RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Russian Composer (1844-1908) Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolay Andreyevich free midi download

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV NIKOLAY ANDREYEVICH
18^th March 1844 --- 21^st June 1908

Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolay Andreyevich(born 1844, Tikhvin, near Novgorod, Russia--died 1908, Lyubensk), Russian composer, teacher, and
editor who advanced the cause of Russian national music. Among his most famous works are the operas Snow Maiden (1882), Sadko
(1898), The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, Maiden Fevronia (1907), and Le Coq d'or (1909), the symphonic suite Scheherazade
(1888), Capriccio espagnol (1887) and The Russian Easter Festival overture (1888).

Rimsky-Korsakov's father was a government official of liberal views his mother was well educated and could play the piano. His uncle was
an admiral in the Russian navy and his elder brother a marine officer; from them Rimsky-Korsakov acquired his abiding love for the sea.
When he was 12 years old the family moved to St.Petersburg where he entered the naval academy. At the age of 15 he began taking piano
lessons with Theodore Canille a professional pianist who also taught him the rudiments of composition. In 1861 he met the composer Mily
Balakirev a man of great musical culture and under the older mans guidance he began to compose a symphony. In 1862 he was graduated
from the naval academy. Soon afterward he sailed on the clipper ship "Almaz" o n a long voyage, the vessel anchoring in New York City
Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. at the height of the U.S. Civil War. The Russian sailors were cordially welcomed there, since Russia was
politically sympathetic toward the North. Subsequent ports of call were at Brazil (where Rimsky-Korsakov was promoted to the rank of
midshipman),Spain, Italy, France, England and Norway. The ship returned to its Russian home port in Kronstadt (Kronshtadt) in May 1865.
For young Rimsky-Korsakov the voyage confirmed a fascination with the sea. Aquatic scenes abound in his operas and symphonic works
the ocean in Scheherazade, Sadko, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, the lake in The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia.

On his return to St. Petersburg, he completed the symphony begun before his voyage, and it was performed with gratifying success in St.
Petersburg on Dec. 31, 1865, when the composer was only 21 years old. It was an auspicious beginning to his career, it was also the first
performance of a full fledged symphony by a Russian. His next important work was Fantasy on the Serbian Themes for orchestra, first
performed at a concert of Slavonic music conducted by Balakirev in St. Petersburg, on May 24, 1867. The occasion was one of historic
significance, for in reviewing the concert, the critic Vladimir Stasov proudly proclaimed that henceforth Russia, too, had its own "mighty
little heap" (moguchaya kuchka) of native composers. The title caught on quickly and found its way into music history books with specific
reference to Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, Aleksandr Borodin, Cesar Cui, and Modest Mussorgsky, who became collectively known as "The
Five" and whose purpose was to assert the musical independence of Russia from the West. Of "The Five," Rimsky-Korsakov was the most
learned and the most productive, his works embrace all genres, but he excelled mostly in the field of opera.

Rimsky-Korsakov's reputation was at a all time high that in 1871, still as a very young man, he was engaged to teach composition at the
St.Petersburg Conservatory. In his autobiographical Chronicle of My Musical Life he frankly admitted that his lack of qualifications for this
important position, he himself had never taken a systematic academic course in any musical theory, even though he had profited from
Balakirev's desultory instruction and by Tchaikovsky's professional advice. Eager to complete his own musical education, he undertook in
1873 an ambitious program of study, concentrating mainly on counterpoint and the fugue. He ended his studies in 1875 by sending 10
fugues to Tchaikovsky, who found them impeccable. In 1873 he left the naval service and assumed charge of military bands as inspector
and conductor. Although lacked brilliance as an orchestral leader, he attained excellent results in training inexperienced instrumentalists.
His first professional appearance on the podium took place in St. Petersburg, March 2, 1874, when he conducted the first performance of
his Third Symphony. In the same year he was appointed director of the Free Music School in St. Petersburg, a post that he held until 1881.
He served as conductor of concerts at the court chapel from 1883 to 1894. Between 1886 and 1900 he was chief conductor of the Russian
symphony concerts. In 1889 he led concerts of Russian music at the Paris World Exposition, in the spring of 1907 he conducted in Paris
two Russian historic concerts in connection with Sergey Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

Rimsky-Korsakov rendered an inestimable service to Russian music as the de facto editor and head of this unique publishing enterprise
financed by the Russian industrialist Belayev and dedicated exclusively to the publication of the music only by Russian composers. After
Mussorgsky's death, Rimsky-Korsakov then edited his scores for publication, making radical changes in what he considered Mussorgsky's
awkward melodic and harmonic progressions, and he practically rewrote Mussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina. His edited and altered the
version of Boris Godunov evoked sharp criticism as a pedantically professorial arrangement of a great innovating masterpiece but his
his masterly handling of the materials cannot be denied. Mussorgsky's score was later published in 1928 and had several performances in
Russia and abroad, but ultimately the more effective Rimsky-Korsakov version prevailed in opera houses. Rimsky-Korsakov also edited
(with the composer Glazunov) the posthumous works of Borodin.

A strict disciplinarian in artistic matters he was also a severe critic of his own music. He made constant revisions of his early compositions
in which he found technical imperfections. As a result, double dates, indicating early and revised versions, frequently occur in his catalog
of works. He was at his best and most typical in descriptive orchestration, in suggesting a place or an ambience. With just two exceptions
(Servilia and Mozart and Salieri), the subjects of Rimsky-Korsakov's operas are taken from Russian or other Slavonic fairy tales, literature
and history. Most important among them are Snow Maiden, Sadko, The Tsars Bride, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, The Legend of the Invisible
City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia, and Le Coq d'or. Although these operas are part of Stevenular repertory in Russian opera houses
they are rarely heard abroad; only Le Coq d'or enjoys occasional production in western Europe and America.

The composer's orchestral works, the best known are Capriccio espagnol (1887), the symphonic suite Scheherazade (1888), and Russian
Easter Festival overture (1888). The Flight of the Bumble Bee from The Tale of Tsar Saltan and the Song of India from Sadko are perennial
favourites in a variety of arrangements. Rimsky-Korsakov's songs are distinguished by their simple elegance and fine Russian prosody, his
chamber music is of less importance. He also wrote a piano concerto. As professor of composition and orchestration at the St. Petersburg
Conservatory from 1871 until the end of his life (with the exception of a brief period in 1905 when he was dismissed by the reactionary
directorate for his defense of the students on strike), he taught two generations of Russian composers, and his influence, therefore, was
pervasive. Igor Stravinsky studied with him privately for several years. His Practical Manual of Harmony (1884) and Fundamentals of
Orchestration (posthumous, 1913) are still used as basic musical textbooks in Russia. (N.Sl.)

MAJOR WORKS:   Operas. Sixteen, including Pskovityanka (first performed 1873,The Maid of Pskov), La Nuit de Mai (1880, May Night )
Snegurochka (1882, Snow Maiden), Sadko (1898), Mozart et Salieri (1898, Mozart and Salieri), La Fiancue du tsar (1899, The Tsar's Bride)
Skazka o tsare Saltane (1900, The Tale of Tsar Saltan), Servilia (1902), Kashchey Bessmertny (1902, Kashchey the Immortal), Skazaniye o
nevidimom grade Kitezhe i deve Fevroniy (1907 The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia), Le Coq d'or (1909 The
Golden Cockerel).

Choral works:   Song of Oleg the Wise, after Pushkin, for tenor, bass, male chorus, and orchestra (composed 1899), various settings of folk
songs.

Orchestral:   Symphonies No. 1 in E Flat Minor (1861-65, rev. 1884) No. 2, Antar (1868, rev. 1876), No. 3 in C Major (1874, rev. 1886).
Other orchestral music, Overture on Russian Themes (1866), Piano Concerto in C Sharp Minor (1882-83), Fantasy on Russian Themes for
violin and orchestra (1886) Fantasy on Serbian Themes (1867) Capriccio espagnol (1887); symphonic suite Scheherazade (1888) overture,
Russian Easter Festival (1888).

Chamber music:   String Quartet in F Major (1875), String Sextet in A Major (1876), Quintet for Piano and Winds in B Flat Major (1876)
String Quartet in G Major (1897).

Songs:   More than 80 songs, mostly written in sets of four.
Copyright 1994-1998 Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated on 2022
By Steven Ritchie

And now for the Music

Thanks to Jun Nishio for the music below. Email (-junatc @ na.rim.or.jp-)

New (3740)"Scheherazade, Mov.1. Sequenced by Jun Nishio.

New (3739)"Scheherazade, Mov.2. Sequenced by Jun Nishio.

New (3738)"Scheherazade, Mov.3. Sequenced by Jun Nishio.

New (3737)"Scheherazade, Mov.4. Sequenced by Jun Nishio.

Thanks to Gary Goldberg for the music below. Email (-mdcatdad-@-verizon-net-)

Please "click here" for text file.

NEW (4591)"Battle of Kerzhenets the Final from "Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya opera". Sequenced by Gary Goldberg.

(1457)"Suite from the Opera, Coq d'or, Mov.3". Sequenced by Gary Goldberg.

(1458)"Suite from the Opera, Coq d'or, Mov.4". Sequenced by Gary Goldberg

Thanks to George Pollen for the music below. Please check out my Bookmark Page for his Website
(2322)"Dance of the tumblers (from the opera The Snow Maiden)". Sequenced by George Pollen.

Thanks to John Wilson McCoy for the music below. Email (composer@musician.org)
(1888)"Capriccio Espagnol (Spanish Caprice) Opus 34". Sequenced by John Wilson McCoy.

Thanks to Edward Schaffer for the music below. Email (BigEdLB@aol.com).
(1669)"The Opening Chorus from Act II of Snowmaiden". Sequenced by Edward Schaffe.r

Thanks to Carl Bertram for the music below. Email (Hal486@aol.com).
(1669)"Flight of the Bumble Bee". Sequenced by Carl Bertram.

(1459)"Procession of the Nobles". Sequenced by Jeff Adams

(1460)"Six variations on Bach No.1". Sequenced by John Cowles

(1461)"Six variations on Bach No.3". Sequenced by John Cowles

(1462)"Aria of Sadko". Sequenced by Eugeny Molodkin

(492)"Song of India (Sadko)". Sequence by Layne Wilson

(489)"Sheherazade, The sea and Sinbad, Opus.35". Sequencer unknown

(490)"Sheherazade, The Young Prince and the Princess, Opus.35". Sequencer unknown

(493)"Russian Easter Overture". Sequencer unknown

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