Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov -

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

Nikolai Rimsky-KorsakovFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian: -; IPA: [nklaj ndrejvt rimskj korskf]; 18 March [O.S. 6March] 1844[a 1] 21 June [O.S. 8 June] 1908) was a Russian composer, and a memberof the group of composers known as The Five.[a 2] He was a master of orchestration. Hisbest-known orchestral compositionsCapriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter FestivalOverture, and the symphonic suite Scheherazadeare staples of the classical musicrepertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas. Scheherazade isan example of his frequent use of fairy tale and folk subjects.

Rimsky-Korsakov believed, as did fellow composer Mily Balakirev and critic VladimirStasov, in developing a nationalistic style of classical music. This style employedRussian folk song and lore along with exotic harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elementsin a practice known as musical orientalism, and eschewed traditional Westerncompositional methods. However, Rimsky-Korsakov appreciated Western musicaltechniques after he became a professor of musical composition, harmony andorchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. He undertook a rigorousthree-year program of self-education and became a master of Western methods,incorporating them alongside the influences of Mikhail Glinka and fellow members ofThe Five. His techniques of composition and orchestration were further enriched by hisexposure to the works of Richard Wagner.

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

Rimsky-Korsakov left a considerable body of original Russian nationalist compositions. He prepared works by The Five for performance,which brought them into the active classical repertoire (although there is controversy over his editing of the works of Modest Mussorgsky),and shaped a generation of younger composers and musicians during his decades as an educator. Rimsky-Korsakov is therefore considered"the main architect" of what the classical music public considers the Russian style of composition.[1] His influence on younger composerswas especially important, as he served as a transitional figure between the autodidactism which exemplified Glinka and The Five andprofessionally trained composers which would become the norm in Russia by the closing years of the 19th century. While Rimsky-Korsakov's style was based on those of Glinka, Balakirev, Hector Berlioz, and Franz Liszt, he "transmitted this style directly to twogenerations of Russian composers" and influenced non-Russian composers including Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas andOttorino Respighi.[2]

Contents1 Biography

1.1 Early years1.2 Mentored by Balakirev; time with The Five1.3 Professorship, marriage, inspector of bands1.4 Backlash and May Night1.5 Belyayev circle1.6 Increased contact with Tchaikovsky1.7 Increasing conservatism; second creative drought1.8 1905 Revolution1.9 Death

2 Legacy2.1 Compositions

2.1.1 Operas

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Rimsky-Korsakov's birthplace in Tikhvin

Rimsky-Korsakov as a naval cadet

2.1.2 Orchestral works2.1.3 Smaller-scale works

2.2 Transitional figure2.3 Students2.4 Editing the work of The Five

3 Folklore and pantheism4 Publications5 Commemoration6 References7 Further reading8 External links

BiographyEarly years

Rimsky-Korsakov was born in Tikhvin, 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of SaintPetersburg, into an aristocratic family with a long line of military and navalservicehis older brother Voin, 22 years his senior, became a well-known navigatorand explorer.[3]

Rimsky-Korsakov later recalled that his mother played the piano a little, and his fathercould play a few songs on the piano by ear.[4] It is said that Rimsky-Korsakov inheritedhis mother's tendency to play too slowly.[5] Beginning at six, he took piano lessons fromlocal teachers and showed a talent for aural skills,[6] but he showed a lack of interest,playing, as he later wrote, "badly, carelessly, ... poor at keeping time."[7]

Although he started composing by age 10, Rimsky-Korsakov preferred literature over music.[8] He later wrote that from his reading, andtales of his brother's exploits, he developed a poetic love for the sea "without ever having seen it."[9] This love, and prompting from Voin,encouraged the 12-year-old to join the Imperial Russian Navy.[8] He studied at the School for Mathematical and Navigational Sciences inSaint Petersburg and, at 18, took his final examination in April 1862.[6]

While at school, Rimsky-Korsakov took piano lessons from a man named Ulikh.[10] These lessonswere sanctioned by Voin, who now served as director of the school,[3] because they would help theyouth to develop social skills and overcome his shyness.[8] Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that, while"indifferent" to lessons, he developed a love for music, fostered by visits to the opera and, later,orchestral concerts.[11] Ulikh perceived that he had serious musical talent and recommendedanother teacher, Feodor A. Kanille (Thodore Canill).[12] Beginning in the autumn of 1859,Rimsky-Korsakov took lessons in piano and composition from Kanille, whom he later credited asthe inspiration for devoting his life to musical composition.[13] Through Kanille, he was exposedto a great deal of new music, including Mikhail Glinka and Robert Schumann.[8] Despite Rimsky-Korsakov's now liking his music lessons, Voin cancelled them when Rimsky-Korsakov was 17, ashe felt they no longer served a practical need.[8] Kanille told Rimsky-Korsakov to continuecoming to him every Sunday,[13] not for formal lessons but to play duets and discuss music.[14] InNovember 1861, Kanille introduced the 18-year-old Rimsky-Korsakov to Mily Balakirev.Balakirev in turn introduced him to Csar Cui and Modest Mussorgsky; all three were known ascomposers, despite only being in their 20s.[15] Rimsky-Korsakov later wrote, "With what delight Ilistened to real business discussions [Rimsky-Korsakov's emphasis] of instrumentation, partwriting, etc! And besides, how much talking there was about current musical matters! All at once Ihad been plunged into a new world, unknown to me, formerly only heard of in the society of mydilettante friends. That was truly a strong impression."[16]

Balakirev encouraged Rimsky-Korsakov to compose and taught him the rudiments when he was not at sea.[8] Balakirev also prompted himto enrich himself in history, literature and criticism.[17] When he showed Balakirev the beginning of a symphony in E-flat minor that he hadwritten, Balakirev insisted he continue working on it despite his lack of formal musical training.[18] By the time Rimsky-Korsakov sailedon a two-year-and-eight-month cruise aboard the clipper Almaz in late 1862, he had completed and orchestrated three movements of the


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The Russian military clipper Almaz in New YorkHarbor in 1863. Rimsky-Korsakov served as amidshipman on this ship and later wrote about thiscruise.

Mily Balakirev encouraged Rimsky-Korsakov to continue composing.

symphony.[19][a 3] He composed the slow movement during a stop in England andmailed the score to Balakirev before going back to sea.[20] At first, his work on thesymphony kept Rimsky-Korsakov occupied during his cruise.[8] He purchased scores atevery port of call, along with a piano on which to play them, and filled his idle hoursstudying Berlioz's Treatise on Instrumentation.[8] He found time to read the works ofHomer, William Shakespeare, Friedrich Schiller and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; hesaw London, Niagara Falls, and Rio de Janeiro during his stops in port.[8] Eventually,the lack of outside musical stimuli dulled the young midshipman's hunger to learn. Hewrote to Balakirev that after two years at sea he had neglected his musical lessons formonths.[8] "Thoughts of becoming a musician and composer gradually left mealtogether," he later recalled; "distant lands began to allure me, somehow, although,properly speaking, naval service never pleased me much and hardly suited my characterat all."[21]

Mentored by Balakirev; time with The Five

Once back in Saint Petersburg in May 1865, Rimsky-Korsakov's onshore duties consisted of a couple of hours of clerical duty each day,[8]but he recalled that his desire to compose "had been stifled ... I did not concern myself with music at all."[22] He wrote that contact withBalakirev in September 1865 encouraged him "to get accustomed to music and later to plunge into it".[23] At Balakirev's suggestion, hewrote a trio to the scherzo of the E-flat minor symphony, which it had lacked up to that point, and reorchestrated the entire symphony.[24]Its first performance came in December of that year under Balakirev's direction in Saint Petersburg.[24][25] A second performance followedin March 1866 under the direction of Konstantin Lyadov (father of composer Anatoly Lyadov).[25]

Correspondence between Rimsky-Korsakov and Balakirev clearly shows that some ideas for the symphony originated with Balakirev.[8]Balakirev seldom stopped at merely correcting a piece of music, and would often recompose it at the piano.[8] Rimsky-Korsakov recalled,

A pupil like myself had to submit to Balakirev a proposed composition in its embryo, say, even the first four or eight bars.Balakirev would immediately make corrections, indicating how to recast such an embryo; he would criticize it, wouldpraise and extol the first two bars, but would censure the next two, ridicule them, and try hard to make the author disgustedwith them. Vivacity of composition and fertility were not at all in favor, frequent recasting was demanded, and thecomposition was extended over a long space of time under the cold control of self-criticism.[26]

Rimsky-Korsakov recalled that "Balakirev had no difficulty in getting along with me. At hissuggestion I most readily rewrote the symphonic movements composed by me and brought themto completion with the help of his advice and improvisations".[27] Though Rimsky-Korsakov laterfound Balakirev's influence stifling, and broke free from it,[28] this did not stop him in his memoirsfrom extolling the older composer's talents as a critic and improviser.[26] Under Balakirev'smentoring, Rimsky-Korsakov turned to other compositions. He began a symphony in B minor, butfelt it too closely followed Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and abandoned it. He completed anOverture on Three Russian Themes, based on Balakirev's folksong overtures, as well as a Fantasiaon Serbian Themes that was performed at a concert given for the delegates of the SlavonicCongress in 1867.[8] In his review of this concert, nationalist critic Vladimir Stasov coined thephrase Moguchaya kuchka for the Balakirev circle (Moguchaya kuchka is usually translated as"The Mighty Handful" or "The Five").[8] Rimsky-Korsakov also composed the initial versions ofSadko and Antar, which cemented his reputation as a writer of orchestral works.[25]

Rimsky-Korsakov socialized and discussed music with the other members of The Five; theycritiqued one another's works in progress and collaborated on new pieces.[8] He became friendswith Alexander Borodin, whose music "astonished" him.[29] He spent an increasing amount oftime with Mussorgsky.[8] Balakirev and Mussorgsky played piano four-hand music, Mussorgskywould sing, and they frequently discussed other composers' works, with preferred tastes running "toward Glinka, Schumann andBeethoven's late quartets".[30] Mendelssohn was not thought of highly, Mozart and Haydn "were considered out of date and nave", and J.S.Bach merely mathematical and unfeeling.[30] Berlioz "was highly esteemed", Liszt "crippled and perverted from a musical point of view ...even a caricature", and Wagner discussed little.[30] Rimsky-Korsakov "listened to these opinions with avidity and absorbed the tastes ofBalakirev, Cui and Mussorgsky without reasoning or examination". Often, the musical works in question "were played before me only infragments, and I had no idea of the whole work". This, he wrote, did not stop him from accepting these judgments at face value and


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

repeating them "as if I were thoroughly convinced of their truth".[30]

Rimsky-Korsakov became especially appreciated within The Five, and among those who visited the circle, for his talents as anorchestrator.[25] He was asked by Balakirev to orchestrate a Schubert march for a concert in May 1868, by Cui to orchestrate the openingchorus of his opera William Ratcliff and by Alexander Dargomyzhsky, whose works were greatly appreciated by The Five and who wasclose to death, to orchestrate his opera The Stone Guest.[25]

In the fall of 1871, Rimsky-Korsakov moved into Voin's former apartment, and invited Mussorgsky to be his roommate. The workingarrangement they agreed upon was that Mussorgsky used the piano in the mornings while Rimsky-Korsakov worked on copying ororchestration. When Mussorgsky left for his civil service job at noon, Rimsky-Korsakov then used the piano. Time in the evenings wasallotted by mutual agreement.[25] "That autumn and winter the two of us accomplished a good deal", Rimsky-Korsakov wrote, "withconstant exchange of ideas and plans. Mussorgsky composed and orchestrated the Polish act of Boris Godunov and the folk scene 'NearKromy.' I orchestrated and finished my Maid of Pskov."[31]

Professorship, marriage, inspector of bandsIn 1871, the 27-year-old Rimsky-Korsakov became Professor of Practical Composition and Instrumentation (orchestration) at the SaintPetersburg Conservatory,[32] as well as leader of the Orchestra Class.[25] He retained his position in active naval service, and taught hisclasses in uniform (military officers in Russia were required to wear their uniforms every day, as they were considered to be always onduty).[33]

Rimsky-Korsakov explained in his memoirs that Mikhal Azanchevsky had taken overthat year as director of the Conservatory,[25] and wanting new blood to freshen upteaching in those subjects,[34] had offered to pay generously for Rimsky-Korsakov'sservices.[35] Biographer Mikhail Zetlin suggests that Azanchevsky's motives might havebeen twofold. First, Rimsky-Korsakov was the member of the Five least criticized by itsopponents, and inviting him to teach at the Conservatory may have been considered asafe way to show that all serious musicians were welcome there.[36] Second, the offermay have been calculated to expose him to an academic climate in which he wouldwrite in a more conservative, Western-based style.[37] Balakirev had opposed academictraining in music with tremendous vigor,[38] but encouraged him to accept the post toconvince others to join the nationalist musical cause.[39]

Rimsky-Korsakov's reputation at this time was as a master of orchestration, based onSadko and Antar.[40] However, he had written these works mainly by intuition.[40] His

knowledge of musical theory was elemental; he had never written any counterpoint, could not harmonize a simple chorale, nor knew thenames or intervals of musical chords.[40] He had never conducted an orchestra, and had been discouraged from doing so by the navy, whichdid not approve of his appearing on the podium in uniform.[41] Aware of his technical shortcomings,[42] Rimsky-Korsakov consulted PyotrIlyich Tchaikovsky,[43] with whom he and the others in The Five had been in occasional contact.[44] Tchaikovsky, unlike The Five, hadreceived academic training in composition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory,[45] and was serving as Professor of Music Theory at theMoscow Conservatory.[46] Tchaikovsky advised him to study.[47]

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that while teaching at the Conservatory he soon became "possibly its very best pupil [Rimsky-Korsakov'semphasis], judging by the quantity and value of the information it gave me!"[48] To prepare himself, and to stay at least one step ahead ofhis students, he took a three-year sabbatical from composing original works, and assiduously studied at home while he lectured at theConservatory. He taught himself from textbooks,[49] and followed a strict regimen of composing contrapuntal exercises, fugues, choralesand a cappella choruses.[32]

Rimsky-Korsakov eventually became an excellent teacher and a fervent believer in academic training.[48][50][51] He revised everything hehad composed prior to 1874, even acclaimed works such as Sadko and Antar, in a search for perfection that would remain with himthroughout the rest of his life.[32] Assigned to rehearse the Orchestra Class, he mastered the art of conducting.[32] Dealing with orchestraltextures as a conductor, and making suitable arrangements of musical works for the Orchestra Class, led to an increased interest in the art oforchestration, an area into which he would further indulge his studies as Inspector of Navy Bands.[32] The score of his Third Symphony,written just after he had completed his three-year program of self-improvement, reflects his hands-on experience with the orchestra.[32]

Professorship brought Rimsky-Korsakov financial security,[52] which encouraged him to settle down and to start a family.[52] In December1871 he proposed to Nadezhda Purgold, with whom he had developed a close relationship over weekly gatherings of The Five at thePurgold household.[53] They married in July 1872, with Mussorgsky serving as best man.[52] The Rimsky-Korsakovs had seven


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Nadezhda Rimskaya-Korsakova, nePurgold, wife of the composer

Portrait of Rimsky-Korsakov by IlyaRepin

children.[54] One of their sons, Andrei, became a musicologist, married the composer YuliyaVeysberg and wrote a multi-volume study of his father's life and work.[55]

Nadezhda became a musical as well as domestic partner with her husband, much as ClaraSchumann had been with her own husband Robert.[52] She was beautiful, capable, strong-willed,and far better trained musically than her husband at the time they married[56]she had attendedthe Saint Petersburg Conservatory in the mid-1860s, studying piano with Anton Gerke (one ofwhose private students was Mussorgsky)[57] and music theory with Nikolai Zaremba, who alsotaught Tchaikovsky.[58] Nadezhda proved a fine and most demanding critic of her husband's work;her influence over him in musical matters was strong enough for Balakirev and Stasov to wonderwhether she was leading him astray from their musical preferences.[32] Musicologist Lyle Neffwrote that while Nadezhda gave up her own compositional career when she married Rimsky-Korsakov, she "had a considerable influence on the creation of [Rimsky-Korsakov's] first threeoperas. She travelled with her husband, attended rehearsals and arranged compositions by him andothers"[58] for piano four hands, which she played with her husband.[32] "Her last years werededicated to issuing her husband's posthumous literary and musical legacy, maintaining standardsfor performance of his works ... and preparing material for a museum in his name."[58]

In the spring of 1873, the navy created the post of Inspector of Naval Bands and appointedRimsky-Korsakov. While this kept him on the navy payroll and listed on the roster of theChancellery of the Navy Department, it allowed him to resign his commission.[49][59] AsInspector, he visited naval bands throughout Russia, supervised the bandmasters and theirappointments, reviewed the bands' repertoire, and inspected the quality of their instruments. Hewrote a study program for a complement of music students who held navy fellowships at theConservatory, and acted as an intermediary between the Conservatory and the navy. The post ofBand Inspector came with a promotion to Collegiate Assessor, a civilian rank. "I parted withdelight with both my military status and my officer's uniform", he later wrote. "Henceforth I was amusician officially and incontestably."[60]

Rimsky-Korsakov applied himself with zeal to his duties,[49] and indulged in a long-standingdesire to familiarize himself with the construction and playing technique of orchestral instruments.[60][61] These studies prompted him to write a textbook on orchestration.[60] He used the privilegesof rank to exercise and expand upon his knowledge. He discussed arrangements of musical worksfor military band with bandmasters, encouraged and reviewed their efforts, held concerts at whichhe could hear these pieces, and orchestrated original works, and works by other composers, formilitary bands.[62]

In March 1884, an Imperial Order abolished the navy office of Inspector of Bands, and Rimsky-Korsakov was relieved of his duties.[49] He worked under Balakirev in the Court Chapel as a

deputy until 1894,[63] which allowed him to study Russian Orthodox church music. He also taught classes at the Chapel, and wrote histextbook on harmony for use there and at the Conservatory.[64]

Backlash and May NightRimsky-Korsakov's studies and his change in attitude regarding music education brought him the scorn of his fellow nationalists, whothought he was throwing away his Russian heritage to compose fugues and sonatas.[51] After he strove "to crowd in as much counterpointas possible" into his Third Symphony,[65] he wrote chamber works adhering strictly to classical models, including a string sextet, a stringquartet in F minor and a quintet for flute, clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano. About the quartet and the symphony, Tchaikovsky wrote to hispatroness, Nadezhda von Meck, that they "were filled with a host of clever things but ... [were] imbued with a dryly pedantic character".[66]Borodin commented that when he heard the symphony, he kept "feeling that this is the work of a German Herr Professor who has put onhis glasses and is about to write Eine grosse Symphonie in C".[67]

According to Rimsky-Korsakov, the other members of The Five showed little enthusiasm for the symphony, and less still for the quartet.[68]Nor was his public debut as a conductor, at an 1874 charity concert where he led the orchestra in the new symphony, considered favorablyby his compatriots.[49] He later wrote that "they began, indeed, to look down upon me as one on the downward path".[68] Worse still toRimsky-Korsakov was the faint praise given by Anton Rubinstein, a composer opposed to the nationalists' music and philosophy. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that after Rubinstein heard the quartet, he commented that now Rimsky-Korsakov "might amount to something" as acomposer.[68] He wrote that Tchaikovsky continued to support him morally, telling him that he fully applauded what Rimsky-Korsakov was


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

doing and admired both his artistic modesty and his strength of character.[69] Privately, Tchaikovsky confided to Nadezhda von Meck,"Apparently [Rimsky-Korsakov] is now passing through this crisis, and how it will end will be difficult to predict. Either a great master willcome out of him, or he will finally become bogged down in contrapuntal tricks".[66]

Two projects helped Rimsky-Korsakov focus on less academic music-making. The firstwas the creation of two folk song collections in 1874. Rimsky-Korsakov transcribed 40Russian songs for voice and piano from performances by folk singer Tvorty Filippov,[70][71] who approached him at Balakirev's suggestion.[72] This collection was followedby a second containing 100 songs, supplied by friends and servants, or taken from rareand out-of-print collections.[71][73] Rimsky-Korsakov later credited this work as a greatinfluence on him as a composer;[74] it also supplied a vast amount of musical materialfrom which he could draw for future projects, either by direct quotation or as models forcomposing fakeloric passages.[71] The second project was the editing of orchestralscores by pioneer Russian composer Mikhail Glinka (18041857) in collaboration withBalakirev and Anatoly Lyadov.[49] Glinka's sister, Lyudmila Ivanovna Shestakova,wanted to preserve her brother's musical legacy in print, and paid the costs of the projectfrom her own pocket.[75] No similar project had been attempted before in Russianmusic,[71] and guidelines for scholarly musical editing had to be established andagreed.[71] While Balakirev favored making changes in Glinka's music to "correct" whathe saw as compositional flaws, Rimsky-Korsakov favored a less intrusive approach.[71]Eventually, Rimsky-Korsakov prevailed.[71] "Work on Glinka's scores was an

unexpected schooling for me", he later wrote. "Even before this I had known and worshipped his operas; but as editor of the scores in printI had to go through Glinka's style and instrumentation to their last little note ... And this was a beneficent discipline for me, leading me as itdid to the path of modern music, after my vicissitudes with counterpoint and strict style".[76]

In the summer of 1877, Rimsky-Korsakov thought increasingly about the short story May Night by Nikolai Gogol. The story had long beena favorite of his, and his wife Nadezhda had encouraged him to write an opera based on it from the day of their betrothal, when they hadread it together.[77] While musical ideas for such a work predated 1877, now they came with greater persistence. By winter May Night tookan increasing amount of his attention; in February 1878 he started writing in earnest, and he finished the opera by early November.[71]

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that May Night was of great importance because, despite the opera's containing a good deal of contrapuntal music,he nevertheless "cast off the shackles of counterpoint [emphasis Rimsky-Korsakov]".[78] He wrote the opera in a folk-like melodic idiom,and scored it in a transparent manner much in the style of Glinka.[49] Nevertheless, despite the ease of writing this opera and the next, TheSnow Maiden,[79] from time to time he suffered from creative paralysis between 1881 and 1888.[80] He kept busy during this time byediting Mussorgsky's works and completing Borodin's Prince Igor (Mussorgsky died in 1881, Borodin in 1887).[80]

Belyayev circle

Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that he became acquainted with budding music patron Mitrofan Belyayev (M. P. Belaieff) in Moscow in 1882.[81]Belyayev was one of a growing coterie of Russian nouveau-riche industrialists who became patrons of the arts in mid- to late-19th centuryRussia; their number included railway magnate Savva Mamontov and textile manufacturer Pavel Tretyakov.[82] Belyayev, Mamontov andTretyakov "wanted to contribute conspicuously to public life".[83] They had worked their way into wealth, and being Slavophiles in theirnational outlook believed in the greater glory of Russia.[84] Because of this belief, they were more likely than the aristocracy to supportnative talent, and were more inclined to support nationalist artists over cosmopolitan ones.[84] This preference paralleled a general upsurgein nationalism and Russophilia that became prevalent in mainstream Russian art and society.[85]

By the winter of 1883 Rimsky-Korsakov had become a regular visitor to the weekly "quartet Fridays" ("Les Vendredis") held at Belyayev'shome in Saint Petersburg.[86] Belyayev, who had already taken a keen interest in the musical future of the teenage Alexander Glazunov,rented a hall and hired an orchestra in 1884 to play Glazunov's First Symphony plus an orchestral suite Glazunov had just composed. Thisconcert and a rehearsal the previous year gave Rimsky-Korsakov the idea of offering concerts featuring Russian compositions, a prospect towhich Belyayev was amenable. The Russian Symphony Concerts were inaugurated during the 188687 season, with Rimsky-Korsakovsharing conducting duties with Anatoly Lyadov.[87] He finished his revision of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain and conducted it atthe opening concert.[88] The concerts also coaxed him out of his creative drought; he wrote Scheherazade, Capriccio Espagnol and theRussian Easter Overture specifically for them.[80] He noted that these three works "show a considerable falling off in the use ofcontrapuntal devices ... [replaced] by a strong and virtuoso development of every kind of figuration which sustains the technical interest ofmy compositions."[89]


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Portrait by Ilya Repin of M. P.Belyayev, founder of the RussianSymphony Concerts

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky by NikolayKuznetsov, 1893

Rimsky-Korsakov was asked for advice and guidance not just on the Russian Symphony Concerts,but on other projects through which Belyayev aided Russian composers. "By force of matterspurely musical I turned out to be the head of the Belyayev circle", he wrote. "As the headBelyayev, too, considered me, consulting me about everything and referring everyone to me aschief".[90] In 1884 Belyayev set up an annual Glinka prize, and in 1885 he founded his own musicpublishing firm, through which he published works by Borodin, Glazunov, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov at his own expense. To select which composers to assist with money, publication orperformances from the many who now appealed for help, Belyayev set up an advisory councilmade up of Glazunov, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov. They would look through the compositionsand appeals submitted and suggest which composers were deserving of patronage and publicattention.[91]

The group of composers who now congregated with Glazunov, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakovbecame known as the Belyayev circle, named after their financial benefactor. These composerswere nationalistic in their musical outlook, as The Five before them had been. Like The Five, theybelieved in a uniquely Russian style of classical music that utilized folk music and exotic melodic,harmonic and rhythmic elements, as exemplified by the music of Balakirev, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov. Unlike The Five, these composers also believed in the necessity of an academic,Western-based background in compositionwhich Rimsky-Korsakov had instilled in his years atthe Saint Petersburg Conservatory.[92] Compared to the "revolutionary" composers in Balakirev'scircle, Rimsky-Korsakov found those in the Belyayev circle to be "progressive ... attaching as itdid great importance to technical perfection, but ... also broke new paths, though more securely,even if less speedily ..."[93]

Increased contact with TchaikovskyIn November 1887, Tchaikovsky arrived in Saint Petersburg in time to hear several of the RussianSymphony Concerts. One of them included the first complete performance of his First Symphony,subtitled Winter Daydreams, in its final version.[94] Another concert featured the premiere ofRimsky-Korsakov's Third Symphony in its revised version.[94] Rimsky-Korsakov andTchaikovsky corresponded considerably before the visit and spent a lot of time together, alongwith Glazunov and Lyadov.[95] Though Tchaikovsky had been a regular visitor to the Rimsky-Korsakov home since 1876,[96] and had at one point offered to arrange Rimsky-Korsakov'sappointment as director of the Moscow Conservatory,[96] this was the beginning of closer relationsbetween the two. Within a couple of years, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote, Tchaikovsky's visits becamemore frequent.[97]

During these visits and especially in public, Rimsky-Korsakov wore a mask of geniality. Privately,he found the situation emotionally complex, and confessed his fears to his friend, the Moscowcritic Semyon Kruglikov.[98] Memories persisted of the tension between Tchaikovsky and TheFive over the differences in their musical philosophiestension acute enough for Tchaikovsky'sbrother Modest to liken their relations at that time to "those between two friendly neighboringstates ... cautiously prepared to meet on common ground, but jealously guarding their separateinterests".[99] Rimsky-Korsakov observed, not without annoyance, how Tchaikovsky becameincreasingly popular among Rimsky-Korsakov's followers.[100] This personal jealousy wascompounded by a professional one, as Tchaikovsky's music became increasingly popular among the composers of the Belyayev circle, andremained on the whole more famous than his own.[101] Even so, when Tchaikovsky attended Rimsky-Korsakov's nameday party in May1893, Rimsky-Korsakov asked Tchaikovsky personally if he would conduct four concerts of the Russian Musical Society in SaintPetersburg the following season. After hesitation, Tchaikovsky agreed.[102] While his sudden death in late 1893 prevented him fromfulfilling this commitment in its entirety, the list of works he had planned to conduct included Rimsky-Korsakov's Third Symphony.[103]

Increasing conservatism; second creative droughtIn March 1889, Angelo Neumann's traveling "Richard Wagner Theater" visited Saint Petersburg, giving four cycles of Der Ring desNibelungen there under the direction of Karl Muck.[104] The Five had ignored Wagner's music, but The Ring impressed Rimsky-Korsakov:[105] he was astonished with Wagner's mastery of orchestration. He attended the rehearsals with Glazunov, and followed thescore. After hearing these performances, Rimsky-Korsakov devoted himself almost exclusively to composing operas for the rest of hiscreative life. Wagner's use of the orchestra influenced Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestration,[104] beginning with the arrangement of the


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Ilya Repin, 17 October 1905

polonaise from Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov that he made for concert use in 1889.[106]

Toward music more adventurous than Wagner's, especially that of Richard Strauss and later Claude Debussy, Rimsky-Korsakov's mindremained closed. He would fume for days afterwards when he heard pianist Felix Blumenfeld play Debussy's Estampes and write in hisdiary about them, "Poor and skimpy to the nth degree; there is no technique, even less imagination."[107] This was part of an increasingmusical conservatism on his part (his "musical conscience," as he put it), under which he now scrutinized his music and that of others', aswell.[108] Compositions by his former compatriots in The Five were not immune. While working on his first revision of Mussorgsky's BorisGodunov, in 1895 he would tell his amanuensis, Vasily Yastrebtsev, "It's incredible that I ever could have liked this music and yet it seemsthere was such a time."[109] By 1901 he would write of growing "indignant at all [of Wagner's] blunders of the ear"this about the samemusic which caught his attention in 1889.[110]

In 1892 Rimsky-Korsakov suffered a second creative drought,[80] brought on by bouts of depression and alarming physical symptoms.Rushes of blood to the head, confusion, memory loss and unpleasant obsessions[111] led to a medical diagnosis of neurasthenia.[111] Crisesin the Rimsky-Korsakov household may have been a factorthe serious illnesses of his wife and one of his sons from diphtheria in 1890,the deaths of his mother and youngest child, as well as the onset of the prolonged, ultimately fatal illness of his second youngest child.[111]He resigned from the Russian Symphony Concerts and the Court Chapel[111] and considered giving up composition permanently.[80] Aftermaking third versions of the musical tableau Sadko and the opera The Maid of Pskov, he closed his musical account with the past; he hadleft none of his major works before May Night in their original form.[104]

Another death brought about a creative renewal.[111] The passing of Tchaikovsky presented a twofold opportunityto write for theImperial Theaters and to compose an opera based on Nikolai Gogol's short story Christmas Eve, a work on which Tchaikovsky had basedhis opera Vakula the Smith. The success of Rimsky-Korsakov's Christmas Eve encouraged him to complete an opera approximately every18 months between 1893 and 1908a total of 11 during this period.[80] He also started and abandoned another draft of his treatise onorchestration,[64] but made a third attempt and almost finished it in the last four years of his life.[64] (His son-in-law Maximilian Steinbergcompleted the book in 1912.[64]) Rimsky-Korsakov's scientific treatment of orchestration, illustrated with more than 300 examples from hiswork, set a new standard for texts of its kind.[64]

1905 RevolutionIn 1905, demonstrations took place in the St. Petersburg Conservatory as part of the 1905 Revolution; these, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote, weretriggered by similar disturbances at St. Petersburg State University, in which students demanded political reforms and the establishment ofa constitutional monarchy in Russia.[112] "I was chosen a member of the committee for adjusting differences with agitated pupils", herecalled; however, almost as soon as the committee had been formed, "[a]ll sorts of measures were recommended to expel the ringleaders,to quarter the police in the Conservatory, to close the Conservatory entirely".[112]

A lifelong liberal politically,[113] Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that he feltsomeone had to protect the rights of the students to demonstrate,especially as disputes and wrangling between students and authoritieswere becoming increasingly violent.[112] In an open letter, he sidedwith the students against what he saw as unwarranted interference byConservatory leadership and the Russian Musical Society.[112] Asecond letter, this time signed by a number of faculty includingRimsky-Korsakov, demanded the resignation of the head of theConservatory.[114] Partly as a result of these two letters he wrote,approximately 100 Conservatory students were expelled and he wasremoved from his professorship.[114] Just before the dismissal wasenacted, Rimsky-Korsakov received a letter from one of the membersof the school directorate, suggesting that he take up the directorship inthe interest of calming student unrest. "Probably the member of theDirectorate held a minority opinion, but signed the resolution

nevertheless," he wrote. "I sent a negative reply."[115] Partly in defiance of his dismissal, Rimsky-Korsakov continued teaching his studentsfrom his home.[116]

Not long after Rimsky-Korsakov's dismissal, a student production of his opera Kashchey the Deathless was followed not with thescheduled concert but with a political demonstration,[117] which led to a police ban on Rimsky-Korsakov's work.[117] Due in part towidespread press coverage of these events,[118] an immediate wave of outrage against the ban arose throughout Russia and abroad; liberalsand intellectuals deluged the composer's residence with letters of sympathy,[119] and even peasants who had not heard a note of Rimsky-


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

Portrait of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov by ValentinSerov (1898)

Korsakov's music sent small monetary donations.[113] Several faculty members of the St. Petersburg Conservatory resigned in protest,including Glazunov and Lyadov.[120] Eventually, over 300 students walked out of the Conservatory in solidarity with Rimsky-Korsakov.[121] By December he had been reinstated under a new director, Glazunov;[118] Rimsky-Korsakov retired from the Conservatoryin 1906.[122] The political controversy continued with his opera The Golden Cockerel.[121] Its implied criticism of monarchy, Russianimperialism and the Russo-Japanese War gave it little chance of passing the censors.[121] The premiere was delayed until 1909, afterRimsky-Korsakov's death,[121] and even then it was performed in an adapted version.[121]

In April 1907, Rimsky-Korsakov conducted a pair of concerts in Paris, hosted byimpresario Sergei Diaghilev, which featured music of the Russian nationalist school.The concerts were hugely successful in popularizing Russian classical music of thiskind in Europe, Rimsky-Korsakov's in particular.[118] The following year, his operaSadko was produced at the Paris Opra and The Snow Maiden at the Opra-Comique.[118] He also had the opportunity to hear more recent music by Europeancomposers. He hissed unabashedly when he heard Richard Strauss's opera Salome, andtold Diaghilev after hearing Claude Debussy's opera Pellas et Mlisande, "Don't makeme listen to all these horrors or I shall end up liking them!"[118] Hearing these works ledhim to appreciate his place in the world of classical music. He admitted that he was a"convinced kuchkist" (after kuchka, the shortened Russian term for The Five) and thathis works belonged to an era that musical trends had left behind.[118]

Death

Beginning around 1890, Rimsky-Korsakov suffered from angina.[111] While thisailment initially wore him down gradually, the stresses concurrent with the 1905Revolution and its aftermath greatly accelerated its progress. After December 1907, hisillness became severe, and he could not work.[123] In 1908 he died at his Lubensk estatenear Luga (modern day Plyussky District of Pskov Oblast), and was interred in TikhvinCemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg, next to Borodin,Glinka, Mussorgsky and Stasov.[118]

LegacyCompositionsRimsky-Korsakov followed the musical ideals espoused by The Five. He employedOrthodox liturgical themes in the Russian Easter Festival Overture, folk song inCapriccio Espagnol and orientalism in Scheherazade, possibly his best knownwork.[1][124] He proved a prolific composer but also a perpetually self-critical one. Herevised every orchestral work up to and including his Third Symphonysome, likeAntar and Sadko, more than once.[125] These revisions range from minor changes oftempo, phrasing and instrumental detail to wholesale transposition and completerecomposition.[126]

Rimsky-Korsakov was open about the influences in his music, telling VasilyYastrebtsev, "Study Liszt and Balakirev more closely, and you'll see that a great deal inme is not mine".[127] He followed Balakirev in his use of the whole tone scale,treatment of folk songs and musical orientalism and Liszt for harmonicadventurousness.[1] (The violin melody used to portray Scheherazade is very closelyrelated to its counterpart in Balakirev's symphonic poem Tamara, while the RussianEaster Overtures follows the design and plan of Balakirev's Second Overture onRussian Themes.)[1][124] Nevertheless, while he took Glinka and Liszt as his harmonicmodels, his use of whole tone and octatonic scales do demonstrate his originality. He developed both these compositional devices for the"fantastic" sections of his operas, which depicted magical or supernatural characters and events.[108]

Rimsky-Korsakov maintained an interest in harmonic experiments and continued exploring new idioms throughout his career. However, hetempered this interest with an abhorrence of excess and kept his tendency to experiment under constant control.[108] The more radical hisharmonies became, the more he attempted to control them with strict rulesapplying his "musical conscience", as he called it. In this


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Music samplesFlight of the Bumblebee

Flight of the Bumblebee performed by US ArmyBand

The Flight of the Bumblebee

Arrangement for two pianos by Russel Warner,performed by Neal and Nancy O'Doan

The Song of the Indian Guest

1929 recording of transcription for violin andpiano, featuring violinist Va Phoda

Problems playing these files? See media help.

sense, he was both a progressive and a conservative composer.[108] The whole tone and octatonic scales were both considered adventurousin the Western classical tradition, and Rimsky-Korsakov's use of them made his harmonies seem radical. Conversely, his care about how orwhen in a composition he used these scales made him seem conservative compared with later composers like Igor Stravinsky, though theywere often building on Rimsky-Korsakov's work.[128]

Operas

While Rimsky-Korsakov is best known in the West for his orchestralworks, his operas are more complex, offering a wider variety oforchestral effects than in his instrumental works and fine vocalwriting.[117] Excerpts and suites from them have proved as popular in theWest as the purely orchestral works. The best-known of these excerpts isprobably "The Flight of the Bumblebee" from The Tale of Tsar Saltan,which has often been heard by itself in orchestral programs, and incountless arrangements and transcriptions, most famously in a pianoversion made by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Otherselections familiar to listeners in the West are "Dance of the Tumblers"from The Snow Maiden, "Procession of the Nobles" from Mlada, and"Song of the Indian Guest" (or, less accurately, "Song of India") fromSadko, as well as suites from The Golden Cockerel and The Legend of theInvisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya.[129]

The Operas fall into three categories:

Historical drama: The Maid of Pskov, and its prologue TheNoblewoman Vera Sheloga, Mozart and Salieri, The Tsar'sBride, Pan Voyevoda, ServilyaFolk operas: May Night, Christmas EveFairy tales and legends: The Snow Maiden, Mlada, Sadko, Kashchey the Deathless, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, The Legend of theInvisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya, The Golden Cockerel

Of this range Rimsky-Korsakov wrote in 1902, "In every new work of mine I am trying to do something that is new for me. On the onehand, I am pushed on by the thought that in this way, [my music] will retain freshness and interest, but at the same time I am prompted bymy pride to think that many facets, devices, moods and styles, if not all, should be within my reach."[113]

American music critic and journalist Harold C. Schonberg wrote that the operas "open up a delightful new world, the world of the RussianEast, the world of supernaturalism and the exotic, the world of Slavic pantheism and vanished races. Genuine poetry suffuses them, andthey are scored with brilliance and resource."[129] According to some critics Rimsky-Korsakov's music in these works lacks dramaticpower, a seemingly fatal flaw in an operatic composer.[130] This may have been conscious, as he repeatedly stated in his writing that he feltoperas were first and foremost musical works rather than mainly dramatic ones. Ironically, the operas succeed dramatically in most cases bybeing deliberately non-theatrical.[130]

Orchestral works

The purely orchestral works fall into two categories. The best-known ones in the West, and perhaps the finest in overall quality, are mainlyprogrammatic in naturein other words, the musical content and how it is handled in the piece is determined by the plot or characters in astory, the action in a painting or events reported through another non-musical source.[1] The second category of works are more academic,such as his First and Third Symphonies and his Sinfonietta. In these, Rimsky-Korsakov still employed folk themes but subjected them toabstract rules of musical composition.[1]

Program music came naturally to Rimsky-Korsakov. To him, "even a folk theme has a program of sorts."[1] He composed the majority ofhis orchestral works in this genre at two periods of his careerat the beginning, with Sadko and Antar (also known as his SecondSymphony, Op. 9), and in the 1880s, with Scheherezade, Capriccio Espagnol and the Russian Easter Overture. Despite the gap betweenthese two periods, the composer's overall approach and the way he used his musical themes remained consistent. Both Antar andScheherezade use a robust "Russian" theme to portray the male progagonists (the title character in Antar; the sultan in Scheherezade) and amore sinuous "Eastern" theme for the female ones (the peri Gul-Nazar in Antar and the title character in Scheherezade).[131]

Where Rimsky-Korsakov changed between these two sets of works was in orchestration. While his pieces were always celebrated for their

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Opening themes of the Sultan and Scheherazade

imaginative use of instrumental forces, the sparser textures of Sadko and Antar palecompared to the luxuriance of the more popular works of the 1880s.[1] While a principleof highlighting "primary hues" of instrumental color remained in place, it wasaugmented in the later works by a sophisticated cachet of orchestral effects,[1] somegleaned from other composers including Wagner, but many invented by himself.[1] As aresult, these works resemble brightly colored mosaics, striking in their own right andoften scored with a juxtaposition of pure orchestral groups.[117] The final tutti ofScheherazade is a prime example of this scoring. The theme is assigned to trombonesplaying in unison, and is accompanied by a combination of string patterns. Meanwhile,another pattern alternates with chromatic scales in the woodwinds and a third pattern of

rhythms is played by percussion.[132]

Rimsky-Korsakov's non-program music, though well-crafted, does not rise to the same level of inspiration as his programmatic works; heneeded fantasy to bring out the best in him.[1] The First Symphony follows the outlines of Schumann's Fourth extremely closely, and isslighter in its thematic material than his later compositions. The Third Symphony and Sinfonietta each contain a series of variations onless-than-the-best music that can lead to tedium.[1]

Smaller-scale works

Rimsky-Korsakov composed dozens of art songs, arrangements of folk songs, chamber and piano music. While the piano music isrelatively unimportant, many of the art songs possess a delicate beauty. While they yield in overy lyricism to Tchaikovsky andRachmaninoff, otherwise they reserve their place in the standard repertory of Russian singers.[1]

Rimsky-Korsakov also wrote a body of choral works, both secular and for Russian Orthodox Church service. The latter include settings ofportions of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (despite his staunch atheism).[133][134][135]

Transitional figureCritic Vladimir Stasov, who along with Balakirev had founded The Five, wrote in 1882, "Beginning with Glinka, all the best Russianmusicians have been very skeptical of book learning and have never approached it with the servility and the superstitious reverence withwhich it is approached to this day in many parts of Europe."[136] This statement was not true for Glinka, who studied Western music theoryassiduously with Siegfried Dehn in Berlin before he composed his opera A Life for the Tsar[137] However, it was true for Balakirev, who"opposed academicism with tremendous vigor,"[38] and it was true initially for Rimsky-Korsakov, who had been imbued by Balakirev andStasov with the same attitude.[138]

One point Stasov omitted purposely, which would have disproved his statement completely, was that at the time he wrote it, Rimsky-Korsakov had been pouring his "book learning" into students at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory for over a decade.[139] Beginning withhis three years of self-imposed study, Rimsky-Korsakov had drawn closer to Tchaikovsky and further away from the rest of The Five, whilethe rest of The Five had drawn back from him and Stasov had branded him a "renegade."[139] Taruskin writes, "The older he became, thegreater was the irony with which Rimsky-Korsakov looked back on his kuchkist days."[140] When the young Semyon Kruglikov wasconsidering a future in composition, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the future critic,

About a talent for composition ... I can say nothing as yet. You have tried your powers too little.... Yes, one can study onone's own. Sometimes one needs advice, but one must study ... All of us, that is, I myself and Borodin, and Balakirev, andespecially Cui and Mussorgsky, did disdain these things. I consider myself lucky that I bethought myself in time andforced myself to work. As for Balakirev, owing to his insufficient technique he writes little; Borodin, with difficulty; Cui,carelessly; and Mussorgsky, sloppily and often incoherently."[141]

Taruskin points out this statement, which Rimsky-Korsakov wrote while Borodin and Mussorgsky were still alive, as proof of hisestrangement from the rest of The Five and an indication of the kind of teacher he eventually became.[142] By the time he instructed Liadovand Glazunov, "their training hardly differed from [Tchaikovsky's]. An ideal of the strictest professionalism was instilled in them from thebeginning."[142] By the time Borodin died in 1887, the era of autodidactism for Russian composers had effectively ended. Every Russianwho aspired to write classical music attended a conservatory and received the same formal education.[143] "There was no more 'Moscow,'no 'St. Petersburg.' " Taruskin writes; "at last all Russia was one. Moreover, by century's end, the theory and composition faculties ofRubinstein's Conservatory were entirely in the hands of representatives of the New Russian School. Viewed against the background ofStasov's predictions, there could scarcely be any greater irony."[144]


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Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov by EmilWiesel

StudentsRimsky-Korsakov taught theory and composition to 250 students over his 35-year tenure at theSaint Petersburg Conservatory, "enough to people a whole 'school' of composers." This does notinclude pupils at the two other schools where he taught, including Glazunov, or those he taughtprivately at his home, such as Igor Stravinsky.[145] Apart from Glazunov and Stravinsky,students who later found fame included Anatoly Lyadov, Alexander Spendiaryan, SergeiProkofiev, Ottorino Respighi, Witold Maliszewski, Mykola Lysenko, Artur Kapp, and KonstantyGorski. Other students included the music critic and musicologist Alexander Ossovsky, and thecomposer Lazare Saminsky.[146]

Rimsky-Korsakov felt talented students needed little formal dictated instruction. His teachingmethod included distinct steps: show the students everything needed in harmony andcounterpoint; direct them in understanding the forms of composition; give them a year or two ofsystematic study in the development of technique, exercises in free composition andorchestration; instill a good knowledge of the piano. Once these were properly completed,studies would be over.[147] He carried this attitude into his conservatory classes. ConductorNikolai Malko remembered that Rimsky-Korsakov began the first class of the term by saying, "Iwill speak, and you will listen. Then I will speak less, and you will start to work. And finally Iwill not speak at all, and you will work."[148] Malko added that his class followed exactly thispattern. "Rimsky-Korsakov explained everything so clearly and simply that all we had to do wasto do our work well."[148]

Editing the work of The FiveRimsky-Korsakov's editing of works by The Five is significant. It was a practical extension ofthe collaborative atmosphere of The Five during the 1860s and 1870s, when they heard eachother's compositions in progress and worked on them together, and was an effort to save worksthat would otherwise either have languished unheard or become lost entirely. This workincluded the completion of Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor, which Rimsky-Korsakovundertook with the help of Glazunov after Borodin's death,[80] and the orchestration of passagesfrom Csar Cui's William Ratcliff for its first production in 1869.[25] He also completely orchestrated the opera The Stone Guest byAlexander Dargomyzhsky three timesin 186970, 1892 and 1902.[32] While not a member of The Five himself, Dargomyzhsky wasclosely associated with the group and shared their musical philosophy.[25]

Musicologist Francis Maes wrote that while Rimsky-Korsakov's efforts are laudable, they are also controversial. It was generally assumedthat with Prince Igor, Rimsky-Korsakov edited and orchestrated the existing fragments of the opera while Glazunov composed and addedmissing parts, including most of the third act and the overture.[149][150] This was exactly what Rimsky-Korsakov stated in his memoirs.[151]However, both Maes and Richard Taruskin cite an analysis of Borodin's manuscripts by musicologist Pavel Lamm, which showed thatRimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov discarded nearly 20 percent of Borodin's score.[152] According to Maes, the result is more a collaborativeeffort by all three composers than a true representation of Borodin's intent.[153] Lamm stated that because of the extremely chaotic state ofBorodin's manuscripts, a modern alternative to Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov's edition would be extremely difficult to complete.[153]

More debatable, according to Maes, is Rimsky-Korsakov's editing of Mussorgsky's works. After Mussorgsky's death in 1881, Rimsky-Korsakov revised and completed several of Mussorgsky's works for publication and performance, helping to spread Mussorgsky's worksthroughout Russia and to the West. However Maes, in reviewing Mussorgsky's scores, wrote that Rimsky-Korsakov allowed his "musicalconscience" to dictate his editing, and he changed or removed what he considered musical over-experimentation or poor form.[110] Becauseof this, Rimsky-Korsakov has been accused of pedantry in "correcting", among other things, matters of harmony. Rimsky-Korsakov mayhave foreseen questions over his efforts when he wrote,

If Mussorgsky's compositions are destined to live unfaded for fifty years after their author's death (when all his works willbecome the property of any and every publisher), such an archeologically accurate edition will always be possible, as themanuscripts went to the Public Library on leaving me. For the present, though, there was need of an edition forperformances, for practical artistic purposes, for making his colossal talent known, and not for the mere studying of hispersonality and artistic sins.[154]

Maes stated that time proved Rimsky-Korsakov correct when it came to posterity's re-evaluation of Mussorgsky's work. Mussorgsky'smusical style, once considered unpolished, is now admired for its originality. While Rimsky-Korsakov's arrangement of Night on Bald


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Fyodor Chaliapin was a powerfulexponent of the Rimsky-Korsakovversion of Boris Godunov, whichlaunched the work in the world's operahouses, but has since fallen out offavor. Portrait by Aleksandr Golovin.

Mountain is still the version generally performed, Rimsky-Korsakov's other revisions, like hisversion of Boris Godunov, have been replaced by Mussorgsky's original.[155]

Folklore and pantheismRimsky-Korsakov may have saved the most personal side of his creativity for his approach toRussian folklore.[156] Folklorism as practiced by Balakirev and the other members of The Fivehad been based largely on the protyazhnaya dance song.[156] Protyazhnaya literally meant"drawn-out song", or melismatically elaborated lyric song.[157] The characteristics of this songexhibit extreme rhythmic flexibility, an asymmetrical phrase structure and tonal ambiguity.[157]After composing May Night, however, Rimsky-Korsakov was increasingly drawn to "calendarsongs", which were written for specific ritual occasions.[156] The ties to folk culture was whatinterested him most in folk music, even in his days with The Five; these songs formed a part ofrural customs, echoed old Slavic paganism, and the pantheistic world of folk rites.[156] Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that his interest in these songs was heightened by his study of them whilecompiling his folk song collections.[158] He wrote that he "was captivated by the poetic side of thecult of sun-worship, and sought its survivals and echoes in both the tunes and the words of thesongs. The pictures of the ancient pagan period and spirit loomed before me, as it then seemed,with great clarity, luring me on with the charm of antiquity. These occupations subsequently had agreat influence in the direction of my own activity as a composer".[74]

Rimsky-Korsakov's interest in pantheism was whetted by the folkloristic studies of AlexanderAfanasyev.[156] That author's standard work, The Poetic Outlook on Nature by the Slavs, becameRimsky-Korsakov's pantheistic bible.[156] The composer first applied Afanasyev's ideas in MayNight, in which he helped fill out Gogol's story by using folk dances and calendar songs.[156] He

went further down this path in The Snow Maiden,[156] where he made extensive use of seasonal calendar songs and khorovodi (ceremonialdances) in the folk tradition.[159]

Musicologists and Slavicists have long recognized that Rimsky-Korsakov was a pantheistic and ecumenical artist whose folklore-inspiredoperas take up such issues as the relationship between paganism and Christianity and the seventeenth-century schism in the OrthodoxChurch.[160] At heart he held pantheistic beliefs, often mistaken for a form of atheism, which had its most visible manifestation in his deepreverence of folk culture, especially pantheistic rites.[161][162]

PublicationsRimsky-Korsakov's autobiography and his books on harmony and orchestration have been translated into English and published. Twobooks he started in 1892 but left unfinished were a comprehensive text on Russian music and a manuscript, now lost, on an unknownsubject.[163]

My Musical Life. [ literally, Chronicle of My Musical Life.] Trans. from the 5th rev.Russian ed. by Judah A. Joffe; ed. with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten. London: Ernst Eulenburg Ltd, 1974.Practical Manual of Harmony. [ .] First published, in Russian, in 1885. First English editionpublished by Carl Fischer in 1930, trans. from the 12th Russian ed. by Joseph Achron. Current English ed. by Nicholas Hopkins,New York, New York: C. Fischer, 2005.Principles of Orchestration. [ .] Begun in 1873 and completed posthumously by Maximilian Steinberg in1912, first published, in Russian, in 1922 ed. by Maximilian Steinberg. English trans. by Edward Agate; New York: DoverPublications, 1964 ("unabridged and corrected republication of the work first published by Edition russe de musique in 1922").

CommemorationThere are several biographical museums in the places connected with his life: namely, his memorial house in Tikhvin in the presentLeningrad oblast to the east of Saint Petersburg, and his memorial museum apartment in downtown Saint Petersburg in Zagorodniyprospect, the latter being a branch of St.Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music (http://theatremuseum.ru/eng/index_eng.html). Thecomposer's name has been given to a street in central Saint Petersburg - prrospekt Rimskogo-Korsakova in Vladimirsky Municipal Okrug.Most importantly for the country's musical culture, his name was given to the renowned highest music teaching institution of the city -Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg Conservatory, the oldest one in Russia.


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ReferencesFootnotes

Russia was using old style dates in the 19th century, and information sources used in the article sometimes report dates as old style rather thannew style. Dates in the article are taken verbatim from the source and are in the same style as the source from which they come.

1.

The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in theyears 18561870: Mily Balakirev (the leader), Csar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Alexander Borodin.

2.

This is not the first symphony by a Russian: Anton Rubinstein composed his first symphony in 1850 (Figes, 391).3.

Notes

Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 21:409.1. Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:34.2. Taruskin, Music, 166.3. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 4.4. Abraham, A Short Biography, 15.5. Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:27.6. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 5.7. Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 21:400.8. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 8.9. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 11.10. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 1113.11. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 15.12. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 16.13. Calvocoressi and Abraham, Masters of Russian Music, 342.14. Abraham, New Grove (1980), 2:28; Rimsky-Korsakov, MyMusical Life, 18.

15.

Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 1920.16. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 38.17. Abraham, A Short Biography, 2325.18. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life; 22.19. Abraham, New Grove (1980), 2:28; Rimsky-Korsakov, MyMusical Life, 42.

20.

Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 48.21. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 55.22. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 56.23. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 5859.24. Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:28.25. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 29.26. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 30.27. Maes, 44.28. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 57.29. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 21.30. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 123.31. Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 21:401.32. Figes, 18.33. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 116.34. Maes, 48.35. Zetlin, 194.36. Zetlin, 1945.37. Maes, 39.38. Maes, 169170.39. Zetlin, 195.40. Zetlin, 1956.41. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 117.42. Brown, Crisis Years, 228229; Maes, 48.43. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 75.44. Brown, Early Years, 5483.45. Brown, Early Years, 8889.46. Brown, Crisis Years, 228229.47. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 119.48. Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:29.49. Maes, 170.50.

Schonberg, 363.51. Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:2852. Schonberg, 362; Zetlin, 1646.53. "Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, continued" (http://symphonyinc.org/node/152). symphonyinc.org. Retrieved 6 September 2011.

54.

McAllister and Rayskin, New Grove (2001), 21:423424.55. Abraham, New Grove (1980)16:2829.56. Zetlin, 164.57. Neff, New Grove (2001), 21:423.58. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical life, 135136.59. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 136.60. Leonard, 148.61. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 141142.62. Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 8:404; Rimsky-Korsakov, MyMusical Life, 335

63.

Leonard, 149.64. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 133.65. As quoted in Brown, Crisis Years, 229.66. Zetlin, 3034.67. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 151.68. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 157 ft. 30.69. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 164.70. Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 21:402.71. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 163.72. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 164165.73. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 166.74. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 172.75. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 175.76. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 188189.77. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 208.78. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 235.79. Maes, 171.80. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 261.81. Figes, 195197; Maes, 173174, 196197.82. Taruskin, 49.83. Taruskin, Stravinsky, 42.84. Taruskin, Stravinsky, 44.85. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 269.86. Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:2930; Zetlin, 313.87. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 281.88. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 296.89. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 288.90. Maes, 173.91. Maes, 192.92. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 286287.93. Brown, Final Years, 91.94. Brown, Final Years, 90.95. Taruskin, Stravinsky, 31.96. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 308.97. Taruskin, Stravinsky, 39.98. As quoted in Holden, 64.99. Poznansky, Quest, 564; Taruskin, Stravinsky, 39.100. Holden, 316; Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 309; Taruskin,101.


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Stravinsky, 39.Brown, Final Years, 465.102. Brown, Final Years, 474.103. Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:30.104. Maes, 176177.105. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 298.106. As quoted in Taruskin, Stravinsky, 55.107. Maes, 180.108. As quoted in Taruskin, Stravinsky, 40.109. Maes, 181.110. Abraham, New Grove, 16:31.111. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 411.112. Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 21:405.113. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 412.114. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 478.115. Taruskin, Stravinsky, 1:386.116. Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:32.117. Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 21:406.118. Leonard, 167.119. Frolova-Walker, New Grove (2001), 405406.120. Maes, 178.121. Taruskin, Stravinsky, 73.122. Rimsky-Korsakov, Preface xxiii.123. Maes, 175176.124. Abraham, Slavonic, 197.125. Abraham, Slavonic, 197198.126. Yastrebtsev, 37.127. Maes, 180, 195.128. Schonberg, 364.129. Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:33.130. Maes, 82, 175.131. Abraham, New Grove (1980), 16:3233.132. Abraham, The New Grove Russian Masters 2, 27.133. Abraham, Studies in Russian Music, 288134. Morrison, 116117, 168169.135.

As quoted in Taruskin, Stravinsky, 24.136. Maes, 19.137. Maes, 389.138. Taruskin, Stravinsky, 29.139. Taruskin, Stravinsky, 32.140. As quoted in Taruskin, Stravinsky, 33.141. Taruskin, Stravinsky, 34.142. Taruskin, Stravinsky, 4041.143. Taruskin, Stravinsky, 41.144. Taruskin, Stravinsky, 1:163.145. Schonberg, 365.146. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 34.147. Malko, 49.148. Maes, 182.149. Taruskin, Music, 185.150. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 283.151. Maes, 182183.152. Maes, 183.153. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 249.154. Maes, 115.155. Maes, 187.156. Maes, 65.157. Rimsky-Korsakov, My Musical Life, 165166.158. Maes, 188.159. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/900592?uid=3737976&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21104418534011

160.

Morrison, Simon (July 13, 2003), "MUSIC; In an Invisible City, aMansion of Musical History" (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/13/arts/music-in-an-invisible-city-a-mansion-of-musical-history.html), New York Times, retrieved 28 October 2014

161.

Wilken, Robert Louis (August 2005), "The Church's Way ofSpeaking" (http://www.firstthings.com/article/2005/08/the-churchs-way-of-speaking), First Things

162.

Leonard, 150.163.

Sources In English:

Abraham, Gerald, "Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay Andreyevich". In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan, 1980)20 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie. ISBN 0-333-23111-2.Abraham, Gerald, Studies in Russian Music (London: William Reeves/The New Temple Press, 1936). ISBN n/a.Abraham, Gerald. Rimsky-Korsakov: a Short Biography (London: Duckworth, 1945; rpt. New York: AMS Press, 1976. Later ed.: Rimsky-Korsakov. London: Duckworth, 1949).Abraham, Gerald, Slavonic and Romantic Music: Essays and Studies (London: Faber & Faber, 1968). ISBN 0-571-08450-8.Abraham, Gerald, "Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay Andreyevich". In The New Grove Russian Masters 2 (New York: W.W. Norton & Company,1986). ISBN 0-393-30103-6.Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Early Years, 18401874 (New York, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1978). ISBN 0-393-07535-4.Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Crisis Years, 18741878, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1983). ISBN 0-393-01707-9.Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Final Years, 18851893, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1991). ISBN 0-393-03099-7.Calvocoressi, M.D. and Gerald Abraham, Masters of Russian Music (New York: Tudor Publishing Company, 1944). ISBN n/a.Figes, Orlando, Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2002). ISBN 0-8050-5783-8 (hc.).Frolova-Walker, Marina, "Rimsky-Korsakov. Russian family of musicians. (1) Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov". In The New GroveDictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 2001) 29 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie. ISBN 1-56159-239-0.Holden, Anthony, Tchaikovsky: A Biography (New York: Random House, 1995). ISBN 0-679-42006-1.Leonard, Richard Anthony, A History of Russian Music (New York: Macmillan, 1957). Library of Congress Card Catalog Number 57-7295.McAllister, Rita and Iosef Genrikhovich Rayskin, "Rimsky-Korsakov. Russian family of musicians. (3) Andrey Nikolayevich Rimsky-Korsakov".In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 2001) 29 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie. ISBN1-56159-239-0.Maes, Francis, tr. Pomerans, Arnold J. and Erica Pomerans, A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar (Berkeley, Los Angelesand London: University of California Press, 2002). ISBN 0-520-21815-9.Morrison, Simon, Russian Opera and the Symbolist Movement (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002). ISBN0-520-22943-6.Neff, Lyle, "Rimsky-Korsakov. Russian family of musicians. (2) Nadezhda Nikolayevna Rimskaya Korsakova [ne Purgold]". In The New GroveDictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition (London: Macmillan, 2001) 29 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie. ISBN 1-56159-239-0.Poznansky, Alexander Tchaikovsky: The Quest for the Inner Man (Lime Tree, 1993). ISBN 0-413-45721-4.Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai, Letoppis Moyey Muzykalnoy Zhizni (St. Petersburg, 1909), published in English as My Musical Life (New York:


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Wikimedia Commons has media relatedto Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Knopf, 1925, 3rd ed. 1942). ISBN n/a.Schonberg, Harold C. Lives of the Great Composers (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 3rd ed. 1997). ISBN 0-393-03857-2.Taruskin, Richard, Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A Biography of the Works Through Mavra, Volume 1 (Oxford and New York: OxfordUniversity Press, 1996). ISBN 0-19-816250-2.Taruskin, Richard, On Russian Music (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2009). ISBN 0-520-24979-8.Yastrebtsev, Vasily Vasilievich, Reminiscences of Rimsky-Korsakov (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985), ed. and trans. Florence Jonas.ISBN 0-231-05260-X.Zetlin, Mikhail, tr. and ed. George Panin, The Five (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1959, 1975). ISBN 0-8371-6797-3.

In Russian:

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

Further readingNelson, John: The Significance of Rimsky-Korsakov in the Development of a Russian National Identity. Diss. Studia musicologicaUniversitatis Helsingiensis, 25. University of Helsinki, 2013. ISSN 0787-4294 (https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:0787-4294) ISBN 978-952-10-9390-6. Abstract. (http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:%20978-952-10-9391-3)

External linksFilms

Great Russian Composers: Nicolay Rimsky-Korsakov (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1156180/) at the Internet Movie Database (2004)- (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045089/) at the Internet MovieDatabase (Soviet biographical film from 1952)Song of Scheherazade (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039852/) at the Internet Movie Database

ScoresFree scores by Rimsky-Korsakov at the International Music Score Library ProjectFree scores by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/piece-info.cgi?id=Rimsky-KorsakovN) at the Mutopia Project

OtherThe Rimsky-Korsakov Home Page (http://sites.google.com/site/rimskyhome/)Works by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (https://www.gutenberg.org/author/Rimsky-Korsakov,+Nikolay) at Project GutenbergWorks by or about Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (https://archive.org/search.php?query=%28subject%3A%22Rimsky-Korsakov%2C%20Nikolai%20Andreyevich%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Rimsky-Korsakov%2C%20Nikolai%20A%2E%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Rimsky-Korsakov%2C%20N%2E%20A%2E%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Nikolai%20Andreyevich%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Nikolai%20A%2E%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22N%2E%20A%2E%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Rimsky-Korsakov%2C%20Nikolai%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Nikolai%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Nikolai%20Andreyevich%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Nikolai%20A%2E%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22N%2E%20A%2E%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22N%2E%20Andreyevich%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Rimsky-Korsakov%2C%20Nikolai%20Andreyevich%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Rimsky-Korsakov%2C%20Nikolai%20A%2E%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Rimsky-Korsakov%2C%20N%2E%20A%2E%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Rimsky-Korsakov%2C%20N%2E%20Andreyevich%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Nikolai%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Rimsky-Korsakov%2C%20Nikolai%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Nikolai%20Andreyevich%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Nikolai%20A%2E%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20title%3A%22N%2E%20A%2E%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20title%3A%22Nikolai%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Nikolai%20Andreyevich%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Nikolai%20A%2E%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20description%3A%22N%2E%20A%2E%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Rimsky-Korsakov%2C%20Nikolai%20Andreyevich%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Rimsky-Korsakov%2C%20Nikolai%20A%2E%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Nikolai%20Rimsky-Korsakov%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Rimsky-Korsakov%2C%20Nikolai%22%29%20OR%20%28%221844-1908%22%20AND%20Rimsky-Korsakov%29) at Internet ArchivePrinciples of Orchestration at Project Gutenberg full, searchable text with music images, mp3 files, and MusicXML filesPrinciples of Orchestration (http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=77) full text with "interactive scores."Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006253/) at the Internet Movie Database

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