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Dmytro Stepanovich Bortniansky (Ukrainian language
|Ukrainian:
Дмитро
Степано&
#1074;ич
Бортнян&
#1089;ький, or Dmitry
Bortnyansky, 1751–1825) was a
Ukrainians|Ukrainian-Russian composer.

He was born in Hlukhiv, Ukraine |Hlukhiv, Ukraine
on October 28, 1751.  At the age of seven he was
sent to sing with the Imperial Chapel (St.
Petersburg)|Imperial Chapel Choir in Saint
Petersburg|St. Petersburg, then the capital of the
Russian Empire.  While in St. Petersburg he
studied under Italian master Baldassare Galuppi,
who was the director of the Imperial Chapel Choir
from 1765–1768.  In 1769, Bortniansky
followed Galuppi to Italy to work in opera.  While
in Italy, he had considerable successes; operas he
composed there, and had performed, included
Creonte (Venice, 1776); Quinto Fabio (Modena,
1778); and Alcide (Venice, 1778).

Bortniansky returned to St. Petersburg in 1779 and
in 1796 was the first native of the Russian empire
to be appointed Director of the Imperial Chapel
Choir.  While in St. Petersburg he composed at
least four more operas (in French).  He also
composed liturgical music for the Russian Orthodox
Church, combining the styles of Eastern and
Western European sacred music, mostly in a
polyphonic style he learned in Italy; some of
these works are polychoral as well, using a style
descended from the Venetian polychoral technique
of the Gabrielis.  In all, he wrote over 100
anthems, sacred concertos, cantatas, hymns and Ave
Marias, and these works are central to 18th
century Russian sacred music.  Bortniansky also
composed chamber music and piano sonatas.

Bortniansky spoke Ukrainian language|Ukrainian,
Russian language|Russian, Italian
language|Italian, French language|French, and
German language|German.  In 1882, Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky edited the liturgical
works of Bortniansky, which were published in ten
volumes. He died in St. Petersburg on October 10,
1825 and is interred at Alexander Nevsky Monastery
in St. Petersburg.

The tune he wrote for a hymn popular with
freemasons: Коль славен - kol slaven,
became known in various arrangements in English
speaking countries as Russia, St. Petersburg or
Wells, and in Germany, associated with a chorale
text by Gerhard Tersteegen, it became a part of
the military ritual Großer Zapfenstreich.  Prior
to the October revolution in 1917, the tune was
played by the Moscow Kremlin carillon every day at
midday.