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Traditional/Classical Music: Russian Music |
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| The roots of Russian church music stem from the end of the 10th century
when the newly Christianized Slavs imported the Byzantine liturgy and chant, adapting them
to their own language, Church Slavonic. Isolated far from the center of Eastern Orthodoxy,
the Russian znamenny chant developed along distinctive lines, although it remained
monophonic and entirely unaccompanied. With the exception of the bells that adorn the
exterior of churches--whose casting and ringing themselves were elevated to art
forms--Russian church music remained exclusively vocal. By the late 15th century Russian
chant reached a high level of artistry, and by the 16th century sacred polyphony was
accepted. Early liturgical polyphony, like Russian folk music, was heterophonic--that is,
it consisted of a single melodic line with simultaneous variations--but from the mid-17th
century the influence of Western-style polyphony began to be felt; one of the most popular
new styles, the kant (or sacred part song), a strophic song usually in three parts,
eventually extended into secular subjects. The Westernization of Russia begun by Peter the Great in the early 18th century led, by the reign of Empress Anna (1730-40), to a preoccupation with European--especially Italian--art, architecture and music. Italian, and later in the century, French operatic styles became extremely popular. Foreign creative artists were enticed with lavish incentives to come to the court of Saint Petersburg. Beginning with Italian composer Francesco Araja, who presented the first opera seria in Russian in 1736, Russia's musical life was dominated by foreign musicians into the 19th century. By the end of the 18th century, coinciding with a revival of interest in Russian culture and folklore, native talents began to emerge. Yevstignei Fomin (1761-1800), Dmitry Bortniansky (1751-1825) and Maxim Berezovsky (1745-77), were all sent to Italy to further their musical studies. Fomin's use of folk music in The Coachmen (1787) marked a noteworthy step in the development of a distinctively Russian operatic style. In addition to working in the field of opera, Bortniansky and Berezovsky also composed religious music. In their hands the choral literature of the spiritual concerto--a form of many-choired, unaccompanied sacred music first composed in the 17th century--reached new heights. NATIONALISM The seeds of a distinctively national art music in Russia, however, are usually dated from the first half of the 19th century. The performance of the opera A Life for the Tsar (1836), by Mikhail GLINKA, is usually cited as the turning point for Russian music. In this historical opera, as well as in his subsequent opera Ruslan and Ludmila (1842), the orchestral fantasy Kamarinskaya (1848), and numerous songs, Glinka successfully fused the typical melodies, harmonies, and rhythms of Russian folk music with the forms and techniques of Italian opera--creating an eclectic but unmistakably national idiom. Glinka's younger contemporary, Alexander DARGOMYZHSKY, is best known for his influence on subsequent nationalist composers through his posthumously produced opera The Stone Guest (1872), a radical attempt to promote musical realism by abandoning the forms and conventions of traditional opera in favor of continuous recitative. Nationalists versus the West The FIVE, or the Mighty Five, is the label given to a group of Russian composers that formed during the 1860s. Supported by the influential critic Vladimir Stasov (1824-1906), the Five--Mily BALAKIREV, Aleksandr BORODIN, Cesar CUI, Modest MUSSORGSKY, and Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV--sought to legitimize the goals and achievements of nationalistic music and to oppose the dominance of Western musical influences. Although linked by common propagandistic aims and by the characteristic absence of formal musical education, the composers wrote in differing styles. The most lasting musical achievements were made by Borodin, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov. Borodin is noted for his use of Russian orientalisms in works such as In the Steppes of Central Asia (1880) and his opera Prince Igor. In his numerous operas on historical and fairy-tale subjects, as well as in the well-known symphonic suite Scheherazade (1891), Rimsky-Korsakov exploited the unusual modal tendencies of Russian folk music, and his orchestration was colorful and effective. Mussorgsky was undoubtedly the most original composer of the Five. Continuing Dargomyzhsky's search for musical realism, he combined an instinctive flair for the nuances of folk music with flexible, textually motivated rhythmic practices and unusual harmonic juxtapositions in his many songs, his operatic masterpiece Boris Godunov (1869-72), and his suite for piano Pictures at an Exhibition (1874). Although he was misunderstood by many of his contemporaries, Mussorgsky's legacy has been profoundly important for music in the 20th century. The conspicuous targets of the nationalists were Aleksandr Serov (1820-71), a prominent music critic, Wagnerite, and opera composer, and Anton RUBINSTEIN, a legendary piano virtuoso as well as a prolific composer. Rubinstein and his brother Nikolai (1835-81) were responsible for establishing the first music conservatories in Russia, founded on German models, in Saint Petersburg (1862) and Moscow (1866). Peter Ilich TCHAIKOVSKY was one of the first graduates of the former and subsequently taught at the latter. Without rejecting his national heritage Tchaikovsky evolved a more cosmopolitan, romantic, yet highly personal style that won him widespread international popularity. Many of his works--including the six symphonies, the operas Eugene Onegin (1879) and The Queen of Spades (1890), the ballets Swan Lake (1877), Sleeping Beauty (1890) and The Nutcracker (1892)--established themselves as repertory classics. In Saint Petersburg, under the tutelage of Rimsky-Korsakov, a new generation of nationalists gained recognition. The most prominent of these were Aleksandr GLAZUNOV, noted particularly for his ballets and other orchestral works and chamber music, and Anatol Liadov, the author of exquisite symphonic miniatures. In Moscow, Tchaikovsky's heirs included Anton ARENSKY and Sergei TANEYEV. Sergei RACHMANINOFF and Aleksandr SCRIABIN were classmates at the Moscow Conservatory; both pursued careers as pianists, conductors, and composers. Though active rivalry continued to exist--most notably between the schools of Saint Petersburg and Moscow--the distinctions between the nationalists and their Western-oriented opponents became blurred. Early 20th Century Beginning in the first decade of the 20th century, the exotic and colorful qualities of Russian music were fully revealed to the West though the endeavors of the entrepreneur Serge DIAGHILEV. With lavish productions he staged the Western premiere (1908) of Boris Godunov and other Russian classics in Paris, and with his newly formed Ballets Russes he introduced the ballets Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913) by Igor STRAVINSKY. The "barbaric" rhythmic and harmonic novelties of The Rite were considered revolutionary and exerted a powerful influence on the future course of music. Stravinsky's successful collaborations with Diaghilev continued until the latter's death. Diaghilev's commissions and controversial productions helped launch the careers of many other composers, including that of Sergei PROKOFIEV. Like many of his contemporaries, Prokofiev was dissatisfied with the oppressive academicism of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, and while still a student he was branded a musical rebel for his percussive piano writing and satirical miniatures. The period before the revolution also witnessed the rise of virtuoso performers. In addition to the pianists already mentioned, the violin students of Leopold AUER--including Mischa ELMAN, Jascha HEIFETZ, and Nathan MILSTEIN--as well as the bass singer Fyodor CHALIAPIN, gained international prestige. SOVIET MUSIC After the October revolution in 1917, many composers and performers chose to leave Russia. Among those who pursued successful careers in the West were Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951), Nikolay and Aleksandr TCHEREPNIN, and Serge KOUSSEVITZKY. Prokofiev spent nearly 20 years concertizing and composing in the United States and Europe, but in the mid-1930s he elected to return to the Soviet Union, modifying his composition style to accentuate accessibilty in some of his most popular works, including the orchestral fairy tale Peter and the Wolf (1936), the cantata drawn from the music to Sergei Eisenstein's film Alexander Nevsky (1939), and the ballets Romeo and Juliet (1940) and Cinderella (1945). The early years after the Bolshevik Revolution were marked by a spirit of artistic innovation. The creation (1922) of a conductorless orchestra, the demonstration (1920) of the prototype of the first electronic instrument (see THEREMIN), the symphonic episode Iron Foundry (1927) by Aleksandr Mossolov (1900-73)--illustrating with realistic sound effects a contemporary industrial theme--and the advanced theories of Nikolai Roslavets (1881-1944), were among the many attempts to find creative means suited to the revolutionary ideology. Older composers who maintained a continuity with prerevolutionary culture included Reinhold GLIERE and Nikolai MIASKOVSKY. The Association of Contemporary Music (ACM), established in 1923, actively supported the modernistic experiments as well as the performance of new works by the European avant-garde. In opposition the Russian Association for Proletarian Music (RAPM), which won increasing authority, advocated the creation of a simple, folk-oriented "mass" music. The abolition (1932) of the RAPM, the establishment of the government-sponsored Union of Soviet Composers, and the concomitant rise of the doctrine of socialist realism signaled the end of the permissive period in Soviet music. The unexpected official denunciation (1936) of the highly successful opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Dmitry SHOSTAKOVICH (1932) was the first explicit application of socialist realism to music. Recognizing music to be a powerful weapon in the ideological struggle, this ambiguous doctrine called for music with a "socialist" content, expressed in a musical language that ordinary people could understand. The formula effectively banned the modernistic directions characteristic of contemporary Western music and fostered conservative and readily accessible styles. Shostakovich, one of the first generation of Soviet composers, had achieved early success with his First Symphony (1925) and subsequent works and was able to reestablish himself spectacularly with his Fifth Symphony (1937). Mildly dissonant counterpoint, march rhythms, and sensitive orchestration became the hallmarks not only of Shostakovich's style but of that of many other Soviet composers as well. Composers who reached artistic maturity during the 1930s and '40s included Aram KHATCHATURIAN, Dmitri KABALEVSKY, Yuri Shaporin (1887-1966), and Vissarion Shebalin (1902-63). In 1948, Soviet composers and musicians were again found to be ideologically deficient. In contrast to 1936, when the attack was aimed at a single composer, this time it was broadly based, focusing in particular on the most prominent composers, such as Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Miaskovsky, and Khatchaturian. The rehabilitation of the country's leading composers and the resurrection of many suppressed compositions was accomplished only after Stalin's death, in 1953. Soviet composers then began to show a renewed interest in modern compositional developments from the West--including serialism and aleatory and electronic music--and many, including Shostakovich, began to experiment with these techniques in their compositions. A new generation of composers, educated in the post-Stalin period, emerged during the 1960s. Rodion Shchedrin combined popular folk idioms with modern techniques and vivid orchestration to become one of the most prominent composers of his generation. Avant-garde composers Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Alfred Schnittke, among others, adopted principled positions of creative autonomy within the still-repressive cultural establishment; they were routinely denied the performances and recognition accorded more conformist colleagues. With the advent of glasnost (openness) in the mid-1980s the music of Schnittke, Gubaidulina, and the most original contemporary composers rapidly gained widespread international recognition, and taboos against contemporary Western music were dropped. Official acknowledgment was given to rock music, which surfaced rapidly from underground. Many of the styles and individual masterpieces suppressed during the Stalin period were rehabilitated. Perhaps most significantly, the rebirth of religious faith ushered in a sweeping revival of the long-suppressed legacy of Russian sacred music, from Bortniansky to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, as well as an explosion of new sacred compositions and choral ensembles. Throughout the Soviet period, Russia continued to produce virtuoso instrumentalists, among them pianists Vladimir ASHKENAZI, Emil GILELS, and Sviatoslav RICHTER, violinist David OISTRAKH, and the cellist Mstislav ROSTROPOVICH. |
music is LIFE!
music soothes even the savage beast
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