In the early 18th century, at the time of and after Peter the Great, there were many Europeans who came to Russia and brought along their music or their own national ideas of music, so that Russia had foreign opera and foreign teachers. When Catharine the Great was Queen she appreciated the wonderful store of folk legends and was very good to composers both Italian and Russian, of whom there were very few.
Very soon, a man from Venice, Catterino Cavos, went over and was clever enough to write Italian opera using the Russian folk songs and legends. This was a fine idea, because it gave suggestions to Russians as to what could be done with their folk songs. The next thing that happened was the terrible defeat of Napoleon, in 1812, by the Russians and the burning of Moscow. When important political things happen and when a favorite city is nearly destroyed, people’s imaginations are stirred and it makes them think about the things of their own land. The Russians were no different from other folks. After the way was prepared by Vertowsky, Dargomyzhsky, and Seroff, Michael Glinka (1804–1857) wrote his opera, A Life For the Tsar, for the time was ripe for serious Russian national music. He was tired of the music of the Italians, introduced into Russia in 1737, and the French music introduced by Boieldieu and others a little after 1800. He made a close study of Russian folk song and of composition, and became the father of the new Russian music. He studied in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) with Charles Mayer and John Field, the Irish composer of nocturnes who found his way into Russia with Clementi. Glinka became an invalid and his travels for his health brought him to Paris where he was very much interested in the works of Berlioz. When he wrote his first opera, he said he wanted the Russians “to feel at home,” and so we see in it the magic background of Russia with the flavor and interest of the Orient. Another opera of his was Ruslan and Ludmilla which also pictures their national life. Besides this, Glinka, in some Spanish caprices, brought Spanish folk songs before the eyes of the musical art world.
Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky
An important group followed in the footsteps of Glinka, called “The Five.” The members wanted national music and sincere opera in any form they desired. The Russian Ballet, which tells a story and is not a mere exhibition of fancy steps, was an outcome of this freedom.
There were two schools about this time in Russia, constantly at odds with each other. The “Russian Five” was one school and the leaders of the other were Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein and Peter Ilytch Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) whose fame is probably greater than any other Russian. Tchaikovsky became very interested in the European composers, and studied composition with the founder of the Petrograd Conservatory, Anton Rubinstein. He was made professor of harmony at the Moscow Conservatory in 1866. While there he wrote many operas and articles for Moscow papers. He married unhappily and had a nervous breakdown in 1877 and lived very quietly, a sensitive nervous man all his life. He visited the United States in 1891, and conducted his Sixth Symphony, The Pathetique, at the opening of Carnegie Hall in New York City. Visiting England and then returning to Russia, he died in 1893 of cholera. Besides the symphonic poems about which we told you, he wrote several overtures, six symphonies, four suites, three ballets, eleven operas, two of which, La Pique Dame and Eugen Onegin have been given outside of Russia.
His work is very emotional and often tragic with captivating melodies often based on folk songs with rich orchestral color. But withal, his work was based more on the German tendencies and forms of music than the works of the younger Russians, therefore, Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein were pitched in musical battle for some years against this other school.
“The Five”
Alexander Borodin (1834–1887), a scientist and physician and a friend of Liszt, wrote crashing and flashy music with what they called “Modern harmonies.” It seemed full of discords for the people of his time but to us is fascinating and piquant! His Prince Igor, a story of adventure and war not unlike Le Chanson de Roland, is a beautiful opera with striking melody and dances.
Modeste Moussorgsky (1839–1881) probably had more natural genius than any of the rest of “The Five,” even though his work had to be edited by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908). Moussorgsky’s music had the real spirit of Russia, sad, colorful, full of wild dances based as is most of this Russian music, on the folk songs of his native land. Besides this, it is very human and touches the soul of people as they listen. His songs are real treasures. His music is truly a portrait of the Russian people.
He wrote a very beautiful opera called Boris Godounov richly laden with the Oriental color, and pathos and tragedy of Russia’s past. A very interesting thing to know is that Rimsky, because of his wider knowledge of harmony and orchestration, corrected Moussorgsky’s works and very often changed things that seemed to him quite wrong. Recently we have examined a score of Moussorgsky and compared it to the corrected version of Rimsky and we now find that Moussorgsky’s score was even more vivid and modern to our ears than Rimsky’s. Several composers have arranged for orchestra Moussorgsky’s piano pieces, Pictures from an Exposition, and have brought out beauties in color, humor and scenic painting in the music.