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Project A

Колыбельная

Kolybelnaya was a piece I stumbled upon and with which I have, admittedly, fell in love. The entire opus bowled me over in a way nothing has in a long time, but No. 3 captured my heart and holds it fast. This is a piece with which I’ve spent a great deal of time, learning it inside and out, back and forth, and loving it every day still.

Much of that time was language-based, learning to transliterate Cyrillic into Latinate characters, which took an entire summer. It was a labor of love, and something I wanted to do myself, rather than ask for help from my Russian coach. Of course, after I’d finished it, I found a version of it online, of which few exist. Turns out, I’d done a decent job on my own. Then I dug into the translation, which again, I wanted to work out on my own. The work of transliteration and translation helped make the text a part of my being, and deeply etched the words on my heart. The words of a mother, trying to put a child to sleep while father is away in prison are heartwrenching. The text vascilates from tender, with a focus on the child, to agonized, as the mother focuses inward. The music supports this vascilation in ways, as it moves through the ABA format. He switches from one feeling to another each time mother sings the “lju, lju, lju, lju, lju”, portion, using the “lullay, lullay” refrain, essentially, to switch ideas. The mother doesn’t try to shield the child from the realities of the situation, which is interesting.

Musically, the piece is interesting. It uses a Freygish scale, which is a modified Phrygian scale. It’s also called Ahavah Rabbah. It’s common in Jewish prayer music, with the modality reinforcing the theme of the text, which was Shostakovich’s source material. The text is believed to be based on poems written by Jewish refugees during World War Two. The use of this Freygish scale pays tribute to the Jewish people for whom Shostakovich wrote the entire opus, and this is only heard in its entirety in No. 3, though it is used throughout the work. He also uses an oom pah feeling in the bass line with the left hand, which is also common in Jewish music, reinforcing that feeling again.

Interestingly, the first time this work was performed, it was at a small dinner for Shostakovich’s birthday on September 25 of 1955. One of the few available recordings, and the one I used most in my practice of the Russian, had Mr. Shostakovich himself at the piano. It was later orchestrated for a small chamber ensemble with winds and strings, as one might expect. The opus was originally 8 pieces long, but people felt it was too sad, so he added three more “happy” songs at the end, which many critics see as a false ending. I agree with this assessment.

This is not one of his better known works, certainly, but I feel there is a great deal of value to be found in this entire opus, but certainly in колыбельная, or Kolybelnaya. The title simply means, Lullaby. It has certainly made Dmitri Shostakovich one of my favorite composers we’ve studied this semester, and a new favorite in general. I look to his works now, and hear bits of Kolybelnaya in other pieces we’ve listened to, and it brings me great joy to hear thos connections with this piece I’ve come to love so dearly.

Project B