Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) was a
Russian composer, and a member of the group of
composers known as The Five. He was a master of
orchestration. His best-known orchestral
compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter
Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite
Scheherazade—are staples of the classical music
repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of
his 15 operas. Scheherazade is an example of his
frequent use of fairy tale and folk subjects.
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Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) was a
Russian composer, and a member of the group of
composers known as The Five. He was a master of
orchestration. His best-known orchestral
compositions—Capriccio Espagnol, the Russian Easter
Festival Overture, and the symphonic suite
Scheherazade—are staples of the classical music
repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of
his 15 operas. Scheherazade is an example of his
frequent use of fairy tale and folk subjects.
Rimsky-Korsakov came from a family of minor nobility.
Following in the footsteps of his brother Voin, twenty
years his senior and a rear admiral, Rimsky-Korsakov
entered the Saint Petersburg Naval Academy. He met Mily
Balakirev in 1861, and soon became his student.
Unbelievably, Balakirev’s first assignment to the
aspiring composer was an entire symphony, a task that
took nearly four years to complete. In 1862 midshipman
Rimsky-Korsakov was required to complete a
three-year-long tour of duty aboard a clipper Almaz. He
went to Norway and England and continued to New York,
and South America. Upon his return to Russia in 1865
Rimsky-Korsakov continued his studies with Balakirev
and his symphony was performed later that year with his
teacher at the podium.
Following the examples of Cui’s William Ratcliff and
Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Rimsky-Korsakov embarked
upon his own operatic project—The Maid of Pskov, an
opera set during the reign of Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
The composition was delayed by the project of
orchestrating the unfinished manuscript of
Dargomyzhsky’s Stone Guest. In 1871 Rimsky-Korsakov
accepted a post at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, a
move that initially angered the rest of his circle.
Eventually, his presence at the conservatory served
toward the reconciliation between the Handful and the
academia. Accepting the post, Rimsky-Korsakov also
embarked upon a major revision of his own compositional
techniques. He undertook an extensive study of harmony,
counterpoint and orchestration and as a result acquired
compositional professionalism that others of his circle
lacked. The Snow Maiden, a fairytale opera set during
Russia’s semi-mythical pagan past, had a successful
premier in 1882 at the Mariinsky Theater and
established Rimsky-Korsakov as the leading composer of
the Five.
Because of his technical proficiency, Rimsky-Korsakov
became a de facto editor of the works of his comrades.
Upon Mussorgsky’s tragic death in 1881, he collected
every bit of his friend’s manuscripts and embarked
upon a monumental task of completing and editing his
unfinished compositions. Only due to his efforts
Khovanshchina and Night on Bald Mountain became part of
the standard repertoire. The same is true regarding
Borodin’s Prince Igor—Rimsky-Korsakov acted as an
adviser to Borodin during the late stages of
composition and completed the work (along with
Glazunov) upon Borodin’s sudden death in 1887.
In the late 1880’s Rimsky-Korsakov was exposed to the
works of Richard Wagner when he witnessed a production
of the Ring in Saint Petersburg. Wagner’s influence
was particularly evident in the field of
orchestration—already Rimsky-Korsakov’s forte, as
well as in the subject of his next opera Mlada, that
was drawn from the Slav mythology. By mid 1890’s
Rimsky-Korsakov perfected his technique and established
himself as one Russia’s leading composers. His output
during the last fifteen years of his life was
remarkable—he published The Christmas Eve, Sadko,
Mozart and Salieri, Tsar’s Bride, Servilia, Pan
Voyevoda, The Tale of Kitezh, Kashchey the Immortal,
and The Golden Cockerel. Politically, Rimsky-Korsakov
was always on the left of the spectrum and when the
revolutionary events broke out in Saint Petersburg in
1905, he promptly joined the protesting students. He
was consequently fired from the conservatory, but soon
restored by its new director, Alexander Glazunov, his
former student. At the time of his death in 1909
Rimsky-Korsakov was locked in a bitter dispute with the
government sensors regarding the production of The
Golden Cockerel, a fairytale opera that had strong
political undertones. He died leaving no major work
unfinished.
Rimsky-Korsakov composed 22 songs during his
apprenticeship with Balakirev (Op. 2, 3, 4, 7, 8) and
then did not return to the genre until late 1870’s
(Op. 27-29). Then there was again an extended
interruption in the composition of the romances, so
much so, that in 1896 Cui remarked with chagrin that
Rimsky-Korsakov composed mere 32 romances and
“apparently does not have much interest in the
genre” (Cui. The Russian Romance, Saint Petersburg
1896). Only a year later, Rimsky-Korsakov again
approached the romance but now his method was
different: if in the past, he always composed the
harmonic progression first, allowing the melody to come
out of harmony in a sort of instrumental manner, he
attempted to create his new romances by composing the
melody first, according to the rhythms and inflections
of poetry. During 1897-98 Rimsky-Korsakov composed 47
romances. He later remarked that these romances served
as preparatory exercises for the operatic compositional
spree of his later years.
Although this piece was composed for accompanied voice,
I created this arrangement for French Horn & Concert
(Pedal) Harp.
