BORTNYANSKI, Dmmtt STEPANONTIVII ? . A Russian com poser of chureh music. Ile was born in Glukhov, Government of Chernigov. and at seven joined the Court Choir at the capital. where Le st tidied Wider Galuppi. The Empress Elizabeth, struck by his musical gifts, sent him to Italy. Under Galuppi, who had left Russia, and other famous masters, he studied for eleven years in Venice, Rome, Bo logna, and Naples. He won success with his operas Creonte (Venice, 1776) and Quinto Pablo (Modena, 1778), but did not mistake his true vocation, and clung to the study of the great Italian church composers. His own compositions of this period are distinguished by the lofty no bility and serenity of his models, with hardly a trace of the floritures and pyrotechnics then in vogue in Italian music, and abundant in his operas. On returning to Russia (1779) he was appointed composer to the Court Choir. Paul I. transformed it in 1796 into the Imperial Capella, of which Bortnyanski was director till his very death. Finding the choir in a poor state, Bort nyanski sought out the best voices in Russia. and in a few years the eapella became the most famous in the world. In the service he also found many evils: ignorant choir-masters had altered the antique melodies to make their task easier, or had set the texts to secular melodies, trivial and out of keeping with the church atmos phere. He obtained a decree of the Holy Synod to the effect that all part-music was to conform strictly with printed texts. For this purpose the
music was revised and edited by Bortnyanski.
Bortnyanski, often styled 'the Russian Pales trina,' made an epoch in Russian church music. His compositions, especially the "Cherubim Song" (which, according to O. Fougne, is the only one deserving that name), are performed in Christian churches the world over. They com bine the austerity of the Greek psalmody with the Italian polyphony. Their simple harmonies embody the deeply devotional spirit of the texts, without studied effects that only distract wor shipers. Among his compositions, edited by Tschaikowsky in 10 volumes, arc 35 sacred con certos, 8 church trios with choir, a liturgy for three voices, 7 cherubim songs, a collection of psalms, hymns of praise for four voices and two choirs, Berlioz thus characterizes Bortnyanski: "All his works are imbued with a genuine religious feeling, at Ones a sort of mysticism which raises the hearer to an exalted state of emotion. In addition. Bortnyanski has a rare skill in group ing vocal masses, an extraordinary knowledge of nuances, a sonorousness of harmony, and, what is most remarkable, an incredible freedom in the disposition of the vocal parts; a contempt for the rules honored both by his predecessors and his contemporaries, especially the Italian masters, among whose pupils he is usually counted."