Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was born in Tikhvin, Russia, on March 18, 1844. Trained for a naval career, he was graduated from the Naval School in St. Petersburg in 1862, after which he embarked on a two-and-a-half-year cruise as naval officer. From earliest boyhood he had been passionately interested in music, especially the folk operas of Glinka and Russian ecclesiastical music. When he was seventeen, he was encouraged by Balakirev to essay composition. After returning to Russia in 1864, Rimsky-Korsakov associated himself with the national Russian school then being realized by Balakirev and Mussorgsky among others, and completed his first symphony, introduced in St. Petersburg in 1865. He plunged more deeply into musical activity after that by completing several ambitious works of national character, including the Antar Symphony and an opera, The Maid of Pskov. In 1873 he was relieved by the government of all his naval duties and allowed to devote himself completely to music. At that time the special post of Inspector of Military Orchestras was created for him. He soon distinguished himself as a conductor of the Free Music Society in St. Petersburg and as professor of composition and orchestration at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He did not neglect composition, producing many significant operas and orchestral works. In his music he remained faithful to national ideals by filling his music with melodies patterned after Russian folk songs, harmonies derived from the modes of Russian church music, and rhythms simulating those of Russian folk dances. To all his writing he brought an extraordinary technical skill in structure, orchestration and harmony. He died of a heart attack in Liubensk, Russia, on June 21, 1908.
The exotic personality and harmonic and instrumental brilliance of Eastern music are often encountered in Rimsky-Korsakov. They are found in two extremely popular excerpts from his opera Le Coq d’or (The Golden Cockerel): “Bridal Procession” and “Hymn to the Sun.”
Le Coq d’or is a fantasy-opera, introduced in Moscow on October 7, 1909; the libretto, by Vladimir Bielsky, is based on a tale by Pushkin. A golden cockerel with the talent of prophecy is presented to King Dodon by his astrologer. In time the cockerel accurately prophesies the doom of both the astrologer and the King.
The oriental, languorous “Hymn to the Sun” (“Salut à toi soleil”) appears in the second act, a salute by the beautiful Queen of Shemaka. After the Queen has captured the love of King Dodon with this song, they marry. There are many transcriptions of this beautiful melody, including one for violin and piano by Kreisler and for cello and piano by Julius Klengel.
The third act of this opera opens with the brilliant music of the “Bridal Procession.” The royal entourage passes with pomp and ceremony through the city accompanied by the cheers of the surrounding crowds.
In the vital “Dance of the Tumblers” or “Dance of the Buffoons” for orchestra, Rimsky-Korsakov skilfully employs folk rhythms. This dance comes from the composer’s folk opera, The Snow Maiden (Snegourochka). The third act opens with a gay Arcadian festival celebrated by the Berendey peasants during which this gay and exciting folk dance is performed.
The pictorial, realistic “Flight of the Bumble Bee” is an excerpt from still another of Rimsky-Korsakov’s operas, The Legend of Tsar Saltan. This is an orchestral interlude in the third act describing tonally, and with remarkable realism, the buzzing course of a bee. This piece retains its vivid pictorialism even in transcriptions, notably that for solo piano by Rachmaninoff, and for violin and piano by Arthur Hartmann.
The “Hindu Chant” or “The Song of India” is also an operatic excerpt, this time from Sadko. It appears at the close of the second tableau of the second act. Sadko is the host to three merchants from foreign lands. He invites each to tell him about his homeland, one of whom is a Hindu who proceeds in an Oriental melody to speak of the magic and mystery of India.
The Russian Easter Overture (La Grand pâque russe), for orchestra, op. 36 (1888) was one of the fruits of the composer’s lifelong fascination for Russian church music. The principal thematic material of the overture comes from a collection of canticles known as the Obikhod from the Russian Orthodox Church. Two of these canticles are heard in the solemn introduction, a section which the composer said represented the “Holy Sepulcher that had shone with ineffable light at the moment of the Resurrection.” The first is given loudly by strings and clarinets, the second quietly by violins and violas accompanied by woodwind, harps, and pizzicato basses. A brief cadenza for solo violin is the transition to the main body of the overture where the two canticles from the introduction are amplified and developed. A brilliant coda leads to the conclusion of the work where the second of the two melodies is given for the last time by trombones and strings.