Vasily Fyodorovich Trutovsky

Who is Vasily Fyodorovich Trutovsky?

Vasily Fyodorovich Trutovsky was a Ukrainian folk-song collector, gusli player, and composer, active in Russia. He compiled and published the earliest printed collection of Russian folk-music.

He was born in Ivanovskaya Sloboda, near Belgorod, into the family of a priest. In 1762 Trutovsky entered the Russian Imperial court as a singer and gusli player; he left the court some 30 years later. By 1792 Trutovsky was still active as collector and composer, supported by various patrons from aristocratic families. He died around 1810 in Saint-Petersburg.

Trutovsky's most important work is Sobraniye russkikh prostïkh pesen s notami, a collection of 80 folk-songs with melodies. It was the earliest published collection of its kind: the first three volumes appeared between 1776 and 1779, and one more followed in 1795. Trutovsky drew the material from both his own studies and from manuscripts compiled by others; he also included some Ukrainian songs, music by Russian composers, his own arrangements of music by others, etc. At first, Trutovsky only included the melody and a bass line, but volume 4 and a reprint of volume 1 contained more harmonic filling done by him.