Mikhail Glinka: Russia's First Composer

       Russia was a late comer to the world of Western Classical music.  As the case has frequently been throughout Russia's history, the country's disconnect from the West has caused it to fall behind Western cultural  ideas.  Peter the Great recognized this in the late 1700's and did much to westernize Russia through various reforms and, most famously, by building his "window to the west," St. Petersburg.

       So it may come as no surprise that it was Peter Romanov himself who introduced western classical music to Russia, in the form of Italian Opera.  The melodies and dramas associated with these operas were very popular at the time, and any Russian composer who wanted to be heard needed to imitate the popular Italian composers.  Unfortunately, very few Russians were trained in the traditional rules of western classical music composition, and had trouble achieving success.

       Mikhail Glinka was one of the first native Russian composers to achieve popularity in a classical style.  Still, his music is quite different from the traditional Italian style of composition.  Glinka's best known works exhibit the definite traits of Russian folk melody, and a taste for dissonant harmonies not "accepted" in the 18th century canon.
 
      Glinka was born June 1, 1804, in Smolensk, a town west of Moscow.  He enjoyed a privileged youth of the upper class, and went to school in St. Petersburg.  There he studied languages, science, and mathematics; but he also studied music, and broadened his musical horizons.  He learned piano and violin, and also began to compose.

       After school, at the bequest of his father, Glinka began to work for the Foreign Office.  The job allowed much time alone, and Glinka used the opportunity to compose in earnest.  His first major success was an opera, one with overtly Russian themes.  The story is one of a Russian peasant, Ivan Susanin, who sacrifices his own life to save that of the Tsar's.  A Life for the Tsar was an instant success at its premiere in 1836.  It was so successful that it earned a permanent place in the repertoire of all Russian opera theaters.  The Tsar Nicholas I even gave Glinka an expensive ring for his accomplishment.

Here is the overture to the opera, performed by the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Lazarev.

       Throughout the rest of his life, Glinka wrote much more music and one other major opera, all inspired by Russian themes.  His work (like St. Petersburg) is a Russian imitation of Western European models.  However that is not to say the results aren't beautiful and unique in their own right.  Mikhail Glinka died in 1857, from a cold, and was buried (quite fittingly) in St. Petersburg.