Rundel Video: Cortege Solennel op.91 | Media center

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Festmusik · Festive Music
Alexander Konstantinowitsch Glasunow was born in 1865 and showed a striking musical talent from a very early age, which was furthered by his teacher Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He was taken as a member of the composers’ coterie of the musically charmed entrepreneur and later music publisher Mitrofan Petrowitsch Beljajew, who published Glasunow’s 1st symphony and supported him for the rest of his life. Glasunow admired composers like Brahms and his close friend Tchaikovsky. Especially the fusion of Russian music and West European elements in Tchaikovsky’s compositions influenced Glasunow’s compositional style. He managed to bridge the two rival movements of that time: On the one hand “national Russian” music and on the other hand western influenced music. Glasunow was a master of classical composing techniques and set great value on traditional musical forms. First as a teacher and since 1905 as director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, he taught and experienced a new generation of young composers. Amongst his students were Dimitri Schostakowitsch and Sergei Prokofiew. While that rising generation conquered the world with a new, partly experimental musical language, Glasunow stayed true to his traditional style of composing.

Glasunow wrote “Cortège solennel op. 91” in 1909 to the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Russian Symphonic Concerts in St. Petersburg. Beljajew had established them in 1885, the same year when he had also founded his music publishing house. This festive music shows a distinctive Russian musical language and traditional compositional style. After an opening fanfare we hear the Russian influenced main theme. Glasunow processes the theme with several techniques through different groups of instruments. Leontij Dunaev skillfully transformed Glasunow’s musical hallmarks to the wind band and created an impressive arrangement.


Grade Level GB: 6-7
Grade Level USA: 4 (Advanced)
Composer: Glasunow, Alexander
Arranger: Dunaev, Leontij
Genre: Opening Piece, Festive music, Classic, Classical Transcription, Concert Piece
Performance time: 00:04:40
Publisher: Rundel
Size: A4
Info: Full Score + Parts
Rundel Order Number: MVSR3412
Release Date: 2015