Composers of the 18th century are foreign. Italian composers of the 16th - 18th centuries

Russian composer school, the successor of the traditions of which was the Soviet and today's Russian school, began in the 19th century with composers who united the European musical art with Russian folk melodies, linking together the European form and the Russian spirit.

About each of these famous people you can tell a lot, everyone is not simple, and sometimes tragic fates, but in this review we have tried to give only a brief description of the life and work of composers.

1. Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka

(1804-1857)

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka while composing the opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. 1887, artist Ilya Efimovich Repin

“In order to create beauty, one must be pure in soul.”

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka is the founder of the Russian classical music and the first domestic classical composer who achieved world fame. His works, based on the centuries-old traditions of Russian folk music, were a new word in the musical art of our country.

Born in the Smolensk province, educated in St. Petersburg. The formation of the worldview and the main idea of ​​​​Mikhail Glinka's work was facilitated by direct communication with such personalities as A.S. Pushkin, V.A. Zhukovsky, A.S. Griboyedov, A.A. Delvig. The creative impetus to his work was added by a long-term trip to Europe in the early 1830s and meetings with the leading composers of the time - V. Bellini, G. Donizetti, F. Mendelssohn and later with G. Berlioz, J. Meyerbeer.

Success came to M.I. Glinka in 1836, after staging the opera "Ivan Susanin" ("Life for the Tsar"), which was enthusiastically received by everyone, for the first time in world music, Russian choral art and European symphonic and opera practice, as well as a hero similar to Susanin, whose image generalizes best features national character.

VF Odoevsky described the opera as "a new element in Art, and a new period begins in its history - the period of Russian music."

The second opera, the epic Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842), which was worked on against the backdrop of Pushkin's death and in the difficult living conditions of the composer, due to the profoundly innovative nature of the work, was ambiguously received by the audience and the authorities, and brought M.I. Glinka heavy experiences. After that, he traveled a lot, living alternately in Russia and abroad, without stopping composing. Romances, symphonic and chamber works remained in his legacy. In the 1990s, Mikhail Glinka's "Patriotic Song" was the official anthem of the Russian Federation.

Quote about M.I. Glinka:“The entire Russian symphonic school, like the whole oak in an acorn, is contained in the symphonic fantasy “Kamarinskaya”. P.I. Tchaikovsky

Interesting fact: Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka was not distinguished by good health, despite this he was very easy-going and knew geography very well, perhaps if he had not become a composer, he would have become a traveler. He knew six foreign languages, including Persian.

2. Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin

(1833-1887)

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin, one of the leading Russian composers of the second half of the 19th century, in addition to his talent as a composer, was a chemist, doctor, teacher, critic and had a literary talent.

Born in St. Petersburg, since childhood, everyone around him noted his unusual activity, enthusiasm and abilities in various directions, primarily in music and chemistry.

A.P. Borodin is a Russian nugget composer, he did not have professional musician teachers, all his achievements in music are due to independent work mastering the technique of composing.

The formation of A.P. Borodin was influenced by the work of M.I. Glinka (as well as all Russian composers of the 19th century), and two events gave the impetus to dense occupation of composition in the early 1860s - firstly, the acquaintance and marriage with the talented pianist E.S. Protopopova, and secondly, the meeting with M.A. Balakirev and joining the creative community of Russian composers, known as the "Mighty Handful".

In the late 1870s and 1880s, A.P. Borodin traveled and toured extensively in Europe and America, met with the leading composers of his time, his fame grew, he became one of the most famous and popular Russian composers in Europe at the end of the 19th century. th century.

The central place in the work of A.P. Borodin is occupied by the opera "Prince Igor" (1869-1890), which is an example of national heroic epic in music and which he himself did not have time to finish (it was completed by his friends A.A. Glazunov and N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov). In "Prince Igor", against the backdrop of majestic paintings historical events, reflected the main idea of all the composer's work - courage, calm grandeur, spiritual nobility of the best Russian people and the mighty strength of the entire Russian people, manifested in the defense of the motherland.

Despite the fact that A.P. Borodin left a relatively small number of works, his work is very diverse and he is considered one of the fathers of Russian symphonic music who influenced many generations of Russian and foreign composers.

Quote about A.P. Borodin:“Borodin's talent is equally powerful and amazing both in the symphony, and in the opera and in the romance. Its main qualities are gigantic strength and breadth, colossal scope, swiftness and impetuosity, combined with amazing passion, tenderness and beauty. V.V. Stasov

Interesting fact: named after Borodin chemical reaction silver salts of carboxylic acids with halogens, resulting in halogenated hydrocarbons, which he first investigated in 1861.

3. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky

(1839-1881)

“The sounds of human speech, as external manifestations of thought and feeling, must, without exaggeration and rape, become truthful, accurate music, but artistic, highly artistic.”

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky is one of the most brilliant Russian composers of the 19th century, a member of the mighty handful". Mussorgsky's innovative work was far ahead of its time.

Born in the Pskov province. How many talented people, from childhood showed ability in music, studied in St. Petersburg, was, according to family tradition, military. The decisive event that determined that Mussorgsky was not born for military service, and for music, was his meeting with M.A. Balakirev and joining the "Mighty Handful".

Mussorgsky is great because in his grandiose works - the operas "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina" captured dramatic milestones in music Russian history with a radical novelty that Russian music did not know before, showing in them a combination of mass folk scenes and a diverse wealth of types, the unique character of the Russian people. These operas, in numerous editions by both the author and other composers, are among the most popular Russian operas in the world.

Another outstanding work Mussorgsky is a cycle of piano pieces "Pictures at an Exhibition", colorful and inventive miniatures are permeated with the Russian theme-refrain and the Orthodox faith.

There was everything in Mussorgsky's life - both greatness and tragedy, but he was always distinguished by genuine spiritual purity and disinterestedness.

His last years were difficult - life's disorder, non-recognition of creativity, loneliness, addiction to alcohol, all this determined his early death at 42, he left relatively few compositions, some of which were completed by other composers.

The specific melody and innovative harmony of Mussorgsky anticipated some features musical development 20th century and played important role in the development of the styles of many world composers.

Quote about M.P. Mussorgsky:“Originally Russian sounds in everything that Mussorgsky did” N. K. Roerich

Interesting fact: At the end of his life, Mussorgsky, under pressure from his "friends" Stasov and Rimsky-Korsakov, renounced the copyright to his works and presented them to Tertiy Filippov.

4. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

(1840-1893)

“I am an artist who can and must bring honor to his Motherland. I feel big artistic power, I have not yet done a tenth of what I can do. And I want to do it with all the strength of my soul.”

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, perhaps the greatest Russian composer of the 19th century, raised Russian musical art to unprecedented heights. He is one of the most important composers of world classical music.

A native of the Vyatka province, although his paternal roots are in Ukraine, Tchaikovsky from childhood showed musical ability However, the first education and work was in the field of jurisprudence.

Tchaikovsky is one of the first Russian "professional" composers - he studied music theory and composition at the new St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Tchaikovsky was considered a "Western" composer, as opposed to people's leaders"Mighty Handful", with whom he had good creative and friendly relations, but his work is no less permeated with the Russian spirit, he managed to uniquely combine the Western symphonic heritage of Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann with Russian traditions inherited from Mikhail Glinka.

The composer led active life- was a teacher, conductor, critic, public figure, worked in two capitals, toured Europe and America.

Tchaikovsky was a rather emotionally unstable person, enthusiasm, despondency, apathy, irascibility, violent anger - all these moods changed in him quite often, being a very sociable person, he always strove for loneliness.

It is a difficult task to single out something best from Tchaikovsky's work, he has several works of equal size in almost all musical genres Opera, ballet, symphony, chamber music. And the content of Tchaikovsky's music is universal: with inimitable melodism, it embraces the images of life and death, love, nature, childhood, works of Russian and world literature are revealed in a new way, deep processes of spiritual life are reflected in it.

Composer quote:“Life has charm only when it consists of the alternation of joys and sorrows, of the struggle between good and evil, of light and shadow, in a word, of diversity in unity.”

"Great talent requires great hard work."

Composer quote: “I am ready day and night to stand as a guard of honor at the porch of the house where Pyotr Ilyich lives - to such an extent I respect him” A.P. Chekhov

Interesting fact: Cambridge university in absentia and without defending a dissertation, he awarded Tchaikovsky the title of Doctor of Music, and the Paris Academy of Fine Arts elected him a corresponding member.

5. Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov

(1844-1908)

Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov is a talented Russian composer, one of the most important figures in the creation of an invaluable domestic musical heritage. His peculiar world and worship of the eternal all-encompassing beauty of the universe, admiration for the miracle of being, unity with nature have no analogues in the history of music.

Born in the Novgorod province, according to family tradition, he became a naval officer, on a warship he traveled around many countries in Europe and two Americas. He received his musical education first from his mother, then taking private lessons from the pianist F. Canille. And again, thanks to M.A. Balakirev, the organizer of the Mighty Handful, who introduced Rimsky-Korsakov to the musical community and influenced his work, the world did not lose the talented composer.

The central place in the legacy of Rimsky-Korsakov is made up of operas - 15 works demonstrating a variety of genre, stylistic, dramatic, compositional solutions composer, nevertheless having a special style - with all the richness of the orchestral component, the main ones are melodic vocal lines.

Two main directions distinguish the composer's work: the first is Russian history, the second is the world of fairy tales and epic, for which he received the nickname "storyteller".

In addition to direct independent creative activity, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov is known as a publicist, compiler of collections of folk songs, to which he showed big interest, and also as the finalist of the works of his friends - Dargomyzhsky, Mussorgsky and Borodin. Rimsky-Korsakov was the founder of the composer school, as a teacher and head of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he produced about two hundred composers, conductors, musicologists, among them Prokofiev and Stravinsky.

Composer quote:“Rimsky-Korsakov was a very Russian man and a very Russian composer. I believe that this primordially Russian essence of his, his deep folklore-Russian basis, should be especially appreciated today. Mstislav Rostropovich

Fact about the composer: Nikolai Andreevich began his first lesson in counterpoint like this:

Now I will talk a lot, and you will listen very carefully. Then I will speak less, and you will listen and think, and, finally, I will not speak at all, and you will think with your own head and work independently, because my task as a teacher is to become unnecessary to you ...

Found an error? Select it and left click Ctrl+Enter.

The concept of "composer" first appeared in the 16th century in Italy, and since then it has been used to refer to a person who composes music.

19th century composers

In the 19th century the Viennese music school represented by such an outstanding composer as Franz Peter Schubert. He continued the tradition of romanticism and influenced a whole generation of composers. Schubert created over 600 German romances, taking the genre to a new level.

Franz Peter Schubert

Another Austrian, Johann Strauss, became famous for his operettas and light musical forms dance character. It was he who made the waltz the most popular dance in Vienna, where balls are still held. In addition, his legacy includes polkas, quadrilles, ballets and operettas.

Johann Strauss

A prominent representative of modernism in the music of the late 19th century was the German Richard Wagner. His operas have not lost their relevance and popularity to this day.

Giuseppe Verdi

Wagner can be contrasted with the majestic figure of the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, who remained true to operatic traditions and gave Italian opera new breath.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Among the Russian composers of the 19th century, the name of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky stands out. He is characterized by a unique style that combines European symphonic traditions with Glinka's Russian heritage.

Composers of the 20th century

Sergei Vasilyevich Rahmaninov

One of the brightest composers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries is rightfully considered Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov. His musical style was based on the traditions of romanticism and existed in parallel with the avant-garde movements. It was for his individuality and the absence of analogues that his work was highly appreciated by critics around the world.

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky

The second most famous composer of the 20th century is Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky. Russian by origin, he emigrated to France, and then to the USA, where he showed his talent to the fullest. Stravinsky is an innovator, not afraid to experiment with rhythms and styles. In his work, the influence of Russian traditions, elements of various avant-garde movements and a unique individual style can be traced, for which he is called "Picasso in Music".

The second half of the 17th and 18th centuries (Petrine and post-Petrine eras) are turning point V national history. It was in the 18th century that many significant changes took place in the cultural and public life that predetermined the development of the state for decades.

• strengthening of absolutism,
• the final enslavement of the peasants,
• the introduction of a system of universal education, the establishment of the first academies of sciences and universities -

All this could not but affect the cultural image of the country. Music and began to occupy a large place in the spiritual life of people.

The position of folk music before Peter I

But it was not always so. In 1648, under the influence of the church, which considered the buffoons "godless", a royal decree was issued that forbade the buffoons to participate in the celebrations and ordered the destruction of their masks and musical instruments. Therefore, starting from that time, musicians performing folk songs went underground and were deprived of all privileges.

And with the coming to power of Peter I in 1682, the position of the musicians changed significantly. The reforms of Peter I gave impetus to the development of all secular art in general and music in particular.

Russian secular music of the 18th century - assemblies, salons, masquerades, the birth of romance

At imperial palace, and then in the homes of nobles, the first instrumental chapels appeared. The nobility and aristocrats organized open musical evenings, the so-called "assemblies", which anyone could attend. The concerts held weekly in the house of Privy Councilor Bassevich became famous throughout St. Petersburg. They were represented by the repertoire of European composers of the 18th century, the chapel of the Duke of Holstein. According to an unspoken rule, young nobles were required to attend assemblies. There they could not only listen to music, but also communicate, dance and even play cards.

In the salons and aristocratic houses developed amateur (or "salon") music-making. Young nobles learned to play the harpsichord, viol, harp, flute, guitar, clavichord, composed and performed lyrical cants, the so-called "arias" - the prototypes of future romances.

The development of so-called chamber music is closely connected with the spread of amateur (“salon”) music-making in Russian music of the 18th century. The most popular at home concerts were various dance pieces - minuets, polonaises, ecossesses, agleses, country dances and others. Not less loved and enjoyed variations on the themes of folk songs. A large number of such variations for violin were written and published by the first composer I.E. Khandoshkin (1747–1804).

In the middle of the 18th century, another unique "salon" genre - Russian song. These songs, in style and performance, are very similar to lyrical cants and future romances. , created on the verses of Russian poets such as A. Sumarokov, G. Derzhavin, N. Lvov and others.

The first Russian songs were published in the collection "Between business idleness", owned by the pen statesman and scientist G. Teplov. Other famous authors Russian songs– I.A. Kozlovsky and amateur violinist M.F. Dubyansky.

In addition to assemblies, Peter I also established court masquerades, celebrations and feasts with music. Especially for royal palace he ordered a group of foreign musicians and singers from abroad. In the 1690s, the tsar approved the All-Joking, All-Drunken and Extravagant Cathedral - a buffoon's "order" parodying Catholic and Orthodox worship with its activities. The cathedral has existed for over 30 years. All the years the inspirer and organizer of the "order" was Peter I.

The emergence of Russian military brass bands in the 18th century

After the reforms of the army in 1699 and 1705, each regiment had its own orchestra, consisting mostly of trumpets, oboes, timpani, horns and drums. In connection with the victories of Russian weapons in the soldier's environment, new genre in Russian music 18: "panegyric cant" - a welcoming anthem for three voices with bravura trumpet melodies (sometimes it was called vivat-kant - from the word "vivat!" ("Long live!") The cant dedicated to the end in 1721 began Northern war). Vivacious cantes were often composed in honor of the emperor and his generals. Vivat cantes gave rise to a special poetics, comparable to the odic, which reached its peak in choral concertos, cantatas and oratorios in Russian music of the late 18th century.

"Beloved daughter of the Russian people" Elizaveta Petrovna, who ascended the throne in 1741, continued progressive reforms his father, especially in the field of culture. Her era went down in history as the era of enlightened absolutism. .

Russian secular music of the 18th century under Elizabeth Petrovna - chapels, symphony and ballroom orchestras

In 1763, the Empress organized the Court Singing Chapel. Its graduates are the first Russian composers M.S. Berezovsky and D.S. Bortnyansky - completely reformed Russian choral music, tying national characteristics Russian polyphonic singing with the achievements of progressive European musicians.

The first Russian classical composer D.S. Bortnyansky (1751-1825), returning from abroad after studying with Italian professors, was appointed Kapellmeister (Director) of the Court Singing Chapel. It was under Bortnyansky that the musicians of the chapel reached new heights of creativity. The composer himself became famous as the author of operas with French text, quintets, concert symphonies and a large number sonatas and pieces for piano.

In parallel with the singing chapel at the court, there was a special orchestra that played only for the imperial and persons close to them. Among the court orchestra, such talented Russian composers as V.A. Pashkevich and I.A. Khandoshkin.

Gradually, in the 1760s, the musicians of the orchestra were divided into two fundamentally different groups:

• for performers of opera and symphony
• and ballroom music.

Performers of the opera and symphony group took part in theatrical performances, and ballroom music performers played melodies popular at that time at celebrations, feasts and balls.

Recording music notes in the 18th century

The development of printing made it possible in 1730 for the first time in the country to reproduce notes on paper from engraving boards, and in 1766 the inventor S.I. Bashkovsky developed a method for typing notes. Now in Russian printing houses the opportunity to make musical notation folk songs.

The first collections of folklore songs were printed - "Collection of Russian simple songs with notes" by singer and gusliar V. Trutovsky, "Collection of Russian folk songs with their voices" by poet and folklorist N. Lvov and Czech composer I. Prach.

Themes and genres of Russian professional music 18th century

Professional musicians when writing their works - operas, symphonies, overtures, variations – often used folk motives in their works. Therefore, collections of folk songs played a significant role in the work of the first Russian composers.

But still, folk songs were most often used V comic operas, which in the age of enlightened absolutism became the most popular genre in Russian music of the 18th century. (The acquaintance with the first operas took place as early as the 30s of the 18th century, during the reign of Anna Ioannovna, but these operas were not widely used. In particular, due to the fact that they were performed in French or Italian. Russian music of the 18th century needed a new genre - national opera.

The first Russian national operas

In 1755, the first opera, written in the original Russian text and performed only by Russian artists, was staged on the Russian stage under the title "Cefal and Prokris". The music was written by the then famous composer of the Neapolitan school F. Fraya, the libretto (text) was written by the "court" playwright-classicist A.P. Sumarokov.

Other first Russian operas are

“Melnik is a sorcerer, a deceiver and a matchmaker” by M. Sokolovsky, “St. Petersburg gostiny dvor”, “Misfortune from the carriage” and “Miserly” by V. Pashkevich, “Falcon” and “Son-rival” by D. Bortnyansky, “Coachmen on a set-up” by E. Fomin.

E. Fomin (1761–1800), the first Russian tragic composer, was a popular author of Russian operas. He wrote an orchestral overture to the melodrama Orpheus and Eurydice (1792) to a text by Y. Knyazhnin, which turned out to be the first example of a Russian dramatic symphony. In general, the melodrama "Orpheus and Eurydice", according to music critics, is

"the most majestic monument of the Russian musical theater" of that era.

Concert life and tours in Russia in the 18th century

Concert life gradually acquired an increasingly systematic character. For many orchestras and theaters, especially serfs, touring became business as usual. pompous oratorios and choral concerts Russian music had a huge success with a very different audience.

Simultaneously gained momentum and solo activity performers. Great fame used by harpsichordists and organists V. Palshau, I. Gessler, A. Sartori, who performed not only in private houses for a limited circle of guests, but also in city squares, theater stages, and at the locations of military units. Many of solo artists they also worked as musical mentors for the children of wealthy nobles.

Significance of the 18th century period for Russian music

Music in Russia in the 18th century is a special phenomenon in history national music. During this period, there were great importance events:

• The emergence, revival, reformation and interpenetration of many musical genres,
• Wide use home music making and use in everyday life of many musical instruments,
• The emergence of the first chapels, orchestras and opera companies,
• Formation of the system of music education,
• Great public interest in national traditions Russian music, the emerging scope of concert activity,
• Maturation national school composers prepared the flourishing of Russian classical music in the coming 19th century.

Fortress theater orchestras

Great importance in cultural life The fortress theater also played in Russia. The fortress theater of Count Naryshkin was known in the country and abroad, competing in quality of performance not only with domestic, but also with European theaters. A feature of fortress theaters was the use of horn orchestras. Orchestras numbered dozens of performers. Each of them had a horn capable of producing only one note of a certain key. Despite the apparent simplicity and even primitiveness of the performing means, horn orchestras performed many works from the repertoire of contemporary music at that time, including the symphonies of Haydn and Mozart, and sometimes took part in opera performances.

World's Greatest Composers of All Time: Chronological and Alphabetical Listings, References and Works

100 Great Composers of the World

List of composers in chronological order

1. Josquin Despres (1450-1521)
2. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594)
3. Claudio Monteverdi (1567 -1643)
4. Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)
5. Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)
6. Henry Purcell (1658-1695)
7. Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
8. Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
9. Jean Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
10. Georg Handel (1685-1759)
11. Domenico Scarlatti (1685 -1757)
12. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
13. Christoph Willibald Gluck (1713-1787)
14. Joseph Haydn (1732 –1809)
15. Antonio Salieri (1750-1825)
16. Dmitry Stepanovich Bortnyansky (1751-1825)
17. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 –1791)
18. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 -1826)
19. Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778 -1837)
20. Nicollo Paganini (1782-1840)
21. Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791 -1864)
22. Carl Maria von Weber (1786 -1826)
23. Gioacchino Rossini (1792 -1868)
24. Franz Schubert (1797 -1828)
25. Gaetano Donizetti (1797 -1848)
26. Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)
27. Hector Berlioz (1803 -1869)
28. Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804 -1857)
29. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809 -1847)
30. Fryderyk Chopin (1810 -1849)
31. Robert Schumann (1810 -1856)
32. Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky (1813 -1869)
33. Franz Liszt (1811 -1886)
34. Richard Wagner (1813 -1883)
35. Giuseppe Verdi (1813 -1901)
36. Charles Gounod (1818 -1893)
37. Stanislav Moniuszko (1819 -1872)
38. Jacques Offenbach (1819 -1880)
39. Alexander Nikolaevich Serov (1820 -1871)
40. Cesar Franck (1822 -1890)
41. Bedrich Smetana (1824 -1884)
42. Anton Bruckner (1824 -1896)
43. Johann Strauss (1825 -1899)
44. Anton Grigorievich Rubinstein (1829 -1894)
45. Johannes Brahms (1833 –1897)
46. ​​Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (1833 -1887)
47. Camille Saint-Saens (1835 -1921)
48. Leo Delibes (1836 -1891)
49. Mily Alekseevich Balakirev (1837 -1910)
50. Georges Bizet (1838 -1875)
51. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839 -1881)
52. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 -1893)
53. Antonin Dvorak (1841 -1904)
54. Jules Massenet (1842 -1912)
55. Edvard Grieg (1843 -1907)
56. Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 -1908)
57. Gabriel Fauré (1845 -1924)
58. Leos Janacek (1854 -1928)
59. Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov (1855 -1914)
60. Sergei Ivanovich Taneev (1856 -1915)
61. Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857 -1919)
62. Giacomo Puccini (1858 -1924)
63. Hugo Wolf (1860 -1903)
64. Gustav Mahler (1860 -1911)
65. Claude Debussy (1862 -1918)
66. Richard Strauss (1864 -1949)
67. Alexander Tikhonovich Grechaninov (1864 -1956)
68. Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov (1865 -1936)
69. Jean Sibelius (1865 -1957)
70. Franz Lehár (1870–1945)
71. Alexander Nikolaevich Skryabin (1872 -1915)
72. Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov (1873 -1943)
73. Arnold Schoenberg (1874 -1951)
74. Maurice Ravel (1875 -1937)
75. Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (1880 -1951)
76. Bela Bartok (1881 -1945)
77. Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky (1881 -1950)
78. Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky (1882 -1971)
79. Anton Webern (1883 -1945)
80. Imre Kalman (1882 -1953)
81. Alban Berg (1885 -1935)
82. Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev (1891 -1953)
83. Arthur Honegger (1892 -1955)
84. Darius Millau (1892 -1974)
85. Carl Orff (1895 -1982)
86. Paul Hindemith (1895 -1963)
87. George Gershwin (1898–1937)
88. Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky (1900 -1955)
89. Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (1903 -1978)
90. Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich (1906 -1975)
91. Tikhon Nikolaevich Khrennikov (born in 1913)
92. Benjamin Britten (1913 -1976)
93. Georgy Vasilievich Sviridov (1915 -1998)
94. Leonard Bernstein (1918 -1990)
95. Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin (born in 1932)
96. Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933)
97. Alfred Garievich Schnittke (1934 -1998)
98. Bob Dylan (b. 1941)
99. John Lennon (1940-1980) and Paul McCartney (b. 1942)
100. Sting (b. 1951)

MASTERPIECES OF CLASSICAL MUSIC

The most famous composers in the world

List of composers in alphabetical order

They got a hard share.

Little-known composers of the 18th century, predecessors and contemporaries of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka. Little information about them has been preserved.
Very little information has been preserved about outstanding composer and violinist Ivana Khandoshkina. Coming from a serf environment, he received a good education. He studied violin with one of the Italians who lived in Russia, and soon achieved great skill as a performer.

Ivan Khandoshkin. Canzone.

Ivan Khandoshkin. "Down the mother along the Volga"

His numerous compositions for violin are also interesting: variations on folk themes, sonatas. Russian folk songs are embodied in them, although there is a noticeable connection with pan-European music. We know just as little about other Russian composers of the 18th century, such as Daniil Kashin, Fedor Dubyansky, Vasily Pashkevich. It is only known that many of them received good musical education abroad, were recognized there and awarded honorary titles. But not all of them managed to accomplish what they were called to do, not all of them reached those heights in art that were within their power. In Russia, these composers did a lot for the development of national music. And yet, being gifted and educated people, they remained in the position of serfs. Being completely dependent on the whims of their masters, they often combined their musical duties with the duties of coachmen, rangers, footmen. This position, which humiliates human dignity, which did not allow the talent to fully manifest itself, was the cause of many tragedies and even the death of some musicians.

Such, for example, is the fate of Maxim Berezovsky. Together with the great Mozart, he brilliantly participated in the competition of the Music Academy in Bologna and received the title of academician. One of the Russian composer's operas staged abroad was a great success. In it, according to contemporaries, "liveness and good taste were combined with musical knowledge". But, having returned to Russia, Berezovsky turned out to be unnecessary to anyone and could not find application for his bright talent. Driven to despair, he committed suicide - he was 32 years old.

Maxim Berezovsky. Sonata for violin and harpsichord.

Maxim Berezovsky. "Do not reject me in my old age"

Just as early, Stepan Dekhterev, another outstanding Russian musician, the serf of Count Sheremetev, died of severe poverty and tuberculosis. He was “destroyed by talent and slavery,” wrote one of his students. “An extraordinary talent drew the attention of experts to him early, and his master, Count Sheremetev, gave him the means to develop himself. He was sent to Italy for improvement.
His musical compositions gave him a great reputation there. But, returning to the fatherland, he found a severe despot, who, according to the revision right to the soul brilliant man wanted to appropriate unconditionally and her inspiration: he laid an iron hand on him. One of the count’s orders speaks eloquently about the disenfranchised position in which the musician was: “The teacher of concerts, Stepan Dekhterev, for giving them strangers concerts, deduct 5 rubles from the salary. and give it to the singer Chapov for announcing it. An outstanding Russian composer, conductor, singer - Dekhterev was paid 177 rubles a year. 70 kopecks, while ordinary musicians of the orchestra - foreigners received 1225 rubles. Nevertheless, Stepan Dekhterev left many original compositions. Among them, the first Russian oratorio on the national plot “Minin and Pozharsky, or the Liberation of Moscow” stands out. Its success was so great that the oratorio was repeatedly performed as one of the most important works of Russian music. early XIX century. The newspapers noted that "the orchestra was made up of almost 200 Russian musicians and singers alone, under the direction of Dekhterev himself." The music of the oratorio, full of high heroic pathos, still impresses with its harsh, masculine beauty.

Stepan Dekhterev. Oratorio "Minin and Pozharsky", prelude.

Aria by Dmitry Pozharsky from the Oratorio "Minin and Pozharsky"

Stepan Dekhterev. "Today Christ is in Bethlehem."

Daniil Kashin, a passionate lover and collector of Russian folk songs, did a lot for the dissemination of Russian folk songs. Contemporaries called him "the favorite of the citizens of Moscow", "the nightingale of Russian songs." These songs, according to contemporaries, Kashin "overheard both the coachmen on the high road and the Russian peasant in the field." Good knowledge of folk songs allowed him to compile and publish a rather large collection of Russian folk songs for those times - one of the first collections in Russia. Kashin was an excellent pianist and conductor - he himself performed his own compositions, which were very popular. But all his life he was a serf musician. Only shortly before his death, he nevertheless managed to get a "free" with the greatest difficulties. The fate of other gifted musicians from the people was also tragic.
And yet the mark left by them in Russian music is great: their operas, instrumental, piano and violin pieces, romances and songs were played in due time. big role in the development of Russian music. These composers, as a rule, possessed a highly developed sense of national dignity, asserting it in contrast to the aristocrats, who had a predilection for everything foreign. IN mid-eighteenth century, music is widely included in the life of all strata of Russian society. Music is taught in closed boarding schools and schools. Wherever even a small society gathered, music sounded. “The custom of playing music has taken root everywhere, throughout Russia,” Academician B.V. Asafiev wrote about that time. - No matter how cruel the morals were and no matter how disastrous the situation of serf musicians (as well as actors) was, nevertheless, vocal and instrumental culture spread through them, tastes developed and outstanding performers and composers were formed. It must be remembered that before the nobility pushed composers out of their Wednesday, Russian musical culture has already been created by gifted people of low, or, as it was customary to say, "vile" origin.

The most prominent and significant figure in Russian music of the 18th century was the talented composer Evstigney Ipatoevich Fomin. Thanks to his reforming work, he left a deep mark. But most of his works are either lost and forgotten, or have come down to us in the form of separate passages.
A soldier's son, thanks to his bright talent, he was sent to Italy, where he improved under the famous Padre Martini (who at one time was the teacher of the great Mozart). There, in Bologna, Fomin received the title of academician. And when he returned to his homeland, he was awarded an honorary order - to write the opera "Novgorod Bogatyr Boeslavich" to the libretto of Catherine II (the autocrat sometimes amused her vanity by creating unpretentious, pretentious verses and dramas). But the court composer from Fomin did not work out.

Evstigney Fomin. Overture "Orpheus and Zvrydice"