Alexander Alyabyev – a Russian composer, one of the pioneers of the national lyrical sentimental song (romance), chamber instrumental music, a harbinger of the Russian composing school achievements. In the 19^th century he enjoyed great success, wrote about 200 romances, 6 operas, 20 musical comedies, and many other musical works.

To mark the birth jubilee of Alexander Alyabyev, romance "The Nightingale" written by the composer to the lyrics of the poet Anton Delvig has been posted in the museum Sound Library. The song was digitized from the gramophone record produced at the Noginsk plant of gramophone records "Gramplasttrest". USSR, Noginsk. NARKOMMASH.

Until now, "Nightingale" remains one of the most popular Russian romances, having long been included in the classics of the Russian musical culture. Such popularity was forwarded by the amazing expressiveness and soulful innocence of the music. The romance remained popular for almost two centuries. It sounded on the radio, TV and was recorded for audio collections.

Despite the popularity of this romance, the history of its creation, as well as the history of the composer’s life is full of unclear facts; the information is treated by various sources in different ways. The romance was composed in the Russian folk songs’ style – both the lyrics and music. The poem by Anton Delvig was published in “The collection of verses by Baron Delvig”, St. Petersburg. 1829 under the heading "Russian Song". The music was composed between May 1825 and February 1826. Moreover, on January 7, 1827, the romance was performed on the Bolshoi Theater stage in Moscow.

The plot of the romance is inelaborate – it is about the heavy burden of women; the text is designed as an address to the nightingale. However, deep sorrow and despair lie behind the deceptively simple form. This refers not only to disappointment in love. Alyabyev treated this poem as a farewell to a dear friend, when a long separation is ahead and it is unknown whether you’ll see him again. Alyabyev composed music for the poem being incarcerated. On February 24, 1825, Alyabyev was false imprisoned of murder: during a card game organized at a dinner party in his house, Alyabyev hit the retired colonel T.M. Vremev for card cheating, a few days later the colonel, who had been seriously ill for a long time, died a sudden death, and Alyabyev was accused of his murder. He ended up in prison, then in exile, cut off from his routine way of life and environment. The image of a nightingale was perceived as a symbol of those invisible bonds that tied the forcibly separated – whether in love, being close friends, or relatives – it was all the same. This was a separation with those that were dear, changing of the pattern of life that was familiar and custom. According to other sources, the composer dedicated this romance to his beloved Ekaterina Rimskaya-Korsakova, whom he fell in love with at first sight at the New Year's dancing party.