Russian Classical Music - Early History

Early History

In the period of Muscovy, a distinct line was formed between the sacred music of the Orthodox Church and that of secular music used for entertainment. The former draws its tradition from the Byzantine Empire, with key elements being used in Russian Orthodox bell ringing, as well as choral singing. Neumes were developed for musical notation, and as a result several examples of medieval sacred music have survived to this day, among them two stichera composed by Tsar Ivan IV in the 16th century.

One of Russia's earliest music theorists was the Ukrainian Nikolay Diletsky (c. 1630, Kiev – after 1680, Moscow). Although several of his compositions survive, Diletsky's fame rests chiefly on his composition treatise, Grammatika musikiyskago peniya (A Grammar of Music), which was the first of its kind in Russia; there are three surviving versions of this work, of which the earliest dates from 1677. Diletsky's followers included Vasily Titov, whose most enduring composition was the prayer Mnogaya leta (Многая лета), or Bol'shoe mnogoletie (Большое многолетие), which was sung well beyond his time possibly because its relatively simple polyphony was more in line with the ideals of Classical music era. It was sung in Russian churches up to the October Revolution.