verse of Pushkin, - he said - requires each
new line to fit the hill, not the slides <...> that is should be to every other line
mentioned above, except for the rare occasion, like Pimen, where four lines
set in parentheses and must be read through passage "[4, p. 335]. It is no
accident during rehearsals, when trying to insist the actors to play the exact
melodic and rhythmic pattern of speech, Meyerhold often used musical terms
("... each piece has its rallentando in general allegro ...», etc.).

However, he tried to avoid the definition of music Pushkin words by

"purely technical" terms. For example, "volume", in his opinion - a purely
external indicator which doesn’t have the deep interior. Hence the insistence
to replace "external actor cover volume" by the sound hidden in the word
meaning, accompanied by an explanation that the volume isn’t very solemn.
The solemnity was to Meyerhold, in the energy of words, in their semantic
meaning, so "sonority" does not consider it as a synonym for the word
"volume". For "sonority" it was a director’s desire to "hear the voice," to create
a meaningful, defensible "speech sound score" because the incorrectly taken
emotional tone of the words, in his view, was the playpushing to anti-
musicality.

Meyerhold believed that the audience should not passively react to the
music of Pushkin's words. "It is necessary that the public should feel the
music in these verses, - he stressed. - Verse ... should sound, and the
audience should feel at once that they had come to a particularly solemn play,
where there will be a great event, passions will boil and there will be a big
game, "[4, p. 338].

To achieve targeting of making words on the viewer, Meyerhold not only

paid attention to the pronunciation of Pushkin's text, but also directed the
actors to look for melodiousness speech. Melodically spoken word was
considered by him as a semantic tune of scenic images generated by the
actors, hence the requirement that each of them got a hold of the unique
elements of melodic speech of a particular character. For example, on the
opening scene of "Boris Godunov", he said: "We have come to the image
through the music. For example, I feel that it would be absurd composition if
Shumsky talked with the young man. That is expressed in terms of the
imagery and the music ... I think that this scene is not inner but outer one "[4,
p. 337-338].

It is significant that in almost all cases, the work on each new scene
Meyerhold began with a search for its musical solutions, " Korchma "(meaning
the scene "Korchma on the Lithuanian border. "- I.B.) will be read only when
we get singing ... once we get singing, we will stage this scene immediately."
Moreover, Meyerhold started the rehearsal of each scene only when he was
absolutely sure of its musical dramaturgy. For example, the first three
episodes of "Boris Godunov" he considered to be as a single event, knitted by
the crowd noise. And the noise, according to Meyerhold, "like the noise of the
ocean, has a variety of shades - from quiet, sleepy lazy lapping waves to
rumble, storms, and finally a flurry, a ten-storms." The director thought these
episodes as great choral scene in which, however, the choir does not sing, but
"the buzz climbs in the ears " which appears in an unknown way. And that
buzzes ("moo"), supported by like-tone musical instruments, and was
intended to symbolize the inhuman face of the assembled crowd.

In his lecture, "Pushkin and the drama" delivered in October, 1935 in

Leningrad, Meyerhold touched the music solutions of other picture
performance - "Maiden field. Novodevichy Convent." Before proceeding to the
rehearsal, he tried to present it in a complete ("mounted") form. Meyerhold
had no doubt that the grandness of the scene had to be shown with the
musical means, but "show so as not to lose a single precious Pushkin’s word,
giving an ironic light for people’s "prayer " ("When needs to cry, he fell silent! "
"Is there an onion? Let’s rub the eyes", etc.) "[4, p. 571-572]. The director
finds a happy combination of the two plans suggested by Pushkin - the visible
("close-up" of those persons who was indicated in the text, as distinctive
luminaries) and invisible (unheard cry of the crowd, hidden from the eyes of
the viewer). Both plans seamlessly interact with each other, forming a kind of
a solo voice ringing amid choral accompaniment.

A similar technique was applied by Meyerhold in the stage of "the Tsar

Chambers." Strange people, brought from all over Russia by the royal decree,
almost filled the chamber. Discordant din of these crooks, charlatans (the old
man with the roosters in a sieve, Eastern man with a snake in a bag, foolish
owed something, blind old women - fortunetellers) is opposed to Kalmyk,
sitting in the corner by the window. Swaying, he plays a plaintive eastern
melody on a pipe, and this melode, as of the plan of Meyerhold, was to be the
sign of the internal being of Boris. So, "with remarkable freshness and truth,"
the "sing and played" King’s monologue amid a kind of "noise-jazz time of
Boris Godunov," should be read, written by Prokofiev with amazingly precised
match to the music of Pushkin's words.

Meyerhold also makes the scene "Moscow. Shuisky house” through the
prism of musical vision and words. It’s very interesting to give an abridged
description, recorded in the transcript of one of the rehearsals, where the
approach of the director to the Pushkin's words is clearly seen: "... This is the
drunk scene. "More wine" - it is not for effect, it's not the words that are written
just to fill in the paper. Pushkin himself clearly represented: Shuisky, many
guests, dinner <...> ... that is when the light went on, we see the bodies of the
boyars, it’s "a lot of guests," and mustaches, beards on the honey and the
"velvet beer" in an abundance of <...> They are singing ..., and the singing is
not getting better or untuned – everyone does his own, - so here is the
cacophony. Some people sing, others are silent. It all seems to be a herd of
cows - bold, matter. That’s why, a sound of <the actor> Shuisky word "More
wine" seems very flimsy. Then - "Well, dear guests, the last bucket". "The last
bucket" - is a bucket, which a man coulnd’t hold in his hands, he sticks his
head in it, right in the "Velvet beer," and lets the bubbles <...> ... When he
goes on to say:

"Excuse me, dear guests;

Thank you for not despising my bread-and-salt

I'm sorry, have a good sleep"

The guests, in fact, do not go by themselves, they crawl. Here we have

to see how this drunken herd is spreading <...> ... And amid this herd we
should hear the boy’s monologue. The only one who is not drunk in that
picture - it's a boy, and his voice should sound with amazing clarity and
sharp ... "[4, p. 311].

Music solution ("guessing the general tone") of scenes of "Boris

Godunov", due to the music of Pushkin's words, was to seal all seams of
Meyerhold’s play together, which is reminiscent of Wagner approach to
musical drama. "Orchestration" of Pushkin's words carried by Meyerhold with
various scenic funds in the bill stage action "grows" in a kind of sounding
symphonic score performance, Pushkin's words as if materializing in this
complex set design just as the musical text comes to life in the opera
orchestra, under the brilliant conductor.

In the scheme of such "intonated speech action" some characters do

not even talk, but "sing" - recitatives and arias. For example, a boy’s prayer
scene of "Moscow. Shuisky’s House" he asked to perform, so that it would
create the complete illusion of singing: "All this prayer should be said on one
note - Meyerhold addresses to the performer. - This speech should be
melodic <...> ... It should be read in the church way "[4, p. 312].

In a Shuisky’s speech Meyerhold together with the performer seeks

intonations "based on Shakespeare's scenes sence." "If this scene was not
written by Pushkin, but, for example, Alexei <Konstantinovich> Tolstoy -
Meyerhold explains - then there would be something different" [4, p. 312].
Attraction to the "historically accurate tone" in many ways united Meyerhold
with Musorgsky, explaining the poetic overtones by "naturalization of the
genre," meaning that the genre is closer to the historical conditions of its
formation.

Convergence of voice intonations with the music genre gave Meyerhold

the opportunity to discover the invisible personality traits through Shumsky
musical speech gesture. Apparently, these same considerations guided
Meyerhold when he included a scene "The Monastery Fence" (with the evil
monk) excluded by Pushkin, where the action takes place in a Gregory’s
dream. As conceived by Meyerhold, here the most complete musical score
has to be given to Gregory the Pretender - he's neither singing, nor that
speaking a monologue, like a recitative in "Don Giovanni." One cannot help
comparing this episode with an opera aria-scene that could have been
prompted by Meyerhold drama operas of Richard Wagner, whom he treated
with great reverence.

Meyerhold allegedly planned to make this scene mainly musical that is

open to music of Pushkin's verse by "substitution" letter-sound synthesis of
musical tone, a musical interlude-speech, as in this episode Pushkin sharply
changed the poetic dimension. This Meyerhold’s intention is seen, in
particular, in a transcript of one of the rehearsals, where the fact that he had
instructed Prokofiev to write music for this scene is mentioned.

Director repeatedly spoke of innocence (transparency) of the music of

Pushkin's words. It is no accident that he was delighted with the music to the
scene of the battle. Prokofiev, in the Meyerhold’s opinion, managed to come
to the music scene with the disclosure of the "Pushkin’s naivety." Cacophony
of three languages (Russian, German and French) spoken by battle
participants, the composer decides to be as "cacophony" sound of three
different types of themes (polyrhythmic, the European military band, Russian,
and Asian folk tunes).

Meyerhold looks the naivety of the music of Pushkin's verse in Pimen.

Philosophical tone of Pimen’s speech, in his opinion, is no good. His words
should be easier. "It's hard to Leo Tolstoy - Meyerhold reasoned - because he
needs to compose, and the historian must only record. The material flows into
his hands, so it’s much easier to him." And as proof of his truth, Meyerhold
reads the Pushkin's text when Pimen, while working, gives an instruction to
Gregory:
"Young blood is playing,

Restrain yourself with prayer, and the dreams

You see at ease will certainly come true."[4, p. 317-318].

 Meyerhold is looking for the true voice notes in the words of episodic
characters, focusing mainly on various music genres. For example, in Xenia’s
speech melody he wants to hear storyteller style, the way they are due,
therefore, in contrast to the "naive notes" of Pimen, this speech should sound
Xenia’s "ritual howling", as it is in the Holy Week.

Achieving musical expression, Meyerhold paid attention not only to

sounding of some scenes and characters. He also wanted a "sonority" of
individual words, weighty in the context of future performance. "The noun is a
certain characteristic, - the director emphasized while working on the scene
"Krakow. Vishnevetsky’s house" – That’s why the "devotion" should be told a
little bit with underscore, so we could feel the stop. Printers say: "vrazryadku."
That’s how it’s necessary to pronounce the word. The sound to the last soft
sign" [3, p. 290]

Especially a great contribution of Prokofiev should be noted to the

sound of music by Pushkin's words while working on the unrealized
Meyerhold’s show. Prokofiev, like Meyerhold, was captured by Pushkin's
poetry that inspired him to create the music for the play. Meyerhold had high
hopes for the Prokofiev’s music, according to contemporaries’ words. He was
fascinated by Prokofiev’s sparkling imagination, but most importantly – with a
direct hit in the "tone of Pushkin's words."

The basic technique used by Prokofiev while writing the music for the
show, can be defined as "a compilation of content of the music genres," when
acoustic music and speech sounds "matched". For example, the "Polish"
rhythmization verse in the stage of " Governor Mniszek’s castle in Sambor"
refracted in the rhythms of the polonaise and the mazurka, "the outpouring
drinking" of Barlaam and Mishael were voiced by a song genre, in an episode
of seigniorial promenade the jester sounded old , and blind beggars sung
spiritual verses. In a different way Prokofiev voiced lyrical episodes
(confession of The Pretender in the scene at the fountain, Xenia’s crying in
Tsar Chambers), where the semantics of the musical genre as "unfulfilled
desire" does not coincide with the iconic words (feigned love of Marina,
feigned sympathy of Boris). Finally, the special symbolic meaning "sound of
silence" in the end of the play (the famous Pushkin's remark "people remain
silent"), which, on Meyerhold’s plan, could only be done in the "folk music
solution storm" that only such a major composer as Prokofiev was capable to
do. We can only regret that the joint work of the two great masters has not
received its final completion. The tragedy of "Boris Godunov" might have
sounded in their play as music of outstanding personalities – performers of
Pushkin’s word’s music.

In summary, it should be noted that the study confirmed the justification

of the choice of the tragedy of Pushkin's "Boris Godunov" to justify the
concept of the "music of words." Pushkin demonstrates not only his brilliant
poetic intuition, but also provides an example of the work directed to the
poetic word, a sample of his letter-sound synthesis. The sound pattern of the
tragedy formed by Pushkin by extrapolating the shaping of different arts,
revealed new voice senses, one of which is the music of Pushkin's words, that
got a decent interpretation in Musorgsky’s opera and Meyerhold’s unrealized
performance. And while each of the authors went his own inimitable way, in
particular because they all work in different kinds of art, they were both united
by the approach to sounding word as a principal means of artistic influence on
people.

In "Boris Godunov" Pushkin finds harmony between the three major

components of the word - its sound (acoustic), sign (letter) and conceptual
(letter-sound) parties which are equivalently related to the famous musical
triad (sound - note - tone). Their unity of form is what can be called "The
Pushkin word’s music".

Mussorgsky, because of the specific opera genre, double converts

Pushkin's text - first in the libretto, then in the score, which is the so-called
dominant melodized recitative - a variant of the word’s music. Following much
of Pushkin's text in the field of slight differentiation of the human experience,
the composer is still significantly expands its musical boundaries. Thus, the
specification of the music of Pushkin's words through intonation dialects
allowed Mussorgsky further identify a range of personal voice, unique
individual notes, which coincides with the general trend of the time, the
essence of which can determine by the composer's own words - "I want the
truth!". He is not alone, for example, in A.N. Ostrovsky’s drama a reverse
process occurs when melodic folk songs are "converted" into speech
intonations of actors, thus revealing national distinctive musicality of their
speech.

"The artistic reproduction of human speech in all its subtle curves,"

allows Musorgsky to differentiate musical characterization of characters. Thus,
it enhances the contrasts inherent in the music of Pushkin's words (greatness
- the horror, the secular court - the court of God, the threat - the silence, etc.),
as well as the dynamics of the development of an experience (yell - howl -
cry). But, unlike Pushkin, Musorgsky tries to get away from the philosophical
depth, shifting the emphasis on the psychological and personal moments,
thus reproducing the sound of music, in the words of the composer, "not only
a sense of mood, but mainly the question of human sentiments." As a result,
here comes a method of musical and verbal characteristics of the characters,
the use of the variety of living, social colored overtones.

One can only conjecture - if only Meyerhold in collaboration with

Prokofiev could realize the plan the staging of "Boris Godunov", then maybe
we would have the most complete identification of Pushkin’s word’s music.
This is evidenced by how Meyerhold carefully treated the text of Pushkin's
tragedy, and the way he worked with the performers during rehearsals of
unrealized performance.
The analysis of transcripts rehearsals suggests that Meyerhold still managed
to "find" the triad of Pushkin’s word’s music. This explains his collaboration
with Pyast and Prokofiev who composed separate - speech and music -
scores of the performance, which, according to the director, should have
"synthesized" in the actor's action. But - the performance plan was never
realized, so one can only guess to what the semantic unity Meyerhold could
have come while reading music Pushkin’s word’s music.

References:
1. Asafiev B.V. Speech intonation. - Moscow, Leningrad: Music, 1965. – p.136
2. V.G. Belinsky Works of Alexander Pushkin. Article Ten. "Boris Godunov" / /
Coll. Op. At 9 m - M.: Fiction, 1981. - T. 6. - p.427-453.
3. Boris Godunov / / Meyerhold’s rehearsing: 2 volumes - Moscow: Artist.
Director. Theatre, 1993. - T. 1. Plays 30's. - p. 211-306.
4. V.E. Meyerhold Articles. Letters. Speeches. Conversations. At 2 vol. [text].
- Moscow: Art, 1968. - Part 2. – p.522.
5. Pushkin Outline introduction to "Boris Godunov" / / Full. Works. Op. At 9
tons - Moscow: Publishing House "Truth", 1954. - T. 5. - p. 88-91.
6. Pushkin Of Popular drama and the drama "Martha, The Posadnik’s Wife" / /
Full. Works. Op. At 9 tons - Moscow: Publishing House "Truth", 1954. - T. 5. -
p. 119-123.