Vocalise, Rachmaninov's most popular vocal work, is not actually a song since it contains no text, the voice being used strictly as a musical instrument and accompanied by piano. There have been numerous transcriptions of it over the years, some by the composer, many more by others. Rachmaninov fashioned versions for piano, for violin, cello and piano, and for orchestra. He recorded his orchestral transcription of the work in 1929, and that effort has been widely available in recent times.

The composer's mostly string-dominated scoring effectively captures the lovely lyrical flow of the music: the main theme is ravishing, a typically Rachmaninovian creation in its passionate melancholy and soaring beauty. While this melody is quite original, it is similar in mood and tempo to the main theme in the second movement of the composer's popular Piano Concerto No. 2. Both tunes are long-breathed and unravel slowly, spawning much secondary material. The middle section of Vocalise develops tension and a strong sense of yearning, its sudden restive character, however, not breaking with the lyrical nature of the work. The main theme returns to close out the work in a more tranquil though still passionate vein. Other popular orchestral versions of Vocalise include one by Russian composer V. Kin.

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14.Vocalise

Rachmaninov's Vocalise, Op. 34/14 (1912), is one of the few members of an elite repertory niche: popular, non-avant-garde vocal works without text. In fact, having been arranged for orchestra, piano, various chamber ensembles, and solo string instruments, it is easily the most popular and recognizable of such works, matched perhaps only by the aria from Heitor Villa Lobos' Bacchianas Brasileiras No. 5.

The Opus 34 group contains some of the Rachmaninov's best-loved songs, each of which was tailored to the vocal personality of a particular singer with whom he was acquainted from the Bolshoi opera. The highly declamatory examples, such as In the Soul of Each of Us, Op. 34/2, were dedicated to the great bass Feodor Chaliapin, whose ability to shape words into dramatic musical statements was legendary. The Vocalise, on the other hand, was dedicated to Antonina Nezhdanova, who can be presumed to have possessed a singularly pleasing and flexible voice, given the sustained, almost violin-like character of the piece.

Though originally written for voice and piano, the Vocalise is most often heard in its orchestrated version as a concert hall delicacy. In this setting, the rich, seamless nature of the strings compliment the soaring voice to great effect, and make for an altogether more sensual piece.

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14 Songs, Op.34

Rachmaninov wrote his wordless Vocalise in 1912 and revised it three years later. It is one of his more popular vocal works, featuring a soaring, beautiful theme whose passionate Romantic character has inspired many artists and composers to adapt it for other instruments and ensembles. It exists in so many arrangements that it would be almost impossible to catalog them all. There are versions—in some cases several—for piano, violin (Oistrakh), cello (Nina Kotova, A. Brandukov), clarinet (Emma Johnson), bassoon (Daniel Smith), saxophone (Branford Marsalis), and orchestra (V. Kin). There have also been versions for trumpet, band, chamber orchestra, and various other ensembles. Usually, the instrumental renditions use piano accompaniment only, but there are renditions for violin, cello, and other instruments using orchestra or chamber orchestra accompaniment. It is easy to see why this work has adapted so well to other instrumental venues—the melody is pure and enchanating, and the lovely piano accompaniment perfectly underscores the mood of gentle rapture. The theme slowly spins downward using a three-note pattern, then soars upward to reach a lovely trill. Its second subject continues the passionate outpouring of lovely, poignant music, the piano obsessively repeating the three-note germ from the melody. There is some development of the theme, during which the music somewhat intensifies, but its reprise at the close restores the calmer, but still passionate mood from the opening. The various versions last from about seven to nine minutes and the better instrumental ones are for violin and piano and cello and piano.

© Robert Cummings, Rovi

14 Songs, Op.34 - 14.Vocalise (tr. piano)

Rachmaninov wrote Vocalise for voice and piano, not setting a text to it, unlike the other songs in the Op. 34 set. It immediately became popular, and the composer fashioned several transcriptions of the work, including one for piano and another for orchestra. In a sense, the orchestral version is the better of these two, because its string-dominated scoring more effectively captures the sustained sonorities of the original. That said, Rachmaninov, a brilliant composer of piano music and virtuoso pianist himself, compensated for his instrument's non-sostenuto tone by the scaling down textures and adding pedal runs and other coloristic effects.

Heard in any of the versions, the main theme is lovely, but here its long-breathed, soaring beauty and ecstatic sense of melancholy come across with a more straightforward and even simple expressive manner. Not that the piano sonorities are scrawny or the textures skeletal and inappropriate: indeed, the music takes well to the tender, more intimate dressing Rachmaninov deftly provides here. In the first half the music remains gentle and flowing, but around the midpoint turns intense and more passionate, developing a strong sense of yearning, almost of anger. The main theme returns in much the same intimate mood it appeared in at the opening and closes out this lovely work.

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