Germany and Italy were both fragmented since the Middle Ages. The rise of nationalism in the second half of the 19
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National Trends
Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894)
Nikolay Rubinstein ((1835-1881)
Glinka (1804-1857) The pioneering work of Mikhail Glinka paved the way for the Mighty Five. Glinka.
The Mighty Five (Mighty Handful) In the words of the founder, Balakirev, the Mighty Handful:
Mily Balakirev (1837-1910) was the founding father and spiritual leader of the Mighty Five. He was born in Novgorod (the historic city associated with the Nevsky saga). At eighteen, he met Glinka in Saint Petersburg and took his advice to heart. Balakirev made his debut on piano in 1856. The group he gathered around him (Mussorgsky, Cui, Borodin, and Rimsky-Korsakov) established themselves in opposition to Rubinstein as the bulwark of Russian nationalism in music. Balakirev formed the Free School of Music in 1862. Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) was a Russian composer and chemist (a notable one). Borodin was Georgian by birth, the illegitimate son of a nobleman who had him registered as a serf. In his work as a chemist, he discovered an effect with “aldehydes” which is named for him. His most notable work is the (incomplete) opera Prince Igor, based on a libretto by the composer and completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. It was premiered posthumously in 1890. The famous Polovetzian Dances from Act II are a concert-hall favorite. Caesar Cui (1835-1918) was of French, Russian and Lithuanian descent. He was an army officer and had a notable career. He composed eight operas, all of which have fallen out of the Western repertoire. As a critic, he wrote over 800 essays. Originally a progressive, he eventually turned reactionary. He sharply worded criticisms of Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff did damage to those composers. His last reviews were intended as humor, with titles such as “How to Be Modern Composer of Genius without Being a Musician”, in which he attacked Richard Strauss. Modest Musorgsky (1839-1881) was the most innovative of the Mighty Five (Handful), Musorgsky descended from a family of wealthy landowners. Musorgsky received lessons as a boy and was able to play John Field’s Piano Concerto at age nine. Musorgsky intended to pursue a military career. He became a clerk in the civil service. He fell under the influence first, of Dargomizhsky and Stassov, and later, Balakirev. Later, he heard and helped edit Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar. The emancipation of the serfs led to the family’s loss of economic position and Mussorgsky’s impoverishment. He worked as a low-grade civil servant to stave off poverty. Alcohol abuse led to seizures and an early death. Musically, Musorgsky’s music:
Musorgsky’s most important works include: He did the majority of the work while sharing rooms with Rimsky-Korsakov. Other important works include:
Michael Touschmaloff, a Russian conductor, was the first to orchestrate Mussorgsky’s piano suite. He was assisted by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Touschmaloff omitted three of the picture movements and all but one of the Promenades. Ravel’s famous orchestration restored all but one of the Promenades. Wikipedia lists 28 orchestral arrangements of “Pictures”. Rimsky-Korsakov “completed” several other of Mussorgsky’s works after the composer’s death. Though well-meaning, Rimsky was a much less original thinker than Mussorgsky, and some of his “corrections” fail to understand Mussorgsky’s true intent. Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908). Perhaps the most thoroughly trained and professional of the Mighty Handful, Rimsky had a successful Naval career before embarking on his musical one. He met Balakirev in 1861 and began to concentrate on music. Rimsky was largely self-trained, but received an appointment to teach at the Moscow Conservatory in 1871. In Russia he is best known for his 15 operas, which include Sadko, May Night, The Tsar’s Bride, Snowmaiden, The Golden Cockerel and, The Maid of Pskov. Rimsky had synaesthesia (visualization of color while hearing tones) which may have influenced his orchestration. Rimsky’s most famous orchestral works include Scheherazade (1888), Capriccio Espagnol and The Great Russian Easter Overture. He briefly lost his position at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1905 by supporting the students against the government of the Tsar. In his opera The Golden Cockerel (1906-1907), Rimsky alternates a diatonic/modal style which represents the everyday world with a chromatic/fantastic style which represents the supernatural world. Rimsky experimented with scales based on equal division of the octave (see p. 511 in text). Those scales include the whole-tone scale (six-note scale) and the octatonic scale (created by overlapping two diminished-seventh chords). He died of a heart condition. His daughter Nadezhda married another Russian composer, Maximilian Steinberg. It was for this wedding that Stravinsky composed “Fireworks” as a wedding gift. Rimsky is important for his:
Other Nationalists Eduard Grieg (1843-1907). Grieg is the most famous Norwegian composer of the 19th century. His major works include a Piano Concerto (closely modeled on Schumann’s Piano Concerto), the incidental music to Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, and various piano works, chamber music and songs. Grieg came to the attention of Franz Liszt, who read Grieg’s Piano Concerto at sight, impressing the audience with both his performance and the work. Grieg achieved fame but not wealth during his lifetime. His biography was the subject of a Hollywood movie which, together with the catchy tunes from Peer Gynt, has made him famous. Grieg identified himself with the Norwegian national cause to seek independence from Sweden. Grieg wrote that Norwegian musical tradition was “a lving presence in all I give forth.” Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
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