21 Facts About Mikhail Glinka

Mikhail Glinka's compositions were an important influence on Russian composers, notably the members of The Five, who produced a distinctive Russian style of music.

Mikhail Glinka's great-great-grandfather was a Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth nobleman, Wiktoryn Wladyslaw Glinka of the Trzaska coat of arms who was given lands in the Smolensk Voivodeship.

At 13, Mikhail Glinka went to the capital, Saint Petersburg, to attend a school for children of the nobility.

Mikhail Glinka learned Latin, English, and Persian, studied mathematics and zoology, and considerably widened his musical experience.

Mikhail Glinka had three piano lessons from John Field, the Irish composer of nocturnes, who spent some time in Saint Petersburg.

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The light work allowed Mikhail Glinka to settle into the life of a musical dilettante, frequenting the city's drawing rooms and social gatherings.

Mikhail Glinka was already composing a large amount of music, such as melancholy romances which amused the rich amateurs.

Mikhail Glinka's songs are among the most interesting parts of his work from this period.

In 1830, at a physician's recommendation, Mikhail Glinka traveled to Italy with tenor Nikolai Kuzmich Ivanov.

Mikhail Glinka realized that his life's mission was to return to Russia, write in a Russian manner, and do for Russian music what Donizetti and Bellini had done for Italian music.

Mikhail Glinka's return took him through the Alps, and he stopped for a while in Vienna, where he heard the music of Franz Liszt.

Mikhail Glinka stayed another five months in Berlin, where he studied composition under the distinguished teacher Siegfried Dehn.

In 1837, Mikhail Glinka was installed as the instructor of the Imperial Chapel Choir, with a yearly salary of 25,000 rubles and lodging at the court.

Mikhail Glinka soon embarked on his second opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila.

Mikhail Glinka went through a dejected year after the poor reception of Ruslan and Lyudmila.

Mikhail Glinka in turn admired Berlioz's music and resolved to compose some fantasies pittoresques for orchestra.

Mikhail Glinka then moved to Berlin where, after five months, he died suddenly on 15 February 1857, following a cold.

Mikhail Glinka was buried in Berlin, but a few months later his body was taken to Saint Petersburg and reinterred in the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.

Mikhail Glinka was the beginning of a new direction in Russian music.

Mikhail Glinka was then joined by his friend Vladimir Stasov, who became the theorist of this cultural trend; it was developed further by composers of "The Five".

Mikhail Glinka composed many art songs and piano pieces, and some chamber music.