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EnQin Chuxuan, E. Andrushchenko
Reflections of “Children’s World” in the piano music by A. Lyadov
This article explores A. Lyadov’s well-known piano works, either intended for children or capturing themes and images of the “world of childhood”. The undeniable significance of these works is noted, as they, on the one hand, seem to summarize the creative heritage of the Romantic era in instrumental miniatures (genre, stylistic, compositional aspects, etc.), and, on the other, vividly and uniquely embody a certain “peripheral” thematic sphere of children’s music. This concerns the “play space” which A. Lyadov recreates with great originality – in aspect of “article substantiality”. Based on this, the research focuses on works from the 1870s–1890s (the cycle “Spillikins”, “Musical Snuff-Box”, “Marionettes”, and “Little Waltz”), which depict the “world of children’s play” with striking clarity and ingenuity. It is emphasized that the composer’s interpretation of programmatic music is not limited to the colorful and characteristic “portraiting” of various game objects, presented to the listener either statically or dynamically. A consistent “humanization” of all such “sound characters” becomes fundamentally important. Both the free flight of children’s imagination and the “play space” it creates are perceived by the author of these pieces as the epicenter of authentic life. The implementation of this approach should undoubtedly serve as a guiding principle for modern educators working on the aforementioned programmatic miniatures by A. Lyadov. At the same time, the young performers’ desire for precise and accurate realization of the composer’s instructions will be organically combined with the introduced figurative “touches” and emotional accents capable of captivating the listener, evoking a lively and immediate response.
Key words
A. Lyadov, children’s piano music, “The Spillikins” cycle, “The Musical Snuff-Box”, “The Marionettes”.
For citation
Qin Chuxuan, Andrushchenko E. Reflections of “Children’s World” in the piano music by A. Lyadov. In: South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2025. No. 4. Pp. 57–66.
