Russian Romance

The Russian romance (romans) is a sentimental art song and urban song tradition of Russia, setting poetry of love, parting and fate for a solo voice with piano or seven-string guitar. Developed in the early nineteenth century by composers such as *Alexander Alyabyev*, *Alexander Varlamov* and *Alexander Gurilyov*, it split into an Italianate salon romance and a lower-class 'cruel' romance of illicit love and loss, with a Gypsy-influenced branch performed by Roma ensembles. Its intimate scale, descending chromatic melody and confessional texts made it the defining Russian song form of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.