Hello everyone! This week on musicainextenso I’ve been invited to share music by Russian composers. Today I wanted to share a fun orchestral piece by Mikhail Glinka - Kamarinskaya. With the 19th century came a desire for nationalistic pride and a more personal “authentic” musical voice. In Russia, this manifested primarily through Mikhail Glinka, and later a group of aristocrats-turned-composers nicknamed “The Five”. Glinka was like the grandfather to the Five, and through him we hear a musical idiom based on Russian sources. A kamarinskaya is a traditional folk dance, and Glinka’s take on the dance was the first major orchestra piece based on Russian culture. And along with the fast paced rhythms comes great orchestration, with fluid wind writing and a fun use of percussive effects. The piece is based off of two folk songs; one a slow bridal march, the other a ‘naigrish’, which is a dance where an ostinato is repeated again and again until the dancers get tired and give in. Glinka recreates this effect through the constant building, stepping back, and building up again over the main ostinato in the strings.
Stay tuned for more music by Russian composers this week on musicainextenso!
- Nick O