Russian Nationalists

BY HOLLYN WHITE

Born March 18, 1844

near Novgorod, Russia
Died June 21, 1908 ni
Lyubensk
Russian composer,
teacher, editor
Member of The Five

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov

Rimsky-Korsakov
Moved to St. Petersburg at age 12 and entered the naval

academy
Began taking piano lessons and learn the basics of
composition at 15
Sailed on a long voyage in 1862 for three years

Where fascination with the sea came from

Had his first symphony performed to great success in St.

Petersburg on December 31, 1865 at the age of 21

In 1871 was engaged to teach composition at St. Petersburg
Conservatory

Admitted his lack of qualifications in his autobiographical book

Began study in counterpoint and the fugue in 1873

Rimsky-Korsakov
Ended his studies in 1875 by sending 10 fugues to

Tchaikovsky
Left naval service in 1873 and became inspector and
conductor of military bands
Appointed director of the Free Music School in St. Petersburg
in 1874

Held post until 1881

Served as conductor of concerts at the court chapel from

1883-1894
Chief conductor of the Russian symphony concerts between
1886-1900

1889-led concerts of Russian music at Paris World Exposition

Rimsky-Korsakov
Was a severe critic of own music
Made constant revisions of early compositions
Subjects of operas taken from Russian or other

Slavic fairy tales, literature, and history

Songs are distinguished by simple elegance and fine
Russian prosody
Chamber music is less important
Professor of composition and orchestration

Rimsky-Korsakov: Style
Influenced by Liszt and Balakirev

Liszt

Harmonic adventurousness

Balakirev

Use of whole tone scale

Treatment of folk songs
Musical orientalism

Use of whole tone and octatonic scales

Folk music
Both a progressive and a conservative

More radical his harmonies became, the more he attempted to control them
with strict rules

Often used aquatic themes

Rimsky-Korsakov: Works
Russian Easter Overture
Scheherazade
The Snow Maiden
Piano Concerto

Born Jan 6, 1872 in

Moscow
Died April 27, 1915 in
Moscow
Russian composer and
pianist

Alexander Skryabin (Scriabin)

Skryabin
Took piano lessons with Nikolai Zverev at an early

age

Was teaching Rachmaninoff at the same time

Enlisted in the Second Moscow Cadet Corps in 1882

Later studied at Moscow Conservatory with Anton

Arensky, Sergei Taneyev, and Vasily Safonov.

Became a noted pianist despite small hands

Could barely stretch a ninth

Skryabin
Toured in Russia and abroad as a concert pianist
Became a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory

Began to establish a reputation as composer

Based in Moscow for a period of 5 years

By winter 1904 relocated to Switzerland

Began work on Symphony No. 3

With financial help, traveled in Switzerland, Italy,

France, Belgium, and the US

Relocated to Brussels in 1907
Returned to Russian permanently in 1909

Skryabin
Five symphonies
Ten piano sonatas
Hundreds of preludes, etudes, and poems

Associated with piano poems

Early music resembled Chopin

Music evolved over his lifetime

Evolution was rapid and brief

Music divided into three periods

Skryabin
First period (1880s-1903)

Stick to Romantic tradition

Employed common practice period harmonic language

CPP uses conventionalized sequences of chords (I-IV-V-I) and

obeys specific contrpuntal norms (avoidance of parallel fifths and
octaves)

Fondness of dominant function

Added tone chords
Waltz in F minor
Piano Concerto in F# minor
Sonata No. 1

Skryabin
Third Period (1907-1915)

Built on the acoustic and octatonic scales

Seven note synthetic scale

Nine-note scale from the combination of the above

Tonal unity was replaced by harmonic unity

Style can be traced in the 10 piano sonatas

Earliest are composed in conventional late-Romantic manner

Later ones are very different, the last five written without a key
signature
Sonata No. 10
Poem of Fire

Octatonic and Acoustic Scales

Born April 1, 1873, in

Semyonovo
Died March 28, 1943 in
Beverly Hills
Russian composer,
pianist, and conductor
Last great representative
of Russian late
Romanticism

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Skryabin
Second Period (1903-1907)

Music became more chromatic and dissonant

Mostly adhered to traditional functional tonality
Complex forms like mystic chord are hinted
Added dissonances are resolved conventionally according to voice
leading but focus shifts towards a system where chord coloring is
more important
Fewer dissonances on the dominant chords are resolved
As dominant chords are further extended, they lose their dominant
fuction
Poeme Satanique
The Poem of Ecstasy
Sonata No. 4

Rachmaninoff
Entered St. Petersburg in 1883

Failed all his general subjects at the end-term exams in 1885

Feared scholarship might be withdrawn

Sent to the Moscow Conservatory

Took his final piano exam spring 1891 and passed with honors
During his final studies he completed

Youth Symphony
A one-movement symphonic piece
Prince Rostislav
A symphonic poem
The Rock
A fantasia for orchestra

Rachmaninoff
Graduated on piano in 1891
Graduated in composition in 1892
Concert debut in London in 1899, as conductor in The Rock

and pianist in Elegie and Prelude in C# minor

In 1906 conducted operas Francesca da Rimini and The
Miserly Knight at Bolshoy
Following decade included many of his most celebrated
scores

Symphony No. 2
The Isle of the Dead
The Bells
Vespers

Rachmaninoff
Left Russia in 1917 and toured as a pianist briefly in

Stockholm and Copenhagen

Sailed to America in 1918
Began a career in the studio, producing recordings
that are still regarded as some of the most valuable
interpretations of his own and others music

Rachmaninoff: Style
Showed initial influence of Tchaikovsky
Began showing a more individual tone in the mid 1890s
Use of unusually widely spaced chords for bell-like sounds
Fond of Russian Orthodox chants
Chromatic counterpoint
Frequently used motifs, including fragments of the first

phrase of the Dies Irae

Often used modified rondo form
Later compositions sought a greater sense of compression
and motivic development

Rachmaninoff
Works:

Orchestral works
Chamber works
Piano concertos
Solo piano pieces

Piano for six hands

Two pianos
Piano duet

Operas
Choral Works
Solo voice and piano

Prelude in G minor
Piano Concerto No. 3
The Isle of the Dead
The Bells

Born May 7, 1840, in

Vyatka, Russia
Died November 6, 1893,
in St. Petersburg
Russian Composer

Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Began taking piano lessons at 5 years old
Began attending the Imperial School of Jurisprudence at

age 10
Became a bureau clerk with the Ministry of Justice in
1859
Began taking music lessons at the Russian Musical
Society at age 21

Enrolled at the newly founded St. Petersburg Conservatory

Became one of the schools first composition students

Moved to Moscow in 1863 and became a professor of

harmony at the Moscow Conservatory

Tchaikovsky
First work to be publicly performed with

Characteristic Dances in 1865 at a Pavlovsk concert

Resigned from Moscow Conservatory in 1878 to
focus on composing
Returned to Moscow Conservatory in fall 1879 as a
temporary move

Stayed only until December

Traveled all over Europe for performances of his

music
In 1891 came to the opening of Carnegie Hall

Tchaikovsky: Style
Taught more of a Western style of theory and

composition
Inspired by Russian folk music
Russian, romantic melodies
Stravinsky called him the most Russian of Russian
composers
Had a difficult time composing within the structures
of the German school of composition
Leading composer of Romanticism

Tchaikovsky
Works:

Symphonies
Symphonic poems

Concertos

Romeo & Juliet Fantasy

Piano Concerto NO. 1

Orchestral suites
Incidental music

All Night Vigil

Chamber music

Eugene Onegin

Operas

Sleeping Beauty

Choral music

Ballets

String Quartet No. 1

Solo piano music

Songs
Arrangements of the
works of others

Born April 11/23, 1891,

in Sontsovka, Ukraine
Died March 5, 1953, in
Moscow
Began career as a
composer while still a
student
Composer, pianist,
conductor

Sergey Prokofiev

Prokofiev: Formative Years

Primitive style
Driving rhythms
Dissonant harmonies
Most popular works:

First two piano concertos

First violin concerto
Orchestral Scythian Suite
Ballet Ala and Lolly
Symphony no. 1 in D major

Written to convince critics he could compose in the style of Mozart

Prokofiev: US and Paris Years (1922-1936)

Had to compete with Stravinsky as a composer and

Rachmaninoff as a performer
Had success early with solo recitals
Had little success with opera
Ended up in financial difficulty and left for Paris
Moved to Paris in 1920
Had mixed success in Paris over the years
Did some USSR tours

Prokofiev: US and Paris Years (1922-1936)

Produced two operas

The Love for Three Oranges

The Flaming Angel

Two ballets
Three symphonies
Three more piano concertos
Less productive period than his first

Prokofiev: Return to Russia (1936-1953)

Beginning of Russias artistic isolation from western

Europe
Forced to adapt to the new circumstances he wrote a
series of mass songs using the lyrics of officially
approved Soviet poets
During the war years the rules for socialist realist
style compositions were slackened
Died of a brain hemorrhage the same day as Joseph
Stalin

Prokofiev: Return to Russia (1936-1953)

Works:

Film scores

Ballets

Ivan the Terrible

Alexander Nevsky
Romeo and Juliet
Cinderella

Peter and the Wolf March

War and Peace
Symphonies
Chamber works
A number of propaganda
works
Piano Concerto No. 3

Wrote in a simplified style

Used less dissonance than

before
Remained essentially
tonal
Often followed the
classical forms of sonata,
symphony, and concerto
Publicly denounced in
1948 for being too
modern

Born June 17, 1882 in

Lomonosov
(Oranienbaum)
Died April 6, 1971 in
NYC
Russian composer,
pianist, and conductor
(Later a naturalized
French and American)

Igor Stravinsky

Stravinsky
Given lessons in piano and music boy as a boy
Studied law and philosophy at St. Petersburg University
In 1902 showed early compositions to Rimsky-Korsakov

Took Stravinsky as a private student

Advised against entering the conservatory
Tutored mainly in orchestration

Diaghilev commissioned some orchestral arrangements

for the summer season of Ballets Russes in Paris after

hearing the Scherzo fantastique

Later commissioned the full-length ballet The Firebird

The premiere made him an overnight success

Stravinsky
Success of The Firebird led to many collaborations

between the two

1911-1913: Wrote The Rite of Spring

First performance May 29, 1913 provoked a riot

Was then known as the composer of The Rite of Spring

War led him to Switzerland

Russian Revolution October 1917 led to no hope for him to return

to Russia

After WWI the Russian style faded from his music

Left Switzerland and lived in France until 1939

Took French citizenship in 1934

Stravinsky
Earn his living as a performer

Many of the works composed 1920s and 1930s were written for his
own use as a concert pianist and conductor

Sailed to America in 1939

Worked at Harvard 1939-1940 delivering Charles Eliot Norton

Lectures
Became a naturalized citizen in 1945

Most important aspect of work is the changing face of

compositional style while always retaining an identity

As well as technical innovations (including rhythm and harmony)

Use of motivic development included additive motivic development

Notes subtracted/added with disregard to consequent meter change

Stravinsky: Style
Divided into three periods

Russian period
Neo-classical period
Serial period

Noted for distinctive use of rhythm

Creation of unique and idiosyncratic ensembles

Single instruments

Three Pieces for solo clarinet

Enormous orchestra

Rite of Spring
Use of ostinati

Stravinsky
Russian period

Music uses significant number of Russian folk tunes

Works clearly show influence of Rimsky-Korsakov
The Faun and the Shepherdess

Neo-classical period

Shows return to music of Classical period

Exploration of themes from the ancient Classical world (Greek Mythology)
The Rake's Progress

Serial period

Began using serial compositional techniques

Dodecaphony-twelve tone technique by Schoenberg

Experimented with non-twelve-tone serial techniques

The Flood