Sacred Music

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre
SACRED MUSIC (church music) of the first half of the 18th century was developing in close connection with Moscow traditions. In 1703, the Sovereign Deacon Choir was moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg to form the Court Choir Chapel (see The Glinka Chapel) in 1763. In 1721, the former Patriarch's (Synodal) choir also moved to St. Petersburg and started singing in the Peter and Paul Fortress in 1733. In the middle of the 18th century, Italian influence inspired the court concert style of sacred music oriented in secular opera and choral concerts. This style was characterized with baroque splendour and stressed emotionality. Italian (Francesco Araya, Giuseppe Sarti, and Baldassare Galuppi) and Russian (Dmitry Bortnyansky, Artemy Vedel, and Mark Berezovsky) composers in part also followed this style. The latter created the classic type of Russian sacred music. From the early 19th century, when the Chapel was led by composers Alexey Lvov, Boris Bakhmetev, and Mily Balakirev, it became the centre of sacred music composition. The Chapel provided the training of chanters and censorship of hymns. At the same time, there was an increased interest in Old Russian church chanting and its revival on the basis of harmonization (Dmitry Bortnyansky, Peter Turchaninov and Alexey Lvov) that resulted in the strengthening of the national trend in spiritual music. Besides the Chapel, church singing was taught at the Seminary and in the Academy, parish schools and cathedrals. Every district or uezd had its notation teacher. Two secular composers occupied a special place in sacred music development: Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, who composed over 30 original works and adaptations of church music, and his pupil Anton Arensky. The centre of sacred music finally moved back to Moscow at the end of the 19th century, and even a short-termed (1901-03) governing of the Chapel by the Muscovite Stepan Smolensky could not prevent its decline. Private choirs of Alexander Sheremetev and Alexander Arkhangelsky, the Metropolitan choir, and choirs of some Petersburg cathedrals competed with the Chapel in singing mastery. Sacred music could not develop during the Soviet regime, though research work continued. Its revival started in 1970s. Several composers of sacred music, both of the traditional classic trend (Vyacheslav Rimsha, Alexey Zakharov, and Gennady Shumilov) and the modernist trend (Vladislav Uspensky and Alexander Kneifel) are now working in St. Petersburg.

References: Романов Л. Н. Музыкальное искусство и православие. Л., 1989; Чудинова И. А. Пение, звоны, ритуал: Топография церков.-муз. культуры Петербурга. СПб., 1994.

V. V. Antonov. Araya Francesco
Arensky Anton Stepanovich
Arkhangelsky Alexander Andreevich
Bakhmetev Nikolay Ivanovich
Balakirev Mily Alexeevich
Berezovsky Maxim Sozontovich
Bortnyansky Dmitry Stepanovich
Galuppi Baldassare
Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich
Kneifel Alexander Aronovich
Lvov Alexey Fedorovich
Rimsha Vyacheslav Evgenievich
Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolay Andreevich
Sarti Giuseppe
Sheremetev Alexander Dmitrievich, Count
Shumilov Gennady N.
Smolensky Stepan Vasilievich
Uspensky Vladislav Alexandrovich
Vedel Artemy Lukianovich
Zakharov A.N.
Zakharov Alexey Nikolaevich
Романов Л. Н. Музыкальное искусство и православие. Л., 1989
Чудинова И. А. Пение, звоны, ритуал: Топография церков.-муз. культуры Петербурга. СПб., 1994 SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral
Theological Academy
Glinka Capella