A national anthem for Emperor Nicholas I

[Originally authored on July 26, 2019]

When it came to national anthems, England initially took the lead. The familiar God Save the King, arranged by Thomas Arne, was first performed, repeatedly, in two London theatres in September 1745 in response to military defeat. George II’s army had just been vanquished during the Jacobite rising of 1745, so the anthem offered encouragement to the monarchy [1]. The tune’s origins are unknown, but it is perhaps linked with a now-lost ayre attributed to John Bull (ca. 1562–1628) [2]. Other countries, not minding the anthem’s nationalistic content, appropriated it for their own patriotic uses, including Russia, where it carried the words “Bozhe, tsarya khrani” (or in English, “God save the Tsar,” a direct translation of the English incipit). It was only in 1833 that an original Russian anthem (fig. 1) was composed by Aleksey Fyodorovich L’vov (1798–1870) to accompany new, but similar, lyrics that can be translated as follows: “God, save the Tsar! Strong and powerful, reign for our glory; reign for the terror of our enemies, Tsar of the orthodox faith! God, save the Tsar!” [3]

L’vov came from a well-known family of Russian scholars and musicians. His uncle Nikolay Aleksandrovich L’vov (1751–1803/4) was famous in his own right: in response to the German nationalist Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), the elder L’vov had collaborated with J.G. Pratsch to produce the first extensive collection of Russian folksongs (Sobraniye narodnïkh russkikh pesen s ikh golosami, or Collection of Russian folktunes with vocal parts). Published in 1790, this served for over a century as a wellspring of folk material for composers such as Beethoven, Mussorgsky, and Stravinsky [4]. Aleksey L’vov composed primarily liturgical music for the imperial chapel choir (of which he became director in 1836) and, as he was a talented violinist, virtuosic music for his own instrument. L’vov recounts in his memoirs that he accompanied the Emperor Nicholas I (r. 1825–55) during his travels to Prussia and Austria in 1833 and was informed upon returning that the Emperor regretted that Russia lacked its own anthem [5]. L’vov, inspired by the English, French, and Austrian anthems, wrote the music, and Vasily Zhukovsky, poet and tutor to Tsar Alexander II, wrote the lyrics [6]. They presented the hymn to the Emperor on November 23rd. According to L’vov, the Emperor listened to several different versions (with orchestra, without orchestra, then all the performers together), remarked that the composition was superb, and informed the Minister of War that the hymn was to be adopted by the army. The first public performance, L’vov recounts, was on December 11, 1833, and the anthem continued to be performed until the Revolution of 1917, when the Tsar abdicated the throne.

The manuscript in Stanford’s Memorial Library of Music, just seven leaves or twelve pages in length and measuring 24.5 x 31 cm, is inscribed by L’vov in French to a “Monsieur C. Lipinski,” with the inscription dated March 2, 1834. Could this inscription refer to Karol Lipinski (1790–1861), a virtuosic violinist and rival to Niccolò Paganini? It is difficult to know for sure. The manuscript itself is very clean: all markings in the score, save some lightly-penciled page numbers in the corners, appear to come from a single hand, presumably the composer’s. It is highly unlikely to be the work’s first draft.

Unlike the most common published versions (e.g., fig. 1), the manuscript presents a slight variation of the composition. After an initial fortissimo instrumental attack, the anthem begins with a tenor solo, which carries Bozhe’s recognizable tune. Accompanied by only the strings, the tenor continues and woodwinds eventually join the accompaniment. In strong contrast to the tenor’s lyric presentation, the ensuing tutti hymn, labelled “un poco piu mosso,” presents a full and strong sound (fig. 2). After the anthem has concluded, three instrumental chords, now adagio, end the anthem. Today L’vov is a relatively unfamiliar composer, but his anthem is recognizable in two classical works by Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–93), the Marche Slav and the 1812 Overture. How exactly the autograph made its way to collector George T. Keating, who gave the manuscript to Stanford University, remains to be discovered.

Listen to Bozhe, tsarya khrani on Youtube.

Cited sources

1. Richard Taruskin, Russian Music at Home and Abroad: New Essays, Oakland: University of California Press, 2016: 237.
2. Oxford Music Online, “British Isles” in “National Anthems,” Accessed July 24, 2019.
3. Arthur Pougin, A Short History of Russian Music, trans. Lawrence Haward, New York: Brentano’s, 1915: 133.
4. Oxford Music Online, “L’vov Family,” Accessed July 24, 2019; Arthur Pougin, A Short History of Russian Music, 130–33.; and Matthew Riley and Anthony D. Smith, Nation and Classical Music: From Handel to Copland, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2016: 37.
5. Arthur Pougin, A Short History of Russian Music, 130–33.
6. James J. Fuld, The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk, 5th ed., New York: Dover Publications, 2000: 480–81.

Benjamin Ory received his Ph.D. in musicology from Stanford University in 2022.

This article is one in a series highlighting rare music materials in the Stanford Libraries collections.