Императорское Русское музыкальное общество и становление российского вокального образования

Abstract

The article is devoted to the role of the Imperial Russian Musical Society (IRMS) in the process of formation of Russian vocal education. As a result of the Society’s work, the art of Russian singing became established onto a sturdy systemic basis and acquired high professional orientation directed at the time of the Rubinstein brothers. Some of the results of these activities became visible in the first decade of the existence of the conservatories in St. Petersburg and Moscow. However, they revealed themselves especially distinctively at the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries, when the general standard in academic singing became quite high. Moreover, this pertained not only to opera, but also to the chambersinging genre, which found its confirmation on an official governmental level. The archival materials demonstrate that one of the most crucial roles in this work belongs to the Imperial Russian Musical Society. As the result of its highly developed regional infrastructure it made musical and, in particular, vocal education accessible for the broadest strata of the population. In the long run, this would necessarily affect the formation of the national school of performance, a gradual rise of the overall level of professional singing culture, which reached its peak at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. In such a context the significance of the Imperial Russian Musical Society in the act of formation of Russian vocal education cannot be overestimated.