Dmytro Bortniansky
Encyclopedia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
composer of Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
origin; his father however had been born in the
Polish village of Bartne
Bartne
Bartne is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Sękowa, within Gorlice County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland, close to the border with Slovakia. It lies approximately east of Sękowa, south-east of Gorlice, and south-east of the regional capital Kraków.The village has...
, and was of Lemkos
Lemkos
Lemkos , one of several quantitatively and territorially small ethnic groups who also call themselves Rusyns , are one of the ethnic groups inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains...
(Rusyn
Rusyns
Carpatho-Rusyns are a primarily diasporic ethnic group who speak an Eastern Slavic language, or Ukrainian dialect, known as Rusyn. Carpatho-Rusyns descend from a minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt the use of the ethnonym "Ukrainian" in the early twentieth century...
) stock..
Bortniansky is best known today for his liturgical works. He was one of the "Golden Three" of his era, along with Artemy Vedel
Artemy Vedel
Artem Vedel was one of the most prominent Ukrainian composers of the 18th century. Together with Maksym Berezovsky and Dmytro Bortniansky, Vedel is recognized as one of the big three composers of the period....
and Maksym Berezovsky
Maksym Berezovsky
Maksym Sozontovych Berezovsky was a Ukrainian composer, opera singer, and violinist.Berezovsky was the first Ukrainian composer to be recognized throughout Europe and the first to compose an opera, symphony, and violin sonata. His most popular works are his sacred choral pieces written for the...
. Bortniansky composed in many different musical styles, including choral compositions in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Church Slavonic and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
.
Student
Dmitry Bortniansky was born on 28 October 1751 in the city of HlukhivHlukhiv
Hlukhiv or Glukhov is a historic town in Sumy region of Ukraine, just south from the Russian border . As of 2001, the city's population is 35,800...
(present-day Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
), then a part of the autonomous Cossack Hetmanate
Cossack Hetmanate
The Hetmanate or Zaporizhian Host was the Ruthenian Cossack state in the Central Ukraine between 1649 and 1782.The Hetmanate was founded by first Ukrainian hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky during the Khmelnytsky Uprising . In 1654 it pledged its allegiance to Muscovy during the Council of Pereyaslav,...
within the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
(as Glukhov). At the age of seven, his prodigious talent at the local church choir afforded him the opportunity to go the capital of the empire and sing with the Imperial Chapel Choir in St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. There he studied music and composition under the director of the Imperial Chapel Choir, the Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
master Baldassare Galuppi. When Galuppi left for Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
in 1769, he took the boy with him. In Italy, Bortniansky gained considerable success composing opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s: Creonte (1776) and Alcide (1778) in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, and Quinto Fabio (1779) at Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
. He also composed sacred works in Latin and German, both a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
and with orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
l accompaniment (including an Ave Maria for two voices and orchestra).
Master
Bortniansky returned to the Saint Petersburg Court CapellaSaint Petersburg Court Capella
The Saint Petersburg Court Capella is the oldest active Russian professional musical institution. Based in the city of Saint Petersburg, it was founded in 1479 by an order of Ivan III of Russia as the State Choir of Singing Dyaks. The insitution currently consists of a choir, an orchestra, and has...
in 1779 and flourished creatively. He composed at least four more operas (all in French, with libretti
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Franz-Hermann Lafermière): Le Faucon (1786), Le fete du seigneur (1786), Don Carlos (1786), and Le fils-rival ou La moderne Stratonice (1787). Bortniansky wrote a number of instrumental works at this time, including piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
sonatas and a piano quintet with harp
Harp
The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...
, and a cycle of French songs. He also composed liturgical
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
music for the Orthodox Church, combining the Eastern and Western European styles of sacred music, incorporating the polyphony
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
he learned in Italy; some works were polychoral, using a style descended from the Venetian polychoral technique of the Gabrielis.
After a while, Bortniansky's genius proved too great to ignore, and in 1796 he was appointed Director of the Imperial Chapel Choir, the first director not to have been imported from outside of the Russian Empire. With such a great instrument at his disposal, he produced scores upon scores of compositions, including over 100 religious works, sacred concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
s (35 for four-part mixed choir, 10 for double choruses), cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s, and hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s.
Dmitry Bortniansky died in St. Petersburg on 10 October 1825, and was interred at the Smolensky Cemetery
Smolensky Cemetery
Smolensky Cemetery is the oldest continuously operating cemetery in St. Petersburg, Russia. It occupies a rectangular parcel in the western part of Vasilievsky Island, on the bank of the small Smolenka River, and is divided into the Orthodox, Lutheran, and Armenian sections.- Orthodox cemetery...
in St. Petersburg. His remains were transferred to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in the 20th century.
Musical legacy
In 1882, Pyotr TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
edited the liturgical works of Bortniansky, which were published in ten volumes. While Dmitry Bortniansky wrote operas and instrumental compositions, it is his sacred choral works that are performed most often today. This vast body of work remains central not only to understanding 18th-century Orthodox sacred music, but also served as inspiration to his fellow Ukrainian composers in the 19th century.
The tune he wrote for the Latin hymn Tantum Ergo
Tantum Ergo
Tantum ergo are the opening words of the last two verses of Pange Lingua, a Mediaeval Latin hymn written by St Thomas Aquinas. These last two verses are sung during veneration and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and other churches that practice this devotion...
eventually became known in Slavic lands as Коль славен (Kol slaven), in which form it is still sung as a Christmas carol today. The tune was also popular with freemasons. It travelled to English speaking countries and came to be known by the names Russia, St. Petersburg or Wells. In Germany, the song was paired with a text by Gerhard Tersteegen
Gerhard Tersteegen
Gerhard Tersteegen , was a German Reformed religious writer, born at Moers, at that time the capital of a countship belonging to the house of Orange-Nassau , which formed a Protestant enclave in the midst of a Roman Catholic country.After being educated at the gymnasium of his native town,...
, and became a well-known chorale and traditional part of the military ceremony Großer Zapfenstreich
Großer Zapfenstreich
The is a military ceremony performed in Germany and Austria. It is similar to the military tattoo ceremony carried out in English-speaking countries, and is the most important ceremonial act executed by the German federal armed forces, the Bundeswehr...
(the Grand Tattoo), the highest ceremonial act of the German army, rendered as an honor for distinguished persons on special occasions. Prior to the October revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
in 1917, the tune was played by the Moscow Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
carillon
Carillon
A carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in a free-standing bell tower, or the belfry of a church or other municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze, cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord...
every day at midday.
James Blish
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling, Jr.-Biography:...
, who novelized many episodes of the original series of Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
, noted in one story, Whom Gods Destroy, that Bortniansky's Ich bete an die Macht der Liebe was the theme "to which all Starfleet
Starfleet
In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet or the Federation Starfleet is the deep-space exploratory, peacekeeping and military service maintained by the United Federation of Planets . It is the principal means by which the Federation conducts its exploration, defense, diplomacy and research...
Academy classes marched to their graduation."
Operas
- Creonte (1776 VeniceVeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
) - Alcide (1778 VeniceVeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
) - Quinto Fabio (1779 ModenaModenaModena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
) - Le Faucon (1786 GatchinaGatchinaGatchina is a town and the administrative center of Gatchinsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located south of St. Petersburg by the road leading to Pskov...
in FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, with librettoLibrettoA libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Franz-Hermann Lafermière) - Le Fête du Seigneur (1786 PavlovskPavlovskPavlovsk is a municipal town in Pushkinsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located south from St. Petersburg proper and about southeast from Pushkin. Population:...
in French, with libretto by Franz-Hermann Lafermière) - Don Carlos (Bortniansky) (1786 St Petersburg in FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, with libretto by Franz-Hermann Lafermière) - Le Fils-Rival ou La Moderne Stratonice (1787 PavlovskPavlovskPavlovsk is a municipal town in Pushkinsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located south from St. Petersburg proper and about southeast from Pushkin. Population:...
in FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, with libretto by Franz-Hermann Lafermière)
Choruses (in Old Church Slavonic)
- Da ispravitsia molitva moia ("Let My Prayer Arise") no. 2.
- Kheruvimskie pesni (Cherubic Hymns) nos. 1-7
- Concerto No. 1: Vospoite Gospodevi ("Sing unto the Lord")
- Concerto No. 7: Priidite vozraduemsia ("Come Let Us Rejoice")
- Concerto No. 11: Blahoslovi Gospod ("Blessed is the Lord")
- Concerto No. 18: Blago iest ispovedatsia ("It Is Good To Praise the Lord", Psalm 92)
- Concerto No. 19: Reche Gospod' Gospodevi moemu ("The Lord Said unto My Lord")
- Concerto No. 21: Zhivyi v pomoshi Vyshnaho ("He That Dwelleth", Psalm 91)
- Concerto No. 24: Vozvedokh ochi moyi v gory ("I Lift Up My Eyes to the Mountains")
- Concerto No. 27: Glasom moim ko Gospodu vozzvakh ("With My Voice I Cried Out to the Lord")
- Concerto No. 32: Skazhi mi, Gospodi, konchynu moiu ("Lord, Make Me Know My End")
- Concerto No. 33: Vskuiu priskorbna iesy dusha moia ("Why Are You Downcast, O My Soul?", Psalm 42:5)
Concerto-Symphony
- Concerto-Symphony for Piano, Harp, Two Violins, Viola da gamba, Cello and Bassoon in B Flat Major (1790).
External links
- Bortniansky, Dmitri Stepanovich in Columbia EncyclopediaColumbia EncyclopediaThe Columbia Encyclopedia is a one-volume encyclopedia produced by Columbia University Press and sold by the Gale Group. First published in 1935, and continuing its important relationship with Columbia University, the encyclopedia underwent major revisions in 1950 and 1963; the current edition is...
- Bortniansky: Main biography in Russian by Konstantin Kovalev (Константин Ковалев) - eng. and All about Dmitry Bortniansky + Usual mistakes in the biography of the composer (present time) - eng.
- Bortniansky, Dmytro in Encyclopedia of Ukraine
- Bortniansky, Dmitri Stepanovich in The Cyber Hymnal
- Bortniansky, Dmitri Stepanovich in Karadar Classical Music
- Musicus Bortnianskii, a chamber choirChamber choirA chamber choir or group of chamber singers is the choral equivalent of a chamber ensemble, using voices instead of instruments. This prestigious choir will usually consist of 20-40 elite and dedicated singers. Several chamber choir formats exist, ranging from barbershop groups to exclusively...
from Toronto which specializes in Bortniansky performance and research - Free scores Mutopia ProjectMutopia projectThe Mutopia Project is a volunteer-run effort to create a library of free content sheet music, in a way similar to Project Gutenberg's library of public domain books.The music is reproduced from old scores that are out of copyright...