The “Greek Project” of Catherine the Great and Giuseppe Sarti

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Journal of Musicological Research, 32:28–61, 2013Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 0141-1896 print/1547-7304 onlineDOI: 10.1080/01411896.2013.752246

The “Greek Project” of Catherine the Greatand Giuseppe Sarti

BELLA BROVER-LUBOVSKYHebrew University of Jerusalem

The musical spectacle The Early Reign of Oleg—written by EmpressCatherine II, with music by Giuseppe Sarti, Vassily Pashkevitch,and Carlo Canobbio—was performed in 1790 in St. Petersburg.Glorifying Russia’s past and extolling its military power, the produc-tion foretold Catherine’s unrealized plan of restoring the ByzantineEmpire on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire through the inclusionof an excerpt from Euripides’s Alcestis as a closing Greek Scene(Act V, scene 4). A multifaceted analysis of Sarti’s music for thescene addresses such devices as melodrama, monodic texture, andthe use of particular tonal structures, poetic meters, and melodicpatterns appropriate for Attic paeans. Oleg’s Greek Scene com-prises Sarti’s ingenious response to the pivotal antica e modernadebate, as well as to the political, intellectual, and cultural climateof late-eighteenth-century Russia.

In 1790 Italian composer Giuseppe Sarti participated in the creation of alavish musical spectacle—Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega (The Early Reign ofOleg)—for the St. Petersburg court of Catherine the Great. Sarti worked incollaboration with Vassily Pashkevitch and Carlo Canobbio, basing the pro-duction on a play written by the empress Catherine herself, and ultimatelycreating an eclectic work that incorporates elements of many different stylesand genres previously developed on European theatrical soil. Despite itsobvious appeal to historians, Oleg has yet to be discussed in all its aspects.Although general observations on this work occasionally appear in variousstudies, its centerpiece—the Greek Scene—awaits in-depth analysis, as does

This research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant no. 1393/07). An unpublishedabridged version of this essay was awarded the Thurnau Prize for Music Theater Studies, BayreuthUniversity (2009). I express my deep gratitude to Dörte Schmidt, Helen Geyer, Marina Ritzarev, AliceMcVeigh, Bonnie Blackburn, Don Harrán, Gilad Rabinovitch, and Elena Abramov-van Rijk, who helpedto shape my concepts with their inspiring observations and comments.

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Giuseppe Sarti’s “Greek Project” 29

its authors’ relation to the models of antiquity on which they drew.1 Thisarticle aims to fill this lacuna by exploring Oleg’s dramatic and musicalsources and contextualizing this work within the political and cultural lifeof Catherine’s Russia.

DRAMA: GENRE AND PLOT

Catherine the Great wrote her historical play Nachal’noe upravlenie Olegain 1786, together with its prequel Iz zhizni Riurika (The Life of Riurik)and an unfinished sequel, Igor.2 The musical pageant based on Oleg’s textwas performed in 1790; its stunning success had been carefully predeter-mined by the empress, who proclaimed that “this play cannot bear anythingsecond-rate, and it will have a great effect.”3 Indeed, its premiere in thecourt Hermitage Theater (October 22, 1790) proved to be a sensation; itwas repeated ten times in the public Kamenny Theater between October 27,1790, and May 2, 1791, with similar triumph, and was revived again in the1794–1795 season.4

Oleg’s staging was extraordinarily expensive. Although the ImperialCabinet allocated 9,000 rubles in order to cover the costs of the stageproduction of this work, the sum was found to be insufficient, and 860 addi-tional rubles needed to be secured from revenues of public performances.Participating in the spectacle were the court chapel chorus, musicians ofthe Preobrazhensky regiment, infantrymen from the guard, and 600 extraperformers from those same units.5 Catherine supervised the production,

1 The situation remains unaltered following the recent appearance of three new studies: MarinaRitzarev, Eighteenth-Century Russian Music (Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2006); Lurana DonnelsO’Malley, The Dramatic Works of Catherine the Great: Theatre and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Russia(Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2006); and Inna Narodnitskaya, Bewitching Russian Opera: The Tsarinafrom State to Stage (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).2 Empress Catherine II, “Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega,” in Complete Works, ed. Arseny I. Vvedensky,4 vols. (St. Petersburg: Marks, 1893), vol. 1. During her reign (1762–1796), Catherine wrote and publishedthree volumes of Russian plays, many of which were produced at the court and in private theaters. Heroeuvre includes librettos for five comic operas based on fairy tales and meant as moral instruction forher grandsons, the future tsars Alexander I and Nikolay I. See Narodnitskaya, Bewitching Russian Opera,81–111.3 Letter to Alexander Khrapovitskii, 28 August 1789; [Catherine II], “Chastnaia Perepiska ImperatritsyKateriny II s A. V. Khrapovitskim (Private Correspondence of Empress Catherine II with A. V.Khrapovitskii, 1788–93),” Russkii arkhiv 10 (1872), 204.4 See Nikolai Findeizen, History of Music in Russia from Antiquity to 1800, trans. Samuel W. Pring,ed. Miloš Velimirovic and Claudia R. Jensen, 2 vols. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008), 2:103,523n.186; Robert Aloys Mooser, Annales de la musique et des musiciens en Russie au XVIIIe siècle, 3 vols.(Geneva: Mont-Blanc, 1948–51), 3:557–59; Narodnitskaya, Bewitching Russian Opera, 143.5 Mooser refers to the documents of the Archives Théâtre Imperiale/Arkhivy Imperatorskogo Teatra,III, 162. See Mooser, Annales, 3:555nn.2, 3.

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30 B. Brover-Lubovsky

personally overseeing details of scenery, costumes, and cast selection.6 Themusic to Oleg was published in a luxurious edition immediately after thepremiere, constituting the first example of a full orchestral score ever printedin Russia (see Figure 1).7

The plot of Oleg was guaranteed to have obvious patriotic and politicalappeal to Catherine’s subjects, as it dealt with the Russians’ early tenth-century contest with the Greeks, when the young Igor governed under theregency of his uncle Oleg after the death of his father, Riurik, the Varangianruler of Ancient Rus. The play offers a sweeping historical spectacle ata breakneck pace, with nearly forty protagonists and changes of locationbetween Moscow, Kiev, and Tsar’grad (Constantinople) presented in a seriesof thirty-nine tableaus, rich in pageantry and music (see Table 1). The suc-cession of tableaus is especially rapid in the first three acts: the foundingof Moscow (whimsically attributed by Catherine to Oleg), the desertion ofKiev by Oskold, and the marriage of Igor to Prekrasa. The final two actspresent Oleg’s expedition against Constantinople and his subsequent vic-tory. After signing the peace treaty, the Byzantine Emperor Leon VI and hiswife, Zoe, entertain Oleg and Russian ambassadors in their palace and at thehippodrome with various dances, games, and a play.

Despite her inclusion of a number of imaginative subtexts, Catherineelected to emphasize historical verisimilitude with regard to both character-ization and plot. She adheres quite closely to the nexus of events and theirmotivation as presented in the Primary Chronicle, in the History of Russiaby Vassily Tatischev, and in her own Notes Concerning Russian History.8

She opens the Introduction to her play with a robust defense of the text’shistorical grounding.

There is more historical truth than fiction in this historical spectacle, sincehistory tells us that “at the end of the life of the great prince Riurik, whenhe was very ill and began to be afflicted, he pined away; therefore (seeing

6 On September 15, 1789, Khrapovitskii reports: “Her Majesty checked the last costumes for Olegand approved of them. They are taken from old chronicles, and after the portraits of Leon and Zoe, forit is in their time that the plot takes place.” Cited after Mooser, Annales, 3:555: “Sa Majesté a regardé lesderniers costumes pour Oleg et les a approuvés. Ils sont pris dans les vieilles chroniques, et d’après lesportraits de Léon et de Zoé, parce que c’est en leur temps que l’action a lieu.”7 About a dozen original scores of this edition are still preserved in various university and pub-lic libraries listed in Répertoire international des sources musicales (Kassel/Basel: Bärenreiter, 1978),7:344–45. A piano-vocal score was issued in 1893 (Moscow: Jurgenson). I thank the Newberry Library,Chicago, for their kind permission to use their copy of the 1791 score for this article.8 Vassily N. Tatischev, Istoria Rossiıskaia s Samykh Drevneishikh Vremën (History of Russia DatingBack to the Most Ancient Times), 7 vols. [1768–1784] (Moscow: USSP Academy of Science Press, [1768–84],1962–68), 2; Catherine II, Zapiski kasatel’no rossiiskoi istorii (Notes Concerning Russian History), 6 vols.(St. Petersburg: Russian Academy of Sciences Publishing, 1787–1794).

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FIGURE 1 Title page of Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega (St. Petersburg: College of MiningPublishing, 1791).

his son Igor was so young) he passed the government to his brother-in-law, the Urman prince Oleg.” Oleg, according to this description, wasindeed Igor’s uncle and guardian.9

9 Catherine II, Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega. All the translated citations, unless otherwise stated, aremine.

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TABLE 1 Dramatic Plan of Empress Catherine II’s Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega

Act One1: Two Kievan citizens’ complaints to two Novgorod boyars (nobleman) on their ruler

Oskold and on his failure in the Tsar’grad (Constantinople) campaign2: Oleg and priests put foundation stones of a future town of Moscow3: A dialogue between Oleg and the Kievans and Oleg’s promise to arrive in Kiev soon4: Oleg conveys his political plans to one of Novgorod’s noblemen

Act Two1: Three soldiers near Kiev observe the Ugre tribes approaching the Dneper River2: Oleg settles a meeting with Oskold3: A messenger tells that Igor is approaching4: Oleg and Igor meet and decide to dismiss Oskold from his duties as a ruler of Kiev5: Oskold approaches6: Oleg cautions Igor about Oskold7: Kievan citizens convey their claims of Oskold to Oleg and Igor; Oskold rejects8: Oleg offers Igor to marry Prekrasa9: Oleg and Igor are informed about Oskold’s boat crash on the Dneper River

10: Oleg sends ambassadors to bring Prekrasa to Kiev11: Oskold survives and is saved by Ugre tribes12: Oleg and Igor enter Kiev

Act Three1: Prekrasa arrives in Kiev; a maiden party starts2: Prekrasa is ordered to start the wedding3: Three Kievan citizens read the list of the guests on the square where the wedding

procession is to pass4: Two citizens describe the procession5: Oleg prepares to depart to Tzar’grad6: Wedding ceremony7: Igor and Prekrasa leave the temple8: Oleg’s farewell from Igor and Prekrasa

Act Four1: Oleg’s naval forces attack Tsar’grad2: Leon’s ambassadors arrive in Oleg’s camp near the Bosphorus3: Oleg discusses the peace treaty with his secretary4: Oleg signs the treaty

5–6: A distribution of Leon’s gifts among the tribes led by Oleg7: A messenger tells that Bulgarian tribes have won against the Greeks8: Oleg asks to arrange his meeting with Leon9: Oleg receives news from Kiev

10: Leon issues an invitation to visit his palace and to celebrate their new alliance11: A discussion regarding the distribution of Leon’s gifts among the tribes (a continuation

of 5–6)

Act Five1: Leon feasts with Oleg and the ambassadors in his palace2: Leon, Oleg, and Zoe watch nymphs dances and choruses3: A show at the hippodrome4: A scene from Euripides’s Alcestis (the quoted excerpt is lines 477–613). Oleg hangs Igor’s

shield on one of the columns at the hippodrome for all posterity to admire

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The Empress refers to the exact dates of the migration of the Ugrian tribes,who passed near the River Dnieper in 898, and Oleg’s campaign againstConstantinople in 907, even quoting the exact numbers of troops (includ-ing ships and horses) involved in this naval campaign, and its geographicalroute. All the same, it becomes evident that her main source was Tatischev’sHistory, which is commonly considered as unreliable.10

Catherine described her opus as “an imitation of Shakespeare, with-out observing the usual theatrical rules.”11 Given the general orientationof Russian drama to the aesthetics and formal structures of French neo-classicism, Catherine’s espousal of Shakespeare as a model is noteworthy.It permitted her sufficient leeway to write with the broad sweep ofShakespeare’s history plays and with his disregard for the dramatic unities.Catherine’s liberal interpretation of the classical unity of time is conveyed in aletter to Alexander Khrapovitskii: “If one can represent twenty-four hours inan hour and a half, why not summarize two years in the same time?”12 Apartfrom genre and form, Shakespeare’s influence remains notable in variousother aspects:

● characters of humble origin mingle with noble protagonists, as in the con-versation of three soldiers near Moscow (Act II, sc. 1) or the appearanceof two Kievan citizens in the public square (Act III, sc. 4);13

● as Ernest Simmons proposed, much of the general outline and design ofAct IV, in which Oleg’s troops lay siege to Constantinople at the same timeas his ambassadors negotiate the treaty, was probably inspired by Henry V(Acts III and IV);14

● finally, the interpolation of background scenes—popular songs, dances,and customs—in the wedding ceremony (Act III, sc. 3) and the idea of aplay within a play (Act V, sc. 4) equally permeate Shakespearean historicaldrama.

Besides Shakespeare, Catherine appropriated other literary sources, suchas Mikhail Lomonosov’s odes and the Euripides tragedy featured in the final

10 See Yakov S. Lurie, “The Problem of Source Criticism (with Reference to Medieval RussianDocuments),” Slavic Review 27/1 (1968), 1–22; Sergey L. Peshtich, Russkaia Istoriografia VosemnadtsatogoVeka (Russian Historiography of the 18th Century), 2 vols. (Leningrad: Leningrad University Press,1961–1965).11 “Podrazhanie Shekspiru bez Sokhraneniia Teatral’nykh Obyknovennykh Pravil.”12 Chastnaia Perepiska Imperatritsy Ekateriny II s A. V. Khrapovitskim (Private Correspondence ofEmpress Catherine II with A. V. Khrapovitskii), 14: “Quand on peut représenter vingt-quatre heures enune heure et demie, pourquoi ne pas résumer deux ans dans le même temps?” Cited after Mooser,Annales, 3:551n.3. See O’Malley, The Dramatic Works of Catherine the Great, 121–67.13 Simmons suggested that the former is quite similar to Henry V (Act IV, sc. 3), whereas the latter isdefinitely inspired by Henry VIII (Act IV, sc. 1). Ernest I. Simmons, “Catherine the Great and Shakespeare,”Proceedings of the Modern Language Association 47 (1932), 790–806.14 Simmons, “Catherine the Great and Shakespeare,” 805.

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act. Inna Narodnitskaya as well emphasizes that Oleg’s rich intertextuality liesin its integration of high, popular, and folk cultures.15 Nevertheless, Oleg’sliterary expression is quite awkward and unidiomatic, abounding in staticscenes in which protagonists outline events in the third person throughdramatically uninvolved dialogues. In fact, Catherine’s magnum opus moreresembles a series of static tableaus than a coherent drama. In its slow dra-matic pace and its elaborate music, Oleg reflects contemporaneous operaticgenres but lacks the power of their through-composed musical development.

The final act—the focus of this study—depicts the solemn receptionof Oleg and the ambassadors at the palace of Emperor Leon VI and thecelebrations in their honor. It is embellished with four gorgeous choruses onLomonosov’s odes (Act V, sc. 1), a scene with dancing nymphs (Act V, sc. 2),and a sporting competition at the hippodrome (Act V, sc. 3), reaching itszenith in the Greek Scene, with the performance of a sizeable excerpt fromEuripides’s Alcestis (Act V, sc. 4) (see Figure 2).

Alcestis, the oldest of Euripides’s tragedies (first produced in 438 B.C.E.,though rediscovered only in the sixteenth century), enjoyed a successionof revivals in the course of the long eighteenth century. Its tragicomic

FIGURE 2 Vignette of Act V of Nachal’noye upravleniye Olega.

15 Narodnitskaya, Bewitching Russian Opera, 119.

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tone, strong folk element, and the ambiguity of its central message ideallysuited dramatic and musical works in various genres. Catherine’s acquain-tance with Alcestis was probably based on Pierre Brumoy’s translationof the Attic dramas, which led to the idolization of Euripides’s tragediesby French classicists. Alcestis’s dramatic adaptations by Philippe Quinault(1684) and François-Joseph de Lagrange Chancel (1703), along with Voltaire’sparaphrase Zaïre (1732), were widely known in Europe.16 Russian audi-ences were already acquainted with this drama through its adaptation byneoclassicist dramatist Alexander Sumarokov.17

Why did Catherine choose to concentrate her literary ambitions on thisspecific drama? This question is especially intriguing since its main pro-tagonist, Alcestis, Queen of Pherae, became a symbol of connubial love,sacrificing herself for her husband, Admetus. Given Catherine’s supposedparticipation in planning her husband’s murder and then superseding himon the Russian throne, this plot hardly could be conceived as creating favor-able resonances, and even might have given rise to negative public reactions.Catherine quotes three scenes from Euripides: Heracles’s arrival at Pherae,his dialogue with Admetus and the latter’s generous invitation to stay inhis house (despite his being in deep mourning for Alcestis), and the cho-rus’s ode to Apollo (after his exile from Olympus, Apollo spent nine years inAdmetus’s service as a shepherd).18 Admetus’s hospitality, considered a greatvirtue and conveyed as the main motivation for various characters through-out Euripides’s play, probably was intended to create an allegorical link tothe main play, in which Leon VI treats his enemy and conqueror, Oleg, as arespected guest.

THE GREEK PROJECT AS A POLITICAL IDEA

Still the question remains: Why was an imitation of ancient Attic tragedy con-ceived as an aesthetic and ideological highlight of such a politically importantproject, whose purpose was to reinforce Russian nationalistic sentiment andto elevate the glory of national self-consciousness? Oleg’s main subject isobviously political: the flourishing of the Russian Empire and its militarypower under a wise ruler. But the inclusion of ancient Attic drama reveals

16 Pierre Brumoy, Le Théâtre des Grecs, 2nd ed., 16 vols. (Paris: Chez les Libraires Associés, 1763). SeeL.P.E. Parker, Euripides Alcestis with Introduction and Commentary (New York: Oxford University Press,2007), xxix–xxxi; Herbert Hunger, Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie, mit Hinweisen aufdas Fortwirken antiker Stoffe und Motive in der bildenden Kunst, Literatur und Musik, 6th ed. (Vienna:Hollinek, 1969), 23–26.17 Alexander P. Sumarokov, Polnoe sobranie sochineniı [Complete Works], 2nd ed. (Moscow:University Press, Novikov, 1787), vol. 4.18 Although Euripides’ works are not divided into acts and scenes, Catherine’s play indicates thelocation of the scenes in Alcestis as Act III, sc. 1–3. In Sumarokov’s version these scenes are notatedidentically, although it lacks the ode to Apollo—the pinnacle of the entire scene.

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an underlying political raison d’etre directly related to Catherine’s unreal-ized Greek project. The Empress had long been fascinated with the ideaof restoring the Greek Empire on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. Thisplan emerged in the aftermath of Russian victories in the First and SecondTurkish Wars (1768–1774 and 1787–1791), which had established Russianrule in Bessarabia and Caucasus, resulting in the political liquidation of theCrimean Khanate (1792), and anticipating the preparation of a treaty withGreece and the invasion of Constantinople.

The idea of the Greek project was suggested by Alexander Bezborodko,Catherine’s state secretary, who became the Head of the Foreign Ministryin 1784.19 In order to ideologically support and legitimate the FirstTurkish War, Bezborodko drafted a historical survey of Russian wars withKhazars and Tatars from the mid-tenth century. As John T. Alexanderstates, “Bezborodko’s historical analysis and political conclusions advocatedaggressive action. Thus he underlined the utility of historical knowledgein present-day politics.”20 Bezborodko’s political allegory thus played onCatherine’s penchant for historical precedent.

Catherine had won over the Austrian prince Wenzel Anton Kaunitz andeven the Emperor Joseph II himself to a secret alliance, with her assurancethat two newly established states on Turkish ruins would secure peace andstability throughout the area. She exhorted her ally: “No matter how remoteand grandiose these views may appear, I think that little exists that is impos-sible for the might of our two states, in the close unity between them.”21 InCatherine’s view, the allies’ principal aim should be to drive the Turks backinto Asia. The Ottoman Empire’s European provinces could then be reorga-nized into two Christian buffer states between Austria and Russia: a restoredGreek Empire and a newly founded state of Dacia—encompassing Moldova,Wallachia, and Bessarabia—both under the suzerainty of Orthodox rulers.22

This maneuver had been conceived as preparation for the realizationof Catherine’s fond hope of setting her grandson on the Greek throne. TheGrand Duke Constantine (1779–1831) had been primed as the ruler of aputative Byzantine Empire: His birth had been immortalized by a new coinwith an image of Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia on the reverse, Greek poetrywas recited during the special events surrounding his birth, and he had been

19 See Perepiska A. A. Bezborodko’s Kniazem P. A. Rumiantsevym [Correspondence of A. A.Bezborodko and Count P. A. Rumiantzev, 1775–1791] (St. Petersburg, 1900), 319–23.20 John T. Alexander, Catherine the Great: Life and Legend (New York: Oxford University Press,1989), 237.21 Dnevniki A. V. Khrapovitskogo, 1782–93 (A. V. Khrapovitskii’s Diary, 1782–93) (St. Petersburg:[n.p.], 1874), 238.22 See Sergey Platonov, Lektsii po Russkoi Istorii [Readings in Russian History] [1917] (St. Petersburg:Stroilespechat, 1993), 369–70; Vassily Kliutchevsky, A History of Russia: IX–XIX Centuries, trans. C. J.Hogarth, 4 vols. (London: J. M. Dent and New York: E. P. Dutton, 1926), vol. 2, Lecture 76; Alexander,Catherine the Great, 247.

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reared by a Greek nanny. Lurana Donnels O’Malley thus supports Oleg’sGreek Scene as a three-dimensional cultural-political metaphor.

Oleg itself can be seen as an inner play, contained within the largerouter performance of Catherine’s own Greek Project. The performanceof Alcestis at Leon’s court takes place within the performance of Oleg atCatherine’s court, which takes place within the larger political context ofCatherine’s own “production” of her reign.23

Catherine’s yearning to see Constantine on the Byzantine throne spurred herinterest in ancient Greek art, which in turn stimulated a vogue for culturalaspects that stressed Russian ties to the East.24 The idea of an essential kin-ship between Slavic and Greek folk and art cultures had been traditionallymaintained in Russia and was even predominant during the period of theTurkish Wars.

One important testimony of the general fascination with the kinshipbetween Russian and Greek cultures is clearly stated in the preface to thefirst printed collection of Russian folk songs, published a few months priorto Oleg’s premiere.25 Although the transcriptions and harmonizations of thesongs were provided by Ivan Prach (Jan Prac, 1750–1818), a Bohemian whosettled in St. Petersburg, the preface, “On Russian Folk Singing,” was writtenby the nobleman polymath Nikolay L’vov (1751–1803), who conveys the col-lection’s ideological agenda. A leading figure in the local Enlightenment andneoclassical movements, L’vov served in the Directorate of Post Offices underBezborodko (1783–1797) and was also close to Khrapovitskii. L’vov was anotable scholar of classical Greek architecture and culture in general; hetranslated into Russian works by Anacreon, Sappho, Palladio, and Petrarch,and wrote librettos for opera and vaudeville. In addition, he contributedsignificantly to ethnography, graphic arts, geology, technology, and otherfields. In the preface to the Collection, L’vov rather naively philosophizes onthe origins of Russian folk song in the music of ancient Greece.26

23 O’Malley, The Dramatic Works of Catherine the Great, 164.24 See Konstantin N. Leontiev, “Byzantium and the Slavs” and “Pan-slavism and the Greeks,” in TheEast, Russia, and Slavdom against the Current: Selected Writings, ed. George Ivask, trans. George Reavey(New York: Weybright & Talley, 1969).25 [Nikolay L’vov and Ivan Prach], Kollektsia narodnykh russkikh pesen s ikh golosami [A Collection ofFolk Russian Songs with Their Tunes] [St. Petersburg: College of Mining Press, 1790] (Moscow: State MusicPublishing, 1955).26 The preface to the second edition (St. Petersburg: Schnor, 1806) shortens the whole discourse andeliminates L’vov’s praise of the supposedly Greek origins of Russian music, instead strongly advocatingthe autonomy of Russian folk music and its independent development. See A Collection of Russian FolkSongs by Nikolai L’vov and Ivan Prach, ed. Malcolm Hamrick Brown, with introduction and appendixesby Margarita Mazo (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1987), 35; Ritzarev, Eighteenth-Century RussianMusic, 199–211; Richard Taruskin, Defining Russia Musically: Historical and Hermeneutical Essays(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001), 3–24.

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Additional evidence of communal preoccupation with ancient Greece isfound in Matthew Guthrie’s 1795 Dissertations sur les Antiquités de Russie,which aims to record

the ancient mythology, pagan rites, sacred festivals, games, oracles,ancient music, rustic musical instruments, customs, ceremonies, dress, vil-lage entertainments, weddings, funerals, national hospitality, foods, etc.of the Russians, as compared with those of the Ancients, and especiallyof the Greeks.27

In his dedication the author expansively refers to the empress Catherine’spersonal interest in “learned research” with regard to correlations betweenGreek and Russian cultural traditions.

Guthrie—admittedly not a trained musician—states that he soughtassistance from Prach for the musical portions of his study.28 Guthrie’s spec-ulations on the close affinity between ancient Greek music and the oldestlayers of Russian peasant folk song reverberate in L’vov’s discourse and tes-tify to the ultimate importance of this subject.29 It is worth noting that Prach,who had been L’vov’s associate composer and a member of his intellectualcircle, also served as Guthrie’s advisor. The fact that Prach was responsiblefor the piano-vocal reduction of Oleg while L’vov engraved the frontispiecesand vignettes for the printed edition (along with preparing a Russian transla-tion of the score’s introductory notes) is another proof of their close contact.Guthrie’s fascination with Catherine’s opus led him to translate the wholepiece into English, a collaboration that further testifies to Oleg’s politicalimportance. Given the nationalistic agenda of Catherine herself, L’vov, Prach,and Guthrie were certainly doing their best to promote their patron’s goal ofmarrying Russian and Greek cultures.

MUSIC: STYLE AND SOURCES

Oleg’s score is a veritable potpourri, conflating elements of luxurious courtpageantry with the staged lavishness of Baroque opera. It contains spokendialogues, melodrama, choruses, dances, and orchestral music, but lacks solopieces, which are always crucial in terms of character development andaudience involvement. Music is an integral part of the spectacle, used mainly

27 Matthew Guthrie, Dissertations sur les Antiquités de Russie (St. Petersburg: Imprimerie du CorpsImperiale des Cadets Nobles, 1795), title page. “Dissertations sur les Antiquités de Russie; contenantL’ancienne Mythologie, les Rites païens, les Fêtes sacrées, les jeux ou Ludi, les Oracles, l’ancienneMusique, les instrumens de musique villageoise, les Costumes, les Cérémonies, l’Habillement, lesDivertissemens de village, les Mariages, les Funérailles, l’Hospitalité, les Repas, &c. &c. des Russes;comparés avec les mêmes objets chez les Anciens, & particulièrement chez les Grecs.”28 Guthrie, Dissertations sur les Antiquités de Russie, 37.29 Guthrie, Dissertations sur les Antiquités de Russie, 37–38.

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in scenes portraying rituals, as in real-life events such as a wedding (Act III,sc. 6), a victory feast (Act V, sc. 1–2), and a play (Act V, sc. 4).

During the Soviet period, the entire work was traditionally ascribedto Vassily Pashkevitch (1742–1797), a successful author of national musi-cal comedies who had collaborated with Catherine in her comic opera Fevey(1786).30 Nevertheless, his contribution to Oleg is in fact limited to somemusic in the third act, for which Pashkevitch composed a set of threemaiden’s choruses for the bridal party. The Venetian violinist and balletcomposer Carlo Canobbio (1741–1822) furnished a sinfonia, four orches-tral entr’actes, a march, and a minuet for the last act. Some of Canobbio’smaterial is styled as Russian folk tunes; for example, the opening themes ofthe sinfonia and the entr’acte for Act II are exact citations of folk melodiesthat can be found in the Collection of Folk Russian Songs mentioned earlier.31

The second wedding chorus by Pashkevitch combines the melodic profilesof Chto vo svetloi vo svetlitse with the famous chant Slava (from the samecollection), which was extensively quoted by both Russian and Western com-posers. Yet pride of place in terms of music created for this spectacle mustbe given to Giuseppe Sarti (1729–1802), who composed the entire fifth act.Without employing any direct quotations from Russian folk music, Sarti nev-ertheless contributed to a growing sense of national identity in a much moresophisticated way.

Sarti enjoyed great popularity among Russian music lovers as one of themost esteemed late-eighteenth-century domestic Italians. Audiences in theRussian capital had been enraptured by his comic opera Le Gelosie villane,presented in 1779 by a visiting company. Later invited to Russia as a first-rateItalian maestro representing current European styles, he showed a remark-able openness toward local culture and musical idioms. During his twoperiods of appointment as court Kapellmeister (1784–1787 and 1793–1801),and his employment by Prince Grigorii Potëmkin (1787–1791), Sarti workedin a variety of styles and genres, composing dramme per musica and comicoperas, chamber and official ceremonial works, as well as spiritual choralmusic. His most innovative compositions were created and performed forelaborate Russian state celebrations at the end of the Second Turkish Warand at the conclusion of the treaty of Jassy (Iasi). For these events Sartiwrote laudations, choral concertos, and oratorios on Russian Orthodox texts,

30 The 1893 piano-vocal score presents Oleg as written by Pashkevitch. See also Yury V. Keldysh,Russkaia musika vosemnadtsatogo veka [Eighteenth-Century Russian Music] (Moscow: Science, 1965),376; Alexander Rabinovitch, Russkaia muzyka do Glinki [Russian Opera before Glinka] (Leningrad: StateMusic Publishing, 1948), 81–82. According to Ritzarev, Pashkevitch was favored by Catherine “to set tomusic her own folkish librettos, in which she shrewdly manifested her policy of official nationalism”(Eighteenth-Century Russian Music, 205).31 The songs are the lyrical Chto ponizhe bylo goroda Saratova and a graceful dance tune, Zain’kaposkachi. See Appendix 2 in A Collection of Russian Folk Songs, ed. Brown and Mazo. Mazo’s referenceto one more citation—Pri dolinushke kalinushka from entr’acte III—is inexact.

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employing large double choruses and sound effects inspired by Russian cul-ture, such as horn bands, bells, and cannons. He was most celebrated inRussia for his solemn imperial style and his respect for Russian nationalsentiment.32

At the time Oleg was conceived, Sarti was far from the Court: an intrigueinvolving Catherine’s favorite prima donna, Luisa-Rosa Todi, and the tem-porary disbanding of the entire court institution of Italian opera havingpropelled him into seclusion in Ukraine.33 Thus it is especially noteworthy—despite the fact that Domenico Cimarosa had already been appointed as thenew court Kapellmeister—that it was Sarti who received the commission tocompose music for Oleg.34 Catherine’s appreciation of Sarti’s choral writing ismade evident in her letter to Potemkin dated December 3, 1789: “I ask you,as my friend, not to forget to order Sarti to compose the choruses for Oleg. . . Here no one writes as well as he does.”35 Sarti’s stylized representationof ancient Greek music in the performance of Alcestis was considered byCatherine and her circle as Oleg’s artistic apex, as well as Sarti’s personaltriumph.

Even before Sarti’s Greek Scene, Euripides’s Alcestis had already provedfruitful ground for opera composers, including representations in such vari-ous genres as the tragédie en musique by Jean-Baptiste Lully (Alceste, ou Letriomphe d’Hercule—Quinault, Paris, 1674) and Gluck (Roullet, Paris, 1776);a dramma per musica by Handel (Admeto, re di Tessaglia—Aureli, London,1727), Gluck (Calzabigi, Vienna, 1767), and Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi(Calzabigi/Parini, Milan, 1768); a Singspiel by Anton Schweitzer (Wieland,Weimar, 1773); and a ballet by Joseph Starzer (La festa d’Alceste—Angiolini,Vienna, 1763). In St. Petersburg, Sumarokov’s Alceste was used for the epony-mous opera seria by Hermann Friedrich Raupach that preceded Gluck’smasterpiece by almost a decade (premiere 1758, reprised 1764 and 1774).

32 Sarti also presented organ recitals at St. Petersburg’s Catholic church and served as music instruc-tor to the Theatre School. See Muzykal’ny Peterburg: XVIII vek. Entsyklopedicheskii slovar’ [MusicalSt. Petersburg: The Eighteenth Century, Encyclopedic Dictionary], ed. Anna L. Porfirieva, 5 vols. (St.Petersburg: Russian Institute of Art History Publishing, 1996–2002), 3:79–92.33 From 1787 to 1791 Sarti lived in a residence given to him by his admirer Prince Potemkin, whoadditionally offered him a directorship of the Music Academy in the newly founded city Ekaterinoslav,later moved to Kremenchug.34 See Perepiska Kateriny II s G. A. Potëmkinym 1769–91 [Catherine II and G. A. Potemkin. PrivateCorrespondence 1769–91], Literature Monuments, no. 1020 (Moscow: Russian Academy of Science, 1997).Khrapovitskii overtly refers to Catherine’s disappointment with Cimarosa’s choral writing and her intentionto hire Sarti for this task: “The chorus by Cimarosa did not please. That will not do. I sent Oleg toPrince Potemkin, so that it will be Sarti who will compose the music.” Catherine’s letter to AlexanderKhrapovitskii of 28 August 1789. See [Catherine II], “Private Correspondence,” Russkii Arkhiv 10 (1872),204. Cited after Mooser, Annales, 3:552: “Le chœur de Cimarosa n’a pas plu. Cela ne peut aller. J’ai envoyéOleg au prince Potemkine, pour que ce soit Sarti qui compose la musique.”35 Cited after Mooser, Annales, 3:552: “Encore, mon ami, je te prie, quand tu en auras le loisir, de nepas oublier de commander à Sarti de faire les chœurs pour Oleg. Nous avons reçu un de ses chœurs quiest très bien; ici on ne sait pas aussi bien composer.”

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Moreover, Raupach’s work was only the second Russian-language opera everstaged in Russia—a cultural event with obvious public resonance.36

In tracing any possible impact of extant musical dramas on Sarti’s GreekScene, the undeniable influence of the tragédie en musique should be men-tioned, especially its tradition of a final divertissement, which includes achorus and ballet of mythological or allegorical characters not involved inthe main dramatic action. Lully’s Alceste (Act V, sc. 5–6)—with its chorusof muses and Thessaliens and Apollo’s appearance—might have helped toshape Oleg’s dramatic concept. Sarti could have found an additional exam-ple of a play within a play in the singing and dancing deities in the finaleof Lully’s Cadmus et Hermione (Act V, sc. 3). The unmistakable influence ofboth versions of Gluck’s rendition of Alceste can be traced as well. AmongSarti’s own works, his setting of Metastasio’s pastorale Olimpiade (1778,Florence), the first act of which includes a scene in the amphitheater anda ballet depicting the Olympic Games, probably served as a model.

SARTI AND THE MUSICA ANTICA MOVEMENT

Catherine’s enthusiasm for Greek culture mirrors the local facet of a pan-European movement that attempted to re-elevate Greek tragedy as thedramatic ideal to which modern arts should aspire. In Italy, proponents ofa humanistic aesthetic urged the profound study of classical artifacts andespoused the absolute supremacy of ancient arts as models. Utter venerationof Greek heritage remained central to the antica–moderna philosophical andaesthetical polemic in eighteenth-century Italy, largely preceding the ensuingwave of archeological neoclassicism in western Europe. In music, the voguefor drawing on antique sources for both aesthetic motivation and musicalmaterial was established through imitation of, or—much better—quotationfrom, ancient Greek specimens.

One such model had been introduced in 1650 in Athanasius Kircher’sMusurgia universalis, in which he published the text of the initial lines ofPindar’s first Pythian ode (“Hail, golden lyre!”). Kircher referred to

the very ancient fragment of Pindar, written with old Greek musical notes,which are the same notes or musical characters presented by Alypius inthe Lydian mode. The words of the Pindaric Ode, expressed by musicalnotes of the ancients . . . have no duration, but take the quantity of thesyllables.37

36 See Ritzarev, Eighteenth-Century Russian Music, 62, 107.37 Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia universalis sive ars magna consoni et dissoni in X libros digesta,2 vols. (Rome: Corbelletti, 1650), 1:541. “In fragmento Pindari antiquissimo, notis musicis VeterumGraecorum insignito, quae quidem notae, siue characteres musici cum ijs, quos Alypius in tono Lydio

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EXAMPLE 1 Athanasius Kircher, Musurgia universalis, “Golden Lyre” quotation, Part 1,pp. 541–42 (transcription).

A notorious musical example follows, written according to the Alypiussystems of vocal and instrumental notation, with its transcription notatedunderneath in a C clef (see Example 1). Since the musical style of Sarti’sGreek Scene directly refers to Kircher’s example, some consideration of itsauthenticity may be pertinent.

Unlike other noted examples of ancient Greek music, such as thefamous Mesomedes hymns cited by Vincenzo Galilei in authentic nota-tion (with Greek alphabetic characters),38 Kircher’s “Golden Lyre” fragmentwas commonly believed to be one, if not the only, surviving specimen ofGreek music that offers a concordance of synchronized alphabetic and musi-cal notation. For eighteenth-century musicians, whose acquaintance withGreek notation was negligible, Kircher’s deciphering of the ancient nota-tion appeared to be the most accessible representation of Greek musicalheritage available to them.

The leading ideological proponent of the neoclassical movement inearly eighteenth-century Italy, Giambattista Vico, was especially alert tothe authenticity of modern interpretations of ancient specimens, includingKircher’s example. In De Italorum Sapientia (1710), Vico writes scathingly of

exhibet sunt idem; Verba Odes Pindaricae notis musicis Veteribus usitatis expressa sequuntur; tempusnon notae; sed quantitas syllabarum dabant.”38 Vincenzo Galilei, Dialogo della musica antica et della moderna [1581], fascimile ed. (New York:Broude Bros., 1967), 92–95, 97. Among the works thus inspired, the best known became BenedettoMarcello’s Estro poetico-armonico: Parafrasi sopra li primi venticinque salmi [vols. 5–8: li secondiventicinque salmi] (Venice: Lovisa, 1724–26).

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seventeenth-century musicians who created what he regarded as superficialimitations of the true spirit of the Greeks.

Aristotle’s categories and topics are therefore quite useless should anyonewish to discover anything new in them. For should anyone try to do so,he would, like some latter-day Lully or Kircher, resemble a man whoknows the letters of the alphabet but cannot put them together so as tobe able to read the great book of nature.39

Nevertheless, later authors continued to refer to Kircher’s deciphering of the“Golden Lyre” fragment. In 1731 Pierre Jean Burette published a moderntranscription, transposing the melody a minor third lower (in E minor) andfitting it with a rhythm featuring frequent metric changes (see Example 2).40

Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg cites Burette’s transcription, adding key signa-tures and turning its mode into E Mixolydian.41 Charles Burney took a furtherstep toward a modern adaptation; his General History of Music gives the“Golden Lyre” tune with a bass accompaniment notated in G and F clefsand in a regular alla breve meter. In an expanded discussion of his setting,Burney adds, “This melody is so simple and natural that by reducing it toregular time, either triple or common, and setting a bass to it, . . . it will havethe appearance and effect of a religious hymn of the present century.”42 Asfurther exploration will demonstrate, Burette’s and Burney’s transcriptions,despite their overt lack of authenticity, became a core reference for quotationduring the course of the eighteenth century and later.43

EXAMPLE 2 Pierre Jean Burette, “Dissertation sur la mélopée de l’ancienne musique,”transcription of Kircher’s “Golden Lyre” quotation.

39 Giambattista Vico, On the Ancient Wisdom of the Italians, in Vico, Selected Writings, ed. and trans.Leon Pompa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 73.40 Pierre Jean Burette, “Dissertation sur la mélopée de l’ancienne musique,” Mémoires de l’Académiedes Inscriptions 7 (1731), 261–319.41 Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, Kritische Einleitung in die Geschichte und Lehrsätze der alten undneuen Musik (Berlin: Lange, 1759), 200–201, table 2.42 Charles Burney, A General History of Music from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period, 4 vols.[1776–1789] (Baden-Baden: Heitz, 1958), 1:100–104.43 Apart from numerous references, this musical example was quoted and discussed by JohannNicolaus Forkel, Allgemeine Geschichte der Musik, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Schwickert, 1788–1801), 1:423–36, andin the early twentieth century, among others, by Curt Sachs, Musik des Altertums (Breslau: JedermannsBücherei, 1924), 289–93, and Maurice Emmanuel, s.v. “Grèce” in Albert Lavignac, Encyclopédie de lamusique et dictionnaire du Conservatoire, 11 vols. (Paris: Delagrave, 1913–1931), 1:377–537, at 477.

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Sarti’s artistic maturation thus occurred in a cultural climate glorifying theancient arts and their revival. He was described by contemporaries as “one ofthe musicians who best knew all the secrets of the art” and “one of the mostlearned composers of his époque.”44 Sarti is reported to have been deeplyinspired by the theories and music of composer and theorist FrancescantonioVallotti (1697–1780), maestro di cappella at the Basilica del Santo in Paduaand Sarti’s first mentor.45 When he moved to Bologna in 1739, Sarti studiedwith Giambattista Martini (1706–1784), the foremost adept of the ancientmusic revival, with whom he retained strong personal and professional tieslong after he completed his years of study.

Vallotti, among other writers, expressed his belief in the singularity ofKircher’s example, stating that

learning and writing a theory of the Greek modes is a useless effort—it contributes nothing to the practice, since it does not conform to ourcurrent music, not to mention the Greek tunes [themselves], from whichwe have only one fragment from a Pindaric ode that has survived.46

Having been taught in the conventional patterns of erudition of his time,as transmitted by his tutors Vallotti and Martini, Sarti undoubtedly consid-ered Kircher’s transcription as a reliable example of the authentic classicaltradition.47 Nevertheless, Sarti himself never mentions Kircher’s source in theexplanatory notes to Oleg’s score or in any other document. On the other

44 Henri M. Berton, De la musique mécanique et de la musique philosophique (Paris, 1826), 17, ascited in Margery Stomne Selden, The French Operas of Luigi Cherubini (Ph.D. Diss., Yale University,1951), 101.45 Sarti’s visceral kinship with Vallotti’s acoustical conceptions later led to his invention of a toolfor measuring vibrations and establishing a pitch standard for the St. Petersburg orchestras. Upon hispresenting a lecture, “Sur le moyen de compter les vibrations des sons et d’en comparer la célérité avecla mesure du tems” to the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1796 (on May 23 and October 3), Sarti wasaccepted as a member. See also Patrizio Barbieri, “Giuseppe Sarti fisico acustico e teorico musicale,” inGiuseppe Sarti musicista Faentino: Atti del convegno internazionale Faenza 25–27 novembre 1983, ed.Mario Baroni and Maria Gioia Tavoni (Modena: Mucchi, 1983), 221–40; Bella Brover-Lubovsky, “Sarti,Cherubini, and the Musica antica movement in Italy,” in Cherubini—vielzitiert, bewundert, unbekannt,ed. Helen Geyer (Sinzig, Germany: Studio-Verlag, 2012).46 Francescantonio Vallotti, Della scienza della moderna musica, teorica e pratica, MS, Archiviodella Cappella Musicale di S. Antonio, Padua [ca. 1779], ed. Giancarlo Zanon (Padua: Il Messaggerodi S Antonio, 1950), 394. “Ma quello che più importa e mi stimola a risparmiare la fatica si è chesimile lavoro a nulla affatto servirebbe: non per metterli in pratica, perchè non si adattano alla odiernamusica nostra, checchè ne dicano alcuni meno informati dell’antica greca musica: non per intender igrechi componimenti, dei quali appena ne abbiamo qualche frammento in un inno di Pindaro al solepervenuto.” A similar assertion comes from Rousseau, who refers to “the melody of an ode of Pindar setto music two thousand years ago!” See Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Essai sur l’origine des langues,” in Traitéssur la musique [1781], ed. and trans. Edward A. Lippman, in Musical Aesthetics: A Historical Reader,3 vols. (New York: Pendragon Press, 1986), 1:324.47 An extensive polemic on the authenticity of this fragment emerged in the late nineteenth cen-tury. See August Wilhelm Ambros, Geschichte der Musik, 2nd ed. (Leipzig: Leuckart, 1887), 1:276;Johann Friedrich Bellermann, Die Tonleitern und Musiknoten der Griechen (Berlin: Förstner, 1847), 4;Karl von Jan, “Die Handschriften der Hymnen des Mesomedes,” Neue Jahrbücher 141 (1890), 679–88;

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hand, Sarti’s domestic musica antica background was not the only sourceof his interest in Kircher’s “Golden Lyre” tune as an inspiration for his GreekScene; it neatly coincided with the local Russian urge to revive its possibleGreek heritage.

Kirchner’s famous example was also invoked in connection with thedevelopment of Russian folk songs. All his naive speculations notwithstand-ing, Nikolai L’vov’s essay “On Russian Folk Singing” in fact boasts oneimplicit purpose: to prove the provenance of Russian folk songs as deriv-ing from the ancient Greek. In his zeal, L’vov goes so far as to trace aninnate similarity between one of the lyric songs of his collection and Kircher’sfamous example:

To satisfy the will of ancient music lovers, Father Kircher and M. Burette,after a long and hard investigation, discovered and transcribed into ourmodern notation two fragments from old Greek music: Nemesis’s hymn[one of Mesomedes’s hymns quoted by Galilei] and the Pindaric Ode.After exploring the latter carefully, one notices with surprise that ourown folk song inherited from the ancient Greeks not just the twofolddivision [responsorial structure] but in lyrical songs some melodic simi-larity and structure, since our ancient lyrical song no. 34 and many othersbegin with the solo voice and continue with the chorus. This same struc-ture is found in the Pindaric Ode, which has a singing character thatthe Italians call canto fermo. Most lyric songs possess a correspond-ing structure. Considering the similarity of these songs with vestiges ofGreek music, undoubtedly this performing style is adapted more fromthe ancient Greeks than from any other single source.48

François-Auguste Gevaert, Histoire et théorie de la musique de l’antiquité, 2 vols. (Gand, Belgium: Annoot-Braeckman, 1875–81), 1:6, 142, 470; Hugo Riemann, Handbuch der Musikgeschichte (Leipzig: Breitkopf &Härtel, 1919), 131; Rudolf Westphal, Harmonik und Melopöie der Griechen (Leipzig: Teubner, 1863),xlv. In the 1920s–1940s, classical philologists and musicologists applied modern critical standards toKircher’s alleged citation. See Herman Abert, Gesammelte Schriften und Vorträge (Halle: Niemeyer, 1929),38; Adolphe Rome, “L’Origine de la prétendue mélodie de Pindare,” Les Études classiques 1 (1932),3–12; Adolphe Rome, “Pindare ou Kircher?,” Les Études classiques 4 (1935), 337–50; Paul Friedländer andHerbert Birtner, “Pindar oder Kircher?,” Hermes 70/4 (1935), 463–75; Paul Maas and Joseph Müller-Blattau,“Kircher und Pindar,” Hermes 70/1 (1935), 101–6; J. F. Mountford, “The Music of Pindar’s ‘Golden Lyre’,”Classical Review 49/2 (May 1935), 62–63; J. F. Mountford, “The Music of Pindar’s ‘Golden Lyre’,” ClassicalPhilology 31/2 (1936), 120–36; and Otto J. Gombosi, “The Melody of Pindar’s ‘Golden Lyre’,” MusicalQuarterly 26 (1940), 381–92. They tested the genuineness of the enigmatic quotation in terms of thesyllabic arrangement of the tune, its metric incongruities and syntactic structures, and disputed whetherKircher was its discoverer or merely its forger. Eventually, Adolphe Rome showed that the Pindaric textprinted by Kircher was simply copied from Erasmus Schmid’s edition, Pindarou Periodos: Hoc est Pindarilyricorum principis . . . (Wittenberg: Schurer, 1616). Gombosi further proved that its melodic mode iscertainly not Lydian but either Hyperlydian or Hypophrygian (i.e., the modes still unknown to Pindar),and that the tessitura of Kircher’s example exceeded the upper limit of the compass of the seven-stringlyre and calls for F and G strings, lacking in Pindar’s time.48 [L’vov and Prach], A Collection of Folk Russian Songs, 39.

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L’vov’s many areas of confusion—between canto fermo and Greek monody,between the old and the major and minor modes, between oral and writtentraditions—do not prevent him from furthering his idée fixe. Marina Ritzarevnotes that, in the preface to the second edition of the L’vov–Prach collection,Sarti’s name heads a line of foreign composers whose works were inspiredby Russian folk songs, marveling that Sarti should be praised for what henever actually achieved.

One would hope that this collection will serve as a rich source for themusically gifted and for opera composers, who, making use not onlyof the motives but also of the strangeness itself of certain of Russiansongs, will afford by means of their gracious art new pleasures to the earand new delights to music lovers, examples of which have already beenprovided with great success by Messrs. Sarti, Martini, Pachkevitch, Titz,Giornovinci, Palshay, Karaulov (amateur), and others.49

We might thus suggest that, in light of L’vov’s passionate belief in the com-mon origin of Greek and Russian folk cultures, Sarti’s quotation from the“Golden Lyre” in his Greek Scene was lauded as his contribution to theveneration of Russian folk song.

Oleg’s explanatory text, Eclaircissement sur la musique composée pourOleg, printed as an introduction in the score and written by Sarti’s own handin French, states:

I flatter myself at having been able to demonstrate that the ancient Greekmodes were exactly the same as those composed by myself, concerningtheir diapason as well as their characters. I inserted on purpose amongthe different modes of this music an original Greek song that I copiedfollowing the ancient characters, by means of the tables of Alypius, aGreek author, so that it would be possible to judge if all the rest of whatI composed is according to the Greek manner.50

In L’vov’s Russian translation of this text, a footnote specifies Sarti’s inspi-ration as springing from Kircher’s tune—“that same Pindaric ode mentionedin the preface [to a work] on Russian folk singing”—making the entire claimincomparably more explicit51; L’vov could have suggested that Sarti took this

49 A Collection of Russian Folk Songs, ed. Brown and Mazo, xiv. See also Ritzarev, Eighteenth-CenturyRussian Music, 206–11, and Musical St. Petersburg, ed. Porfirieva, 3:87–88.50 Giuseppe Sarti, Eclaircissement sur la musique composée pour Oleg. Its original is in the posses-sion of the Biblioteca Comunale, Faenza. Reprint in G. Pasolini Zanelli, Giuseppe Sarti musicista del ’700(Faenza: Biblioteca Comunale, 1883), 113–22. “Je me flatte de pouvoir démontrer que les Modes anciensgrecs étaient exactement tels que je les ai composés, tant à l’égard de leur diapason que de leurs carac-tères. J’ai exprès inséré entre les différents Modes de cette musique un chant original grec que j’ai copiéd’après les anciens caractères, par le moyen des tables d’Alypius, auteur grec, pour qu’on puisse juger sitout le reste que j’ai composé est dans le costume grec.”51 Natchal’noe upravlenie Olega, 2nd ed. (Moscow: Jurgenson, 1893). Guthrie (Dissertations sur lesantiquités de Russie, 37–38) also suggests that Sarti was using Kircher. His expanded footnote on pages

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tune from more “updated” sources, such as Meibom, Marpurg, and Burney’sand Forkel’s histories.52

Thus it appears that when Sarti wrote his “ancient Greek” music he wasinspired both by Kircher’s tune as taught in Italy and by those eighteenth-century adaptations familiar to L’vov and his circle in St Petersburg, sublimelyunaware that Pindar’s melody was a counterfeit fabricated by Kircher thatviolated the entire canon of ancient Greek music.

THE MUSIC OF THE GREEK SCENE: THEORY AND PRACTICE

Sarti discusses his musical arrangement of the Greek Scene in detail inthe text of the Eclaircissement, in which he demonstrates his undeniableacquaintance with the dramatic, musical, and performance style of Attictragedy, at least as it was seen by eighteenth-century Italian intellectuals.

The scene of Euripides should undoubtedly be performed in the ancientGreek manner, and in consequence the music should not move awayfrom this prescription. For this reason I ventured to compose a musiccompletely Greek in relation to the melody. I accompanied it, however,by our instruments, according to modern harmony, but in a manner thatwould not distort it.53

The text demonstrates Sarti’s expertise in the poetic-metric structures ofGreek poetry and in the theory of harmoniae and tonoi. His notes referenceauthors and treatises of late antiquity, such as Aristoxenus, Nicomachus,Alypius, Plutarch, Bryennius, Sophocles, Aristides Quintilianus, Cleonides,

36–37 reiterates the entire history of Kircher’s “discovery” of the first Pythian tune, and mentions earlierspecimens of the Greek melodies cited, including those appearing in the Galilei treatise. “Les ancienneschansons des choeurs villageois russiens [Pesni horovodnia, ou chansons pour les choeurs] chantéesencore aujourd’hui par les paysans, ont une resemblance frappante avec les odes de Pindare, non seule-ment à cause de leur division en deux parties, mais encore pour la mélodie, pour la composition & pourla forme: en un mot, que les chansons grecques & russiennes sont dans le style que les Italiens appellantcanto-fermo. M. Prach ajoute que plusieurs des anciennes chansons lentes [Pesni protiajnia, ou chansonslentes], comme il les appelle dans son recueil, font du meme style; commençant ordinairement avec uneseule voix & finissant avec le chœur, comme l’ode de Pindare, en sorte qu’il les croit originaires de laGrèce.”52 L’vov refers to Forkel in “On Russian Folk Singing”; he may well also have been acquainted withthe studies by Meibom, Marpurg, and La Borde that address Kircher’s quotation. See T. P. Samsonova,“Biblioteka muzykal’nykh klassov Akademii khudozhestv v XVIII veke [Library of the Art Academy MusicalClasses in the Eighteenth Century],” in Russkie biblioteki i ikh chitatel’ [Russian Libraries and Their Readers](Leningrad: Nauka, 1983), 193–203.53 Sarti, Eclaircissement. “La scène d’Euripide, dans l’emploi où elle est destinée, devra sans douteêtre exécutée dans le costume ancien Grec, par conséquent la musique ne doit pas s’écarter de cetteprescription: c’est pour cela que j’ai hasardé d’y composer une musique tout-à-fait Grecque, par rapportau Chant. Je l’ai cependant accompagnée par nos instruments, selon, l’harmonie moderne, d’une façonpourtant à ne pas la défigurer. Il serait insupportable aujourd’hui d’entendre une musique toujours àl’unisson comme était celle des Grecs.”

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and others.54 Both the names and works cited belong to a basic corpusof modern erudition regarding ancient learning that had been incorporatedinto Cinquecento humanistic literature and widely discussed beginning withGioseffo Zarlino, Girolamo Mei, Vincenzo Galilei, Ercole Bottrigari, and con-tinuing with other authors on music over the course of the following twocenturies.55

In terms of the music itself, Sarti’s Greek Scene comprises two expandedsections: a protracted dialogue between Heracles and Admetus, styled asmelodrama, and the Ode to Apollo, set as a series of unison choruses.

Melodrama

The two first scenes from Alcestis are performed in a melodrama style, whichfeatures the alternation of the protagonists’ spoken répliques and an accom-panied unison bass chorus with brief orchestral interjections. At this time,melodrama had already become an accepted device in works on classicalsubjects, although it was not necessarily in imitation of the stile recitativo.It had been used both as a consistent technique in whole works, such as indifferent versions of Pygmalion by Rousseau (1762), Schweitzer (1772), andBenda (1779), as well as an exceptional device in separate scenes, such asthose in Schweitzer’s Alceste (1775); Benda’s Medea and Ariadne auf Naxos(1778); and Mozart’s Semiramis (1778), Zaide (1781), and Thamos, Königin Ägypten (1773–1779), attaining its greatest popularity at German courts(Vienna, Mannheim, Gotha) and in France.56

Apart from these genuine specimens of melodrama, another possiblesource of inspiration for Sarti may be found in the opening scene of Act IIIfrom the French version of Gluck’s Alceste. Here Hercules’s first appearancein Admetus’s palace is styled as a recitative scene with orchestral interjec-tions, followed by a C-minor chorus—a structure strikingly similar to Sarti’srendering of the same episode in Oleg.

Nevertheless, melodrama remained generally atypical of Italian opera,where solo arias served as the main vehicle for dramatic expression. While

54 The ancient sources mentioned by Sarti are identified by Tito Gotti, “Erudizione e insolita dram-maturgia nella storia di Oleg,” in Giuseppe Sarti musicista Faentino, ed. Baroni and Gioia Tavoni, 113–34,121–22.55 See, for example, Zarlino’s introductory chapter to his Sopplimenti musicali (Venice: Sanese,1588), 7–8: “I have not failed to see and read all those writers, Greek as well as Latin, that I havebeen able to get my hands on who treat of musical matters, as among the Greeks are Aristoxenus,Euclid [i.e., Cleonides], Nicomachus, Ptolemy, Aristides Quintilianus, Emmanuel Bryennius, Gaudentiusthe philosopher, Bacchius, Psellus, and Alypius, together with some other writings that are incompleteand by other anonymous authors, although the majority of the exemplars are (I lament over this), partlybecause of antiquity, partly because of the ignorance of the scribes, imperfect and incorrect.” Cited afterClaude V. Palisca, Humanism in Italian Renaissance Musical Thought (New Haven, CT: Yale UniversityPress, 1985), 273.56 See Selden, The French Operas of Luigi Cherubini, 378–87.

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Oleg’s melodrama scene may be considered as the earliest specimen writtenby an Italian composer in a foreign genre, additional examples surfacedin the last decade of the century: a melologo-orchestral suite Wertherby Gaetano Pugnani, performed in German in Vienna (1796), and LuigiCherubini’s melodrama scenes in his French opéra comique. The mostimmediate successor, however, might be the melodrama Orpheus written in1791 by Russian composer Yevstigney Fomin (1761–1800) on a tragic poemby Yakov Knyazhnin.

Sarti composed the entire melodrama scene in what he defines asMixolydian mode—modo missolidio—because, as he states, “it is said bythe ancient authors that the Mixolydian mode is ordained for the Tragedies,because, of all the Modes, it is the saddest.”57 The vocal contour of thechorus’s opening phrase indeed has some quality of the Mixolydian g–g1

harmonia (notated by Sarti in C minor), designed as a monotonous recitationwithin a narrow compass with an accented position on G (see Example 3).

Sarti’s recreation of historical color also embraces instrumentation: Thedeclamation by Heracles and Admetus alternates with interjections of harpand violin pizzicato in imitation of the ancient lyre, with the flute reminiscentof the tibia. The composer explains the peculiarity of his instrumentation:“One reads in Aristotle that the lyre and the tibia used to depart sometimesfrom the voice, returning to it quickly so as not to offend the ear.”58 Theorchestral accompaniment mirrors the emotional agitation and gravity of thetext by using syncopated figures, dotted rhythms, and additional concitatodevices (see Example 4).

EXAMPLE 3 Sarti, Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega, melodrama scene (Act V, sc. 4), chorusopening phrase.

57 Cited after Pasolini Zanelli, Giuseppe Sarti musicista del ’700, 119. “È detto dagli antichi autori cheil Modo Missolidio è consacrato alle Tragedie, perché, di tutti i Modi, è il più triste, e che il Dorico potevaqualche volta mescolarvisi nei passi vigorosi.”58 Sarti, Eclaircissement. “Néanmoins on lit dans Aristote que la Lyre et la Tibia s’écartaient quelquesfois de la voix, tout en y revenant promptement pour ne pas offenser l’oreille.” The Parisian harpistvirtuoso Jean-Baptiste Cardon was specially invited to St. Petersburg for Oleg’s premiere.

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EXAMPLE 4 Sarti, Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega, melodrama scene (Act V, sc. 4; color figureavailable online).

Apollo’s Ode

This paean59 of two strophe-antistrophe pairs—a special type of odeaddressed to Apollo—celebrates the house of Admetus and its noble

59 A paean is an ancient Greek choral hymn that is addressed to Apollo, Artemis, Zeus, Dionysus,Asclepius, or Hygieia. It was defined by Proclus more specifically as a type of song to be sung to Apolloand Artemis. It can also be used with regard to military hymns, hymns composed for an important event,

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hospitality (verses 568–604 of Euripides’s original text). Sarti imitates themonodic style of the ancient Greeks by using a series of five compoundunison male choruses (supported by four soloists at cadences) with addedorchestral accompaniment. Table 2 outlines the poetic and metric structureof its first strophe-antistrophe pair. As Sarti explains in the Eclaircissement:

The only difference between this music and that of the ancient Greeksis that it is orchestrally accompanied, whereas theirs was only in unison.If this music does not make as strong and vibrant an impression on usas with the Greeks in their illustrious times, this is due to the fact thatthey had a way of listening very different from ours: with them it waspure feeling that took effect when listening; with us it is only the passivefeeling caused by that enchanting simultaneous harmony which, by itsdelight, dulls the activity of our feeling . . . To our ears, used sincechildhood to the complications of counterpoint, simultaneous harmonyis needed. However, I am proud of having made this harmony as servileas possible to the song.60

The concept of the unison chorus was not in fact an original rediscovery,having been used by other Italian opera composers. Francesco Maria Zanotti,a noted scholar at the Istituto di Scienza in Bologna and Martini’s personalfriend and admirer, testifies to the extensive use of unison writing amonglate Settecento composers.

The novelty of the perfect unison, never heard before, creates a grandeffect. For that reason, composers started to think that unisons could beused not just without reproof but even with praise . . . Nevertheless,authors use unisons nowadays without any difficulty, and when usedproperly in time and place create an optimal effect; that’s why the fol-lowing experiment resolves the opposition that some [authors] had to theancient music of the Greeks, not believing it possible that a compositioncomposed of unisons could create pleasure, as was narrated.61

and later to hymns addressed to persons of reknown. Thomas J. Mathiesen, “Paean,” Grove Music Online,Oxford Music Online (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007–2012), http://0-www.oxfordmusiconline.com.source.unco.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/20689, accessed 14 November 2012.60 Sarti, Eclaircissement. “L’unique différence qu’il y a de cette musique à celle des anciens Grecs,c’est d’être accompagnée symphoniquement, tandis que la leur ne l’était qu’à l’unisson. Si cette musiquene cause pas chez nous des impressions si fortes et si vives que chez les Grecs en leurs temps fameux,c’est qu’ils avaient une façon de l’écouter bien différente de la nôtre: chez eux c’était le pur sentiment quiagissait en écoutant, chez nous ce n’est que la sensation passive causée par cette enchanteresse harmoniesimultanée qui, par sa volupté, nous assoupit l’activité du sentiment . . . A nos oreilles habituées dèsl’enfance au tracas du contrepoint, il faut de l’harmonie simultanée. Néanmoins je me flatte qu’ayantrendu cette harmonie aussi servile au chant que possible.”61 Lettere del Sig. Francesco Maria Zanotti del Pad. Giambattista Martini Min. Conv. del Pad.Giovenale Sacchi C. R. B. Accademici dell’Istituto di Bologna (Milan: Pirola, 1782), 16. “Ma la novità di unpieno all’unisono non mai più innanzi udito fece il giù grande effetto. Laonde i Compositori d’allora in poiincominciarono a pensare, che gli unisoni adoperare si potessero non solo senza biasimo, ma con lode

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TAB

LE2

Poet

ican

dM

usi

calSe

ttin

gofth

eO

de

toA

pollo

(Act

V,sc

.4)

Poet

ican

dM

etric

Stru

cture

Mode

Text

Firs

tSt

rophe

seco

nd

pae

anU

|–UU

U|–U

UU

|–M

odo

Dorio

Impet

uoso

,M

aest

oso

eG

rave

O!s

tran

nyk

hvs

ehpokr

ov

zash

chita

iotrad

a!D

om

muzh

azn

amen

ita,

Kol’

tyve

likvo

slav

e!

Alle

gret

toV

tebe

bla

govo

lilSa

mnek

ogd

avi

tati,

Pifi

iski

iA

pollo

nB

lago

ibriat

sate

l’lir

y

Dolc

eO

nvo

zhdel

elpriat

’V

nem

pas

tyria

sluzh

enie

Ist

adom

po

dolin

am,

Pas

tush

’ipes

nipet

’

Firs

tA

ntis

trophe

Modo

Ipo-I

onio

Andan

tino,co

nM

olle

zza

Togd

apriia

tnost

’iuB

ozh

estv

ennogo

glas

a!Ple

nia

sia,

pes

try

rysi

K’e

gopre

dst

alist

adu!

Modo

Dorio

Alle

gro

molto

Sonm

zhel

togr

ivyk

hl’v

ov

Ished

izdeb

r’O

friis

kikh

Vnim

aleg

osv

irel

iN

rav

krotk

oivo

spriia

v.

Modo

Lydio

Alle

gro

pac

ifico

Po

zvuka

mta

mtv

oim

OFe

b!M

ladoiel

en’

Vzy

gral

mez

hlik

ov

sikh

Vsv

oem

vost

org

eze

l’no,

On

lëgk

oigo

len’iu

Stol’

vosp

rian

ulvy

soko

!Sk

ol’

el’v

ozn

osi

tvv

erkh

Svoivl

asis

tyve

tvi.

52

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In both versions of Gluck’s Alceste, such choruses accompany the pantomimescenes of the hellish spirits that propel the action: Both “E vuoi morire” and“Vieni, Alceste” from the Italian version (Act II, sc. 2 and Act III, sc. 2), writ-ten in a similarly ascetic style in Dorian D, as well as a three-part unison“Malheureuse, où vastu?” (French version Act III, sc. 3), represent a uni-son choral style very similar to that of Sarti’s Greek Scene. I suggest thatthe Pantomimo de’ Numi infernali (Act II, sc. 2) from Gluck’s earlier ver-sion served as a direct source of inspiration for Sarti, whose later scoresalso display a bias toward the expressive dramatic employment of unisonsinging.62

A comparison of Catherine’s original nonmetrical text for the ode withthe paraphrase that was eventually set by Sarti (as shown in Table 2) isinstructive. While Catherine’s ode is written in a type of ancient Russianpoetry that lacks any regularization of strong and weak syllables, Sartiemphasized that his primary concern was to strictly follow the poeticstructure and metric rhythm of the paeans.

I examined the text of this fragment, and I found that the secondantistrophe did not correspond . . . to the verse that preceded it. [New]poetry was needed, because the strophe and antistrophe could not belike this, without metric rhythm. Signor Sierchkarof offered to provide methe poetry according to the rhythm and number that I prescribed to it.63

Thus Luka Sichkarëv (1741–1809), poet and translator of ancient Greek(probably recommended by L’vov for this purpose), was responsible forthe requested rewording of Catherine’s text. Sichkarëv’s paraphrased text iswritten in the second paean, which alternates with iambic meter.64 To fur-ther convey the metric structure of the paeans—tetrameter with an accentedsecond syllable—Sarti uses various rhythmic patterns of common time andtheir downbeats.

In general, scholars have typically thought that Sarti’s endeavor to imi-tate the Greek melodic style was limited to attaching the names of Greek

. . . Ma checchessia di questo, oggidì dagli Scrittori comunemente gli unisoni si adoperano senza alcunadifficoltà, e adoperati a luogo, e tempo producono ottimo effetto: cosicchè la presente esperienza solvela opposizione, che alcuni già facevano contro l’antica musica de’ Greci, non parendo loro possibile, cheessendo quella composta di unisoni potesse tanto piacere, quanto narrasi.”62 For example, his most successful opera seria, Giulio Sabino (1781), contains a final nearly unisontriumphal ensemble for six soloists, “Di nobili ardori.”63 Cited after Pasolini Zanelli, Giuseppe Sarti musicista del ’700, 118. “Ho esaminato il testo di questoframmento, e non ho trovato che la seconda antistrofa sia corrispondente, nel numero dei versi, alla suastrofa che la precede; . . . Occorreva una poesia, perché le strofe e le antistrofe non potrebbero esseretali, senza un ritmo metrico. Il sig. Sierchkarof si è prestato a fornirmi una poesia proprio secondo il ritmoe il numero che gli ho prescritto.”64 The mixed meter of Euripides’ original text combines dactylo-epitrite and iambic cretic. See Parker,Euripides Alcestis, 170.

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modes to the melodrama and to each of the following choruses (as indi-cated in Table 2). I contest this view, approaching Sarti’s Greek Scene inlight of his overall aesthetic goals. It is worth quoting a long excerpt fromthe Eclaircissement in order to make Sarti’s intention completely explicit.

The first strophe contains two scenes: the first is an exclamation on thegenerosity and glory of the house for its hospitality. The second is adescription of the arrival of Apollo, who appears as a shepherd; it shouldrecreate the sounds of pastoral harmony in the valley. For each, eventhough they convey different expressions, I used the Dorian mode thatoccurs in the Paeans. This energetic and masculine mode is more nobleand serious than all the others.

The following antistrophe has three scenes, of which one representsthe tigers’ ecstasy at the Apollonian harmony, which caused them tobecome friendly with the flocks. For this expression I have taken theHypo-Ionian mode, because it is a species of the Phrygian, with all itspoliteness and softness.

The second scene represents fierce lions coming from out of theforests, tamed by the harmony of Apollo. For this I have chosen theDorian mode, first turning it to express braveness, and then—obedience.

The third conveys the caprices and unbridled leaps of a young deer.I believed that the Lydian mode best matches its joyful pleasure.65

The use of the Dorian mode in the first strophe is accompanied by additionalagogic markings: Impetuoso, Maestoso e Grave. The melodic contour of theDorian octave species (identical to D Phrygian in common nomenclature)is easily identifiable due to the emphasis on the D–E� half-step motive andthe central function of the tone D. This is especially true in the orchestraltexture, with its regal steps and alla francese dotted rhythms (as shown inExample 5). The second quatrain, in Allegretto, is softer by contrast, andsounds like the common-practice B� major (as shown in Example 6).66

65 Cited after Pasolini Zanelli, Giuseppe Sarti musicista del ’700, 120. “La prima strofa contiene duequadri: il primo è una esclamazione sulla generosità e la gloria della casa per le sue ospitalità. Il secondoè la descrizione dell’arrivo di Apollo che vi ha esercitato le funzioni di pastore, e ha fatto risuonarel’armonia pastorale nelle valli. Per l’uno e per l’altro, quantunque con differenti espressioni, ho preso inModo Dorico, essendo dei Peani. Questo Modo maschio ed energico è il più nobile di tutti gli altri eil più serio. L’antistrofa seguente ha tre quadri, di cui l’uno rappresenta l’estasi delle tigri per l’armoniad’Apollo, e per la quale esse si familiarizzano con le greggi. Per questa espressione ho preso il ModoIpojonico, perché è una specie di Frigio corretto e molle. Il secondo quadro rappresenta dei fieri leoniuscenti dalle foreste, resi docili e sottomessi dall’armonia di Apollo. Ho scelto per ciò il Modo dorico,volgendolo prima all’espressione coraggiosa, poi in quella devota. Il terzo esprime gli scherzi e i saltismisurati d’un giovane capriolo. Ho creduto adatto ad esso il Modo Lidio per la sua voluttà giocosa.”66 In its harmonic-tonal variability, where the central pitch D is reharmonized variously in either Gminor or B� major, it does indeed display some similarity with the Russian lyric song Vysoko sokol letaet,no. 34 in the L’vov–Prach collection. See [L’vov and Prach], A Collection of Folk Russian Songs, 11–12, anda discussion on page 45.

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EXAMPLE 5 Sarti, Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega, Apollo’s Ode (Act V, sc. 4), first strophe,opening.

EXAMPLE 6 Sarti, Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega, Apollo’s Ode (Act V, sc. 4), first strophe,second quatrain.

The following antistrophe contains noteworthy changes of mode andmeter, as described by Sarti in the Eclaircissement. Its first quatrain (shown asExample 7) is styled in the Hypo-Ionian mode (actual G major) and accom-panied by the instructions Con mollezza and Andantino.67 Additionally,this fragment, depicting “spotted lynxes [that] were shepherded together[with the flocks] through joy in his songs,” introduces metric changes; its6/8 compound meter imitates the iambic cretic of the original Attic verseof the tragedy (line 579). The orchestral parts include sweet flute tunesaccompanied by graceful flowing figurations in the strings.

The antistrophe’s second quatrain, Allegro molto (“The tawny troop oflions came, leaving the glen of Othrys,” lines 580–81) is again in Modo dorioand elaborates on the same tonal-melodic pattern, with the return of com-mon time and a key signature of two flats; the melody emphasizes D and

67 It is important to note that the Hypo-Ionian is the fourteenth tonos in the system of fifteenpresented in Alypius’ Introductio musica, although other Greek authors call it the Hypo-Iastian. Thismodal type features neither in the seven harmoniai system as recognized by Cleonides, Ptolemy, andthe Harmonicists, nor in the system of thirteen tonoi as attributed by Cleonides to Aristoxenus. ThomasJ. Mathiesen emphasizes that such a set of fifteen tonoi is preserved solely in Alypius’ tables; see ThomasJ. Mathiesen, Apollo’s Lyre: Greek Music and Music Theory in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Lincoln:University of Nebraska Press, 1999), 381–87, 463–65. See also Palisca, Humanism in Italian RenaissanceMusical Thought, 299–318.

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EXAMPLE 7 Sarti, Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega, Apollo’s Ode (Act V, sc. 4), first antistrophe,first quatrain.

an augmented second F�–E�. Rolling octaves on G in the orchestra, in forteassai, depict the lions (see Example 8).

The antistrophe’s third quatrain paraphrases lines 582–87 of the originaltext (“To your lyre, Phoebus, the dappled-coated fawn danced with nimbleankle, coming out beyond the lofty-foliaged pines, delighting in [your] kindlymusic”), and is marked Allegro pacifico. Written in Modo lydio on D, it endsthe first strophe–antistrophe pair with an orchestral reiteration of the D-majortriad (see Example 9).

The ode’s second strophe–antistrophe pair includes three choruses. Thestrophe that blesses the house of Admetus is written at an Allegretto pacewith trochaic meter, its tonal characteristic labeled as Modo Hypo-Phrygio.The antistrophe (Andante, Hypo-Dorio, common time) restates the orches-tration of solo flute and violin used in the melodrama, accompanying lines inpraise of Admetus, hospitable even in mourning (“In the noble everything ispresent. I am full of wonder at [Admetus’s] wisdom,” lines 602–3). Its Hypo-Dorian flavor is created by an accented position of the pitch B, as the domi-nant pedal point in E minor. Both vocal and instrumental parts of this chorusboast an exact quotation of the counterfeit “Golden Lyre” tune, as it appearedin Burette’s and Burney’s transcriptions (see Examples 10a and 10b).68

68 Example 10b is the same as Example 2; it is repeated here for ease of comparison withExample 10a.

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EXAMPLE 8 Sarti, Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega, Apollo’s Ode (Act V, sc. 4), first antistrophe,second quatrain.

EXAMPLE 9 Sarti, Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega, (Act V, sc. 4), first antistrophe, third quatrain.

EXAMPLE 10a Sarti, Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega, Apollo’s Ode (Act V, sc. 4), secondantistrophe.

EXAMPLE 10b Pierre Jean Burett, “Dissertation sur la mélopée de l’ancienne musique,”transcription of Kircher’s “Golden Lyre” quotation.

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EXAMPLE 11 Sarti, Nachal’noe upravlenie Olega, Apollo’s Ode’s (Act V, sc.4), chorus incipits.

In addition to this direct citation, the general flavor and various melodicpatterns of the “Golden Lyre” tune, along with its pitch-word design, arefound among the first five choruses, as shown in Example 11. The closing A-major chorus (Allegro spiritoso, Modo Phrygio) has the sound of a triumphantfinale typical of Sarti’s operatic and sacred compositions.

In terms of the tonal structures used, Sarti’s labeled modes cor-respond to the system described by Alypius in his Introductio musicaas conveyed through the use of particular harmoniai (octave species),tonoi (transposition levels), and nomos (stylized melodic modules).69 Sartispecifically justifies his license to utilize a series of different modes.

For the strophes and antistrophes I did not precisely conform to therigid laws of ancient Tragedy, but I followed Euripides himself, whofound a place for the use of all the Modes. There would be only sadnessand gloominess in using only the two modes prescribed by the laws,and nevertheless the words in question are not tearful. Thus, I stuck tothe words, expressing by different Greek modes the different picturespainted, even using the Phrygian mode, with all its brilliance, althoughin the text Euripides did not use the Dithyramb, though he would doso elsewhere. Sophocles also allowed the Phrygian harmony for his cho-ruses. Should I have deprived this music of a mode that enlivens andcheers the listeners in this manner? . . . One can, however, conceive inthem the different affects of the ancient modes that the Greeks used to

69 Alypius, Introductio musica/Eisagoge mousike. “Alipio: Introduzione alla musica,” ed. and trans.Luisa Zanoncelli, in La manualistica musicale greca (Milan: Guerini, 1990), 371–463.

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such great effect. For instance, the Dorian mode cannot fail to inspire acertain vigor, the Hypo-Ionian and the Lydian a certain feebleness, but ina different way, and the Phrygian mode enthusiasm and vehemence.70

This embracing of various modes in the Greek Scene particularly fascinatedCatherine. As she wrote to Friedrich Melchior Grimm: “The choruses fromOleg are the most beautiful in the world. All the Greek modes are broughttogether here.”71

Sarti’s choice of Mixolydian for the melodrama as most appropriate fortragedy, along with a series of the three basic tonoi—Dorian, Hypo-Ionian(followed by Dorian and Lydian), and Phrygian—for the first strophe–antistrophe, all correspond to descriptions of these modes in the theoryof late antiquity and the theoretical tone system of the early Middle Ages:that is, the sources that formed the main body of scholarship and discussionon this subject, as reiterated by Italian proponents of musica antica. Sarti’sstance on the modal structure of the ode strikingly resembles the descrip-tions of his mentors Vallotti and Martini. There is no doubt that the composerabsorbed this pattern as basic knowledge during his years of study with thesecelebrated musicians. Vallotti wrote:

The Greeks progressed freely from one mode to another, which in theirlanguage was called metabole; the first one who used such a mixturewas Sacadas of Argos, as mentioned by Plutarch (De Musica), and eventhough in one such melody, either hymn, ode, or anything else, all threemodes were used, Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian; nevertheless it was saidthat it was the Dorian mode, if it principally supported the poetry, and Ido not doubt that if any cantilena began in the Dorian mode and then inthe course of it modulated into the Phrygian and Lydian (talking aboutmore ancient times) and even into the Mixolydian, Hypo-Dorian andHypo-Phrygian, etc., in the end it finished in the Dorian in which thetune began.72

70 Sarti, Eclaircissement. “Pour les strophes et antistrophes je ne me suis pas conformé exactementaux rigides loix de la Tragédie ancienne, mais j’ai suivi Euripide lui-même . . . Il n’y aurait eu que dutriste et du sombre en n’employant que les deux Modes prescrits par les lois, et cependant les parolesdont il s’agit ne sont pas larmoyantes. Je me suis donc tenu aux paroles en exprimant par différentsModes Grecs les différents tableaux qui y sont peints, même par le Mode Phrygien, avec tout son éclat,quoique dans le texte, Euripide n’y ait pas employé de Dithyrambe; mais il l’aura fait ailleurs. Sophocleavait aussi admis dans ses Chœurs l’harmonie Phrygienne. Aurais-je dû priver cette musique d’un Modequi ranime et égaye ainsi les auditeurs? . . . on puisse cependant y concevoir les différentes affections desModes anciens qui faisaient chez les Grecs de si grands effets. Par exemple, le Mode Dorien ne peut pasmanquer d’inspirer une certaine vigueur; les Modes Hypo-Jonien et Lydien une certaine mollesse, maisd’une façon différente; et le Mode Phrygien l’enthousiasme et la véhémence.”71 Cited after Mooser, Annales, 3:555. “La piece historique d’Oleg ma donne le branle: les choeursd’Oleg sont le plus beaux de monde et sont le plupart de Sarti: tous les modes grecs y sont reunis.”72 Vallotti, Della scienza della moderna musica, 449. “E lo stesso succedeva anche nella musicadel Greci, imperocchè passavano liberalmente da uno all’altro tono il qual passaggio nella loro linguachiamano metabole, essendo stato il primo a usare tale mescolanza Sacada Argivo. Come lo attesta

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Martini’s description elaborates on the same pattern:

Pindar takes note of this. Therefore according to the opinion ofPolymnestus and Sacadas, there being three modes, Dorian, Phrygian,and Lydian, they say that Sacadas made strophes in each of them, andtaught to sing the first in the Dorian, the second in the Phrygian, and thethird in the Lydian; and from its variety this rule is called threefold.73

Here Martini refers to Sacadas’s trimere nomos, which should consist of astrophe in each of the three basic tonoi, Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian.74

A similar notion appears to be commonplace in most of the humanisticdiscussions on the Greek modes.75 Sarti’s substitution of the Hypo-Ionianfor the Phrygian as the species of the former is an additional proof that hisnotion of tonoi employed Alypius as its primary source.

Thus it seems that what Sarti attempted to imitate in the Ode was theentire genre of the Pindaric paeans: their rigid structure, coupled with theethos and typical imagery of the text, poetic rhythmic patterns, and melodictypes.

CONCLUSION: THE GREEK SCENE AS A CULTURAL ALLIANCE

Even as the “Greek project” of Catherine the Great and Giuseppe Sarti exem-plifies Western neoclassical aesthetics as inspired by the lure of the East,Sarti’s enthusiasm for ancient Greek music was certainly fanned into flameby Catherine herself and amplified by her team: Bezborodko, Khrapovitskii,L’vov, Guthrie, Prach, and Sichkarëv. It is especially important to note thatSarti’s inspiration arose less from the robust operatic tradition of Alceste thanfrom his own vision of Attic drama, drawn from the theoretical treatises ofGreek authors of later antiquity, as widely quoted and elucidated by the

Plutarco (De Musica), e quantunque in una stessa canzone, inno, ode o altro si usassero tutti e tre iloro modi, dorio, frigio e lidio, nondimeno precisamente del modo dorio si diceva essere, se a questoprincipalmente fosse appoggiatura la poesia; e non dubito punto che se nel modo dorio si cominciassela cantilena di qualche poesia, per quanto nel corso della medesima andasse modulato per le corde delfrigio e del lidio (parlando dei tempi più antichi) ed anche per quelle del mixolidio, ypodorio, ypofrigio,etc. parlando dei tempi sequenti, al fine poi nel modo dorio, in cui s’era incominciata la cantilena, altresìsi terminasse.”73 Giovanni Battista Martini, Storia della musica, 3 vols. (Bologna: Volpe, 1770), 2:162. “Di costuiPindaro fa menzione. Dunque secondo la opinione di Polinnesto, & di Sacada, essendo tre i tuoni,Dorico, Frigio, & Lidio, dicono, che in ciascuno di questi Sacada facesse strofe, & insegnasse a cantarela prima nel Dorio, la seconda nel Frigio, & la terza nel Lidio; & questa regola da una tale varietà fùchiamata tripartita.”74 See Mathiesen, Apollo’s Lyre, 462.75 Franchino Gaffurio, Theorica musice (Milan: Mantegazza, 1492), Part V, ch. 8; Girolamo Mei, Demodis musicis antiquorum (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vat. Lat. 5323). See Palisca, Humanism inItalian Renaissance Musical Thought, 198, 304.

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Italian musicians and literati of his generation, including his personal men-tors. Equally remarkable is that his version of Greek style, erroneously basedon a counterfeit source, retains an undoubtedly Western flair, whereas the“Russian side” of this cultural alliance was responsible for emphasizing thekinship of Eastern Byzantine music and Russian folk song. It may thereforebe considered a cultural paradox that this fascinating mixture of East andWest turned out to make such a contribution to the construction of Russiannational identity.

The additional cultural significance of Oleg’s Greek Scene lies in the factthat it was among the first genuine revivals of Greek tragedy with musicfor the modern stage. Since Oleg’s frequent performances in St. Petersburgcreated an arresting resonance both in Russia and beyond its borders, itmight be supposed that it served as model for later classical revivals. WithinRussia itself, Oleg inspired a spirit of imitation resulting in Fomin’s Orpheusas well as in subsequent generations of opera composers: A century later,Sergei Taneiev was to follow Oleg’s path in his trilogy Oresteya (1887–1894).The Greek Scene that crowns Oleg inspired Sarti’s ingenious response tothe pivotal aesthetic debate on musica antica e moderna, as well as hiscontribution to the unique intellectual, artistic, and political climate of late-eighteenth-century Russia.

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