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Nationalism in Glinka's Operas Nationalism in Glinka‘s Operas Cory McKay Departments of Music and Computer Science University of Guelph Guelph, Ontario, Canada, N1G 2W 1 It is with good reason that virtually any would often stand perfectly still while lis- Russian composer of the late nineteenth tening to them or try to pick up an instru- century would have cited Mikhail Ivano- ment and join in.1 He even conducted the vich Glinka as an important influence. It orchestra at times when he got older.2 As was essentially he who made nationalist Glinka himself stated, —During supper they Russian music possible by laying the usually played Russian folk-songs ar- groundwork for Russian composers who ranged for two flues, two clarinets, two wanted to express their own musical ideas horns, and two bassoons, and it was possi- on an equal footing with W estern compos- bly from these songs that I acquired my ers. He was the first Russian composer to love for our native Russian music.“3 write art music that was more than simply Glinka‘s interest in Russian music con- an imitation of W estern music or a pastiche tinued even when he was a young man of Russian folk tunes. Glinka took both of learning how to compose in Italy. He not these elements and built upon them in his only wrote a group of pieces based on Rus- operas in order to come up with a strong, sian themes while there, but also began to individual music that was truly his own plan a Russian opera. As he wrote to a and which inspired future Russian com- friend in St. Petersburg, —I fancy I have the posers to do the same. Glinka also used the ability to enrich our stage with a big work. music of his operas in directly political . In every way it will be absolutely na- ways, first to glorify the Tsar in particular tional. And not only the subject but the and then later the Russian nation in gen- music.“4 He wrote on a different occasion eral. that, —I want my fellow countrymen to feel The influence of W estern culture on thoroughly at home in my opera. I don‘t Russian aristocrats in the eighteenth cen- want foreigners to regard me as an impos- tury was immense, with the result that tor, a sort of crow in peacock‘s plumage!“5 W estern techniques and styles became cen- This shows how rooted Glinka was in Rus- tral in the music patronized by the elite. In sian music, that he would still be fasci- an attempt to overcome the hegemony of nated by it even while studying as a young Italian and French music, many Russian man in a place as musically rich and inspir- composers of the early nineteenth century ing as Italy. incorporated Russian folk songs into their work. Although Glinka went much further than this, as will be discussed later, he cer- tainly used this technique as well in his 1 Mkhail Zetlin, The Five: The Evolution of the Russian School of Music. trans. George Panin (W estport, Con- operas. necticut: Greenwood Press, 1959) 24. 2 James Stuart Campbell, —Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich.“ Although a child of an aristocratic The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd family, Glinka was exposed to Russian ed. 3 folk music very early in his life. He spent Alfred J. Swan, Russian Music and its Sources in Chant and Folk-Song. (London: John Baker Publishers, 1973) his early years living in the country, where 62. his uncle‘s serf orchestra would often play 4 Richard Anthony Leonard. A History of Russian Music. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968) 43. Russian folk songs for his family. Glinka 5 Mkhail Zetlin, The Five: The Evolution of the Russian was so captivated by their music that he School of Music. trans. George Panin (W estport, Con- necticut: Greenwood Press, 1959) 32. Example 1: Vanya‘s song (A Life for the Tsar, Act III) Example 2: Lvov-Pratsch, Sobraniye russkikh narodnikh pesen, protyazhnaya no. 21 There are several examples of direct is reduced to a characteristic motif in the quotations from folk songs in Glinka‘s first denouement in Act IV,7 and Act III con- opera, A Life for the Tsar. Two examples tains a reference to the antiphonal singing of this are Susanin‘s first replique in Act I, of Orthodox choirs.8 The singing following which Glinka claimed to have taken from a the Overture is comprised of a solo voice real life coachman‘s song,6 and the melody echoed by a chorus coming in on the sec- of Vanya‘s song in Act 3 (example 1), ond phrase, a practice common in tradi- which has a strong resemblance to the folk tional Russian chorale singing.9 song seen in example 2, taken from Lvov- The bridal chorus in Act III (example Pratsch. The seven bar phrases of Vanya‘s 3), with its modal cadences, 5/4 rhythm, song also demonstrate how Glinka adapted virtual pentatonicism and unharmonized the common practice in Russian folk music cantilena in the second half, is perhaps the of alternating three and four bar phrases. best overall example of the folk influence. There are many other examples of the It is easy to see its similarity to authentic influence of traditional Russian music in Russian wedding songs such as those in this opera. The pizzicato accompaniment examples 4 and 5. to the chorus of rowers in Act I is an imita- tion of balalaika strumming, the famous song —Downstream on the Mother Volga“ 7 Ibid. 31. 8 Richard Anthony Leonard. A History of Russian Music. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968) 46. 6 Richard Taruskin, Defining Russia Musically (Princeton: 9 David Brown, Mikhail Glinka: A Biographical and Criti- Princeton University Press, 1997) 31. cal Study. (London: Oxford University Press, 1974) 119. Example 3: Bridal chorus (A Life for the Tsar, Act III) Example 4: Traditional Russian wedding song Example 5: Traditional Russian wedding song Example 6: Antonida‘s cavatina (A Life for the Tsar, Act I) Example 7: Do Not Pine, Beloved (A Life for the Tsar, Act I) The music of Russian towns was dis- keys.10 Two of the best examples of tinctly different from Russian village mu- Glinka‘s use of this urban Russian style are sic. It was an amalgam of W estern tech- Antonida‘s cavatina in Act I of A Life for niques and stylings with the indigenous the Tsar (example 6) and the first part of tradition, and thus offered Glinka an excel- —Do Not Pine, Beloved,“ also from Act I lent source of inspiration for his own fu- (example 7). sions of W estern and Russian music. This There is also a definite folk influence style russe had many traits in common with in Glinka‘s second opera, Ruslan and Pratsch‘s folk song arrangements, includ- Ludmila, although it is less pronounced ing the predominance of duple or com- than in A Life for the Tsar. Act I begins pound duple time, cadential terminations with the song of the Bard in the ancient by falling fourths or fifths and a very free interplay of relative major and minor 10 Richard Taruskin, Defining Russia Musically (Prince- ton: Princeton University Press, 1997) 29. Example 8: Chorus of rowers (A Life for the Tsar, Act I) Example 9: Folk song contours (Brown) Example 10: The two main themes of A Life for the Tsar bilini style, with a piano and harp imitating rowers in Act I of A Life for the Tsar (ex- a gusli. The choral —Invocation to Lel“ also ample 8), for example. This may also be shows strong folk elements, with its 5/4 why he originally decided to begin the re- rhythm and melody set forth in simple oc- capitulation of the Overture in A minor.13 taves or consecutive sixths.11 In addition, there is also a certain me- There are also certain general charac- lodic contour that often appears in both teristics of folk music that tend to appear in Russian folk songs (example 9 (the brack- Glinka‘s music. A good example of this is eted notes are sometimes omitted)) and the practice of occasionally having the su- Glinka's music. Example 9 a is identical to pertonic assume the role of the dominant in the music in the opening of Ludmila‘s some Russian folk songs.12 Glinka used cavatina in Ruslan and Ludmila, and the this technique in the theme of the chorus of treble notes in example 9 b are the same as the opening notes of the Overture and the 11 Richard Anthony Leonard. A History of Russian Music. opening chorus. These folk contours also (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1968) 51. appear in both of the main themes of A Life 12 David Brown, Mikhail Glinka: A Biographical and Critical Study. (London: Oxford University Press, 1974) 118. 13 Ibid. 118. for the Tsar 5example 10). Glinka also of- ences which viewed folk music as inferior ten used a plagalism that is conspicuous in peasant music that was beneath them. many heroic folk songs.14 The magnitude of Glinka's accom- Having said all of this, it is important plishment is demonstrated by the words of to stress that Russian folk music was only Odoyevsky, who wrote, —One must hear it a part of Glinka‘s operas and, although to be convinced of the feasibility of such a certainly an important part, not the domi- union, which until now has been consid- nant part.
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