Music of Belarus

[Christopher]

Over the last year I have become aware of the musical heritage of Belarus - so much so that I would like to post some of the non-commercially available music up on this site.  Belarus has an extraordinarily rich history, having been part of Lithuania, Poland, Russia and the USSR before emerging as independent in 1991.   I will also use this site to draw attention to commercially available music, though it may take some wits to find some of these CDs as they were bought for me by a colleague from Minsk.  I have not seen them even in the shops in Moscow.

I expect that anything I post up on the topic of "Music from Belarus" will generate lively debate as to which composers can be considered Belarusian as opposed to Polish, or Lithuanian. Composers such as Stanislaw Moniuszko (born near Minsk), Napaleon Orda (born in Brest), the Ogińskis (Michal Kleofas and Michal Kazimierz - Warsaw), and the Radziwills (Antoni, Maciej and Sophia - from Niasviz) are claimed equally fervently by both Belarusians and Poles (in transliterating their names from Belarusian Cyrillic I usually use the Polish variant).  Arguably the Polish claims have been more widely received as the Poles were for a long time the ruling, gentry and merchant classes, while those now called Belarusians were the "peasant masses".  The point is, modern-day Belarus formed the heartland of what was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (also known as Rzeczpospolita), before being incorporated into the Russian Empire (and then the USSR, etc etc). Personally I see no reason why more than one nation cannot claim an artist as their own - he or she is not a piece of land which has to be one or the other!  And it is surely a compliment to that artist's appeal that many should want to claim him or her.

The first piece I have put up is Lamentations by Igar Khadoska, please see in Download Discussions for more information.

[Ilja]

The problem you mention is interesting, and it shows the limitations of our current interpretation of a 'nation'. For example: although the Scharwenka brothers were born and raised in what is now Poland, no one would see them as cultural Poles: many of the musical élites were firmly German: the Scharwenkas, Reznicek in Bohemia, Mahler in Moravia, etc. Of course, simultaneously nationalist awareness was also raised by composers who did choose to 'represent' their home nation, such as Smetana in Bohemia. Finally there is a category that remains 'on the fence' to some degree, such as Dvorak, Dohnányi etc. It all shows that shoehorning composers into a certain modern nationality is usually a futile undertaking.

[Alan Howe]

Well said, Ilja. Quite right.

[Christo]

It all shows that shoehorning composers into a certain modern nationality is usually a futile undertaking.

It is. For that reason - having myself categorized the composers in my cd collection by nationality and then in chronological order (year of birth, being trained a historian chronology is my natural perspective) and because I collect mainly modern music, the modern nationality category often fits - one may regard e.g. Hildegard von Bingen, a name from the high days of the Holy Roman Empire, either 'German', or 'Swiss', 'Italian', 'Czech', 'Belgian, 'Luxembourgian', 'Austrian'. 'Liechtensteinian' ASO.

I decided to allow her a rightful place on my Dutch composers shelf. 

[Ser Amantio di Nicolao]

I have a sampler disc of music by Halina Harelava (listed as Galina Gorelova on the jacket/booklet) which I purchased in Poland some years back.  It's quite nice - rather eclectic, but not unpleasant to listen to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halina_Harelava

[Christopher]

I've heard that Belarus Radio has issued a violin concertos disc.Does anyone know more about?

On one of my other Belarus CDs there is a Violin Concerto No.2 by Michal Jelski (1831-1904), it's very good.  I will ask my Belarusian colleagues if they have heard of a Violin Concerto disc....

[violinconcerto]

other Belarus CDs there is a Violin Concerto No.2 by Michal Jelski (1831-1904), it's very good.  I will ask my Belarusian colleagues if they have heard of a Violin Concerto disc....

If that disc contains some 20th century composition I will be interested as well. So I am looking forward to your next message about this release!

Best,
Tobias

[Christopher]

There's some music by Belarusian composers that can be (legally) downloaded here - http://www.classicavantgarde.com/en/discography.html - it's music played by the «Classic Avantgarde» Soloists Ensemble of The State Philharmonic Society of Belarus, and they have posted some free samplers on their website.

[Christopher]

I have elsewhere on this site mentioned an anthology of Belarusian classical music that I bought while in Minsk last year - Music of Belarus, 17th - 20th Century - 13 CDs in all.

A number of members messaged me to ask what was included.  I decided it was quicker to scan the 49-page booklet than to type it all out - so here it is - http://www.mediafire.com/?lv8bilh68th8a - includes contents and composers' biographical info.  Many, but not all, come from the era that interests members of this site.

The names are usually rendered into Latin script in their Belarusian form rather than their Russian form, so:

Aladau rather than Aladov
Bahatyrou rather than Bogatyrov
Bandarenka rather than Bondarenko
Harelava rather than Gorelova
Hlebau rather than Glebov
Kapytsko rather than Kopytsko
Karetnikau rather than Karetnikov
Kuzniatsou rather than Kuznetsov
Litvinouski rather than Litvinovsky
Marozava rather than Morozova
Padkavyrau rather than Podkovyrov
Paplauski rather than Poplovsky
Pomazau rather than Pomozov
Pytaleu rather than Pytolev
Rak-Mikhaylousky rather than Rak-Mikhailovsky
Sakalousky rather than Sokolovsky
Shleh rather than Shleg
Tsesakou rather than Tesakov
Turankou rather than Turankov
Yeliseyenkau rather than Yeliseyenkov
Zalatarou rather than Zolotarev
Zalyotneu rather than Zalyotnev
Aginski rather than Oginsky
Yelsky rather than Jelski (which is the Polish variant)
Martsinkevich rather than Marcinkiewicz (which is the Polish variant)
Vanzura rather than Vančura
Holland rather than Goland
Rahacheusky rather than Rakhachevsky
Zhaliahouski rather than Szeligowski
Tsitou rather than Titov

I guess some composers were chosen due to some connection with Belarus rather than because they were from Belarus (Vančura (Czech), Goland (German), Dusik (Czech), Paisiello (Italian), Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (yes, that one, French!)). 

And, of course, the Polish have a strong claim over many - the Oginskis, the Jelskis, Kozlovsky, Karlowicz, Moniuszko, the Radziwills,....

(Belarusian has the letter ў, which corresponds to an English w. Russian doesn't. So Russian surnames ending in -ov are rendered as -ou in Belarusian, when rendered into Latin script.)

[eschiss1]

Thanks! Ah, there is music by Zolotarev in it? Intriguing...
And national boundaries for a lot of reasons have been fluid and contentious, to write something completely and ridiculously obvious.

[Christopher]

Thanks! Ah, there is music by Zolotarev in it? Intriguing...

Yes....as already discussed in the string "Vasilii Zolotarev (1872-1964), A Catalog of the Orchestral Music" started by you!!))

[eschiss1]

ah, whoops (well, actually, )

[giles.enders]

Thank you Christopher for that list it is useful.  I find it interesting how spellings have changed for even famous composers like Tchaikovsky. 

[Christopher]

Thank you Christopher for that list it is useful.  I find it interesting how spellings have changed for even famous composers like Tchaikovsky.

Don't you mean Chaykouski (Pyotar)?! 

[Christopher]

I just came across this site - http://www.riviera-music.org/index.php/en/audio - of a Belarusian  quartet called Riviera. They have posted up for free a lot of their music, which includes that by a number of unsung Belarusian composers of "our" (arranged for quartet). These include (among others):

Aladov, Mikalai (1890-1972)
Dashchinsky, Yuzef (1781-1844)
Goland, Yan David (1746-1827)
Jelski, Michal (1831-1904)
Kroshner, Mikhail Efimovich (1900-1942)
Turenkov, Alyaksei (1886-1958)
Zolotarev, Vasil (1872-1964)