Composer Mikhail Glinka's Life
Father of Russian Nationalist Music and Folk-Themed Opera
Brief biography of Mikhail Glinka - his life and works. Famous for Russian folk-themed opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila. Master of Russian symphonic music.
Russian composer Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) is known as the father of Russian nationalist music. He pioneered cultivation of Russian folk music in the opera, instrumental music and song genres. He exerted a deep influence on Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Cui and Tchaikovsky, as well as on Prokofiev and Stravinsky.
Glinka's Early Life
Glinka was born on June 1, 1894 in Novospasskoye (later renamed Glinka). His family was a wealthy landowning family and was always financially secure, though his health was not. He was sent to school in St Petersburg.
Aged only 24, he was appointed and undersecretary in the communications Council in St Petersburg.
Six years later, he moved to Milan, Italy. Glinka was not a very conscientious student. However, he delighted in the company of musicians, and it was in Milan he realized that Russia, his beloved homeland, had no musical identity of its own and very much tied to western Europe’s culture.
Glinka travelled a lot. His interest in exotic places and their folk-music influenced his writings, which in turn became a model for succeeding Russian composers earlier mentioned.
Glinka's Musical Career
He began to write his first opera upon return to St Petersburg. His first important compositions, a Capriccio for piano duet and an unfinished symphony, were written in Berlin in 1834, when he studied composition briefly with Siegfried Dehn. In this piece he apparently applied variation technique for Russian themes on both pieces.
Glinka broke away from the prevailing Italian influence and turned to Russian folk music, his inspiration for the only two operas he wrote in his lifetime
- Zhizn’za tsarya (A Life for the Tsar, originally Ivan Susanin)
- Ruslan and Lyudmila
His later works include the instrumental fantasia Kamarinskaya, the Second Spanish Overture and the Fantasy Waltz for orchestra. His innovations and nationalistic musical flavour greatly influenced the other Russian composers after him, for example, Mily Balakirev co-founder and leader of “The Five” or the "Mighty Handful," a group of composers who in like manner brought the spirit of Russian nationalism to music.
Glinka's Works
- Variations on a Theme of Mozart, for Piano 1822
- Symphony in B Flat 1824
- Memorial Cantata 1826
- String Quartet in F Major 1830
- Capriccio for piano duet, 1834
- Symphony on Two Russian Themes 1834
- Opera, Shisn'za tsarya (A Life for the Tsar) 1836
- Incidental Music for the play Knyaz Kholmsky (Prince Kholmsky) 1840
- Collection of Songs, Proshchaniye s Petersburgom (A Farewell to St Petersburg) 1840
- Opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila (Russlan and Ludmilla) 1842
- Capriccio brillante (First Spanish Overture), Jota Aragonesa 1845
- Greeting to the Fatherland, for piano 1847
- Overture, Kamarinskaya, Wedding Song, a fantasia for orchestra 1848
- Souvenir d'une nuit d'été a Madrid (Second Spanish Overture) 1851
- Valse-fantaisie (Fantasy Waltz) for orchestra 1856
Glinka also composed many piano pieces and songs.
Sources:
The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd Edition, edited by Stanley Sadie, 2000
The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, Macmillan Press Ltd, 1994
