The Symphonic Poem: On Genre Specificity and Terminological Issues

This article analyzes the development of the symphonic poem genre in Russian music of the 19th and early 20th centuries and the formation of the category of "poem" as a type of musical thinking. The article examines the main stages in the development of the musical poem and the characteristics of its perception in the Russian musical tradition. In the article, the author demonstrates that early fantasies and ballads anticipated the poem as a genre model. Particular attention is given to the replacement of the term "poem" with "picture" and "tale" in the Russian tradition, reflecting the desire for national stylistic independence. The symphonic poem is interpreted as a broad category of programmatic one-movement orchestral music. Three types of poem are distinguished—narrative, poetic (lyrical), and epic—corresponding to the main genres of literature. Despite this typology, each specific work may, to varying degrees, contain all three principles—dramatic, lyrical, and epic. However, the predominance of one of them allows us to speak of a dominant type of poem, which determines both the nature of the figurative sphere and the features of the compositional structure of the work. This understanding of the musical poem—not only as a genre but also as a form of thought—provides an opportunity to take a fresh look at the musical processes of the transition from Romanticism to Modernism.