Th and 19th century: Russian classical music

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	Sergei Prokofiev

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th and 19th century: Russian classical music

Russia started to develop a native tradition of classical music in times of Peter I. Peter saw European music as a mark of civilization and a way of Westernizing the country. A craze for Italian opera at Court during the reigns of Empresses Elisabeth and Catherine also helped spread interest in Western music among the aristocracy. Many people were not even aware that Russian composers existed.

The focus on European music meant that Russian composers had to write in Western style if they wanted their compositions to be performed. Their success at this was variable due to a lack of familiarity with European rules of composition. Some composers were able to travel abroad for training, usually to Italy, and learned to compose vocal and instrumental works in the Italian Classical tradition popular in the day.

The first great Russian composer who used native Russian music traditions into secular music was Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857). He composed the early Russian language operas Ivan Susanin and Ruslan and Lyudmila which became famous for distinctively Russian tunes and themes.

Russian folk music became the primary source for the younger generation composers. A group that called itself "The Mighty Five", headed by Balakirev (1837–1910) and including Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908), Mussorgsky (1839–81),Borodin (1833–87) and César Cui (1835–1918), proclaimed its purpose to compose and popularize Russian national traditions in classical music. Among the Mighty Five's most notable compositions were the operas The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka), Sadko, Boris Godunov, Prince Igor, Khovanshchina, and symphonic suite Scheherazade. Many of the works by Glinka and the Mighty Five were based on Russian history, folk tales and literature, and are regarded as masterpieces of romantic nationalism in music.

This period also saw the foundation of the Russian Musical Society (RMS) in 1859, led by composer-pianists Anton (1829–94) and Nikolay Rubinstein (1835–81).The RMS founded Russia's first Conservatories in St Petersburg and in Moscow: the former trained the great Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93), best known for ballets like Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker. He remains Russia's best-known composer outside Russia.

The late 19th and early 20th century saw the third wave of Russian classics: Sergey Rakhmaninov (1873–1943),Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971), Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915), Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975). They were experimental in style and musical language. Stravinsky was particularly influential on his contemporaries and subsequent generations of composers, both in Russia and across Europe and the United States. Stravinsky emigrated after the Russian revolution. Although Prokofiev also left Russia in 1918, he eventually returned and contributed to Soviet music.

In the late 19th to early 20th centuries, the so-called "romance songs" became very popular. The greatest and most popular singers of the "romances" usually sang in operas at the same time. The most popular was Fyodor Shalyapin. Singers usually composed music and wrote the lyrics, as did Alexander Vertinsky, Konstantin Sokolsky, Pyotr Leshchenko.

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Why did Russia started to develop classical music so late?

Why were Russian composers of the time not very successful?

Why were Glinka’s works so important?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTzaes6E7A4

What were the two groups of Russian composers?

Who founded the first Russian conservatories?

Who is the best –known Russian composer in the world?

Who belonged to the third wave of Russian classics?

Why were they popular in the world?

What were Vertinsky and Leschenko famous for?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g06DTcWQdT0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6ZfrPW4Wmo

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Date: 2015-12-18; view: 965