Bortnyansky Dmitry Stepanovich, Russian composer: biography, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The eighteenth century is glorified by many outstanding representatives of Russian musical culture. Among them is Bortnyansky Dmitry Stepanovich. This is a talented composer with a rare charm. Dmitry Bortnyansky was both a conductor and a singer. Became the creator of a new type of choral concert.

Childhood

Dmitry Bortnyansky, whose biography is described in this article, was born on October 28, 1751. His father, Stefan Shkurat, was a Cossack who served under Hetman Razumovsky. Even before his marriage and the birth of his son, the serviceman arrived in the city of Glukhov, where he remained to live. He changed his surname to Bortnyansky, as his native village was called. After some time, he married Tolstaya Marina Dmitrievna, a Cossack widow. And soon the couple had a son Dmitry.

The first shoots of talent

When the boy was six years old, his parents noticed his obvious talent. Dmitry had a beautiful clear voice, excellent hearing. The boy sang correctly, never out of tune. He grasped any melody on the fly, Dmitry did not need torepetitions. Parents, having seen their son's talent, enrolled him in the Glukhov Singing School.

The beginning of music education

Dmitry was easy to study, and he himself showed great interest in music. The boy sang with great pleasure, and this was important, since the condition was set for the guys that constant service was at the head of education. After a short time, the teachers began to put Dmitry as a soloist. When the young talent went to school, the boy immediately began to learn how to play musical instruments.

Departure for St. Petersburg

Bortnyansky was distinguished by an amazing treble. His cleanliness was very important for the choir. And Dmitry was highly valued by teachers. In 1758, the singers were sent to St. Petersburg, to the Chapel. Marina Dmitrievna crossed her son, gave him a bundle with gifts and a small icon for the journey. Bortnyansky Dmitry left his hometown and never saw his parents again.

Fateful meeting with Italian composer

In those days, the Italian direction of music was in vogue. There were many foreign maestros at the court, and the technique of performing works was also appropriate. In 1763, when the mourning for Elizabeth ended, the new empress took on the service of the Venetian Kapellmeister Galuppi Buronelli. This decision had a great influence on the fate of young Dmitry Bortnyansky.

At that time he enjoyed singing arias in various operas. Galuppi decided to find students for himself, one of them was Dmitry. The famous Kapellmeister also noticed othersteenager talents. Galuppi drew attention to how Dmitry literally on the fly grasps even the most complex passages, motifs and entire arias that the composer played. The greedy desire of a teenager to learn new things was also important. As a result, Galuppi, when he was going back to Italy, took Dmitry with him.

Study in Italy

Long months of training followed. Dmitry learned to play the organ and harpsichord, studied counterpoint. The young man became a regular visitor to the Venetian theaters and did not miss a single significant premiere. The works of the young musician became more independent, more professional. However, it was too early for Dmitry to perform with finished works.

Short-term military service

He didn't enjoy a pleasant and cloudless study for long. At that time there was a war, and Dmitry's fate did not save him from participating in it. Count Orlov unexpectedly arrived in Venice and met with the consul Marucius. A long conversation took place between influential people, and early in the morning Dmitry was already brought to them.

Count offered him a position as an interpreter in the Russian army. A day later, Dmitry Stepanovich was already riding in Orlov's retinue to the allied rebels. The negotiations were successful, and after a while the young musician returned to his favorite music.

The first famous operas

In 1776, the posters of San Benedetto invited those wishing to visit the opera Creon, composed by Bortnyansky, a Russian musician. The work did not fail, but it did not find great success either. Next work "Alcides"the young composer turned out to be more mature. Dmitry Stepanovich was very attentive to the nature of the characters, the music became more relaxed, more diverse. The composer tried to convey the mood of the hero, his alertness, doubts and indecision. The premiere of "Alcides" took place in Venice. The work was a resounding success.

The debut of the next opera Quint Fabius was held in Modena. Dmitry Stepanovich received good reviews from the local press. Critics noticed the ingenuity, the elegance of execution and the skillful construction of the storyline. As a result, the performance even received the approval of the court and thunderous applause from the audience. In 1779 Dmitry Stepanovich returned to Russia.

Getting court ranks

First, Bortnyansky became the court bandmaster. In 1784, the Italian maestro D. Paisiello had to urgently leave for his homeland, Italy. Bortnyansky was offered to replace him at the small court of Maria Feodorovna. At the same time, it was his duty to fill in the musical gaps in the princess's education.

Dmitry Stepanovich has prepared an album of pieces to be performed on the clavichord, piano and harpsichord. The princess liked the gift, and in April 1785 Bortnyansky became the official owner of his first, albeit low rank. Dmitry Stepanovich received the post of collegiate assessor. In comparison with the army service, he was equated with the rank of major.

Court career

In 1786, the work "The Feast of the Senior" (Bortnyansky) appeared. Princess Maria Feodorovna asked to make an operamore meaningful. As a result, Dmitry Stepanovich wrote music for a new libretto. The opera was called The Falcon, many motifs were taken from Alcides. The premiere of the new work took place in October 1786. Bortnyansky's opera The Falcon was a huge success.

It reflects the virtuosity and skill of the maestro. He was able to find a combination of individual arias and ballet inserts, harmoniously linking them, conveying warmth, emancipation and emotional expressiveness along with the music. The work "Falcon" has become one of the textbooks. At first, the opera sounded at the Gatchina Theater, then moved to the Pavlovsky. Then the work hit almost all the small scenes.

A year later, Bortnyansky's new masterpiece "Rival Son, or New Stratonics" appeared. The product has become one of the best. Then Dmitry Stepanovich began to write choral concertos. At the time, it was a familiar genre. The works were performed mainly at special church services. However, concerts were often held at court celebrations, during important ceremonies. Bortnyansky Dmitry was able to change choral works so much that they became a new direction in music.

For several decades he has written more than 50 concerts. Each of them has elements of folk songs. Connoisseurs of European music spoke with admiration of the works of Bortnyansky. The choirs had marvelous melodic shades, full-sounding harmonies and were distinguished by a free arrangement of voices.

In a leadership position in the court chapel

From 1796, Dmitry Stepanovich ruledcourt chapel. The service of the choristers was not easy, and Bortnyansky knew this firsthand. He was able to gradually change a lot in the Chapel. Bortnyansky decided to create a separate stronghold of singers who perform works without instrumental accompaniment and save the new team from participating in performances.

As a result, the best school of choral art was created. The singers no longer took part in theatrical performances. In 1800, the Chapel became an independent music department.

In 1801, Dmitry Stepanovich was appointed director. The chapel under his leadership grew and became very popular. Bortnyansky Dmitry as a teacher was in great demand and became an indisputable musical authority. His school began to be considered first-class, he trained many professional choristers and bandmasters.

At the same time, Dmitry Stepanovich was engaged in his own art, creating more and more attractive romances, instrumental music, chamber works and sonatas. Bortnyansky met the new century at the peak of his fame. The work "Rival Son, or New Stratonika" was associated with the heyday of the Chapel. This is the most significant musical work of the composer from all created in French texts.

Bortnyansky's Hobbies

Dmitry Stepanovich Bortnyansky (1751-1825) was a versatile person. Contemporaries called him handsome, strict in the service and indulgent towards people. All his life Dmitry Stepanovich was devoted to art, and not only to music.

Heparticipated in literary evenings, was an excellent connoisseur of fine arts and painting. Dmitry Stepanovich became interested in collecting paintings while still in Italy. There he found time to study the history of European art. It was in Italy that Bortnyansky began to collect a collection of paintings, which was later highly appreciated by connoisseurs of painting.

Dmitry Stepanovich brought all the collected canvases home. He liked to show the collection to his guests. Bortnyansky had to participate in the design of palaces in Gatchina and Pavlovsk. He was a permanent consultant in architecture and painting. Therefore, the design of buildings is partly his merit. Bortnyansky Dmitry chose and bought canvases for the Pavlovsk Palace.

In 1804 the composer was admitted to the ranks of honorary academicians. Since the 90s. he immersed himself in the creation of sacred music, especially choral recitals. In them, he often went beyond the strict church framework. In the compositions of Bortnyansky, the influence of opera, marching and dance rhythms were felt. The slow parts of the pieces sometimes resembled urban romances.

Dmitry Stepanovich has never been a member of Masonic lodges. However, some of his hymns were considered a priority for secret societies. Bortnyansky's work "A Singer in the Camp of Russian Warriors" also entered the history of Russian culture. In this masterpiece, Dmitry Stepanovich even surpassed himself, as it turned out to be a drinking choral song. It could also be performed solo.

Bortnyansky's work

The work of Dmitry Bortnyansky cannot be contained in only one collection. Composerwrote a variety of music. For the court chapel - spiritual, for the small court - secular compositions. Many choral concertos are written with clear signs of the classical style. Works mainly of 3 or 4 private cycles, not related thematically.

The most famous of the operas are those that Bortnyansky created in Italy. These first compositions are still considered the "golden collection". Instrumental collections were written by Dmitry Stepanovich already in the 80s.

Unfortunately, very few works of this direction have survived to this day. Most of these musical masterpieces are single-movement. In instrumental works, many connoisseurs note that national Ukrainian features are noticeable.

Composer's personal life

The wife of Dmitry Stepanovich Bortnyansky was a modest, calm Anna Ivanovna. They had a son whom they named Alexander. When he grew up, he served as a lieutenant in the guard. Over time, Alexander married, and he had two children - a daughter, Marya, and a son named after his grandfather.

The grandson of Bortnyansky followed in the footsteps of his famous relative. The boy had a wonderful voice, and Dmitry Stepanovich enrolled his grandson as a chorister in the Chapel. The Bortnyansky family lived in a large two-story house, decorated with an oak carved door. Dmitry Stepanovich had his own office, in which he liked to spend time in thought in the evenings.

Alexandra Mikhailovna, a 27-year-old girl, was also included in the number of close people. No one, not even herself,knew about her parents. The still young Alexandra was taken in by Dmitry Stepanovich and his wife, and since then the girl has been considered a member of the family. The Bortnians raised her as their own daughter.

Last years of life

The court chapel remained the "brainchild" of Dmitry Stepanovich until the last years of his life. During these years, he taught and worked with wards with even greater pedantry, trying to reveal their singing to the maximum.

All Bortnyansky's days were filled to capacity. He walked home along the Moika Embankment, crossed Senatskaya Square and turned right at the corner of Millionnaya Street. Having reached the house, he went up to his office, and sometimes sat for a long time in thought. Old age took its toll, Dmitry Stepanovich was very tired in recent years.

He worked hard on a complete edition of his writings. He invested a lot of his own money in books, but many he never saw. Dmitry Stepanovich managed to publish only a part of the choral concertos, which were written in his youth. A complete collection of his works in ten volumes appeared only in 1882, edited by Tchaikovsky.

Composer Dmitry Bortnyansky died in St. Petersburg on September 27 (October 10 according to the new reckoning) in 1825. On that day, he summoned the choir of the Chapel. The composer asked to perform one of his concertos, and quietly died to his favorite sounds of music.

Dmitry Stepanovich was buried on Vasilyevsky Island, at the Smolensk cemetery. An obelisk and a monument were erected on the grave of the famous Russian composer. Then an act of vandalism followed, and in 1953 the burial wasmoved to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, to the Pantheon of Cultural Figures.

In memory of the great Russian composer, Bortnyansky's name was given to the School of Arts in Sumy, the Chernihiv Chamber Choir and a street in Lvov. In the homeland of Dmitry Stepanovich, in Glukhov, a monument was erected, which was fashioned by the sculptor Kolomiets I. A. In the 90s. Ukrainian artist Natalia Sviridenko created the Bortnyansky Trio (soprano, flute and harpsichord).

The legacy of the great composer

After her husband's death, Anna Ivanovna gave her manuscripts and engraved music boards to the Chapel for safekeeping. However, his choral concertos were increasingly performed, and secular compositions in the form of instrumental and operatic works were gradually forgotten.

They remembered this music by Dmitry Stepanovich Bortnyansky many years later, only in 1901, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth. Early compositions were accidentally found in the Chapel, and their exhibition was arranged. Among them were such well-known works as "Alkid", "Falcon", Quintus" and others. The clavier collection, which was dedicated to Princess Maria Feodorovna, has also been preserved.

Secular writings were discussed again after another 50 years. By this time, many of the composer's works were lost forever, since after 1917 the archive of the Capella was disbanded into different repositories. Some of Bortnyansky's collections have never been found. The works dedicated to Princess Maria Feodorovna also disappeared.