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Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

April 20, 2023

"Rimsky-Korsakov" redirects here. For other uses, see Rimsky-Korsakov (disambiguation).

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming conventions, the patronymic is Andreyevich and the family name is Rimsky-Korsakov.

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov[a] (18 March 1844 – 21 June 1908[b]) was a Russian composer, a member of the group of composers known as The Five.[c] He was a master of orchestration. His best-known orchestral compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazade—are staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas. Scheherazade is an example of his frequent use of fairy-tale and folk subjects.

Portrait of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1898 by Valentin Serov (detail)

Rimsky-Korsakov believed in developing a nationalistic style of classical music, as did his fellow composer Mily Balakirev and the critic Vladimir Stasov. This style employed Russian folk song and lore along with exotic harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elements in a practice known as musical orientalism, and eschewed traditional Western compositional methods. Rimsky-Korsakov appreciated Western musical techniques after he became a professor of musical composition, harmony, and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. He undertook a rigorous three-year program of self-education and became a master of Western methods, incorporating them alongside the influences of Mikhail Glinka and fellow members of The Five. Rimsky-Korsakov's techniques of composition and orchestration were further enriched by his exposure to the works of Richard Wagner.

For much of his life, Rimsky-Korsakov combined his composition and teaching with a career in the Russian military—first as an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, then as the civilian Inspector of Naval Bands. He wrote that he developed a passion for the ocean in childhood from reading books and hearing of his older brother's exploits in the navy. This love of the sea may have influenced him to write two of his best-known orchestral works, the musical tableau Sadko (not to be confused with his later opera of the same name) and Scheherazade. As Inspector of Naval Bands, Rimsky-Korsakov expanded his knowledge of woodwind and brass playing, which enhanced his abilities in orchestration. He passed this knowledge to his students, and also posthumously through a textbook on orchestration that was completed by his son-in-law Maximilian Steinberg.

Rimsky-Korsakov left a considerable body of original Russian nationalist compositions. He prepared works by The Five for performance, which brought them into the active classical repertoire (although there is controversy over his editing of the works of Modest Mussorgsky), and shaped a generation of younger composers and musicians during his decades as an educator. Rimsky-Korsakov is therefore considered "the main architect" of what the classical-music public considers the "Russian style".[3] His influence on younger composers was especially important, as he served as a transitional figure between the autodidactism exemplified by Glinka and The Five, and professionally trained composers, who became the norm in Russia by the closing years of the 19th century. While Rimsky-Korsakov's style was based on those of Glinka, Balakirev, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt and, for a brief period, Wagner, he "transmitted this style directly to two generations of Russian composers" and influenced non-Russian composers including Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Ottorino Respighi.[4]

Biography

Early years

 
Rimsky-Korsakov's birthplace in Tikhvin

Rimsky-Korsakov was born in Tikhvin, 200 kilometers (120 miles) east of Saint Petersburg, into a Russian noble family. Tikhvin was a town of Novgorod Governorate at that time.

 
Rimsky-Korsakov family coat of arms

Throughout history, members of the family served in Russian government and took various positions as governors and war generals. Ivan Rimsky-Korsakov was famously a lover of Catherine the Great.[5][6][7] By a Tsar's decree on May 15, 1677, 18 representatives of the Korsakov family acquired the right to be called the Rimsky-Korsakov family (the Russian adjective 'Rimsky' means 'Roman') since the family "had a beginning within the Roman borders", i.e. Czech lands, which used to be a part of the Holy Roman Empire.[8] In 1390, Wenceslaus Korsak moved to the Grand Prince Vasily I of Moscow from the Duchy of Lithuania.[9]

The father of the composer, Andrei Petrovich Rimsky-Korsakov (1784–1862), was one of the six illegitimate sons of Avdotya Yakovlevna, daughter of an Orthodox priest from Pskov, and lieutenant general Peter Voinovich Rimsky-Korsakov, who had to officially adopt his own children as he couldn't marry their mother because of her lower social status. Using his friendship with Aleksey Arakcheyev, he managed to grant them all the privileges of the noble family.[10] Andrei went on to serve in the Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire, as vice-governor of Novgorod, and in the Volhynian Governorate. The composer's mother, Sofya Vasilievna Rimskaya-Korsakova (1802–1890), was also born as an illegitimate daughter of a peasant serf and Vasily Fedorovich Skaryatin, a wealthy landlord who belonged to the noble Russian family that originated during the 16th century.[11] Her father raised her in full comfort, yet under an improvised surname, Vasilieva, and with no legal status. By the time Andrei Petrovich met her, he was already a widower: his first wife, knyazna Ekaterina Meshcherskaya, died just nine months after their marriage. Since Skaryatin found him unsuitable for his daughter, Andrei secretly "stole" his bride from the father's house and brought her to Saint Petersburg, where they married.[5]

 
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1856

The Rimsky-Korsakov family had a long line of military and naval service. Nikolai's older brother Voin, 22 years his senior, became a well-known navigator and explorer and had a powerful influence on Nikolai's life.[12] He later recalled that his mother played the piano a little, and his father could play a few songs on the piano by ear.[13] Beginning at six, he took piano lessons from local teachers and showed a talent for aural skills,[14] but he showed a lack of interest, playing, as he later wrote, "badly, carelessly, ... poor at keeping time".[15]

Although he started composing by age 10, Rimsky-Korsakov preferred literature to music.[16] He later wrote that from his reading, and tales of his brother's exploits, he developed a poetic love for the sea "without ever having seen it".[17] This love, with subtle prompting from Voin, encouraged the 12-year-old to join the Imperial Russian Navy.[16] He studied at the School for Mathematical and Navigational Sciences in Saint Petersburg and at 18 took his final examination in April 1862.[14]

 
Rimsky-Korsakov in 1866, when he was a michman in the Russian Navy

While at school, Rimsky-Korsakov took piano lessons from a man named Ulikh.[18] Voin, now director of the school,[12] sanctioned these lessons because he hoped they would help Nikolai develop social skills and overcome his shyness.[16] Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that, while "indifferent" to lessons, he developed a love for music, fostered by visits to the opera and, later, orchestral concerts.[19]

Ulikh perceived Rimsky-Korsakov's musical talent and recommended another teacher, Feodor A. Kanille (Théodore Canillé).[20] Beginning in late 1859, Rimsky-Korsakov took lessons in piano and composition from Kanille, whom he later credited as the inspiration for devoting his life to composition.[21] Through Kanille, he was exposed to a great deal of new music, including Mikhail Glinka and Robert Schumann.[16] Voin cancelled his brother Nikolai's musical lessons when the latter reached age 17, feeling they no longer served a practical purpose.[16]

Kanille told Rimsky-Korsakov to continue coming to him every Sunday,[21] not for formal lessons but to play duets and discuss music.[22] In November 1861, Kanille introduced the 18-year-old Nikolai to Mily Balakirev. Balakirev in turn introduced him to César Cui and Modest Mussorgsky; all three were known as composers, despite only being in their 20s.[23] Rimsky-Korsakov later wrote, "With what delight I listened to real business discussions [Rimsky-Korsakov's emphasis] of instrumentation, part writing, etc! And besides, how much talking there was about current musical matters! All at once I had been plunged into a new world, unknown to me, formerly only heard of in the society of my dilettante friends. That was truly a strong impression."[24]

 
The Russian military clipper Almaz in New York Harbor in 1863. Rimsky-Korsakov served as a midshipman on this ship and later wrote about this cruise.

Balakirev encouraged Rimsky-Korsakov to compose and taught him the rudiments when he was not at sea.[16] Balakirev prompted him to enrich himself in history, literature and criticism.[25] When he showed Balakirev the beginning of a symphony in E-flat minor that he had written, Balakirev insisted he continue working on it despite his lack of formal musical training.[26]

By the time Rimsky-Korsakov sailed on a two-year-and-eight-month cruise aboard the clipper Almaz in late 1862, he had completed and orchestrated three movements of the symphony.[27][d] He composed the slow movement during a stop in England and mailed the score to Balakirev before going back to sea.[28]

At first, his work on the symphony kept Rimsky-Korsakov occupied during his cruise. He purchased scores at every port of call, along with a piano on which to play them, and filled his idle hours studying Berlioz's Treatise on Instrumentation.[16] He found time to read the works of Homer, William Shakespeare, Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; he saw London, Niagara Falls, and Rio de Janeiro during his stops in port. Eventually, the lack of outside musical stimuli dulled the young midshipman's hunger to learn. He wrote to Balakirev that after two years at sea he had neglected his musical lessons for months.[16]

"Thoughts of becoming a musician and composer gradually left me altogether", he later recalled; "distant lands began to allure me, somehow, although, properly speaking, naval service never pleased me much and hardly suited my character at all."[29]

Mentored by Balakirev; time with The Five

See also: The Five

Once back in Saint Petersburg in May 1865, Rimsky-Korsakov's onshore duties consisted of a couple of hours of clerical duty each day,[16] but he recalled that his desire to compose "had been stifled ... I did not concern myself with music at all."[30] He wrote that contact with Balakirev in September 1865 encouraged him "to get accustomed to music and later to plunge into it".[31] At Balakirev's suggestion, he wrote a trio to the scherzo of the E-flat minor symphony, which it had lacked up to that point, and reorchestrated the entire symphony.[32] Its first performance came in December of that year under Balakirev's direction in Saint Petersburg.[32][33] A second performance followed in March 1866 under the direction of Konstantin Lyadov (father of composer Anatoly Lyadov).[33]

Correspondence between Rimsky-Korsakov and Balakirev clearly shows that some ideas for the symphony originated with Balakirev, who seldom stopped at merely correcting a piece of music, and would often recompose it at the piano.[16] Rimsky-Korsakov recalled,

A pupil like myself had to submit to Balakirev a proposed composition in its embryo, say, even the first four or eight bars. Balakirev would immediately make corrections, indicating how to recast such an embryo; he would criticize it, would praise and extol the first two bars, but would censure the next two, ridicule them, and try hard to make the author disgusted with them. Vivacity of composition and fertility were not at all in favor, frequent recasting was demanded, and the composition was extended over a long period of time under the cold control of self-criticism.[34]

 
Mily Balakirev encouraged Rimsky-Korsakov to continue composing.

Rimsky-Korsakov recalled that "Balakirev had no difficulty in getting along with me. At his suggestion I most readily rewrote the symphonic movements composed by me and brought them to completion with the help of his advice and improvisations".[35] Though Rimsky-Korsakov later found Balakirev's influence stifling, and broke free from it,[36] this did not stop him in his memoirs from extolling the older composer's talents as a critic and improviser.[34] Under Balakirev's mentoring, Rimsky-Korsakov turned to other compositions. He began a symphony in B minor, but felt it too closely followed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and abandoned it. He completed an Overture on Three Russian Themes, based on Balakirev's folksong overtures, as well as a Fantasia on Serbian Themes that was performed at a concert given for the delegates of the Slavonic Congress in 1867.[16] In his review of this concert, nationalist critic Vladimir Stasov coined the phrase Moguchaya kuchka for the Balakirev circle (Moguchaya kuchka is usually translated as "The Mighty Handful" or "The Five").[16] Rimsky-Korsakov also composed the initial versions of Sadko and Antar, which cemented his reputation as a writer of orchestral works.[33]

Rimsky-Korsakov socialized and discussed music with the other members of The Five; they critiqued one another's works in progress and collaborated on new pieces.[16] He became friends with Alexander Borodin, whose music "astonished" him.[37] He spent an increasing amount of time with Mussorgsky.[16] Balakirev and Mussorgsky played piano four-hand music, Mussorgsky would sing, and they frequently discussed other composers' works, with preferred tastes running "toward Glinka, Schumann and Beethoven's late quartets".[38] Mendelssohn was not thought of highly, Mozart and Haydn "were considered out of date and naïve", and J.S. Bach merely mathematical and unfeeling. Berlioz "was highly esteemed", Liszt "crippled and perverted from a musical point of view ... even a caricature", and Wagner discussed little.[38] Rimsky-Korsakov "listened to these opinions with avidity and absorbed the tastes of Balakirev, Cui and Mussorgsky without reasoning or examination". Often, the musical works in question "were played before me only in fragments, and I had no idea of the whole work". This, he wrote, did not stop him from accepting these judgments at face value and repeating them "as if I were thoroughly convinced of their truth".[38]

Rimsky-Korsakov became especially appreciated within The Five, and among those who visited the circle, for his talents as an orchestrator.[33] He was asked by Balakirev to orchestrate a Schubert march for a concert in May 1868, by Cui to orchestrate the opening chorus of his opera William Ratcliff and by Alexander Dargomyzhsky, whose works were greatly appreciated by The Five and who was close to death, to orchestrate his opera The Stone Guest.[33]

In late 1871, Rimsky-Korsakov moved into Voin's former apartment, and invited Mussorgsky to be his roommate. The working arrangement they agreed upon was that Mussorgsky used the piano in the mornings while Rimsky-Korsakov worked on copying or orchestration. When Mussorgsky left for his civil service job at noon, Rimsky-Korsakov then used the piano. Time in the evenings was allotted by mutual agreement.[33] "That autumn and winter the two of us accomplished a good deal", Rimsky-Korsakov wrote, "with constant exchange of ideas and plans. Mussorgsky composed and orchestrated the Polish act of Boris Godunov and the folk scene 'Near Kromy.' I orchestrated and finished my Maid of Pskov."[39]

Professorship, marriage, inspector of bands

In 1871, the 27-year-old Rimsky-Korsakov became Professor of Practical Composition and Instrumentation (orchestration) at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory,[40] as well as leader of the Orchestra Class.[33] He retained his position in active naval service, and taught his classes in uniform (military officers in Russia were required to wear their uniforms every day, as they were considered to be always on duty).[41]

 
Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where Rimsky-Korsakov taught from 1871 to 1906

Rimsky-Korsakov explained in his memoirs that Mikhaíl Azanchevsky had taken over that year as director of the Conservatory,[33] and wanting new blood to freshen up teaching in those subjects,[42] had offered to pay generously for Rimsky-Korsakov's services.[43] Biographer Mikhail Tsetlin (aka Mikhail Zetlin) suggests that Azanchevsky's motives might have been twofold. First, Rimsky-Korsakov was the member of the Five least criticized by its opponents, and inviting him to teach at the Conservatory may have been considered a safe way to show that all serious musicians were welcome there. Second, the offer may have been calculated to expose him to an academic climate in which he would write in a more conservative, Western-based style.[44] Balakirev had opposed academic training in music with tremendous vigor,[45] but encouraged him to accept the post to convince others to join the nationalist musical cause.[46]

Rimsky-Korsakov's reputation at this time was as a master of orchestration, based on Sadko and Antar.[47] He had written these works mainly by intuition. His knowledge of musical theory was elemental; he had never written any counterpoint, could not harmonize a simple chorale, nor knew the names or intervals of musical chords.[47] He had never conducted an orchestra, and had been discouraged from doing so by the navy, which did not approve of his appearing on the podium in uniform.[48] Aware of his technical shortcomings,[49] Rimsky-Korsakov consulted Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky,[50] with whom he and the others in The Five had been in occasional contact.[51] Tchaikovsky, unlike The Five, had received academic training in composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory,[52] and was serving as Professor of Music Theory at the Moscow Conservatory.[53] Tchaikovsky advised him to study.[54]

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that while teaching at the Conservatory he soon became "possibly its very best pupil [Rimsky-Korsakov's emphasis], judging by the quantity and value of the information it gave me!"[55] To prepare himself, and to stay at least one step ahead of his students, he took a three-year sabbatical from composing original works, and assiduously studied at home while he lectured at the Conservatory. He taught himself from textbooks,[56] and followed a strict regimen of composing contrapuntal exercises, fugues, chorales and a cappella choruses.[40]

Rimsky-Korsakov eventually became an excellent teacher and a fervent believer in academic training.[55][57][58] He revised everything he had composed prior to 1874, even acclaimed works such as Sadko and Antar, in a search for perfection that would remain with him throughout the rest of his life.[40] Assigned to rehearse the Orchestra Class, he mastered the art of conducting.[40] Dealing with orchestral textures as a conductor, and making suitable arrangements of musical works for the Orchestra Class, led to an increased interest in the art of orchestration, an area into which he would further indulge his studies as Inspector of Navy Bands. The score of his Third Symphony, written just after he had completed his three-year program of self-improvement, reflects his hands-on experience with the orchestra.[40]

 
Nadezhda Rimskaya-Korsakova, née Purgold, wife of the composer

Professorship brought Rimsky-Korsakov financial security,[59] which encouraged him to settle down and to start a family.[59] In December 1871 he proposed to Nadezhda Purgold, with whom he had developed a close relationship over weekly gatherings of The Five at the Purgold household.[60] They married in July 1872, with Mussorgsky serving as best man.[59] The Rimsky-Korsakovs had seven children.[61] Their first son, Mikhail, became an entomologist[62] while another son, Andrei, became a musicologist, married the composer Yuliya Veysberg and wrote a multi-volume study of his father's life and work.[63]

Nadezhda became a musical as well as domestic partner with her husband, much as Clara Schumann had been with her own husband Robert.[59] She was beautiful, capable, strong-willed, and far better trained musically than her husband at the time they married[64]—she had attended the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in the mid-1860s, studying piano with Anton Gerke (one of whose private students was Mussorgsky)[65] and music theory with Nikolai Zaremba, who also taught Tchaikovsky.[66] Nadezhda proved a fine and most demanding critic of her husband's work; her influence over him in musical matters was strong enough for Balakirev and Stasov to wonder whether she was leading him astray from their musical preferences.[40] Musicologist Lyle Neff wrote that while Nadezhda gave up her own compositional career when she married Rimsky-Korsakov, she "had a considerable influence on the creation of [Rimsky-Korsakov's] first three operas. She travelled with her husband, attended rehearsals and arranged compositions by him and others"[66] for piano four hands, which she played with her husband.[40] "Her last years were dedicated to issuing her husband's posthumous literary and musical legacy, maintaining standards for performance of his works ... and preparing material for a museum in his name."[66]

 
Portrait of Rimsky-Korsakov by Ilya Repin

In early 1873, the navy created the civilian post of Inspector of Naval Bands, with a rank of Collegiate Assessor, and appointed Rimsky-Korsakov. This kept him on the navy payroll and listed on the roster of the Chancellery of the Navy Department but allowed him to resign his commission.[56][67] The composer commented, "I parted with delight with both my military status and my officer's uniform", he later wrote. "Henceforth I was a musician officially and incontestably."[68] As Inspector, Rimsky-Korsakov applied himself with zeal to his duties.[56] He visited naval bands throughout Russia, supervised the bandmasters and their appointments, reviewed the bands' repertoire, and inspected the quality of their instruments. He wrote a study program for a complement of music students who held navy fellowships at the Conservatory, and acted as an intermediary between the Conservatory and the navy. He also indulged in a long-standing desire to familiarize himself with the construction and playing technique of orchestral instruments.[68][69] These studies prompted him to write a textbook on orchestration.[68] He used the privileges of rank to exercise and expand upon his knowledge. He discussed arrangements of musical works for military band with bandmasters, encouraged and reviewed their efforts, held concerts at which he could hear these pieces, and orchestrated original works, and works by other composers, for military bands.[70]

In March 1884, an Imperial Order abolished the navy office of Inspector of Bands, and Rimsky-Korsakov was relieved of his duties.[56] He worked under Balakirev in the Court Chapel as a deputy until 1894,[71] which allowed him to study Russian Orthodox church music. He also taught classes at the chapel, and wrote his textbook on harmony for use there and at the Conservatory.[72]

Backlash and May Night

Rimsky-Korsakov's studies and his change in attitude regarding music education brought him the scorn of his fellow nationalists, who thought he was throwing away his Russian heritage to compose fugues and sonatas.[58] After he strove "to crowd in as much counterpoint as possible" into his Third Symphony,[73] he wrote chamber works adhering strictly to classical models, including a string sextet, a string quartet in F major (Op. 12) and a quintet for flute, clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano in B-flat. About the quartet and the symphony, Tchaikovsky wrote to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, that they "were filled with a host of clever things but ... [were] imbued with a dryly pedantic character".[74] Borodin commented that when he heard the symphony, he kept "feeling that this is the work of a German Herr Professor who has put on his glasses and is about to write Eine grosse Symphonie in C".[75]

According to Rimsky-Korsakov, the other members of the Five showed little enthusiasm for the symphony, and less still for the quartet.[76] Nor was his public debut as a conductor, at an 1874 charity concert where he led the orchestra in the new symphony, considered favorably by his compatriots.[56] He later wrote that "they began, indeed, to look down upon me as one on the downward path". Worse still to Rimsky-Korsakov was the faint praise given by Anton Rubinstein, a composer opposed to the nationalists' music and philosophy. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that after Rubinstein heard the quartet, he commented that now Rimsky-Korsakov "might amount to something" as a composer.[76] He wrote that Tchaikovsky continued to support him morally, telling him that he fully applauded what Rimsky-Korsakov was doing and admired both his artistic modesty and his strength of character.[77] Privately, Tchaikovsky confided to Nadezhda von Meck, "Apparently [Rimsky-Korsakov] is now passing through this crisis, and how it will end will be difficult to predict. Either a great master will come out of him, or he will finally become bogged down in contrapuntal tricks".[74]

 
Portrait of Mikhail Glinka by Ilya Repin. Rimsky-Korsakov credited his editing of Glinka's scores with leading him back toward modern music.

Two projects helped Rimsky-Korsakov focus on less academic music-making. The first was the creation of two folk song collections in 1874. Rimsky-Korsakov transcribed 40 Russian songs for voice and piano from performances by folk singer Tvorty Filippov,[78][79] who approached him at Balakirev's suggestion.[80] This collection was followed by a second containing 100 songs, supplied by friends and servants, or taken from rare and out-of-print collections.[79][81] Rimsky-Korsakov later credited this work as a great influence on him as a composer;[82] it also supplied a vast amount of musical material from which he could draw for future projects, either by direct quotation or as models for composing fakeloric passages.[79] The second project was the editing of orchestral scores by pioneer Russian composer Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857) in collaboration with Balakirev and Anatoly Lyadov.[56] Glinka's sister, Lyudmila Ivanovna Shestakova, wanted to preserve her brother's musical legacy in print, and paid the costs of the project from her own pocket.[83] No similar project had been attempted before in Russian music, and guidelines for scholarly musical editing had to be established and agreed.[79] While Balakirev favored making changes in Glinka's music to "correct" what he saw as compositional flaws, Rimsky-Korsakov favored a less intrusive approach. Eventually, Rimsky-Korsakov prevailed.[79] "Work on Glinka's scores was an unexpected schooling for me", he later wrote. "Even before this I had known and worshipped his operas; but as editor of the scores in print I had to go through Glinka's style and instrumentation to their last little note ... And this was a beneficent discipline for me, leading me as it did to the path of modern music, after my vicissitudes with counterpoint and strict style".[84]

In mid-1877, Rimsky-Korsakov thought increasingly about the short story May Night by Nikolai Gogol. The story had long been a favorite of his, and his wife Nadezhda had encouraged him to write an opera based on it from the day of their betrothal, when they had read it together.[85] While musical ideas for such a work predated 1877, now they came with greater persistence. By early 1878 the project took an increasing amount of his attention; in February he started writing in earnest, and he finished the opera by early November.[79]

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that May Night was of great importance because, despite the opera's containing a good deal of contrapuntal music, he nevertheless "cast off the shackles of counterpoint [emphasis Rimsky-Korsakov]".[86] He wrote the opera in a folk-like melodic idiom, and scored it in a transparent manner much in the style of Glinka.[56] Nevertheless, despite the ease of writing this opera and the next, The Snow Maiden,[87] from time to time he suffered from creative paralysis between 1881 and 1888. He kept busy during this time by editing Mussorgsky's works and completing Borodin's Prince Igor (Mussorgsky died in 1881, Borodin in 1887).[88]

Belyayev circle

See also: Belyayev circle
 
Portrait by Ilya Repin of M. P. Belyayev, founder of the Russian Symphony Concerts

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that he became acquainted with budding music patron Mitrofan Belyayev (M. P. Belaieff) in Moscow in 1882.[89] Belyayev was one of a growing coterie of Russian nouveau-riche industrialists who became patrons of the arts in mid- to late-19th century Russia; their number included railway magnate Savva Mamontov and textile manufacturer Pavel Tretyakov.[90] Belyayev, Mamontov and Tretyakov "wanted to contribute conspicuously to public life".[91] They had worked their way into wealth, and being Slavophiles in their national outlook believed in the greater glory of Russia.[92] Owing to this belief, they were more likely than the aristocracy to support native talent, and were more inclined to support nationalist artists over cosmopolitan ones.[92] This preference paralleled a general upsurge in nationalism and Russophilia that became prevalent in mainstream Russian art and society.[93]

By 1883 Rimsky-Korsakov had become a regular visitor to the weekly "quartet Fridays" ("Les Vendredis") held at Belyayev's home in Saint Petersburg.[94] Belyayev, who had already taken a keen interest in the musical future of the teenage Alexander Glazunov, rented a hall and hired an orchestra in 1884 to play Glazunov's First Symphony plus an orchestral suite Glazunov had just composed. This concert and a rehearsal the previous year gave Rimsky-Korsakov the idea of offering concerts featuring Russian compositions, a prospect to which Belyayev was amenable. The Russian Symphony Concerts were inaugurated during the 1886–87 season, with Rimsky-Korsakov sharing conducting duties with Anatoly Lyadov.[95] He finished his revision of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain and conducted it at the opening concert.[96] The concerts also coaxed him out of his creative drought; he wrote Scheherazade, Capriccio Espagnol and the Russian Easter Overture specifically for them.[88] He noted that these three works "show a considerable falling off in the use of contrapuntal devices ... [replaced] by a strong and virtuoso development of every kind of figuration which sustains the technical interest of my compositions".[97]

Rimsky-Korsakov was asked for advice and guidance not just on the Russian Symphony Concerts, but on other projects through which Belyayev aided Russian composers. "By force of matters purely musical I turned out to be the head of the Belyayev circle", he wrote. "As the head Belyayev, too, considered me, consulting me about everything and referring everyone to me as chief".[98] In 1884 Belyayev set up an annual Glinka prize, and in 1885 he founded his own music publishing firm, through which he published works by Borodin, Glazunov, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov at his own expense. To select which composers to assist with money, publication or performances from the many who now appealed for help, Belyayev set up an advisory council made up of Glazunov, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov. They would look through the compositions and appeals submitted and suggest which composers were deserving of patronage and public attention.[99]

The group of composers who now congregated with Glazunov, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov became known as the Belyayev circle, named after their financial benefactor. These composers were nationalistic in their musical outlook, as The Five before them had been. Like The Five, they believed in a uniquely Russian style of classical music that utilized folk music and exotic melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements, as exemplified by the music of Balakirev, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov. Unlike The Five, these composers also believed in the necessity of an academic, Western-based background in composition—which Rimsky-Korsakov had instilled in his years at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.[100] Compared to the "revolutionary" composers in Balakirev's circle, Rimsky-Korsakov found those in the Belyayev circle to be "progressive ... attaching as it did great importance to technical perfection, but ... also broke new paths, though more securely, even if less speedily ..."[101]

Increased contact with Tchaikovsky

See also: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and The Five and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Belyayev circle
 
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky by Nikolay Kuznetsov, 1893

In November 1887, Tchaikovsky arrived in Saint Petersburg in time to hear several of the Russian Symphony Concerts. One of them included the first complete performance of his First Symphony, subtitled Winter Daydreams, in its final version. Another concert featured the premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov's Third Symphony in its revised version.[102] Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky corresponded considerably before the visit and spent a lot of time together, along with Glazunov and Lyadov.[103] Though Tchaikovsky had been a regular visitor to the Rimsky-Korsakov home since 1876,[104] and had at one point offered to arrange Rimsky-Korsakov's appointment as director of the Moscow Conservatory,[104] this was the beginning of closer relations between the two. Within a couple of years, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote, Tchaikovsky's visits became more frequent.[105]

During these visits and especially in public, Rimsky-Korsakov wore a mask of geniality. Privately, he found the situation emotionally complex, and confessed his fears to his friend, the Moscow critic Semyon Kruglikov.[106] Memories persisted of the tension between Tchaikovsky and The Five over the differences in their musical philosophies—tension acute enough for Tchaikovsky's brother Modest to liken their relations at that time to "those between two friendly neighboring states ... cautiously prepared to meet on common ground, but jealously guarding their separate interests".[107] Rimsky-Korsakov observed, not without annoyance, how Tchaikovsky became increasingly popular among Rimsky-Korsakov's followers.[108] This personal jealousy was compounded by a professional one, as Tchaikovsky's music became increasingly popular among the composers of the Belyayev circle, and remained on the whole more famous than his own.[109] Even so, when Tchaikovsky attended Rimsky-Korsakov's nameday party in May 1893, Rimsky-Korsakov asked Tchaikovsky personally if he would conduct four concerts of the Russian Musical Society in Saint Petersburg the following season. After hesitation, Tchaikovsky agreed.[110] While his sudden death in late 1893 prevented him from fulfilling this commitment in its entirety, the list of works he had planned to conduct included Rimsky-Korsakov's Third Symphony.[111]

Increasing conservatism; second creative drought

 
Rimsky-Korsakov, unknown date

In March 1889, Angelo Neumann's traveling "Richard Wagner Theater" visited Saint Petersburg, giving four cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen there under the direction of Karl Muck.[112] The Five had ignored Wagner's music, but The Ring impressed Rimsky-Korsakov:[113] he was astonished with Wagner's mastery of orchestration. He attended the rehearsals with Glazunov, and followed the score. After hearing these performances, Rimsky-Korsakov devoted himself almost exclusively to composing operas for the rest of his creative life. Wagner's use of the orchestra influenced Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestration,[112] beginning with the arrangement of the polonaise from Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov that he made for concert use in 1889.[114]

Toward music more adventurous than Wagner's, especially that of Richard Strauss and later Claude Debussy, Rimsky-Korsakov's mind remained closed. He would fume for days afterwards when he heard pianist Felix Blumenfeld play Debussy's Estampes and write in his diary about them, "Poor and skimpy to the nth degree; there is no technique, even less imagination."[115] This was part of an increasing musical conservatism on his part (his "musical conscience", as he put it), under which he now scrutinized his music and that of others as well.[116] Compositions by his former compatriots in The Five were not immune. While working on his first revision of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, in 1895 he would tell his amanuensis, Vasily Yastrebtsev, "It's incredible that I ever could have liked this music and yet it seems there was such a time."[117] By 1901 he would write of growing "indignant at all [of Wagner's] blunders of the ear"—this about the same music which caught his attention in 1889.[118]

In 1892, Rimsky-Korsakov suffered a second creative drought,[88] brought on by bouts of depression and alarming physical symptoms. Rushes of blood to the head, confusion, memory loss and unpleasant obsessions[119] led to a medical diagnosis of neurasthenia.[119] Crises in the Rimsky-Korsakov household may have been a factor—the serious illnesses of his wife and one of his sons from diphtheria in 1890, the deaths of his mother and youngest child, as well as the onset of the prolonged, ultimately fatal illness of his second youngest child. He resigned from the Russian Symphony Concerts and the Court Chapel[119] and considered giving up composition permanently.[88] After making third versions of the musical tableau Sadko and the opera The Maid of Pskov, he closed his musical account with the past; he had left none of his major works before May Night in their original form.[112]

Another death brought about a creative renewal.[119] The passing of Tchaikovsky presented a twofold opportunity—to write for the Imperial Theaters and to compose an opera based on Nikolai Gogol's short story Christmas Eve, a work on which Tchaikovsky had based his opera Vakula the Smith. The success of Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve encouraged him to complete an opera approximately every 18 months between 1893 and 1908 — a total of 11 during this period.[88] He also started and abandoned another draft of his treatise on orchestration,[72] but made a third attempt and almost finished it in the last four years of his life. (His son-in-law Maximilian Steinberg completed the book in 1912.[72]) Rimsky-Korsakov's scientific treatment of orchestration, illustrated with more than 300 examples from his work, set a new standard for texts of its kind.[72]

1905 Revolution

In 1905, demonstrations took place in the St. Petersburg Conservatory as part of the 1905 Revolution; these, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote, were triggered by similar disturbances at St. Petersburg State University, in which students demanded political reforms and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in Russia.[120] "I was chosen a member of the committee for adjusting differences with agitated pupils", he recalled; almost as soon as the committee had been formed, "[a]ll sorts of measures were recommended to expel the ringleaders, to quarter the police in the Conservatory, to close the Conservatory entirely".[120]

A lifelong liberal politically,[121] Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that he felt someone had to protect the rights of the students to demonstrate, especially as disputes and wrangling between students and authorities were becoming increasingly violent. In an open letter, he sided with the students against what he saw as unwarranted interference by Conservatory leadership and the Russian Musical Society.[120] A second letter, this time signed by a number of faculty including Rimsky-Korsakov, demanded the resignation of the head of the Conservatory. Partly as a result of these two letters he wrote, approximately 100 Conservatory students were expelled and he was removed from his professorship.[122]

Just before the dismissal was enacted, Rimsky-Korsakov received a letter from one of the members of the school directorate, suggesting that he take up the directorship in the interest of calming student unrest. "Probably the member of the Directorate held a minority opinion, but signed the resolution nevertheless," he wrote. "I sent a negative reply."[123] Partly in defiance of his dismissal, Rimsky-Korsakov continued teaching his students from his home.[124]

Not long after Rimsky-Korsakov's dismissal, a student production of his opera Kashchey the Immortal was followed not with the scheduled concert but with a political demonstration,[125] which led to a police ban on Rimsky-Korsakov's work.[125] Due in part to widespread press coverage of these events,[126] an immediate wave of outrage against the ban arose throughout Russia and abroad; liberals and intellectuals deluged the composer's residence with letters of sympathy,[127] and even peasants who had not heard a note of Rimsky-Korsakov's music sent small monetary donations.[121] Several faculty members of the St. Petersburg Conservatory resigned in protest, including Glazunov and Lyadov.[128] Eventually, over 300 students walked out of the Conservatory in solidarity with Rimsky-Korsakov.[129] By December he had been reinstated under a new director, Glazunov.[126] Rimsky-Korsakov retired from the Conservatory in 1906.[130] The political controversy continued with his opera The Golden Cockerel. Its implied criticism of monarchy, Russian imperialism and the Russo-Japanese War gave it little chance of passing the censors.[129] The premiere was delayed until 1909, after Rimsky-Korsakov's death, and even then it was performed in an adapted version.[129]

 
Rimsky-Korsakov's grave at Tikhvin Cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery

In April 1907, Rimsky-Korsakov conducted a pair of concerts in Paris, hosted by impresario Sergei Diaghilev, which featured music of the Russian nationalist school. The concerts were hugely successful in popularizing Russian classical music of this kind in Europe, Rimsky-Korsakov's in particular. The following year, his opera Sadko was produced at the Paris Opéra and The Snow Maiden at the Opéra-Comique.[126] He also had the opportunity to hear more recent music by European composers. He hissed unabashedly when he heard Richard Strauss's opera Salome, and told Diaghilev after hearing Claude Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande, "Don't make me listen to all these horrors or I shall end up liking them!"[126] Hearing these works led him to appreciate his place in the world of classical music. He admitted that he was a "convinced kuchkist" (after kuchka, the shortened Russian term for The Five) and that his works belonged to an era that musical trends had left behind.[126]

Death

Beginning around 1890, Rimsky-Korsakov suffered from angina.[119] While this ailment initially wore him down gradually, the stresses concurrent with the 1905 Revolution and its aftermath greatly accelerated its progress. After December 1907, his illness became severe, and he could not work.[131]

In 1908, he died at his Lubensk estate near Luga (modern day Plyussky District of Pskov Oblast), and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg, next to Borodin, Glinka, Mussorgsky and Stasov.[126]

Compositions

See also: List of compositions by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
 
Portrait of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov by Valentin Serov (1898)

Rimsky-Korsakov followed the musical ideals espoused by The Five. He employed Orthodox liturgical themes in the Russian Easter Festival Overture, folk song in Capriccio Espagnol and orientalism in Scheherazade, possibly his best known work.[3][132] He proved a prolific composer but also a perpetually self-critical one. He revised every orchestral work up to and including his Third Symphony—some, like Antar and Sadko, more than once. These revisions range from minor changes of tempo, phrasing and instrumental detail to wholesale transposition and complete recomposition.[133]

Rimsky-Korsakov was open about the influences in his music, telling Vasily Yastrebtsev, "Study Liszt and Balakirev more closely, and you'll see that a great deal in me is not mine".[134] He followed Balakirev in his use of the whole tone scale, treatment of folk songs and musical orientalism and Liszt for harmonic adventurousness. (The violin melody used to portray Scheherazade is very closely related to its counterpart in Balakirev's symphonic poem Tamara, while the Russian Easter Overtures follows the design and plan of Balakirev's Second Overture on Russian Themes.)[3][132]

Nevertheless, while he took Glinka and Liszt as his harmonic models, his use of whole tone and octatonic scales do demonstrate his originality. He developed both these compositional devices for the "fantastic" sections of his operas, which depicted magical or supernatural characters and events.[116]

Rimsky-Korsakov maintained an interest in harmonic experiments and continued exploring new idioms throughout his career. He tempered this interest with an abhorrence of excess and kept his tendency to experiment under constant control.[116] The more radical his harmonies became, the more he attempted to control them with strict rules—applying his "musical conscience", as he called it. In this sense, he was both a progressive and a conservative composer.[116] The whole tone and octatonic scales were both considered adventurous in the Western classical tradition, and Rimsky-Korsakov's use of them made his harmonies seem radical. Conversely, his care about how or when in a composition he used these scales made him seem conservative compared with later composers like Igor Stravinsky, though they were often building on Rimsky-Korsakov's work.[135]

Operas

 
Music samples
Flight of the Bumblebee
Flight of the Bumblebee performed by US Army Band
The Flight of the Bumblebee
Arrangement for two pianos by Russel Warner, performed by Neal and Nancy O'Doan
The Song of the Indian Guest
1929 recording of transcription for violin and piano, featuring violinist Váša Příhoda
Problems playing these files? See media help.

While Rimsky-Korsakov is best known in the West for his orchestral works, his operas are more complex, offering a wider variety of orchestral effects than in his instrumental works and fine vocal writing.[125] Excerpts and suites from them have proved as popular in the West as the purely orchestral works. The best-known of these excerpts is probably "Flight of the Bumblebee" from The Tale of Tsar Saltan, which has often been heard by itself in orchestral programs, and in countless arrangements and transcriptions, most famously in a piano version made by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Other selections familiar to listeners in the West are "Dance of the Tumblers" from The Snow Maiden, "Procession of the Nobles" from Mlada, and "Song of the Indian Guest" (or, less accurately, "Song of India") from Sadko, as well as suites from The Golden Cockerel and The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya.[136]

The Operas fall into three categories:

Of this range, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote in 1902, "In every new work of mine I am trying to do something that is new for me. On the one hand, I am pushed on by the thought that in this way, [my music] will retain freshness and interest, but at the same time I am prompted by my pride to think that many facets, devices, moods and styles, if not all, should be within my reach."[121]

American music critic and journalist Harold C. Schonberg wrote that the operas "open up a delightful new world, the world of the Russian East, the world of supernaturalism and the exotic, the world of Slavic pantheism and vanished races. Genuine poetry suffuses them, and they are scored with brilliance and resource."[136] According to some critics Rimsky-Korsakov's music in these works lacks dramatic power, a seemingly fatal flaw in an operatic composer. This may have been conscious, as he repeatedly stated in his writing that he felt operas were first and foremost musical works rather than mainly dramatic ones. Ironically, the operas succeed dramatically in most cases by being deliberately non-theatrical.[137]

Orchestral works

The purely orchestral works fall into two categories. The best-known ones in the West, and perhaps the finest in overall quality, are mainly programmatic in nature — in other words, the musical content and how it is handled in the piece is determined by the plot or characters in a story, the action in a painting or events reported through another non-musical source.[3] The second category of works is more academic, such as his First and Third Symphonies and his Sinfonietta. In these, Rimsky-Korsakov still employed folk themes but subjected them to abstract rules of musical composition.[3]

 
Opening themes of the Sultan and Scheherazade

Program music came naturally to Rimsky-Korsakov. To him, "even a folk theme has a program of sorts."[3] He composed the majority of his orchestral works in this genre at two periods of his career—at the beginning, with Sadko and Antar (also known as his Second Symphony, Op. 9), and in the 1880s, with Scheherazade, Capriccio Espagnol and the Russian Easter Overture. Despite the gap between these two periods, the composer's overall approach and the way he used his musical themes remained consistent. Both Antar and Scheherazade use a robust "Russian" theme to portray the male protagonists (the title character in Antar; the sultan in Scheherazade) and a more sinuous "Eastern" theme for the female ones (the peri Gul-Nazar in Antar and the title character in Scheherazade).[138]

Where Rimsky-Korsakov changed between these two sets of works was in orchestration. While his pieces were always celebrated for their imaginative use of instrumental forces, the sparser textures of Sadko and Antar pale compared to the luxuriance of the more popular works of the 1880s. While a principle of highlighting "primary hues" of instrumental color remained in place, it was augmented in the later works by a sophisticated cachet of orchestral effects, some gleaned from other composers including Wagner, but many invented by himself.[3]

As a result, these works resemble brightly colored mosaics, striking in their own right and often scored with a juxtaposition of pure orchestral groups.[125] The final tutti of Scheherazade is a prime example of this scoring. The theme is assigned to trombones playing in unison, and is accompanied by a combination of string patterns. Meanwhile, another pattern alternates with chromatic scales in the woodwinds and a third pattern of rhythms is played by percussion.[139]

Rimsky-Korsakov's non-program music, though well-crafted, does not rise to the same level of inspiration as his programmatic works; he needed fantasy to bring out the best in him.[3] The First Symphony follows the outlines of Schumann's Fourth extremely closely, and is slighter in its thematic material than his later compositions. The Third Symphony and Sinfonietta each contain a series of variations on less-than-the-best music that can lead to tedium.[3]

Smaller-scale works

Rimsky-Korsakov composed dozens of art songs, arrangements of folk songs, chamber and piano music. While the piano music is relatively unimportant, many of the art songs possess a delicate beauty. While they yield in overt lyricism to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, otherwise they reserve their place in the standard repertory of Russian singers.[3]

Rimsky-Korsakov also wrote a body of choral works, both secular and for Russian Orthodox Church service. The latter include settings of portions of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (despite his own atheism).[140][141][142]

Legacy

Transitional figure

The critic Vladimir Stasov, who along with Balakirev had founded The Five, wrote in 1882, "Beginning with Glinka, all the best Russian musicians have been very skeptical of book learning and have never approached it with the servility and the superstitious reverence with which it is approached to this day in many parts of Europe."[143] This statement was not true for Glinka, who studied Western music theory assiduously with Siegfried Dehn in Berlin before he composed his opera A Life for the Tsar.[144] It was true for Balakirev, who "opposed academicism with tremendous vigor,"[45] and it was true initially for Rimsky-Korsakov, who had been imbued by Balakirev and Stasov with the same attitude.[145]

 
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov by Emil Wiesel

One point Stasov omitted purposely, which would have disproved his statement completely, was that at the time he wrote it, Rimsky-Korsakov had been pouring his "book learning" into students at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory for over a decade.[146] Beginning with his three years of self-imposed study, Rimsky-Korsakov had drawn closer to Tchaikovsky and further away from the rest of The Five, while the rest of The Five had drawn back from him and Stasov had branded him a "renegade".[146] Richard Taruskin wrote, "The older he became, the greater was the irony with which Rimsky-Korsakov looked back on his kuchkist days."[147] When the young Semyon Kruglikov was considering a future in composition, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the future critic,

About a talent for composition ... I can say nothing as yet. You have tried your powers too little ... Yes, one can study on one's own. Sometimes one needs advice, but one must study ... All of us, that is, I myself and Borodin, and Balakirev, and especially Cui and Mussorgsky, did disdain these things. I consider myself lucky that I bethought myself in time and forced myself to work. As for Balakirev, owing to his insufficient technique he writes little; Borodin, with difficulty; Cui, carelessly; and Mussorgsky, sloppily and often incoherently.[148]

Taruskin points out this statement, which Rimsky-Korsakov wrote while Borodin and Mussorgsky were still alive, as proof of his estrangement from the rest of The Five and an indication of the kind of teacher he eventually became.[149] By the time he instructed Liadov and Glazunov, "their training hardly differed from [Tchaikovsky's]. An ideal of the strictest professionalism was instilled in them from the beginning."[149] By the time Borodin died in 1887, the era of autodidactism for Russian composers had effectively ended. Every Russian who aspired to write classical music attended a conservatory and received the same formal education.[150] "There was no more 'Moscow', no 'St. Petersburg'." Taruskin writes; "at last all Russia was one. Moreover, by century's end, the theory and composition faculties of Rubinstein's Conservatory were entirely in the hands of representatives of the New Russian School. Viewed against the background of Stasov's predictions, there could scarcely be any greater irony."[151]

Students

Rimsky-Korsakov taught theory and composition to 250 students over his 35-year tenure at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, "enough to people a whole 'school' of composers". This does not include pupils at the two other schools where he taught, including Glazunov, or those he taught privately at his home, such as Igor Stravinsky.[152] Apart from Glazunov and Stravinsky, students who later found fame included Anatoly Lyadov, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, Alexander Spendiaryan, Sergei Prokofiev, Ottorino Respighi, Witold Maliszewski, Mykola Lysenko, Artur Kapp, and Konstanty Gorski. Other students included the music critic and musicologist Alexander Ossovsky, and the composer Lazare Saminsky.[153]

Rimsky-Korsakov felt talented students needed little formal dictated instruction. His teaching method included distinct steps: show the students everything needed in harmony and counterpoint; direct them in understanding the forms of composition; give them a year or two of systematic study in the development of technique, exercises in free composition and orchestration; instill a good knowledge of the piano. Once these were properly completed, studies would be over.[154] He carried this attitude into his conservatory classes. Conductor Nikolai Malko remembered that Rimsky-Korsakov began the first class of the term by saying, "I will speak, and you will listen. Then I will speak less, and you will start to work. And finally I will not speak at all, and you will work."[155] Malko added that his class followed exactly this pattern. "Rimsky-Korsakov explained everything so clearly and simply that all we had to do was to do our work well."[155]

Editing the work of The Five

Rimsky-Korsakov's editing of works by The Five is significant. It was a practical extension of the collaborative atmosphere of The Five during the 1860s and 1870s, when they heard each other's compositions in progress and worked on them together, and was an effort to save works that would otherwise either have languished unheard or become lost entirely. This work included the completion of Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor, which Rimsky-Korsakov undertook with the help of Glazunov after Borodin's death,[88] and the orchestration of passages from César Cui's William Ratcliff for its first production in 1869.[33] He also completely orchestrated the opera The Stone Guest by Alexander Dargomyzhsky three times—in 1869–70, 1892 and 1902.[40] While not a member of The Five himself, Dargomyzhsky was closely associated with the group and shared their musical philosophy.[33]

 
Fyodor Chaliapin was a powerful exponent of the Rimsky-Korsakov version of Boris Godunov, which launched the work in the world's opera houses, but has since fallen out of favor. Portrait by Aleksandr Golovin.

Musicologist Francis Maes wrote that while Rimsky-Korsakov's efforts are laudable, they are also controversial. It was generally assumed that with Prince Igor, Rimsky-Korsakov edited and orchestrated the existing fragments of the opera while Glazunov composed and added missing parts, including most of the third act and the overture.[156][157] This was exactly what Rimsky-Korsakov stated in his memoirs.[158] Both Maes and Richard Taruskin cite an analysis of Borodin's manuscripts by musicologist Pavel Lamm, which showed that Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov discarded nearly 20 percent of Borodin's score.[159] According to Maes, the result is more a collaborative effort by all three composers than a true representation of Borodin's intent.[160] Lamm stated that because of the extremely chaotic state of Borodin's manuscripts, a modern alternative to Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov's edition would be extremely difficult to complete.[160]

More debatable, according to Maes, is Rimsky-Korsakov's editing of Mussorgsky's works. After Mussorgsky's death in 1881, Rimsky-Korsakov revised and completed several of Mussorgsky's works for publication and performance, helping to spread Mussorgsky's works throughout Russia and to the West. Maes, in reviewing Mussorgsky's scores, wrote that Rimsky-Korsakov allowed his "musical conscience" to dictate his editing, and he changed or removed what he considered musical over-experimentation or poor form.[118] Because of this, Rimsky-Korsakov has been accused of pedantry in "correcting", among other things, matters of harmony. Rimsky-Korsakov may have foreseen questions over his efforts when he wrote,

If Mussorgsky's compositions are destined to live unfaded for fifty years after their author's death (when all his works will become the property of any and every publisher), such an archeologically accurate edition will always be possible, as the manuscripts went to the Public Library on leaving me. For the present, though, there was need of an edition for performances, for practical artistic purposes, for making his colossal talent known, and not for the mere studying of his personality and artistic sins.[161]

Maes stated that time proved Rimsky-Korsakov correct when it came to posterity's re-evaluation of Mussorgsky's work. Mussorgsky's musical style, once considered unpolished, is now admired for its originality. While Rimsky-Korsakov's arrangement of Night on Bald Mountain is still the version generally performed, Rimsky-Korsakov's other revisions, like his version of Boris Godunov, have been replaced by Mussorgsky's original.[162]

Folklore and pantheism

Rimsky-Korsakov may have saved the most personal side of his creativity for his approach to Russian folklore. Folklorism as practiced by Balakirev and the other members of The Five had been based largely on the protyazhnaya dance song.[163] Protyazhnaya literally meant "drawn-out song", or melismatically elaborated lyric song.[164] The characteristics of this song exhibit extreme rhythmic flexibility, an asymmetrical phrase structure and tonal ambiguity.[164] After composing May Night, Rimsky-Korsakov was increasingly drawn to "calendar songs", which were written for specific ritual occasions. The ties to folk culture was what interested him most in folk music, even in his days with The Five; these songs formed a part of rural customs, echoed old Slavic paganism and the pantheistic world of folk rites.[163] Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that his interest in these songs was heightened by his study of them while compiling his folk song collections.[165] He wrote that he "was captivated by the poetic side of the cult of sun-worship, and sought its survivals and echoes in both the tunes and the words of the songs. The pictures of the ancient pagan period and spirit loomed before me, as it then seemed, with great clarity, luring me on with the charm of antiquity. These occupations subsequently had a great influence in the direction of my own activity as a composer".[82]

Rimsky-Korsakov's interest in pantheism was whetted by the folkloristic studies of Alexander Afanasyev.[163] That author's standard work, The Poetic Outlook on Nature by the Slavs, became Rimsky-Korsakov's pantheistic bible. The composer first applied Afanasyev's ideas in May Night, in which he helped fill out Gogol's story by using folk dances and calendar songs.[163] He went further down this path in The Snow Maiden,[163] where he made extensive use of seasonal calendar songs and khorovodi (ceremonial dances) in the folk tradition.[166]

Musicologists and Slavicists have long recognized that Rimsky-Korsakov was an ecumenical artist whose folklore-inspired operas take up such issues as the relationship between paganism and Christianity and the seventeenth-century schism in the Orthodox Church.[167]

In film

Publications

Rimsky-Korsakov's autobiography and his books on harmony and orchestration have been translated into English and published. Two books he started in 1892 but left unfinished were a comprehensive text on Russian music and a manuscript, now lost, on an unknown subject.[168]

  • My Musical Life. [Летопись моей музыкальной жизни – literally, Chronicle of My Musical Life.] Trans. from the 5th rev. Russian ed. by Judah A. Joffe; ed. with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten. London: Ernst Eulenburg Ltd, 1974.
  • Practical Manual of Harmony. [Практический учебник гармонии.] First published, in Russian, in 1885. First English edition published by Carl Fischer in 1930, trans. from the 12th Russian ed. by Joseph Achron. Current English ed. by Nicholas Hopkins, New York, New York: C. Fischer, 2005.
  • Principles of Orchestration. [Основы оркестровки.] Begun in 1873 and completed posthumously by Maximilian Steinberg in 1912, first published, in Russian, in 1922 ed. by Maximilian Steinberg. English trans. by Edward Agate; New York: Dover Publications, 1964 ("unabridged and corrected republication of the work first published by Edition russe de musique in 1922").

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Russian: Николай Андреевич Римский-Корсаков, tr. Nikolay Andreyevich Rimskiy-Korsakov [nʲɪkəˈlaj ɐnˈdrʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ˈrʲimskʲɪj ˈkorsəkəf] ( listen). At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ.
    Latin: Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakow.[1]
    The BGN/PCGN transliteration of Russian is used for his name here. ALA-LC system: Nikolaĭ Andrevich Rimskiĭ-Korsakov, ISO 9 system: Nikolaj Andreevič Rimskij-Korsakov.[2]
  2. ^ Russia was still using old style dates in the 19th century, rendering his lifespan as 6 March 1844 – 8 June 1908. Some sources in the article report dates as old style rather than new style.
  3. ^ The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev (the leader), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin.
  4. ^ This is not the first symphony by a Russian: Anton Rubinstein composed his first symphony in 1850 (Figes, 391).

Citations

  1. ^ "Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakow: Fantasie de Concert (Si mineur) pour Violon et Orchestre sur des themes russes". Leipzig: M. P. Belaieff. 1912. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
  2. ^ "Russian – BGN/PCGN transliteration system". transliteration.com. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 21:409.
  4. ^ Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:34.
  5. ^ a b Tatiana Rimskaya-Korsakova (2008). N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. From the Family Letters – Saint Petersburg: Compositor, 247 pages, pp. 8–9 ISBN 978-5-91461-005-7
  6. ^ The Korsakov family from Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary at Wikisource
  7. ^ The Rimsky-Korsakov family from Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary at Wikisource
  8. ^ "Iosif (Rismky-Korsakov)" (in Russian). Orthodox Encyclopedia. 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
  9. ^ "Page 53". gerbovnik.ru (in Russian). General Armorial of the Noble Families of the Russian Empire. 1798. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
    • "Page 52". gerbovnik.ru (in Russian). General Armorial of the Noble Families of the Russian Empire. 1798. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  10. ^ Tatiana Rimskaya-Korsakova (1995). Childhood and Youth of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. From the Family Letters. – Saint Petersburg: Compositor, 278 pages, pp. 9–10; ISBN 978-5-7379-0007-6
  11. ^ Skaryatin coat of arms by All-Russian Armorials of Noble Houses of the Russian Empire. Part 6, 23 June 1801 (in Russian)
  12. ^ a b Taruskin, Music, p. 166.
  13. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 4.
  14. ^ a b Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:27.
  15. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 5.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 21:400.
  17. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 8.
  18. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 11.
  19. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, pp. 11–13.
  20. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 15.
  21. ^ a b Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 16.
  22. ^ Calvocoressi and Abraham, Masters of Russian Music, p. 342.
  23. ^ Abraham, New Grove (1980), 2:28; Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 18.
  24. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, pp. 19–20.
  25. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 38.
  26. ^ Abraham, A Short Biography, pp. 23–25.
  27. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life; p. 22.
  28. ^ Abraham, New Grove (1980), 2:28; Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 42.
  29. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 48.
  30. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 55.
  31. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 56.
  32. ^ a b Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, pp. 58–59.
  33. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:28.
  34. ^ a b Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 29.
  35. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 30.
  36. ^ Maes, p. 44.
  37. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 57.
  38. ^ a b c Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 21.
  39. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 123.
  40. ^ a b c d e f g h Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 21:401.
  41. ^ Figes, p. 18.
  42. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 116.
  43. ^ Maes, p. 48.
  44. ^ Zetlin, pp. 194–195.
  45. ^ a b Maes, p. 39.
  46. ^ Maes, pp. 169–170.
  47. ^ a b Zetlin, p. 195.
  48. ^ Zetlin, pp. 195–196.
  49. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 117.
  50. ^ Brown, Crisis Years, pp. 228–229; Maes, p. 48.
  51. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 75.
  52. ^ Brown, Early Years, pp. 54–83.
  53. ^ Brown, Early Years, pp. 88–89.
  54. ^ Brown, Crisis Years, pp. 228–229.
  55. ^ a b Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 119.
  56. ^ a b c d e f g Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:29.
  57. ^ Maes, p. 170.
  58. ^ a b Schonberg, p. 363.
  59. ^ a b c d Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:28
  60. ^ Schonberg, p. 362; Zetlin, pp. 164–166.
  61. ^ "Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, continued". symphonyinc.org. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
  62. ^ Guseinova, Zivar M. (2017). "ПЕТЕРБУРГСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ В ЖИЗНИ РИМСКИХ-КОРСАКОВЫХ (по личным письмам членов семьи)" [St. Petersburg University in Rimsky-Korsakov’s family (on the basis of personal letters)]. ВЕСТНИК САНКТ-ПЕТЕРБУРГСКОГО УНИВЕРСИТЕТА. ИСКУССТВОВЕДЕНИЕ (in Russian). 7 (3): 296–303. doi:10.21638/11701/spbu15.2017.301. hdl:11701/8539.
  63. ^ McAllister and Rayskin, New Grove (2001), 21:423–24.
  64. ^ Abraham, New Grove (1980)16:28–29.
  65. ^ Zetlin, p. 164.
  66. ^ a b c Neff, New Grove (2001), 21:423.
  67. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical life, pp. 135–136.
  68. ^ a b c Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 136.
  69. ^ Leonard, p. 148.
  70. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, pp. 141–142.
  71. ^ Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 8:404; Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 335
  72. ^ a b c d Leonard, p. 149.
  73. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 133.
  74. ^ a b As quoted in Brown, Crisis Years, p. 229.
  75. ^ Zetlin, pp. 303–304.
  76. ^ a b Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 151.
  77. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 157 ft. 30.
  78. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 164.
  79. ^ a b c d e f Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 21:402.
  80. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 163.
  81. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, pp. 164–165.
  82. ^ a b Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 166.
  83. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 172.
  84. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 175.
  85. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, pp. 188–189.
  86. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 208.
  87. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 235.
  88. ^ a b c d e f Maes, p. 171.
  89. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 261.
  90. ^ Figes, pp. 195–97; Maes, 173–74, 196–97.
  91. ^ Taruskin, p. 49.
  92. ^ a b Taruskin, Stravinsky, p. 42.
  93. ^ Taruskin, Stravinsky, p. 44.
  94. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 269.
  95. ^ Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:29–30; Zetlin, p. 313.
  96. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 281.
  97. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 296.
  98. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 288.
  99. ^ Maes, p. 173.
  100. ^ Maes, p. 192.
  101. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, pp. 286–287.
  102. ^ Brown, Final Years, 91.
  103. ^ Brown, Final Years, p. 90.
  104. ^ a b Taruskin, Stravinsky, p. 31.
  105. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 308.
  106. ^ Taruskin, Stravinsky, p. 39.
  107. ^ As quoted in Holden, p. 64.
  108. ^ Poznansky, Quest, p. 564; Taruskin, Stravinsky, p. 39.
  109. ^ Holden, p. 316; Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 309; Taruskin, Stravinsky, p. 39.
  110. ^ Brown, Final Years, p. 465.
  111. ^ Brown, Final Years, p. 474.
  112. ^ a b c Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:30.
  113. ^ Maes, pp. 176–177.
  114. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 298.
  115. ^ As quoted in Taruskin, Stravinsky, p. 55.
  116. ^ a b c d Maes, p. 180.
  117. ^ As quoted in Taruskin, Stravinsky, p. 40.
  118. ^ a b Maes, p. 181.
  119. ^ a b c d e Abraham, New Grove, 16:31.
  120. ^ a b c Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 411.
  121. ^ a b c Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 21:405.
  122. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 412.
  123. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, p. 478.
  124. ^ Taruskin, Stravinsky, 1:386.
  125. ^ a b c d Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:32.
  126. ^ a b c d e f Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 21:406.
  127. ^ Leonard, p. 167.
  128. ^ Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), pp. 405–406.
  129. ^ a b c Maes, p. 178.
  130. ^ Taruskin, Stravinsky, p. 73.
  131. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, Preface xxiii.
  132. ^ a b Maes, pp. 175–176.
  133. ^ Abraham, Slavonic, pp. 197–198.
  134. ^ Yastrebtsev, p. 37.
  135. ^ Maes, pp. 180, 195.
  136. ^ a b Schonberg, p. 364.
  137. ^ Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:33.
  138. ^ Maes, pp. 82, 175.
  139. ^ Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:32–33.
  140. ^ Abraham, The New Grove Russian Masters 2, p. 27.
  141. ^ Abraham, Studies in Russian Music, 288
  142. ^ Morrison, pp. 116–117, 168–169.
  143. ^ As quoted in Taruskin, Stravinsky, 24.
  144. ^ Maes, 19.
  145. ^ Maes, 38–39.
  146. ^ a b Taruskin, Stravinsky, 29.
  147. ^ Taruskin, Stravinsky, 32.
  148. ^ As quoted in Taruskin, Stravinsky, 33.
  149. ^ a b Taruskin, Stravinsky, 34.
  150. ^ Taruskin, Stravinsky, 40–41.
  151. ^ Taruskin, Stravinsky, 41.
  152. ^ Taruskin, Stravinsky, 1:163.
  153. ^ Schonberg, 365.
  154. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 34.
  155. ^ a b Malko, 49.
  156. ^ Maes, 182.
  157. ^ Taruskin, Music, 185.
  158. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 283.
  159. ^ Maes, 182–83.
  160. ^ a b Maes, 183.
  161. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 249.
  162. ^ Maes, 115.
  163. ^ a b c d e Maes, p. 187.
  164. ^ a b Maes, p. 65.
  165. ^ Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, pp. 165–166.
  166. ^ Maes, p. 188.
  167. ^ Morrison, Simon (1 January 2002). "Review of The Complete Sacred Choral Works". Notes. 58 (4): 939–942. doi:10.1353/not.2002.0087. JSTOR 900592. S2CID 191647981.
  168. ^ Leonard, 150.

Sources

In English

  • Abraham, Gerald, "Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay Andreyevich". In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan, 1980) 20 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie. ISBN 978-0-333-23111-1.
  • Abraham, Gerald, Studies in Russian Music (London: William Reeves/The New Temple Press, 1936). ISBN n/a.
  • Abraham, Gerald. Rimsky-Korsakov: a Short Biography (London: Duckworth, 1945; rpt. New York: AMS Press, 1976. Later ed.: Rimsky-Korsakov. London: Duckworth, 1949).
  • Abraham, Gerald, Slavonic and Romantic Music: Essays and Studies (London: Faber & Faber, 1968). ISBN 978-0-571-08450-0.
  • Abraham, Gerald, "Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay Andreyevich". In The New Grove Russian Masters 2 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1986). ISBN 978-0-393-30103-8.
  • Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Early Years, 1840–1874 (New York, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1978). ISBN 978-0-393-07535-9.
  • Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Crisis Years, 1874–1878, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1983). ISBN 978-0-393-01707-6.
  • Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Final Years, 1885–1893, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1991). ISBN 978-0-393-03099-0.
  • Calvocoressi, M.D. and Gerald Abraham, Masters of Russian Music (New York: Tudor Publishing Company, 1944). ISBN n/a.
  • Figes, Orlando, Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2002). ISBN 978-0-8050-5783-6 (hc.).
  • Frolova-Walker, Marina, "Rimsky-Korsakov. Russian family of musicians. (1) Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov". In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 2001) 29 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie. ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.
  • Holden, Anthony, Tchaikovsky: A Biography (New York: Random House, 1995). ISBN 978-0-679-42006-4.
  • Leonard, Richard Anthony, A History of Russian Music (New York: Macmillan, 1957). LCCN 57-7295.
  • McAllister, Rita and Iosef Genrikhovich Rayskin, "Rimsky-Korsakov. Russian family of musicians. (3) Andrey Nikolayevich Rimsky-Korsakov". In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 2001) 29 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie. ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.
  • Maes, Francis, tr. Pomerans, Arnold J. and Erica Pomerans, A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2002). ISBN 978-0-520-21815-4.
  • Morrison, Simon, Russian Opera and the Symbolist Movement (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002). ISBN 978-0-520-22943-3.
  • Neff, Lyle, "Rimsky-Korsakov. Russian family of musicians. (2) Nadezhda Nikolayevna Rimskaya Korsakova [née Purgold]". In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 2001) 29 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie. ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5.
  • Poznansky, Alexander Tchaikovsky: The Quest for the Inner Man (Lime Tree, 1993). ISBN 978-0-413-45721-9.
  • Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai, Letoppis Moyey Muzykalnoy Zhizni (St. Petersburg, 1909), published in English as My Musical Life (New York: Knopf, 1925, 3rd ed. 1942). ISBN n/a.
  • Schonberg, Harold C. Lives of the Great Composers (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 3rd ed. 1997). ISBN 978-0-393-03857-6.
  • Taruskin, Richard, Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A Biography of the Works Through Mavra, Volume 1 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). ISBN 978-0-19-816250-6.
  • Taruskin, Richard, On Russian Music (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2009). ISBN 978-0-520-24979-0.
  • Yastrebtsev, Vasily Vasilievich, Reminiscences of Rimsky-Korsakov (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), ed. and trans. Florence Jonas. ISBN 978-0-231-05260-3.
  • Zetlin, Mikhail, tr. and ed. George Panin, The Five (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1959, 1975). ISBN 978-0-8371-6797-8.

In Russian

  • Malko, N. A., Vospominaniia. Stat'i. Pisma [Reminiscences. Articles. Letters] (Leningrad, 1972)

Further reading

  • Nelson, John: The Significance of Rimsky-Korsakov in the Development of a Russian National Identity. Diss. Studia musicologica Universitatis Helsingiensis, 25. University of Helsinki, 2013. ISSN 0787-4294 ISBN 978-952-10-9390-6. Abstract.
  • Seaman, Gerald :Nikolay Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov: A Research and Information Guide, Second Edition, Routledge, 2014. ISBN 978-0-415-81011-1

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

April 20, 2023
nikolai, rimsky, korsakov, rimsky, korsakov, redirects, here, other, uses, rimsky, korsakov, disambiguation, this, name, that, follows, eastern, slavic, naming, conventions, patronymic, andreyevich, family, name, rimsky, korsakov, nikolai, andreyevich, rimsky,. Rimsky Korsakov redirects here For other uses see Rimsky Korsakov disambiguation In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming conventions the patronymic is Andreyevich and the family name is Rimsky Korsakov Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky Korsakov a 18 March 1844 21 June 1908 b was a Russian composer a member of the group of composers known as The Five c He was a master of orchestration His best known orchestral compositions Capriccio Espagnol the Russian Easter Festival Overture and the symphonic suite Scheherazade are staples of the classical music repertoire along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas Scheherazade is an example of his frequent use of fairy tale and folk subjects Portrait of Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov in 1898 by Valentin Serov detail Rimsky Korsakov believed in developing a nationalistic style of classical music as did his fellow composer Mily Balakirev and the critic Vladimir Stasov This style employed Russian folk song and lore along with exotic harmonic melodic and rhythmic elements in a practice known as musical orientalism and eschewed traditional Western compositional methods Rimsky Korsakov appreciated Western musical techniques after he became a professor of musical composition harmony and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871 He undertook a rigorous three year program of self education and became a master of Western methods incorporating them alongside the influences of Mikhail Glinka and fellow members of The Five Rimsky Korsakov s techniques of composition and orchestration were further enriched by his exposure to the works of Richard Wagner For much of his life Rimsky Korsakov combined his composition and teaching with a career in the Russian military first as an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy then as the civilian Inspector of Naval Bands He wrote that he developed a passion for the ocean in childhood from reading books and hearing of his older brother s exploits in the navy This love of the sea may have influenced him to write two of his best known orchestral works the musical tableau Sadko not to be confused with his later opera of the same name and Scheherazade As Inspector of Naval Bands Rimsky Korsakov expanded his knowledge of woodwind and brass playing which enhanced his abilities in orchestration He passed this knowledge to his students and also posthumously through a textbook on orchestration that was completed by his son in law Maximilian Steinberg Rimsky Korsakov left a considerable body of original Russian nationalist compositions He prepared works by The Five for performance which brought them into the active classical repertoire although there is controversy over his editing of the works of Modest Mussorgsky and shaped a generation of younger composers and musicians during his decades as an educator Rimsky Korsakov is therefore considered the main architect of what the classical music public considers the Russian style 3 His influence on younger composers was especially important as he served as a transitional figure between the autodidactism exemplified by Glinka and The Five and professionally trained composers who became the norm in Russia by the closing years of the 19th century While Rimsky Korsakov s style was based on those of Glinka Balakirev Hector Berlioz Franz Liszt and for a brief period Wagner he transmitted this style directly to two generations of Russian composers and influenced non Russian composers including Maurice Ravel Claude Debussy Paul Dukas and Ottorino Respighi 4 Contents 1 Biography 1 1 Early years 1 2 Mentored by Balakirev time with The Five 1 3 Professorship marriage inspector of bands 1 4 Backlash and May Night 1 5 Belyayev circle 1 6 Increased contact with Tchaikovsky 1 7 Increasing conservatism second creative drought 1 8 1905 Revolution 1 9 Death 2 Compositions 2 1 Operas 2 2 Orchestral works 2 3 Smaller scale works 3 Legacy 3 1 Transitional figure 3 2 Students 3 3 Editing the work of The Five 4 Folklore and pantheism 5 In film 6 Publications 7 References 7 1 Footnotes 7 2 Citations 7 3 Sources 8 Further reading 9 External linksBiography EditEarly years Edit Rimsky Korsakov s birthplace in Tikhvin Rimsky Korsakov was born in Tikhvin 200 kilometers 120 miles east of Saint Petersburg into a Russian noble family Tikhvin was a town of Novgorod Governorate at that time Rimsky Korsakov family coat of arms Throughout history members of the family served in Russian government and took various positions as governors and war generals Ivan Rimsky Korsakov was famously a lover of Catherine the Great 5 6 7 By a Tsar s decree on May 15 1677 18 representatives of the Korsakov family acquired the right to be called the Rimsky Korsakov family the Russian adjective Rimsky means Roman since the family had a beginning within the Roman borders i e Czech lands which used to be a part of the Holy Roman Empire 8 In 1390 Wenceslaus Korsak moved to the Grand Prince Vasily I of Moscow from the Duchy of Lithuania 9 The father of the composer Andrei Petrovich Rimsky Korsakov 1784 1862 was one of the six illegitimate sons of Avdotya Yakovlevna daughter of an Orthodox priest from Pskov and lieutenant general Peter Voinovich Rimsky Korsakov who had to officially adopt his own children as he couldn t marry their mother because of her lower social status Using his friendship with Aleksey Arakcheyev he managed to grant them all the privileges of the noble family 10 Andrei went on to serve in the Interior Ministry of the Russian Empire as vice governor of Novgorod and in the Volhynian Governorate The composer s mother Sofya Vasilievna Rimskaya Korsakova 1802 1890 was also born as an illegitimate daughter of a peasant serf and Vasily Fedorovich Skaryatin a wealthy landlord who belonged to the noble Russian family that originated during the 16th century 11 Her father raised her in full comfort yet under an improvised surname Vasilieva and with no legal status By the time Andrei Petrovich met her he was already a widower his first wife knyazna Ekaterina Meshcherskaya died just nine months after their marriage Since Skaryatin found him unsuitable for his daughter Andrei secretly stole his bride from the father s house and brought her to Saint Petersburg where they married 5 Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov in 1856 The Rimsky Korsakov family had a long line of military and naval service Nikolai s older brother Voin 22 years his senior became a well known navigator and explorer and had a powerful influence on Nikolai s life 12 He later recalled that his mother played the piano a little and his father could play a few songs on the piano by ear 13 Beginning at six he took piano lessons from local teachers and showed a talent for aural skills 14 but he showed a lack of interest playing as he later wrote badly carelessly poor at keeping time 15 Although he started composing by age 10 Rimsky Korsakov preferred literature to music 16 He later wrote that from his reading and tales of his brother s exploits he developed a poetic love for the sea without ever having seen it 17 This love with subtle prompting from Voin encouraged the 12 year old to join the Imperial Russian Navy 16 He studied at the School for Mathematical and Navigational Sciences in Saint Petersburg and at 18 took his final examination in April 1862 14 Rimsky Korsakov in 1866 when he was a michman in the Russian Navy While at school Rimsky Korsakov took piano lessons from a man named Ulikh 18 Voin now director of the school 12 sanctioned these lessons because he hoped they would help Nikolai develop social skills and overcome his shyness 16 Rimsky Korsakov wrote that while indifferent to lessons he developed a love for music fostered by visits to the opera and later orchestral concerts 19 Ulikh perceived Rimsky Korsakov s musical talent and recommended another teacher Feodor A Kanille Theodore Canille 20 Beginning in late 1859 Rimsky Korsakov took lessons in piano and composition from Kanille whom he later credited as the inspiration for devoting his life to composition 21 Through Kanille he was exposed to a great deal of new music including Mikhail Glinka and Robert Schumann 16 Voin cancelled his brother Nikolai s musical lessons when the latter reached age 17 feeling they no longer served a practical purpose 16 Kanille told Rimsky Korsakov to continue coming to him every Sunday 21 not for formal lessons but to play duets and discuss music 22 In November 1861 Kanille introduced the 18 year old Nikolai to Mily Balakirev Balakirev in turn introduced him to Cesar Cui and Modest Mussorgsky all three were known as composers despite only being in their 20s 23 Rimsky Korsakov later wrote With what delight I listened to real business discussions Rimsky Korsakov s emphasis of instrumentation part writing etc And besides how much talking there was about current musical matters All at once I had been plunged into a new world unknown to me formerly only heard of in the society of my dilettante friends That was truly a strong impression 24 The Russian military clipper Almaz in New York Harbor in 1863 Rimsky Korsakov served as a midshipman on this ship and later wrote about this cruise Balakirev encouraged Rimsky Korsakov to compose and taught him the rudiments when he was not at sea 16 Balakirev prompted him to enrich himself in history literature and criticism 25 When he showed Balakirev the beginning of a symphony in E flat minor that he had written Balakirev insisted he continue working on it despite his lack of formal musical training 26 By the time Rimsky Korsakov sailed on a two year and eight month cruise aboard the clipper Almaz in late 1862 he had completed and orchestrated three movements of the symphony 27 d He composed the slow movement during a stop in England and mailed the score to Balakirev before going back to sea 28 At first his work on the symphony kept Rimsky Korsakov occupied during his cruise He purchased scores at every port of call along with a piano on which to play them and filled his idle hours studying Berlioz s Treatise on Instrumentation 16 He found time to read the works of Homer William Shakespeare Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe he saw London Niagara Falls and Rio de Janeiro during his stops in port Eventually the lack of outside musical stimuli dulled the young midshipman s hunger to learn He wrote to Balakirev that after two years at sea he had neglected his musical lessons for months 16 Thoughts of becoming a musician and composer gradually left me altogether he later recalled distant lands began to allure me somehow although properly speaking naval service never pleased me much and hardly suited my character at all 29 Mentored by Balakirev time with The Five Edit See also The Five Once back in Saint Petersburg in May 1865 Rimsky Korsakov s onshore duties consisted of a couple of hours of clerical duty each day 16 but he recalled that his desire to compose had been stifled I did not concern myself with music at all 30 He wrote that contact with Balakirev in September 1865 encouraged him to get accustomed to music and later to plunge into it 31 At Balakirev s suggestion he wrote a trio to the scherzo of the E flat minor symphony which it had lacked up to that point and reorchestrated the entire symphony 32 Its first performance came in December of that year under Balakirev s direction in Saint Petersburg 32 33 A second performance followed in March 1866 under the direction of Konstantin Lyadov father of composer Anatoly Lyadov 33 Correspondence between Rimsky Korsakov and Balakirev clearly shows that some ideas for the symphony originated with Balakirev who seldom stopped at merely correcting a piece of music and would often recompose it at the piano 16 Rimsky Korsakov recalled A pupil like myself had to submit to Balakirev a proposed composition in its embryo say even the first four or eight bars Balakirev would immediately make corrections indicating how to recast such an embryo he would criticize it would praise and extol the first two bars but would censure the next two ridicule them and try hard to make the author disgusted with them Vivacity of composition and fertility were not at all in favor frequent recasting was demanded and the composition was extended over a long period of time under the cold control of self criticism 34 Mily Balakirev encouraged Rimsky Korsakov to continue composing Rimsky Korsakov recalled that Balakirev had no difficulty in getting along with me At his suggestion I most readily rewrote the symphonic movements composed by me and brought them to completion with the help of his advice and improvisations 35 Though Rimsky Korsakov later found Balakirev s influence stifling and broke free from it 36 this did not stop him in his memoirs from extolling the older composer s talents as a critic and improviser 34 Under Balakirev s mentoring Rimsky Korsakov turned to other compositions He began a symphony in B minor but felt it too closely followed Beethoven s Ninth Symphony and abandoned it He completed an Overture on Three Russian Themes based on Balakirev s folksong overtures as well as a Fantasia on Serbian Themes that was performed at a concert given for the delegates of the Slavonic Congress in 1867 16 In his review of this concert nationalist critic Vladimir Stasov coined the phrase Moguchaya kuchka for the Balakirev circle Moguchaya kuchka is usually translated as The Mighty Handful or The Five 16 Rimsky Korsakov also composed the initial versions of Sadko and Antar which cemented his reputation as a writer of orchestral works 33 Rimsky Korsakov socialized and discussed music with the other members of The Five they critiqued one another s works in progress and collaborated on new pieces 16 He became friends with Alexander Borodin whose music astonished him 37 He spent an increasing amount of time with Mussorgsky 16 Balakirev and Mussorgsky played piano four hand music Mussorgsky would sing and they frequently discussed other composers works with preferred tastes running toward Glinka Schumann and Beethoven s late quartets 38 Mendelssohn was not thought of highly Mozart and Haydn were considered out of date and naive and J S Bach merely mathematical and unfeeling Berlioz was highly esteemed Liszt crippled and perverted from a musical point of view even a caricature and Wagner discussed little 38 Rimsky Korsakov listened to these opinions with avidity and absorbed the tastes of Balakirev Cui and Mussorgsky without reasoning or examination Often the musical works in question were played before me only in fragments and I had no idea of the whole work This he wrote did not stop him from accepting these judgments at face value and repeating them as if I were thoroughly convinced of their truth 38 Rimsky Korsakov became especially appreciated within The Five and among those who visited the circle for his talents as an orchestrator 33 He was asked by Balakirev to orchestrate a Schubert march for a concert in May 1868 by Cui to orchestrate the opening chorus of his opera William Ratcliff and by Alexander Dargomyzhsky whose works were greatly appreciated by The Five and who was close to death to orchestrate his opera The Stone Guest 33 In late 1871 Rimsky Korsakov moved into Voin s former apartment and invited Mussorgsky to be his roommate The working arrangement they agreed upon was that Mussorgsky used the piano in the mornings while Rimsky Korsakov worked on copying or orchestration When Mussorgsky left for his civil service job at noon Rimsky Korsakov then used the piano Time in the evenings was allotted by mutual agreement 33 That autumn and winter the two of us accomplished a good deal Rimsky Korsakov wrote with constant exchange of ideas and plans Mussorgsky composed and orchestrated the Polish act of Boris Godunov and the folk scene Near Kromy I orchestrated and finished my Maid of Pskov 39 Professorship marriage inspector of bands Edit In 1871 the 27 year old Rimsky Korsakov became Professor of Practical Composition and Instrumentation orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory 40 as well as leader of the Orchestra Class 33 He retained his position in active naval service and taught his classes in uniform military officers in Russia were required to wear their uniforms every day as they were considered to be always on duty 41 Saint Petersburg Conservatory where Rimsky Korsakov taught from 1871 to 1906 Rimsky Korsakov explained in his memoirs that Mikhail Azanchevsky had taken over that year as director of the Conservatory 33 and wanting new blood to freshen up teaching in those subjects 42 had offered to pay generously for Rimsky Korsakov s services 43 Biographer Mikhail Tsetlin aka Mikhail Zetlin suggests that Azanchevsky s motives might have been twofold First Rimsky Korsakov was the member of the Five least criticized by its opponents and inviting him to teach at the Conservatory may have been considered a safe way to show that all serious musicians were welcome there Second the offer may have been calculated to expose him to an academic climate in which he would write in a more conservative Western based style 44 Balakirev had opposed academic training in music with tremendous vigor 45 but encouraged him to accept the post to convince others to join the nationalist musical cause 46 Rimsky Korsakov s reputation at this time was as a master of orchestration based on Sadko and Antar 47 He had written these works mainly by intuition His knowledge of musical theory was elemental he had never written any counterpoint could not harmonize a simple chorale nor knew the names or intervals of musical chords 47 He had never conducted an orchestra and had been discouraged from doing so by the navy which did not approve of his appearing on the podium in uniform 48 Aware of his technical shortcomings 49 Rimsky Korsakov consulted Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 50 with whom he and the others in The Five had been in occasional contact 51 Tchaikovsky unlike The Five had received academic training in composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory 52 and was serving as Professor of Music Theory at the Moscow Conservatory 53 Tchaikovsky advised him to study 54 Rimsky Korsakov wrote that while teaching at the Conservatory he soon became possibly its very best pupil Rimsky Korsakov s emphasis judging by the quantity and value of the information it gave me 55 To prepare himself and to stay at least one step ahead of his students he took a three year sabbatical from composing original works and assiduously studied at home while he lectured at the Conservatory He taught himself from textbooks 56 and followed a strict regimen of composing contrapuntal exercises fugues chorales and a cappella choruses 40 Rimsky Korsakov eventually became an excellent teacher and a fervent believer in academic training 55 57 58 He revised everything he had composed prior to 1874 even acclaimed works such as Sadko and Antar in a search for perfection that would remain with him throughout the rest of his life 40 Assigned to rehearse the Orchestra Class he mastered the art of conducting 40 Dealing with orchestral textures as a conductor and making suitable arrangements of musical works for the Orchestra Class led to an increased interest in the art of orchestration an area into which he would further indulge his studies as Inspector of Navy Bands The score of his Third Symphony written just after he had completed his three year program of self improvement reflects his hands on experience with the orchestra 40 Nadezhda Rimskaya Korsakova nee Purgold wife of the composerProfessorship brought Rimsky Korsakov financial security 59 which encouraged him to settle down and to start a family 59 In December 1871 he proposed to Nadezhda Purgold with whom he had developed a close relationship over weekly gatherings of The Five at the Purgold household 60 They married in July 1872 with Mussorgsky serving as best man 59 The Rimsky Korsakovs had seven children 61 Their first son Mikhail became an entomologist 62 while another son Andrei became a musicologist married the composer Yuliya Veysberg and wrote a multi volume study of his father s life and work 63 Nadezhda became a musical as well as domestic partner with her husband much as Clara Schumann had been with her own husband Robert 59 She was beautiful capable strong willed and far better trained musically than her husband at the time they married 64 she had attended the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in the mid 1860s studying piano with Anton Gerke one of whose private students was Mussorgsky 65 and music theory with Nikolai Zaremba who also taught Tchaikovsky 66 Nadezhda proved a fine and most demanding critic of her husband s work her influence over him in musical matters was strong enough for Balakirev and Stasov to wonder whether she was leading him astray from their musical preferences 40 Musicologist Lyle Neff wrote that while Nadezhda gave up her own compositional career when she married Rimsky Korsakov she had a considerable influence on the creation of Rimsky Korsakov s first three operas She travelled with her husband attended rehearsals and arranged compositions by him and others 66 for piano four hands which she played with her husband 40 Her last years were dedicated to issuing her husband s posthumous literary and musical legacy maintaining standards for performance of his works and preparing material for a museum in his name 66 Portrait of Rimsky Korsakov by Ilya Repin In early 1873 the navy created the civilian post of Inspector of Naval Bands with a rank of Collegiate Assessor and appointed Rimsky Korsakov This kept him on the navy payroll and listed on the roster of the Chancellery of the Navy Department but allowed him to resign his commission 56 67 The composer commented I parted with delight with both my military status and my officer s uniform he later wrote Henceforth I was a musician officially and incontestably 68 As Inspector Rimsky Korsakov applied himself with zeal to his duties 56 He visited naval bands throughout Russia supervised the bandmasters and their appointments reviewed the bands repertoire and inspected the quality of their instruments He wrote a study program for a complement of music students who held navy fellowships at the Conservatory and acted as an intermediary between the Conservatory and the navy He also indulged in a long standing desire to familiarize himself with the construction and playing technique of orchestral instruments 68 69 These studies prompted him to write a textbook on orchestration 68 He used the privileges of rank to exercise and expand upon his knowledge He discussed arrangements of musical works for military band with bandmasters encouraged and reviewed their efforts held concerts at which he could hear these pieces and orchestrated original works and works by other composers for military bands 70 In March 1884 an Imperial Order abolished the navy office of Inspector of Bands and Rimsky Korsakov was relieved of his duties 56 He worked under Balakirev in the Court Chapel as a deputy until 1894 71 which allowed him to study Russian Orthodox church music He also taught classes at the chapel and wrote his textbook on harmony for use there and at the Conservatory 72 Backlash and May Night Edit Rimsky Korsakov s studies and his change in attitude regarding music education brought him the scorn of his fellow nationalists who thought he was throwing away his Russian heritage to compose fugues and sonatas 58 After he strove to crowd in as much counterpoint as possible into his Third Symphony 73 he wrote chamber works adhering strictly to classical models including a string sextet a string quartet in F major Op 12 and a quintet for flute clarinet horn bassoon and piano in B flat About the quartet and the symphony Tchaikovsky wrote to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck that they were filled with a host of clever things but were imbued with a dryly pedantic character 74 Borodin commented that when he heard the symphony he kept feeling that this is the work of a German Herr Professor who has put on his glasses and is about to write Eine grosse Symphonie in C 75 According to Rimsky Korsakov the other members of the Five showed little enthusiasm for the symphony and less still for the quartet 76 Nor was his public debut as a conductor at an 1874 charity concert where he led the orchestra in the new symphony considered favorably by his compatriots 56 He later wrote that they began indeed to look down upon me as one on the downward path Worse still to Rimsky Korsakov was the faint praise given by Anton Rubinstein a composer opposed to the nationalists music and philosophy Rimsky Korsakov wrote that after Rubinstein heard the quartet he commented that now Rimsky Korsakov might amount to something as a composer 76 He wrote that Tchaikovsky continued to support him morally telling him that he fully applauded what Rimsky Korsakov was doing and admired both his artistic modesty and his strength of character 77 Privately Tchaikovsky confided to Nadezhda von Meck Apparently Rimsky Korsakov is now passing through this crisis and how it will end will be difficult to predict Either a great master will come out of him or he will finally become bogged down in contrapuntal tricks 74 Portrait of Mikhail Glinka by Ilya Repin Rimsky Korsakov credited his editing of Glinka s scores with leading him back toward modern music Two projects helped Rimsky Korsakov focus on less academic music making The first was the creation of two folk song collections in 1874 Rimsky Korsakov transcribed 40 Russian songs for voice and piano from performances by folk singer Tvorty Filippov 78 79 who approached him at Balakirev s suggestion 80 This collection was followed by a second containing 100 songs supplied by friends and servants or taken from rare and out of print collections 79 81 Rimsky Korsakov later credited this work as a great influence on him as a composer 82 it also supplied a vast amount of musical material from which he could draw for future projects either by direct quotation or as models for composing fakeloric passages 79 The second project was the editing of orchestral scores by pioneer Russian composer Mikhail Glinka 1804 1857 in collaboration with Balakirev and Anatoly Lyadov 56 Glinka s sister Lyudmila Ivanovna Shestakova wanted to preserve her brother s musical legacy in print and paid the costs of the project from her own pocket 83 No similar project had been attempted before in Russian music and guidelines for scholarly musical editing had to be established and agreed 79 While Balakirev favored making changes in Glinka s music to correct what he saw as compositional flaws Rimsky Korsakov favored a less intrusive approach Eventually Rimsky Korsakov prevailed 79 Work on Glinka s scores was an unexpected schooling for me he later wrote Even before this I had known and worshipped his operas but as editor of the scores in print I had to go through Glinka s style and instrumentation to their last little note And this was a beneficent discipline for me leading me as it did to the path of modern music after my vicissitudes with counterpoint and strict style 84 In mid 1877 Rimsky Korsakov thought increasingly about the short story May Night by Nikolai Gogol The story had long been a favorite of his and his wife Nadezhda had encouraged him to write an opera based on it from the day of their betrothal when they had read it together 85 While musical ideas for such a work predated 1877 now they came with greater persistence By early 1878 the project took an increasing amount of his attention in February he started writing in earnest and he finished the opera by early November 79 Rimsky Korsakov wrote that May Night was of great importance because despite the opera s containing a good deal of contrapuntal music he nevertheless cast off the shackles of counterpoint emphasis Rimsky Korsakov 86 He wrote the opera in a folk like melodic idiom and scored it in a transparent manner much in the style of Glinka 56 Nevertheless despite the ease of writing this opera and the next The Snow Maiden 87 from time to time he suffered from creative paralysis between 1881 and 1888 He kept busy during this time by editing Mussorgsky s works and completing Borodin s Prince Igor Mussorgsky died in 1881 Borodin in 1887 88 Belyayev circle Edit See also Belyayev circle Portrait by Ilya Repin of M P Belyayev founder of the Russian Symphony Concerts Rimsky Korsakov wrote that he became acquainted with budding music patron Mitrofan Belyayev M P Belaieff in Moscow in 1882 89 Belyayev was one of a growing coterie of Russian nouveau riche industrialists who became patrons of the arts in mid to late 19th century Russia their number included railway magnate Savva Mamontov and textile manufacturer Pavel Tretyakov 90 Belyayev Mamontov and Tretyakov wanted to contribute conspicuously to public life 91 They had worked their way into wealth and being Slavophiles in their national outlook believed in the greater glory of Russia 92 Owing to this belief they were more likely than the aristocracy to support native talent and were more inclined to support nationalist artists over cosmopolitan ones 92 This preference paralleled a general upsurge in nationalism and Russophilia that became prevalent in mainstream Russian art and society 93 By 1883 Rimsky Korsakov had become a regular visitor to the weekly quartet Fridays Les Vendredis held at Belyayev s home in Saint Petersburg 94 Belyayev who had already taken a keen interest in the musical future of the teenage Alexander Glazunov rented a hall and hired an orchestra in 1884 to play Glazunov s First Symphony plus an orchestral suite Glazunov had just composed This concert and a rehearsal the previous year gave Rimsky Korsakov the idea of offering concerts featuring Russian compositions a prospect to which Belyayev was amenable The Russian Symphony Concerts were inaugurated during the 1886 87 season with Rimsky Korsakov sharing conducting duties with Anatoly Lyadov 95 He finished his revision of Mussorgsky s Night on Bald Mountain and conducted it at the opening concert 96 The concerts also coaxed him out of his creative drought he wrote Scheherazade Capriccio Espagnol and the Russian Easter Overture specifically for them 88 He noted that these three works show a considerable falling off in the use of contrapuntal devices replaced by a strong and virtuoso development of every kind of figuration which sustains the technical interest of my compositions 97 Rimsky Korsakov was asked for advice and guidance not just on the Russian Symphony Concerts but on other projects through which Belyayev aided Russian composers By force of matters purely musical I turned out to be the head of the Belyayev circle he wrote As the head Belyayev too considered me consulting me about everything and referring everyone to me as chief 98 In 1884 Belyayev set up an annual Glinka prize and in 1885 he founded his own music publishing firm through which he published works by Borodin Glazunov Lyadov and Rimsky Korsakov at his own expense To select which composers to assist with money publication or performances from the many who now appealed for help Belyayev set up an advisory council made up of Glazunov Lyadov and Rimsky Korsakov They would look through the compositions and appeals submitted and suggest which composers were deserving of patronage and public attention 99 The group of composers who now congregated with Glazunov Lyadov and Rimsky Korsakov became known as the Belyayev circle named after their financial benefactor These composers were nationalistic in their musical outlook as The Five before them had been Like The Five they believed in a uniquely Russian style of classical music that utilized folk music and exotic melodic harmonic and rhythmic elements as exemplified by the music of Balakirev Borodin and Rimsky Korsakov Unlike The Five these composers also believed in the necessity of an academic Western based background in composition which Rimsky Korsakov had instilled in his years at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory 100 Compared to the revolutionary composers in Balakirev s circle Rimsky Korsakov found those in the Belyayev circle to be progressive attaching as it did great importance to technical perfection but also broke new paths though more securely even if less speedily 101 Increased contact with Tchaikovsky Edit See also Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and The Five and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Belyayev circle Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky by Nikolay Kuznetsov 1893 In November 1887 Tchaikovsky arrived in Saint Petersburg in time to hear several of the Russian Symphony Concerts One of them included the first complete performance of his First Symphony subtitled Winter Daydreams in its final version Another concert featured the premiere of Rimsky Korsakov s Third Symphony in its revised version 102 Rimsky Korsakov and Tchaikovsky corresponded considerably before the visit and spent a lot of time together along with Glazunov and Lyadov 103 Though Tchaikovsky had been a regular visitor to the Rimsky Korsakov home since 1876 104 and had at one point offered to arrange Rimsky Korsakov s appointment as director of the Moscow Conservatory 104 this was the beginning of closer relations between the two Within a couple of years Rimsky Korsakov wrote Tchaikovsky s visits became more frequent 105 During these visits and especially in public Rimsky Korsakov wore a mask of geniality Privately he found the situation emotionally complex and confessed his fears to his friend the Moscow critic Semyon Kruglikov 106 Memories persisted of the tension between Tchaikovsky and The Five over the differences in their musical philosophies tension acute enough for Tchaikovsky s brother Modest to liken their relations at that time to those between two friendly neighboring states cautiously prepared to meet on common ground but jealously guarding their separate interests 107 Rimsky Korsakov observed not without annoyance how Tchaikovsky became increasingly popular among Rimsky Korsakov s followers 108 This personal jealousy was compounded by a professional one as Tchaikovsky s music became increasingly popular among the composers of the Belyayev circle and remained on the whole more famous than his own 109 Even so when Tchaikovsky attended Rimsky Korsakov s nameday party in May 1893 Rimsky Korsakov asked Tchaikovsky personally if he would conduct four concerts of the Russian Musical Society in Saint Petersburg the following season After hesitation Tchaikovsky agreed 110 While his sudden death in late 1893 prevented him from fulfilling this commitment in its entirety the list of works he had planned to conduct included Rimsky Korsakov s Third Symphony 111 Increasing conservatism second creative drought Edit Rimsky Korsakov unknown date In March 1889 Angelo Neumann s traveling Richard Wagner Theater visited Saint Petersburg giving four cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen there under the direction of Karl Muck 112 The Five had ignored Wagner s music but The Ring impressed Rimsky Korsakov 113 he was astonished with Wagner s mastery of orchestration He attended the rehearsals with Glazunov and followed the score After hearing these performances Rimsky Korsakov devoted himself almost exclusively to composing operas for the rest of his creative life Wagner s use of the orchestra influenced Rimsky Korsakov s orchestration 112 beginning with the arrangement of the polonaise from Mussorgsky s Boris Godunov that he made for concert use in 1889 114 Toward music more adventurous than Wagner s especially that of Richard Strauss and later Claude Debussy Rimsky Korsakov s mind remained closed He would fume for days afterwards when he heard pianist Felix Blumenfeld play Debussy s Estampes and write in his diary about them Poor and skimpy to the nth degree there is no technique even less imagination 115 This was part of an increasing musical conservatism on his part his musical conscience as he put it under which he now scrutinized his music and that of others as well 116 Compositions by his former compatriots in The Five were not immune While working on his first revision of Mussorgsky s Boris Godunov in 1895 he would tell his amanuensis Vasily Yastrebtsev It s incredible that I ever could have liked this music and yet it seems there was such a time 117 By 1901 he would write of growing indignant at all of Wagner s blunders of the ear this about the same music which caught his attention in 1889 118 In 1892 Rimsky Korsakov suffered a second creative drought 88 brought on by bouts of depression and alarming physical symptoms Rushes of blood to the head confusion memory loss and unpleasant obsessions 119 led to a medical diagnosis of neurasthenia 119 Crises in the Rimsky Korsakov household may have been a factor the serious illnesses of his wife and one of his sons from diphtheria in 1890 the deaths of his mother and youngest child as well as the onset of the prolonged ultimately fatal illness of his second youngest child He resigned from the Russian Symphony Concerts and the Court Chapel 119 and considered giving up composition permanently 88 After making third versions of the musical tableau Sadko and the opera The Maid of Pskov he closed his musical account with the past he had left none of his major works before May Night in their original form 112 Another death brought about a creative renewal 119 The passing of Tchaikovsky presented a twofold opportunity to write for the Imperial Theaters and to compose an opera based on Nikolai Gogol s short story Christmas Eve a work on which Tchaikovsky had based his opera Vakula the Smith The success of Rimsky Korsakov s Christmas Eve encouraged him to complete an opera approximately every 18 months between 1893 and 1908 a total of 11 during this period 88 He also started and abandoned another draft of his treatise on orchestration 72 but made a third attempt and almost finished it in the last four years of his life His son in law Maximilian Steinberg completed the book in 1912 72 Rimsky Korsakov s scientific treatment of orchestration illustrated with more than 300 examples from his work set a new standard for texts of its kind 72 1905 Revolution Edit In 1905 demonstrations took place in the St Petersburg Conservatory as part of the 1905 Revolution these Rimsky Korsakov wrote were triggered by similar disturbances at St Petersburg State University in which students demanded political reforms and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in Russia 120 I was chosen a member of the committee for adjusting differences with agitated pupils he recalled almost as soon as the committee had been formed a ll sorts of measures were recommended to expel the ringleaders to quarter the police in the Conservatory to close the Conservatory entirely 120 Ilya Repin 17 October 1905 A lifelong liberal politically 121 Rimsky Korsakov wrote that he felt someone had to protect the rights of the students to demonstrate especially as disputes and wrangling between students and authorities were becoming increasingly violent In an open letter he sided with the students against what he saw as unwarranted interference by Conservatory leadership and the Russian Musical Society 120 A second letter this time signed by a number of faculty including Rimsky Korsakov demanded the resignation of the head of the Conservatory Partly as a result of these two letters he wrote approximately 100 Conservatory students were expelled and he was removed from his professorship 122 Just before the dismissal was enacted Rimsky Korsakov received a letter from one of the members of the school directorate suggesting that he take up the directorship in the interest of calming student unrest Probably the member of the Directorate held a minority opinion but signed the resolution nevertheless he wrote I sent a negative reply 123 Partly in defiance of his dismissal Rimsky Korsakov continued teaching his students from his home 124 Not long after Rimsky Korsakov s dismissal a student production of his opera Kashchey the Immortal was followed not with the scheduled concert but with a political demonstration 125 which led to a police ban on Rimsky Korsakov s work 125 Due in part to widespread press coverage of these events 126 an immediate wave of outrage against the ban arose throughout Russia and abroad liberals and intellectuals deluged the composer s residence with letters of sympathy 127 and even peasants who had not heard a note of Rimsky Korsakov s music sent small monetary donations 121 Several faculty members of the St Petersburg Conservatory resigned in protest including Glazunov and Lyadov 128 Eventually over 300 students walked out of the Conservatory in solidarity with Rimsky Korsakov 129 By December he had been reinstated under a new director Glazunov 126 Rimsky Korsakov retired from the Conservatory in 1906 130 The political controversy continued with his opera The Golden Cockerel Its implied criticism of monarchy Russian imperialism and the Russo Japanese War gave it little chance of passing the censors 129 The premiere was delayed until 1909 after Rimsky Korsakov s death and even then it was performed in an adapted version 129 Rimsky Korsakov s grave at Tikhvin Cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery In April 1907 Rimsky Korsakov conducted a pair of concerts in Paris hosted by impresario Sergei Diaghilev which featured music of the Russian nationalist school The concerts were hugely successful in popularizing Russian classical music of this kind in Europe Rimsky Korsakov s in particular The following year his opera Sadko was produced at the Paris Opera and The Snow Maiden at the Opera Comique 126 He also had the opportunity to hear more recent music by European composers He hissed unabashedly when he heard Richard Strauss s opera Salome and told Diaghilev after hearing Claude Debussy s opera Pelleas et Melisande Don t make me listen to all these horrors or I shall end up liking them 126 Hearing these works led him to appreciate his place in the world of classical music He admitted that he was a convinced kuchkist after kuchka the shortened Russian term for The Five and that his works belonged to an era that musical trends had left behind 126 Death Edit Beginning around 1890 Rimsky Korsakov suffered from angina 119 While this ailment initially wore him down gradually the stresses concurrent with the 1905 Revolution and its aftermath greatly accelerated its progress After December 1907 his illness became severe and he could not work 131 In 1908 he died at his Lubensk estate near Luga modern day Plyussky District of Pskov Oblast and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg next to Borodin Glinka Mussorgsky and Stasov 126 Compositions EditSee also List of compositions by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov Portrait of Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov by Valentin Serov 1898 Rimsky Korsakov followed the musical ideals espoused by The Five He employed Orthodox liturgical themes in the Russian Easter Festival Overture folk song in Capriccio Espagnol and orientalism in Scheherazade possibly his best known work 3 132 He proved a prolific composer but also a perpetually self critical one He revised every orchestral work up to and including his Third Symphony some like Antar and Sadko more than once These revisions range from minor changes of tempo phrasing and instrumental detail to wholesale transposition and complete recomposition 133 Rimsky Korsakov was open about the influences in his music telling Vasily Yastrebtsev Study Liszt and Balakirev more closely and you ll see that a great deal in me is not mine 134 He followed Balakirev in his use of the whole tone scale treatment of folk songs and musical orientalism and Liszt for harmonic adventurousness The violin melody used to portray Scheherazade is very closely related to its counterpart in Balakirev s symphonic poem Tamara while the Russian Easter Overtures follows the design and plan of Balakirev s Second Overture on Russian Themes 3 132 Nevertheless while he took Glinka and Liszt as his harmonic models his use of whole tone and octatonic scales do demonstrate his originality He developed both these compositional devices for the fantastic sections of his operas which depicted magical or supernatural characters and events 116 Rimsky Korsakov maintained an interest in harmonic experiments and continued exploring new idioms throughout his career He tempered this interest with an abhorrence of excess and kept his tendency to experiment under constant control 116 The more radical his harmonies became the more he attempted to control them with strict rules applying his musical conscience as he called it In this sense he was both a progressive and a conservative composer 116 The whole tone and octatonic scales were both considered adventurous in the Western classical tradition and Rimsky Korsakov s use of them made his harmonies seem radical Conversely his care about how or when in a composition he used these scales made him seem conservative compared with later composers like Igor Stravinsky though they were often building on Rimsky Korsakov s work 135 Operas Edit Music samples Flight of the Bumblebee source source Flight of the Bumblebee performed by US Army BandThe Flight of the Bumblebee source source Arrangement for two pianos by Russel Warner performed by Neal and Nancy O DoanThe Song of the Indian Guest source source 1929 recording of transcription for violin and piano featuring violinist Vasa Prihoda Problems playing these files See media help While Rimsky Korsakov is best known in the West for his orchestral works his operas are more complex offering a wider variety of orchestral effects than in his instrumental works and fine vocal writing 125 Excerpts and suites from them have proved as popular in the West as the purely orchestral works The best known of these excerpts is probably Flight of the Bumblebee from The Tale of Tsar Saltan which has often been heard by itself in orchestral programs and in countless arrangements and transcriptions most famously in a piano version made by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff Other selections familiar to listeners in the West are Dance of the Tumblers from The Snow Maiden Procession of the Nobles from Mlada and Song of the Indian Guest or less accurately Song of India from Sadko as well as suites from The Golden Cockerel and The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya 136 The Operas fall into three categories Historical drama The Maid of Pskov and its prologue The Noblewoman Vera Sheloga Mozart and Salieri The Tsar s Bride Pan Voyevoda Servilya Folk operas May Night Christmas Eve Fairy tales and legends The Snow Maiden Mlada Sadko Kashchey the Deathless The Tale of Tsar Saltan The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya and The Golden Cockerel Of this range Rimsky Korsakov wrote in 1902 In every new work of mine I am trying to do something that is new for me On the one hand I am pushed on by the thought that in this way my music will retain freshness and interest but at the same time I am prompted by my pride to think that many facets devices moods and styles if not all should be within my reach 121 American music critic and journalist Harold C Schonberg wrote that the operas open up a delightful new world the world of the Russian East the world of supernaturalism and the exotic the world of Slavic pantheism and vanished races Genuine poetry suffuses them and they are scored with brilliance and resource 136 According to some critics Rimsky Korsakov s music in these works lacks dramatic power a seemingly fatal flaw in an operatic composer This may have been conscious as he repeatedly stated in his writing that he felt operas were first and foremost musical works rather than mainly dramatic ones Ironically the operas succeed dramatically in most cases by being deliberately non theatrical 137 Orchestral works Edit The purely orchestral works fall into two categories The best known ones in the West and perhaps the finest in overall quality are mainly programmatic in nature in other words the musical content and how it is handled in the piece is determined by the plot or characters in a story the action in a painting or events reported through another non musical source 3 The second category of works is more academic such as his First and Third Symphonies and his Sinfonietta In these Rimsky Korsakov still employed folk themes but subjected them to abstract rules of musical composition 3 Opening themes of the Sultan and Scheherazade Program music came naturally to Rimsky Korsakov To him even a folk theme has a program of sorts 3 He composed the majority of his orchestral works in this genre at two periods of his career at the beginning with Sadko and Antar also known as his Second Symphony Op 9 and in the 1880s with Scheherazade Capriccio Espagnol and the Russian Easter Overture Despite the gap between these two periods the composer s overall approach and the way he used his musical themes remained consistent Both Antar and Scheherazade use a robust Russian theme to portray the male protagonists the title character in Antar the sultan in Scheherazade and a more sinuous Eastern theme for the female ones the peri Gul Nazar in Antar and the title character in Scheherazade 138 Where Rimsky Korsakov changed between these two sets of works was in orchestration While his pieces were always celebrated for their imaginative use of instrumental forces the sparser textures of Sadko and Antar pale compared to the luxuriance of the more popular works of the 1880s While a principle of highlighting primary hues of instrumental color remained in place it was augmented in the later works by a sophisticated cachet of orchestral effects some gleaned from other composers including Wagner but many invented by himself 3 As a result these works resemble brightly colored mosaics striking in their own right and often scored with a juxtaposition of pure orchestral groups 125 The final tutti of Scheherazade is a prime example of this scoring The theme is assigned to trombones playing in unison and is accompanied by a combination of string patterns Meanwhile another pattern alternates with chromatic scales in the woodwinds and a third pattern of rhythms is played by percussion 139 Rimsky Korsakov s non program music though well crafted does not rise to the same level of inspiration as his programmatic works he needed fantasy to bring out the best in him 3 The First Symphony follows the outlines of Schumann s Fourth extremely closely and is slighter in its thematic material than his later compositions The Third Symphony and Sinfonietta each contain a series of variations on less than the best music that can lead to tedium 3 Smaller scale works Edit Rimsky Korsakov composed dozens of art songs arrangements of folk songs chamber and piano music While the piano music is relatively unimportant many of the art songs possess a delicate beauty While they yield in overt lyricism to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff otherwise they reserve their place in the standard repertory of Russian singers 3 Rimsky Korsakov also wrote a body of choral works both secular and for Russian Orthodox Church service The latter include settings of portions of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom despite his own atheism 140 141 142 Legacy EditTransitional figure Edit The critic Vladimir Stasov who along with Balakirev had founded The Five wrote in 1882 Beginning with Glinka all the best Russian musicians have been very skeptical of book learning and have never approached it with the servility and the superstitious reverence with which it is approached to this day in many parts of Europe 143 This statement was not true for Glinka who studied Western music theory assiduously with Siegfried Dehn in Berlin before he composed his opera A Life for the Tsar 144 It was true for Balakirev who opposed academicism with tremendous vigor 45 and it was true initially for Rimsky Korsakov who had been imbued by Balakirev and Stasov with the same attitude 145 Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov by Emil Wiesel One point Stasov omitted purposely which would have disproved his statement completely was that at the time he wrote it Rimsky Korsakov had been pouring his book learning into students at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory for over a decade 146 Beginning with his three years of self imposed study Rimsky Korsakov had drawn closer to Tchaikovsky and further away from the rest of The Five while the rest of The Five had drawn back from him and Stasov had branded him a renegade 146 Richard Taruskin wrote The older he became the greater was the irony with which Rimsky Korsakov looked back on his kuchkist days 147 When the young Semyon Kruglikov was considering a future in composition Rimsky Korsakov wrote the future critic About a talent for composition I can say nothing as yet You have tried your powers too little Yes one can study on one s own Sometimes one needs advice but one must study All of us that is I myself and Borodin and Balakirev and especially Cui and Mussorgsky did disdain these things I consider myself lucky that I bethought myself in time and forced myself to work As for Balakirev owing to his insufficient technique he writes little Borodin with difficulty Cui carelessly and Mussorgsky sloppily and often incoherently 148 Taruskin points out this statement which Rimsky Korsakov wrote while Borodin and Mussorgsky were still alive as proof of his estrangement from the rest of The Five and an indication of the kind of teacher he eventually became 149 By the time he instructed Liadov and Glazunov their training hardly differed from Tchaikovsky s An ideal of the strictest professionalism was instilled in them from the beginning 149 By the time Borodin died in 1887 the era of autodidactism for Russian composers had effectively ended Every Russian who aspired to write classical music attended a conservatory and received the same formal education 150 There was no more Moscow no St Petersburg Taruskin writes at last all Russia was one Moreover by century s end the theory and composition faculties of Rubinstein s Conservatory were entirely in the hands of representatives of the New Russian School Viewed against the background of Stasov s predictions there could scarcely be any greater irony 151 Students Edit Rimsky Korsakov taught theory and composition to 250 students over his 35 year tenure at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory enough to people a whole school of composers This does not include pupils at the two other schools where he taught including Glazunov or those he taught privately at his home such as Igor Stravinsky 152 Apart from Glazunov and Stravinsky students who later found fame included Anatoly Lyadov Mikhail Ippolitov Ivanov Alexander Spendiaryan Sergei Prokofiev Ottorino Respighi Witold Maliszewski Mykola Lysenko Artur Kapp and Konstanty Gorski Other students included the music critic and musicologist Alexander Ossovsky and the composer Lazare Saminsky 153 Rimsky Korsakov felt talented students needed little formal dictated instruction His teaching method included distinct steps show the students everything needed in harmony and counterpoint direct them in understanding the forms of composition give them a year or two of systematic study in the development of technique exercises in free composition and orchestration instill a good knowledge of the piano Once these were properly completed studies would be over 154 He carried this attitude into his conservatory classes Conductor Nikolai Malko remembered that Rimsky Korsakov began the first class of the term by saying I will speak and you will listen Then I will speak less and you will start to work And finally I will not speak at all and you will work 155 Malko added that his class followed exactly this pattern Rimsky Korsakov explained everything so clearly and simply that all we had to do was to do our work well 155 Editing the work of The Five Edit Rimsky Korsakov s editing of works by The Five is significant It was a practical extension of the collaborative atmosphere of The Five during the 1860s and 1870s when they heard each other s compositions in progress and worked on them together and was an effort to save works that would otherwise either have languished unheard or become lost entirely This work included the completion of Alexander Borodin s opera Prince Igor which Rimsky Korsakov undertook with the help of Glazunov after Borodin s death 88 and the orchestration of passages from Cesar Cui s William Ratcliff for its first production in 1869 33 He also completely orchestrated the opera The Stone Guest byAlexander Dargomyzhsky three times in 1869 70 1892 and 1902 40 While not a member of The Five himself Dargomyzhsky was closely associated with the group and shared their musical philosophy 33 Fyodor Chaliapin was a powerful exponent of the Rimsky Korsakov version of Boris Godunov which launched the work in the world s opera houses but has since fallen out of favor Portrait by Aleksandr Golovin Musicologist Francis Maes wrote that while Rimsky Korsakov s efforts are laudable they are also controversial It was generally assumed that with Prince Igor Rimsky Korsakov edited and orchestrated the existing fragments of the opera while Glazunov composed and added missing parts including most of the third act and the overture 156 157 This was exactly what Rimsky Korsakov stated in his memoirs 158 Both Maes and Richard Taruskin cite an analysis of Borodin s manuscripts by musicologist Pavel Lamm which showed that Rimsky Korsakov and Glazunov discarded nearly 20 percent of Borodin s score 159 According to Maes the result is more a collaborative effort by all three composers than a true representation of Borodin s intent 160 Lamm stated that because of the extremely chaotic state of Borodin s manuscripts a modern alternative to Rimsky Korsakov and Glazunov s edition would be extremely difficult to complete 160 More debatable according to Maes is Rimsky Korsakov s editing of Mussorgsky s works After Mussorgsky s death in 1881 Rimsky Korsakov revised and completed several of Mussorgsky s works for publication and performance helping to spread Mussorgsky s works throughout Russia and to the West Maes in reviewing Mussorgsky s scores wrote that Rimsky Korsakov allowed his musical conscience to dictate his editing and he changed or removed what he considered musical over experimentation or poor form 118 Because of this Rimsky Korsakov has been accused of pedantry in correcting among other things matters of harmony Rimsky Korsakov may have foreseen questions over his efforts when he wrote If Mussorgsky s compositions are destined to live unfaded for fifty years after their author s death when all his works will become the property of any and every publisher such an archeologically accurate edition will always be possible as the manuscripts went to the Public Library on leaving me For the present though there was need of an edition for performances for practical artistic purposes for making his colossal talent known and not for the mere studying of his personality and artistic sins 161 Maes stated that time proved Rimsky Korsakov correct when it came to posterity s re evaluation of Mussorgsky s work Mussorgsky s musical style once considered unpolished is now admired for its originality While Rimsky Korsakov s arrangement of Night on Bald Mountain is still the version generally performed Rimsky Korsakov s other revisions like his version of Boris Godunov have been replaced by Mussorgsky s original 162 Folklore and pantheism EditRimsky Korsakov may have saved the most personal side of his creativity for his approach to Russian folklore Folklorism as practiced by Balakirev and the other members of The Five had been based largely on the protyazhnaya dance song 163 Protyazhnaya literally meant drawn out song or melismatically elaborated lyric song 164 The characteristics of this song exhibit extreme rhythmic flexibility an asymmetrical phrase structure and tonal ambiguity 164 After composing May Night Rimsky Korsakov was increasingly drawn to calendar songs which were written for specific ritual occasions The ties to folk culture was what interested him most in folk music even in his days with The Five these songs formed a part of rural customs echoed old Slavic paganism and the pantheistic world of folk rites 163 Rimsky Korsakov wrote that his interest in these songs was heightened by his study of them while compiling his folk song collections 165 He wrote that he was captivated by the poetic side of the cult of sun worship and sought its survivals and echoes in both the tunes and the words of the songs The pictures of the ancient pagan period and spirit loomed before me as it then seemed with great clarity luring me on with the charm of antiquity These occupations subsequently had a great influence in the direction of my own activity as a composer 82 Rimsky Korsakov s interest in pantheism was whetted by the folkloristic studies of Alexander Afanasyev 163 That author s standard work The Poetic Outlook on Nature by the Slavs became Rimsky Korsakov s pantheistic bible The composer first applied Afanasyev s ideas in May Night in which he helped fill out Gogol s story by using folk dances and calendar songs 163 He went further down this path in The Snow Maiden 163 where he made extensive use of seasonal calendar songs and khorovodi ceremonial dances in the folk tradition 166 Musicologists and Slavicists have long recognized that Rimsky Korsakov was an ecumenical artist whose folklore inspired operas take up such issues as the relationship between paganism and Christianity and the seventeenth century schism in the Orthodox Church 167 In film EditThe Soviet 1953 film Rimsky Korsakov presents the last twenty years of his life He is played by Grigori Belov His earlier years with The Five were portrayed by Andrei Popov in the 1950 film from the same studio titled Mussorgsky Publications EditRimsky Korsakov s autobiography and his books on harmony and orchestration have been translated into English and published Two books he started in 1892 but left unfinished were a comprehensive text on Russian music and a manuscript now lost on an unknown subject 168 My Musical Life Letopis moej muzykalnoj zhizni literally Chronicle of My Musical Life Trans from the 5th rev Russian ed by Judah A Joffe ed with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten London Ernst Eulenburg Ltd 1974 Practical Manual of Harmony Prakticheskij uchebnik garmonii First published in Russian in 1885 First English edition published by Carl Fischer in 1930 trans from the 12th Russian ed by Joseph Achron Current English ed by Nicholas Hopkins New York New York C Fischer 2005 Principles of Orchestration Osnovy orkestrovki Begun in 1873 and completed posthumously by Maximilian Steinberg in 1912 first published in Russian in 1922 ed by Maximilian Steinberg English trans by Edward Agate New York Dover Publications 1964 unabridged and corrected republication of the work first published by Edition russe de musique in 1922 References EditFootnotes Edit Russian Nikolaj Andreevich Rimskij Korsakov tr Nikolay Andreyevich Rimskiy Korsakov nʲɪkeˈlaj ɐnˈdrʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ˈrʲimskʲɪj ˈkorsekef listen At the time his name was spelled Nikolaj Andreevich Rimskij Korsakov Latin Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij Korsakov The composer romanized his name as Nicolas Rimsky Korsakow 1 The BGN PCGN transliteration of Russian is used for his name here ALA LC system Nikolaĭ Andrevich Rimskiĭ Korsakov ISO 9 system Nikolaj Andreevic Rimskij Korsakov 2 Russia was still using old style dates in the 19th century rendering his lifespan as 6 March 1844 8 June 1908 Some sources in the article report dates as old style rather than new style The Five also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg Russia in the years 1856 1870 Mily Balakirev the leader Cesar Cui Modest Mussorgsky Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov and Alexander Borodin This is not the first symphony by a Russian Anton Rubinstein composed his first symphony in 1850 Figes 391 Citations Edit Nicolas Rimsky Korsakow Fantasie de Concert Si mineur pour Violon et Orchestre sur des themes russes Leipzig M P Belaieff 1912 Retrieved 15 January 2021 Russian BGN PCGN transliteration system transliteration com Retrieved 2 December 2020 a b c d e f g h i j Frolova Walker New Grove 2001 21 409 Abraham New Grove 1980 16 34 a b Tatiana Rimskaya Korsakova 2008 N A Rimsky Korsakov From the Family Letters Saint Petersburg Compositor 247 pages pp 8 9 ISBN 978 5 91461 005 7 The Korsakov family from Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary at Wikisource The Rimsky Korsakov family from Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary at Wikisource Iosif Rismky Korsakov in Russian Orthodox Encyclopedia 2011 Retrieved 6 January 2021 Page 53 gerbovnik ru in Russian General Armorial of the Noble Families of the Russian Empire 1798 Retrieved 14 January 2021 Page 52 gerbovnik ru in Russian General Armorial of the Noble Families of the Russian Empire 1798 Retrieved 14 January 2021 Tatiana Rimskaya Korsakova 1995 Childhood and Youth of N A Rimsky Korsakov From the Family Letters Saint Petersburg Compositor 278 pages pp 9 10 ISBN 978 5 7379 0007 6 Skaryatin coat of arms by All Russian Armorials of Noble Houses of the Russian Empire Part 6 23 June 1801 in Russian a b Taruskin Music p 166 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 4 a b Abraham New Grove 1980 16 27 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 5 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Frolova Walker New Grove 2001 21 400 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 8 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 11 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life pp 11 13 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 15 a b Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 16 Calvocoressi and Abraham Masters of Russian Music p 342 Abraham New Grove 1980 2 28 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life 18 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life pp 19 20 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 38 Abraham A Short Biography pp 23 25 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 22 Abraham New Grove 1980 2 28 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 42 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 48 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 55 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 56 a b Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life pp 58 59 a b c d e f g h i j Abraham New Grove 1980 16 28 a b Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 29 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 30 Maes p 44 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 57 a b c Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 21 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 123 a b c d e f g h Frolova Walker New Grove 2001 21 401 Figes p 18 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 116 Maes p 48 Zetlin pp 194 195 a b Maes p 39 Maes pp 169 170 a b Zetlin p 195 Zetlin pp 195 196 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 117 Brown Crisis Years pp 228 229 Maes p 48 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 75 Brown Early Years pp 54 83 Brown Early Years pp 88 89 Brown Crisis Years pp 228 229 a b Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 119 a b c d e f g Abraham New Grove 1980 16 29 Maes p 170 a b Schonberg p 363 a b c d Abraham New Grove 1980 16 28 Schonberg p 362 Zetlin pp 164 166 Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov continued symphonyinc org Retrieved 6 September 2011 Guseinova Zivar M 2017 PETERBURGSKIJ UNIVERSITET V ZhIZNI RIMSKIH KORSAKOVYH po lichnym pismam chlenov semi St Petersburg University in Rimsky Korsakov s family on the basis of personal letters VESTNIK SANKT PETERBURGSKOGO UNIVERSITETA ISKUSSTVOVEDENIE in Russian 7 3 296 303 doi 10 21638 11701 spbu15 2017 301 hdl 11701 8539 McAllister and Rayskin New Grove 2001 21 423 24 Abraham New Grove 1980 16 28 29 Zetlin p 164 a b c Neff New Grove 2001 21 423 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical life pp 135 136 a b c Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 136 Leonard p 148 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life pp 141 142 Frolova Walker New Grove 2001 8 404 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 335 a b c d Leonard p 149 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life 133 a b As quoted in Brown Crisis Years p 229 Zetlin pp 303 304 a b Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life 151 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life 157 ft 30 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life 164 a b c d e f Frolova Walker New Grove 2001 21 402 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 163 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life pp 164 165 a b Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 166 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 172 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 175 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life pp 188 189 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 208 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 235 a b c d e f Maes p 171 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 261 Figes pp 195 97 Maes 173 74 196 97 Taruskin p 49 a b Taruskin Stravinsky p 42 Taruskin Stravinsky p 44 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 269 Abraham New Grove 1980 16 29 30 Zetlin p 313 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 281 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 296 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 288 Maes p 173 Maes p 192 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life pp 286 287 Brown Final Years 91 Brown Final Years p 90 a b Taruskin Stravinsky p 31 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 308 Taruskin Stravinsky p 39 As quoted in Holden p 64 Poznansky Quest p 564 Taruskin Stravinsky p 39 Holden p 316 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 309 Taruskin Stravinsky p 39 Brown Final Years p 465 Brown Final Years p 474 a b c Abraham New Grove 1980 16 30 Maes pp 176 177 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 298 As quoted in Taruskin Stravinsky p 55 a b c d Maes p 180 As quoted in Taruskin Stravinsky p 40 a b Maes p 181 a b c d e Abraham New Grove 16 31 a b c Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 411 a b c Frolova Walker New Grove 2001 21 405 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 412 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life p 478 Taruskin Stravinsky 1 386 a b c d Abraham New Grove 1980 16 32 a b c d e f Frolova Walker New Grove 2001 21 406 Leonard p 167 Frolova Walker New Grove 2001 pp 405 406 a b c Maes p 178 Taruskin Stravinsky p 73 Rimsky Korsakov Preface xxiii a b Maes pp 175 176 Abraham Slavonic pp 197 198 Yastrebtsev p 37 Maes pp 180 195 a b Schonberg p 364 Abraham New Grove 1980 16 33 Maes pp 82 175 Abraham New Grove 1980 16 32 33 Abraham The New Grove Russian Masters 2 p 27 Abraham Studies in Russian Music 288 Morrison pp 116 117 168 169 As quoted in Taruskin Stravinsky 24 Maes 19 Maes 38 39 a b Taruskin Stravinsky 29 Taruskin Stravinsky 32 As quoted in Taruskin Stravinsky 33 a b Taruskin Stravinsky 34 Taruskin Stravinsky 40 41 Taruskin Stravinsky 41 Taruskin Stravinsky 1 163 Schonberg 365 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life 34 a b Malko 49 Maes 182 Taruskin Music 185 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life 283 Maes 182 83 a b Maes 183 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life 249 Maes 115 a b c d e Maes p 187 a b Maes p 65 Rimsky Korsakov My Musical Life pp 165 166 Maes p 188 Morrison Simon 1 January 2002 Review of The Complete Sacred Choral Works Notes 58 4 939 942 doi 10 1353 not 2002 0087 JSTOR 900592 S2CID 191647981 Leonard 150 Sources Edit In English Abraham Gerald Rimsky Korsakov Nikolay Andreyevich In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians London Macmillan 1980 20 vols ed Stanley Sadie ISBN 978 0 333 23111 1 Abraham Gerald Studies in Russian Music London William Reeves The New Temple Press 1936 ISBN n a Abraham Gerald Rimsky Korsakov a Short Biography London Duckworth 1945 rpt New York AMS Press 1976 Later ed Rimsky Korsakov London Duckworth 1949 Abraham Gerald Slavonic and Romantic Music Essays and Studies London Faber amp Faber 1968 ISBN 978 0 571 08450 0 Abraham Gerald Rimsky Korsakov Nikolay Andreyevich In The New Grove Russian Masters 2 New York W W Norton amp Company 1986 ISBN 978 0 393 30103 8 Brown David Tchaikovsky The Early Years 1840 1874 New York W W Norton amp Company Inc 1978 ISBN 978 0 393 07535 9 Brown David Tchaikovsky The Crisis Years 1874 1878 New York W W Norton amp Company 1983 ISBN 978 0 393 01707 6 Brown David Tchaikovsky The Final Years 1885 1893 New York W W Norton amp Company 1991 ISBN 978 0 393 03099 0 Calvocoressi M D and Gerald Abraham Masters of Russian Music New York Tudor Publishing Company 1944 ISBN n a Figes Orlando Natasha s Dance A Cultural History of Russia New York Metropolitan Books 2002 ISBN 978 0 8050 5783 6 hc Frolova Walker Marina Rimsky Korsakov Russian family of musicians 1 Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky Korsakov In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Second Edition London Macmillan 2001 29 vols ed Stanley Sadie ISBN 978 1 56159 239 5 Holden Anthony Tchaikovsky A Biography New York Random House 1995 ISBN 978 0 679 42006 4 Leonard Richard Anthony A History of Russian Music New York Macmillan 1957 LCCN 57 7295 McAllister Rita and Iosef Genrikhovich Rayskin Rimsky Korsakov Russian family of musicians 3 Andrey Nikolayevich Rimsky Korsakov In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Second Edition London Macmillan 2001 29 vols ed Stanley Sadie ISBN 978 1 56159 239 5 Maes Francis tr Pomerans Arnold J and Erica Pomerans A History of Russian Music FromKamarinskaya to Babi Yar Berkeley Los Angeles and London University of California Press 2002 ISBN 978 0 520 21815 4 Morrison Simon Russian Opera and the Symbolist Movement Berkeley and Los Angeles University of California Press 2002 ISBN 978 0 520 22943 3 Neff Lyle Rimsky Korsakov Russian family of musicians 2 Nadezhda Nikolayevna Rimskaya Korsakova nee Purgold In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians Second Edition London Macmillan 2001 29 vols ed Stanley Sadie ISBN 978 1 56159 239 5 Poznansky Alexander Tchaikovsky The Quest for the Inner Man Lime Tree 1993 ISBN 978 0 413 45721 9 Rimsky Korsakov Nikolai Letoppis Moyey Muzykalnoy Zhizni St Petersburg 1909 published in English as My Musical Life New York Knopf 1925 3rd ed 1942 ISBN n a Schonberg Harold C Lives of the Great Composers New York W W Norton amp Company 3rd ed 1997 ISBN 978 0 393 03857 6 Taruskin Richard Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions A Biography of the Works Through Mavra Volume 1 Oxford and New York Oxford University Press 1996 ISBN 978 0 19 816250 6 Taruskin Richard On Russian Music Berkeley and Los Angeles University of California Press 2009 ISBN 978 0 520 24979 0 Yastrebtsev Vasily Vasilievich Reminiscences of Rimsky Korsakov New York Columbia University Press 1985 ed and trans Florence Jonas ISBN 978 0 231 05260 3 Zetlin Mikhail tr and ed George Panin The Five Westport Connecticut Greenwood Press 1959 1975 ISBN 978 0 8371 6797 8 In Russian Malko N A Vospominaniia Stat i Pisma Reminiscences Articles Letters Leningrad 1972 Further reading EditNelson John The Significance of Rimsky Korsakov in the Development of a Russian National Identity Diss Studia musicologica Universitatis Helsingiensis 25 University of Helsinki 2013 ISSN 0787 4294 ISBN 978 952 10 9390 6 Abstract Seaman Gerald Nikolay Andreevich Rimsky Korsakov A Research and Information Guide Second Edition Routledge 2014 ISBN 978 0 415 81011 1External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov Free scores by Rimsky Korsakov at the International Music Score Library Project IMSLP Free scores by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov in the Choral Public Domain Library ChoralWiki Works by Nikolay Rimsky Korsakov at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov at Internet Archive Principles of Orchestration at Project Gutenberg full searchable text with music images mp3 files and MusicXML files Principles of Orchestration full text with interactive scores Portals Classical music Opera Biography Music Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov amp oldid 1145596630, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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