PERFORMANCE POETRY
KUZMIN, Mikhail Alekseevich.
Lesok. Liricheskaia poema dlia muzyki s ob”iasnitel’noi prozoi v trekh chastiakh [The Grove. A lyric poem for music, with explanatory prose, in three parts.]
[Petrograd, “Neopalimaia kupina”, 1922].
Large 8vo, pp. 35, including frontispiece portrait of the author, and illustrations in the text by Aleksandr Bozherianov; a very good copy in the original dark green printed wrappers, spine worn, small piece missing from top edge of upper cover.
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Lesok. Liricheskaia poema dlia muzyki s ob”iasnitel’noi prozoi v trekh chastiakh [The Grove. A lyric poem for music, with explanatory prose, in three parts.]
First edition, copy no. 1 of a numbered edition of 500 copies.
‘The three ‘Groves’ presented here offer a trio of musical pieces of the chamber style, united by poetic content. All the sections written in the form of poetry are intended for singing; the prose sections which provide a kind of framework for the musical pieces might well be spoken with musical accompaniment. They are to be read either by the listeners, or spoken one after the other by a particular person before the performance of each ‘Grove’. The forces for the chamber orchestra should be as follows: for the “Shakespeare Grove”, voice, piano, clarinet, French horn, and ’cello; for the “Hoffmann Grove”, voice, piano, two violins, and oboe; for the “Apuleius Grove”, voice, piano, viola, flute, and harp. There are two vocal performers: mezzo-soprano and tenor …’ (Foreword).
Getty 423; Kilgour 610; Tarasenkov, p. 199.