Musicians - Dmytro Bortniansky

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	Musicians - Dmytro Bortniansky

Dmytro Stepanovych Bortniansky (, also often spelled as Dmitry or Dmitri Bortnyansky, 1751–1825, was a Ukrainian-Russians composer.

An ethnic Ukrainian, Bortniansky was born in Glukhov {Hlukhiv), now Ukraine, on October 28, 1751. At the age of seven he was sent to sing with the Imperial Chapel Choir in St. Petersburg, then the capital of the Russian Empire. While in St. Petersburg he studied under Italian master Baldassare Galuppi, who was the director of the Imperial Chapel Choir from 1765–1768. In 1769, Bortniansky followed Galuppi to Italy to work in opera. While in Italy, he had considerable successes; operas he composed there, and had performed, included Creonte (Venice, 1776); Quinto Fabio (Modena, 1778); and Alcide (Venice, 1778).

Bortniansky returned to St. Petersburg in 1779 and in 1796 was the first native of the Russian empire to be appointed Director of the Imperial Chapel Choir. While in St. Petersburg he composed at least four more operas (in French). He also composed liturgical music for the Russian Orthodox Church, combining the styles of Eastern and Western European sacred music, mostly in a polyphonic style he learned in Italy; some of these works are polychoral as well, using a style descended from the Venetian polychoral technique of the Gabrielis. In all, he wrote over 100 anthems, sacred concertos, cantatas, hymns and Ave Marias, and these works are central to 18th century Russian sacred music. Bortniansky also composed chamber music and piano sonatas.

Bortniansky spoke Ruthenian, Russian, Italian, French, and German. In 1882, Tchaikovsky edited the liturgical works of Bortniansky, which were published in ten volumes. He died in St. Petersburg on October 10, 1825 and is interred at Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg.

The tune he wrote for a hymn popular with freemasons: Коль славен - kol slaven, became known in various arrangements in English speaking countries as Russia, St. Petersburg or Wells, and in Germany, associated with a chorale text by Gerhard Tersteegen, it became a part of the military ritual Großer Zapfenstreich. Prior to the October revolution in 1917, the tune was played by the Moscow Kremlin carillon every day at midday.

Currently, there is a Musicus Bortnianskii chamber choir of Toronto.

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