Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (Russian:Михаил Иванович Глинка[a],romanized:Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka[b],IPA:[mʲɪxɐˈilɨˈvanəvʲɪdʑˈɡlʲinkə]ⓘ; 1 June [O.S. 20 May] 1804 – 15 February [O.S. 3 February] 1857) was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country and is often regarded as the fountainhead of Russianclassical music.[2] His compositions were an important influence on other Russian composers, notably the members ofThe Five, who produced a distinctive Russian style of music.
Glinka was born in the village of Novospasskoye, not far from theDesna River in theSmolensk Governorate of theRussian Empire (now in theYelninsky District of theSmolensk Oblast). His wealthy father had retired as an army captain, and the family had a strong tradition of loyalty and service to thetsars, and several members of his extended family had lively cultural interests. His great-great-grandfather was aPolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth nobleman, Wiktoryn Władysław Glinka of theTrzaska coat of arms who was given lands in theSmolensk 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.[3][4]
Mikhail was raised by his overprotective and pampering paternal grandmother, who fed him sweets, wrapped him in furs, and confined him to her room, which was kept at 25 °C (77 °F). Accordingly, he became something of a hypochondriac and later in life retained the services of numerous physicians, and often falling victim toquacks. The only music he heard in his youthful confinement was the sounds of the village church bells and the folk songs of passing peasant choirs. The church bells were tuned to a dissonant chord, and so his ears became used to strident harmony. While his nurse would sometimes sing folksongs, the peasant choirs who sang using thepodgolosochnaya technique (an improvised style—literally "under the voice"—using improvised dissonant harmonies below the melody) influenced his independence from the smooth progressions ofWestern harmony.
After his grandmother's death, he moved to his maternal uncle's estate some 10 kilometres (6 mi) away, where he heard his uncle's orchestra, whose repertoire includedHaydn,Mozart andBeethoven. At the age of about ten he heard them play a clarinet quartet by theFinnish composerBernhard Henrik Crusell, which had a profound effect upon him. "Music is my soul", he wrote many years later, recalling the experience. While his governess taught him Russian, German, French and geography, he also received instruction on the piano and violin.
At 13, Glinka went to the capital,Saint Petersburg, to attend a school for children of the nobility. He learned Latin, English, and Persian, studied mathematics and zoology, and considerably widened his musical experience. He had three piano lessons fromJohn Field, the Irish composer ofnocturnes, who spent some time in Saint Petersburg. He then continued his piano lessons withCharles Mayer and began composing.[3]
Glinka in 1856
When he left school his father wanted him to join the Foreign Office, and he was appointed assistant secretary of the Department of Public Highways. The light work allowed Glinka to settle into the life of a musicaldilettante, frequenting the city'sdrawing rooms and social gatherings. He was already composing a large amount of music, such as melancholy romances which amused the rich amateurs. His songs are among the most interesting parts of his work from this period.
In 1830, at a physician's recommendation, Glinka traveled to Italy with tenorNikolai Kuzmich Ivanov [ru]. They took a leisurely pace, ambling through Germany and Switzerland, before settling in Milan. There, Glinka took lessons at theconservatory withFrancesco Basili. He struggled withcounterpoint, which he found irksome. After three years listening to singers, romancing women with his music, and meeting famous people includingMendelssohn andBerlioz, he became disenchanted with Italy. He realized that his life's mission was to return to Russia, write in a Russian manner, and do for Russian music whatDonizetti andBellini had done for Italian music.
His return took him through the Alps, and he stopped for a while in Vienna, where he heard the music ofFranz Liszt. He stayed another five months inBerlin, where he studied composition under the distinguished teacherSiegfried Dehn. ACapriccio on Russian Themes for piano duet and an unfinishedSymphony on Two Russian Themes were important products of this period.
When word reached Glinka of his father's death in 1834, he left Berlin and returned to Novospasskoye.
Ilya Repin's portrait of Glinka was painted thirty years after the composer's death
While in Berlin, Glinka became enamored of a beautiful and talented singer, for whom he composedSix Studies for Contralto. He contrived a plan to return to her, but when his sister's German maid turned up without the necessary paperwork to cross to the border with him, he abandoned his plan as well as his love and turned north for Saint Petersburg. There he reunited with his mother, and made the acquaintance of Maria Petrovna Ivanova. After a brief courtship, they married, but the marriage was short-lived, as Maria was tactless and uninterested in his music. His initial fondness for her was said to have inspired the trio in the first act of his operaA Life for the Tsar (1836), but his naturally sweet disposition coarsened under his wife's and mother-in-law's constant criticism. When the marriage ended, she remarried, and Glinka moved in with his mother, and later with his sister, Lyudmila Shestakova.[3]
A Life for the Tsar was the first of Glinka's two great operas. It was originally entitledIvan Susanin. Set in 1612, it tells the story of the Russian peasant and patriotic heroIvan Susanin who sacrifices his life for theTsar by leading astray a group of maraudingPoles who were hunting him.Tsar Nicholas I himself followed the work's progress with interest and suggested the change in the title. It was a great success at its premiere on 9 December 1836, under the direction ofCatterino Cavos, who had written an opera on the same subject in Italy. The Tsar rewarded Glinka for his work with a ring valued at 4,000rubles. (During the Soviet era, the opera was staged under its original title,Ivan Susanin.)
In 1837, Glinka was installed as the instructor of theImperial Chapel Choir, with a yearly salary of 25,000 rubles and lodging at the court. In 1838, at the Tsar's suggestion, he traveled to Ukraine to gather new voices for the choir; the 19 new boys he found earned him another 1,500 rubles from the Tsar.
He soon embarked on his second opera,Ruslan and Lyudmila. The plot, based on the tale byAlexander Pushkin, was concocted in 15 minutes byKonstantin Bakhturin, a poet who was drunk at the time. Consequently, the opera is a dramatic muddle, yet the quality of Glinka's music is higher than inA Life for the Tsar. Theoverture features a descendingwhole tone scale associated with the villainous dwarf Chernomor, who has abducted Lyudmila, daughter of the Prince ofKiev. There is much Italianatecoloratura, and Act 3 contains several routine ballet numbers, but Glinka's great achievement lies in his use of folk melody which becomes thoroughly infused into themusical argument. Much of the borrowed folk material isoriental in origin. When it debuted on 9 December 1842, it was received coolly, but subsequently gained popularity.
Glinka went through a dejected year after the poor reception ofRuslan and Lyudmila. His spirits rose when he travelled to Paris and Spain. In Spain he met Don Pedro Fernández, his secretary and companion for the last nine years of his life.[5] In Paris,Hector Berlioz conducted some excerpts from Glinka's operas and wrote an appreciative article about him. Glinka in turn admired Berlioz's music and resolved to compose somefantasies pittoresques for orchestra. Beginning in 1852, he spent two years in Paris, living quietly and frequently visiting thebotanical andzoological gardens. He then moved to Berlin where, after five months, he died suddenly on 15 February 1857, following acold. He was buried in Berlin, but a few months later his body was taken to Saint Petersburg and reinterred in the cemetery of theAlexander Nevsky Monastery.
Glinka was the beginning of a new direction in Russian music.[6][7] 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.[7][8]
The first to note this new direction wasAlexander Serov.[9] He was then joined by his friendVladimir Stasov,[9] who became the theorist of this cultural trend;[8] it was developed further by composers of "The Five".[6][7]
Modern Russian music criticViktor Korshikov wrote: "Russian musical culture [would not have developed] without...three operas—Ivan Soussanine,Ruslan and Ludmila, andThe Stone Guest.Soussanine is an opera where the main character is the people;Ruslan is the mythical, deeply Russian intrigue; and inGuest, the drama dominates over the softness of the beauty of sound."[10] Two of these operas—Ivan Soussanine andRuslan and Ludmila—were Glinka's.
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.
After Glinka's death, the relative merits of his two operas became a topic of heated debate in the musical press, especially betweenVladimir Stasov and his former friendAlexander Serov. Glinka's orchestral compositionKamarinskaya (1848) was said byPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to be "the acorn from which the oak" of later Russian symphonic music grew.[11]
Outside Russia, several of Glinka's orchestral works have been fairly popular in concerts and recordings. Besides the well-knownovertures to the operas (especially the brilliantly energetic overture toRuslan), his major orchestral works include the symphonic poemKamarinskaya (1848), based on Russian folk songs; and two Spanish works,A Night in Madrid (1848, 1851) andJota Aragonesa (1845). He also composed manyart songs and piano pieces, and some chamber music.[12]
A lesser work that received attention in the last decade of the 20th century was Glinka's "Patrioticheskaya Pesnya", supposedly written for a contest for anational anthem in 1833. In 1990, theSupreme Soviet of Russia adopted it as the regional anthem of theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, which till then was the only Soviet constituent state without its own anthem.[13] Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Russian SFSR, the hymn was retained unofficially until it was officially confirmed as theRussian national anthem in 1993, where it remained as such until 2000 when it was replaced by the Soviet anthem with new lyrics.[14]
Glinkastraße inBerlin was named in Glinka's honor. In the wake of theGeorge Floyd protests, theBerlin U-Bahn stationMohrenstraße was proposed to be renamed "Glinkastraße", which is adjacent to the station. The plan was cancelled due to Glinka's reputed antisemitism.[20]
The stirring overture to Glinka's operaRuslan and Lyudmila is heard as the theme of the long-running U.S. television comedy seriesMom. Its creators felt the fast-paced, complex orchestral music reflected the characters' struggles to overcome their destructive habits and keep up with the demands of daily life.[22]
^In Glinka's day, his name was writtenМихаилъ Ивановичъ Глинка.
^The ALA-LCtransliteration of Russian is used for his name, the result is identical to BGN/PCGN here. ISO 9 system:Mihail Ivanovič Glinka.[1]Latin:Michael Ioannis filius Glinka.
^Victor Korshikov. Do you want, I'll teach you to love the opera. And not only about the music. Publishing house Ya T. Moscow, 2007 // ru:Виктор Коршиков. Хотите, я научу вас любить оперу. О музыке и не только. Издательство ЯТЬ. Москва, 2007
^"Presidential Decree" [Presidential Decree on the National Anthem of the Russian Federation].President of the Russian Federation (in Russian). lawrussia.ru. 11 December 1993. Archived fromthe original on 22 March 2015. Retrieved25 January 2015.
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