Rimsky-Korsakov's Role in Art

Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908) was the youngest representative of the Mighty Five and indeed the most significant figure of Russian music of that time, due to the fact that he had gained great respect both in Russia and abroad already during his lifetime!

Rimsky-Korsakov lived a generally orderly life, without such needs as Mussorgsky, so I am going to limit myself to the most important fragments from his biography.

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The lineage of Nikolai Andreevich was ancient and respected. An ancestor of his won a naval battle in a war near Italy, in light of which the prefix “Rimsky”—translated as “Rome-ly”—was assigned to the family. Together with his brother by the name of Воин (lit. rus. "warrior"), Nikolai went, according to family tradition, to naval education and graduated with the rank of midshipman. His brother later became a rear admiral. Nikolai also received a musical education at home, went to the opera and, in general, became earnestly interested in music. He took private piano lessons from the teacher Kanille, who introduced the future composer to the circle of the Mighty Five. Balakirev, the head of the Mighty Five, immediately commissioned Rimsky-Korsakov to write a symphony. To get the gist of how difficult this task would have been for him, imagine that you’ve just been commissioned to write a 600-page novel. Of course, Rimsky-Korsakov was afraid of such a difficult task, and on top of that he had to go on a trip around the world on the clipper Almaz due to his naval academy requirements.

Despite this situation his music classes did not stop. During the journey, which took 3 years, Rimsky-Korsakov advanced in his first symphony, sending finished fragments by mail from different parts of the earth. Balakirev or other members of the Five, who were aware of his route in advance, would send letters to the ports that he was supposed to sail by. During this journey, Rimsky-Korsakov not only completed his first major work under the guidance of the Five, but most importantly, he studied the sea like the back of his hand. After graduating from naval academy, he went into the maritime business to continue his love affair with the sea. The sea in all its colors and moods became one of the main themes of his musical work. 

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Another important piece of information must be Rimsky-Korsakov's entry into the professorial staff of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. You see, he didn't know much about the laws of harmony or polyphony (the science of connecting several melodic lines), and, here we go, he had to teach all this. But Nikolai Andreevich acted like a truly cool guy - he didn't give a sign that he didn't know anything - especially about teaching practice - and agreed to teach - he still had to make his living somehow, anyways. 

Having grabbed a lot of scientific literature from the conservatory library, Rimsky-Korsakov took it all to his home and studied this or that chapter at night, getting acquainted with the laws for the first time, and taught it to his students during the day. Subsequently, Nikolai Andreevich joked that he was the most hardworking student at the conservatory. That's how he became the most educated composer of the Mighty Five. However, it took him several years to combine the knowledge he had gained, which limited inspiration, with the freedom-loving Russian spirit of identity. But he emerged victorious from this struggle - he retained national thinking and knew all the techniques of composition. It is a well-known fact that Mussorgsky and the others scolded him for studying European sciences, but they did not understand one important detail: Rimsky-Korsakov did not "betray the Russian spirit", on the contrary, having mastered the European methodology, he tried to combine European laws and rules with the spirit of truly national art, otherwise we would not have received his great graduates (see end of article for further info on this).
Rimsky-Korsakov was not a complete layman before joining the conservatory though. His main distinguishing feature was instrumentation. He excelled in all the colors of the orchestra and was unsurpassed in this business all over the world!

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What is the essence of Rimsky-Korsakov's music? Whereas Borodin wrote pure and noble music, imbued with epic without conflict situations, and while Mussorgsky adored politics and introduced the masses to the opera and street language into his songs, Rimsky-Korsakov found his destiny in folklore. He is a storyteller in music - and he himself had a thick beard as a storyteller from a fairy-tale. It is enough to name the operas "The Golden Cockerel," "The Tale of Tsar Saltan," "The Snow Maiden," "Sadko," "Kashchey the Immortal," "The Night before Christmas." He adored the world of folklore, sayings, proverbs, tales of the Russian people, national signs, omens, calendar songs. He was not interested in modern politics and religion, but was truly fascinated by pantheism and ancient paganism. He paid great attention to nature, birdsong, the sea, the fabulous population of the forest, ancient rituals and folksongs. All this required bright orchestral colors - and Rimsky-Korsakov painted with them perfectly.

He also recorded a collection of Russian folk songs - the result of his several expeditions - so he mastered the nature of this genre as well.

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Rimsky-Korsakov's music was appreciated all over the world. His trips and tours were accompanied by enthusiastic receptions from the public and orchestras. Even the musicians themselves almost went crazy with his music during rehearsals and performances. For example, during the performance of "The Snow Maiden" in Paris, the orchestra members put down their instruments and sang the melody of the aria themselves, which they were actually supposed to accompany.

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Rimsky-Korsakov's pedagogical role is truly great. From under his wing such famous composers as A.K.Glazunov, A.K.Lyadov, A.Arensky, poor Grechaninov, whom many know, but no one performs, appeared. Rimsky-Korsakov read lectures on instrumentation to S.S. Prokofiev and N.Ya. Myaskovsky. The famous Italian composer O. Respighi even came to St. Petersburg to take lessons in orchestration from Rimsky-Korsakov for five months. The textbook on orchestration by Rimsky-Korsakov was a reference book for Maurice Ravel, from which he extracted everything necessary for his brilliant orchestration. Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky mastered the whole composing craft without any conservatory, only thanks to two years studying privately with Rimsky-Korsakov. He literally lived in his house and called Nikolai Andreevich his second father. 

Rimsky-Korsakov died in 1908, right after the summer session at the St. Petersburg conservatory. Prokofiev recalled that he passed the exam in instrumentation by Rimsky-Korsakov during that session, and after finishing the semester he went to his village, on the way he bought a newspaper at the station, where there was already an obituary of Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov.