Sergej Rachmaninow: Маргаритки - Daisies, Op. 38 No. 3

The poem: Igor Severyanin – Russian / English translation

Russian text:

Мы любим – вот почему весной
Так ярко светит солнце в небе синем,
И на лугáх, где ветер молодой,
Цветут маргаритки над земным покровом синим.

English translation / poetic rendering:

We love — and that is why in spring
the sun shines so brightly in the blue sky,
and in the meadows, where the young wind passes,
daisies bloom above the blue covering of the earth.

Text: Igor Severyanin (1887–1941); free English poetic rendering. Rachmaninoff Op. 38 No. 3 (1916).

Work details & overview

• Composer: Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943)
• Cycle: 6 Romances, Op. 38 – No. 3 “Маргаритки” / “Daisies”
• Text source: Igor Severyanin
• Composition: 1916
• First publication: 1917 by Gutheil
• Key / metre / tempo: D-flat major, 3/4, Allegretto moderato / Leggiero
• Duration: approx. 2 minutes
• Scoring: voice and piano
• Form: song-like arch form with flowing sequencing and a bright, pastel-coloured sound effect

Details of the poem

• Author: Igor Severyanin (1887–1941)
• Language: Russian
• Central images: love, spring, sun, blue sky, young wind, meadows, daisies
• Literary devices: nature image, love as explanation, symbolism of light, colour symbolism, spring metaphor

Genesis & context

The Six Romances, Op. 38 were composed in 1916 and form Rachmaninoff’s last complete song cycle. The collection already stands on the edge of a historical rupture: only a short time later, Rachmaninoff left Russia. This makes the refined, bright and almost weightless sound language of these late songs all the more remarkable.

Igor Severyanin belonged to the environment of Russian modernism and Ego-Futurism. His language often combines elegance, colour and apparent simplicity with a highly stylised sensibility. In “Маргаритки”, spring is not described merely as a season, but as the world’s answer to love.

Rachmaninoff takes up this bright imagery without overloading it sentimentally. The music feels light, mobile and transparent. Behind the spring-like cheerfulness, however, there remains a delicate aftertone of transience: happiness appears not as possession, but as a brief, luminous state.

Performance practice & reception

Voice: The voice should be led lightly, flexibly and with clear diction. The tone must not become operatically heavy. What matters is a bright, springing line that carries the impression of wind, spring and inner joy.

Piano: The accompaniment needs transparency and elasticity. Broken chords, delicate figures of motion and bright register colours should feel like reflections of light in a spring landscape. The pedal must be used sparingly and with differentiation so that the airiness remains intact.

Reception: “Маргаритки” is heard less often than “Сирень” or “Здесь хорошо”, but among connoisseurs it is regarded as a gem of Rachmaninoff’s late song writing. The song shows his ability to concentrate the greatest delicacy and harmonic refinement within a small form.

Reference recordings: selection

• Anna Netrebko / Daniel Barenboim
• Olga Borodina / Dmitri Alexeev
• Dmitri Hvorostovsky / Ivari Ilja
• Sergei Leiferkus / Malcolm Martineau

Analysis – music

In “Маргаритки”, Rachmaninoff combines a light triple motion with finely nuanced harmony. The music feels dance-like, but not exuberant; it seems to hover rather than leap. This creates a sound image that matches the delicacy of the daisies.

The accompaniment does not draw a concrete meadow, but a bright field of motion: wind, light and blossoms become perceptible musically as flowing, springing movement. Above this foundation, the voice unfolds in short, light arches that seem almost like small brightenings.

Harmonically, the song belongs to Rachmaninoff’s refined late phase. The key of D-flat major creates a soft, pastel basic colour. Brief cloudings and chromatic transitions, however, prevent the music from sounding merely idyllic. Even in the light, a trace of transience remains audible.

This very mixture is what makes the song so special: it is cheerful, but not superficial; light, but not insignificant. Here Rachmaninoff shows an art of the small form, in which every harmonic detail acts like a reflection of light. More on open meaning in art song can be found in the background article The Semiotics of Song.

Visual representation

Artistic visualisation by Evgenia Fölsche: Because We Love, Spring Shines
The image shows a wide, bright spring meadow full of white daisies and marguerites. Above the landscape stands a radiant sun in a clear, blue sky. Grasses and blossoms seem to move in the young wind, while in the distance two small figures stand close together.

The image takes up the central idea of the poem: not only do human beings love, but the whole of nature seems to become brighter through this love. The sun, the blue of the sky, the meadows and the daisies form a shared state of spring joy and inner affirmation. Love is not depicted directly and dramatically, but as a change in the light of the world.

The composition deliberately remains light and open. The two figures are small and only lightly suggested; the focus lies on the landscape itself. Thus an image emerges in which spring, wind, blossom and affection flow into one another. It makes visible what Rachmaninoff’s music makes audible: a bright, delicate joy that is precious and fleeting at the same time.

Analysis – poetry

Severyanin’s text begins with a simple assertion: “We love”. The entire experience of nature is derived from this statement. Love appears not only as a private feeling, but as the reason why the world in spring seems brighter, more colourful and more alive.

Love as the cause of spring light

The formulation “We love — and therefore” gives the poem a clear inner logic. Nature does not cause love; rather, love transforms the way nature is perceived. The sun shines more brightly because the lyrical self’s perception is filled with love.

Sun and blue sky

The bright sun in the blue sky creates an atmosphere of openness and lightness. Blue and light combine into an image of expanse. There is nothing heavy or tragic in this image; it expresses an almost childlike clarity of affirmation.

The young wind

The “young wind” brings motion into the poem. It stands for spring, new beginning and vitality. At the same time, this motion remains light: it moves the meadows and blossoms without destroying the calm of the image.

Daisies as signs of tenderness

Daisies are small, simple flowers. Precisely this simplicity is important. They do not stand for overwhelming passion, but for a bright, tender, almost innocent form of happiness. Their blooming makes visible that love does not need to appear grandly in order to change the world.

Meaning & effect

“Маргаритки” is a miniature of luminous affirmation. The song shows love not as a dramatic confession, but as a transformed perception: the world shines because it is loved from within.

This simplicity gives the song its charm. Sun, sky, wind and daisies become signs of a happiness that does not need to be explained. Rachmaninoff’s music preserves this lightness without allowing it to become superficial.

At the same time, the song carries the delicate melancholic tone of Rachmaninoff’s late lyricism. The beauty of spring appears as a moment: bright, precious and fleeting. This is precisely why the song remains in memory. More on this in the article Art That Continues to Work.

Evgenia Fölsche – performances & audio

Evgenia Fölsche shapes the song with an airy tempo, clear articulation and subtle agogic flexibility. Each phrase should briefly bloom and then return to the movement. The tone remains bright, mobile and light.

What matters is not to underestimate the song’s apparent simplicity. It needs no grand gesture, but a precise balance between freshness, tenderness and late resonance. The voice hovers above a piano sound that shimmers like spring light over a meadow.

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