Davydov Stepan Ivanovich

The main articles are:

• Music in Russia in the XVIII century
• History of music in Russia

Davydov Stepan Ivanovich - Russian composer, left a deep mark in the development of Russian musical art of the Doglinkin period. An educated musician, whose work fed on Russian national origins, he paved the way for Russian classics, largely anticipating the figurative system of operas by M. Glinka and A. Dargomyzhsky.

Biography

Born on January 1 (old style) in 1777 in the Chernihiv governorate of Little Russia in a gentry family. His father, Captain Ivan Davydov, died between 1786 and 1789 at the age of about forty. Mother Elizaveta Davydova "born in 1758" lived in Little Russia.

As other Russian famous composers of the second half of the 18th century, he began by singing in the Singing Chapel.

From the age of 15, Davydov composed spiritual music.

His first opuses for spiritual texts were performed in chapel concerts, often in the presence of reigning persons. At that time, the famous Italian composer Giuseppe Sarti worked in Russia and Davydov was appointed to him as a pensioner. Classes with Sarti continued until 1802 until the departure of the Italian maestro to his homeland.

During the years of close communication with the teacher, Davydov entered the circle of St. Petersburg artistic intelligentsia. He visited the house of Nikolay Lvova, where poets and musicians gathered, made friends with Dmitry Bortnyansky, with whom Davydova was associated with "sincere and constant affection and mutual respect." During this first "educational" period, the composer worked in the genre of a spiritual concert, discovering a brilliant command of the form and technique of choral writing.

1800: Service in the Directorate of Imperial Theatres

Davydov's talent was brightest in theatrical music. In 1800, he entered the service of the Directorate of Imperial Theaters, replacing the deceased Evstignei Fomin. In the same year, Stepan Davydov's mother moved to St. Petersburg, and later moved with her son to Moscow.

By order of the court, Davydov wrote two ballets - "Crowned Goodness" (1801) and "Sacrifice of Gratitude" (1802), which passed with noticeable success.

Davydov is the author of the first Russian "magic opera" - "Mermaid" ("Dnieper Mermaid"), which was very popular, in which he created the first examples of romantic orchestral landscape sound in Russian music.

The composer's opera cycle began with F. Kauer's enchanting comic opera singspiel "The Virgin of the Danube" (other translations: "The Danube Mermaid," "The Danube Nymph," 1795) based on the play by K. F Gensler "The Danube Nymph." In 1803, holding the post of chief bandmaster of the imperial theaters in St. Petersburg, together with the playwright N. S. Krasnopolsky edited the opera into Russian: Krasnopolsky transferred the action from the Western European Danube, as it was in the original, to the Eastern European Dnieper and renamed the characters into Slavic mode, Davydov introduced Russian national tunes into music. As a result, the opera was renamed the Dnieper Mermaid and under this name went through the scenes of first St. Petersburg, then Moscow and other cities of Russia. And she did not withdraw from the repertoire for a very long time, it was the most frequent production of musical theaters in Russia in the first half of the 19th century. The popularity of opera in Russia is evidenced by appeals to it in Russian literature. It is the aria from the first part of Kauer's opera that Pushkin mentions in Eugene Onegin:

And she will write (my God!) Come to hell with me golden!..

Many musical parts from the Cower opera "The Virgin of the Danube" were often performed separately, in particular, L. N. Tolstoy in his book "Childhood. Boyhood. Youth "recalls a quadrille from this opera. By this time, Davydov was removed from the state post, which was taken by K. A. Kavos, who edited the opera in his own way. The result was a second opera. However, Davydov, given the stage success of Kauer's opera, decided to continue his work and, together with N. Krasnopolsky, composed a continuation for Kauer's opera - already his original work. This opera was called "Lesta, the Dnieper Mermaid" and was recognized by musical critics as the top of the composer's work. The opera was staged on the St. Petersburg imperial stage and was a great success.

A magnificent acting ensemble, a luxurious production, ballet scenes, beautifully staged by choreographer A. Auguste, bright, colorful music by Davydov - all contributed to the huge success of Lesta. In it, Davydov found new musical and dramatic solutions and new artistic means, combining 2 action plans - real and fantastic. With exciting force, he conveyed the drama of a simple peasant girl Lesta, who became the lord of the mermaids, and her lover, Prince Vidostan. He also succeeded in characterizing the comic hero - the servant of Tarabar. Covering the wide range of feelings of this character - from panic fear to rampant joy, Davydov noticeably anticipated the image of the Glynkin Farlaf. In all vocal parts, the composer freely uses the musical vocabulary of his era, enriching the opera language with Russian folk song intonations and dance rhythms. Orchestral episodes are also interesting - picturesque paintings of nature (dawn, thunderstorms), vivid coloristic finds in the transmission of the "magic" layer. All these innovative features made Flattery Davydov the best fairy-tale opera of that time.

The success of the opera contributed to the return of Davydov to service in the Theater Directorate. In 1807, he wrote music for the last, fourth part of The Mermaid to an independent text by A. Shakhovsky. However, her music did not fully reach us. This was the composer's last work in the opera genre.

These operas made up a whole joint cycle and were published in 1804-1806.

1814: Music teacher and music director of the Imperial Theaters in Moscow

In the fall of 1814 he moved to Moscow, where he worked as a music teacher in the Moscow office of the Imperial Theaters. Subsequently, he became director of music at the Imperial Theaters in Moscow. He brought up outstanding artists who made up the glory of the Moscow opera company - N. Repin, P. Bulakhov, A. Bantyshev.

Davydov's music was often played at solemn concerts dedicated to major historical events. Born of a heroic era, it was especially close to the heroes and participants in the Patriotic War of 1812. The famous Moscow festivities in Sokolniki, near Novinsky, on Vorobyovy Gory, in Maryina Grove served as the basis for Davydov divertissements, the music of which was largely based on folk song material. From the divertissement "May First, or Gulyanye in Sokolniki," 2 songs were especially popular: "Tomorrow, bad weather" and "Among the even valley," which entered urban life as folk.

Stepan Ivanovich Davydov died on May 10 (22), 1825 in Moscow at the age of 48.

Compositions

Spiritual musical compositions

• Four-voice liturgy
• 17 concerts

Secular music

Ballets:

• "Crowned Goodness" (on the Coronation Day of Alexander I, 1801),
• "Sacrifice of Gratitude" (allegorical ballet on the Day of the Name of Alexander I, 1802),
• "Count Castelli, or Crime Brother" ("tragic ballet," together with Giuseppe Sarti and V. Martin y Soler, 1804);

Operas:

• "Mermaid" (1803, along with Cower and Kavos),
• "Lesta, Dnieper Mermaid" (1805) (there is little accurate data on various editions and authorship of this series of operas and they vary);
• the comic one-act opera "Lukashka, or the Holy Evening" (1816);

Concert overture. Songs (including music for the well-known "folk" song "Among the Even Valley").

Divertissement ballets:

• "Russian village holiday" ("intermedia-divertissement with choirs and dances," 1812),
• "Semik, or Gulanye in the Maryina Grove" (1815; production and performance by Isaac Abletz),
• "Festivities on the Sparrow Hills" (together with D. N. Kashin and I. Kerzelli, 1815),
• "Filatka with Fedora at a swing near Novinsky" (1815),
• "The Triumph of the Russians, or Bivak under Red" ("The Triumph of Victory," 1816),
• "May First, or Gulyanye in Sokolniki" (1816),
• "Wedding Conspiracy in the Return of Warriors to their Homeland" (1817),
• "Gypsy Camp" (1819),
• "Review of Brides, or Village Shrines" (1821),
• "Holiday of the colonists near the capital" (1821),
• "Harvest Festival" (1823),
• "Russians in Germany, or Evening at the Fair" (together with K. A. Kavos, 1823),
• "Holiday on Presnensky Ponds" (1824) and others.

Cantatas "Offering to the Russian people," "Song to the Russian soldiers to return to the Fatherland," etc.

Music for the "historical performance" "Jean of Kaley, or the Sailor and Princess of Portugal" (1819)

Choirs and intermission to "tragedies on music":

• "Sumbek, or the Fall of the Kazan Kingdom" by S. N. Glinka (1807),
• "Herod and Mariamna" by G. Derzhavin (1808),
• "Electra and Orest" A. N. Gruzintsev (1809),
• "Amboar and Orengi, or the Invasion of the Mongols" P.A. Korsakova (1814)
• presumably: "Dmitry Donskoy" V. A. Ozerov (1807)

Шаблон:XVIII Century Music CD