Given the the recent events around Russia and Ukraine , we hope that this following essay will be of interest to our readers.
PETER and LEIBNIZ’S VISION FOR RUSSIA: THE ROLE OF UKRAINE in MUSIC
Czar Peter the Great (1672-1725, born 13 years before J.S. Bach), became Emperor Peter in 1721. Peter realized that if Russia were to survive, it would have to modernize. He greatly expanded Russia’s territory, and led a cultural revolution that included the modernization of Russia’s scientific, social, political systems.
In 1697 he spent 18 months travelling through Europe, examining scientific academies, studying ship building, and meeting prominent scientists and artists. Most importantly he engaged the great statesman and scientist Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz as an advisor. Both men thought that Russia should not just imitate the west, but take the best from it and create something new. Ironically, Leibniz called Russia a “tabula rasa” (blank slate.)
The new capital, Saint Petersburg (established in 1703), was intended to demonstrate that. Italian architects like Rastrelli, and Trezzini, did not build in the Italian style, or the Russian, but combined both (see photos at end.) In music, the Court Chapel Choir was developed into what many reported to be the best chorus in the world.
UKRAINE AND VOCAL POLYPHONY
Ukraine had greater and earlier access to the West than Russia, and Ukrainian scholars led an effort to uplift musical standards from the early 1500's on. Composers such as Sebastian z Felsztyna, Marcin Leopolita (of Lvov), and in the 17th century Mykola Dyletsky (of Kiev) wrote treatises on music, introducing precise notation and polyphony. (They were from Ukraine, but are sometimes known as Polish composers, since Ukraine was part of Poland at the time.) These treatises caused an uproar. Such westernization was seen by "old-believers" as heresy, and denounced as "Musikiia." Russian chants were often improvised solos based on imprecise notes called “Neumes”.
The Orthodox Church would not allow instruments in its services, so the composers wrote polyphonic “a capella” music (meaning, as “done in the Chapel”), for unaccompanied voices. The Ukrainians decided that a limitation would be turned into a strength. Here is an amazing work by Mykola Dyletsky (also spelled as Nikolay Diletsky) from the mid-1600's.
For centuries, Russia, led by Ukraine and Italy, produced beautiful choral music.
THE COURT CHAPEL CHOIR
The approach of the Italian architects was replicated in music. For seventy years, great Italian opera composers were brought in to develop the Court Chapel Choir in St. Petersburg to the highest level. This included Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801), Francesco Onofrio Manfredini, Martin y Soler, Raupach, Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785), Giuseppe Sarti (1729-1802), and Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816, Beethoven wrote a series of piano variations—“Nel cor piu non mi sento“, WoO70– on Paisiello’s Opera “ La Molinara”). The singers were mostly Ukrainian.
In 1736, a singing school was established in the Ukrainian city of Hlukhiv. The future choir members trained there. The three great Russian composers of the late 18th century, Maxim Berezovsky (1745-77), Artemy Vedel (1767-1808), and Dmitro Bortniansky (1751-1825) were all Ukrainians, educated at that facility. In 1765, Galuppi became court composer and conductor during the reign of Catherine the Great, who defended the young American Republic with the League of Armed Neutrality. Galuppi said that he had never heard such a fine chorus in all of Italy.
Portrait of Dmytro Bortniansky (1810s)
Galuppi’s Italian works sound typically Italian. Here, an aria from his “Antigone”:
But his Russian works are entirely different:
We can show you that it is the same with Sarti. Here’s a Italian composition sung by the famous Renata Tebaldi:
Here’s Sarti Russian chorus "And Now the Powers of Heaven":
Like the architects, the Italian composers were creating something new. The chorus was trained in bel canto singing methods, and "choral orchestration" was developed including the use of "octavists" (deep basses).
Bortniansky studied in Hlukhiv, and joined the St. Petersburg chorus as a boy. Galuppi, recognizing his talent, and brought him to Italy to study for 11 years. He studied with Padre Martini around the same time as the young Mozart. He composed successful Italian operas. (From Creonte):
and powerful Russian music. His Cherubic Hymn number 7 encourages us to act as angels while on earth:
He became the first non-import to head the St. Petersburg Court Choir, which had become known as the best choir in the world with its Italian bel-canto training (it was unusual for a Ukrainian to be given such a position). With the St Petersburg Philharmonic, he played works by Haydn and Mozart, (just when Alexander Hamilton's writings were being enthusiastically circulated in St. Petersburg), and invited the public to free rehearsals. He guaranteed parents, who committed their children to the choir, that their kids would have good jobs after their voices changed. When Beethoven had his Missa Solemnis premiered in St Petersburg (April 7, 1824), he specified Bortniansky and his chorus.
How many cultures are involved here? Bortniansky was uplifting Russian culture, through Italian bel-canto singing, and through the Ukrainian tradition of beautiful a capella choral music, with the help of Beethoven and Leibniz.
The Empress Catherine gave Bortniansky control over all Russian music, in order that it all reach the highest standards.
