OKTAVISM.COM

After about a year of researching Zlatopolsky, I finally was able to contact his son who was kind enough to mail me a copy of a wonderful documentary he created about his father. I have uplaoded it to YouTube. Eventually I hope to have English subtitles for the entire film, since the narration is in Russian. Enjoy this film on perhaps the greatest oktavist of all time. Feel free to comment--I would love to hear your thoughts. Part 1 One of the high points of this first part w

Let us picture a young boy named Viktor Telegin, born in Saint Petersburg in 1822. We know little about him except that he had an interest in music. It is likely that his love for song began quite early, perhaps the very first time his mother whispered a lullaby in his ear as he drifted to sleep. Viktor grew up in a strictly controlled, albeit peaceful Saint Petersburg. He was just a toddler when three thousand Decembrists gathered in the snowy Senate Square in protest. After

The Origins and Context of the Oktavist Since this website is devoted to the oktavist, this question seems an appropriate place to begin. Simply put, the term oktavist is most precisely used to refer to basses that sing down to contra B flat and lower in a choral setting. I will, however, attempt to explain the historical and cultural origins of the oktavist so that we may come to a better understanding of the term and its history. It is helpful to consider the term oktavist