Mily Balakirev Totally Explained

Everything about Mily Balakirev totally explained

Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (Milij Alekseevič Balakirev) (January 2, 1837 – May 29, 1910) was a Russian pianist, conductor and composer. He is known today primarily for his work promoting nationalism in Russian music. Working in conjunction with critic Vladimir Stasov, Balakirev brought together the composers now known as The Five, encouraging their efforts and acting as a musical midwife for both them and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Balakirev's own music is generally not well known today. The exception to this is, which is still popular among pianists.

Life

Early years

Balakirev was born at Nizhny Novgorod into a poor clerk's family. He first received a musical education at the behest of his mother, who took him to Moscow in 1847 to receive lessons from Alexander Dubuque. Money problems eventually ended these lessons and forced him to return to Nizhny Novgorod. His talents didn't remain unnoticed though; he soon found a patron in nobleman Alexander Oulibichev. Oulibichev authored a biography of Mozart. He had a private orchestra, which Balakirev eventually led in performances of Beethoven symphonies, and a vast musical library. Both allowed Balakirev to obtain a valuable education in music.
After Balakirev completed a university course in mathematics at 18, Oublichev took him to Saint Petersburg. There Balakirev met Mikhail Glinka. Glinka encouraged Balakirev to take up music as a career, advice that Balakirev took to heart. He made his debut in 1856 with the first movement from his First Piano Concerto.

"The Five"

Balakirev's meeting with Glinka also helped establish a spark of Russian nationalism within Balakirev, leading him to adopt the stance that Russia should have its own distinct school of music, free from Southern and Western European influences. Around him gathered composers with similar ideals, whom he promised to train according to his own principles: César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The five men were described by noted critic Vladimir Stasov as "a mighty handful;" they eventually became better known in English simply as "The Five."
Balakirev vehemently opposed academic training. He considered it a threat to the musical imagination. It was better to begin composing right away and learn through that act of creation. This line of reasoning could be argued as a rationalization to his own lack of technical training. He had been trained as a pianist and had to discover his own way to becoming a composer. Rimsky-Korsakov eventually realized as much but still gave Balakirev his due:

Balakirev, who had never had any systematic course in harmony and counterpoint and hadn't even superficially applied himself to them, evidently thought such studies quite unnecessary.... An excellent pianist, a superior sight reader of music, a splendid improvisor, endowed by nature with a sense of correct harmony and part-writing, he possessed a technique partly native and partly acquired through a vast musical erudition, with the help of an extraordinary memory, keen and retentive, which means so much in steering a critical course in musical literature. Then, too, he was a marvelous critic, especially a technical critic. He instantly felt every technical imperfection or error, he grasped a defect in form at once

Balakirev instructed the other members of "The Five" much as he instructred himself—by an empirical approach, sifting through scores of the great composers. About this Rimsky-Korsakov was more critical:

[W]ith all his native mentality and brilliant abilities, there was one thing he failed to understand: that what was good for him in the matter of musical education was of no use whatsoever for others, as these others not only had grown up amid entirely different surroundings, but possessed utterly different natures; that the development of their talents was bound to take place at different intervals and in a different manner.

Balakirev's eventual undoing was his demand that his students' musical tastes coincide exactly with his own. Even the slightest deviation was prohibited. Whenever someone played one of his compositions for him, he'd seat himself at the piano and improvise, showing how the composition should be changed. Passages in other people's works came out sounding like his music, not their own. For a while he was obeyed absolutely.
   The group encountered harsh criticism from the existing Russian musical establishment in the form of Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein, who publicly called the group "amateurs" (something that wasn't entirely unjustified, as Balakirev was the only professional musician of the group). To counteract these criticisms and to aid in the creation of a distinctly "Russian" school of music, the group founded the Free School of Music in 1862.
   Like the Russian Musical Society (RMS), the Free School offered concerts as well as education. Between 1862 and 1867 Balakirev and Lomankin conducted these concerts, which offered less conservative programming than the RMS concerts. They included the music of Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt, Russian composers Mikhail Glinka and Alexander Dargomyzhsky, along with the first works of The Five
   When Anton Rubinstein relinquished directorship of the RMS concerts in 1867, Balakirev was suggested to replace him. The conservative patron for the RMS, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, agreed—provided Nikolai Zaremba, who had taken over for Rubinstein at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory was also appointed, along with a distinguished foreign composer. The foreign composer chosen was Hector Berlioz. The choice of Berlioz was widely lauded. Balakirev's appointment was seen less enthusiastically. Balakirev's uncompromising nature caused tension at the RMS. His choice of modern repertoire for the RMS concerts earned him the enmity of Pavlovna, as well. In 1869, she informed him that his services were no longer required.
   Balakirev's influence over the other members of "The Five" also began to wane. Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov stopped accepting what they now considered his high-handed meddling with their work. Stasov also began to distance himself from Balakirev.

Tchaikovsky

The week after Balakirev's dismissal, an impassioned article in his defense appeared in The Contemporary Chronicle. The author was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Balakirev had conducted Tchaikovsky's Fatum and his "Characteristic Dances" from Voyevoda at the RMS. Fatum had, in fact, been dedicated to Balakirev. To be fair, though, Tchaikovsky's move may have been at least partly calculated. He knew Elena Pavlovna was due in Moscow, where he lived, the day the article was to appear. He sent a note to Balakirev, alerting him to this fact. Accompanying it was a second note, thanking Balakirev for criticisms he'd made about Fatum just after conducting it. Balakirev's immediate response was positive and enthusiastic.
   This exchange of letters grew into both a long-term friendship and, over the next two years, a creative collaboration. Balakirev was the right person at the right time in Tchaikovsky's creative life. While Tchaikovsky may have benefited technically from Anton Rubinstein's teaching at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, he was ready for someone to challenge his creative gifts rigorously, with demands for results both first-rate in compositional quality and fully individual in character. Balakirev wasn't afraid to impose just these demands. In doing so he remained strong-willed to the point of despotism. Tchaikovsky liked and admired Balakirev but also found him frustrating. He wrote his brother Anatoly, "I never feel quite at home with him. I particularly don't like the narrowness of his musical views and the sharpness of his tone."
   Balakirev helped Tchaikovsky produce his first masterpiece, the fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet. The subject was Balakirev's idea. He broached it to Tchaikovsky and his friend Nikolai Kashkin during an extended visit to Moscow. While Balakirev was never prone to underestimating himself, he may not have realized how apt a subject this was for Tchaikovsky, or how exactly right the theme of tragic love would fire Tchaikovsky's imagination.
   The birthing process proved both hard and protracted. When Tchaikovsky complained intitially about being "burnt out", Balakirev sent an enormous leter, outlining how he'd composed his overture to King Lear the previous year, plus a detailed plan for Romeo, including suggestions for key schemes. Not happy with some of Tchaikovsky's intital efforts, Balakirev pushed him for better music and offered further suggestions. The piece would pass back and forth between the two composers for the next 10 years, when Tchaikovsky made his final revisions. Balakirev regretted Tchaikovsky's decision, after the premiere on March 28, 1870, to rush Romeo into print. Even as he insisted that the beginning and end needed "complete rewriting," Balakirev admired some passages so much that he could soon play the entire work on the piano.
   Though its first performance was a failure, Romeo would soon bring Tchaikovsky his first national and inrternational acclaim. It would also become a work The Five lauded unconditionally. On hearing the love theme from Romeo, Stasov told the group, "There were five of you: now there are six."
   After Romeo and Juliet, the two men drifted apart as Balakirev took a sabbatical from the music world (more below). In 1880, Balakirev received a copy of the final version of the score of Romeo from Tchaikovsky, care of the music publisher Besel. Delighted Tchaikovsky hadn't forgotten him, he replied with an invitation for Tchaikovsky to visit him in Saint Petersburg. In the same letter, he forwarded "the programme for another symphony which you'd handle wonderfully well." This programme, originally penned by Stasov for Hector Berlioz, was based on Lord Byron's Manfred. Tchaikovsky intitally said no. Balakirev refused to take no for an answer and continued to encourage Tchaikovsky to "make an effort." Two years later, Tchaikovsky changed his mind. His Manfred Symphony, which he'd finish in 1885, would become the largest, most complex work he'd yet written. As with Romeo and Juliet and Fatum, Tchaikovsky dedicated the Manfred Symphony to Balakirev.

Breakdown

When Lomakin resigned as director of the Free Music School in February 1868, Balakirev took his place there. Once he'd left the RMS, he concentrated on building attendance for concerts of the Free Music School. He decided to recruit popular soloists and found Nikolai Rubinstein ready to help. Elena Pavlovna was furious. She decided to raise the social level of the RMS concert by attending them personally with her court.
This rivalry caused financial difficulties for both concert societies. RMS membership declined. The Free School continued to suffer from chronic money troubles. Soon the Free Music School couldn't pay Balakirev. Its 1870-71 series had to be cut short. The RMS then scored the coup de grace of assigning its programming to Mikhaíl Azanchevsky, who took over as director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1871. Azanchevsky was more progressively-minded than his predecessors. He was a staunch believer in contemporary music on the whole and Russian contemporary music in particular. For the opening concert of the RMS 1871-72 season, conductor Eduard Nápravník, presented the first public performances of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet and the polonaise from Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. This kind of programming made Balakirev's concerts unnecessary and redundant.
These problems drove Balakirev to a nervous breakdown in 1872. He took a break from the musical world, which eventually lasted five years, but neglected to give up his post as director of the Free Music School. He finally resigned in 1874 and was replaced by Rimsky-Korsakov. Financial distress forced Balakirev to become a railway clerk on the Warsaw railroad line. Disillusioned, exhausted and suffereing from bouts of deep depression, he sought solace in the strictest sect of Russian Orthodoxy.

Return to music

In 1876, Balakirev slowly began reemerging into the music world. Stasov wrote Rimsky-Korsakov in July that Balakirev was busy composing his symphonic poem Tamara but still didn't wish to see any of his old musical circle, "for there would be talks about music, which he wouldn't have under any circumstances. Nevertheless he inquires about everything with interest...." Balakirev also began sending individuals to Rimsky-Korsakov for private lessons in music theory. By the autumn these visits had become frequent.
By the 1880s, Balakirev had resumed his musical activities. After holding several jobs, such as that of a school inspector, he was appointed director of the Imperial Chapel and conductor of the Imperial Musical Society in 1883. He held this post until 1895, when he took his final retirement. He also composed in earnest. In 1882 he finished Tamara and revised his "symphonic picture" 1,000 Years two years later, retitling it Rus. Between 1895 and 1910 he completed two symphonies, a piano sonata and two movements of his Second Piano Concerto, along with republishing his collection of folk-song arrangements. Unlike his earlier days, Balakirev composed in isolation, aware that younger composers now considered his compositional style old-fashioned.
Balakirev died on May 29, 1910 and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg.

Music and influence

Balakirev was somewhat notorious for taking long periods of time to finish works; for instance, his "Sonata in B flat minor" was written over the course of 50 years. Nevertheless, he managed to produce a large body of work, much of which is rarely performed today. His works consist largely of songs and collections of folk songs, but include two symphonies, two symphonic poems (Russia and Tamara), and four overtures, and a number of piano pieces, including . His orchestral works are generally pieces of programme music in a style developed by Balakirev's disciples, such as Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov. Islamey is particularly favored among pianists, due to its difficult nature.
His influence as a conductor, and as an organizer of Russian music, give him the place as a founder of a new movement. Though he was one of the founders of the Free School, he strongly opposed what he termed "musical professionalism," qualities he associated with the established Russian music scene in the mid 1800s. He sought to imprint his vision of music onto his students, and was thus the de facto head of the five during their existence. He ruled this group often with a strong hand. Mussorgsky in particular often came under fire from his teacher; due to Balakirev's harsh criticism of his Night on Bald Mountain, the work was never performed in Mussorgsky's lifetime. Outside of the group, Balakirev also greatly encouraged Peter Tchaikovsky in his studies, eventually inspiring him to write the Manfred Symphony (something that Tchaikovsky acknowledged when he dedicated the piece to Balakirev).

Selected works

Works with opus numbers

Grande Fantasie on Russian Folk Songs, Op. 4, for piano and orchestra.
Islamey, Oriental fantasy for piano, Op. 18 (1869, revised 1902).
Octet, Opus 3.
Overture on a Spanish March Theme, Op. 6.
Piano Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 1 (1855-1856).
Piano Concerto No. 2 in E flat major, Op. Posth. (1861-1910, completed by Sergei Lyapunov).
Piano Sonata No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 5.
Piano Sonata No. 2 in Bb minor, Op. 102 (1905).

Works with dates

Reminiscences on Glinka’s opera "A Life for the Czar",fantasy for piano (2nd version of Fantasy on Glinka's themes) (1854-1855, revised 1899).

Scherzo for Piano No. 1 in B minor (1856).

Overture on a Spanish March Theme (1857).

Overture on Three Russian Themes (1858).

King Lear (Korol' Lir), incidental music Shakespeare's play (1858-1861, revised 1902-1905).

Polka in f-sharp for piano (1859).

Mazurka for piano No. 1 in A flat major (1861-1884).

Mazurka for piano No. 2 in C sharp minor (1861-1884).

russia (Rus'), Second Overture on Russian Themes, for orchestra, Symphonic Poem (1863-1864, revised 1884).

Jota aragonesa for Piano (after Glinka) (1864).

"The Lark" ("Zhavronok") for piano, transcription from a song by Glinka (1864).

Symphony No. 1 in C major (1864-1866).

Overture on Czech Themes "In Bohemia" ("V Chechii"), Symphonic Poem, (1867, revised 1905).

Tamara, symphonic poem (1867-1882).

Islamey, for piano (1869)

Au jardin, étude-idylle for piano in D flat major (1884).

In the Garden, for piano (1884).

Mazurka for piano No. 3 for Piano in B minor (1886).

Mazurka for piano No. 4 for Piano in G flat major (1886).

Nocturne for piano No. 1 in B flat minor (1898).

Dumka for Piano (1900).

Mazurka for piano No. 5 for Piano in D major (1900).

Scherzo for Piano No. 2 in B flat minor (1900).

Waltz for Piano No. 1 in G major "Valse di bravura" (1900).

Waltz for Piano No. 2 in F minor "Valse mélancholique" (1900).

Symphony No. 2 in D minor (1900-1908).

Berceuse for Piano in D flat major (1901).

Gondellied, for piano in A minor (1901).

Nocturne for piano No. 2 in B minor (1901).

Scherzo for Piano no 3 in F sharp major (1901).

Tarantella for Piano in B major (1901).

Waltz for Piano no 3 in D major "Valse-impromptu" (1901).

Suite in b (1901-1908).

Capriccio for piano in D major (1902).

Mazurka for piano No. 6. For Piano in A flat major (1902).

Nocturne for piano No. 3 in D minor (1902).

Spanish melody for Piano (1902).

Spanish Serenade for Piano (1902).

Toccata in c-sharp for Piano (1902).

Tyrolienne (1902).

Waltz for Piano no 4 in B flat major "Valse de concert" (1902).

Cantata on the Inauguration of the Glinka Memorial (dedicated to Mikhail Glinka), chorus and orchestra (1902-1904).

Chant du pecheur (1903).

Humoresque for Piano in D major (1903).

Phantasiestück, for piano in D flat major (1903).

Rêverie, for piano in F major (1903).

Waltz for Piano No. 5 in D flat major (1903).

Waltz for Piano No. 6 in F sharp minor (1903-1904).

Romance (transcription for piano solo of the second movement of Chopin’s first concerto for Piano and Orchestra, opus 11) (1905).

La fileuse for Piano in B flat minor(1906).

Mazurka for piano No. 7. For Piano in E flat minor (1906).

Novelette for Piano in A major (1906).

Waltz for piano No. 7 in G sharp minor (1906).

Impromptu for piano (after Chopin's Preludes in E flat minor and B major) (1907).

Esquisses (Sonatina) for Piano in G major (1909).

Undated works

Complainte for piano.

Fantasia for Piano.

Overture on the Themes of 3 Russian Songs, for orchestra.

"Say not that love will pass" for piano, transcription from a song by Glinka.

Songs with dates

"Spanish Song" ("Ispanskaya pesnya"), for voice and piano (Forgotten Songs No. 3) (1855).

"The Clear Moon has Risen" (1858).

"The Knight" (1858) (20 Songs, No. 7).

"Song of Selim" ("Pesnya Selima") (1858) (20 Songs, No. 11).

"Hebrew Melody" (20 songs, no. 13) (1859).

"Over the Lake" ("Nad ozerom"), song for voice and piano (1895-1896) (10 Songs, No. 1).

"The Wilderness" (10 songs, no. 2) (1895-1896).

"I Loved Him" ("Ya lyubila ego"), song for voice and piano (10 Songs 1895-96, No. 5).

"The Pine Tree" (1895-1896) (10 Songs, No. 6).

"Nocturne" (1895-1896) (10 Songs, No. 7).

"Vision" ("Son") (10 Songs, No. 2) (1903-04).

"7th November" (10 Songs, No. 4) (1903-04).

"The yellow leaf trembles" ("Pesnya: Zholtďy list") (10 Songs, No. 8) (1903-04).

"Look, my Friend" ("Vzglyani, moy drug") (20 Songs, No. 6) (1903-04).

"The Dream" ("Son") (20 songs, no. 20) (1903-04).

"Song: The Yellow Leaf Trembles" (1903-04).

"Dawn" ("Zarya") (1909).

Undated songs

"Intonation".

"My Heart Is Torn" ("Tak i rvetsya dusha"), song for voice and piano (20 Songs, No. 9).

"Selim's Song" ("Pesnya Selima"), for voice and piano (20 Songs, No. 11).

"The Crescent Moon" ("Vzoshol na nebo mesyats yasnïy"), song for voice and piano (20 Songs, No. 5).

"Thou Art So Capitvating" ("Tï plenitel'noy negi polna"), song for voice and piano (Forgotten Songs, No. 1).

"Toujours, on me dit 'grand sot'".

"When I Hear Thy Voice" ("Slïshu li golos tvoy"), song for voice and piano (20 Songs, No. 18).

Sources

Figes, Orlando, Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2002). ISBN 0-8050-5783-8 (hc.).

Holden, Anthony, Tchaikovsky: A Biography (New York: Random House, 1995). ISBN 0-679-42006-1.

Maes, Francis, tr. Arnold J. Pomerans and Erica Pomerans, A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of Ca.ilfornia Press, 2002). ISBN 0-520-21815-9.

Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai, Letoppis Moyey Muzykalnoy Zhizni (Saint Petersburg, 1909), published in English as My Musical Life (New York: Knopf, 1925, 3rd ed. 1942). ISBN n/a.Further Information

Get more info on 'Mily Balakirev'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://mily_balakirev.totallyexplained.com">Mily Balakirev Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.