His compositions, though not numerous, are all marked by sincerity and thoroughness of workmanship. Some of them have been compared to those of Brahms. His work is essentially that of a scholar, and makes little appeal to the emotions. His mastery, of form is marked. The most ambitious of his works is the 'trilogy' (in reality a three-act opera) based on the Æschylus 'Oresteia.' This, though never popular in Russia because of its severity of style, compels admiration for its nobleness of concept and its scholarly execution. The overture and last entr'acte are still frequently performed in Russia. In general the style is Wagnerian, and the leit-motif is used freely, though not to excess. A cantata for solo, chorus, and orchestra—the Ivan Damaskin—is one of the finest works of its kind in Russian music. Taneieff has also written three symphonies and an overture on Russian themes. But his most distinctive work is perhaps to be found in his eight string quartets (of which the third is the most popular), in his two string quintets, and his quartet with piano. There are also a number of male choruses and smaller piano works.
A much more likable, though no less conservative, figure is Michael Mikhaelovich Ippolitoff-Ivanoff. He was born of a working class family near St. Petersburg on November 15, 1859, and managed to get to the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied for six years under Rimsky-Korsakoff. In 1882 he went to Tiflis, where he remained a number of years as director of the local music school, as conductor of the concerts of the Imperial Musical Society, and for a time as director of the government theatre. In 1893 he came to Moscow to teach harmony, instrumentation and free composition at the Conservatory, to the directorship of which he succeeded in 1906. But perhaps his greatest influence on Russian musical life was exerted by him in his position as director of the Moscow Private Opera, which he assumed in 1899, and which he helped to build up to its high artistic standard. His reputation in foreign lands rests chiefly on his string quartet, opus 13, and his orchestral suite, 'Caucasian Sketches,' opus 10. (A second Caucasian suite appeared in 1906 and has had much success.) The list of his works also includes notably a Sinfonietta and a piano quartet; three cantatas; Iberia, for orchestra; and the 'Armenian Rhapsody,' op. 48. In many of these works, as in his songs, he is frequently displaying his penchant for Oriental, Hebrew, and Caucasian music, which he has studied with a poet's love and appreciation. In his two operas, 'Ruth' and 'Assya,' these qualities are also apparent. The notable qualities of his music are its freedom from artificiality, its warmth of expression, and its consistent thoroughness of workmanship. But it is perhaps as an organizer and director that he has performed his chief service to Russian music.
One of the most promising of the younger conservative Russians is Reinhold Glière, who is now director of the Conservatory at Kieff and conductor of the Kieff Symphony concerts. He has in these positions been a dominant factor in the provincial, as opposed to the metropolitan, musical life of Russia, and has by his energy and progressiveness raised Kieff to a position in some ways rivalling the capital. He was born at Kieff on January 11, 1875, and was educated at Moscow, where he studied with Taneieff and Ippolitoff-Ivanoff. Though he was thus under conservative influences, he showed in his earliest compositions a feeling for the national musical sources which forbade critics to classify him as a cosmopolitan.
His first string quartet, in A (op. 2), showed national material treated with something of western softness, and his many small pieces for string or wind instruments often make use of folk-like melodies. It is in his piano pieces that he shows himself weakest, and these have contributed to an under-appreciation of him in his own as well as in foreign lands. Some of his works (especially the later ones) are thoroughly national in character. Thus his recently finished opera 'Awakened' is built entirely on folk-material, and comes with revolutionary directness straight from the heart of the people. His symphonic poem, 'The Sirens,' showed French influence, but was hardly a successful synthesis. His first symphony, in E flat, op. 8, revealed great promise, and his string quartets have drawn the attention of music-lovers in foreign lands.
Contemporary Russian Composers:
Alexander Glazounoff Reinhold Glière
Vladimir Rebikoff Sergei Rachmaninoff
It is in his symphonic work that Glière shows his greatest ability. His orchestral writing burns with the heat that is traditional in Russian music, and his handling of his themes, in development and contrapuntal treatment, is sometimes masterly. By far his greatest work is his third symphony, Ilia Mourometz, which is in reality a long and extremely ambitious symphonic poem. It tells the tale of the great hero, Ilia, of the Novgorod cycle of legends, who sat motionless in his chair for thirty years until some holy pilgrims came and urged him to arise and become a hero. Then he went forth, conquering giants and pagans, until he was finally turned to stone in the Holy Mountains. In this work the themes, most of which are national in character, and some of which seem taken directly from the people, are in the highest degree pregnant and expressive. They are used cyclically in all four movements, and are developed at great length and with great complexity. The harmonic idiom is chromatic, not exactly radical but yet personal and creative. If we except certain cliché passages which are unworthy of so fine a work, we must adjudge the symphony from beginning to end a masterpiece. Something of this mastery of the heroic mood is also to be seen in Glière's numerous songs. Though most of them are conventional in their harmonic scheme, they reveal great poetry and expressive power. With but one exception Glière seems to be the greatest of the conservatives of modern Russia.
This exception is Sergei Vassilievich Rachmaninoff, whose reputation, now extended to all parts of the civilized world, is by no means beyond his deserts. He was born on March 20, 1873, in the department of Novgorod, of a landed family of prominence. At the age of nine he went to St. Petersburg to study music, but three years later transferred to Moscow, where he worked under Taneieff and Arensky. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892 with high honors, and his one-act opera, Aleko, written for graduation, was promptly performed at the Grand Theatre and made a deep impression. Two short periods of his later life were spent in the conducting of opera in Moscow, but the most of his time he has spent in composition. He is a pianist of rare abilities, and has played his own music much on tours. For some years he resided in Dresden.
Rachmaninoff's early fame is due to the sensational popularity of his C-sharp minor prelude for piano, a fine work of heroic import, holding immense promise for the future. While much of his later composition has been somewhat conventional in style, Rachmaninoff at his best has justified the promise. The magnificent E minor symphony ranks among the best works of its kind in all modern music. Scarcely inferior to it is the symphonic poem, 'The Island of the Dead,' suggested by Arnold Böcklin's picture. Two later operas have proved very impressive. The first, 'The Covetous Knight,' is founded on a tale of Pushkin, and follows the complete original text with literal exactness, achieving an impressive dramatic declamation which seems always on the verge of melody, and entwines itself with the masterly psychological music of the orchestra. Francesca da Rimini is more lyrical, and shows much passion and power in its love scenes.