Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov (; 16 December 1915 – 6 January 1998) was a Soviet and Russian composer. He is most widely known for his choral music, strongly influenced by the traditional

chant A chant (from French ', from Latin ', "to sing") is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of no ...

of the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

, as well as his orchestral works which often celebrate elements of Russian culture. Sviridov employed, especially in his choral music, rich and dense harmonic textures, embracing a romantic-era

tonality Tonality is the arrangement of pitch (music), pitches and / or chord (music), chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived ''relations'', ''stabilities'', ''attractions'', and ''directionality''. In this hierarchy, the single pitch or ...

; his works would come to incorporate not only sacred elements of Russian church music, including vocal work for the

basso profundo Basso profondo (, "deep bass"), sometimes basso profundo or contrabass, is the lowest Bass (voice type), bass voice type. While ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' defines a typical bass as having a range that extends downward to the second E ...

, but also the influence of Eastern European folk music, 19th-century European romantic composers (especially

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...

), and neoromantic contemporaries outside of Russia. He wrote musical settings of Russian Romantic poetry by poets such as

Mikhail Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov ( , ; rus, Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, , mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjʉrʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲerməntəf, links=yes; – ) was a Russian Romanticism, Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called ...

Fyodor Tyutchev Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev (, ; – ) was a Russian poet and diplomat. Ancestry Tyutchev was born into an old Russian noble family in the Ovstug family estate near Bryansk (modern-day Zhukovsky District, Bryansk Oblast of Russia). His f ...

, and

Alexander Blok Alexander Alexandrovich Blok ( rus, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Бло́к, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈblok, a=Ru-Alyeksandr Alyeksandrovich Blok.oga; 7 August 1921) was a Russian lyrical poet, writer, publ ...

. Sviridov enjoyed critical acclaim for much of his career in the Soviet Union and Russia.

Early life and youth

Sviridov was born in 1915 in the town of

Fatezh Fatezh () is a town and the administrative center of Fatezhsky District in Kursk Oblast, Russia, located on thUsozha River north of Kursk, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: 4,959 (1897). History and etymology It was founded ...

in the

Kursk Governorate Kursk Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, which existed from 1796 to 1928 with its capital in Kursk. Administrative divisions As of 1914, Kursk Governorate included 15 uyezds. * Belgorods ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(present-day

Kursk Oblast Kursk Oblast (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Kursk. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, Kursk Oblast had a pop ...

) in a family of Russian ethnicity. His father, Vasily Sviridov, a

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

sympathizer during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, was killed when Georgy was four. The family moved to

Kursk Kursk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur (Kursk Oblast), Kur, Tuskar, and Seym (river), Seym rivers. It has a population of Kursk ...

, where Sviridov, still in elementary school, learned to play his first instrument, the

balalaika The balalaika (, ) is a Russian string instrument, stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck, and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the third string is a perf ...

. Learning to play by ear, he demonstrated such talent and ability that he was accepted into the local orchestra of Russian folk instruments. He enrolled in a music school in 1929, and following the advice of his teacher, M. Krutinsky, went to

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

in 1932, where he studied piano at the Leningrad Central Music College, graduating in 1936. From 1936 to 1941, Sviridov studied at the Leningrad Conservatory under Pyotr Ryazanov, then

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer. Shostak ...

. Mobilized into the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

in 1941, just days after his graduation from the conservatory, Sviridov was sent to a military academy in Ufa, but was discharged by the end of the year due to poor health.

Musical legacy

In 1935, Sviridov composed a cycle of lyrical romances based on the poetry of

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...

which brought him first critical acclaim. During his studies in Leningrad Conservatory, 1936–1941, Sviridov experimented with different genres and different types of musical composition, such as his Piano Concerto No. 1 (1936–1939), Symphony No. 1 (1936–1937), and the Chamber Symphony for Strings (1940). Later Sviridov would turn to Russian musical heritage, including folk songs, for inspiration. Among Sviridov's most popular orchestral pieces are the "Romance," "Waltz," and "Winter Road" from his suite ''The Blizzard'', musical illustrations after Pushkin (1975), that were extracted from his score for the eponymous 1964 film based on the short story from

's '' The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin''. A short segment from his score for the 1965 film '' Time, Forward!'' (''Время, вперёд!'') was selected as the opening theme for the main evening TV news program ''

Vremya ''Vremya'' (, lit. "Time") is the main evening newscast in Russia, airing on Channel One Russia (Russian: , Pervy kanal) and previously on Programme One of the Central Television of the USSR (CT USSR, Russian: ). The programme has been on th ...

'' (Время, 'time') and became a staple of Soviet life. Poetry always occupied an important place in Sviridov's music. He composed songs and romances to the lyrics of

(1938, 1957),

(1941),

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

(1944–1960),

Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the List of national poets, national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the be ...

(in Russian translation, 1955). Despite the popularity of Sviridov's instrumental works, both the composer himself and the music critics regarded vocal and choral music to be his main strengths. ''Oratorio Pathétique'' (1959) after

Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky ( – 14 April 1930) was a Russian poet, playwright, artist, and actor. During his early, Russian Revolution, pre-Revolution period leading into 1917, Mayakovsky became renowned as a prominent figure of the Ru ...

has been called a masterful musical rendering of one of the most popular Russian revolution poets. Sviridov's prolific vocal chamber and vocal symphonic output includes the oratorio ''To the memory of Sergei Yesenin'' (1956), Little Cantata ''Wooden Russia'' (1964) after Yesenin, Cantata ''Songs of Kursk'' (1964), ''Spring Cantata'' (1972) after Nikolay Nekrasov, songs, romances, and cantatas after

, Sergei Yesenin,

Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (30 May 1960) was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, ''My Sister, Life'', was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an imp ...

, Alexander Prokofyev, Robert Rozhdestvensky. He also wrote one opera, ''Twinkling Lights'' (1951). While Sviridov's music remains obscure in the

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

, it is widely known within Russia. According to his nephew Alexander Belonenko, who posthumously edited and published Sviridov's personal jottings:

viridov's musicis perceived n Russiaas a sort of natural, or to put it more precisely, co-natural phenomenon, an integral part of the Russian landscape... Not everyone watching ORT will know the name of the composer to the music that accompanies the program ''Vremya'', which has become a symbol of our bustling times. To say nothing of the "Romance" from ... ''The Snowstorm''. Whenever I visit Moscow, I hear it played in subway tunnels. In the words of
Alexander Blok Alexander Alexandrovich Blok ( rus, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Бло́к, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈblok, a=Ru-Alyeksandr Alyeksandrovich Blok.oga; 7 August 1921) was a Russian lyrical poet, writer, publ ...
, it "sunk into the souls of the people".

The "Winter Road" movement that concludes the suite from ''The Snowstorm'' was allegedly plagiarized by

Tappi Iwase , sometimes credited professionally as TAPPY, is a Japanese musical composer. He is best known for his contributions to the ''Metal Gear is a Media franchise, franchise of stealth games created by Hideo Kojima. Developed and published by Kon ...

and used as the theme for the popular video game series '' Metal Gear Solid''.

Honors and awards

In 1946 Sviridov was awarded the Stalin Prize for his Piano Trio. The

Lenin Prize The Lenin Prize (, ) was one of the most prestigious awards of the Soviet Union for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was originally created on June 23, 1925, and awarded until 1934. During ...

of 1960 was bestowed on the composer for his ''Oratorio Pathétique''. Georgy Sviridov was awarded the

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize () was one of the Soviet Union’s highest civilian honours, awarded from its establishment in September 1966 until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. It recognised outstanding contributions in the fields of science, mathem ...

in 1968 and 1980 and honored with the title

People's Artist of the USSR People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to artists of the Soviet Union. The term is confusingly used to translate two Russian language titles: Народный арти ...

. He became a Hero of Socialist Labor (1975) and was twice awarded the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

. Asteroid 4075 Sviridov, discovered by the Russian astronomer

Lyudmila Karachkina Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina (, born 3 September 1948, Rostov-on-Don) is an astronomer and discoverer of minor planets. In 1978 she began as a staff astronomer of the Institute for Theoretical Astronomy (ITA) at Leningrad. Her research at the ...

in 1982, was named in honor of Georgy Sviridov.

Death

Sviridov died of a heart attack at the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital in the early morning hours of 6 January 1998.

Filmography

* '' Virgin Soil Upturned'' (1939) * '' Rimsky-Korsakov'' (1952) * '' The Great Warrior Skanderbeg'' (1953) * ''

Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions involving the same person or deity returning to another body. The disappearance of a body is anothe ...

'' (1960) * ''

The Blizzard "The Blizzard" (or The Snow Storm) (, ''Metél' '') is the second of five short stories that constitute ''The Belkin Tales'' by Alexander Pushkin. The manuscript for the story was originally completed October 20, 1830. It was intended to be the la ...

'' (1964) * '' Time, Forward!'' (1965) * '' Trust'' (1976) * '' Red Bells II'' (1982) * '' Happy Birthday'' (1998)

List of works

Orchestral

* Symphony for Strings (1940) * Symphony No. 1 (1936–1937; previously lost, score rediscovered posthumously) * Symphony No. 2 (1949; unfinished) * ''Triptych'', a small symphony for orchestra (1964) * ''Snow Storm'' (also translated as ''The Blizzard''), musical illustrations after Pushkin for orchestra (1975)

Concertante

* Piano Concerto No. 1 (1936–1939) * Piano Concerto No. 2 (1942)

Chamber

* Piano Trio (1945 - rev. 1955) * Piano Quintet in B minor (1945) * String Quartet No. 1 (1945–1946) * String Quartet No. 2 (1947) * Music for Chamber Orchestra (1964)

Solo piano

*Seven Small Pieces for piano (1934–1935) *Seven Songs after Mikhail Lermontov (1938) *Piano Sonata (1944) *Two Partitas for piano (1946, revised 1957 and 1960) *''Children's Album'', seventeen pieces for piano (1948, revised 1957) *''Ruy Blas'', serenade (1952) *Partita in E minor *Partita in F minor

Choral

* ''The Decembrists'', oratorio (1955) * ''Poem to the Memory of Sergei Yesenin'', oratorio for tenor, mixed chorus and orchestra (1956) * ''Five Choruses to Lyrics by Russian Poets'' (1958) * ''Oratorio Pathétique'' to words by Mayakovsky for bass, mezzo-soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra (1959) * Song about Lenin ("We Don't Believe") to words by Mayakovsky for bass, mixed chorus and orchestra (1960) * ''Songs of Kursk'', cantata after folk texts for mixed chorus and orchestra (1964) * ''Wooden Russia'', cantata to words by Yesenin for tenor, men's chorus and orchestra (1964) * ''Sad Songs'', small cantata to words by A. Blok for mezzo-soprano, female chorus and orchestra (1962–1965) * ''It Is Snowing'', small cantata to words by

for female chorus, boys'chorus and orchestra (1965) * ''Five Songs about Russia'', cantata to words by

for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, bass, mixed chorus and orchestra (1967) * ''Sacred Love'' (for soprano), from the incidental music to ''

Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich ''Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich'' (, old orthography: Царь Ѳедоръ Іоанновичъ) is a 1868 historical drama by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy.Banham (1998, 1115) and Moser (1992, 270). It is the second part of a trilogy that begins with ...

'' by Aleksey Tolstoy. (1969) * Four Folk Songs for chorus and orchestra (1971) * ''The Friendly Guest'' (also translated as ''The Radiant Guest''), cantata to words by Sergei Yesenin for solo voices, chorus and orchestra (1971–1976) * ''Spring Cantata'' to words by Nikolay Nekrasov for mixed chorus and orchestra (1972) * ''Concerto in Memory of '' for unaccompanied mixed chorus (1973) * ''The Birch of Life'', cantata to words by A. Blok for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (1974) * Three Miniatures for solo voices and mixed chorus (1972–1975) * Three Pieces from ''Children's Album'' for mixed chorus

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

(1975) * ''Ode to Lenin'' to words by R. Rozhdestvensky for narrator, chorus and large orchestra (1976) * ''Hymns to the Motherland'' for chorus (1978) * ''Pushkin's Garland'' (also known as "They beat the Dawn"),

choral concerto The choral concerto (, ), occasionally known as vocal concerto or church concerto) is a genre of sacred music which arose in the Russian Empire in the middle of the seventeenth century and remained popular into the early nineteenth century. Cho ...

on verses by

(1979) * ''Night Clouds'', cantata to words by A. Blok for mixed chorus a cappella (1979) * ''Ladoga'', choral poem for chorus to words by A. Prokofiev (1980) * ''Songs From Hard Times'', choruses to words of A. Blok for chorus a cappella (1980–1981 and later) * ''Hymns and Prayers'', words from liturgical poetry, for unaccompanied choir (1980–1997)

Opera

* ''Bright Lights'', operetta in three acts after L. Sacharov and S. Poloski (1951)

Miscellaneous music

* "Othello", incidental music after Shakespeare (1942) * Original soundtrack to The Blizzard (1964) film after Alexander Pushkin's story * " Time, Forward!", suite of the film score (1967) * ''Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich'', incidental music to the play by Aleksey Tolstoy (1973)

Songs

*Six Romances on Texts by Pushkin for voice and piano (1935) *Three Songs to words by Alexander Blok (1941) *"Shakespeare Suite" for singer and piano (1944) *"Country of My Fathers", song cycle after A. Isaakian for tenor and bass with piano accompaniment (1949–1950) *"Songs to Words of Robert Burns" for bass and piano (1955) *"My Father is a Farmer", song cycle to words by Yesenin for tenor and baritone (1957) *"Suburb-Lyrics", seven songs after A. Prokofiev and M. Issakovsky for singer and piano (1938–1958) *Eight Romances to words by Lermontov for bass and piano (1957–1958) *"St Petersburg Songs" for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, bass, violin, cello and piano (1961–1963) *"Petersburg Songs" to words of A. Blok for bass and piano (1961–1963) *"Russia Cast Adrift", better "Russia Now Launched", song cycle to words by Yesenin for tenor and piano (1977) *Two Songs to words of Alexander Pushkin (1975–1980) *Nine Songs to Words of A. Blok (1972–1981) *Twenty-five Songs for bass and piano (1955–1981) *"Petersburg", song cycle to words by A. Blok (1963–1995)

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

External links

Georgy Vasilievich Sviridov
Petersburg Musical Archive

- Classical Archives * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sviridov, Georgy Vasilyevich 1915 births 1998 deaths 20th-century Russian classical composers Soviet classical composers 20th-century Russian male musicians People from Fatezhsky District People from Fatezhsky Uyezd Saint Petersburg Conservatory alumni Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1967–1971 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1971–1975 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1975–1980 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1980–1985 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1985–1990 Heroes of Socialist Labour People's Artists of the RSFSR People's Artists of the USSR Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the Lenin Prize Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the USSR State Prize State Prize of the Russian Federation laureates Russian male classical composers Russian male film score composers Russian male opera composers Male operetta composers Neoromantic composers Russian classical pianists Russian film score composers Russian opera composers Soviet classical pianists Soviet film score composers Soviet male classical composers Soviet opera composers Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery