Glinka was "the first Russian composer to combine distinction in speaking the musical idiom of the day with a personal and strongly original voice."1 He was exposed to music from an early age and as he grew up he became somewhat disenchanted with the lack of any real "Russian" music.
After spending three years in Italy experiencing the Italian opera tradition and studying the classics, Glinka returned to Russia and shortly after began work on an opera that would be different from everything that had been done in Russia. This one would be distinctly Russian, based on folk themes and the classic Russian story of Ivan Susanin, which had previously been set as an opera by Catterino Cavos in 1815. It worked out well. The name was changed to A Life for the Tsar shortly before the 1836 premiere. Glinka masterfully incorporated the doctrine of Official Nationality that had recently been promulgated throughout the country, and the work was a great success.
His next major project was a fantasy opera after a story by Pushkin, Ruslan and Lyudmila. Due to a disjunct collaborative process with various librettists, the opera didn't earn the same good reception that his earlier work did, and Glinka never again attempted an operatic project. In Ruslan, Glinka incorporates oriental (middle-eastern) music with diatonic material to represent the various characters, while holding on to a Rossinian Italian form for some scenes and wrapping it all up in a large circular form.
The other significant contribution of Glinka is his orchestral piece Kamarinskaya, a fantasy on two popular folk songs. This provided the model for Mily Balakirev's later attempts to establishing Russian nationalistic music as a legitimate genre.
Overall, Glinka is best known for pioneering the use of Russian folk music in major works for the orchestra and theatre. He was the first native Russian composer to be well-known throughout Europe, and nearly all Russian composers after considered Glinka their main example and influence.
1 JAMES STUART CAMPBELL: 'Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich', Grove Music Online (Accessed 20 February 2008), <http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=music.11279>
Feb 20, 2008
Timeline of Italian and French Opera in Russia
One of the results of Peter the Great's "window on the West" was the importation of Italian opera troups from Europe to the imperial court at St. Petersburg. This began under the reign of Tsaritsa Anna (1730-1740) and continued to expand for several decades. Here's the timeline:
1731- Calando by Giovanni Ristori is the 1st opera performed in Russia
1735- Francesco Araja comes to St. Petersburg with an opera seria company.
1736- First opera seria in Russia: La forza del 'amore e dell 'odio (Araja).
1741- Opera by Johann Adolf Hasse, La Clemenza di Tito (text by Metastasio) for Tsaritsa Elizabeth's coronation. Includes a prologue by Domenico dall 'Oglio: La Russia aflitta e riconsolata.
1755- First opera with Russian text: Tsefal i Prokris by Araja and Sumarkov. Huge success.
1762- Catherine (II) the Great becomes Tsaritsa. Establishes extravagant court music culture, modeled after Versailles. Also French opera comique is imported. Although the Italian opera seria is still maintained at court, the tsaritsa's preference for French opera draws emerging native Russian composers to use it as their model.
1765- Baldassare Galuppi becomes principle court composer and director of opera.
1768-Tommaso Traetta becomes principle court composer and director of opera.
1776- Giovanni Paisiello becomes principle court composer and director of opera.
1776- With French opera evolving, which is often based on folk tunes, collections of Russian folk songs begin to emerge.
1781- Skupoi (The Miser) by Vasily Alekseyevich Pashkevich is possibly the first opera composed by a native Russian. Modeled after the French opera comique.
1782- Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia becomes a big hit in Russia and spreads to Europe where Mozart decides to sequel it with Le Nozze di Figaro in 1784.
1784- Giuseppi Sarti becomes principle court composer and director of opera.
1790- Nikolay L'vov and Jan Prach publish their collection of folk songs with western harmonizations.
1796- Composer Catterino Cavos comes to St. Petersburg from Venice.
1804- Fancois-Adrian Boieldieu is brought to head the Court's French opera troupe.
1815- Ivan Susanin by Cavos is premiered.
Throughout this timeline, nothing distinctly Russian developed. It was all Italian opera written by imported Italian composers at first, with French comic opera arriving later, and the early native Russian composers emulating these styles.
1731- Calando by Giovanni Ristori is the 1st opera performed in Russia
1735- Francesco Araja comes to St. Petersburg with an opera seria company.
1736- First opera seria in Russia: La forza del 'amore e dell 'odio (Araja).
1741- Opera by Johann Adolf Hasse, La Clemenza di Tito (text by Metastasio) for Tsaritsa Elizabeth's coronation. Includes a prologue by Domenico dall 'Oglio: La Russia aflitta e riconsolata.
1755- First opera with Russian text: Tsefal i Prokris by Araja and Sumarkov. Huge success.
1762- Catherine (II) the Great becomes Tsaritsa. Establishes extravagant court music culture, modeled after Versailles. Also French opera comique is imported. Although the Italian opera seria is still maintained at court, the tsaritsa's preference for French opera draws emerging native Russian composers to use it as their model.
1765- Baldassare Galuppi becomes principle court composer and director of opera.
1768-Tommaso Traetta becomes principle court composer and director of opera.
1776- Giovanni Paisiello becomes principle court composer and director of opera.
1776- With French opera evolving, which is often based on folk tunes, collections of Russian folk songs begin to emerge.
1781- Skupoi (The Miser) by Vasily Alekseyevich Pashkevich is possibly the first opera composed by a native Russian. Modeled after the French opera comique.
1782- Paisiello's Il barbiere di Siviglia becomes a big hit in Russia and spreads to Europe where Mozart decides to sequel it with Le Nozze di Figaro in 1784.
1784- Giuseppi Sarti becomes principle court composer and director of opera.
1790- Nikolay L'vov and Jan Prach publish their collection of folk songs with western harmonizations.
1796- Composer Catterino Cavos comes to St. Petersburg from Venice.
1804- Fancois-Adrian Boieldieu is brought to head the Court's French opera troupe.
1815- Ivan Susanin by Cavos is premiered.
Throughout this timeline, nothing distinctly Russian developed. It was all Italian opera written by imported Italian composers at first, with French comic opera arriving later, and the early native Russian composers emulating these styles.
Feb 15, 2008
The Influence of Peter the Great
Peter the Great (1672-1725) caused a breakthrough in the development of Russian culture. His reign (1682-1725) directed his people's attention to the Western European countries which had flourished in technological development, science, literature and the arts. Even though Peter wasn't a great music lover, and valued it little besides its practical use, his efforts in opening up a flow of knowledge and skill from the West paved the way for his music-loving descendants on the throne, Tsaritsa Anna (reigned 1730-1740) and Tsaritsa Catherine II (reigned 1762-1796).
What Peter the Great seems to have been most concerned about was the great discrepancy between Western European civilization and Russia's. He traveled often to foreign places, met a lot of smart people like Sir Isaac Newton, and brought back well-educated teachers, scientists, and musicians to teach the people and bring them up to the level of the rest of the world.
What Peter the Great seems to have been most concerned about was the great discrepancy between Western European civilization and Russia's. He traveled often to foreign places, met a lot of smart people like Sir Isaac Newton, and brought back well-educated teachers, scientists, and musicians to teach the people and bring them up to the level of the rest of the world.
Russian Music before Peter the Great
In the way of secular music, there were minstrils, or skomorokhi, who probably traveled and sang songs like minstrels in other countries. There isn't much (if any) in the way of musical sources surviving, because their craft was an oral tradition. So all we can do is conjecture based on iconography and knowledge from similar people in other countries (like the troubadours of France). Once the Orthodox church took over the dominant position in Russian music, the skomorokhi were persecuted and kept from having any major influence.
In the church, beginning with Vladimir of Kiev's 988 A.D. conversion to Christianity we expect to find chant, as that's what was going on most places at that point. We don't know much about this early Russian chant because the notation used in the surviving sources is (so far) undecipherable. Decipherable chant sources have been found dating back to the mid 1500s. Solely momophonic (znamenyi) chant existed through the 16th century. In the 17th century, a more florid chant called demestvennyi chant appeared. Due to its complexity it may have been intended for trained singers. Also in the 17th century polyphonic motets appeared. This represents the most significant penetration of Western Culture to this point, at least in music. These polyphonic pieces are based on the Venetian tradition and the style was transmitted by Polish composers who had been in Venice and returned to Poland. From there the tradition gradually spread through the Ukraine and into Russia. Who were these Polish composers? I don't know. Maybe I'll try and look them up.
So, the simple znamenyi chant, the more advanced demestvennyi chant, and the quasi-venetian polychoral motets constituted the extent of progress in Russian music through the time of Monteverdi, Gabrieli, Purcell and many other sophisticated European composers.
One other body of music exists also: rather dissonant polyphonic motets that seem to be based on folk music. The dissonance is such that it either represents a strange and astounding pocket of harmonic exploration somewhere in the 17th and 18th centuries, or today's scholars have not figured out how to transcribe the sources correctly.
In the church, beginning with Vladimir of Kiev's 988 A.D. conversion to Christianity we expect to find chant, as that's what was going on most places at that point. We don't know much about this early Russian chant because the notation used in the surviving sources is (so far) undecipherable. Decipherable chant sources have been found dating back to the mid 1500s. Solely momophonic (znamenyi) chant existed through the 16th century. In the 17th century, a more florid chant called demestvennyi chant appeared. Due to its complexity it may have been intended for trained singers. Also in the 17th century polyphonic motets appeared. This represents the most significant penetration of Western Culture to this point, at least in music. These polyphonic pieces are based on the Venetian tradition and the style was transmitted by Polish composers who had been in Venice and returned to Poland. From there the tradition gradually spread through the Ukraine and into Russia. Who were these Polish composers? I don't know. Maybe I'll try and look them up.
So, the simple znamenyi chant, the more advanced demestvennyi chant, and the quasi-venetian polychoral motets constituted the extent of progress in Russian music through the time of Monteverdi, Gabrieli, Purcell and many other sophisticated European composers.
One other body of music exists also: rather dissonant polyphonic motets that seem to be based on folk music. The dissonance is such that it either represents a strange and astounding pocket of harmonic exploration somewhere in the 17th and 18th centuries, or today's scholars have not figured out how to transcribe the sources correctly.
Feb 13, 2008
Why Russia did not develop a musical culture like Western European countries
When Vladimir of Kiev converted to Orthodox Christianity in 988 AD, he enforced the practices of the church over all of Russia. This included a dearth of instrumental music in the church and a persecution of influential music outside the church. Whereas in Europe instrumental music evolved primarily in the church, and great composers like Gabrieli, Bach, Handel, and Mozart wrote instrumental masterpieces for church occasions, in Russia there was nothing but unaccompanied choral music, aside from the wandering skomorokhi who were kept out of influence by the church. This strict rule suppressed creativity and experimentation that flourished in Europe, slowing developmental progress, and further detracted any European composers from taking interest in or having opportunities to work in Russia. It was a kind of stagnant pool.
Also the invasion of the Mongols in the 13th century seems to have had a suppressing influence on cultural development. Perhaps it was partly due to 600 years of military action, pushing the Mongols further and further back to their original land, and partly because the dominant Mongols were not a culturally sensitive people; i.e. they had nothing to offer and didn't encourage or tolerate the development of anyone else. I don't know for sure.
Also the invasion of the Mongols in the 13th century seems to have had a suppressing influence on cultural development. Perhaps it was partly due to 600 years of military action, pushing the Mongols further and further back to their original land, and partly because the dominant Mongols were not a culturally sensitive people; i.e. they had nothing to offer and didn't encourage or tolerate the development of anyone else. I don't know for sure.
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