a genre of lyric poetry and music. In antiquity the word “ode” did not at first have any terminological significance; later, it came to designate a lyric, choral song usually written in strophes and (particularly in the case of Pindar’s songs) ceremonial, elevated, and moralizing in tone. During the Renaissance and baroque periods (16th through 17th centuries) the term “ode” designated a passionately lofty lyric patterned after works by classical writers (primarily Pindar, and sometimes Horace). P. Ronsard (France), G. Chiabrera (Italy), A. Cowley and J. Dryden (England), and G. R. Weckherlin (Germany) were among the Renaissance and baroque poets who wrote odes. During the period of classicism (17th-18th centuries) the ode was canonized as the leading genre of high lyricism (the French writers F. de Malherbe, Voltaire, J. B. Rousseau, and E. Le Brun). Its metric and stanzaic structure were simplified, and its compositional devices were governed by a set of rules (the “quiet” or “headlong” onset, the use of digressions, and the degree of “lyric disorder” permissible). Several different types of odes were distinguished: spiritual, or ceremonious (Pindaric) odes; didactic, moralizing (Horatian) odes; and amorous (Anacreontic) odes.
In Russian poetry odes are encountered for the first time in the works of V. K. Trediakovskii (1734). There was a struggle between two tendencies, one associated with the baroque tradition (the quest for “delight”—M. V. Lomonosov, V. P. Petrov), and the other, a rationalistic tendency, associated with the Enlightenment (the quest for “naturalness”—A. P. Sumarokov, M. M. Kheraskov).
During the preromantic period at the end of the 18th century, the criteria defining the ode as a genre “were loosened up” (the poetry of G. R. Derzhavin), and there were more frequent attempts to imitate classical forms (F. Klopstock and J. C. F. Hölderlin in Germany). By the romantic period, the term “ode” was used loosely in poetry, without any regard for the traditional, once canonical features of the genre (for example, “odes” by P. B. Shelley, J. Keats, A. Lamartine, V. Hugo, and A. Manzoni). In Russia the ode was closely linked with the tradition of civic poetry (for example, A. N. Radishchev’s “Liberty” and K. F. Ryleev’s “Civil Courage”). During the 19th and 20th centuries the traditional system of classifying lyric poetry fell apart, and the concept of the ode fell into disuse, appearing only episodically in poetry (for example, V. V. Mayakovsky’s “Ode to Revolution”).
From the 17th century the term “ode” was used in Western Europe to designate a vocal-instrumental work written for court festivals, in honor of an event or an aristocratic person. In England, odes written by Purcell and Handel were similar to cantatas. In addition to cantata-like odes (J. S. Bach’s Funeral Ode and the Ode to Joy, the finale to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony), German composers created odes in the form of songs with accompaniment. During the following periods of music history the most varied types of odes were written by such composers as L. Cherubini, F. David, F. Liszt, G. Bizet, I. F. Stravinsky, and S. S. Prokofiev (Ode to the End of the War, for eight harps, four flutes, double basses, and wind and percussion instruments; 1945).
M. L. GASPAROV (poetry)