Masters of Russian Music Rimsky Korsakof

MASTER S OF R USSIAN MUSIC R I M S K Y K O R S A K O F M M O N TAG U NATHAN . D UF F I E L D A ND C O M PAN Y "fl 1' 5UU UU'l' lUN CAR EER PART II AS OPER ATIC C OMPOSER IN STR UMENTAL AN D VOCAL C OMP OSITION S APPENDI" OPER ATIC SYN OP SE S W OR K S R IMSKY - KOR SAKOF INTRODUCTI ON — S TUDENTS of Slavon ic Literature a subj ect that deserves the earnest attention of allwho would under — stand Russian music are aware that the poets of the first quarter of the nineteenth century were for the most part in revolt against the then prevalent worship of Classicism in art , and that with the early works of Pushkin a movement aiming at the enthronement of Nationalism was initiated . The parallel force in music can hardly be called a movement , since the prime mover was a man who , at i a moment when isolated from nationalistic nfluences , stumbled upon the truth by accident . Michael i ink s l Ivanov ch Gl a , listening to mu ic in Italy , sudden y became possessed by an intense longing for a kind of of e music that would speak to him his nativ land . At that moment he had little more than his profound love of for ni e music to help him , his tech cal knowl dge was i of of the scantiest . His conv ction that the music the — People a vast though neglected store of melody ul of - u co d be used as the basis art m sic was sufficient . ’ The result of Glin ka s effort has been acclaimed by 8 RIMSKY - K OR SAK OF of several generations , and his fame as the composer for A Life the Tsar is ever on the increase . But it was not until the fifties that Russian musical nationalis m really became a movement . Active pro pagan da did n ot begin until that fateful evening when Mli Alexe evich Balakiref the two young reformers , i y es and C ar Antonovich Cui , met at a concert in of Petrograd , and agreed that in the foundation a national Russian Music they had a common cause worthy of their labours . It was then that the first word of a glorious page in Russian musical history was or written . Their activities were more less limited until r Borodin and Moussorgsky joined in thei deliberations , and the campaign was not fully launched until the great - t f mi k . S asso Dar o s art critic , V V , and the composer g j y , s whose reputation was already establi hed , associated s them elves with the little band . on e Curiously enough it was the last recruit , and the e who l ast musically educated , was destined to achieve more for Russian musical nationalism than any of his s - or akof comr ades . When young Rim ky K s joined the group he had nothing to contribute beyond an en thu sia m n s for the joi t ideal . His technical understanding ’ of the art of music was virtually m l he had heard n ot comparatively little , and he did possess the saving grace that gave Moussorgsky a certain power among —a for - them gift piano playing . Like Glinka , he regarded the national ideal as something affectin g him ’ erson all an d l p yfi profoundly . If anything cou d bring in to action the creative faculty he felt v rs it INTRODUCTION 9 this need for the expression of the Soul of Rus sia in its — mus ic the chief topic of discussion among the Five . s Balakiref Dar omi sk Hi torians relate that in and g j y , “ ll w e both persona y kno n to Glinka , the fath r of Russian Opera saw the upholders of the tradition he had founded . Events have proved that the young of naval cadet , who thought the composer of A Life for the Tsar rather as a god than as a mortal , was the on e on whose shoulders the mantle of Glinka For Rims ky- K orsakof was by nature both a nation i s . al t and a propagandist He was , moreover , a was o s thorough Russian in another sense . He p sses ed of the spirit that drives a man to undertake the ap n l o s pare t y imp ssible . And thi faculty has saved both himself and the cause he represented from destruction of at the hands a reactionary opposition . Begging the o con tra is questi n in the argument National m , its opponents never tired of referring to the technical To i - K ors kof deficiencies of its advocates . this R msky a nl on e Al z d found o y answer possible . ready recogni e l as a gifted composer , he addressed himse f to an of arduous course technical study , from which he eventually emerged with so great a mastery as to arouse the envy of the most exp erienced and respected c o of . omp ser his day , Tchaikovsky Henceforth Nationalism was to be free of the stigma of being — advocated by dilettanti its future was assured . The naval offi cer had become a musician at whose technical a i ttainments none could cav l . 10 RIMSKY - K OR SAK OF But his respect for the original ideal was not in any degree impaired by the eru dition with which his studies u had endowed him . J st as the poets of the previous c of i e century , prior to the re onstruction the mut lat d e ui r Russian tongue , had be n obliged to eq p thei e stringl ss lyre before it could be used , so had Rimsky K orsakof been confronted wi th the task of cons tructing in his own personal medium of expression . Hav g e n acquir d the means , he proved his worthiness to attai the end by showing that the hardly- won instrument was in the hands of a true bard . That Rims ky- K orsakof was a poet no on e can doubt of who has read his impressions the ocean , recorded u . when , as a naval cadet , he cruised in the so thern seas ’ f They recall Gogols famous descriptions o the steppes . l ff of Yet whi e a poet , he was not lacking in the stu which reformers are made . When quite a youth he was proud to number himself - among the champions of free thought , and he found scope for its advocacy among his comrades aboard the — clipper in which he made his tour of the world some of them being inclined to uphold the old régime of n of serfdom and obscurantism . Readi g these dis cussions on e of n , is reminded the you g Krapotkin , of who at about the same time , while a member the of s Imperial Corps Pages , was awakening to a consciou wi sympathy th liberal principles . Fortunately for the composer he was able to envelop his protests in a veil that was but rarely penetrated of r by the eye authority , though he did not altogethe INTRODUCTION 11 e s escape c nsure . He became embroiled in the trouble of 190 5 when pleading for the self - government he deemed necessary to the future welfare of the s e Petrograd Con ervatoire , ov r which he was then presidin g ; and it was not for nothing that the students “ ” chose the symbolical K ashchei as the opera to be performed at the complimentary gathering held in his u hono r . e Yet his was not in the least a pugnacious charact r , and his music would as well have represented a man who held that the function of music began and ended of with the expression beauty . It has , however , done far more than that . In his fifteen operas Rims ky- K orsakof has collected all the of - elements art nationalism . He has taken the folk tales of Pushkin from the fireside and has brought n them i to the theatre , where an assembly may be made free of them ; he has rescued the folk- song from the printed volume in which it had but an ethnological ni m sig ficance , and has given it back to those fro e whom it came . He has revealed the sourc s from which the all - pervading spirituality of the Russian People has sprung , and has introduced into his music n of dramas a vast amou t episodic material that . as a s of of i mean playing upon the emotions his aud ence, as ff - or - is just e ective as any folk song fairy tale . “ own In his words he has listened to the People , and has restored to them their own product embellished of by the touch the artist . k we The People are the creators , said Glin a , RIMSKY- K OR SAK OF of imsk arrangers . The output . R kof forbids the use of such a as arran g re- to describe it . His art is a creation , ai bstan ce is tran sfigured the of his i i n o . P A R T I CAREER I . NIK OLAI AN D R E YEVI CH R IMSK Y- K OR SAK OF was born 6th 1844 vi Go on March , at Tikh n , in the vern of of ment Novgorod .

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