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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 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.
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