The Musical Realities of the “Small Court” and the Operatic Legacy of Dmitri Bortnyansky
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The problem of studying the Russian musical-theatrical art of the 18th century presents itself as a very timely one,
which is confirmed by the fact that specimens of this genre have been studied very little and have been obviously
underappreciated. One of the founders of the Russian musical theater is composer Dmitri Bortnyansky, who
played a special role in the formation and development of the 18th century musical theater. His artistic activities
as a Kappelmeister took course in the “small court” of the heir to the throne Pavel Petrovich and his wife Maria
Feodorovna. In Pavlovsk and Gatchina, where Maria Feodorovna formed a group of “noble actors” the premieres of
three of Bortnyansky’s operas took place (“The Signor’s Festivity,” “The Falcon” and “The Son-Rival”).
The aesthetics of court art was based on the principles of gallantry and “pleasure,” which in many ways determined
the stylistics of the studied operas by Bortnyansky. The characteristic features of his theatrical compositions for the
“small court” had to include: the recreational function of the theatrical performance; the slant towards a conflict-free
type of dramaturgy (or to a considerable alleviation of the existent conflict); a stable reference to the genre of the
pastoral; a mandatory happy solution of all the collisions in the plot; accentuations of the motives in the plot capable of
creating an atmosphere of gallantry; a deliberate idealization of the protagonists and demonstration of their exclusive
noble qualities. In the musical sense this presupposes simplicity and clarity of the homophonic texture; pliancy and
fluidity of the melodic development; a characteristically standard tonal and harmonic development; a compositional
dramaturgy devoid of complexity; reliance on dance genres. At the same time the composer in his works creates the
first examples in Russian opera of dramatic vocal numbers disclosing the protagonists’ powerful emotional tumults of
the soul (such as the aria of Donna Leonora in Act 2 of “The Son-Rival”).
Thereby, Bortnyansky’s position at the “small court” made it possible for him to disclose his natural gift, his
melodic gift and attempts at demonstrating the wealth of the inner world of man.
Keywords: “small court” of successor to the throne Pavel Petrovich, gallant art, pastoral, opera, the musical legacy
of Dmitri Bortnyansky, 18th century Russian opera.
Article Details
Copyright
The rights on the results of intellectual activity and equated means of individualization are protected in accordance with Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The authorship, author's name, executor’s name, inviolability of the work and result of execution are protected by the rules of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation of the author or executor, regardless of providing legal protection of such results of intellectual activity at the time of their forming.
Copyright laws regulate the civil legal relations for using works of science, literature and art. Such relationships are formed as the result of the author’s writing his or her texts. In this case the author can rightfully claim copyright of the work.
The author has certain rights to reuse the work (see: “Ethical Aspects in Terms of Multifold Publications).
Licenses
All copyrights on the articles belong to their authors. The author transfers the rights on using the article the publisher.
PDF versions of scholarly articles of the journal PMN are published by using the license Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives cc by-nc-nd, allowing loading and distributing works on the assumption of indicating the authorship. The works may not be changed in any way or used for commercial interests.
Criteria for Authorship, Co-authorship
The term “author” refers to all persons (co-authors) who have made a substantial contribution to conducting the research and creation of the manuscript and responsible for its content. The person (author) who has submitted the manuscript to the editorial board shall bear responsibility for the complete list of the group of authors and the changes made to the manuscript in accordance with the results of the peer reviewing and editing.
1. Authorship is based on the following criteria:
1) The author made a substantial contribution to the research activity and development of concept, collected the data, made analysis and interpretation of the data.
2) The author carried out the writing of the text of draft articles and edited it attentively and substantially.
3) The author approved the final version of the article prior to its submission.
4) The author bears responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript.
2. The authors shall guarantee that the submitted manuscript is the original work.
3. Scholarly reviews for some issue or other should be objective, present material in a wide range and at the same time take into account the views of the author of the review.
4. The authorship of scholarly publications is obligated to reflect accurately the contribution of individuals to the research activity, with specific information about the authors.
5. The authors may not mislead the readers by publishing acknowledgements of gratitude to people who were not actually involved in writing the work. Other persons who made contribution to the work, but are nevertheless not the authors, may be listed in the rubric of “Acknowledgements,” with indications of the type and extent of their activities.
6. Authors are obligated to provide a description of their contribution to the publication.
7. The order of authorship must be a joint resolution of co-authors. The authors should be ready to explain the order of their enumeration and listing.
8. The authors shall be entirely responsible for the correct definition of authorship acting in accordance with the rules adopted in their institution.
9. Investigators must ensure that only those persons who meet the criteria for authorship (that made a significant contribution to the work), shall be considered the authors, and the researchers who do not merit authorship will be excluded from the list of authors.
References
2. Valishevskiy K. Syn velikoy Ekateriny. Pavel I. Reprintnoe vosproizvedenie izdaniya A. S. Suvorina [The Son of the Great Catherine. Paul I. Reprint of Edition of A. S. Suvorin]. Moscow: IKPA, 1990. 663 p.
3. Dolgorukov I. M. Kapishche moyego serdtsa, ili Slovar’ vsekh tekh lits, s koimi ya byl v raznykh otnosheniyakh v techenie moey zhizni [The Altar of my Heart, or a Dictionary of all those People, with whom I have been in Various Relationships During my Life]. Moscow: Nauka, 1997. 394 p.
4. Kirillina L. V. Klassicheskiy stil’ v muzyke XVIII – nachala XIX veka. Poetika i stilistika [Classical Music of the 18th and Early 19th Century. Poetics and Stylistics]. Moscow, 2007. 376 p.
5. Korobova A. G. Pastoral’ v muzyke evropeyskoy traditsii: k teorii i istorii zhanra: issledovanie [The Pastoral in the Music of the European Tradition: the Theory and History of the Genre: a Study]. Urals State M. P. Mussorgsky Conservatory. Ekaterinburg, 2007. 656 p.
6. «Muzyka vse vremya protsvetala…». Muzykal’naya zhizn’ imperatorskikh dvortsov: mat. nauch.-prakt. konf. Gatchina 22–23 oktyabrya 2015 [“Music Flourished all the Time...” The Musical Life of the Imperial Palaces: Materials of the Scholarly- Practical Conference, Gatchina 22–23 October 2015]. St. Petersburg: Svoye izdatel’stvo, 2015. 324 p.
7. Muzykal’nyy Peterburg. XVIII vek: entsiklopedicheskiy slovar’: v 7 t. [Musical St. Petersburg. The 18th Century: an Encyclopedic Dictionary: in 7 Volumes]. Volume 1, Book 3 (R–Ya). St. Petersburg, 2000. 328 p.
8. Ostrovskiy O. B. Imperatritsa Mariya Feodorovna i russkaya khudozhestvennaya kul’tura 1801–1825 gg. [Empress Maria Feodorovna and Russian Artistic Culture between 1801 and 1825.]. Vestnik Leningradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta im. A. S. Pushkina [Herald of the Leningrad State A. S. Pushkin University]. 2013. Volume 4, No. 3, pp. 59–70.
9. Polozova I. V. F. Shiller i Dmitri Bortnyansky: tvorcheskie paralleli [Schiller and D. Bortniansky: Artistic Parallels]. Kul’tura i iskusstvo Germanii: devyataya mezhdunarodnaya nauchnaya internet-konferensiya [The Culture and Art of Germany: The Ninth International Scholarly Internet Conference]. URL: http://rachmaninov.ru/deyatelnost/nauchnaya-deyatelnost/konferenczii/kultura-i-iskusstvo-germanii-2016. (22.11.2016).
10. Rozanov A. S. Muzykal’nyy Pavlovsk [Musical Pavlovsk]. Leningrad: Muzyka, 1978. 158 p.
11. Rozanov A. S. «Prazdnestvo sen’yora», opera D. S. Bortnyanskogo [“Festivity of the Signor”, an Opera by Dmitri Bortnyansky]. Muzykal’noye nasledstvo [Musical Legacy]. Volume 3. Moscow, 1970, pp. 9–26.
12. Yakimovich A. K. Ob istokakh i prirode iskusstva Vatto [On the Origins and Nature of Watteau’s Art]. Zapadnoevropeyskaya khudozhestvennaya kul’tura XVIII veka: sb. st. [Western European Artistic Culture of the 18th Century: a Compilation of Articles]. Moscow, 1980, pp. 47–69.
13. Charlton D. New Light on the Bouffons in Paris (1752–1754). Eighteenth-Century Music. 2014. Volume 11. Issue 1, pp. 31–54.
14. Head M. The Growing Pains of Eighteenth-Century Studies. Cambridge-Opera Journal. 2015. Volume 27. Issue 2, pp. 175–186.
15. Malina Janos. On the Venues for and Decline of the Accademies at Esterhaza in Haydn’s time. Eighteenth- Century Music. 2016. Volume 13. Issue 2, pp. 253–281.
16. Rice J. A. The Morte: a Galant Voice-leading Scema as Emblem of Lament and Compositional Building-block. Eighteenth-Century Music. 2015. Volume 12. Issue 2, pp. 157–181.
17. Thom W. M. Jenny Lind, Harriet Grote and Elite Music Patronage in Early Victorian London. Journal of the Royal Musical Association. Volume 141. Issue 2. November, 2016, pp. 283–302.