Osip Kozlovsky

Osip Antonovich Kozlovsky was a Russian composer of Polish-Belarusian background, one of the central musical figures of late 18th–early 19th-century St. Petersburg. Sources differ on his birthplace, with some attributing it to Warsaw and others to the manor of Kozlovichi near Propoysk, while his national identity remains debated. His uncle Vasily Trutovsky, a noted gusli player, recognized his musical abilities and brought him to St. John’s Church in Warsaw, where he trained as singer, violinist, and organist. Early in life he was connected with the Ogiński family, teaching music to Michał Kleofas Ogiński and working in Słonim, an active cultural center.

In 1786 he joined the Russian army, participated in the Russo-Turkish War, and entered the circle of Prince Potemkin, who introduced him to the Imperial Court. He later lived under the patronage of Count Naryshkin, where his songs and polonaises became widely known in artistic circles. His fame grew after 1791, when his music began to be regularly commissioned for state festivities, including the polonaise Grom pobedy, razdavaysya, first performed with a massive choir and orchestra. In 1795 he wrote the opera The Capture of Izmail. From 1799 he served as inspector of music of the Imperial Theatres, and in 1803 became director of music, effectively leading St. Petersburg’s theatrical life, contributing extensively to the development of Russian tragedy with symphonic overtures, interludes, and dramatic choral writing.

Between 1799 and 1819 he oversaw theatre orchestras and the theatrical college, creating music for numerous tragedies, including works by Ozerov, Kniazhinin, Shakhovskoy, and Racine. His Requiem for King Stanisław August (1798) gained wide acclaim, and he later prepared a second version for the funeral of Emperor Alexander I. His Te Deum was performed during the coronation of Nicholas I. He also composed around seventy polonaises for court balls and contributed significantly to the emerging genres of the Russian romance and early programmatic orchestral music.

In 1820–1821 he stayed in Belarusian estates, including Zalesie of Michał Kleofas Ogiński, which inspired his melodrama The Reapers, or Harvest in Zalesie. He also worked for Count Muromtsev in Propoysk, directing a large choir and orchestra. His visits to Belarus included participating in concerts and teaching in local estates. His music continued to be admired by later generations, and contemporary critics regarded him as one of the key creators of heroic-dramatic and lyrical-psychological tendencies in Russian symphonic style.

In his final years he returned to St. Petersburg, where he died in 1831 and was buried at the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery, though his grave has not survived. His son Stepan Kozlovsky participated in the War of 1812.

Kozlovsky’s legacy includes the famous festive polonaise Grom pobedy, razdavaysya (“Let the thunder of victory sound”), nearly an unofficial Russian anthem of its era, numerous art songs including settings of Derzhavin such as “The Little Bee,” theatrical music, the melodrama Fingal, the tragic Oedipus in Athens, the solemn Te Deum Laudamus (1814–1815), and two versions of a Requiem. He also wrote comical operas, instrumental and piano polonaises, romances on French and Italian texts, and about thirty Russian songs that became widely popular.

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