Libretto of the City
In her Poems of Moscow from 1913, Marina Tsvetaeva speaks of Russia in nothing less than depressed terms. One clip is the following:
“In this wonder-town,
In this peaceful town,
Where if I were dead
I'd be happy one”
....
“And on coffin's roof will thunder the first stone
And sleep, self-loving and lonely
Will be resolved finally.”
She speaks of death, a major theme during this era Russia, when the country was dealing with the precursors to a complete government overthrow and World War that came a few years later. The vocabulary Tsvetaeva uses is one of extreme despair, where the dead are happy. These verses are “written,” and “legible,” and they target a distinct mood of the city.
De Certeau’s idea of Wandersmänner walking around the city writing illegible verses is complemented by the verses Tsvetaeva wrote. Whereas de Certeau defines the buzz, or hum of the city life with his comment on people contributing to an unreadable story, Tsvetaeva creates a distinctive libretto for the city. It seems like it is made with the intention of provoking or validating certain emotions - despair, depression, sadness, and nostalgia. This idea of curating an emotional soundscape is different from the Wandermänner intersecting and leaving each other, making inconsequential marks on the city.
The curated lyrics brim with pathos largely because the Poems of Moscow are a first person account of the city, and because they focus the reader’s attention on stimuli one by one. Whereas the Wandersmänner are an indistinct rumble that’s hard to make out, the Poems of Moscow ring out like a vibrant solo.
The mood Tsvetaeva hones in on is one typical of Russia. She writes about the agitated days predating the Bolshevik Revolution, which makes one think of how the city itself goes through revolutions between active, passive, new, and old. Russia sheds its old and decrepit in favor of the new and revitalized. Tsvetaeva focuses on that which was wanting to be shed in her Poems of Moscow. This libretto captures a symphony of Moscow at a time of movement and mobilisation. The verses, with talks of “soldiers,” “belltower,” “rumble,” “ringing,” and “Halleluiah,” insist on a musical interpretation of the city.