IV
The fifth and last member of the nationalist group was César Cui, the least distinctive and least important of the five. He occupied a somewhat anomalous position in the movement. The son of a Frenchman, he became an enthusiastic nationalist, being the first of Balakireff's important converts. As a teacher in the Government Engineering School in St. Petersburg he had little time for active composition, but exerted great energy in defending the nationalist group in the press and in pamphlets. In all Russia, with the single exception of Vladimir Stassoff, there was no more vigorous and overbearing apologist of the Russian school of composition. Yet his own music is hardly tinged with Russian elements, being a compound of Schumann and of some of the most superficial of the French composers, notably Auber. Though he was undoubtedly a musician of considerable learning and much talent, he has left nothing of much creative vigor.
His father came to Russia with Napoleon's army, was wounded at Smolensk, and later became a teacher of French in a private school at Vilna, near Poland. Here, on January 18, 1835, César Antonovich Cui was born. He received fairly good instruction in piano and violin in his early years, and at the age of fifteen was sent to the School of Military Engineering at St. Petersburg. Here, in a seven years' course, he distinguished himself so that he was made sub-professor in the school, and later became a specialist in military fortifications. (The present czar was at one time his pupil.) All his life he gave distinguished service in this capacity, and during the war that is going on at this writing, though he is past eighty years of age, he is taking a prominent part in the military defense of Russia.
It was in 1856, when he was twenty-one years old, that he was introduced to Balakireff. He immediately became fired with the latter's enthusiasm for a Russian school of music. But his first works show no signs of it. Some early piano pieces are written entirely in the style of Schumann, and his first dramatic work, an operetta called 'The Mandarin's Son,' is a weak piece in the manner of Auber. His first important opera, 'The Prisoner of the Caucasus,' finished about this time though not performed until twenty years later, shows some originality and an attempt at local color. Early in the 'sixties Cui was at work on his opera 'William Ratcliff,' which established his reputation. It was performed in the year 1869 at the Imperial Theatre, St. Petersburg, and though coldly received at the time was revived with considerable success many years later in Moscow. But Cui's chief influence on the music of his time was exerted through his newspaper articles, which stoutly championed the 'Big Five.' In these he showed himself an able, but a somewhat dogmatic, commentator. He held his ground successfully until the music of the new school had ceased to depend on the written word for its prestige. His pamphlet, 'Music in Russia,' was the chief source of knowledge of Russian composers to the outside world for many years. Cui further helped the cause among foreign lands through the performances of his operas in Belgium and Paris. In fact, two of his later operas, 'The Filibusterer' and M'selle Fifi, were composed to French texts. The opera 'Angelo,' performed in 1876 and in some ways his strongest work, was also drawn from a French source—a play by Victor Hugo. When we have mentioned 'The Saracen,' founded upon a work of Dumas, and 'The Feast in Plague Time,' based on Pushkin, we have named all his works for the stage. In these the dramatic element is always subordinate to the lyrical. The harmony, though often meticulous, is rarely strong or original, and in general the style is thin and conventional. But Cui had a rich fund of melody, and in a few scenes, as in the love episodes in 'The Saracen,' he succeeded to a notable degree in the expression of emotion. But it is in Cui's songs and small pieces for violin and piano that he shows his talent most markedly. Here his French feeling for nicety of form and delicacy of effect revealed itself at its best. We feel that the pieces were written by some lesser Schumann, but we admire the taste and judgment displayed in their execution. Further, we must admire Cui's confining himself to his own style of music. His enthusiasm for and appreciation of the neo-Russian composers is unquestionable, and he might have produced much flamboyant nonsense in trying to make their style his own. As it is he has played an important part in the development of Russian music, and displayed abilities which are by no means to be overlooked.
Before leaving the Russian nationalists we should mention several composers of their generation who were not definitely allied with them or with their school, but still demand mention in any history of Russian music. Edward Franzovitch Napravnik was born August 12, 1839, in Bohemia, and moved to St. Petersburg in 1861. He had received his musical education in his native country and in Paris, where he studied organ and piano, and later taught. In St. Petersburg he took charge of Prince Youssipoff's private orchestra, and thereafter became intimately associated with the musical life of his adoptive country and worked indefatigably for its improvement and independence. In 1863 he was appointed organist to the Imperial theatres, and assistant to the conductor. At the time of the latter's illness in 1869 he was appointed conductor, and this post he held for nearly half a century. He found Russian operatic life under the complete dominance of the Italian influence and made every effort to shift the centre of gravity toward native work. His productions of Glinka's, Tschaikowsky's, and Rimsky-Korsakoff's operas were notable. He was always distinctly hospitable to native work, and the subsequent triumph of Russian musical expression was due in no small degree to his faith and energy. He further built up the opera orchestra in St. Petersburg until it became one of the best in all Europe, and restored to the opera house its old brilliancy of performance. He was also an able and frequent conductor of orchestral concerts in the capital. His compositions, though many and varied, show chiefly French and Wagnerian influence, and are not highly important. He has written four symphonies, among them one with a program taken from Lermontov; several symphonic poems, of which 'The Orient' is most important; three string quartets and a quintet, two piano trios, a piano quartet, a sonata for violin and piano, two suites for 'cello and piano, a piano concerto; fantasias on Russian themes for piano and violin, all with orchestral accompaniment; a suite for violin and numerous vocal and instrumental pieces in the smaller forms.
His operas, though they were never very popular, are perhaps the most important part of his work. The first, 'The Citizens of Nijny-Novgorod,' was produced at the Imperial Opera House in 1868. It is somewhat in the style of Glinka, but is generally thin and uninspired except in the choral parts, which make effective use of the old church modes. 'Harold,' produced in 1886, is more Wagnerian in form and dispenses with the effects which helped the former work to its popularity. Doubrovsky, produced in 1895, is Napravnik's most popular work; in it the lyric quality is again most prominent, and the parts are written with expert skill for the singers. His last opera, Francesca da Rimini, founded on Stephen Phillips' play, was first presented in 1902. It is musically the most able of his works, though highly reminiscent of the later Wagner. The music of the love scenes is touching and expressive. On the whole, we find Napravnik's influence on Russian music to be notable and salutary, and his original composition, though not inspired, sincere and workmanlike.
Paul Ivanovich Blaramberg (b. 1841), the son of a distinguished general of French extraction, came early under the influence of the Balakireff circle. But a number of years spent in foreign countries impressed other influences on his style, so that his music vacillated from one manner to another without striking any distinctive note. Blaramberg was long active as a teacher of theory in the school of the Philharmonic Society in Moscow. His works include a fantasia, 'The Dragon Flies,' for solo, chorus, and orchestra; a musical sketch, 'On the Volga,' for male chorus and orchestra; 'The Dying Gladiator,' a symphonic poem; a symphony in B minor; a sinfonietta; a number of songs; and five operas. His first opera, 'The Mummers,' founded on a comedy by Ostrovsky, is a mingling of many styles, from the dramatic declamation of Dargomijsky to the musical patter of opera buffa. 'The Roussalka Maiden' contains many pages of marked lyric beauty, and 'Mary of Burgundy' attains some musical force in the 'grand manner.' The last opera, 'The Wave,' contains a number of pleasing melodies and not a little effective 'oriental color.'
J. N. Melgounoff (1846-1893) was a theorist rather than a composer and had some part in the nationalistic movement through his close and scientific study of folk-songs at a time when the cult of folk-song was chiefly sentimental. A. Alpheraky (born 1846) was also a specialist in folk-song, particularly those of the Ukrane, where he was born. He composed a number of songs, as well as piano pieces, in which the national feeling is evident. N. V. Lissenko (born 1842) was the author of a number of operas popular in the Malo-Russian provinces. He was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakoff and set music to several texts drawn from Gogol.
I. N.
FOOTNOTES:
[12] It is rather interesting that, in spite of Balakireff's opposition to Tschaikowsky's music, they remained good friends throughout their life. Tschaikowsky even tried to follow Balakireff's method in his symphonic poem 'Fatum,' which he dedicated to his friend. As the composition did not please Balakireff, though he performed it for the first time, Tschaikowsky destroyed it later and it was never published or performed again. This is what Balakireff wrote to Tschaikowsky after his attempt at modern composition: 'You are too little acquainted with modern music. You will never learn freedom of form from the classic composers. They can only give you what you already knew when you sat at the student's benches.' As irritable as Tschaikowsky was in such critical matters, he never took the expression of Balakireff in an offended spirit. How highly Tschaikowsky appreciated Balakireff is evident from his letter to Mme. von Meck: 'Balakireff's songs are actually little masterpieces and I am passionately fond of them. There was a time when I could not listen to his "Selim's Song" without tears in my eyes.']
[13] 'The Russian Opera.'
[14] 'Reminiscences.'
[15] Quoted by Mrs. Newmarch, op. cit.
CHAPTER V
THE MUSIC OF CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA
The border nationalists: Alexander Glazounoff, Liadoff, Liapounoff, etc.—The renaissance of Russian church music: Kastalsky and Gretchaninoff—The new eclectics: Arensky, Taneieff, Ippolitoff-Ivanoff, Glière, Rachmaninoff and others—Scriabine and the radical foreign influence; Igor Stravinsky.