The secular works of outstanding Russian composers organically included images of Orthodox spirituality, and found a vivid embodiment of the intonation of Orthodox church music. The introduction of bell-ringing into opera scenes became a tradition in the nineteenth-century Russian opera.
Crouching
The Orthodox spirituality, possessing high value reference points, carrying moral purity and inner harmony, nourished Russian music, in contrast, presenting and exposing the insignificance of worldly vanity, the lowland of human passions and vices.
The outstanding heroic-tragic opera of M. I. Glinka’s “Life for the Tsar” (“Ivan Susanin”), the drama “The Tsar’s Bride”, folk musical dramas by M. P. Mussorgsky, epic operas by N.А. Rimsky-Korsakov and others, it is deeply possible to comprehend only through the prism of Orthodox religious culture. Characteristics of the heroes of these musical works are given from the point of view of Orthodox moral and ethical ideas.
Melos Russian composers and church chants
Since the 19th century, Orthodox church music has penetrated abundantly into Russian classical music at the intonational and thematic level. The quartet-prayer, sung by the heroes of the opera “Life for the Tsar” of genius Glinka, reminds the partesky style of church hymns, the final solo scene of Ivan Susanin is, in essence, a prayer appeal to God before his death, the epilogue of the opera begins with an elated choir “Glorify” close to the church genre of "many years". The solo parts of the heroes in the well-known musical folk drama about Tsar Boris Mussorgsky, revealing the image of Orthodox monasticism (the elder Pimen, the Fool, kalyki perekhozhi), permeated with intonations of church chants.
Severe choirs of schismatics, designed in the style of znamenny chant, are presented in the opera Mussorgsky "Khovanshchina". On the intonations of znamenny singing, the main themes of the first parts of the famous piano concertos by S.V. Rachmaninov (second and third).
Scene from the opera “Khovanshchina” by MP Mussorgsky
The deep connection with the Orthodox culture can be traced in the work of the outstanding master of the vocal and choral genre G.V. Sviridov. The original melos of the composer is a synthesis of folk song, church-canonical and canting.
Znamenny chant prevails in the choir cycle of Sviridov "Tsar Fedor Ivanovich" - according to the tragedy of AK Tolstoy. "Hymns and Prayers", written in church texts, but intended for secular concert performance, are unsurpassed creations of Sviridov, in which ancient liturgical traditions organically merge with the musical language of the 20th century.
Bells sound
Bell ringing is considered an integral part of Orthodox life. Most of the composers of the Russian school have a figurative world of bell towers in the musical heritage.
For the first time, he introduced scenes with the bell ringing of Glinka into the Russian opera: the bells accompany the final part of the opera “Life for the Tsar”. The re-creation of the bell ringing in the orchestra enhances the drama of the image of Tsar Boris: the scene of the coronation and the scene of death. (Mussorgsky: musical drama "Boris Godunov").
Many works of Rachmaninov are filled with bell tower. One of the clearest examples is in this sense the Prelude in C sharp minor. Remarkable examples of the re-creation of the bell-ringing are presented in the musical compositions of the 20th century composer. V.A. Gavrilina ("Chimes").
And now - a musical gift. A wonderful choral Easter miniature of one of the Russian composers. Here the bell tower manifests itself more than clearly.
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