Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804-1857). Cloistered in the stifling home of his paternal grandmother for the first six years of his life, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka developed both a weak constitution (he was a notorious hypochondriac) and a passion for the clangorous sound of the bells at a nearby church. Later, after his introduction to Western music, Glinka forged a strikingly original compositional style that combined Western traditions with distinctively Russian melodies and harmonies.