City in Belarus. It was under Lithuanian, then Polish and (from 1793) Russian rule; since 1991 it has been the political and cultural capital of a number of states established on Belarusian soil: the Belarusian National Republic (1918), the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (1919–91) and the Republic of Belarus. A cathedral and court choir school were first established in 1069. Singing flourished during the Middle Ages in more than a dozen Greek and two Latin-rite churches. Rare examples of Belarusian znamennďy chant and Gregorian plainchant survive. Portable organs were in use in 1499; the earliest known Belarusian organist was Sebastian of Minsk (c1550). Greek churches destroyed or abandoned during the Russian and Tatar invasions (1502–18) and at the time of the Reformation were replaced by Calvinist conventicles and later by Latin-rite cathedrals. Oratories and confraternity schools set up after 1592 taught unison chants and part-singing, while the organ music of the Bernardine (1628) and Dominican (1622) convents were much admired by foreign visitors. The Basilian monk Tarasy compiled an Irmologion of local church chants in 1750, and hymns composed in honour of the city’s patron saints have survived. The city’s Jesuit academy (1682) taught music and drama, as well as staging popular batleyki (Christmas plays).
A small capella flourished throughout the 18th century at the court of the Vayavods (Governors) of Minsk; the ensemble also accompanied services at the Maryinski church. As a garrison town Minsk had its own military band of horns, trumpets and woodwinds, specializing in janissary marches.
After the second partition of the Polish Commonwealth in 1793 the court capella was replaced by the Minsk City Orchestra (1803–1917), which rose to eminence in the 1840s under the brothers Dominik (1797–1870) and Wikenty Stefanowicz (b 1804). In addition to an international repertory they promoted local composers and attracted virtuoso soloists. Elements of Belarusian folksongs and dances appeared in the works of local composers: Stanisław Moniuszko produced his Belarusian folk opera Sielanka (‘Idyll’) in Minsk in 1852, and F.S. Miładowski’s operetta Konkurentsi (‘The Rivals’) was first performed there in 1861. Concerts were held in churches, at the Merchants’ Exchange, the City Theatre, the Pensione Montegrandi and in the Moniuszko, Vankovich and Hajdukiewicz mansions. In 1890 a spacious new Municipal Theatre was built (now the Yanka Kupala Memorial Theatre). A unique college of organists flourished at the Holy Trinity Church (1871–97). Visiting musicians under the liberal Russian governor Prince Nikolay Trubetskoy included Chaliapin (1896), Rachmaninoff (1895, 1913), Skryabin (1911) and Italian and Russian opera troupes (1899–1909).
Michał Jelski’s collecting of folk dances from the Minsk region reflected a movement which gathered momentum during the last quarter of the 19th century with the founding of the Minsk Khorovaya Kapella folksong ensemble (1877–1904). The activities of music societies – the Minsk Musical and Literary Society (1880), the Society of Amateurs of the Fine Arts (1898–1906), the Friends of Music Society (1905) and the Minsk Literary and Artistic Association (1906) – were gazetted in such journals as Minskiye Gubernskiye Vedomosti (1838–1917) and Minskiy Listok (1886–1902), but were restricted after the 1905 Revolution because of their increasingly national orientation. Immediately before 1918 national and patriotic choral themes became popular with local composers such as Terawsky and Rogowski, while folkorists such as Churkin, Ravensky and Aladaw popularized the national folk operetta genre.
The establishment and consolidation of a Soviet Belarusian state (1918–48) led to the formation in Minsk of the National Conservatory (1918, 1932), National Theatre, Opera and Ballet (1930), Philharmonia group of specialist ensembles (1937), State Academic SO (1927), National Folk Orchestra (1930), State Radio and Television Choir (1931), Minsk RSO (c1937) and State Academic Choir (1939). Teachers came to Minsk from St Petersburg and Moscow. State-commissioned and monitored symphonies, operas and chamber music were produced in Minsk by a first generation of national composers; M. Aladaw, V. Bahatďrow, Tsikotsky, Mikalay Shchahlow, R. Pukst and Turankow. The war years left much of Minsk in ruins, and normal musical life only resumed after 1953. A Guild of Composers was formed in 1958. Postwar ensembles include the State Academic Shďrma Choir of Belarus, the State Academic Folk Tsitovich Choir (1952), the State Academic Opera and Ballet Orchestra and the State Theatre of Musical Comedy (1971). A number of popular song groups (e.g. Pesnyarď) have joined the Minsk Philharmonia.
Byalyawski opened a piano workshop in Minsk after 1861; in about 1890, A. Keller, K. Bohina, Mashkileyson and Katz had instrument-making studios. Violin makers in the 19th century included Z. Navitski and later A. Tsaykow and U. Krayko. The leading maker of folk instruments (woodwinds and bagpipes) is U. Puzďnya.
GUY DE PICARDA