Music of RussiaUSAD 2012-2013

Folk Music Folk songs varied locally from region to region

Different villages sang different songs ¨ They also sang different variations of the same song

Urban assimilation of villages transformed folk songs ¨ In some cases, urban popular music obliterated folk

tradition The late 18th century gave rise to folk song

transcription Educated urban gentlemen spearheaded the notation

of folk music Many of these men were amateur musicians Their work introduced folk songs into the world of art

music

Transcription

Scotland pioneered transcription, but Germany performed most important legwork

Achim von Arnim (1781-1831) and Clemens Brentano (1778-1842) compiled Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1805-1808) ¨ This folk song collection only included song

lyrics ¨ However, ensuing anthologies often featured

melodies as well

Johann Gottfried Herder Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803)

linked folk songs and nationalism This German philosopher traveled through

Europe and Russia He believed national divisions existed based on

language Herder considered folk song part of the

national, not just local, culture He was one of the first to note the national

importance of folk music Herder wrote that folk music channeled national

spirit Folk songs became part of national heritage

Transcription methods and their flaws

Before audio recording, transcribers relied solely on their memories Circumstances did not always allow the transcriber

to hear the song multiple times Even if he did, the same singer might still vary the

song Folk tradition did not stress rigid adherence to pitch and

rhythm Peasants only performed certain songs on certain

occasions Many folk songs were tied to ritual or work-related

events Thus, the transcriber only had one chance to listen These events, like weddings, often came with

distractions as well

Problems cont’d

The extensive lyrics took a long time to perform Many publishers only printed excerpts from songs

A nonsensical verse about nature might have led to a profound tale of love

Worse yet, publishers rarely indicated these omissions to the reader

Some scholarly works generally included full texts However, the general public could not easily access

these publications Even with the help of audio recording,

transcribers must still make choices Transcribers must decide which irregularities to

preserve and which to exclude

Problems cont’d Early transcribers did not bother themselves with

issues of authenticity Above all, these transcribers viewed folk songs as

market goods Transcriptions needed to appeal to domestic consumers Most arrangements involved solo voice and piano

Arrangers ignored or rewrote polyphony and heterophony These textures greatly differed from Western art music

Arrangers feared buyers would not approve Sometimes arrangers replaced Western-like idioms

to increase “folk” appeal Notated folk songs reflected urban expectation more

than rural tradition

More Problems with transcriptions

Despite their claims, arrangers always invented their own harmonies for folk melodies The original songs most often involved

only solo voice However, arrangers still claimed to use

“authentic” harmonies 20th-century arrangers became more

conscious of authenticity and accuracy

Track 1: “The Day was Breaking” This folk song derives from the Smolensk

region “The Day was Breaking” exemplifies the

protyazhnaya genre It features a long, winding melody

The melody is melismatic Each syllable stretches out over an entire

musical phrase Thus, the lyrics unfold incredibly slowly

The lyrics refer to army recruitment Russian conscripts served in the Tsarist army

for 25 years

“The Day was Breaking” cont’d - excerpt

Each verse begins with a zapev, or solo introduction The zapev centers on the interval of the fifth

Protyazhnayas often focus on this interval Mikhail Glinka described the fifth as “the soul of

Russian music” Podgoloski (“undervoices”) overwhelm the

zapev, thickening the texture Each ensuing verse becomes more dissonant At the end of each verse, the texture reverts to

unison

“The Day was Breaking” cont’d - excerpt

The song takes liberties with intervals At the outset, a minor third featuring the modal

center and the third scale degree appears However, at the end of each verse, a major

third appears This interval sounds widely tuned compared to

Western music 19th century collectors would dismiss the sound However, 20th century collectors indicated the

wider tuning in their notation The singers use “open” sounds, just as real

folk singers do

Overview Various types of “Russian folk songs” pervade the musical

world Examples include “Dark Eyes,” “Those Were the Days, My

Friend,” and “Coachman, Spare Your Horses” A few songs originated in the countryside 19th-century Russian restaurants often featured gypsy

singers and choirs Their repertoire included both true folk songs and urban-

created “folk” songs Most 18th- and 19th-century collectors focused on

notating legitimately rural folk songs These songs reflected local village traditions and rituals However, collections did include the occasional popular song

Scholars classify folk songs into genres They base these decisions based on the song’s function They also consider the lyrics and character of the song

Protyazhnaya A solo performer may sing a lyrical song without

a special occasion These songs often focus on a tale of unhappy love The best-known subgenre of lyrical songs is the

protyazhnaya Protyazhnaya literally means “prolonged”

A protyazhnaya typically features a long, winding melodic line

The melismatic aspect of the songs further increases their length Melismatic songs stretch each syllable over a musical

phrase Even native Russian speakers struggle to piece

together the slowly unfolding lyrics

The protyazhnaya took on great symbolic status in the 19th century Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852) established the

protyazhnaya as a symbol for Russia as a whole His novel Dead Souls (1842) includes a memorable

image Three horses lead a coach across an unending stretch of

Russian land The coachman sings a melancholic, interminable

protyazhnaya Thus, Gogol implies that both Russia and the

protyazhnaya are endless and tragic Many people came to believe all Russian folk songs

sounded melancholy City dwellers encountered the protyazhnaya more

frequently than other folk genres

Calendar Songs Rural peasants only performed calendar songs for

certain seasonal rituals These occasions include Advent, Christmas, Shrovetide,

and the summer solstice The lyrics of these songs often combine pagan and

Christian symbols Many Christian festivals replaced earlier pagan holidays

Calendar songs differ significantly from protyazhnaya songs Scholars believe calendar songs are much older than

lyrical ones Calendar songs use shorter, more syllabic melodic

phrases Each pitch corresponds to a single syllable of text

Other folk genres Wedding songs included joyous hymns and more depressing

tunes Tradition required the bride to sing a song lamenting leaving her

parental home Funeral laments featured naturalistic sobbing sounds The North of Russia favored byliny, or epic songs

These solo tunes recounted ancient legends and historical events

Byliny were syllabic and imitated human speech Labor songs helped coordinate group labor projects

Barge workers sang the “Song of the Volga Boatmen” The rhythm allowed the many workers to pull ropes

simultaneously Plyasovye refers to energetic dance songs

These repetitive melodies featured strong rhythms Other genres included lullabies, game songs, and military

marches

“Akh ty step” V. Sokolov arranged this Russian folk song The song reflects popular (urban) elements

rather than true rural roots Three aspects of the song reveal its

classification as a protyazhnaya Many songs of this genre feature the same

opening line: “O, ye steppes…” The melody features wide intervals

The opening starts with an ascending sixth Later, we hear an ascending octave

Like other protyazhnayas, the song sounds lyrical and sorrowful

“Akh ty step” cont’d

“Akh ty step” clearly displays urban influence This arrangement is much less melismatic than

traditional folk songs Urban styles override folk-like variants and irregular

harmonies The modern choral arrangement adds a hummed

introduction and a lengthy conclusion However, the arranger does attempt to imitate

folk devices Some of the four verses begin with expressive vocal

solos Middle voices actively participate in the harmony The ends of phrases often converge to a unison or

octave

Folk Songs Collections & Arrangements

Lvov-Pratsch (1790) The Lvov-Pratsch collection was the most

influential early folk song anthology It included both text and music

Nikolai Lvov transcribed the text Johann (Ivan) Pratsch arranged the music

City dwellers used the collection for domestic music playing

Composers included the arranged melodies in their own works

Lvov-Pratsch cont’d Accusations of Westernization contributed to the

collection’s fall from grace Critics charged Pratsch with rewriting melodies to match

urban expectation Pratsch supposedly placed accents on the wrong syllables to

match Western meter Later musicians found Pratsch’s harmonizations insensitive

and Western67 Lvov did not keep records of his sources

The sources may already have been altered from the rural originals

Thus, scholars cannot know the extent of Pratsch’s changes In the 19th century, collectors became more conscious of

accuracy and authenticity

Balakirev (1866)

The Balakirev collection stressed the distinctive sound of Russian folk music Unlike Pratsch, Mily Balakirev did not try to

urbanize folk melodies Rather, he attempted to exaggerate the differences

between folk and art music This choice reveals the abrupt shift in consumer taste

in the 19th century Balakirev favored non-Western musical ideas and

simple harmonies He often used flattened seventh degrees instead of

Western leading tones Sometimes he misrepresented sources to emphasize non-

Western sounds

Balakirev cont’d Balakirev mostly employed diatonic harmonies

In other words, he only used the pitches of a single scale Other than hymns, Western art music did not typically do this These harmonies created a modal sound

He used triads rather than four-note chords From 1600 onward, seventh chords frequently appeared in

Western art music Balakirev believed folk music should sound more ancient

Balakirev also meticulously adhered to the natural stress pattern of words He varied meter rather than sacrifice the stress pattern

Despite his scrupulous methodology, Balakirev still produced arrangements In other words, the transcriptions did not accurately reflect

folk practice However, they were more accurate than Pratsch’s approach

Melgunov and Palchikov

Before the late 19th century, collectors did not transcribe polyphony or heterophony Heterophony involves unsynchronized singers performing the same

melody It can also refer to a single melody with simultaneous variations

Polyphony refers to simultaneous melodies Russian folk collectors were not very aware of these textures in

folk song Few early transcribers made serious attempts to notate them Composers imitated the effect vaguely, but few understood the

texture well They began folk-like choruses with a soloist They then incorporated the rest of the choir The section ended in unison

Composers only became aware of these two textures after recording technology appeared

Yuli Melgunov & Nikolai Palchikov cont’d

Yuli Melgunov and Nikolai Palchikov each attempted to notate folk heterophony and polyphony before recording technology

Melgunov published his collection of folk songs in 1879 He succeeded in notating heterophony

To do so, he listened to the music in melodic, not harmonic, terms He listened to several singers in the same village performing one at

a time Then he combined these variations on a single melody into one

score His attempts did not truly transcribe a choral folk song

However, they served as good approximations of heterophony Composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov dismissed the collection

as “barbaric” He could not bear the heterophonic texture The idea contradicted his own method of harmonizing folk songs

Yuli Melgunov & Nikolai Palchikov cont’d

Nikolai Palchikov produced the best notation of folk polyphony Palchikov lived in a village

Thus, he could observe the same songs and singers multiple times

Unfortunately, he also remained in relative obscurity Palchikov stood next to each singer and notated

each part He then combined these separate lines into a score The result proved better than Melgunov’s compilation

Unfortunately, Melgunov’s collection received greater attention Melgunov’s arrangements introduced Russian folk

texture to the art world

Linyova (1904) Yevgeniya Linyova released her first folk

song collection in 1904 She spearheaded the use of audio recording

technology Now, composers could not deny the textures in

Russian folk music Composer Igor Stravinsky was the first to

embrace these folk textures Other 20th century composers eagerly followed

his lead At the time, composers longed to break

established composition rules

Folk Songs in Classical Music Composers’ uses for folk song

Composers used folk themes to characterize lower-class characters in operas For instance, Mikhail Glinka used folk songs to designate

peasants in A Life for the Tsar Other composers believed folk melodies made music sound

more “national” Philosophers like Herder reinforced this belief Glinka chose Russian folk songs to differentiate his work from

Italian operas The use of familiar folk melodies also garnered sympathy and

acclaim from audiences Folk music also contained new techniques

Glinka and other composers drew inspiration for technical innovations

Composers often included folk melodies for several of the above reasons

Folk Songs in Classical Music cont’d

Myths and exaggerations Many “national” composers exaggerated their

knowledge of folk traditions Often, their biographers published gross

overstatements In truth, most 19th-century composers came from

privileged backgrounds They did not grow up listening to folk music Most composers consciously studied folk music in

their adult years Rimsky-Korsakov himself denied rumors of his

familiarity with folk songs He did not experience folk music until his twenties Rimsky-Korsakov studied Balakirev’s collection of

transcriptions

Contemporary critics often exaggerated the authenticity of quoted folk songs Composers rewrote folk melodies to suit their own

works The songs themselves transformed en route from the

village to the city Rimsky-Korsakov presented a folk song melody

simply He often used a solo woodwind instrument The accompaniment consisted of subtle string pizzicato Rimsky-Korsakov kept harmony to a minimum, using

long pedal notes A pedal note refers to a long sustained note, often found in

the bass line. Usually, a pedal note contains the root of the harmony.

Audiences frequently believed all folk songs sounded like this However, the style was all Rimsky-Korsakov’s creation

Most importantly, scholars overplayed the national spirit imparted by folk songs Only peasants from a certain region would

recognize a folk song Yet composers came to associate folk song

with the entire population of Russia In other words, a tiny little-known part

represents the vast whole Folk music does not possess noticeable

“Russianness” A foreign audience unfamiliar with Russian

music would not recognize it as such

Russian Music of the 19th century

Westernization and Russian National Identity Westernization under Peter the Great

In the early modern period, Russians set themselves apart from “The West” Ivan the Terrible (r. 1547-1584) allegedly sent

several dozens of scholars abroad Unfortunately, none of these students ever returned to

share their learning Before Peter the Great, Russia rarely contacted

Europe Russia occasionally sent diplomats overseas But, the country did not engage in extended

interaction with the West

Peter the Great (r. 1682-1725) began a large-scale Westernization program During his reign, the educated elite increasingly

realized Russia’s isolation from the West This epiphany also spread throughout the general

population European civilization fascinated Peter

He traveled throughout Europe in disguise At one point, the tsar worked as a shipbuilder on a

Dutch wharf Peter the Great aimed to recreate Russia as a

major European power He intended to establish an irreversible, large-

scale program of Westernization

St. Petersburg

• St. Petersburg became the thriving center of Peter’s “new and improved” Russia• Engineers and laborers

drained a strategically located marsh to build the city

• The tsar based the city on Venice and Amsterdam• St. Petersburg featured

its own harbor and canals• It contained towering

modern buildings• The Europeanized city

did not look like any other Russian town

Peter Westernized every aspect of city life The well-organized grid of streets and identical

houses emphasized his power He renamed and remodeled all state institutions

to fit Western models He forced the aristocracy to adopt European dress

and shave their beards Nobles discarded their long robes in favor of

European breeches and coats Those who refused to shave were forcibly coerced

Peter also hosted assamblei (fashionable balls) and introduced the minuet (slow and graceful ballroom dance for two, the minuet first appeared in the French royal court during the 17th century. Its name derives from the small (menu means “small”) steps required to perform the dance. 18th-century composers often included a minuet-style piece in triple time as a movement in a larger composition.)

Despite heavy resistance, Peter the Great successfully implemented his reforms In part, he triumphed due to sheer

ruthlessness His alterations, however, did benefit some

segments of the population Still, controversies over Westernization

remained for two centuries Communism later declared itself the

supreme Westernizing force However, the Soviet Communist movement

still diverged from Western ideals

The emergence of Russian nationalism : Nationalism only gained major momentum in the late 18th century German nationalist philosophers

influenced the educated Russian elite Both nations worked to collect folk songs

Russians also began to take interest in their native Slavic language At the time, the urbanized nobility mostly

spoke French The Russian elite viewed nationalism in

completely cultural terms at this time

Napoleon Invades

Napoleon’s invasion in 1812 truly launched Russian nationalistic fervor Authorities realized that the army required

the support of the entire population Political nationalism first appeared in mass

produced patriotic posters and leaflets These advertisements urged all Russians to unite

as a single nation They asked individuals to pledge their main

loyalty to their nation

• The pamphlets succeeded in uniting the Russian population• Russian peasants fought

French invaders with axes and sticks

• Citizens set fire to Moscow rather than relinquish it to French forces

• The defeat of Napoleon gave rise to Russian national awareness

Outcomes of the Napoleonic Wars Though their victory united Russian citizens,

the 1812 Patriotic War also fostered dissent Russian military officers and soldiers realized their

country’s backwardness These men fought Napoleon back to Paris En route, they noticed the superior infrastructure

and greater equality in Europe They also realized that serfdom was incredibly

outdated (Serfdom refers to exploitation of rural peasants by the landowning nobility. The peasants, called serfs, worked for the wealthy landowners in exchange for legal protection and certain other rights. In essence, serfs lived in a condition of modified slavery, as they received no pay and depended on their landlords for all manner of legal, economic, and social welfare.)

Most European nations had outlawed serfdom centuries prior

Another Outcome: The Decembrist Uprising, 1825

• Dissatisfied soldiers revolted against the new tsar Nicholas I in December 1825• The “Decembrists”

aimed to incite social reform

• Unfortunately, their revolution failed

• The tsar hanged five of the rebel leaders

• He also exiled many other participants to Siberia

• Thus, Napoleon’s invasion also revealed growing frustration within Tsarist Russia

Establishment of Russian Nationalism In 1833, the Russian government established

Official Nationalism All Russian schools would teach students this new

state ideology Minister of Education Sergei Uvarov introduced the

doctrine He described it with a slogan: “Orthodoxy, Autocracy,

and Nationality” Orthodoxy referred to the dominant Russian religion, the

Orthodox Church Autocracy embodied the unquestionable absolute

sovereignty of the tsar However, even Uvarov did not truly understand “Nationality”

(narodnost’) At this point, dissatisfied intellectuals developed the

concept of nationalism The Russian government did not yet see nationalism as

a weapon they could employ

Pyotr Chaadayev Chaadayev’s concerns

Pyotr Chaadayev (1794-1856) expressed concern about Russia’s cultural backwardness His “Philosophical Letter” of 1829

addressed this issue Chaadayev noted that European

nations shared common history and traditions Their societies held similar views on

justice, law, order, and duty By contrast, Russia never participated

in this community Thus, Russia lacked these basic

European principles

The authorities refused to publish Chaadayev’s “Philosophical Letter” They thought his ideas too controversial Instead, they declared him insane and treated

him as such Regardless, manuscript copies spread throughout

the nation (USAD made this corrections in June.)

‘‘In his land, Peter the Great found only a blank sheet of paper, and he wrote on it: ‘Europe and the West’; since then we have belonged to Europe and the West”

Chaadayev’s work inspired two different ideological groups in the mid-19th century Westernizers believed Russians was part of Europe

They supported continued imitation of Western traditions Slavophiles focused on Russia’s “blind, superficial and

awkward imitation” of the West This group advocated the reversal of Peter the Great’s

Westernizing reforms They called to reinstate communal law and other abolished

practices Slavophiles also wanted to firmly distinguish Russian

Orthodoxy (Eastern Christianity) from Western Christianity (especially Catholicism) They claimed Eastern Christians favored authority and faith

over logic and reason Slavophiles also spoke of a new world order led by Russia,

not Europe

Like Chaadayev, many other 19th-century intellectuals compared Russians to Westerners Most comparisons were to the French and

Germans The French were old enemies from 1812 Meanwhile, the Germans made up a large part of St.

Petersburg’s high society Comparison and contrast formed the basis for

defining Russian “national character” However, this method of analysis also resulted in

national stereotypes The French were brilliant but the Russians were profound The Germans were industrious but the Russians were

humane and empathetic “Russian character” proved nothing but a

philosophical construct

Philosophical Influence on Music

19th-century Russian composers sought to differentiate themselves from the West Glinka attempted to create a new style of opera

He believed Russia displayed greater melancholy than sunny Italy

Thus, Russian opera should be more sorrowful than widespread Italian opera

The Mighty Handful would adopt similar ideas in the 1860s

National stereotypes played a major role in the creation of “Russian style” From the beginning, composers defined Russian music as

non-German German stereotypes thus became a major factor in

Russian musical development

Class Divisions

A great divide existed between the educated elite and the lower classes Late 18th-century writers claimed national character stemmed

from the lower classes “The people” (lower-class peasants) made up the majority of the

population Upper-class Russians spoke French and tended toward the

cosmopolitan Catherine the Great (r. 1762-1796) descended from Germans However, she occasionally wore Russian national garb to tease

courtiers The gentry and the peasantry rarely interacted on a regular basis

Even servants in noble households did not maintain ties to their rural backgrounds

Despite their claims, the elite knew little about the general population

Catherine the Great

Abolition of Serfdom

The abolition of serfdom in 1861 sparked renewed interest in the peasantry The Peredvizhniki (Russian Realist school) did not idealize

peasant life in paintings The Narodnik (populist) movement inspired intellectuals to move

to the countryside Most narodniks were students who left their city homes to join the

peasantry The narodniks provided education and medical assistance to rural

peasants Peasants often treated the narodniks with indifference or even

resentment Interestingly, the peasants placed more stock in social hierarchy than the

wealthy The appearance of their superiors seemed unnatural

Author Leo Tolstoy worked with peasants on his land He wore a collarless peasant shirt However, he still lived off the rent from said peasants

Nikolai Palchikov moved to a village to collect folk song melodies In the village, he worked as a country judge The peasants ultimately accepted him and helped him in his transcriptions

• Composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839- 1881) revealed the greatest narodnik influence in art music• He originally hailed from the

landowning gentry• However, he lost his wealth after the

emancipation of the serfs• Despite his reversal of fortune,

Mussorgsky maintained sympathy for the poor

• He wrote songs presenting different peasant characters

• For instance, his song “Trepak” features a drunk and depressed peasant• This miserable character falls to

the snow to awaits his death

East and West

Even as they defined the West, Russians also explored the East The Russian empire spanned a huge continuous

stretch of land Finland and Poland formed the Western boundaries The Black and Caspian Seas lay to the South Eventually, the empire stretched from the Baltic to

the Pacific “The East” covered many different nationalities

and cultures Still, Russians considered a few regions

stereotypically “Eastern” These included the Caucasus region, Central Asia,

and the Far East

Russian soldiers constantly fought tribes in the Caucasus Mountains and Transcaucasia These tribes waged war on their conquerors hoping to

reassert their independence Russians stereotyped “the East” just as they did the

West The East, however, was under Russian control

Russians viewed the East as exotic These stereotypes affected musical Orientalism80

Expansion into Central Asia also influenced Orientalism to a lesser extent The Russian Far East did not influence 19th-century

music as much This region was too distant and relatively unpopulated Thus, it received little scholarly attention

Perspectives on the role of the East differed Westernizers dismissed the East entirely

They claimed the region would not contribute to Russian cultural growth

Slavophiles, by contrast, gladly emphasized the role of the East They claimed the East influenced Russian fatalism,

mysticism, and autocracy The elite emphasized both the similarities and

differences between Russia and the East They often juxtaposed Russia’s simplicity with the East’s

exotic extravagance However, Russians also “Orientalized” themselves

They emphasized their differences from the West and similarities to the East

They depicted themselves as “Barbarians” who opposed Western corruption

Track 3: “The Glory Chorus” from A Life for the Tsar

Background “The Glory Chorus” comes from the finale of

Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar This opera as a whole exemplifies Official

Nationalism Different elements in this work illustrate

“Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality"

Featured excerpt In the score, Glinka identifies “The Glory Chorus” as a “hymn-

march” The onstage military band emphasizes the martial aspect of the march

rhythm The rhythm imitates a Russian Orthodox chant This rhythm consists of a half-note followed by two quarter notes

Glinka also uses harmonies unusual for an opera Outer voices move in parallel thirds Such harmonies frequently appear in Orthodox hymns Glinka’s score thus indicates religious and nationalist influences

Like the rest of the opera, “The Glory Chorus” embodies Official Nationalism In addition to the “hymn” aspects above, Glinka uses church bells to

show Orthodoxy The church bells also reflect Nationality

The lyrics glorify the first Romanov tsar in keeping with the principle of Autocracy

Glinka: The Father of Russian Music

Most Russian music histories begin with Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804-1857) Virtually all historians agree that true Russian

classical music started with Glinka’s work Many consider his first opera, A Life for the Tsar

(1836), the first Russian national opera Of course, opera existed in Russia before Glinka

Peter the Great began the development of Russian art music

He hoped to prove Russia’s status as an international power His assamblei featured dance music byWestern

musicians Peter hoped to recreate Western-style music as part of his

Westernization campaign

Actual opera first appeared in Russia during Tsaritsa Anna’s reign It began as a foreign

import from Italy In 1731, an Italian

company performed Calandro by Giovanni Ristori in Moscow

In 1736, Russian musicians collaborated with an Italian troupe in St. Petersburg

They performed The Power of Love and Hate by Francesco Araja

Glinka continued

From then on, opera flourished in Russia The Russian Imperial Court welcomed Italian

and French troupes Private opera houses opened in St. Petersburg

This development allowed opera to reach wider audiences

The first Russian-language libretto appeared in 1755 The story centered on the myth of Cephalus

and Procris Italian instructors trained Russian opera

singers

Glinka’s predecessors set the stage for Russian opera composition Maxim Berezovsky (1745-1777) was the first Russian opera

composer to achieve fame Audiences in Russia and abroad recognized his name Other opera composers included Yevstigenei Fomin (1761-1800) and

Dmitri Bortnyansky (1751-1825) These Italian-trained composers conformed to accepted Western

genres While studying in Italy, they wrote opera seria (“serious opera”) These works used mythology as their subject matter One could not differentiate between the Russian and Italian opera seria

In Russia, these composers created comic operas based on French archetypes However, the librettos featured Russian language The composers included distinctly Russian plots and characters Audiences reacted favorably to the familiar elements Russian comic operas thus enjoyed considerable popularity

Glinka’s Innovations Many of Glinka’s “innovations” actually existed in the

works of his predecessors Glinka’s works often incorporated folk melodies

Fomin’s Coachmen at the Relay Station (1787) also reflected folk influence

The opera’s opening chorus imitates a protyazhnaya folk song The solo singer is eventually joined by the chorus

Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar (1836) focused on a historical, not mythological, subject The story centers on peasant Ivan Susanin

He gave his own life to save the future Tsar Mikhail Romanov In 1815, Catarino Cavos premiered an opera based on the

same tale A Venetian by birth, Cavos lived and worked in St. Petersburg His version of the story remained immensely popular It took time for Glinka’s opera to step out of Cavos’ shadow

Glinka’s great ambition set him apart from his peers and predecessors His skilled originality put him on par with his

European contemporaries These peers included Vincenzo Bellini,

Giacomo Meyerbeer, and Hector Berlioz A Life for the Tsar featured no spoken

dialogue Every line was sung It was the first Russian-language opera to attempt

such a feat Cavos’ version featured long sections of spoken

text between arias and songs

Glinka’s ambition proves surprising given his upbringing He lacked any formal composition training86

In fact, Glinka regarded himself as a student even in his late years

Born to landowners, Glinka participated in his uncle’s private orchestra This ensemble mostly played fashionable

overtures Based on this experience, Glinka might have

become a composer of light, elegant songs and dances for aristocratic salons

In his apprenticeship, he did create such works However, they did not satisfy his lofty aspirations

Glinka honed his skills abroad before returning to dominate Russian opera In Italy, Glinka studied vocal composition

He could have settled for writing Italian-style arias and operas

However, he dared to dream of a purely Russian operatic form This Russian opera would draw subject matter from Russian history It would prove more serious and musically demanding than Italian

opera Glinka learned more difficult compositional techniques

in Germany There he studied with theorist Siegfried Dehn In 1834, Glinka returned to Russia after hearing of his

father’s death In Glinka’s last year of life, however, he would return to

Germany to visit Dehn

A Life for the Tsar

Glinka’s first opera, A Life for the Tsar, premiered at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre in 1836

The opera featured a clearly monarchist message The storyline implied the divine authority of the

Romanov dynasty Russia successfully fought off a Polish invasion in 1613 Afterward, the first Romanov tsar took the throne The peasant Ivan Susanin fooled the Poles to allow the

tsar time to escape When they discovered the deception, the Poles killed

Susanin At the end of the opera, Susanin dies in a forest

The epilogue concludes with a somber march Afterward, the chorus cries, “Glory to the Tsar!”

Naturally, Tsar Nicholas I supported the performance87 Besides the imperialist storyline, the libretto came from

the court itself Baron Rosen, secretary to Nicholas’ heir Alexander II,

wrote the libretto Following the premiere, Nicholas I showered Glinka

with recognition He offered the composer a royal ring as a token of favor Furthermore, he offered Glinka the highest musical

position in his court Despite imperial recognition, Glinka did not write A

Life for the Tsar on commission He actually composed quite a bit of the music before

Rosen completed the libretto

As Glinka intended, A Life for the Tsar sounds distinctly Russian Glinka first created musical contrast between

the Russians and the Poles He characterized the Poles using two Polish

ballroom dances Russians were familiar with both the polonaise and the

mazurka Both dances involved 3/4 time and dotted rhythms

Glinka used more songlike pieces in 2/4 and 4/4 to illustrate the Russians

In Act III, Glinka dramatically juxtaposed both styles The Poles demand Susanin’s compliance in a mazurka

rhythm Susanin defies them in a protyazhnaya style

Glinka favored the imitation of folk themes rather than direct quotation The overture mimics a protyazhnaya The opera’s “Rowers’ Chorus” also

features a protyazhnaya-like melody Glinka set this melody over a pizzicato

string accompaniment The strings represent the balalaika, a

plucked string instrument In the entire opera, Glinka only quotes

two actual folk tunes

The intelligentsia admired Glinka’s technique and the opera’s apparent Russianness Glinka’s compositions alluded to Russian folk and

popular song They also reflected “Romance” influence These musical aspects made the fresh compositions

seem familiar to Russian audiences Non-Russian audiences, by contrast, noticed the

Italianate elements of the opera

Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842) Glinka based his second opera on a

narrative poem by Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) Many considered Pushkin Russia’s greatest

19th-century poet Unfortunately, he died before he could

create a libretto for Glinka The resulting libretto received a great deal of

criticism The fairy-tale opera emphasizes musical

color over drama Thus, the five acts pass very slowly

In this work, Glinka continued to experiment with the use of color to depict nationality A quoted Finnish song characterized Finn,

a kindhearted sorcerer Glinka used many Orientalist devices to

represent Ratmir, Lyudmila’s Eastern suitor Remember, Glinka composed this opera

before Orientalist clichés developed

The evil dwarf Chernomor received special musical treatment This supernatural creature possessed a beard seven times

his height Glinka invented the whole-tone scale to depict

Chernomor’s magical existence This scale divides the octave into six equal parts instead of

eight It moves in whole steps only Glinka also called this scale his “chemical” scale

The whole-tone scale put off conventional rules of tonal harmony This effect evoked a sense of the supernatural Use of this scale indicated that human laws did not apply to

the magical creature

The public did not react enthusiastically to the 1842 premiere of Ruslan and Lyudmila Performances discontinued shortly after the

premiere Glinka’s popularity plummeted from the high point

reached with A Life for the Tsar Glinka considered this failure his greatest

disappointment As a result of his letdown, Glinka traveled abroad

extensively In Spain, Glinka took folk dancing lessons

His experiences inspired the orchestral pieces Jota Aragonesa (1845) and Night in Madrid (1848)

In the end, Glinka returned to Russian styles in Kamarinskaya (1848) This orchestral work almost reconceived variation

form

Glinka’s legacy and musical contributions

Russian composers mythologized Glinka and his contributions after his death They took his example as the foundation for a

new markedly Russian compositional style His uncommon musical devices became part of

Russian national heritage Some of these techniques came from Russian

folk music Others, however, simply arose from Glinka’s

own creativity

Glinka championed the creation of folk-like musical idioms He believed art music could benefit from elements

of folk songs and dances Only some of his folk melodies appeared as direct

quotations Glinka imitated folk music in his original material He reproduced protyazhnayas and dance songs alike

Glinka also cleverly reproduced folk heterophony He never lived with peasants or used audio technology Thus, he worked with limited understanding of the

texture

A Life for the Tsar demonstrates the composer’s affinity for folk-like sounds The introductory chorus switches between a solo singer and

the chorus Glinka varied the number of individual voices present in the choral

texture Like folk music, he wrote two or three parts that converged to a

unison Glinka also employed the folk device peremennost’

This technique involved shifting between several equally important modal centers

Unlike most Western music at the time, folk tunes did not center on one tonic

Glinka’s chord progressions reflected this influence However, he still used standard harmonies

Usually, Glinka moved between pairs of relative major and minor scales

The widespread use of 5/4 meter began with Glinka This unusual meter appears in the wedding

choruses of both A Life and Ruslan Indirectly, this device reflects folk influence

Russian folk poetry featured five-syllable lines that accented the third syllable

This characteristic frequently appeared in wedding songs

Russian folk song typically uses five notes of different length for the five syllables Glinka, however, used five equal quarter notes

Glinka’s disciples treated 5/4 as an authentic Russian meter They also experimented with other uncommon meters

Borodin employed 7/4 Rimsky-Korsakov used 11/4

The whole-tone scale from Ruslan inspired other innovative scales Rimsky-Korsakov created the octatonic

scale This scale alternates whole steps and half steps It spans eight notes, hence the term “octatonic” Rimsky-Korsakov’s invention proved more

useful than the whole-tone scale 20th-century classical and jazz music

incorporated the octatonic scale Glinka’s fans also divided their works into

sections with different musical rules

The composer also popularized “changing-background variations” In fact, Russian scholars refer to this technique as “Glinka

variations” Typical variation form changes the melody while the

accompaniment remains constant Glinka variations do the exact opposite

The melody remains unchanged All other elements (harmony, instrumentation, etc.) vary

Despite the deceptive name, Glinka did not originate the Glinka variations Beethoven uses this technique in “Ode to Joy” from his Ninth

Symphony Movement 3 from Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 59 No. 2 also

features this device In fact, it centers on a Russian melody Possibly, this earlier work inspired Glinka

Regardless of the technique’s origin, Glinka created important examples For instance, he used folk themes with changing-background variations This musical technique honored the folk melody

Glinka’s use of different musical colors for different nationalities in opera inspired others This same principle also appeared in the West

There, composers referred to the technique as couleur locale

Glinka’s supporters focused on two operatic genres They wrote heroic national dramas like A Life

for the Tsar Also, they composed fairytales like Ruslan and

Lyudmila

Glinka’s orchestral works also influenced subsequent composers He never wrote any symphonies, only single-

movement overtures and fantasies Other composers wrote on Russian and non-

Russian folk themes Balakirev composed the Czech Overture Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the Serbian Fantasy

Glinka’s Kamarinskaya served as a model for future composers This piece features Glinka variations on two themes Similarly, Balakirev wrote Overture on Three

Russian Themes Balakirev also composed the piano piece Islamey The composer Lyapunov created the virtuosic

Lezghinka Etude for piano

Track 4: Kamarinskaya Background The single-movement Kamarinskaya involves

a slow theme and a fast theme Glinka alternates between variations on the

slow and fast themes

The Russian wedding song “From behind Tall Hills” forms the slow theme This theme occurs four times in different registers Each repetition features different texture The fourth statement appears in the bass line

“Kamarinskaya” refers to the sprightly dance tune that makes up the fast theme This melody also lends its name to the

piece as a whole Folk tradition repeated this theme in

“dance-till-you drop” variations The piece’s form defies any previously

established musical form Instead, Glinka reinvents the variation

form His techniques elevate the folk melodies

and variations

The excerpt on the USAD CD begins with the first fast section The first violin section presents the opening

statement of the theme Glinka then adds other instrumental voices to

the mix Throughout the variations, Glinka barely alters

the melody When he does, the alterations suggest virtuosic

fiddling Each phrase sounds like an ostinato pattern The 11th statement modulates from major to

minor Glinka emphasizes the opening notes of the slow

theme

The slow theme reappears for two-and-a-half statements

Then, the kamarinskaya dance tune resumes At one point, Glinka drops the melody

altogether, leaving only the accompaniment The tempo slows down slightly as Glinka

explores truly innovative variations A C-natural in the horn produces dissonance

against a D-major harmony In the end, the tempo quickens

triumphantly

The Mighty Handful and “National” Style

The birth of Russian music conservatories The Rubinstein brothers vastly enhanced musical

education in Russia Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein rose to fame as one of

the world’s top virtuoso pianists He also worked as a conductor and composer

Anton’s younger brother Nikolai also performed as a pianist and conductor

A Russian border-guard stopped Anton as he returned from a European concert tour Asked for his occupation, Anton replied that he was a

“self-employed artist” The guard did not recognize this profession Anton only received entry for being “the son of a

merchant of the second rank” This incident inspired Anton to work to improve the status

of Russian musicians

Between 1859 and 1860, the Rubinstein brothers formed the Russian Music Society This institution organized a series of public

concerts in St. Petersburg and Moscow Anton worked in St. Petersburg while his

brother lived in Moscow The repertoire featured major works by the

likes of Beethoven, Schumann, and Mendelssohn

For the first time in Russian history, the general population could access art music

Previously, a handful of aristocratic enthusiasts shaped most Russian musical life

The Rubinsteins also founded music conservatories in the two major cities The St. Petersburg Conservatory opened in

1862 and the Moscow Conservatory in 1866 Musicians and composers no longer needed

to enroll in private classes Instead, these conservatories offered

comprehensive five-year courses Most professors came from abroad,

especially from Germany The conservatories increased the social

prestige of musical careers in Russia Russia now entered the wider world of

international art music

Conservatories Vs. Mighty Handful

The Mighty Handful led an anti-conservatory movement in Russia These composers argued against

conservatoriesdue to nationalistic concerns They feared the institutions would overly

Westernize Russian music Conservatories, they claimed, revealed too

much foreign influence

Formation of the Mighty Handful Vladimir Stasov (1824-1906) and Mily Balakirev

(1837-1910) became friends in the mid-1850s Both men loved the music world

Balakirev performed as a pianist He also composed his own pieces Glinka personally encouraged Balakirev to continue

composing Stasov worked as a prominent music critic

Both dreamed of a distinctive Russian style of music This style should appeal to both domestic and

international listeners Stasov and Balakirev hoped it would sound original and

progressive Balakirev and Stasov assembled four other musicians

who shared this goal

Stasov first referred to the group as the moguchaya kuchka Literally, this name translates to “the mighty little

heap” “Handful” sounds more elegant than the original

Russian term In English, some refer to the group as “The Five”

in reference to the five composers However, this term overlooks the sixth important

member, Stasov Stasov alone of the Mighty Handful did not compose his

own works Nonetheless, he helped establish the group’s

nationalist ideology As a critic, he also promoted the group’s music and

discredited rivals

Balakirev served as the Mighty Handful’s musical mentor He was the only full-time musician in the

group At the time, composers struggled to

maintain a living Balakirev earned the majority of his

income by teaching piano lessons He still lived in relative poverty

The opera-loving Cesar Cui worked as an engineer building military fortifications

Army officer Modest Mussorgsky played the piano skillfully However, he only composed polkas for

aristocratic ladies Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed

between tours of duty as a naval officer Alexander Borodin served as an

internationally acclaimed chemistry professor He played the cello in his spare time

Despite their talent, the four lacked knowledge of technique and important repertory Balakirev taught them the devices

needed for large-scale works He also introduced them to the

masterworks of famous composers

Balakirev approached teaching differently than the conservatories Of course, Balakirev stood firmly opposed to the

conservatories He favored a demanding but informal approach

Unlike conservatories, he did not assign exercises or “pastiche” composition

Instead, Balakirev played arrangements of symphonies on the piano Mussorgsky, the skilled pianist, often joined him in

duets Balakirev then pointed out interesting forms, features

and techniques Balakirev sometimes created his own terms to

explain music theory

Balakirev did assign ambitious homework projects, though He instructed Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov to write a symphony The task required a good amount of help and advice, according to

letters Mussorgsky and Cui attempted to write operas

Despite his stringent expectations, Balakirev also proved incredibly kindhearted He himself composed passages that seemed beyond the skill of

his students When the scores were published, Balakirev did not claim credit

In the end, Balakirev’s pupils surpassed him in terms of fame He selflessly devoted his attention to cultivating the group’s

skill and creativity Thus, he did not spend enough time on his own works Completed late in his career, his works did not receive great

recognition

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade features arabesque100 patterns in solo violin A similar device appears in the solo

clarinet from Balakirev’s Tamara Balakirev’s work probably inspired

Rimsky-Korsakov’s However, Scheherazade’s greater

popularity leads listeners to believe the opposite

Creating “Russian style” Balakirev and Stasov aimed to create the

image of a unified “musical party” Cui also proved instrumental in molding the

Handful’s public image His writings saw publication in both Russia and France

The group worked in close cooperation in the 1860s The composers wrote their first large-scale works

collectively Balakirev believed the compositional process should

involve the entire group’s input At first, the composers all pursued similar ideals In later years, however, their ideas diverged

considerably

To create “Russianness,” Balakirev mainly advocated avoidance of Western clichés Balakirev used pieces by some Western

composers as negative examples for his pupils Felix Mendelssohn’s works allegedly

represented Germanic “routine” Balakirev hated the smooth musical periods

characteristic of these pieces Balakirev also disparaged the overly

sentimental compositions of Frederic Chopin

However, Balakirev did approve of “progressive,” original Western composers Balakirev championed the works of Ludwig van

Beethoven and Robert Schumann He admired these composers’ use of strong rhythmic

motives Moreover, he liked their compelling experiments with

form Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz also met with

Balakirev’s approval These composers skillfully wrote “program music” Their compositions used musical colors to depict

characters and events In addition to these Western composers, Balakirev

also promoted Glinka’s works

Above all else, Balakirev stressed the importance of originality in composition

“Russianness” would result from avoidance of Western devices

For instance, he instructed his students to avoid common harmonic progressions

He considered the IV-V-I cadence too clichéd Instead, he suggested skipping the dominant

(V), creating a IV-I cadence Otherwise, the composers might disguise the

dominant chord

Balakirev also taught his students to incorporate folk and Oriental idioms The Mighty Handful turned to folk song for

non-Western material Balakirev alone traveled through Russia to

collect folk melodies Most of the songs came from educated

individuals, not the peasants themselves106 Still, Balakirev published 40 of these tunes in

1866 His collection included his own original piano

accompaniments The Mighty Handful seized this material for their

own compositions

These accompaniment devices reflected Balakirev’s tastes, not the original tunes

However, due to the Handful’s widespread use, many listeners mistakenly

The Caucasus region inspired the Handful to develop the Oriental style

Balakirev absorbed Georgian, Armenian, and Turkic musical elements

¨ New melodic and instrumentation ideas shaped the Handful’s works

¨ These foreign devices helped distance the Handful from Western composers

¨ Oriental music sounded instantly non-Western ¨ It proved more difficult to make folk music sound

non-Western o Audiences reacted favorably to the Oriental style o Western listeners began to notice the Handful o For various reasons, they identified all Handful

compositions as distinctly “Russian”

Many Russian composers incorporated the new Oriental style in some of their works Balakirev began the movement in the 1860s with

his piece Islamey Finished in 1869, this piano piece centers on a

Caucasian-inspired folk dance Balakirev applied Glinka variations to the theme Liszt’s virtuosic compositions also influenced

Balakirev’s piece Rimsky-Korsakov wrote Antar (1868), a

symphonic suite The music depicted an Eastern fairy tale in Oriental

style Borodin’s opera Prince Igor featured the

Orientalist Polovtsian Dances Mussorgsky and Cui also experimented with Oriental

themes in opera

The Handful also turned to Glinka’s oeuvre (composer’s lifetime works) for inspiration

Thanks to the Handful, listeners considered Glinka’s innovations innately “Russian” In particular, these composers favored the

changing-background variations form This device proved especially useful for

pieces based on folk themes

Rimsky-Korsakov expanded on Glinka’s approach to the supernatural His fairytale and supernatural works

featured Glinka’s whole-tone scale Rimsky-Korsakov also invented the

octatonic scale This scale alternates half steps and whole

steps It contains eight pitches in an octave rather

than the typical seven Russian scholars call this device the “Rimsky-

Korsakov scale” Today, jazz composers still use the scale

Like Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov used his unique scale to suspend tonal rules This effect resulted in an unearthly, exotic

sound In Sadko, this scale represents the

Underwater Kingdom Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Kashchei the

Deathless also features this scale

The Mighty Handful also embraced Glinka’s use of unusual meters They realized folk melodies did not easily

conform to regular meters Thus, they switched between measures of

2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 Besides Glinka’s trademark 5/4, his

followers used 7/4 and 11/4

Second Symphony, Opening Alexander Borodin composed this

symphony Russian musicians nicknamed the piece

Bogatyrskaya o Borodin did not intend to create a

truly programmatic piece However, he thought the opening theme

represented bogatyri, ancient Russian warriors

The striking opening begins with a unison line carried by the entire orchestra The first movement repeats this first

phrase several times Each repetition sounds more grand

Borodin employs augmentation, lengthening the note values of the phrase

Two keys shape the opening section It starts out in B minor, though the first phrase

contains two chromatic pitches The repetition of the phrase modulates to D major The piece continues to hover between these two

closely related keys Unlike German symphonic allegros, the

symphony does not establish one main key The uncertainty of the key vaguely reflects the folk

technique of peremennost’ In peremennost’, a piece shifts between two modal

centers Unlike Western music, no single tonic defines the key

of the piece

Mussorgsky’s Experiments in Operatic Realism Modest Mussorgsky

Historians typically present Mussorgsky as the only significant Handful composer They celebrate his opera Boris Godunov His piano cycle Pictures at an Exhibition also receives

lavish praise Modern critics applaud him as a genius who foresaw

modernist harmonies and forms Mussorgsky’s contemporaries hardly shared

such complimentary views Even the Mighty Handful considered him half

competent His ideas seemed insane to his peers

Some believed Mussorgsky suffered from mental instability

Like the rest of the Handful, Mussorgsky strove to avoid Western clichés in his operas Mussorgsky particularly sought to

differentiate his work from Italian opera Germany dominated most other musical genres However, Italy led the operatic world

The Russian court favored Italian opera and overpaid Italian singers

Meanwhile, the Russian opera company failed due to neglect

Mussorgsky disapproved of sweet Italian melodies and complicated plots He and the Handful preferred to stage realistic

events and characters To this end, they dispensed with the formal

clichés of Italian opera

Dargomyzhsky’s influence The Handful admired the operatic work of

Alexander Dargomyzhsky (1813-69) Dargomyzhsky and the Handful interacted

on good terms in the late 1860s At that time, Dargomyzhsky began The

Stone Guest This opera centered on Pushkin’s “little

tragedy” of the same name Mozart’s famous opera Don Giovanni

revolves around a similar plot

Dargomyzhsky felt words were more important than music in an opera Thus, he decided to preserve Pushkin’s text exactly

In other words, he opted not to create a different libretto

Only two short songs appeared in Pushkin’s original As a result, Dargomyzhsky replaced the standard

arias with declamatory pieces These passages proved taxing for both audiences

and singers Listeners struggled to follow the unconventional

operatic form Meanwhile, the singers found the music more difficult

to memorize Fortunately for the listeners and singers,

Dargomyzhsky died before completing The Stone Guest

The Marriage Mussorgsky took Dargomyzhsky’s

approach a step further He decided to write an opera based on

The Marriage by Nikolai Gogol The play focuses on a commitment-shy

bachelor In the end, he does not appear at his own

wedding Gogol’s comedy was written in prose, not

verse like Pushkin’s The Stone Guest This difference complicated Mussorgsky’s

task Unlike Dargomyzhsky, he could not use the

poetic rhythms to aid his compositions

Mussorgsky painstakingly imitated the inflections of spoken dialogue To notate the intonations, Mussorgsky read

each line out like an actor He aimed to add another level of realism to

the characters through their music Furthermore, Mussorgsky rejected typical

harmonic progressions He also used musical themes to represent

stage action For instance, a light and elegant theme indicates

the buttonholes in a frock-coat After finishing the first act, Mussorgsky

discontinued work The work had become too long Regardless, he considered the experiment useful

as important practice in realism

THE MARRIAGE

The Marriage, though incomplete, alarmed the rest of the Mighty Handful Mussorgsky presented the first act to his

friends At the piano, he performed the parts with

gusto His fellow composers realized that

audiences would not accept such a composition The music proved incredibly challenging for

soloists Besides that, audiences would struggle to

find coherent melodies The disjointed harmonies increased doubts

of Mussorgsky’s abilities

The Marriage Mussorgsky dedicated the first act to

Stasov Stasov accepted the score but hid it away

for years ¨ He believed it would damage

Mussorgsky’s reputation as a composer The score reappeared after Mussorgsky’s

death ¨ At this point, music had progressed

considerably ¨Stasov believed that the public would

receive the performance more sympathetically

Boris Godunov After abandoning The Marriage,

Mussorgsky began a new project He created an opera based on Pushkin’s tragic

play Boris Godunov Boris Godunov takes place during the time

period after Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar The events occur immediately preceding the dawn

of the Romanov dynasty During this “Time of Troubles,” Russia

experienced political instability Unlike Glinka, Mussorgsky does not

unquestioningly venerate the Tsar Rather than spew propaganda, the opera requires its

audience to think critically

The opera questions the legitimacy of Tsar Boris Godunov’s regime Godunov takes the throne after the

murder of a child who stood in his way Most likely, Godunov himself ordered the

killing Boris’ rule seems benevolent, but a monk

records the truth Meanwhile, a rival challenges Boris’

authority The Russian people, however, will live in

poverty regardless of who rules

Boris Godunov

Boris GodunovMussorgsky produced two separate

versions of Boris Godunov The first version (1869) more closely

adheres to Pushkin’s original and operatic realismThis adaptation does not strictly

conform to standard conventions Mussorgsky does not divide the action into

separate musical numbers The score contains no arias

It does, however, include a few “ariosos,” or “monologues”

Boris Godunov Most shockingly, Mussorgsky does not

include a role for a prima donna This lead female singer often served as

the central attraction of an opera Without a prima donna, Boris Godunov

lacks a love story A dark, serious mood prevails in Boris

Godunov Some comic relief appears in the Inn

Scene The Imperial Theatres demanded that

Mussorgsky revise the manuscript

Boris Godunov Thus, in 1872, Mussorgsky unveiled a

second, more widely acceptable version He added a vivid Polish Act that allowed

him to include a prima donna Western music characterized the Polish

Marina Mniszek Thus, Mussorgsky could afford to give her a typical

love duet By contrast, Mussorgsky used experimental

techniques for Russian characters Mussorgsky also wrote some songs for a

scene between Boris and his children These tunes did not drive the plot However, they allowed the audience a break

from declamatory songs

Boris Godunov Finally, Mussorgsky created a whole new closing

scene Unlike the first version, the revision did not end

with Boris’ death Instead, the conclusion featured a peasant revolt This addition added political overtones to a

previously psychological work The opera now concerned the whole nation, not just

Boris’ conscience The second version of Boris served as an

effective compromise The extravagant effects and vocal virtuosity suited

the Imperial Theatres However, the music still fits Mussorgsky’s realist

and nationalist ideals

Boris Godunov features progressive realism and sounds distinctly Russian

Realism manifests in the characters’ speech and conversation Different characters speak in unique ways

The monk Pimen sounds noble and stately The Innkeeper sings in a folk style

Her music echoes that of the Matchmaker in The Marriage

Moreover, Mussorgsky presents the music naturally The Innkeeper sings a song to herself

rather than the audience Boris’ coronation does not feature a full-

length aria, only a few brief thoughts

Boris Godunov To create national color, Mussorgsky imitated

folk themes He represented folk choral singing more

accurately than Glinka ever did Mussorgsky also used bell-like sounds

reminiscent of the Russian Orthodox Church In the Coronation Scene, the entire orchestra

imitated the bells Lower instruments represented large bells Smaller instruments symbolized the more frequent

medium bells Rimsky-Korsakov helped Mussorgsky

orchestrate this idea

Boris Godunov Mussorgsky alternates two dissonant chords

Both chords share the same tritone interval This technique reflects the lack of precise

tuning in bells Unfortunately, many of Mussorgsky’s complex

harmonies went unrecognized His contemporaries dismissed them as evidence

of incompetence Only later did critics and audiences appreciate

his innovations

Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov

While he wrote Boris Godunov, Mussorgsky shared an apartment with Rimsky-Korsakov At the time, Mussorgsky worked as a civil

servant, copying documents The two men took turns composing at the

piano When Mussorgsky was working, Rimsky-

Korsakov wrote The Maid of Pskov Like Boris Godunov, this tragic opera also

focused on Russian history

Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov

Rimsky-Korsakov later became a Conservatory professor Thus, he rejected many of the Handful’s key ideas

Obviously, he no longer opposed the Eurocentric conservatories

After Mussorgsky’s death, Rimsky-Korsakov revised Boris Godunov In the process, he changed 80% of Mussorgsky’s original

score He also provided more acceptable harmonies Rimsky-Korsakov re-orchestrated the opera in a more

grand style For decades, Rimsky-Korsakov’s version dominated

the international scene However present-day opera houses perform

Mussorgsky’s original instead

Track 6: Boris’ Death Scene from Boris Godunov

Background This piece appears in Modest

Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov125In the first version, this scene serves

as the conclusion The second version includes an additional

scene following this one In this selection, a dying Boris

Godunov gives his son a few final commands

Featured Excerpt The excerpt begins with Boris’ prayer

He sings in a solemn monotone, accompanied by a lyrical melody in the orchestra

A bell rings out, signaling the beginning of Boris’ funeral rites Boris’ impatient rival, the boyar Shuisky,

ordered the service Of course, Boris still lives, if only for a

moment

Featured Excerpt The orchestra imitates the tolling of the

bells A dissonant chord in the middle register

follows a bass note and gong An actual bell sounds as well

Offstage, the chorus sings a chant Mussorgsky uses a diatonic melody Thus, he attempts to evoke music older

than that of the Orthodox Church

Against the sound of the ceremony, Boris delivers his final thoughts Mussorgsky notates this music in speech-

like declamation However, the singer does not necessarily

follow the exact pitches in the score Mussorgsky wanted a naturalistic scene Thus, he allows the performer to decide his

style of delivery At the climax, a sudden harmonic change

pauses on a brilliant chord Boris cries “Wait! I am still the Tsar!” and

dies Mussorgsky’s beautiful score allows the

audience to sympathize with Boris

Russian Orientalism in MusicRuslan and Lyudmila by

Mikhail Glinka In the 19th century, Russia comprised

an expanding multinational empireRussian culture revealed great

interest in the exoticOccasionally, this fascination

involved political underpinnings

Ruslan and Lyudmila by Mikhail Glinka

Ruslan and Lyudmila illustrates the Russian obsession with the East Glinka uses exotic-sounding devices to

characterize Lyudmila’s suitor Ratmir Ratmir, a Khan of Khazaria, comes from the

Orient Glinka scored the male role for a contralto

female voice The English horn accompanies Ratmir’s

relaxed musical phrases It imitates the zurna, an instrument popular in

the Caucasus and Central Asia Both woodwind instruments require a double

reed

Ruslan and Lyudmila by Mikhail Glinka

A Russian woman, Gorislava, attempts to woo Ratmir as he searches for Lyudmila In the end, Ratmir and Gorislava become a

couple, joining the reunited titular pair The finale features a Turkish dance theme

Glinka envisioned Ruslan as a political representation of the Russian empire He originally planned to stage several

tableaux vivants of the empire during the finale However, this idea did not come to fruition

In the Steppes of Central Asia by Alexander Borodin

Alexander II commissioned this orchestral piece for his silver jubilee in 1880 Borodin intended In the Steppes of Central

Asia to celebrate the Russian empire The piece focused on the empire’s recent territorial

acquisitions He offered a programmatic image of a caravan

moving through the Asian desert The piece centers on two themes

One reflects Oriental character The other sounds like a Russian folk song Though stated separately, Borodin eventually

unites them with counterpoint

Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin Borodin’s only opera, Prince Igor, juxtaposes

the Russians and the Polovtsians Also called the Cumans, these nomads wandered

between Southeastern Europe and Central Asia They frequently raided Russia in the 11th

century Though he never finished the opera, Borodin

seemed to respect both forces equally The Polovtsian Act features a wide variety of

Orientalist ideas Borodin borrowed some devices from Glinka and

Balakirev However, he also invented some of his own

Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin In Act II, the first female chorus involves a

long pedal note In Western tradition, pedal notes usually

created tension and anticipation Russian music, on the other hand, uses pedal

notes to circumvent tension altogether The melody moves slowly above the pedal

note, with barely shifting harmonies It features a great deal of ornamentation135

The dance of the boys featured rapid triplet ostinato

This technique captured the fiery and wild nature of the Polovtsians

Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin

Russian Orientalism typically featured certain elements The augmented second interval reflected Turkic influence

Unfortunately, this device became clichéd in the 20th century

Orientalist pieces also frequently used chromatic harmonies For instance, chords might move in half steps over a pedal

note Composers also typically featured solo woodwinds

They favored double-reed instruments like the oboe, bassoon, and English horn

Orientalist compositions also called for a good deal of percussion

Many Orientalist works used compound meters like 3/8 and 6/8

Track 7: Scheherazade, First Movement

Background Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov premiered his

symphonic suite Scheherazade in 1888

He drew inspiration from the Persian stories in Thousand and One NightsScheherazade must entertain the

king with a new story every nightIf she fails, he will order her

execution

Track 7: Scheherazade, First Movement

The piece comprises four movements Originally, Rimsky-Korsakov assigned

each movement a programmatic title However, he later removed them

He felt they inhibited true appreciation of his music

Track 7: Scheherazade, First Movement: Featured excerpt

The first movement opens with musical representations of the king and Scheherazade An imposing unison figure in the lower register

illustrates the king Meanwhile, a solo violin represents

Scheherazade The solo line features an expressive arabesque line

of triplets Rimsky-Korsakov allows the soloist to vary tempo

freely This melody symbolizes Scheherazade preparing to

tell a story

Track 7: Scheherazade, First Movement

The tale in question centers on Sinbad and his ship Rimsky-Korsakov opens this section with music

representing the sea Like the waves, the music rises and falls Long pedal notes and slow-moving harmony emphasize the

sea’s perpetual motion Former naval officer Rimsky-Korsakov often depicted the

sea in his music Germanic music typically directed harmonic phrases

toward cadences By contrast, Russian music features more wandering

phrases with great freedom Orientalist music especially emphasized this sense of

aimlessness

Mr. Cosmopolitan: Tchaikovsky Tchaikovsky vs. the Mighty Handful

Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) began his career differently than the Mighty Handful He was one of the first graduates of the

St. Petersburg Conservatory There, Tchaikovsky studied composition

under Anton Rubinstein After graduating, Tchaikovsky accepted a

professorship at the Moscow Conservatory

Tchaikovsky vs. the Mighty Handful Unlike the Handful, Tchaikovsky did not adhere

to strict nationalist guidelines He received criticism for producing overly

cosmopolitan works Stasov and Cui claimed Tchaikovsky did not qualify

as a Russian musician Rather, he was a Germanic composer living in Russia

Tchaikovsky disagreed with the Handful’s narrow concept of Russianness He thought himself equally Russian

The Handful convinced the world of their position However, Tchaikovsky’s music still proved

immensely popular

Tchaikovsky vs. the Mighty Handful

Tchaikovsky vs. the Mighty Handful However, in the 1860s, Tchaikovsky

actually associated closely with the Handful He especially respected Balakirev’s

compositional style Tchaikovsky incorporated some of

Balakirev’s ideas in his own works His Second Symphony centered on a

Ukrainian folk song Tchaikovsky then developed this theme with

changing-background variations

Tchaikovsky vs. the Mighty Handful

Romeo and Juliet, a concert overture, uses Balakirev’s two favorite keys The sonata allegro revolves around B

minor and D-flat major The two keys lie far apart on the circle of

fifths B minor features two sharps and D-flat

major contains five flats Tchaikovsky modulates abruptly between

the two in true Balakirev style

Romeo and JulietTchaikovsky achieved his first

major success with the Romeo and Juliet overture The beautiful love theme reflects

influence from Italian operaHe first states this theme modestly

with transparent orchestrationAt the piece’s climax, the theme

returns full-force with grand instrumentation A countermelody and other layers also

contribute to the lush texture

Romeo and Juliet

Tchaikovsky proved especially adept at composing powerful musical climaxes Typically, he raises the piece to its

highest point and slowly winds it down However, in Romeo and Juliet, he

interrupts the glorious climaxThe warring families theme

overpowers the love theme

Tchaikovsky and psychorealism Tchaikovsky also revealed a knack for

accurately portraying sequences of intense emotions Scholars termed this illusion psychorealism Tchaikovsky achieved this effect primarily

through use of harmony Listeners associate standard progressions with

emotional tension and resolution For instance, the dominant creates tension The expected tonic allows resolution of this

tension Delaying resolution increased the sense of

emotional tension Moving from the dominant to a non-tonic harmony

creates a sense of unease

Tchaikovsky and psychorealism 19th-century composers mastered the

complexities of harmonic psychorealism Tchaikovsky and Richard Wagner both

excelled at this emotional manipulation Tchaikovsky’s psychorealist techniques

appeared in his programmatic instrumental pieces He wrote pieces based on the tragedies

Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Manfred He also incorporated emotions in his non-

programmatic symphonies Listeners easily associate emotions to the

Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Symphonies

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony

Listeners recognize the opening fanfare as a “Fate theme” This theme returns several times to

wreak havoc against the human protagonist

Note that said protagonist is not necessarily Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony

Tchaikovsky based the Fourth Symphony’s finale on a recognizable folk theme This tune is titled “In the field there

stood a birch tree” Tchaikovsky develops the theme with

Glinka variations However, unlike the Handful, Tchaikovsky

only uses it as a component of the drama The Handful would use the theme as a

piece of national heritage

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony

The Mighty Handful took issue with Tchaikovsky’s treatment of the folk songFirst, Tchaikovsky did not exalt the

folk songWorse yet, Tchaikovsky did not

preserve the original three-measure phrases Instead, he reconfigured the piece to more

Western four-measure phrases

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth SymphonyNadezhda von Meck requested a

programmatic explanation of the finale According to Tchaikovsky, the hero

mingles with a joyous crowdHowever, he cannot forget his own

troublesIn the middle of the folk celebration,

the Fate theme reappears

Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin Tchaikovsky achieved his greatest fame as a

composer of symphonies However, he also composed ten operas and

three ballets Tchaikovsky believed opera was the most

democratic art genre Unlike the Handful, he aimed to create popular

“grand operas” However, he did write a few more “realist”

operas His most famous opera, Eugene Onegin, does

not fit either of these categories This opera was one of few Russian works to enjoy

international fame

Tchaikovsky’s Eugene OneginEugene Onegin draws its plot from

Pushkin’s eponymous verse novel Tchaikovsky found the characters more

relatable than distant royal figuresHis psychorealist approach required him

to empathize with his characters The story involves unhappy love among

the rural eliteSocial circumstances restrict the

charactersAs a result, their love seems doomed to

failure

Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin This opera takes place in a domestic setting

Thus, Tchaikovsky does not feature excessive stage effects or virtuosic vocal passages

Even decent amateur singers can perform most of the music

The music imitates parlor songs (“romances”) popular during Pushkin’s time

Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin

The Mighty Handful did not recognize the music as Russian After all, it did not include folk-like

melodies However, Tchaikovsky’s contemporaries

would easily recognize the Russian aspects

Eugene Onegin fits a broader definition of Russianness

Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin

Instead of reflecting peasant culture, Tchaikovsky uses material he better understands In other words, he uses Russian music popular

in his own social class The upper and middle classes enjoyed the

parlor songs that influenced Onegin

Track 8: Beginning of the Finale from Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony

Background The Sixth Symphony was

Tchaikovsky’s last To remain true to the tragic subject,

Tchaikovsky broke conventions of symphonic form Most Western finales ended with loud,

positive-sounding fanfare Instead, Tchaikovsky wrote a short, somber

movement Many scholars consider this piece one of the

best musical depictions of grief

Track 8: Beginning of the Finale from Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony: featured excerpt

A descending conjunct theme in the violins opens the movement This theme seems to end in a question The reply always sounds terse and

unsympathetic Regardless, the inquisitive theme

becomes increasingly insistent

Track 8: Beginning of the Finale from Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony: featured excerpt

The second theme contrasts starkly with the first The range broadens and the whole

orchestra enters The second theme sounds more majestic

and chorale-like Unlike the first theme, the second theme

is in a major key

Track 8: Beginning of the Finale from Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony: featured excerpt

As usual, the themes appear more grandly later in the piece

At the climax, a pulsating rhythm suddenly halts the forward movement The music falls through the entire

orchestral range Afterward, the speech-like phrases

recreate the original grief-stricken mood

Track 9: Beginning of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto

Background Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

produced five piano concertos He worked as a composer, conductor, and

virtuoso pianist146147 The Second Piano Concerto enjoys

considerable popularity even today Rachmaninoff also composed the

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Track 9: Beginning of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto

Rachmaninoff compromised between the ideals of Tchaikovsky and the Handful He included the “Russian” folk idioms of

the Handful However, like Tchaikovsky, he also favored

psychorealism and emotional drama

Track 9: Beginning of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto – featured excerpt

The selection opens with a dramatic piano solo The pianist plays a sequence of chords

The same bass note sounds after each chord

Each successive chord builds the tension

Scholars compare this texture with musical depictions of bells in Russian music

Track 9: Beginning of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto – featured excerpt

After the introduction, the orchestra presents the main theme The solo pianist plays a tempestuous

accompaniment The relatively conjunct melody frequently

doubles back on itself

Track 9: Beginning of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto – featured excerpt

Rachmaninoff often uses stepwise motion in his melodies The melodies derive from vocal songs Scholars relate these melodies to Russian

Orthodox chants However, this particular melody involves a

march-like rhythm Overall, the piece reflects a mood of severe

concentration

Track 9: Beginning of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto – featured excerpt

The piano adopts the melody The melody becomes more lyrical and

melancholic However, the music builds to an intense climax

in Tchaikovskian149 style In a momentary calm, a contrasting major

theme appears in solo piano Some features recall the Handful’s Orientalist style

Track 9: Beginning of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto – featured excerpt

However, scholars typically attribute these harmonies to Rachmaninoff’s general style

As with Tchaikovsky’s works, the main theme reappears in a more lavish style Rachmaninoff adds rich orchestral

accompaniment

Diaghilev and Russian Music Abroad Western audiences discover

Tchaikovsky Russian music only achieved international

recognition near the end of the 19th century By this time, Glinka’s music had fallen from

favor Glinka worked in the 1830s and 1840s In Milan, a late 19th-century show of A Life for

the Tsar received little attention

Diaghilev and Russian Music Abroad Western audiences discover Tchaikovsky Tchaikovsky was the first Russian composer to

attain great fame abroad He became an international celebrity His reputation as a conductor also helped spread

awareness of his works New York’s Carnegie Hall invited Tchaikovsky to

conduct its inaugural performance During Tchaikovsky’s lifetime, several

European opera houses staged Eugene Onegin In 1892, Gustav Mahler conducted a

performance in Hamburg, Germany

The Mighty Handful abroad The Handful’s music took longer to reach

international audiences than Tchaikovsky’s France most enthusiastically welcomed the

Mighty Handful’s music Some pieces premiered at the Paris

Expositions in 1878 and 1889 Other composers received the Handful’s

scores through private means Claude Debussy first heard Boris Godunov in the

early 1890s Mussorgsky’s declamatory style influenced

Debussy’s own operas

Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) introduced the Saisons Russes in 1907

Sergei Diaghilev: Saisons Russes This concert series almost exclusively

included compositions by the Mighty Handful Thus, Parisian society became acquainted with

Handful’s “Russianness” Diaghilev felt Parisian critics would find

Tchaikovsky’s work too Western Cui contributed to this perception by

publishing articles in the French press Between 1878 and 1880, Cui wrote that the

Handful alone created nationalist works French critics thus viewed Tchaikovsky’s works

as Germanic French audiences wanted a unique sound like

the Handful’s

The success of Saisons Russes convinced Diaghilev to stage other Handful works In 1908, Diaghilev produced a performance

of Boris GodunovHe used Rimsky-Korsakov’s revised

orchestration Fyodor Chaliapin performed the title role to

great acclaim Audiences considered him the perfect Boris

Diaghilev spared no expense on the production The elaborately ornate sets and costumes dazzled

the Parisian audienceBoris Godunov’s enduring international

success stems in part from this performance

Diaghilev staged other Handful works posthumously He produced the Polovtsian Act from

Prince Igor He reimagined Rimsky-Korsakov’s

Scheherazade into a ballet Also, he transformed Rimsky-Korsakov’s

final opera The Golden Cockerel into an opera-ballet The singers sang in the background Meanwhile, the dancers performed the

action in the forefront Sadly, Mussorgsky, Borodin, and Rimsky-

Korsakov died before seeing their fame

French composers embraced the Handful’s influence They, like the Handful, sought to create

a distinct nationalist style The French also hoped to avoid Germanic

clichés They particularly abhorred Wagner’s style

These composers admired the Handful’s originality and non-Western sound

French composers embraced the Handful’s influence Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel

integrated Russian elements in their works They studied Mussorgsky’s declamatory

operatic realist style Debussy subsequently produced the opera

Pelleas et Mélisande Ravel wrote L’heure espagnole

These French composers also assimilated Russian Orientalism and exoticism Ravel’s Spanish-style music sounds like Rimsky-

Korsakov’s Spanish Capriccio The Oriental style appeared in Ravel’s song cycle

Scheherazade

French composers embraced the Handful’s influence Ravel also produced an arrangement of

Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition Mussorgsky originally envisioned the

piece as a piano cycle Today, however, most listeners only

recognize Ravel’s orchestral arrangement