Belyayev circle
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The Belyayev circle (russian: Беляевский кружок) was a society of Russian musicians who met in
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
between 1885 and 1908, and whose members included
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...
,
Alexander Glazunov Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov; ger, Glasunow (, 10 August 1865 – 21 March 1936) was a Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He was director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 ...
,
Vladimir Stasov Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov (also Stassov; rus, Влади́мир Васи́льевич Ста́сов; 14 January Adoption_of_the_Gregorian_calendar#Adoption_in_Eastern_Europe.html" ;"title="/nowiki> O.S._2_January.html" ;"title="Adoption of ...
, Anatoly Lyadov,
Alexander Ossovsky Alexander Vyacheslavovich Ossovsky (russian: link=no, Александр Вячеславович Оссовский, July 31, 1957) was a renowned Russian musical writer, critic and musicologist, professor at Saint Petersburg Conservatory, pupil ...
,
Witold Maliszewski Witold Maliszewski (russian: Витольд Осипович Малишевский, uk, Вітольд Йосифович Малішевський; 20 July 1873 – 18 July 1939) was a Polish composer, founder of Odessa Conservatory, and a profes ...
,
Nikolai Tcherepnin Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin (Russian: Николай Николаевич Черепнин; – 26 June 1945) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was born in Saint Petersburg and studied under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at t ...
, Nikolay Sokolov, Alexander Winkler among others. The circle was named after
Mitrofan Belyayev Mitrofan Petrovich Belyayev (russian: Митрофа́н Петро́вич Беля́ев; old style 10/22 February 1836, St. Petersburg22 December 1903/ 4 January 1904) was an Imperial Russian music publisher, outstanding philanthropist, a ...
, a
timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
merchant and amateur musician who became a music philanthropist and publisher after hearing the music of the teenage Glazunov. The Belyayev circle believed in a
national National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...
style of classical music, based on the achievements of the composer group The Five which preceded it. One important difference between composers in the Belyayev circle and their counterparts in the Five was an acceptance in the necessity of Western-styled academic training; this was an attitude passed down by Rimsky-Korsakov, who taught many of the composers in the circle at the
Saint Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory (russian: Санкт-Петербургская государственная консерватория имени Н. А. Римского-Корсакова) (formerly known as th ...
. While these composers were more open to Western compositional practices and influences, especially through the music of
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...
, they closely followed many of the compositional practices of the Five to the point of mannerism, especially in their depiction of folkloric subject matter. The Belyayev circle came to dominate musical life in St. Petersburg. Composers who desired patronage, publication or public performance of their works through Belyayev were compelled to write in a musical style accepted by Glazunov, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov. There was also peer pressure to compose in this style, as well as a distrust of composers who did not do so. Several composers who believed in the philosophy of the Belyayev circle became professors and heads of music conservatories in Russia, which extended the influence of the group past the physical confines of St. Petersburg and timewise well into the 20th century.


Belyayev

Belyayev was one of a growing number of Russian nouveau-riche industrialists who became patrons of the arts in mid- to late-19th century Russia; their number included Nadezhda von Meck, railway magnate
Savva Mamontov Savva Ivanovich Mamontov (russian: Са́вва Ива́нович Ма́монтов, ; 3 October 1841 (15 October N.S.), Yalutorovsk – 6 April 1918, Moscow) was a Russian industrialist, merchant, entrepreneur and patron of the arts. Busine ...
and textile manufacturer
Pavel Tretyakov Pavel Mikhaylovich Tretyakov (russian: Па́вел Миха́йлович Третьяко́в; 27 December 1832 – 16 December 1898) was a Russian businessman, patron of art, collector, and philanthropist who gave his name to the Tretyakov Gal ...
. While Nadezhda von Meck insisted on anonymity in her patronage in the tradition of ''
noblesse oblige ''Noblesse oblige'' (; ; literally “nobility obliges”) is a French expression from a time when French (more specifically, Anglo-Norman) was the language of the English nobility, and retains in English the meaning that nobility extends beyo ...
'', Belyayev, Mamontov and Tretyakov "wanted to contribute conspicuously to public life".Taruskin, 49. Because of their cultural and political orientation, they were more likely than the aristocracy to support native talent, and were more inclined to support nationalist artists over cosmopolitan ones. This was not due to any social or political agenda implicit in the art, but due to the Russianness of the art itself.Taruskin, 42. This included the music of the composers Belyayev chose to support. An amateur
viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
player and
chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...
enthusiast, Belyayev hosted "
quartet In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...
Fridays" at his home in St. Petersburg. A frequent visitor to these gatherings was Rimsky-Korsakov. Belyayev became a music patron after he had heard the First Symphony by the sixteen-year-old Glazunov, who had been discovered by Balakirev and tutored by Rimsky-Korsakov in musical composition,
counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
and orchestration. Not only did Glazunov become a fixture of the "quartet Fridays", but Belyayev also published Glazunov's work and took him on a tour of Western Europe. This tour included a visit to
Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
to present the young composer to famed Hungarian composer and pianist
Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
.Maes, 192. Soon Belyayev became interested in other Russian composers. In 1884 he set up an annual
Glinka prize The Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR (Государственная премия РСФСР имени М.И. Глинки) was a prize awarded to musicians of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1965–1991. To be distinguished f ...
, named after pioneer Russian composer
Mikhail Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka ( rus, link=no, Михаил Иванович Глинка, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka., mʲɪxɐˈil ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡlʲinkə, Ru-Mikhail-Ivanovich-Glinka.ogg; ) was the first Russian composer to gain wide recogni ...
(1804–1857). In 1885 he founded his own music publishing firm, based in
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
, Germany, through which he published works by Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Lyadov and Borodin at his own expense. By publishing in Leipzig, Belyayev could offer the double benefit of higher quality music printing than was available in Russia at the time, plus the protection of international
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
which Russia did not offer. At Rimsky-Korsakov's suggestion, Belyayev also founded his own concert series, the
Russian Symphony Concerts The Russian Symphony Concerts were a series of Russian classical music concerts hosted by timber magnate and musical philanthropist Mitrofan Belyayev in St. Petersburg as a forum for young Russian composers to have their orchestral works performed. ...
, open exclusively to Russian composers. Among the works written especially for this series were the three by Rimsky-Korsakov by which he is currently best known in the West—''
Scheherazade Scheherazade () is a major female character and the storyteller in the frame narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the ''One Thousand and One Nights''. Name According to modern scholarship, the name ''Scheherazade'' deri ...
'', the ''
Russian Easter Festival Overture ''Russian Easter Festival Overture: Overture on Liturgical Themes'' (russian: Светлый праздник, translit=Svetly prazdnik, translation=Bright festival), Op. 36, also known as the ''Great Russian Easter Overture'', is a concert over ...
'' and ''
Capriccio espagnol ''Capriccio espagnol'', Op. 34, is the common Western title for a five movement orchestral suite, based on Spanish folk melodies, composed by the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1887. It received its premiere on 31 October 1887, in St ...
''. To select which composers to assist with money, publication or performances from the many who now appealed for help, Belyayev set up an advisory council made up of Glazunov, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov. They would look through the compositions and appeals submitted and suggest which composers were deserving of patronage and public attention.Maes, 173.


Influence

The musical scene in St. Petersburg came to be dominated by the Belyayev circle since Rimsky-Korsakov had taught many of its members at the Conservatory there. Since Glazunov, Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov acted in an advisory capacity to the Belyayev enterprises, and thus became channels of Belyayev's largesse, composers who wished to be part of this circle and who desired Belyayev's patronage had to write in a musical style approved by these three men. Because of this stricture, Rimsky-Korsakov's style became the preferred academic style—one that young composers had to follow if they hoped to have any sort of career.Maes, 173. In this sense, the Belyayev circle acted as a compositional
guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...
. The better pupils from the St. Petersburg Conservatory received initiation by their invitation to the "quartet Fridays", and admission to the circle "guaranteed well remunerated publication by Edition Belieff, Leipzig, and performance in the Russian Symphony Concert programs".Taruskin, 56. Thus, the Belyayev circle "set up an establishment that governed all aspects of musical creation, education and performance".


Philosophy

The Belyayev circle ran counter in its philosophy to the artistic movement and magazine ''
Mir iskusstva ''Mir iskusstva'' ( rus, «Мир искусства», p=ˈmʲir ɪˈskustvə, ''World of Art'') was a Russian magazine and the artistic movement it inspired and embodied, which was a major influence on the Russians who helped revolutionize Eur ...
'' (russian: «Мир иску́сства», ''World of Art''). ''Mir iskusstva'' "identified with the artistic values of the ussianaristocracy" in its cosmopolitanism and belief of a universal culture. The composers of the Belyayev circle, like the Five before it, believed in a national, realist form of Russian classical music that should stand apart in its style and characteristics from Western European classical music. In this sense, the Belyayev composers shared similar goals with the
Abramtsevo Colony Abramtsevo (russian: Абра́мцево) is a former country estate and now museum-reserve located north of Moscow, in the proximity of Khotkovo, that became a centre for the Slavophile movement and an artists' colony in the 19th century. The ...
and
Russian Revival The Russian Revival style (historiographical names are: ''Russian style'', russian: русский стиль, ''Pseudo-Russian style'', russian: псевдорусский стиль, ''Neo-Russian style'', russian: нео-русский стил ...
in the sphere of fine arts. Another way ''Mir iskusstva'' disagreed with the Belyayev circle was that they believed the composers under Belyayev were practicing art for art's sake, much like a social program. This practice ran counter to their belief in focusing on "art as the spiritual expression of the individual's creative genius", as they felt
Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
had done in his poetry and Tchaikovsky in his music. Alfred Nurok commented in an 1899 review in ''Mir iskusstva'': Musicologist
Richard Taruskin Richard Filler Taruskin (April 2, 1945 – July 1, 2022) was an American musicologist and music critic who was among the leading and most prominent music historians of his generation. The breadth of his scrutiny into source material as well as ...
wrote, "Within the Belyayev circle a safe conformism became increasingly the rule".Taruskin, 57. Concert programs needed to be filled with new Russian works, and new works had to be published to offer to the music public. It was therefore necessary "to dip rather deep into the pool of available Conservatory trained talent", and the circle became known for the number of less-than-first-rate talents harbored within it. Critic and composer
César Cui César Antonovich Cui ( rus, Це́зарь Анто́нович Кюи́, , ˈt͡sjezərʲ ɐnˈtonəvʲɪt͡ɕ kʲʊˈi, links=no, Ru-Tsezar-Antonovich-Kyui.ogg; french: Cesarius Benjaminus Cui, links=no, italic=no; 13 March 1918) was a Ru ...
, who had been part of the Five along with Rimsky-Korsakov, derisively called these younger composers "clones". Though there was some snobbism involved in criticism of the Belyayev circle, there was also enough truth in the issue of conformism to cause the circle some embarrassment. A contributing factor to this conformism was the gradual academization of composers in the nationalist circle, fueled by Rimsky-Korsakov's efforts in this regard with his students.Frolova-Walker, ''New Grove (2001)'', 21:403. An increasing number of these students joined the Belyayev circle; the result was "the emergence of production-line 'Russian style' pieces, polished and correct, but lacking originality".


Comparison to the Five

The composers who formed the Belyayev circle were nationalistic in their outlook, as were The Five before them. Like the Five, they believed in a uniquely Russian style of classical music that utilized folk music and exotic melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements, as exemplified by the music of Balakirev, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov. Unlike the Five, these composers also believed in the necessity of an academic, Western-based background in composition. The necessity of Western compositional techniques was something that Rimsky-Korsakov had instilled in many of them in his years at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Compared to the "revolutionary" composers in Balakirev's circle, Rimsky-Korsakov found those in the Belyayev circle to be "progressive ... attaching as it did great importance to technical perfection, but ... also broke new paths, though more securely, even if less speedily...."Rimsky-Korsakov, 286–287. Glazunov's attitude toward outside influences was typical of the Belyayev circle. He studied Tchaikovsky's works and "found much that was new ... that was instructive for us as young musicians. It struck me that Tchaikovsky, who was above all a lyrical and melodic composer, had introduced operatic elements into his symphonies. I admired the thematic material of his works less than the inspired unfolding of his thoughts, his temperament and the constructural perfection." Rimsky-Korsakov noted "a tendency toward
eclecticism Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in ...
" among the composers in the Belyayev circle, as well as a "predilection ... for Italian-French music of the time of wig and
farthingale A farthingale is one of several structures used under Western European women's clothing in the 16th and 17th centuries to support the skirts in the desired shape and enlarge the lower half of the body. It originated in Spain in the fifteenth c ...
hat is, the eighteenth century music introduced by Tchaikovsky in his ''
Queen of Spades The queen of spades (Q) is one of 52 playing cards in a standard deck: the queen of the suit of spades (). In Old Maid and several games of the Hearts family, it serves as a single, undesirable card in the deck. Roles by game In the Hearts fa ...
'' and ''
Iolanthe ''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert ...
''". Nevertheless, while the Belyayev circle was more tolerant of outside influence to a certain degree than their predecessors under Balakirev, they still followed the compositional practices of the Five closely. Maes writes, "The harmonies of
Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky ( rus, link=no, Модест Петрович Мусоргский, Modest Petrovich Musorgsky , mɐˈdɛst pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈmusərkskʲɪj, Ru-Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky version.ogg; – ) was a Russian compo ...
's coronation scene in '' Boris'', the octatonicism of ''
Mlada ''Mlada'' (russian: Млада, italic=yes, the name of a main character) was a project conceived in 1870 by Stepan Gedeonov (1816–1878), director of the Saint Petersburg Imperial Theatres, originally envisioned as a ballet to be composed by ...
'' and ''
Sadko Sadko (russian: Садко) is the principal character in a Russian medieval epic ''bylina''. He was an adventurer, merchant, and ''gusli'' musician from Novgorod. Textual notes "Sadko" is a version of the tale translated by Arthur Ransome in ...
'', Balakirev's folk-song stylizations, Rimsky-Korsakov's colorful
harmonization In music, harmonization is the chordal accompaniment to a line or melody: "Using chords and melodies together, making harmony by stacking scale tones as triads". A harmonized scale can be created by using each note of a musical scale as a roo ...
—all these served as a store of recipes for writing Russian national music. In the portrayal of the national character ... these techniques prevailed over the subjects portrayed".


Folklorism, orientalism, "fantastic" style

Unlike their predecessors in the Five, composers in the Belyayev circle did not concern themselves greatly with
folklorism Folklorismus is a concept used in folkloristics and ethnology. It was developed by the German ethnologists Hans Moser and Hermann Bausinger, and bears similarities with the concepts of invented tradition and fakelore. The Serbian folklorist Neman ...
—the invention or adaptation of
folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
to newly written stories or songs, or to folklore that is reworked and modified for modern tastes. They also did not travel to other parts of Russia to actively search for folk songs, as Balakirev had done. When the Belyayev composers produced folkloric works, "they simply imitated Balakirev's or Rimsky-Korsakov's styles". One of the Belyayev composers,
Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov (russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Ипполи́тов-Ива́нов; 28 January 1935) was a Russian and Soviet composer, conductor and teacher. His music ranged from the late-Romantic era ...
, continued the Five's work in musical
orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...
—the use of exotic melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements to depict the middle- and far-eastern parts of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
. He wrote three operas set in an oriental background and composed in Balakirev's style—''Ruth'', ''Azra'' and ''Izmena''. The story for the last of these operas "deals with the struggle between Christians and Muslims during the sixteenth-century occupation of
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
by the Persians".Maes, 193. Ippolotov-Ivanov is best known in the West for his two sets of ''
Caucasian Sketches ''Caucasian Sketches'' (russian: Кавказские эскизы) is a pair of orchestral suites written in 1894 and 1896 by the Russian composer Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov. The ''Caucasian Sketches'' is the most often performed of his compositions ...
'' "an orientalist orchestral work modeled on Balakirev and Borodin". Lyadov wrote in a "fantastic" vein akin to Rimsky-Korsakov's, especially in his tone poems based on Russian fairy tales, ''Baba Yaga'', ''Kikimora'' and ''The Enchanted Lake''.Maes, 192. This style of musical writing was based on extensive use of the
whole tone scale In music, a whole-tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole tone. In twelve-tone equal temperament, there are only two complementary whole-tone scales, both six-note or ''hexatonic'' sc ...
and the
octatonic scale An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetrical ...
to depict supernatural or magical characters and events, hence the term "fantastic". Though he would break from the Belyayev aesthetic in subsequent works,
Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...
wrote his
ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
''
The Firebird ''The Firebird'' (french: L'Oiseau de feu, link=no; russian: Жар-птица, Zhar-ptitsa, link=no) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's ...
'' in a similar musical style.


Intolerance of non-compliant composers

Despite Rimsky-Korsakov's denial of bias among composers of the Belyayev circle, musicologist
Solomon Volkov Solomon Moiseyevich Volkov (russian: Соломон Моисеевич Волков; born 17 April 1944) is a Russian journalist and musicologist. He is best known for ''Testimony'', which was published in 1979 following his emigration from the So ...
mentions that they and the Five shared a mutual suspicion of compositions that did not follow its canon.Volkov, ''St. Petersburg'', 350. This proved especially true of the First Symphony of
Sergei Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...
, a Moscow composer and protege of Tchaikovsky. Rimsky-Korsakov, whose own musical preferences in his later years were not overly progressive, may have sounded an advance warning on hearing the symphony in rehearsal when he told Rachmaninoff, "Forgive me, but I do not find this music at all agreeable". By the reports of many present, the rehearsal that Rimsky-Korsakov had heard, conducted by Glazunov, was both a disaster as a performance and a horrific travesty of the score.Harrison, 76. The premiere, held in St. Petersburg on March 28, 1897, went no better. Cui wrote in his review of the work, among other things, "If there were a conservatory in
Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...
, and if one of its talented students were to compose a programme symphony based on the story of the
Ten Plagues of Egypt The Plagues of Egypt, in the account of the book of Exodus, are ten disasters inflicted on Biblical Egypt by the God of Israel in order to convince the Pharaoh to emancipate the enslaved Israelites, each of them confronting Pharaoh and one of h ...
, and if he were to compose a symphony like Mr. Rachmaninoff's, then he would have fulfilled his task brilliantly and would delight the inhabitants of Hell". The symphony was not performed again in Rachmaninoff's lifetime, and while Rachmaninoff did not destroy or disavow the score, he suffered a psychological collapse that led to a three-year creative hiatus.


Modernism

Maes writes that the composers who formed the Belyayev circle have often been described as "important links to, and pathbreakers for" modernist Russian composers such as Stravinsky and
Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
. This, he asserts, is actually a false assumption which suggests that modernism was the result of a gradual process.Maes, 195. The truth, Maes suggests, was that modernist music in Russia was a much more radical break from the Belyayev circle than many have claimed. Rimsky-Korsakov's extensive use of the
octatonic scale An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetrical ...
and other harmonic experiments "was a gold mine for those bent on a modernist revolution," Maes writes. "However, the renewing force had still to be liberated from the cliches and routines into which the Belyayev aesthetic had been pressed".


Legacy

Bias toward the musical aesthetics practiced by the Belyayev circle would continue at the St. Petersburg Conservatory after Rimsky-Korsakov's retirement in 1906, with his son-in-law
Maximilian Steinberg Maximilian Osseyevich Steinberg (Russian Максимилиан Осеевич Штейнберг; – 6 December 1946) was a Russian composer of classical music. Though once considered the hope of Russian music, Steinberg is far less well known ...
in charge of composition classes at the Conservatory through the 1920s.
Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
would complain about Steinberg's musical conservatism, typified by such phrases as "the inviolable foundations of the ''kuchka''" and the "sacred traditions of Nikolai Andreyevich imsky-Korsakov. Nor was this traditionalism limited to St. Petersburg. Well into the Soviet era, many other music conservatories remained run by traditionalists such as Ippolitov-Ivanov in Moscow and
Reinhold Glière Reinhold Moritzevich Glière (born Reinhold Ernest Glier, which was later converted for standardization purposes; russian: Рейнгольд Морицевич Глиэр; 23 June 1956), was a Russian Imperial and Soviet composer of German and P ...
in
Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
. Because of these individuals, Maes writes, "the conservatories retained a direct link with the Belyayev aesthetic".Maes, 244.


References


Bibliography

* Bertensson, Sergei and Jay Leyda, with the assistance of Sophia Satina, ''Sergei Rachmaninoff—A Lifetime in Music'' (Washington Square, New York: New York University Press, 1956)). ISBN n/a. * Fay, Laurel, ''Shostakovich: A Life'' (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). . * Figes, Orlando, ''Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia'' (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2002). (hc.). * Frolova-Walker, Marina, "Rimsky-Korsakov. Russian family of musicians. (1) Nikilay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov". In ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition'' (London: Macmillan, 2001) 29 vols., ed. Stankey Sadie. . * Harrison, Max, ''Rachmaninoff: Life, Works, Recordings'' (London and New York: Continuum, 2005). . * Lobanova, Marina, Notes for BIS CD 1358, ''Glazunov: Ballade; Symphony No. 3;'' BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Tadaaki Otaka. * Maes, Francis, tr. Pomerans, Arnold J. and Erica Pomerans, ''A History of Russian Music: From ''Kamarinskaya ''to'' Babi Yar (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2002). . * Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai, ''Letoppis Moyey Muzykalnoy Zhizni'' (St. Petersburg, 1909), published in English as ''My Musical Life'' (New York: Knopf, 1925, 3rd ed. 1942). ISBN n/a. * Schwarz, Boris, "Glazunov, Alexander Konstantinovich". In ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (London: Macmillan, 1980), 20 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie. . * Taruskin, Richard, ''Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A Biography of the Works Through'' Mavra, ''Volume 1'' (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). . * Volkov, Solomon, tr.
Antonina W. Bouis Antonina W. Bouis is a German literary translator from Russian to English. She has been called "the best literary translator from Russian" by ''Publishers Weekly''. Life Born in West Germany, Bouis was educated in the United States. She has degre ...
, ''St. Petersburg: A Cultural History'' (New York: The Free Press, 1995). . * Wilson, Elizabeth, ''Shostakovich: A Life Remembered'', Second Edition (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994, 2006). {{ISBN, 0-691-12886-3. Russian composers