Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka was born in the village of Novospasskoye, not far from the Desna River. His early years were spent inside a room kept at 18 degrees Celsius by his overprotective grandmother. She wrapped him in furs and fed him sweets while confining him to that space. The only sounds he heard during this confinement were church bells and folk songs from passing peasant choirs. These church bells were tuned to a dissonant chord that shaped his ears. He became accustomed to strident harmony rather than smooth progressions. Peasant choirs used the podgolosochnaya technique which involved improvised dissonant harmonies below the melody. This style influenced his independence from Western harmonic rules. At age ten he heard a clarinet quartet by Bernhard Henrik Crusell play for him. Music is my soul, he wrote many years later recalling that experience.
In 1830 Glinka traveled to Italy with a tenor named Giovanni Battista Rubini. They took a leisurely pace through Germany and Switzerland before settling in Milan. There he took lessons at the conservatory with Francesco Basili. He struggled with counterpoint which he found irksome. After three years listening to singers and meeting famous people including Mendelssohn and Berlioz he became disenchanted with Italy. He realized his life's mission was to return to Russia. He wanted to write in a Russian manner. He intended to do for Russian music what Donizetti and Bellini had done for Italian music. His return journey took him through the Alps. He stopped for a while in Vienna where he heard the music of Franz Liszt. He stayed another five months in Berlin studying composition under Siegfried Dehn. A Capriccio on Russian Themes for piano duet emerged as an important product of this period.
A Life for the Tsar premiered on the 9th of December 1836 under the direction of Catterino Cavos. The work tells the story of Ivan Susanin who sacrifices his life for the Tsar. Tsar Nicholas I followed the work's progress with interest and suggested changing the title from Ivan Susanin. The Tsar rewarded Glinka for his work with a ring valued at 4,000 rubles. In 1837 Glinka was installed as the instructor of the Imperial Chapel Choir. He received a yearly salary of 25,000 rubles and lodging at the court. He soon embarked on his second opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. The plot was concocted in 15 minutes by Konstantin Bakhturin who was drunk at the time. When it debuted on the 9th of December 1842 it was received coolly but subsequently gained popularity. Much of the borrowed folk material is oriental in origin.
Glinka went through a dejected year after the poor reception of Ruslan and Lyudmila. His spirits rose when he travelled to Paris and Spain. In Spain he met Don Pedro Fernández who became his secretary and companion for the last nine years of his life. In Paris Hector Berlioz conducted some excerpts from Glinka's operas. Glinka in turn admired Berlioz's music and resolved to compose some fantasies pittoresques for orchestra. Beginning in 1852 he spent two years in Paris living quietly. He then moved to Berlin where he died suddenly on the 15th of February 1857 following a cold. He was buried in Berlin but a few months later his body was taken to Saint Petersburg. It was reinterred in the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.
Mikhail Glinka was the beginning of a new direction in Russian music. 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 musical critic Viktor Korshikov wrote that Russian musical culture would not have developed without three operas including Ivan Soussanine and Ruslan and Ludmila. Soussanine is an opera where the main character is the people. Ruslan is the mythical deeply Russian intrigue. Glinka's work has been instrumental in the development of a distinctly Russian artistic style. His orchestral composition Kamarinskaya from 1848 was said by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to be the acorn from which the oak of later Russian symphonic music grew.
In 1884 Mitrofan Belyayev founded the annual Glinka Prize. Its early winners included Alexander Borodin Mily Balakirev and Tchaikovsky. Three Russian conservatories are named after Glinka including Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory and Novosibirsk State Conservatory. Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh named a minor planet 2205 Glinka in his honor. It was discovered in 1973. A crater on Mercury is also named after him. In 1990 the Supreme Soviet of Russia adopted his Patrioticheskaya Pesnya as the regional anthem. The hymn was officially confirmed as the Russian national anthem in 1993. It remained as such until 2000 when it was replaced by the Soviet anthem with new lyrics. Glinkastraße in Berlin was named in Glinka's honor though plans to rename Mohrenstraße were cancelled due to his reputed antisemitism.
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Common questions
Where was Mikhail Glinka born and what sounds influenced his early musical development?
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka was born in the village of Novospasskoye near the Desna River. His early ears were shaped by church bells tuned to dissonant chords and folk songs from peasant choirs using podgolosochnaya technique.
When did Mikhail Glinka premiere A Life for the Tsar and who directed it?
A Life for the Tsar premiered on the 9th of December 1836 under the direction of Catterino Cavos. The work tells the story of Ivan Susanin who sacrifices his life for the Tsar.
What year did Mikhail Glinka die and where is he buried?
Mikhail Glinka died suddenly on the 15th of February 1857 following a cold while living in Berlin. He was initially buried in Berlin but his body was later reinterred in the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg.
Which orchestral composition by Mikhail Glinka did Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky call the acorn of Russian symphonic music?
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky described Mikhail Glinka's orchestral composition Kamarinskaya from 1848 as the acorn from which the oak of later Russian symphonic music grew.
In what year was Mikhail Glinka's Patrioticheskaya Pesnya adopted as the Russian national anthem?
The Supreme Soviet of Russia adopted Mikhail Glinka's Patrioticheskaya Pesya as the regional anthem in 1990. It was officially confirmed as the Russian national anthem in 1993 until it was replaced by the Soviet anthem with new lyrics in 2000.