Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804 – 1857) was the first
Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his
own country and is often regarded as the fountainhead
of Russian classical music. His compositions were an
important influence on Russian composers, notably the
members of The Five, who produced a distinctive Russian
style of music. He was born in the village of
Novospasskoye, not far from the Desna River in the
Smolensk Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in the
Yelninsky District of t...(+)
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804 – 1857) was the first
Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his
own country and is often regarded as the fountainhead
of Russian classical music. His compositions were an
important influence on Russian composers, notably the
members of The Five, who produced a distinctive Russian
style of music. He was born in the village of
Novospasskoye, not far from the Desna River in the
Smolensk Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in the
Yelninsky District of the Smolensk Oblast). His wealthy
father had retired as an army captain, and the family
had a strong tradition of loyalty and service to the
tsars, and several members of his extended family had
lively cultural interests. His great-great-grandfather
was a Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth nobleman,
Wiktoryn Władysław Glinka of the Trzaska coat
of arms who was given lands in the Smolensk
Voivodeship. In 1655, Wiktoryn converted to Eastern
Orthodoxy with the new name Yakov Yakovlevich (Jacob,
son of Jacob), and remained the owner of his lands
under the tsar. The coat of arms was originally
received after the conversion from Lithuanian Paganism
to Catholicism according to the Union of
Horodło.
linka was the beginning of a new direction in Russian
music. Musical culture arrived in Russia from Europe,
and for the first time specifically Russian music began
to appear, in Glinka's operas. Historical events were
often used as its basis, but for the first time they
were presented realistically.
The first to note this new direction was Alexander
Serov. He was then joined by his friend Vladimir
Stasov, who became the theorist of this cultural trend;
it was developed further by composers of "The
Five".
Modern Russian music critic Viktor Korshikov wrote:
"Russian musical culture would not have developed
without...three operas—Ivan Soussanine, Ruslan and
Ludmila, and the Stone Guest have created Mussorgsky,
Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin. Soussanine is an opera
where the main character is the people; Ruslan is the
mythical, deeply Russian intrigue; and in Guest, the
drama dominates over the softness of the beauty of
sound." Two of these operas—Ivan Soussanine and
Ruslan and Ludmila—were Glinka's.
Glinka composed three sacred musical works — a freely
composed Cherubic Hymn in 1837, a Great Litany for male
chorus, and an arrangement for trio and chorus of the
Greek Chant setting of “Da ispravitsia molitva
moya” [“Let my prayer arise”]. The first is
written in the style of Pales-trinian counterpoint, but
uses 19th-c. harmonic language; the other two works are
written in the so-called “strict style” of harmony,
which employs only consonant triads. Glinka's work, and
that of the composers and other creative people he
inspired, has been instrumental in the development of a
distinctly Russian artistic style that occupies a
prominent place in world culture.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Glinka).
Although originally composed for Chorus (SATTBB), I
created this arrangement of "Cherubic Hymn"
(Херувимl
9;кaя пeснь) for
Winds (Flute, Oboe, English Horn & Bassoon) & Strings
(2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC