Program Music of Rimsky-Korsakov

    Rimsky-Korsakov was ‘always even-tempered, precise, serious, businesslike, simple and considerate, in the highest degree houourable, straightforward and self-controlled, incredibly industrious and conscientious-- he could not fail to prepossess anyone who had the slightest contact with him....'  Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov, the Russian composer, was born on March 18th, 1844 at Tikhvin, just outside St. Petersburg.  At a very young age, Rimsky-Korsakov was able to pick out tunes his mother would sing to him, and sing them back to her perfectly.  Also, he demonstrated musical skill at a young age while beating a drum while his father played the piano.  Even though his father occasionally varied the tempo and rhythms young Rimsky-Korsakov never missed a beat and was always in time with his father.  At the age of six, he began to learn to play the piano and realized that he possessed "absolute pitch" or what we call today, "perfect pitch."  Throughout his first two years of piano lessons, Rimsky-Korsakov never displayed a true love of music, he basically just tolerated it while he was studying it.  Because of this attitude, his parents never expected him to become a great musician, but rather to pursue a career in the Navy since many members of his family were in the Navy.  So in July of 1856, Rimsky-Korsakov left for the Corps of Naval Cadets.  While at the Corps, he took piano lessons from a cellist, but did not have any interest in them and was not even taught the names of basic chords and intervals.  What really opened his mind and heart to music were his weekend visits with friends who took him to hear many operas and symphonies.  
    His piano teacher at the time could see that Rimsky-Korsakov was improving on the piano and would need a better teacher.  So near the end of his fourth year at the Cadet College, Canille, a well-known and esteemed musician, took on the role of Rimsky-Korsakov's music teacher.  His new music teacher Canille noticed the musical gift of Nikolai and told him he should try to compose music himself.  Canille explained the general rules of musical composition and gave him composition homework.  He was soon introduced to the composer Mily Balakirev who was the head of a St.Petersburg musical circle.  During the last year of his studies at the Naval School Rimsky-Korsakov  began to compose a symphony.  This made him very happy and he dreamed of becoming a famous composer.  However, at this point he still had not learned much about the basic elements of composing, orchestration, etc.  He and Balakirev and soon became friends and they would share their music and their ideas.  Rimsky-Korsakov learned a lot from Balakirev and was encouraged by him to compose more.  These two soon joined with three other Russian composers to form The Mighty Five.  A group of five Russian composers who founded the new Russian national school and promoted Russian nationalistic music.  
    Convinced by his mother and brother that a career in music would not ensure a suitable income, Rimsky-Korsakov decided he should become a Naval Officer.  To fulfill the requirements for Naval Officer, Rimsky-Korsakov would have to sail around the world.  So in 1862 he set off with others on this trip.  While on the boat, he hoped he would be able to compose, however, the atmosphere on the boat did not lend itself well to composition.  On the trip Rimsky-Korsakov visited many places, including: Germany, England, The United States of America, France, Spain, and Brazil.  He saw many different aspects of nature, particularly of the Northern, Equatorial and Southern seas, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the starry sky of the Southern hemisphere.  Everything he saw on that trip influenced him in his writing.  He would portray many of the images in his mind from the trip in his music.
    While serving in the Navy, Rimsky-Korsakov composed and was very successful.  His first symphony was very well received.  After serving in the Navy until 1873, Rimsky-Korsakov accepted a position at the St. Petersburg Conservatory teaching theory and composition.  Rimsky-Korsakov was forced to learn theory, counterpoint, musical form and orchestration on his own.  He was self-taught through examples of music by Glinka, Beethoven, and others.  However, he became one of the world's greatest theorists.  Here he taught several students including Prokofiev and Stravinsky.  He also wrote Text-Book on Harmony in 1884, The Principles of Orchestration in 1908, and The Legend of My Musical Life in 1906.
    Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a very Romantic and Programmatic composer.  In his compositions he used many Russian folk tunes that he had collected at a younger age.  One of his most well-known pieces, Schehrezade, is based on the fabled story-teller of the Thousand and One Arabian Nights, whose gift for yarn-spinning saves her from a murderously misogynistic sultan. Each movement of this piece depicts one of the young woman's stories.  The first movement is The Sea and Sinbad's Ship, second movement The Story of the Prince-Kalandar; third movement The Young Prince and Princess, and the fourth movement Festival in Baghdad. The Sea. The Ship Breaks against a Cliff Surmounted by a Bronze Horseman. Conclusion.  Programmatic music always includes descriptive titles which tell the audience what the piece or movement is about.  Rimsky-Korsakov obviously has done this in his works.  Throughout the work we can hear Schehrezade herself interrupting lines and telling her stories through the recurring theme of the solo violin.
    Another piece by Rimsky-Korsakov is The Flight of the Bumblebee.  When listening to this piece, it is very easy to hear why the piece is called what it is.  This is another good example of his music being programmatic.  It is easy to hear the bumblebee flying very fast and moving up and down, and one can even hear when the bee lands and takes off again.  This piece is part of an opera, composed in 1889-1890, The Tale of the Tsar Saltan, a story about a swan princess based on a Pushkin fairy tale. The song comes in the opening scene of the second act, when a bee buzzes around the princess swan.  
    In Rimsky-Korsakov's later works, he experimented with whole-tone and octatonic scales and parallel chord progressions.  This is easily seen in two of his most important operas: Sadko (1897), and The Golden Cockerel (first performed in 1909).  In these two operas he alternates a diatonic, modal style with one that was lightly chromatic, and fanciful, like in a fantasy world.  Most of his music is distinguished by lively fantasy and bright colors.  Much of what Rimsky-Korsakov saw on his trip around the world, he has incorporated in his music.
    Rimsky-Korsakov wrote in several different genres including: symphonies, symphonic suites, operas, ballets, chamber music, songs, and solo works.  Almost every piece he wrote represented either a story, place, person, or emotion.  Each symphony has descriptive titles for the movements, and each song is descriptive and Romantic in nature.  Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a very modern composer for the time he lived.  Many people looked up to him as the father of modern orchestration and theory.  Because Rimsky-Korsakov never had formal instruction in theory and composition, he composed from the heart using his emotions instead of what a text book told him.  This makes him more Romantic and programmatic than many of his contemporaries.


    













Bibliography


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