Coordinates: 59°43′24″N 30°24′57″E / 59.72333°N 30.41583°E / 59.72333; 30.41583

Catherine Palace and Park

Tsarskoye Selo (Russian: Ца́рское Село́; [ˈt͡sarskəjɪ sʲɪˈlo] ( listen); "Tsar's Village") is the town containing a former Russian residence of the imperial family and visiting nobility, located 24 kilometres (15 mi) south from the center of St. Petersburg.^[1] It is now part of the town of Pushkin and of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments.

History[link]

In the 17th century, the estate belonged to a Swedish noble. Its original Finnish name is usually translated as "a higher ground". Max Vasmer, on the other hand, derives this toponym from the Finnish word for island, "saari". In any case, the Finnish name came to be pronounced by the 18th-century Russians as "Sarskoye Selo", later changed to "Tsarskoye Selo" (i.e., "the royal village").^{[citation needed]}

In 1708, Peter the Great gave the estate to his wife, the future Empress Catherine I, as a present. She founded the Blagoveschensky (Annunciation) church there in 1724, and changed the name of the settlement to Blagoveschenskoye, but this did not stand the test of time and quickly went out of use.

It was Catherine I who started to develop the place as a royal country residence. Her daughter, Empress Elizabeth and her architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli were largely responsible for the building of the Catherine Palace. Later Empress Catherine II of Russia and her architect Charles Cameron extended the palace building that is now known as the Cameron Gallery. Currently, there are two imperial palaces: the baroque Catherine Palace with the adjacent Catherine Park and the neoclassical Alexander Palace with the adjacent Alexander Park. The Catherine Palace is surrounded by a Garden à la française and an English landscape garden, with such 18th-century structures as Dutch Admiralty, Creaking Pagoda, Chesme Column, Rumyantsev Obelisk, and Marble Bridge. The landscape Alexander Park has several Chinoiserie structures, notably the Chinese Village.

By the end of the 18th century, Tsarskoye Selo became a popular place of summer residence among the nobility. The guards' regiments were stationed to the south of Tsarskoye Selo, where Catherine the Great founded in the 1770s the town of Sophia (her own German name being Sophie). The five-domed neoclassical Ascension Cathedral, designed by the Scottish architect Charles Cameron, is the chief monument of that area.

The Real Forestry School, perhaps the first such school in Russia, was founded in Tsarskoye Selo in 1803; it was moved to St. Petersburg in 1811, to become the St. Petersburg Forestry Institute.^[2] In 1808, Sophia and Tsarskoye Selo merged and became one town.

Catherine Palace with a view of the Cameron Gallery; Tsarskoye Selo in a watercolor by Luigi Premazzi, c. 1855.

In 1811, Alexander I opened the celebrated Lyceum next door to the Catherine Palace. Among the first students of the Lyceum who graduated in 1817 were Aleksandr Pushkin and Alexander Gorchakov. Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin also graduated from the Lyceum. The Lyceum garden, the house of the Lycee Director, the house of Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson, Lyceum music teacher belong to important historic sites associated with the Lyceum of Pushkin's time.

The literary traditions of Tsarskoye Selo were continued in the 20th century by such notable poets as Anna Akhmatova and Innokenty Annensky.

The town escaped the 19th-century industrialization, although it was between Tsarskoye Selo and St. Petersburg that the first Russian railroad was built in 1837. It was also known for its powerful government radio station that was set up here in 1917. In the spring of 1917, Emperor Nicholas II was held under arrest in his favourite residence, the Alexander Palace.

In 1918, Tsarskoye Selo (Tsar's Village) was renamed by the Bolsheviks into Detskoye Selo (Children's Village) and in 1937 it was renamed again to the town of Pushkin, thus commemorating the centenary of the poet's death.

On September 17, 1941 the Germans occupied the town of Pushkin, destroying and plundering many historical monuments, buildings and other cultural artifacts, including the famous Amber Room. The Red Army liberated the town on January 24, 1944. After the war, reconstruction began on Tsarskoye Selo; many rooms in the Catherine Palace have been restored, but much work on the palatial church and the Alexander Palace is still under way.

Alexander Palace. View of the corps de logis from the cour d'honneur.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• King, Greg (2006) (hardback). The Court of the Last Tsar. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 559 pages. ISBN 978-0-471-72763-7. 

External links[link]

• Tsarskoye Selo, Pushkin town, historical facts of the city, map, local weather, directions from St. Petersburg
• The State Museum of Tsarskoye Selo
• Alexander Palace Time Machine The Alexander Palace Time Machine
• Tsarskoye Selo in 1910 – a guide to the Palaces, Park and Town
• Photo Tours of Tsarskoe Selo
• Last Days at Tsarskoe Selo Last Days at Tsarskoe Selo by Count Paul Beckendorff
• Photographic views of Tsarskoye Selo, c. 2002 The Nostalgic Glass
• Tsarskoye Selo Photos Iconicarchive Gallery
• Bernard DeCou's colored photos of Tsarskoye Selo, c. 1931

v t e Showplaces in Tsarskoye Selo museum complex (architect), year of open Palaces Alexander Palace (Giacomo Quarenghi), 1796 Babolovky Palace (unknown), 1796 Catherine Palace (Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli), 1756 Zapasnoy Palace (Adam Menelaws), 1824 Parks Alexander Park N. Zhirar, 1740 Babolovsky Park (unknown), 1783 Buferniy Park (unknown), 1??? Catherine Park (unknown), 1783 Fermersky Park (unknown), 1??? Otdelniy Park (unknown), 1??? landscape architecture White Tower (unknown), 1??? Ruin Tower (Yury Felten), 1773 Schapel (unknown), 1??? Kitaisky Theatre (Antonio Rinaldi), 1779 Dutch Admiralty (Vasiliy Neelov), 1773 Znamenskaya Cruch (Ivan Blank), 1736

v t e Russian imperial palaces and residences Imperial residences Alexander Palace Anichkov Palace Catherine Palace Gatchina Palace Grand Kremlin Palace Kamenny Island Oranienbaum Pavlovsk Palace Peterhof Palace Saint Michael's Castle Winter Palace Yelagin Palace Grand ducal residences Alexis Palace Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace Constantine Palace Marble Palace Marie Palace Michael Palace New Michael Palace Nicholas Palace Tauride Palace Vladimir Palace Outside the Russian Federation Belweder Białowieża Palace Catherinethal Dulber Helsingfors Palace Elisabeth Palace Likani Palace Livadia Palace Massandra Palace Skierniewice Palace Historical Annenhof Catherinehof Kolomenskoye Palace Pella Palace Ropsha Babolovo Summer Garden Palace Summer Palace of Empress Elisabeth

Henry Purcell by John Closterman

Engraved portrait of Henry Purcell by R. White after Closterman, from Orpheus Britannicus

Henry Purcell ( /ˈpɜrsəl/;^[1] 10 September 1659 (?)^[2]– 21 November 1695), was an English composer. Although incorporating Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, Purcell's legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest English composers; no other native-born English composer approached his fame until Edward Elgar.

Early life and career[link]

Purcell was born in St Ann's Lane Old Pye Street, Westminster. Henry Purcell Senior,^[3] whose older brother Thomas Purcell (d. 1682) was also a musician, was a gentleman of the Chapel Royal and sang at the coronation of King Charles II of England.^[4] Henry the elder had three sons: Edward, Henry and Daniel. Daniel Purcell (d. 1717), the youngest of the brothers, was also a prolific composer who wrote the music for much of the final act of The Indian Queen after Henry Purcell's death. Henry Purcell's family lived just a few hundred yards west of Westminster Abbey from the year 1659 and onward.^[5]

After his father's death in 1664, Purcell was placed under the guardianship of his uncle who showed him great affection and kindness.^[6] Thomas was himself a gentleman of His Majesty's chapel, and arranged for Henry to be admitted as a chorister. Henry studied first under Captain Henry Cooke (d. 1672),^[7] Master of the Children, and afterwards under Pelham Humfrey (d. 1674), Cooke's successor.^[8] Henry was a chorister in the Chapel Royal until his voice broke in 1673, when he became assistant to the organ-builder John Hingston, who held the post of keeper of wind instruments to the King.^[5]

Purcell is said to have been composing at nine years old, but the earliest work that can be certainly identified as his is an ode for the King's birthday, written in 1670.^[9] (The dates for his compositions are often uncertain, despite considerable research.) It is assumed that the three-part song "Sweet tyranness, I now resign" was written by him as a child.^[6] After Humfrey's death, Purcell continued his studies under Dr. John Blow. He attended Westminster School and in 1676 was appointed copyist at Westminster Abbey.^[4] Henry Purcell's earliest anthem "Lord, who can tell" was composed in 1678. It is a psalm that is prescribed for Christmas Day and also to be read at morning prayer on the fourth day of the month.^[10]

In 1679, he wrote some songs for John Playford's Choice Ayres, Songs and Dialogues and also an anthem, the name of which is not known, for the Chapel Royal. From a letter written by Thomas Purcell, and still extant, we learn that this anthem was composed for the exceptionally fine voice of the Rev. John Gostling, then at Canterbury, but afterwards a gentleman of His Majesty's chapel. Purcell wrote several anthems at different times for Gostling's extraordinary basso profondo voice, which is known to have had a range of at least two full octaves, from D below the bass staff to the D above it. The dates of very few of these sacred compositions are known; perhaps the most notable example is the anthem "They that go down to the sea in ships." In gratitude for the providential escape of King Charles II from shipwreck, Gostling, who had been of the royal party, put together some verses from the Psalms in the form of an anthem and requested Purcell to set them to music. The work is a very difficult one, opening with a passage which traverses the full extent of Gostling's range, beginning on the upper D and descending two octaves to the lower.

Later career and death[link]

Another portrait of Henry Purcell

In 1679, Blow, who had been appointed organist of Westminster Abbey in 1669, resigned his office in favour of his pupil.^[11] Purcell now devoted himself almost entirely to the composition of sacred music, and for six years severed his connection with the theatre. However, during the early part of the year, probably before taking up his new office, he had produced two important works for the stage, the music for Nathaniel Lee's Theodosius, and Thomas d'Urfey's Virtuous Wife.^[11] Between 1680 and 1688 Purcell wrote music for seven plays.^[12] The composition of his chamber opera Dido and Aeneas, which forms a very important landmark in the history of English dramatic music, has been attributed to this period, and its earliest production may well have predated the documented one of 1689.^[11] It was written to a libretto furnished by Nahum Tate, and performed in 1689 in cooperation with Josias Priest, a dancing master and the choreographer for the Dorset Garden Theatre. Priest's wife kept a boarding school for young gentlewomen, first in Leicester Fields and afterwards at Chelsea, where the opera was performed.^[13] It is occasionally considered the first genuine English opera, though that title is usually given to Blow's Venus and Adonis: as in Blow's work, the action does not progress in spoken dialogue but in Italian-style recitative. Both works run to less than one hour. At the time Dido and Aeneas never found its way to the theatre, though it appears to have been very popular in private circles. It is believed to have been extensively copied, but only one song was printed by Purcell's widow in Orpheus Britannicus, and the complete work remained in manuscript until 1840, when it was printed by the Musical Antiquarian Society under the editorship of Sir George Macfarren. The composition of Dido and Aeneas gave Purcell his first chance to write a sustained musical setting of a dramatic text. It was his only opportunity to compose a work in which the music carried the entire drama.^[12] The story of Dido and Aeneas derives from the original source in Virgil's epic the Aeneid.^[14]

Soon after Purcell's marriage, in 1682, on the death of Edward Lowe, he was appointed organist of the Chapel Royal, an office which he was able to hold simultaneously with his position at Westminster Abbey.^[15] His eldest son was born in this same year, but his life was short lived.^[16] His first printed composition, Twelve Sonatas, was published in 1683.^[17][18] For some years after this, he was busy in the production of sacred music, odes addressed to the king and royal family, and other similar works.^[19][20] In 1685, he wrote two of his finest anthems, "I was glad" and "My heart is inditing", for the coronation of King James II.^[15] One of Purcell's most elaborate, most important and most magnificent works was a birthday ode for Queen Mary. It is titled Come ye Sons of Art, and was written by Nahum Tate and set by Purcell.^[21]

In 1687, he resumed his connection with the theatre by furnishing the music for Dryden's tragedy, Tyrannick Love. In this year, Purcell also composed a march and quick-step, which became so popular that Lord Wharton adapted the latter to the fatal verses of Lillibullero; and in or before January 1688, he composed his anthem "Blessed are they that fear the Lord" by express command of the King. A few months later, he wrote the music for D'Urfey's play, The Fool's Preferment. In 1690, he composed the music for Betterton's adaptation of Fletcher and Massinger's Prophetess (afterwards called Dioclesian)^[22] and Dryden's Amphitryon. During the first ten years of his mastership, Purcell composed much- precisely how much we can only guess. In 1691, he wrote the music for what is sometimes considered his dramatic masterpiece, King Arthur, with the libretto by Dryden and first published by the Musical Antiquarian Society in 1843. Another one of Purcell's operas is King Arthur, or The British Worthy in 1691.^[13] In 1692, he composed The Fairy-Queen (an adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream), the score of which (his longest for theatre)^[23] was rediscovered in 1901 and published by the Purcell Society.^[24] The Indian Queen followed in 1695, in which year he also wrote songs for Dryden and Davenant's version of Shakespeare's The Tempest (recently, this has been disputed by music scholars^[25]), probably including "Full fathom five" and "Come unto these yellow sands". The Indian Queen was adapted from a tragedy by Dryden and Sir Robert Howard.^[23] In these semi-operas (another term for which at the time was "dramatic opera"), the main characters of the plays do not sing but speak their lines: the action moves in dialogue rather than recitative. The related songs are sung "for" them by singers, who have minor dramatic roles.

Purcell's Te Deum and Jubilate Deo were written for Saint Cecilia's Day, 1694, the first English Te Deum ever composed with orchestral accompaniment. This work was annually performed at St Paul's Cathedral until 1712, after which it was performed alternately with Handel's Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate until 1743, when both works were replaced by Handel's Dettingen Te Deum.^[26]

He composed an anthem and two elegies for Queen Mary II's funeral.^[27] Besides the operas and semi-operas already mentioned, Purcell wrote the music and songs for Thomas d'Urfey's The Comical History of Don Quixote, Boudicca, The Indian Queen and others, a vast quantity of sacred music, and numerous odes, cantatas, and other miscellaneous pieces. The quantity of his instrumental chamber music is minimal after his early career, and his keyboard music consists of an even more minimal number of harpsichord suites and organ pieces.^[28] In 1693, Purcell composed music for two Comedies: The Old Bachelor, and The Double Dealer. Purcell also composed for five other plays within the same year.^[11] In July 1695, Henry Purcell composed an ode for the Duke of Gloucester for his sixth birthday. The ode is titled Who can from joy refrain?^[29] Purcell's four-part sonatas were issued in 1697.^[11] In the remaining six years of his life, Henry Purcell wrote music for forty two plays.^[11]

Purcell died in 1695 at his home in Dean's Yard, Westminster, at the height of his career. He is believed to have been 35 or 36 years old at the time. The cause of his death is unclear: one theory is that he caught a chill after returning home late from the theatre one night to find that his wife had locked him out. Another is that he succumbed to tuberculosis.^[30] The beginning of Purcell's will reads:

"In the name of God Amen. I, Henry Purcell, of the City of Westminster, gentleman, being dangerously ill as to the constitution of my body, but in good and perfect mind and memory (thanks be to God) do by these presents publish and declare this to be my last Will and Testament. And I do hereby give and bequeath unto my loving wife, Frances Purcell, all my estate both real and personal of what nature and kind soever..."^[31]

Purcell is buried adjacent to the organ in Westminster Abbey. The music that he had earlier composed for Queen Mary's funeral was performed during his as well. Purcell was universally mourned as 'a very great master of music.'  Following his death, the officials at Westminster honoured him by unanimously voting that he be buried with no expense in the north aisle of the Abbey.^[32] His epitaph reads: "Here lyes Henry Purcell Esq., who left this life and is gone to that blessed place where only his harmony can be exceeded."^[33]

Henry Purcell fathered six children by his wife Frances, four of whom died in infancy. His wife, as well as his son Edward (1689–1740) and daughter Frances, survived him.^[11] Frances the elder died in 1706, having published a number of her husband's works, including the now famous collection called Orpheus Britannicus, in two volumes, printed in 1698 and 1702, respectively. Edward was appointed organist of St Clement Eastcheap, London, in 1711 and was succeeded by his son Edward Henry Purcell (d. 1765). Both men were buried in St Clement's near the organ gallery.

Influence and reputation[link]

"The Flowering of the English Baroque", bronze memorial sculpture by Glynn Williams in a small park on Victoria St, Westminster.

After his death, Purcell was honoured by many of his contemporaries, including his old friend John Blow, who wrote "An Ode, on the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell (Mark how the lark and linnet sing)" with text by his old collaborator, John Dryden. More recently, the English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote a famous sonnet entitled simply "Henry Purcell", with a headnote reading: "The poet wishes well to the divine genius of Purcell and praises him that, whereas other musicians have given utterance to the moods of man's mind, he has, beyond that, uttered in notes the very make and species of man as created both in him and in all men generally."

Purcell also had a strong influence on the composers of the English musical renaissance of the early 20th century, most notably Benjamin Britten, who created and performed a realisation of Dido and Aeneas and whose The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra is based on a theme from Purcell's Abdelazar. Stylistically, the aria "I know a bank" from Britten's opera A Midsummer Night's Dream is clearly inspired by Purcell's aria "Sweeter than Roses", which Purcell originally wrote as part of incidental music to Richard Norton's Pausanias, the Betrayer of His Country.

Purcell is honoured together with Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on 28 July.^[34] In a 1940 interview Ignaz Friedman stated that he considered Purcell as great as Bach and Beethoven. In Victoria Street, Westminster, England, there is a bronze monument to Purcell (right), sculpted by Glynn Williams and erected in 1994.

Purcell's works have been catalogued by Franklin Zimmerman, who gave them a number preceded by Z. A Purcell Club was founded in London in 1836 for promoting the performance of his music, but was dissolved in 1863. In 1876 a Purcell Society was founded, which published new editions of his works. A modern day Purcell Club has been created, and provides guided tours and concerts in support of Westminster Abbey.

So strong was his reputation that a popular wedding processional was incorrectly attributed to Purcell for many years. The so-called Purcell's Trumpet Voluntary was in fact written around 1700 by a British composer named Jeremiah Clarke as the Prince of Denmark's March.

In 2009 Pete Townshend of The Who, an English rock band that established itself in the 1960s, identified Purcell's harmonies as an influence on the band's music (in songs such as "Won't Get Fooled Again" (1971), "I Can See for Miles" (1967) and the very Purcellian intro to "Pinball Wizard").^[35]

Michael Nyman, at the request of the director, built the score of Peter Greenaway's 1982 film, The Draughtsman's Contract on ostinati by Purcell from various sources, one misattributed. He credited Purcell as a "music consultant." Another of Purcell's ostinati, the Cold Genius aria from King Arthur, was used in Nyman's Memorial.

In popular culture[link]

Purcell is among the Baroque composers who has had a direct influence on modern rock and roll; according to Pete Townshend of The Who, Purcell was among his influences, particularly evident in the opening bars of The Who's "Pinball Wizard".^[36] The processional section from Purcell's "Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary," was also adapted for the synthesiser by Wendy Carlos to serve as the theme music for the 1971 film A Clockwork Orange, the music is also featured in the final scene of the 1995 film The Young Poisoner's Handbook. Noted cult New Wave artist Klaus Nomi regularly performed "The Cold Song" from King Arthur during his career, including a version on his debut self-titled album, Klaus Nomi, from 1981; his last public performance before his untimely death was an interpretation of the piece done with a full orchestra in December 1982 in Munich. Purcell wrote the song for a bass, but numerous countertenors have performed the piece in homage to Nomi. Sting recorded it on his 2009 album If On a Winter's Night....

In the 1995 film England, My England, the life of Purcell (played by Michael Ball) was depicted as seen through the eyes of a playwright in the 1960s who is trying to write a play about him.

In the 21st century, the soundtrack of the 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice features a dance titled "A Postcard to Henry Purcell." This is a version by composer Dario Marianelli of Purcell's Abdelazar theme. In the German-language 2004 movie, Der Untergang ([the] Downfall (film), the music of Dido's Lament is used repeatedly as the end of the Third Reich culminates.

I was Glad Ode 1 – Sinfonia Ode 2 – Welcome to All Ode 3 – Hail to this Happy Assembly Ode 4 – Here the Deities Approve Ode 5 – While Joys Celestial Ode 6 – Then Lift Up Your Voices Ode 7 – Beauty, Thou Scene of Love Ode 8 – In a Consort of Voices Hear my prayer, O Lord (1.9 Mb)

	Toccata in A major Performed by Sylvia Kind on a harpsichord of the type made in the early 20th century
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	"The Queen's Dolour (A Farewell)" Realised by Ronald Stevenson (1958), performed live by Mark Gasser
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See also[link]

• List of compositions by Henry Purcell

References[link]

Notes

Bibliography

• Burden, Michael, ed. Performing the Music of Henry Purcell, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996.
• Burden, Michael, ed. Henry Purcell's Operas; The Complete Texts, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.
• Dent, Edward J. Foundations of English Opera, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1928.
• Duffy, Maureen, Henry Purcell, Fourth Estate Ltd, Londen, 1994.
• Holman, Peter and Robert Thompson. "Henry Purcell (ii)," Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed 17 March 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription access).
• Holman, Peter, Henry Purcell, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994.
• Holst, Imogen, ed. Henry Purcell 1659–1695: Essays on His Music, Oxford University Press, London, 1959.
• Keates, Jonathan, Purcell, Chatto & Windus, Londen, 1995
• Moore, R. E., Henry Purcell and the Restoration Theatre, Greenwood Press, Westport CT, 1961.
• Muller, Julia, Words and Music in Henry Purcell's First Semi-Opera, Dioclesian, Edwin Mellen Press, New York, 1990.
• Orrey, Leslie and Rodney Milnes, Opera: A Concise History, World of Art, Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-20217-6.
• Price, Curtis A., Henry Purcell and the London Stage,Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1984.
• Shay, Robert, and Robert Thompson, Purcell Manuscripts: The Principal Musical Sources Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000.
• Westrup, Jack A., Purcell, Dent & Sons, Londen 1980
• Zimmerman, Franklin B., Henry Purcell, 1659–1695, His Life and Times, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia PA, 1983
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Henry Purcell

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This audio file was created from a revision of the "Henry Purcell" article dated 2006-08-15, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)

More spoken articles

• Purcell by John F. Runciman, a biography forming part of Bell's Miniature Series of Musicians published in 1909, from Project Gutenberg
• Free scores by Henry Purcell in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Works by or about Henry Purcell in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Free scores by Henry Purcell in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Henry Purcell at the International Music Score Library Project
• The Mutopia Project has compositions by Henry Purcell
• Short biography, audio samples and images of Purcell
• Monument to Purcell
• Harpsichord Suites played on virtual harpsichord
• Dido's Lament – Research leading to a narrative account of how Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas was created.
• Henry Purcell at Allmusic

César Antonovich Cui (Russian: Це́зарь Анто́нович Кюи́, Tsezar' Antonovič Kjui) (18 January [O.S. 6 January] 1835 – 13 March 1918)^[1] was a Russian of French and Lithuanian descent. His profession was as an army officer and a teacher of fortifications; his avocational life has particular significance in the history of music, in that he was a composer and music critic; in this sideline he is known as a member of The Five, the group of Russian composers under the leadership of Mily Balakirev dedicated to the production of a specifically Russian type of music.

Biography[link]

Upbringing and career[link]

Cesarius-Benjaminus (Цезарий-Вениамин) Cui was born in Vilnius, Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Vilnius, Lithuania), to a Roman Catholic family, as the youngest of five children. His French father Antoine (name russianized as Anton Leonardovich), had entered Russia as a member of Napoleon's army in 1812, settled in Vilnius upon their defeat, and married a local woman named Julia Gucewicz.^[2] Amidst this multi-ethnic environment young César grew up learning French, Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian.^[3] Before finishing gymnasium, in 1850 Cui was sent to Saint Petersburg to prepare to enter the Chief Engineering School, which he did the next year at age 16.^[4] In 1855 he was graduated from the Academy, and after advanced studies at the Nikolaevsky Engineering Academy, now Military engineering-technical university (Russian Военный инженерно-технический университет), he began his military career in 1857 as an instructor in fortifications.^[5] His students over the decades included several members of the Imperial family, most notably Nicolas II.^[6] Cui eventually ended up teaching at three of the military academies in Saint Petersburg.^[7] Cui's study of fortifications gained from frontline assignment during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 proved quite important for his career. As an expert on military fortifications, Cui eventually attained the academic status of professor in 1880 and the military rank of general in 1906.^[8] His writings on fortifications included textbooks that were widely used, in several successive editions (see bibliography below).

Avocational life in music[link]

Despite his achievements as a professional military academic, Cui is best known in the West for his "other" life in music. As a boy in Vilnius he received piano lessons, studied Chopin's works, and began composing little pieces at fourteen years of age. In the few months before he was sent to Petersburg, he managed to have some lessons in music theory with the Polish composer Stanisław Moniuszko, who was residing in Vilnius at the time.^[9][10] Cui's musical direction changed in 1856, when he met Mily Balakirev and began to be more seriously involved with music.^[11]

Even though he was composing music and writing music criticism in his spare time, Cui turned out to be an extremely prolific composer and feuilletonist. His public "debut" as a composer occurred 1859 with the performance of his orchestral Scherzo, Op. 1, under the baton of Anton Rubinstein and the auspices of the Russian Musical Society.^[12] In 1869 the first public performance of an opera by Cui took place; this was his William Ratcliff (based on the tragedy by Heinrich Heine); but it did not ultimately have success, partially because of the harshness of his own writings in the music press.^[13][14] All but one of his operas were composed to Russian texts; the one exception, Le flibustier (based on a play by Jean Richepin), premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1894 (twenty-five years after Ratcliff), but it did not succeed either.^[15] Cui's more successful stage works during his lifetime were the one-act comic opera The Mandarin's Son (publicly premiered in 1878), the three-act Prisoner of the Caucasus (1883), based on Pushkin, and the one-act Mademoiselle Fifi (1903), based on Guy de Maupassant.^[16] Besides Flibustier, the only other operas by Cui performed in his lifetime outside of the Russian Empire were Prisoner of the Caucasus (in Liège, 1886) and the children's opera Puss in Boots (in Rome, 1915).^[17]

Cui among artists of the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre, 1902

Cui's activities in musical life included also membership on the opera selection committee at the Mariinsky Theatre; this stint ended in 1883, when both he and Rimsky-Korsakov left the committee in protest of its rejection of Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina.^[18] During 1896-1904 he was director of the Petersburg branch of the Russian Musical Society.^[19]

Among the many musicians Cui knew in his life, Franz Liszt looms large. Liszt valued the music of Russian composers quite highly; for Cui's opera William Ratcliff he expressed some of the highest praise.^[20] Cui's book La musique en Russie and Suite pour piano, Op. 21, are dedicated to the elder composer. In addition, Cui's Tarantelle for orchestra, Op. 12, formed the basis for Liszt's last piano transcription.

Two personalities of direct significance for Cui were women who were specially devoted to his music. In Belgium, the Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau (1837–1890) was most influential in making possible the staging there of Prisoner of the Caucasus in 1885.^[21] In Moscow, Mariya Kerzina, with her husband Arkadiy Kerzin, formed in 1896 the Circle of Russian Music Lovers, a performance society, which began in 1898 to give special place to works by Cui, among those of other Russian composers, in its concerts.^[22]

In such a long and active musical life as Cui's there were many accolades. In the late 1880s and early 1890s several foreign musical societies honored Cui with memberships. Shortly after the staging of Le flibustier in Paris, Cui was elected as a correspondent member of the Académie française and awarded the cross of the Légion d'honneur. In 1896 the Belgian Royal Academy of Literature and Art made him a member.^[23] In 1909 and 1910 events were held in honor of Cui's 50th anniversary as a composer.^[24]

Family[link]

Grave of Mal'vina and César Cui at Tikhvin Cemetery in Saint Petersburg

Cui married Mal'vina Rafailovna Bamberg (Мальвина Рафаиловна Бамберг) in 1858. He had met her at the home of Alexander Dargomyzhsky, from whom she was taking singing lessons^[25] Among the musical works Cui dedicated to her is the early Scherzo, Op. 1 (1857), which uses themes based on her maiden name (BAmBErG) and his own initials (C.C.), and the comic opera The Mandarin's Son. César and Mal'vina had two children, Lidiya and Aleksandr. Lidiya, an amateur singer, married and had a son named Yuri Borisovich Amoretti; in the period before the October Revolution Aleksandr was a member of the Russian Senate.^[26]

Last years and death[link]

In 1916 the composer went blind, although he was able to compose small pieces by dictation.^[27] Cui died on 26 March 1918 from cerebral apoplexy and was buried next to his wife Mal'vina (who had died in 1899) at the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery in Saint Petersburg. In 1939 his body was reinterred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, Saint Petersburg, to lie beside the other members of The Five.^[28]

Cui as a music critic[link]

Caricature of Cui by Rayevsky, based on a painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme. The gladiators in the center bear shields inscribed with the titles of Cui's operas William Ratcliff, The Mandarin's Son, and Angelo

As a writer on music, Cui contributed almost 800 articles between 1864 and 1918 to various newspapers and other publications in Russia and Europe. (He "retired" from regular music criticism in 1900.) His wide coverage included concerts, recitals, musical life, new publications of music, and personalities. A significant number of his articles (ca. 300) dealt with opera.^[29] Several of his themed sets of articles were reissued as monographs; these covered topics as varied as the original 1876 production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in Bayreuth, the development of the Russian romance (art song), music in Russia, and Anton Rubinstein's seminal lectures on the history of piano music of 1888-1889. (See list of writings below.) In addition, as indicated above as part of his profession, Cui also published many books and articles about military fortifications.

Because of rules related to his status in the Russian military, in the early years his musico-critical articles had to be published under a pseudonym, which consisted of three asterisks (***); in Petersburg musical circles, however, it became clear who was writing the articles.^[30][31] His musical reviews began in the St.Petersburg Vedomosti, expressing disdain for music before Beethoven (such as Mozart) and his advocacy of originality in music. Sarcasm was a regular feature of his feuilletons.

Cui's primary goal as a critic was to promote the music of contemporary Russian composers, especially the works of his now better-known co-members of The Five. Even they, however, were not spared negative reactions from him here and there, especially in his blistering review of the first production of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov in 1874.^[32] (Later in life Cui championed the music of this late colleague of his, to the point of making the first completion of Mussorgsky's unfinished opera The Fair at Sorochyntsi.^[33])

Russian composers outside of The Five, however, were often more likely to produce a negative reaction. This derived at least partly from distrust of the western-style conservatory system in favor of the autodidactic approach that The Five had practiced. Cui lambasted Tchaikovsky's second performed opera, The Oprichnik, for instance;^[34] and his stinging remarks about Rachmaninoff's Symphony No.1^[35] are often cited. (Fortunately for posterity, both works have survived their unfavorable premieres.)

Of Western composers, Cui favored Berlioz and Liszt as progressives.^[36] He admired Wagner's aspirations concerning music drama, but did not agree with that composer's methods to achieve them (such as the leitmotif system and the predominance of the orchestra).^[37]

Late in life Cui's presumed progressiveness as espoused in the 1860s and '70s faded, and he showed firm hostility towards the younger "modernists" such as Richard Strauss and Vincent d'Indy.^[38] Cui's very last published articles (from 1917) constituted merciless parodies, including the little song "Гимн футуризму" ("Hymn to Futurism") and "Краткая инструкция, как, не будучи музыкантом, сделаться гениальным модерн-композитором" ("Concise Directions on How to Become a Modern Composer of Genius without Being a Musician").^[39]

Cui as a composer[link]

Portrait of César Cui by Ilya Repin.

Cui composed in almost all genres of his time, with the distinct exceptions of the symphony and the symphonic poem (unlike his compatriots Balakirev, Borodin, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov). By far art songs constitute the greatest number of works by Cui; these include a few vocal duets and many songs for children. Several of his songs are available also in versions with orchestral accompaniment, including his Bolero, Op. 17, which was dedicated to the singer Marcella Sembrich. Some of his most famous art songs include "The Statue at Tsarskoye Selo" ("Царско-сельская статyя") and "The Burnt Letter," ("Сожжённое письмо"), both based on poems by Cui's most valued poet, Alexander Pushkin.

In addition, Cui wrote many works for piano and for chamber groups (including three string quartets), numerous choruses, and several orchestral works, but his most significant efforts are reflected in the operas, of which he composed fifteen of varying proportions. Besides children's music (which includes four fairytale operas as well as the aforementioned songs), three other special categories of compositions stand out among his works: (1) pieces inspired by and dedicated to the Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau (whom the composer knew from 1885 to her death in 1890; (2) works associated with the Circle of Russian Music Lovers (the "Kerzin Circle"); and (3) pieces inspired by the Russo-Japanese War and World War I.

As to the current status of Cui the composer, in the last few decades one of his children's operas (of which he composed four) entitled Puss-in-Boots (from Perrault) has had wide appeal in Germany.^[40] Nevertheless, despite the fact that more of Cui's music is being made available in recent years in recordings and in new printed editions, his status today in the repertoire is considerably small, based (in the West) primarily on some of his piano and chamber music (such as the violin and piano piece called Orientale (op. 50, No. 9)^[41]) and a number of solo songs. The received wisdom that he is not a particularly talented composer, at least for large genres, has been cited as a cause for this state of affairs; his strongest talent is said to lie in the crystallization of mood at an instant as captured in his art songs and instrumental miniatures.^[42] Although his abilities as an orchestrator, too, have been disparaged (notably by his compatriot Rimsky-Korsakov^[43]), some recent recordings (e.g., of his one-act opera Feast in Time of Plague,^[44] from Pushkin) suggest that Cui's dramatic music might be more interesting to pursue with regard to this feature.

Cui's works are not so nationalistic as those of the other members of The Five; with the exception of Pushkin, his operas do not display a strong attraction to Russian sources. In the area of art song, however, the vast majority of Cui's vocal music is based on Russian texts. Overt attempts at Russian "folk" musical style can be detected in passages from his first act of the collaborative Mlada (1872), The Captain's Daughter, a couple of the children's operas, and a few songs; many other passages in his music reflect the stylistic curiosities associated with Russian art music of the 19th century, such as whole tone scales and certain harmonic devices. Nevertheless, his style is more often compared to Robert Schumann^[45] and to French composers such as Gounod^[46] than to Mikhail Glinka or to Cui's Russian contemporaries.

Selected literary works[link]

(Note: As yet there is no complete collected edition of Cui's writings. The vast majority of his published articles on music, in particular, have to be sought individually within the various periodicals in which they were originally printed.)

Cui's writings on music[link]

Monographs[link]

• История литературы фортепианной музыки. Курс А.Г. Рубинштейна. 1888-1889. 2-е изд. [History of the Literature of Piano Music. A Course by A.G. Rubinstein. 1888-1889. 2nd ed.] Спб: И. Юргенсон, 1911. (Originally published serially in 1889 in Russian: Сеансы А.Г.Рубинштейна. Курс истории литературы фортепианной музыки (Sessions by A.G. Rubinstein. A Course in the History of the Literature of Piano Music, in Nedelia; in French: Cours de literature musicale des oeuvres pour le piano au Conservatoire de Saint Petersburg, in L'Art, revue bimensuelle illustree.)
• Кольцо Нибелунгов, трилогия Рихарда Вагнера: Музыкально-критический очерк. 2-е изд. [The Nibelung Ring, trilogy by Richard Wagner: A Musico-Critical Sketch. 2nd ed.] Москва: П. Юргенсон, 1909. (1st monographic ed. published in 1889. Articles originally published in 1876 in Saint Petersburg Vedomosti under the collective title Байрейтское музыкальное торжество [The Bayreuth Music Festival].)
• La musique en Russie. Paris: G. Fischbacher, 1880; rpt. Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1974. (Originally published in 1878-1880 in Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris.)
• Русский романс: очерк его развития [The Russian Romance: a Sketch of Its Development]. Спб: Ф. Финдейзен, 1896. English translation in Classical Essays on the Russian Art Song: 1. The Russian Romance, by Cesar Cui; 2. The Russian Art Song, by Nikolay Findeisen. Nerstrand, Minn.: James Walker, 1993.

Collections[link]

• Избранные статьи [Selected Articles]. Ленинград: Гос. муз. изд-во, 1952. (Includes a nearly complete bibliography of his published articles.)
• Избранные статьи об исполнителях [Selected Articles about Performers]. Москва: Гос. муз. изд-во, 1957.
• Музыкально-критические статьи. Т.1. Со портретом автора и предисловием А.Н. Римского-Корсакова. [Critical Articles on Music. Vol. 1. With a portrait of the author and a foreword by A.N. Rimsky-Korsakov. ] Петроград: Музыкальный современник, 1918. (Note: No further volumes were published.)

Miscellaneous[link]

• "A Historical Sketch of Music in Russia," The Century Library of Music. Ed. by Ignace Jan Paderewski. Vol. 7. New York: The Century Co., 1901, p. 197-219.

Letters[link]

• Избранные письма [Selected Letters]. Ленинград: Гос. муз. изд-во, 1955.

[edit] Cui's writings on military fortifications^[47]

• "Атака и оборона современных крепостей (Разработка этого вопроса в Прусии)" ["Attack and Defence of Contemporary Fortresses (An Elaboration of This Matter in Prussia)"]. Спб: Тип. Деп. уделов, 1881. (From Военный сборник, 1881, No. 7)
• "Бельгия, Антверпен и Бриальмон" ["Belgium, Antwerp, and Brialmont"]. Спб: Тип Деп. уделов, 1882. (From Инженерный журнал, 1881, No. 11)
• Долговременная фортификация: исторический очерк. Курс Михайловской арт. акад. [Permanent Fortifications: A Historical Sketch. A Course of the Mikhailovsky Artillery Akademy] Спб.: 187-?.
• Записки фортификации младшего юнкерского класса Николаевского инженерного училища [Fortification Notes of the Younger Cadet Class of the Nikolaevsky Engineering School]. Спб.: 186-?
• Краткий исторический очерк долговременной фортификации. 3., доп. изд. [Concise Historical Sketch of Permanent Fortifications. Third, supplemented ed..] Спб.: Тип. Императорской Академии наук, 1897. (1st ed. published in 1877.)
• Краткий учебник полевой фортификации. 9-е просм. изд. [Concise Textbook of Field Fortification. 9th revised ed.] Спб.: В Березовский, 1903. (1st ed. titled: Записки полевой фортификации. Курс младшего класса Николаевск. инж. и Михайловск. артил. училища [Notes on Field Fortification. A Course of the Younger Class of the Nikolaevsky Engineering and Mikhailovsky Artillery Schools], 1873; 2nd ed. titled: Полевая фортификация. Курс Николаевск.-инж., Михайловск.-артил. и Николаевск.-кавалерийск. училищ [Field Fortification. A Course of the Nikolaevsky Engineering, Mikhailovsky Artillery, and Nikolaevsky Cavalry Schools], 1877.)
• Опыт рационального определения величины гарнизонов крепостей [Essay on the Efficient Determination of Data on Garrison Fortresses]. Спб: типо-лит. А.Е. Ландау, 1899.
• "Путевые заметки инженерного офицера на театре военных действий в европейской Турции" ["Travel Notes of an Engineering Officer in the Theater of Military Activities in European Turkey"], Спб.: Тип. Деп. уделов, 1878. (From Инженерный журнал, 1878, Nos. 8, 9.)
• "Рост крепостей и изменение их формы в зависимости от увеличения численности армий" ["The Size of Fortresses and the Modification of Their Form Depending on the Expansion of the Strength of Armies"]. Спб: 1901. (Общество ревнителей военных знаний, No. 37, 24 янв. 1901 г.)
• Учебник фортификации для пехотных юнкерских училищ. Изд. 2-е, просм. и доп. [Textbook of Fortification for Infantry Cadet Schools. 2nd ed., revised and supplemented]. Спб.: Воен. тип., 1899. (1st ed. published in 1892)

References[link]

General Bibliography[link]

• Guglielmi, Edoardo. "Cesar Cui e l'Ottocento musicale russo," Chigiana, v. 25, no. 5 (1968), p. 187-195.
• Mercy-Argenteau, La Comtesse de, César Cui: esquisse critique. Paris: Fischbacher, 1888.
• Муселак, Аири [Musielak Henri]. "Предки Кюи" ["Cui's Forbears"], Советская Музыка, 1979, no.10, p. 141-142.
• Nazarov, A.F. Цезарь Антонович Кюи [Cezar' Antonovič Kjui]. Moskva: Muzyka, 1989.
• Neef, Sigrid. Handbuch der russischen und sowjetischen Oper. 1. Aufl. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1989, c1985.
• _______. Die Russischen Fünf: Balakirew, Borodin, Cui, Mussorgski, Rimski-Korsakow. Berlin: E. Kuhn, 1992.
• Neff, Lyle Kevin. Story, style, and structure in the operas of César Cui. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, United States—Indiana. Retrieved June 20, 2010, from Dissertations & Theses: A&I. (Publication No. AAT 3054368) (Abstract)
• Norris, Geoffrey and Neff, Lyle. "Cui, César [Kyui, Tsezar' Antonovich]," Grove Music Online. Ed. L. Macy. (Accessed 9 March 2008), <http://www.grovemusic.com> (Subscription required)
• Stasov, V.V. "Цезарь Антонович Кюи: биографический очерк" ["César Antonovich Cui: A Biographical Sketch."] Артист [Artist] [Moscow], no. 34 (1894); reprinted and edited in his Избранные сочинение: живопись, скульптура, музыка. В трех томах. Т. 3. [Selected Works: Painting, Sculpture, Music. In three vols. Vol. 3.] Москва: Искусство, 1952, p. 387-408.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: César Cui

• Free scores by César Cui at the International Music Score Library Project