Musorgsky - The Russian Musical Nationalist

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MUSORGSKY THE RUSSIAN MUSICAL NATIONALIST BY M. D. CALVOCORESSI Translated by A. EAGLEFIELD HULL, Mus. Doc. OXON. WITH MUSICAL ILLUSTRATIONS AND A PORTRAIT LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER CO. LTD. NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON CO. 1919 MUSORGSKY. From the portrait by REPW, painted just before the composers death. Frontispiece. TO M. PIERRE AUBRY TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. MUSORGSKYS PLACE IN THE RUSSIAN SCHOOL - - i II. His LIFE AND CHARACTER 7 III. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS Music. ARTISTIC REALISM AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 57 IV. THE INSTRUMENTAL COMPOSITIONS 72 V. SONGS AND CHORAL WORKS 91 VI. THE OPERAS EARLY WORKS 134 THE MARRIAGE-BROKER 138 BORIS GODUNOFF 148 KHOVANSHCHINA 178 VII. MUSORGSKY THE MUSICIAN 194 APPENDICES. 1. LIST OF MUSORGSKYS COMPOSITIONS - 207 2. TRANSLATORS NOTE 213 3. BIBLIOGRAPHY 216 MUSORGSKY CHAPTER I MUSORGSKY s PLACE IN THE RUSSIAN SCHOOL THE Russian School resembles no other, either in history or in character. It suddenly blossomed forth in the middle of the nineteenth century, after a germinative period whose history can only be traced back with difficulty, but whose fruit ripened almost as soon as it appeared. Before the school was even fifty years old, it constituted a quite independent, homogeneous and extensive, art. The case is so rare as to be at first discon certing. It is not only the rapidity of growth which astonishes us, but also and especially the general excellence and the distinctive qualities which are common to nearly all the works exempli fying this 1 school. Nationalism has often been put forward as a drawback to Russian music, and the claim of Glinka, Balakireff and Rimsky-Korsakoff, to have enriched their art-language by the inclusionof folk-songs, has been treated by some critics merely in a humorous light. Others, more modern, are content to compare this strongly tinctured and a MUSORGSKYS SCHOOL idiomatic Russian music with a music purely human and universal. It is not the object of the present volume to discuss these theories. Let it suffice to mention two facts first, that the nationalist tendency is not con fined to a few, but exists amongst all the Russian masters and secondly, that it has existed from the very moment when Russia first began to produce art-music. The consciousness of a more or less national sentiment expressed in a national style is noticeable even in the music of Kachin, VolkofE, Fomin, and Titoff, in the eighteenth century, fore runners of the school. The cult of national folk lore, the spirit and style of which are the essential elements of the characteristics of the modern school, is of fairly long standing in Russia. Themes from the folk-songs were incorporated in the operas, as well as in the instrumental pieces produced during the incipient period, just as scenes of country life were represented on the dramatic stage. In 1790, Pratsch published a collection of folk-songs a very remarkable one for the period the success of which is proved by the numerous editions. In 1792 a Chansonnier Russe appeared in Petro grad, and in 1804 Daniloff Kircha published his Collection of Cossack Songs. Since then, the move ment has continued and steadily increased, with the result that to-day, despite all lands of diffi- For a discussion of Russian National Music, see M. D. Calvo coressis La Musique russe Paris, 1907. 8vo. pamphlet. fit was Pratschs collection from which Beethoven took the Russian themesfor his Rasumovsky String Quartets. Opus 59, MUSORGSRYS SCHOOL 3 culties, chiefly due to the immense area over which it extends, Russian musical folk-lore is better studied and nurtured than any other. The second fact is more decisive...