Magic harp, piano’s “grandfather” and zvonnitsa: rare instruments to play in Moscow music schools

Bach’s Fugue for harpsichord, The Moon Is Shining for gusli and Eduard Artemyev’s Siberiade for bells-many people think that such music can only be played in the cinema or at a retro festival. But in fact nowadays children are taught to play similar instruments according to old traditions in the capital’s art schools. One can call it a kind of reconstruction of the music played in past centuries. After all, back in the days, the composers did not have a piano and a guitar, so their original works had different shades in contrast to those played on modern instruments.

Mos.ru reporters found out what keyboard, string, percussion and wind instruments Moscow educational institutions possess, what is the difference between the clavichord and the piano, and what glissando on the gusli is.

From sousaphone to kalyuka

For a musician, touching a rare instrument is about the same as trying on a frill collar or pince-nez for a fashion historian. Students from Moscow art schools have this opportunity.

For example, the brass band of the Joseph Haydn Children’s Music School in Novokosino uses a sousaphone (a type of tuba), a brass instrument with a very low, rich bass sound and expressive appearance. It was invented by American conductor and composer John Philip Sousa for the Marine Corps in the 19 th century. The musician did not like the military orchestra instruments that existed at that time since they transmitted the sound to the side but not up. Thanks to its design, the sousaphone sends sound forward and upward, which is important for a brass band.

The Maykapar School in Strogino teaches playing the Neapolitan mandolin with four double metal strings. In the past, Italian gentlemen wearing camisoles, stockings and wigs played serenades on it, and Beethoven wrote three pieces for the mandolin.

At Shchedrin Children’s Music School No. 68 in Izmailovo, young musicians can touch the instruments of the brilliant composer, author of the ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse and other works. Rodion Shchedrin personally donated two of his early 20 th century pianos to the school: Steinway & Sons New York Hamburg and Zimmerman Gustav Hoffman.

Children’s Music School No. 82 in Sokolniki offers the Musical Folklore program to master folk instruments: gusli, balalaika, shepherd’s pipe-zhaleika, reed pan flute-kugikly, as well as an overtone flute-kalyuka. Children get acquainted with the best examples of folk music culture, explore expedition recordings and adopt the traditions of playing old Russian folk instruments.

Piano’s “grandfathers”

The Gnessin Moscow Special School of Music has a department of baroque keyboard instruments, claviers, as they were called in the old days. It boasts copies of two Neupert hammer pianos made in 1796 and 1815 (first pianos, prototypes of modern ones), a 18 th-century Reinhard von Nagel concert harpsichord from a Parisian atelier, replicas of the 17 th-century Flemish Merzdorf harpsichords and a Robert Morley clavichord.

“The harpsichord is undeservedly considered an old, imperfect instrument, the quiet piano’s “grandfather”. In fact, it can sound loud and expressive. It allows the music of that time to reveal itself in all its perfection and has capabilities that are inaccessible to a modern piano,” says Sofia Selyanko, a third-year student at the Gnessin Moscow Special School of Music.

The harpsichord was invented back in the 14 th century and first mentioned in Italy. It has keys like a piano, but lower and upper keyboards. In addition, the piano sounds when heavy hammers hit the strings hidden inside, while the harpsichord plays thanks to wooden sticks with crow feathers that catch and pluck the strings.

“That’s why it’s called a plucked-string keyboard instrument, in contrast to the piano, a keyboard percussion instrument,” explains Olga Martynova, head of the Department of Baroque Instruments at the Gnessin Moscow Special School of Music, professor at Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

Another Baroque instrument invented after a harpsichord is a clavichord. It has its own design: metal plates attached to the keys touch the strings and they make sounds. If a musician presses a key, the sound becomes vibrating.

Harpsichords and clavichords are mandatory instruments for those learning the piano at the Gnessin School. If you want to become a pianist, play the Baroque claviers for at least a year.

“There is a secret about playing the piano: the harder you press the key, the louder the sound will be. When playing the harpsichord, the opposite is true: excessive force harms the sound. It is important to see the slightest nuances when touching the instrument. Our pianists are very sensitive with diverse playing experience,” says Olga Martynova.

However, people learn to play the clavier not only for self-improvement. These instruments are used in old music concerts. For example, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote fugues for them. “He composed the music both for the organ and the old clavier. Harpsichords and clavichords represent 300 years of music created before the 19 th century,” highlights a mos.ru interlocutor.

Multi-colored strings

The Goedicke Children’s Music School in Sokolniki teaches harpists, for example. This instrument is rare and old: musicians playing it were depicted in ancient Egyptian frescoes. At that time the harp resembled a hunting bow. According to legend, it was based on it as when the string was pulled, a melodic sound was produced. In Russia, people started learning the instrument in the 18 th century at the Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens.

The Goedicke School has two harps: Salvi Daphne and Lyon & Healy Style 100.

“Children start learning to play the harp at six or seven years old. At first, many of them are surprised and even frightened. The instrument has 48 strings! But in reality it’s easy to use. In each of the seven octaves, two strings are always colored. The one that corresponds to the note C is red, the F is blue. Seeing where these notes-strings are located, you can find the rest,” notes Ekaterina Dolinskaya, the teacher at the Goedicke Children’s Music School.

Along with the piano and violin, the harp is one of the main instruments at school. According to Ekaterina Dolinskaya, almost any piece can be played on it, even if it was not written specifically for the harp. “Our students play pieces and etudes from the books of Soviet harp composers, for example, Mark Rubin, Ksenia Erdeli, Mikhail Mchedelov,” the teacher clarifies.

Not all students have their own harps. Many parents rent an instrument for the duration of child’s studies, and if the young musician becomes really interested, parents buy them the instrument. This is exactly what the family of eighth-grader Sofia Petrova did. The girl is graduating from music school, but she is not going to part with the harp; perhaps she will even become a professional harpist. She is now participating in concerts and competitions.

“I wanted to learn the harp from an early age. I had this dream having watched a cartoon with girls in long dresses playing harps. The instrument has a very beautiful sound,” shared Sofia Petrova.

Glissando on the gusli

At the Dar Children’s Art School in Ryazanovsky, children play rare Russian instruments, such as the keyboard gusli purchased as part of the Art for Children project in 2020.

The gusli has been known in Rus’ since the 6 th century. One of the most famous gusli players is the epic character Sadko, whose playing amused the sea king from Lake Ilmen, for which he granted the musician the merchant title and made him rich. However Sadko’s gusli was a ringing instrument, without keys. The modern gusli model was created in the early 20 th century by the composer Nikolai Fomin, an associate of Vasily Andreev, the leader of the first Great Russian Folk Instruments Orchestra.

“When playing a ringing gusli, you need to pinch the strings with the fingers of your left hand to muffle some sounds and make others ringing. When it comes to the keyboard instrument, this function is performed by the keyboard located to the left of the strings. Under the keyboard, there is a pedal for the wrist of the left hand allowing all the strings to sound simultaneously, and if the musician runs their hand over them, we get the effect of a murmur or an overflow-glissando,” notes the teacher of the Dar Children’s Art School and head of the Department of Music Theory Alsu Poptsova.

With its sounds, the keyboard gusli is commonly used in folk orchestras. At the Dar Art School, students with good academic performance who can play an unfamiliar piece from the notes learn the instrument. For example, pianist Kira Parkhomey does an excellent job of enriching the sound of the orchestra.

According to Alsu Poptsova, the school orchestra together with the gusli player boasts a wide repertoire: arrangements of Russian folk songs such as The Moon is Shining and Steppe and Steppe All Around, arrangements of works by Astor Piazzolla (tango Oblivion), original works for the solo balalaika with an orchestra and much more. In 2024, young musicians are preparing Chernomor’s March and Slavsya to mark the 220 th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Glinka.

Bells and semantron

The Ivanov-Kramskoy Children’s Music School has a zvonnitsa and semantron. The first instrument is a wooden stand with large, small and medium bells suspended on it. The semantron consists of different-sized metal plates also suspended on a frame. When they are struck with a hammer, they produce sounds correlating with different notes and keys.

Both instruments originate from the Orthodox church practice: if a church or monastery did not have the means to cast bells, they use a semantron (a simple sheet of metal and a mallet) to ring for matins or vespers.

The zvonnitsa and semantron at the Children’s Musical School were designed according to the drawings of teacher Gennady Kozyrev 20 years ago. The bells were cast at the Likhachev Plant, and brass and bronze plates for semantron at the Ural Automotive Plant. An attentive teacher personally supervised the process, and some of the bells even had to be melted down: they did not correlate with the idea.

“We don’t play like church bell ringers. Any music can be played using bells, by classical composers and modern ones, who still compose works for this instrument,” says Gennady Kozyrev, teacher at the Ivanov-Kramskoy Children’s Music School.

For example, Blagovest by Aleksandra Pakhmutova and Siberiade by Eduard Artemyev are played on the zvonnitsa or semantron. Children learn one piece of music for about six months. The most important thing for such musicians is to have a great sense of rhythm.