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Abstract.

The article is devoted to the multifarious and insufficiently studied topic “Esenin and Music”, which will be reflected in “The Esenin Encyclopedia”, being prepared now in the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Here are the important issues that scholars have been exploring in recent years: the poet’s theoretical views on the identity of Russian art and the role of music as an early and main art form that was born with the epic; Esenin’s musical interests not only in folk songs, ditties and romances, but also in classical music, especially in the work of P.I. Tchaikovsky; the synthesis of folklore genres in the poet’s early lyrics and in the epic works “Pugachev”, “The Poem about 36”, “The Song About the Great Campaign”, as well as the evolution of musical sources in Esenin’s work from folklore to book and urban romance (A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov, A. Grigoriev, A. Blok) in “Moscow Taverns” and in the lyrics of recent years, and to oratorical intonations in epic works. Special attention is paid to the theme “Esenin in Music”. The article reveals information about the lifetime musical works based on Esenin’s poems: from the first musical work “Cantata” by I.N. Shvedov (1918) to the Symphony monument for chorus “1905–1917” by M.F. Gnesin (1925–1926). Promising directions are outlined for studying the musical heritage of composers who reveal the artistic riches of Esenin’s poetry: G.V. Sviridov, V.N. Lipatov, V.V. Silvestrov and others, in alliance with musicologists.