MY MUSICAL LIFE

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N. A. WHISKY-KORSAKOí’F
 JUDAII A. )OFFE

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 CONTENTE

A I NTROOL CTION, BY CARL LAN GED HTML

PefrAca zO TH F JR5r R cs5iAN EoJziON, Bd N. HiMsmr -
KOR SAKOVA

PusrAcs TO THn S zcoxm RUSSiAN EDITION, BY N. JIñfSKAYA-

KosSAKOl'A
CHAP’T'rR Ï :. i 8 .4- 6
Childhood years in Tikhvin. The first manifestations of musical
abilfties. Studying music. Reading. Inclination towards the sea
and maritime service. First attempts at composition. Leaving for
5t. Petetsbury. 3
Crim zzz JJ: i 85G—6 i
The Golovins. the ñJarine Corps. Gctting acquainted with
operatic and symphony music. Ulikh’s and Kanille’s lessons. 9
CtiAPTER II I : i 86 I—(›2
Acquaintance with BalakireH and his cifcle. The Symphony.
bly father’s death. Reminiscences oï llIJ, ( jr@duätÎ0fl âS a trlÎd-
shipman. DetNled to sail in foreign waters.

fly carcer m my parents’ eyes. My musical preccptots. Ba-

lakirefi as a teacher of composition and leader of the circle, The
otheT memhtzs pt Balakirefl’s clrcle in the early Sixties and the teacher-
leadeI’s attitude toward them. Gti5akovski, Cut, Musorgski, and I. Tdc
tendencies and spirit at the marine School and in the Fleet in my
time. Sailing abroad.
HAPTr« V- i 862-65
The cruise abroad. Sailing to England and the Libau coast. Reat-
Admiral Lyesnvski. The voyagn to America. Our stay in the
United S taxes. Ordercd to rhe Paci£c. C’aptain Ze)yony.
From New 5"ork to Rio de Janeiro and back to Europe.
CHAPT« VI: i 865—66
Return to m usic. A eguointunce v ith ,Horodm. LI y first sJ m-
phony. llalakireff and the members of his circle, The perform-
ance of the first symphony. The musical life of the circle Over-
ture on Russian themes. fly first song.
CuAPTER II I ' i 8fi6-6y
Roin yeda. The circle’s attitude toward Syerofi. Writing the
Swtian Fantasy. Acquaintance with L. I. 8hestakova. 'The
 CONTENTS

SJavic concert. Growing intirnacy with Musorgski. Acquaintante

with P. I• Charkovski. N. N. Lodyzlleoski. Balakireff’s trip to
Prague. ritiog Suito and songs. Analysis of jedi o. 64

Concerts of the Russian k(us Ecrit Society. Berlioz. The clrcle’s

acliievements in comt» sition. Soirées at Dargomyzhsbi’s. Ac-
({l2äÎlltarlCc with the Purgold famil)'. Writing ul 1mur and first
thought of Pskouii yanka (The hlaid of Pskov) . The Popular
Concert. Analysis où A Nrar. Trip to visit Lodyzhenski. Compos-

CHAPrER IX : i868—2o
MuSofgski’s W end ing. Concerts of the Russian musical So-
ciety. Death of Dargom 'zhski. L' iz he yorodtsy sand tVilliain Rai-

Free music gchonl. CedeonoH's Mlaûa. Completin g the urclies-

9
ÄHAPISR #: IÛÿlÿI
Orchestratioii of Pif Ovityan fr, lintering on professional duties
at the St. Pcter»hurg Conservltory. 9S

Illoess and death of fay brother. f=iring with Musorgski. Dif-

ficultics with the censor about Psl'ovit yen o. N.K. Kiabbñ. Prof
Auction of W/ie ftouc Noiii. Marriage and trip abroad. P reduc-
tion of Ft £ met5 ant a and scenes from Ruric N> oh‹no 9. SymJ hony
in C-ltJajor. Appointment to the post of Inspector of ñ4usic Bands
o) the Naval DepartInent. Study of wind instruments. IOS
CHAPTER XI I: i SJ3—t 5
D€but as Conductor. M usorgski. HI K£orunificfiioa and
/O)’OcIiiIi(bG ya lar inar §a (The Fair at Sorochintsy) . Operatic
prize co ntest. Trip to NikoJ ayef( and the Crimea. Studying
harmony and counrer Point. Dircctorship of the Free Itlusic School. II9

Co Pzz« XI I I: i87¿— 6
A cu) edta cAruses. Concerts nf the Free hlusic School. A.
Lyadofi and G. Diitscti. Collect ions of RiisflI5n songs. The
Pagan Sun-celt. Respna ption of meetings with I3alakirefi. The
Sextet and the Quintet. Editing the scores of Glinka. Revision
of Nx1•orffyd/iIa.

CiiAPTER XIV": iH26—2 /

Parions compositions. Th e f ate of the Sextet and of the @uintet.
Three concerts où the firce h Music School. Jlorodin’s $ecoii d Sym-
phony. The beginnings ot flfu$ A'iJ/ii. P rid.c contest toy cho ul
CO1Y1] OSi(i0ft5. Off ۥS OF t)je FrCt2 USIC fiti$lOOJ. Ur FHUSICa)
circle. BOFOdIn’s home life. Oveitilre and entr’-acts to Pzloei-
I yan pa.
 CONTENTS
CHAPTER V ' * 77—79
Beginning to compose May L'igh t.
Proposed trip to Paris. Completion of May R“ight,- its character-
istics. Borodin and hfusorgski. Concerts of the free hlusic
SchOOl. FIrst trip to ñloscnw. Compositions to commemorate the twcnty-
fifth anniversary of the Tsar’s reign. Beginning to write the Fairy-
tale. The Russian Quartet. Work on Prince Igor. Borodin at his
summer home.
CHAPTER XVI: iS29—8o
Production of they A'ipJir. Opinions about it. Concerts of
the l“ree hfusic School. Balakirell. I.yeonova anlt kfusoyski.
h(y second visit to Moscow. Oeginmng of Snyrpoorocblo. Kroo-
she 'sLi. Sash a Glkzunoff.

The summer at 5telyovo. Composing in ¡e9o ro rI iu. Comple-

tion of 5i«Io (Fairy-tale). Analysis of in be yo orochla. ig6
CHAPTER XVI I I: 188i —82
Star kg (I’aiti -tale) . Concert of the Free music School. Death
of i\iusorgst:i. Resignation from dir‹-ctorsh ip of the Free ñI usic
School. "trip to the South, Concerts ct the Russian II usical

return to the Free Itf usic School. Glazuooff’s I*i rst Symphony.

quaintanceship north M. P. Byelyayelf, h’or/i’ aa Tyron G or5 e

(A Night on Bald klouut) . Concerto fur the piRflo. Wumaru. 2O§

WI3 APTER J)J : 3-56

Court Chapel. ’The Coronation. Organizin g the instrumental
and the presenters’ classes. Abolition of the post of Inspector ot
Nasal Bands. Bye1yayeI(’s Friilays. A. Lyadoff’s marriage. Text-
book of Harmony. Byelyayeff—publisher. Rehearsal at the Pye-
tropavlorski School. Revision of Symphony in C-)IaJor. Begin-
ning of Russian S rnphony Correct ts. Trip to the Caucasus.
CHAPTER X X i 856-88
Russian Sjip phnn y Converts. Fantasy to r tin: v ioliti. death of
Borodin. l4alakireff's circle and Byelyayefl's compared. rChes-
trating Prin ce I9or. Composition or Cc pricr.in, and its perform-
2§)
ance. Shed li crnznd a, f fler Overture.
CuxPTER X XI : I 888—9 e
Production of Der Rin p deg Nihelun9en. The Polonaise from

certs. BegiiiixHg of Illada. Trip to Paris. Completion of the

sketch of dJ/nrfn and its orchestration. Trip to Brussels. Domestic

ByelyayeJl's circle. Production of trio r• Tier. Production of

orchestrating of Sarf/*o. Acquaintancesli ip w itll Yast rrebtseH.

 c o x• T r N T S
CHAPTER III I: I P$-93
Studying a stlietics and philosoph . Production oJ Mlada.
to lania. “l’rIeild ly” dinner. \Veariness and ill-health. Produc-
tion of isfl)'cvooroc£ be in Moscow. Altani. 3+• +'!’9! t on a pri-
vate stage. Leoncavsllo. Safonofl. impressions pt visit to Plcs-
cor. Rui«ian Symphony Converts. Krooshcvski. Ruclan and
z64
CHAPTER XXII I ' I 8 93-95
quartet prize competition. Decision to leave the Chapel.
Summer at Unita. ChRykovski’s death an d the 5ixtli Symphony.
Trip to Ode:sa. fly return to composing. Beginning ct Cliriii
ina. /ec, Sri runner, \”yechaslia. Continuation of Hfiri‹I rrt a.s Ez c
and beginning of SeJéo. Death of Rubinstein. Trip to K1yt•f'f.
Pet i ii y aaka at the Society of hI usical Cictherings. Ccnso rship
di 9iculties w ith Ch ister as E“v e. Composing the opera Sadao.
Byel’ski.
CHAPTI¡R XXI\’: I b 3—3)
Orchestrating Sadao. Pr duction and adventures of C!hristmac

of Musical Gatherings. Russian Symphony Concerts and Glazunoff.

§O)
CHAPTER XLV: 1897-99
Haddo at S. I. 5lamontoff’s pri rate opera. V y ern th elo9a.
th e fcgr’x Dride. Russian 5¿+ !•**Y Concert. 2n y egooroch la
at the ñf ariinski Theatre. The young composers of 1\(oscoiv.
Tsar Saltan• Lay of Ol be9 the Pin plieiic. . I. Taneye If.
CHAP'FER XXVI s
189 = no I
Beginning Df Serzilia. Ma y A'iglit at the Frankfurt Opera
house. Trip to Brunels. The T'sc›’s Bride on a private stage
in St. Petersburg. Composing and orchestrating 3ertilin. Radio
at the Imperial Opera. 'tar ‹$a/he on a ptix•ate stage in ñ(oscoiv.
Resignation from conductDrship of Russian Symphony Concerts.
35th Anniversary. I°atious operatic plans. 3•6

Composing the prelude-cantata From for er and Kasltchey the

D eatltless. V y era 3licloga and flic Mms o/ P.‹kOW it the Grand
Theatre in Moscow. Composing Pan L*o5 epñda. News orchestra-
tion of 'fie talon e G next. Servilia at the ñiariins§i Theatre.
Kasli r h ey on a private stage in Nloscow-. Composing The frory
o/ XifJ r Jr. 5fie/opa and Pskovit yan ka at the Mariinski Theatre.
fear !Salton on a private stage. llyelyayefi’s death and his last v•Ill.
Pan Koycz'ozfa and terzilia on private stages. Boris Noduoo9 at
the ñJariinski Theatre. Death of Laroche.
C HAPTER V) : I9O§—o6
Disturbances among stufien t-routh. Performance nf Kmhchey
in St. Petersburg. Text-book of Instrumentation. Pen Voyeroda
 COhTEhTS

in Moscow. Ayenski’s death. Affairs at the Conservatory. Re-

ViVal ot S n yego orochbu. Concerts: Ziloti, Russian Symphony and
Rq5sian ñ(iisical Society. Additions to the scnre of B ru G Edu no]
MuSorgski's Weddin9. Summer of i9o6. 3q6
AP PENDfK I: Three letters of Mmc. L.I. Shestakova 359
APPLNDIR I I: Five subscription concerts of the Free 1\Iusic School 361
AP PENDIX I I I: Concert of February 3, i8 y6, at the Town Council
HalJ
AP P£NOIx IK: Concert of If arch 23, 18 y6, at the Town Council
Hall 365
AP PENDIX V: Two concerts of June zz, and zg, 1889, at the Paris
Univers«1 Exposition 366
APPENDIX VI: Two open letters of R imsk¿ -Korsakoff:
(a) To the edItor of the new spapei, Ro os’ 368
(b) To the director of the St. Petersburg Cnn-
servatory 36g
Ar arnlx VII: Rimsky-Korsakofi’s open letter to the directorate of
the St. Pete rshurg branch of the Imperial Russian
Musical Society (hlarch •4. I O5) .
 ILLUSTRATIONS
N. A. RlMSKr-KozSAKOFr

M. A. Q ALAKIR EFF z6

C. A. Cut 54

P. I. Ci‹AYKOVSKI

K ETC HñS TOR llIMSKv-KORGAKOFP’S C0Nn SYhf P HO NY

V. V. S ASOPP ;o6

64, P. MUSORGSKI 122

M. I. GrMs KA 46

A.P. ORODIN i64

A.K. GLaZUNOFP R 16

A. K. Lv norr a8

II. P. BYELYAYEFF *4 2

N. A, R lhlSKv-Ko«SAKOFP

5 i8

A. N. 5xR¥ABN §2O

HALYAPIN IW Pf$0L'1f)'df2 d
jjO
 AN INTRODUCTION

Obviously, this book is artle9sly, even badly, written in the

original, a tact which has made its translation bristle with almost
fnsurmountable diÏliculties. Like most other musicians, Rim ky-
Korsakolt was no writer of prose. An adept at arranging instru-
' ments in subtle juxtapo ition, a skilled workman at setting folk-
jewels in operatie platinum, an artist without a peer in spread- '
ing nervous shots of colour through his orchcstration, when he
had to deal with words, this composcr limped and sweated. The
ensuing pages are frequently blled with redundancies ; the s,tyle is
halting; the contents are of ten dfy. There are long passages
occupicd with sppareotly unessential details, and other passages in
which expansion or clearer thloking on the part of the z riter
would have improved the first impression made on a casu al
reader. Rimsky-KorsakolÏ was not unaware of his lack of verbal
felicity, and he refer to it rather touchingly in the last lines of
hij manuscript. On the othe i• hand, hc was 'by no means blind to
the great virtue that his work indubitahly possesses, a virtue which
sets it in a class apart the highly-spiced oiendacities of most
other musical autobiographies. iU) Je iraf Li[e is stamped wlth
the trorL Stumbling, halting, perspiring, Rimsky-Korsakofl put
down the truth as he saw it, and this truth emcrges on every page,
and by cumulative efiect ultimately gi›-es his book a life and a
siibstance which many a volume written n'ith more regard for style
entirely lacks. It is only necessary to compare this autobiography
with the similar performance of Berlioz and )Vagner to perceivc
its superiority from this point of view. If all signs of Berlioz's
litcrary process or Wagner’s 9ense of dramatic form are missing,
as compensation, the reader of bly Uii.tiran Li/r will search in va in
for the page9 ‹if romantic fiction with which these two books are en-
ccmb<red. Reading Berlioz and Wagner 1s doubtless an east er and
more amusiag pastime, but to difierentiate the true from the f alse
 ir II Y hI U S I C A L L I F E
in ther r books, it is necessary to rcfcr to a dozen commentaries.
liirnsky-Korsakolf's erroi s are errors of rnemor y or taste, rather
than of imagination. He may make a mistake in a date or h may
express an opinion girth z•hich critical readcrs will not agree, but
there can be no doubt that it is ñii own opinion that he expresses.
))e is brutally Frank, not only in regard to the work of others, but
also in regartl tO hi9 own work. Note, for example, his disregard
for the opinion of those who assign a hlgh value to his Ca priccio
Es pay no1. He 9ees it as it is, an instrumental shoW-picce, a bril-
liant, but superficial, display of musical fireworks, oft cring oppor-
tunitie9 to the individual instruments for all sorts of virtuosity.
hTote how he acknowledges his indebtedness to other composers in
the composition of Tudk o. mind note especially how, when he is
planning to write a book on the philosophy of music, after endless
explorations in the literature of the subject, sudc)en1y awakening to
the discovery that his mentality is enti rely inadequate to cope with
the project, he abandons it.
Out of the9e plodding pages, then, rtses a portrait of an Jionest,
industrious, sensitive, kindly giant, concerned only n•ith his work,
aHd giving all his ponders, mental and physiCal, to it. IN he wri tes
as badly as Theodore Dreiser, hc also has Dreiser's knack of
sudden and acute observation, hi9 poz'er of sounding a deep note
of truth, a power which a more fluent matter often lacks. His
capacity for penetration and portraiture is t rcquently very gi eat.
H is desci iption of the horne-li fe of the Borodins, for example, is a
li ttle masterpiece. Turgenyelf could have done no better.
Aside from this quali ty of honesty, this inusiCal autobiography
boasts two other outstanding virtues. Coreriiig, a it does, the
pcriod between I S44 8od i go6, it embraces practically the whole
history of Russias art-music. Glinka and Dargomyzhski w ere the
only impor tant Russian composers before the “Five” and Chav-
kovski and Rubinstein came on the scene, and the spirit of Glin2a
hovers incessantly over the shoulder of Rimsky-Korsakoff as he
J r rites, while Dargomyzhski, who did not die until i 86q, actually
appears in the flesh. Neither are Chaykovski and Rubinstein
slighted ¡ they were out of the movement, the moremeot to Russian-
ize Rossi an music, bet they have their impOrtance, an importance
which Rimsky-Korsakofl recognizes. ’ Towards the end of the
book, the pupils of thc master, Lyadofl, Aryenski, Ippolitofi-Ivan-
 AN IN T ROD U CT I O N av
off, Gryechanint›fl, C heryepnin, Glazunof(, Wihtol, Tañeyeft, and
Akimenko begin to emerge. There is an appreciation for Sha-
lyapin in his early days. And if the most famous of Rimsky-Korsa-
kota's pupils, Igor Straviuski, is not mentioned, he in amply
vided for. H is work, in fact, begin9 at exactly the point where
Rimsky-Korsakolt left of( with the composition of Le Co q d’Or.
He assumes the otfici al robes and sceptre of the master and carries
the nationalistic tradition into the twenticth century.
But the peculiar value of the book, from the point of riew
which at rresent concerns us, lies in its descriptions of the lives and
methods of work of the great Five, Balakirefl, Cui, Borodin, Mu-
sorgski and Rinisky-I(orsakof1 himself. These men, who labourcd
with clear convictions, uninfi uenced by the hope of pecuniary gain
and with small prOspect of popular appreciation, may be studied at
close range, and there various ideals and inconsistencies may be
weighed and examined.
The other outstandi rig virtue of by Mo.meet Li/r is more subtle,
and yet I believe that it is just the quality which will give this book,
primarily concc med z•ith music and addresst d to musicians, its
interest and value for lay readers. I do not assign much impor-
tance to that dcfiniti on which has it that genius is an infinite capac-
ity for toking pains. M personal prejuJice is r z them in f9VDllr 0$
facility. Samuel nutter has gone so far as to assert that only what
i9 ‹(one fairly easily iS done well. N eve rthcless, in the casc of
Riinsky-Korsak‹ifi, it must be admitted that the old definition fits
like a Callot model. He was fundamentally an amateur. His
profession was that of naval oifice r. In this he driers in no wise
front fits colleagues: Cut was an of cer of engineers in the School
Artillery; Musorgski was a llcutenant in the Preobrazhenski
Guards, and, after his retirement, worked for the government in an
administrative position : Borodin was a professor of chemistry ;
and, late in life, Balakirefl accepted a position in the St. Petersburg
I reight-station of the lVarsaw Railroad. Like the others, R imsky-
Korsakofi had had Iittle musical training when he began to com-
pose. He was ignorant of mu9ical theory ; unversed in harmony
° In a letter, giviiig his views on Clia5'tovski, Stravinski says, in pa rt: “Chaykovski
possesse‹I a great m todie power, the centre of gravity in every symphony or b2l]et
or opera that he composed. I am absolutely itidilfer ent to the fact that the quality of
his melody is very unequ at in value. The point is that h e was a creator of melody,
an extremely rare and precious gift.”
 xvi MYMUSICALLIF E
and orchestration ; he played the piano badly and was entirely un-
acquainted e ith the other mstruments; he could not even name the
common chords ! Under thèse adverse circumstances, tte coin•
posed his first works and even a9sumed a prominence whiCh lif ted
him into the chair où z profcssorskip at the St. Petersburg Con-
servatory l He admits frankly enough that he learned more than
his first pupil9. In teaching them, he taught himself.
The sapient Antoine de J a Salle once rcma rked: ”Celui qui
commence ri›i Ji•ure n’ es t que l'îcalier de celui qui S’achève.” Thls
was certainly Rimsky-Korsakofi’s experience. He, who had begun
by composing instinctively, now had to lea i n something in order to
teach others. Flc learned still more when he became supervisor of
the Impérial Naval Bands (he once ashe i ted “Composers and musi-
ciens of the academics do not know as much as an ordiflary band-
master” ) . He étudie d vocal counterpoint while teaching choruses
at the Free music Stl ool. The wiote a quartet to become f a-
miliar with the principles that govern chambcr musÎc. He con•
ducted a public concert without any precious training In wielding
the béton. Finally, he wi•ote a treati ie on harmouy, studjing the
subj ect hlmself while he worked on it I Gradu elly, hc acquired
technique, complète rnastery of hls medium, and gradUally he
learned to know not only bOw he was doing a thing, but also etat
he was doing.
This struggle tocards pu rfcction, the need for which was real-
ized almost from the beginning of his career, was iufinitely tedious
and pa‹nful. As his pan gain et) power, Rimsky-K orsakoJï not only
wrote new works, but he alsO frequently looked back over hls past,
w ith a view to the improvernent, in the light of his later experience
and education, of the works he had already glven to the world.
So, after long inter vals, he mode two new versions of his first opera,
Pskoz'ifyaoka5 and the forms of the tone-poems, Sadk o and A o/ar,
which we hear today in thc concert halls, are vert different from
those in which they were originally cash.
He was not toote»t with improving his own niusit. He felt it
hoth an obligatioii and a pleasure to use his superior skill In the
revision and completinn of the music of his dead colleagues. His
first important work of this nature was the revision and editlng of
Gl›nka’s operas, fi iis/an and L 'Ifdmil vnd A I. i fr for the Tsar.
He confesscd 1at#r that his zeal in this direction had been mis-
 AN IN T ROD U NTI O N zvii
applied. He helped Cut orchestrate Wilfiao R atcli . After
Durgomyzli s(i' s death, in i 869! !!• • The SiDHe Guest into shape.
The lazy Borodin, distracted by his duties zt the Medical Academy
and his adventures into society, living, besides, a disordered and
unsystematized life, in which meals werk served and eaten at all
hours, died, leaving his opera, Prince I gor in a state of chaos.
\Vlinle stenes were yet unwritten ; others, unorchestrated. That
the opera can be performed at all is due to the energy of Rimsky-
Ilorsak of. As for the music of M usorgski, Rimsky-Koriakofi re-
viscd and editerl it from begiuning to end, even to the extent of
completing and orchestrating fragmentary sketches. He has been
much criticized in certain quarters for his temerity in attempriog
the res•ision of B Kris G odunof. It has been claimed, not unreason-
ably, by certain critics thet Musorgski was a daring and original
Q€Rius, horn a hundred years before his tlme, and that Rimsky-
Korsakoft's emendatiOns of this score are a dcsecrati on. Well,
perhaps they are right, but it must be remembered that Rimsky-
Korsakofl meant it all for the best, that he did no more for his
dead frieod than lie wa s coostaotly doing for hlmeel I, nnÜ that he
made it possible for Musorgski's music drama to be performed not
only ln Russia but •ilso out of it. So far, indeed, only Rimsky-
Korsakoll's VerS)OR Of Boris G oduno p a failure in Rus9ia when
produced a9 Musorgskt wrote it, has held the stage. And the logic
of his answer to his critic9 i9 unassailablc. II, he hypothesiz#s,
the future may decide his on the Musorgski manoscripts to
be an impirty, theo all the future has to do in to return to the
original scoren. He has destroyed none of them ; they all exist in
their origlnal f‹irms in the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg (or
did, before the Revolution ) .
Thus, Rimsky-Korsakofi laboured, creating and rewriting his
ow n music, and the music of his friends as well. When he began to
compose, he was a naval oIIicer ; later, he became 9upervisor of the
Naval Bands, taught in the Conservatory and the Imperial Chapel,
conducted the Ru9sian Symphony and other concerts, compiled
rolume9 of f olksongs, and attempted the writing of books. He
also carried and his wife bore him sevep children. His life is
built up of a inilllOn minutiae. It is this manifold activity, this
consistent industry, which make his carec r interesting, h4 any
pages of this autobiography, therefore, which appear to be a simple
xviii M Y M U S1 C A L L I Y E
catalogue of unimportant events, chronicled without colour or
particulars, are immensely important in the bearing they have of
this consistent occupational zeal.

\Vestern enthusiasm for Russian music was £rst directed towar ds

Rubinstein, and more especially towards Chaykovski. This was
but natural, as both these men have certain aPiliations with occi-
dental style. Our knowle dge of the Five came much later ; now ,
contemporary Russian music is made known to us practically as
soon as it is composed. One contemporary Russian composer,
R khman'inoti, is, indied, to all intents and purposes, a resident of
.fimeriea. Of the Five, Nlusorgski stands out, perhaps, as the, most
important figure that Russian music has yet produced, but he is not,
in one sense, so typical a figutc ( ccr tainly he is by no means as loss-
able a figur e) as Rimsky-Korsakoll. Now that we know him
better, the composer of Ac COq d’Oi appears to have all the popula r
graces of Chaykovski without the latter’s tioning sentirrtentality
and tearful melancholy. The one is objactive ¡ the other subjective.
R imsky-Korsakoft's operas are lyric rather than di•amatic, ss befits
work which is based on the f ulksong. The folksong, the Oi rent,
and the sea were the three influences or inspirations which pursued
R lmsky-Korsgkofi throughou t his cxreer, and he never got very
far away from any of them, although there are indications that
liturgical music had some occasional effect on his work. he turned
everything in his life to artistic account : his early life at sea (re-
jected in Sadko and ‹$firk fierazddo) , his trips to thc Crimea, his
summer vacations, when he noted rfi folk and bird-songs. He
was always seduced by the picturesque and the exotic. He might
be called, indeed, a musical Eurasian.
Little weight has been put, in critical estimates oI Rimskj-
Korsakolf, on his mclodic gi fts. These seem to me unusually pro-
nounced, far above those possessed by most or his occirlental coi-
tempora ries. Ac Col d’Or in itselI in a mine of melody, melody
hich has its own special, original line, every bar of pinch is signed
with the master’s name. If it be objected that his melodies
are founded on folksongs, I have only to suggest that they be
compared with melodies which hat-e a folksong basis, in the operas
 A N I N T R O D U C T I ON xix
of other Russlan composers. It will be found that the folk-airs
have all been distilled into Rimsky-Korsakofi’s own particular brew.
He was, of course, an adcpt at harmonizatioo and orchestral
colour. This was, perhaps, his greatest legacy to his successors.
Under the speld of the liturgical chants of the Greek church, he
was using the P_hrygian and Mixolydian inodes long before they
ware revived in Ürarfce. The infiuence of R ltnsky-KOrsakofl and
h)iisorgski on Debussy has been fully acknowledged. Now, cu-
i iously, the infiilencc is ilowing in the opposite dircction.
All of liimsky-Korsakotf's operas may be traced back to Glinka,
the Russian historie al dramas to .f I..i fe for iii c Teart and the Iegerdas-
y drainas to R uslan and L udmila. The legac\• of Dar- gomyzliski, the
printiples governiog the composition of Z*hr Stoor Groeit, became the
source of an artistiC doubt that troubled the com- poser o Shek
hm’azada almost to the end of h s life. Cheshikhin, in his survey ‹›f
R ussian opera, compa rcs the Russian opcratic composer to C olumbus,
who sa iled away to End India, and dis- covercd America, a result with
which he was dlssatisficd, but which left his follower9 more or less
content. In the fif teen operas of the master, the re is a great variety
of style for a time he tell someivhat under the spell of \Yagner but
all of them, at heart, are Russian works, and all but three have
Russian subjects, and those thi•ee are based on Ruser an pJays bv
Rtissi.ao poets. They are only heard at their best when performed
by Russian singers. Such a work as .Sii) rio ororfi£a, for example, a
simple folk-opera, full of charm kut z'ithout a breath of drama,
very nearly expires iii alien hands. The more brilliant Le Co q d’Gr more
successfully surviv-es the orde al, but even this work is immeasurably
more ef- fective when sung jo Russian by Russians.
Nevertheless and notwithstanding, it is to the Russian reper-
toi•y that futui e cosmopolitan operatic impresarii must turn for
their novelties during the next ts o decades, 1 fancy, unlcss, per-
chance, thev look to Spain. France and Germany and Italy are
pretty well worked out and no th ing especial ly important cao be
expected immediately from any of the living composers in these
lands. Russia, hos ever, is compa ratively unexplored. It may
take some time to develop a taste for these works (E. M. dc
I*ogüé has writteo : "It IS impossible to understand R nssi:i
through the reason ; one can only understanélp Russia through
Ex II Y 11 U S I C A L L I F E
faith”) , and recent performances of 8iiJrpo orocfil a and Prince
Igor at the Metropolitan Opera House shoz that a method for
their proper interpretation will have to be developed, too.
The field, beginning with Glinka's d Life for the Tsar and R
uilun mid L] udmila is rich. We can do without Dargomyzhski's
u›«lka and Syerolf’s Ro gn yeda and litdith. Ch ykovski's Pi(ur
Dame and Zo‹fror Ooy cpiit have already been given here, without
conspicuous success, but I have only to remind my readers that Man
on, with Sybil Sanderson, jean de Reszke and Pol Plangon, was a
failure at the Metropolitan Opera House in the nineties. Tastes
change, and these faded, melancholy scores, with their sentimental
charm, may in time come into their own rn this country, just as they are
lo9iog their popularity in Russia. Boris Gediiiio$, produced so
brilliantly at the Metropoll tan under Toscaoini's di- rection, has gi
adually degenerate d into a9 routine a performance as can be
heard at that house• The interpretation, orchestral, choral,
and solo, that surrOunded the great Shalyapin during the season of 1 92
I —Z z, WOUl d be a disgrace to the Hof theater in
Oshkosh. Kli ovans li cli iti a remains to be given here. It is One of
the masterpieces of nineteenth century lyric drama. Possibly the
return of Shalyapin will eflect the production of Rubinstein’s
Dcm on. But for the great backbone of the Russian repertory,
we must turn to Rlmsky-Korsakoft, and I like to beliere that in a
few years he will occupy the position in the Russian list of our
polyglot thee tres now occupicd in the German by IYagner, in the
French by II assenet, and in the Italian by Verdi.
Clit is tmas F.z , Iran the TerribIe, Tfie Ts ar Salt an, The Tale
of thc Invisible Cir y o f KitYeah atid o[ the Maide» F]evroni yg
8udko, Kai tche y the Deathly ss, A Ni ghI in May, T luda, Thc
Tsar’s Frtdr, Pan Vo yevo da .- what picturesque deligh ts, what se-
duCtions of melody and harmonic brilliance, the mere titles suggest I
 PREFACE. TO TME f R T RU$$IAN CDI TION
Chronicle of M y Musical Life * justifies it9 name. Indeed, as an
autobiography in the true sense of the word, it cannot give com-
plete satisfaction ; Nikolay AndreyeviCh " speaks in it principally,
° This is the full Russia n title. I have dropped the awkward Chrauitle, C. V. Y.
° In transliterating Russian proper nanigg for En pfiSh-.f s ea Min 9 readers I have
timed to make the result as phonetic as is consistent with usual English spelling. Ati
finer nti a nacl of Russian pronu nciation bsve b'een Aiezegecdtd : strictJy phonetJñ
transcription is impossible without additional eh aractcts, nor would it be desirable
(in this book), even if it were possible. A definite method of transliteration once
adopted, the main tasli was conSi8tency in applying it.

Consonants
i. c£, ae in English church: C hayknvs§i, Cheryepuio ; not Tschaiknvski, Tcb£rtpnine,
spellings borrowed from the German and the French, respectively, where ft th
and tc/i represent the same sound as the English cfi.
12', as in German Bach or 5cnch Loch: Milhayil, Tikhvin, Alhsbo runneth.
g. lx, not z, is need: Alyekaeyevich.
z, as in English six, .
5. th, aa in English: £balyapin, not Schaliapiu (as in German) , or Cbaliapine (a£
in FreI1CA ) .
6. i3cff, as in English fish-chum or in the colloquial pronunciation of mischief:
Shcherbaclioff, not Sehtscherbatschcw ( as in German) or Chicherbatchetf (as in
French) ; IN hovan8hchina.
7. @, ug jo English pots, cotsup: Tsar, Faniintsyn, not Cza r, Tzar, Pamintzin.
w does not exist i» Russian: Chaykovaki, GryechaDinof, not Tschaikowski,
Gr etschamnow.
9. z, as in English: Zqremba, Azanchevski.
IO. g$, ag z in seize re or s in vision, pMeasure: Dargomy zhski, Lodyzhenski ; Nizh-
inski, not Dargomyjs¥i, Lodij enski, hij insky, as in French traneliteratione.
y, hefore a vowel, hetween vowels, or aftet q 5•owe1, has exactly thy same roa-
iaanlaf value as ip English in like positions: Yakushkin, Bayan, Voyin, Viy.
When written after a consonant and fol lowed by a vowel, y represents the pal-
ata lisation (softening) of the pr feeding consonant , Lyadolf, Lyudrllila, Rognyeda,
Boitnyanski, Rubyeti, Syero& (as in 5panish J/, n or close to English million, can-

Vowels
o, as in fast, can‘t, ask.
r, as in get, men.
i, close to English i in machine, police, without the afterglide.
o, as commonly heat d in often, nor, or.
•, usually on, as in English book.
y, as a vowel sound, close ly resembles the 1bicker variety of shott i heard in thy
EDgli8il WOrd milk: Stolypin, Lodyzheneki, Krorny.
xxx II Y M U S I C A L L I F E
even almost exclusively (save for the chapter on his truise abroad) ,
of events of his mosiraJ life. But even his musical life is described,
in certain passages, with insufficient detail ; this is especi ally notice-
able at the end of the Chronicle. In fact, beginning with the last
half det ade of the nineteenth century, the narrative grows ever
more and more succinct, as if N ikolay Andreyevich had hurried
to complete his work by a set date. Nevertheless the th ronicle
contains very valuable biographical material, and this induced me
to hasten its publication.
In preparing the Chronicle of my Muiirdf Life for the press, I
was guided by what Nikolay Andreyevich had stated more than
oiice during his lifetime, namely: \Vhen after his death the Chron-
irfe is published, first, certain abridgments were to be made as at
present necessary ; secondly, to polish the style, here and thcre ;
thirdly, certain tJates were to be checked up a9 not having been quite
accurately established. Thanks to V. V, Yastryebtsefi's kind co-
operation I have checked up the dates, as far as possible. Bc-
sides, for the reader’s convenience, I has e introduced a division
into chapters. The original manuscript contains no such sub-di-
rision, but here and there marginal headings otcur which I utilized
to make the chapter headings. IVherever no such marginal head-
ings existed, I had to make the chapter headings mjself.
The Ii ank and severe judgments to be found in the fñroaicfr
regarding some dead persons and some still living cannot, it seems
to me, offend any one, because Nikolay Andreyevich passes judg-
ments equally severe and frank, if not more so, on his own acts
and musical compositions.
The Clirontrle was written during various years, often at long
intervals ; thus, the story of the end of the summer of i 893 was
written ten years after the dcscription of the beginning and middle
of the same period. All dates found in the manuscript, I have
set dOwri as footnotes in the order in which they occur in the manu-
script. It must be mentioned that frequently no record of year
and month occurs for a long time.
The Chronicle has been brought down to August, i go6. In -
its list lines so filled with secret sadness, there is mentione‹1 a
diary z hich Nikolay AodreyevlCh had intended to begin. But
this intentlon was Jeft unfulfilled after all. In a thick, bound
blank book were found six entries : four under the year I 9o4 and
 PREFA CE xxii
two under the year I 9o2. The first entry, quoted in its entirety,
reads as follows : "In the last fifteen years I made up my mind,
on several occasions, to begin my diary, but I always put it ofi and
put it off. This time I had intended to begin it on January i of this
year ; but never did so after all. Finally, I took a firm resolution to
begin writing it on hlarch 6, when I turned sixty. Today, on the
ev-e of that erect, I shall narrate in brief all that has happened
in my musical life since the beginning of this year ; and beginning
with tomorrow I shall carry on my Cfii‘oiiirfe in the form of a
diary.” After this note comes the narrative of events of his
musical life ( beginning with January, 1 904) which are described
in the Chro8fcfe as well, and a few pages further occurs the cap-
tion “Diary" after which I ollow two notes of March 6 and g of
the same year. Entered in the back of the same blank book were
found two more brief notes of N*ovember z 8 and 2 9 , 902, but
nothing else.
Thu9 N ikolay Andreyevich has not touched at all upon the
last year and a half of his life. The work of composing Zofo toy
P5•etoos liok (The Golden Cockerel) , the productipn pt Kit yep• h at
the Marlioski TOea.tre and his trip to Paris tn the spring of i 9o7
have been meoti oned nowhere. Why he never dcscribed these
interesting events of his musical life is unknown. I think it
may be explained by the fact that while composing Ffir Go/dea
Cockerel, Nikolay Andreyevich was, as always, absorbed In the
composition, gave himself up to it completely, and, as a result,
could not occupy himself with anything else. The whole C/troit-
irfe was written in the interims beta een musital compositions.
But vhen his work on to Jo roy Peto oshok was ox-er, his final ill-
ness had begun to steal over him. §5!i th it, his former healthy
and buoyant frame of mind gradually faded ; and he showed no
further desire tO continue the C//roair/c. After December, i qO7,
his illness became very marked; shortness of breath prccluded
any brisk walking; a feeling of fatigue hindered all WOrk: anal
at last all this led to paroxysms of asthma in April and to dc atli,
June 8, t QO8.
N. RIMSKAYA-KOR5AKOVA.
St. P tersburg
January i i, i go8.
 The Second Edition of the Chronicle o f +s usical Lt/e diÏÏeis
from the first, (publishcd in March i go9 and sold out by Ju1y)
only in the correctioH of the detected misprinti and oversights,
as well as in sligkt addition9 to the text. There have now been
introduced also words and phrases inadvertcntly omittcd, as well
as Appendix I', which was not included in the first edition. In
Appendices VI and VII there have been given ATikolay Andreye-
vich's three open letters to the neo spaper R ook’ of I QOj, whick he
mentions in the Chronicle. These letters refef to his dismissal
from the Conservatory; and, it seems to me, ale of coosiderable
interest. Otherwise, the second edition corre9pond exattly with
the first.
h'. RIhïGKA1’n-KOR8AKOvA.
*! !** › *9*9
MY MUSICAL LIFE
 CHAPTERI

g4+— i «
Childhood years in Tikhvin. The flat manifestations of musical abilities,
Studying Reading. Inclination towards the sea and
maritime serv-
ice. First attemf›ts at coInposition. Leaving for St. Petersburg.

I was born in the town of Tikhvin on March 6, 44-1 For

a long time before that, my fa ther had been on the retired list
and had 1i\•ed iii his own hc›use, with my mothe r and uncle
Pyotr Pctrov-ich R imsky-Korsakofl, my father's brother. Our
house stood altnost at the end of the town, on the bafik of the
Tikhvinka Rivr r, on the other bank of which, opposite us, was
situated the Tikhvin Al onastery.
During the fi rst year of my existence, my parents went to St.
Petersburg for a short stay with my father’s brother, Nikolay
Petrovich Rimsky-Korsakofi, and took me along. After their re-
turn, I lived without break in Tikhvin until i 8 6.
Frnm early ‹childhood I manifcsted musical abilities. We had
an old piano ; my father played by ear rathet decently, though
with no particular fluency. His repertory included a number
of rnelodie f rem the operas of his time ; thus I recall the well- knou-
n romanz a frOiTt Mchul's Rose yh, the aria Di tanti pat pitt from R
ossini's Tatici cdii the funcral march from Spontini's La E“estaïe,
Papagena's aria from // Visum léapico. M y father sang f r
equently, pla ying his oe u accompaniments. For the greater part, his
rocal number s weike some moralizing verses. I re- call, for
Instancc, the follow-ing:
R ememher all of ye, w•ho fain
By reading would enlight your mind:

In R ussi a, the J uit an C aÏend at, establish ed by Ju trui C&bar *^ 4* •' *°

a d uiten b\• the Counci I uf irma i• 3*S :S. D., sti lÏ remain9 in force. 1Ï\is recLortipp
1s t welve (fn the n ineteenth century; thirteen in the twentieth) d aye behind that p(
the rest of Europe snd .lmerica, whicil long ago adopted thy Gregorian Calendar.
Thus January i in Rue BlR is now ] anua r y •4 etc where. C. V. Y,
 M Y M U S I C A L L 1F E --

Read not too many books in vain, -

Lest ye still greater darkness find 1 -

Verses of this nature were sung by him to the tunes of various '
old operas. According to the accounts of my father and my
mother, Panel Petrovich, my uncle on my paternal side, was pos-
sessed of enormous musical talent and played entire overtures
and other pieces very well and fluently, by ear, thougk url amiliar *
with music. fly father, it would seem, did not possess such bril- -
liant abilities, but, at all events, had a line ear, a passable memory
and played neatly. My mother, too, had a very fine ear. The
following fact is interesting: \Vliatever she remembered, she was
in the habit o( singing more slowly than was proper ; thus the
melody Kak wet’ oobili (\Vhen they killcd mother, from
Glinka's A Li fc for thc 7'ier) , she always sang in the adagio
tempo. I mention this, because it seems to me that this peculiar-
ity of hers was passed ofl to mc. In her youth, my mother had
taken piano lessons, but gave them up afterwards zod never play ed -
at all within my recollection.
The first indications of musical talent appeared in me at a very
early age. I was not fully two years old when I clearly his- ”
tinguished all the tunes that my mother sang to me. Later, when
three or four years of age, I beat a toy drum in perfect time,
while my father played the piano. Often my father would 9ud- ”
denly change the tempo and rhythm on purpose, and I at once
followed suit. Soon a fterivard I began to sing quite correctly
whatever my father played, and often 1 sang along with him.
Later on I myself hegan to pick out on the piano the pictes and
accompaniments I had heard him perform and, having learned the
names of the notes, I could, from an adjoining room, recognize
and name any note of the piano. When I was six, or thereabouts,
they began to give me piano le9sons. This task was undertaken
by an aged dame, a certain Yekatyerina Nikolayevna Uokovskaya,
a neighbour of ours. At this moment I am utterly unable to ;udge
either how musical she was, or how well shc could play, or how
good her method of instruction was. Probably it was all ex-
tremely mediocre, in the usual small-town fashion. Never- ”
thele9s, under her tuition I did play scales, easy exercises aHd
 F I R S T L ES S O N S J
soms pieces. I remember also that I played all of them badly,
carelessly and wat poor at keeping time.
My abilities were not confined to music ; they were exccllent
in other respects ag well. Reading was child's play to me ; I
learnrd to read without being taught. bly memory was plendid :
whole pages of what my mother read to me I remembered word
for word. Arithmetic I began to gra p very quickly. It cannot
be said that I was fond of music at that time : I endured it and
took barel)' sufficient pains with my 9tudies. Occasionally, to
amusc mystl f, I saug and played tin piano, of my own atcord ;
but I do not rccall that music made a sti•ong impression on me
at that time. Pc rhap it was because I was nOt very impres-
sionable and posslbly because, at that time, I had as yet heard
nothing that could really prOduce a strong imprcssion on a
child.
Some eighteen months or two years after I had begun to study
under Yckatyerina N ikol ayevna, She refused to give me further
lessons, finding that I need«d a bctter tcacher than herself. Then
I began to study with Olga Nikitishna ( I don’t temember her
f amily name) , a governess in the housc of the Fel family, who
wcre very good friends of ours. I do not know, but it seemed to
me that she played splendidly. Under her direction I made some
progress. .5mong the pleces which she gave me to play, the re
were some Beyc r transcriptions of I talian operas, a piece based
on a theme from a ballet op Hurgmuller's and also a Beethovcn
Sonata ( D-major) for four-hands, which I likcd. I remcmher
that arnong other things I played as duets with her, Marx’s pot-
pourri on melodles from de' Pm phei and Les Dia inants de la
Couronne. Olga Nikitishoa taught me f or a )•ear or a year and
a half ; then I was taken in hantt by her pupil, Olga Fycliksovna
Fel, who also played sulfieiently welL Of the proces of that
period I recall the 0 tello ( Rossini’s) overture for two-hands
(played in a tempo much slower than was proper) , the A-ma jor
Scherzo of Beethoven's A-major Sooata, Op, z ; a potpourri from
Fri Tfripocaors for two-hands ; a fantasy on melodies from R i go-
Jrtio ( I do not reca11 whose, but it was easv) ; a fantasy on mel-
odies from Lortz.ing’s for uti d f?ff?/f ‹°i iii iirri, and the ovcrture of
Le les tate for four-hands. I was taught by Olga Fyeliksovna
for some three years, that is until the age of twelve ( 18 6). It
6 MYMUSICALLIFE
seemed to me that she played rather well ¡ but one day I was
struck by the playing of a lady (I do not recall her name) , a
chance visitor in Tikhvin, whom I saw at Olga Fyeliksoi Ba's ;
she played Henselt’s Si ai.‹can j'Jfoi. aft the age of eleven or
twelve I oftcn had occasion to play four- 2nd eight•han d pieces
at the house of our friends, the Kalinskis. I remember that they
were v isited then by Colonel of Engineers V orobyoft who was
considered a fine pianist in Tikliviu. \Vc playetl the O i c//o o›-er-
ture for «ight-h ands. Of othe r instrument al music I hcard
nothing else in Tiklii in ; the town boasted neither violinists nor
amateur cellists. For a long time the Ti kh›uu balli oom orchestra
consisted of a violin, on z•hich a certain N ikolay used to scrape out
polkas and quadrilles, and of a tamboui iiie u hich was artisti-
cally played by Kooz'ma, a housc-painte i• by trade and a heavy
di inker. A fcw years before I tial left town saver zl Jews made
their «ppeara nce (violin, cymb:hon and t ambouriiie) , » he put
Nikolay and KoOZ’mu in the shade and bec:tme the fashioiiable
musicians.
As to vocal music I heard only one Tikhvln girl, B aranova,
who sang the song Chto t y spt› li, i»ifzfiir / c /. (\\ hy slurn1›e rest
thou, dear hluzhik 7) . Then, besides my father'9 singing, there
remains the church music, i. e. the singing in the convent and the
monastery. At the nunnery the singing was of no g re at accoun t,
but at the friary, as far as I rec all, they sang tolerably well. I
eras food of some of the Cherubim choruses and other compositions
by Bortnyanski ;* also of his conccr tos GI oria fN E vrr/sii, and, or
the plain chant,Benstic e, norm o ni ea,’ Cm:ci luar; Lux ii/roi, after
vespers. Church singing, ;tmid the be anti Jul surroundings
of the archimandrite’s divine service produccd a deeper impression •
on me than did secular music, although, gene rally speaking, I was
not an impressionable bov. Of all the compositions I » as ac
quainted with I derived the keenest pleasure from the Orphan's
song and the duet from Glinka's 1 Li c or Um Tea r. the music ’
of these e'e had at the hotise, and once I took it ioto my head to ,
Dmitri Styepanovich Borloyaoski, accordic g to 5frs. h ew ma rem (The R«st ian ,
O§rro ) i*as born in '7 § I. He begil n h is ca reer as a cmor1st c r Hi the Con rt Choir,
where he attracted the attention of Ga Iappi. IN ^ 7*v. Be rtns'aftsL i joine‹l the
I tal ian composer in \’en ice and rem :iined the re nut il i2J9 v hen he ='as rcca11rd to
Rusaia. He is now best known as a composer of sacred m:Isib, some of h is compositioos
heirg sti I In use in itie 8erv ices of the O rtbodox Chu fch, liu I ]3g ;j15c W’£ U$ e f I I'
operas, two to Italian and two to French texts. C. V. 1’.
 LEO V O F T H E SE A 2
play them both through. My mother told me then that they ware
the finest numbers in the opera. She remember#d A L.ice for the
jaar poorly, ancl I do not even know whether she had ever seen
it on the stage.
My uncle sang several line Russian songs : Sberleierla from
FOTf äFIÖ y ?Vye si›n GOyo golovushk u klonit ( It is not sleep that
bows my dear head down) ¡ Kak po travk ye Zo muravk ye (How on
tliC grRSS, the green sward) , etc. He remembered these songs
from childhood day9 when he lived in the village Nikol'skoye
(of the Tikhv-in district) whith belonged at that time to my grand-
f athc r. bly mother, too, sang some Russiaii songs. I loved
these songs, but heard them comparatively seldom from the people,
as we lived in town where I noncthtless had the opportunity, year
in, year out to witness the “seeing out” of Butter-week 1 with the
pi ocession and elligy. As for country-li te, I had three glimpses of
it in my childhor›d when visiting Bochevo and Pechnyevo ( estates
of the Timirefls) and the Brovtsyn9 (I do not recall the name of
the village ) .
I was a reserved boy, although I skylarked and ran about,
climbed roofs and trees and new into tantrums for my mother,
rolling on the floor and bawling whenever I was punished. I
was vei y inventive at games, and would play all alone for hoars
at a stre tch. Harncssing up chairs for horses and playing driver,
I held long conversations with myself, in a make-believe dialoguc
betn•een coachman and mastcr. Eike many children I was fond
of imitatl ng what I had seen ; putting on spectacles made of paper,
or taking apart aDtl assembling a watch, because I had seen a watch-
maker doing that. Aping my elder brother Voyin N ikolayevich,
who wan at that time a naval lieutenant and used to send us letters
from ahroad, I tell in love with the sea, conceived a passion for
it, without ever having seen it. I read Dumont d'Urville’s voy-
age around the ivorlrl, rigged up a brig, played sea-voyager, and
once, after reading the book The Mrecking o f the Fri gate Inger-
manland, I retained in my memory a multitude of technical sea
terms. While reading Zelyony’s lectures on a9tronomy ( I was
ten or eleven) I sought out in the sky, with the aid of a star-map,
most of the northc rn hemisphe re constellations, whith I know
perfectly to this day. Among books, in addition to those men-
u Butter-week is th‹ werk before Lcnt. C. V. Y.
8 MYMUSICALLIF E
tioned, I liked Gabriel Ferry’s novel The Fores t F’ugabond and ï-
a great deal in Chistyakofl and Razin's “Children's hI agazine,”
especially the story 8ryoiopo/è5 Prince aJ Lipetxh. While play- -
ing in the garden, I of ten acted whole scenes from the Porrii
Kagabo nd.
I have already said that I wa9 not particularly fond of music
or even if I was, it scarcely ever made a strong impression on me ;
certainly not compared with my beloved books. But for the sake
of play, for the sake of aping in the same way as I used to take
apart and assemble the watch, I tried at times to eompOse fllUSlC ‘
and write note9. \Vith my musical and good general abilities for
study, I soon succeeded, by my owo efiorts, in passably jotting down
on paper what I had played on the piano, and in observing the
proper diV1ilon into bars. After a while, wl thout first playing it -
over on the piano, I began to form a mental image of what was
written in notes. f was eleven years old, when I conceived the idea
of composiog a duet for voices with piano accompaniment (probably .?
under the infiuence of Glinka's duet) . I took the words from a
children's book ; the pocm, I think, was called Dut ter jl y. I suc-
ceeded in writing this duet. I recall that it was suiiiciently co-
herent. Of my other composi tions of that time I remember only
that I began to write some sort of overture for the piano for two-
hands. It began adayio, then pa9sed to andBnte, then to modera to,
then to alle gretto alle gro and was to end prrs to. I did not write
this composition to the very end, but took keen pleasurc, at that
time, in the fOfm I had invented.
Of course, my teachers took no part in my essays in composi-
tion, nor did they evea know of them. I felt abashed to speak of -
my composirg, and my parent9 looke d upon it ’4IÏ as a mere prank,
a sport, and, for the time being, such it really was. But of be- f.
coming a musician I never dreamcd ; I was not studying music with
any particular diligence, and was fascinated by the thought of be-
coming a seaman. bly parents wanted to send rue ofi to the
hlarine Corps, as my uncle Nikolay Petrovich and my brother were
in the navy.
At the end of July i 8 6, for the first time in my life, I took
leave of my mOth er and my uncle ¡ my father took me to St. Peters-
burg, to the M arine Corps.'
 CHAPTER II

i8 6 6i
The Golovins. The Marine Corps. Getting acquainted with operatic
and symphony music. likh's rind Kanille's lessons.

On arriving in St. Petersburg, we went to stay with P. N. Golo-

vin, a schoolmate and friend of my brother's.
Having placed mc in the Marine Corps, my father went back to
Tikhvin. Every Saturday I used to go to P. N. Golovin’s, who
lived with his mother, and there I stayed till Sunday evening. In
the corps I gained a good footing among my classmates by a 9how
of resistance to those who tormented me as a freshman, and I was
left in peace. however, I had no quarrels with anybody, and my
cla ssmates liked me. Alyek9¢y Kooz'mich Da›•ydoti was the
director of the Marine Corps. Flogging was in full sway: every
Saturday before leave was granted, all the pupils were assembled
in the vast dining-hall, where the diligent students were rewarded
with apples according to the number of the marks Of I o they had
received in the various subJetts during the week, while the lazy
ones, that is those who had received i or o in any subject, were
flogged. The so-called s iarikas Ii es mo (grandad-system) was in
vogue among the students. Th e old can, a pupil repeatedly left
back in the class, held the foremost place, was the head of the class,
with the title of grandad. He bullied weaker pupils and occasion-
ally compelled even his flQU8ls in physical strength to perform serv-
ices for him, etc. In my time, in our second company, there was
one such, a certain h alk, of eighteen, who went to the length of
revolting acts ; forced his classmates to shine his boots, took their
money and bread-rolls, spat in their faces, etc. However, he did
not annoy me, and all went well. I was good in conduct and my
studies went well, too• Somehow music was forgotten by me at
the time, it did not interest me, although I began to take piano
lessons with one Ulikh, on Sundays. Ulikh was a cellist at the
]O MYMUSICALLIFE

.4lyeksandrinski Theatre, but a poor piani t. Thc les ons went on

in the most ordinary fashion. In the summer of i 8 7 I went
on furlough to see my parents, and I remernber with what re-
gret and eYen grief I left Tikhvin to return to the Corps late in
August.
During the school year of 1832—3 8, I fell down in my studies, my
conduct was poorer and okee I was under arrest in the school lock-
up. h(y music lossons continued ; I was more or less indifterent,
btit a love for music did mani fest itself in me. I went to the opera
tiVice with the Golovins: at the Russian Opera I saw Flotow's
Indra, at the Italian Opera Lucia di Lammmmoor. The latter
made a deep impression on me. I carried away something in my
memory, tried to play it on the piano, even listened to street-
organs playing snatches of that opera, attempted to write some
notes ; truly to “write noten,” but not compo e.
My elder brother returned from a long sea-voyage and was
appointed cOmmander of the target-practice ship Pro khor. He
took me with him on a summer voyage. We were tationed all
summer long at Revel, pi actising target-9hootiog. My brother
was tryiog to accustom me to sea-eer vice ; he taught me to handle
a boat under sail, and assigned me to duty. I lived in his cabin,
away from the other pupils. Standing on the ratline under the
mizzen-top, while the shrouds were being made taut, I tell into
the sea, f ortunately into the sea and not on the deck. I swam
out, was pulled into a boat and got off with a scare and a slight
bruise (probably when I struck the water) , but I had created
a big rumpus and naturally had frightened my brother. At the
end of the summer I went to Tikhvin on leave.
During the school year i 83 8— 9 my studies were altogether
inconsequential, my conduct tolerable. At the opera I heard
Robert le Diable Der Freisch tz, 3farfn5 I Lo mbardi, La
Traviata. I grew extremely fond of R obevt le DiBble. The
Golovins had a piano score edition of this opera and I used to
play it. Orchestration (although that word was unknown to me)
appeared to me something mysteriou9 and alluring. To this day
I remember the impression of the sounds of the French horns
at the beginniug of Alice's romanza (E-ma jor) . I imagine I
saw Lucia di LammeTm oor then a second time and worked at
arranging the finale of that opera from four-hands to two, so as
 A L I F E F O R T H E T SA R ii
to make it easier to play. I also mmdc other arrangements of
the same kind, but which, exactly, 1 do not recall. During the
same year I heard A Li/r /or iñe Z'ior ( Bulakhova, yeonova,
Bulakholf, Pyetrotf, cOnductor L yadofi) . This opera threw me
into * veritable ecstasy, though I carried away with me very littlc.
But I know, that in addition to the purely melodious numbers :
lv] e tomi root in] (Do not tax me, lathcr ! ) , by pri yd)•osh tno)'a
Surya (Thou w'ilt come, my dawn) etc., my attention was at-
tracted by the overture and the oi chestral introduction to the
chorus : by aa rabotoo z I ycs (We’re off to the woods to work) .
Tke Italian oper a of that time was in full bloom; the singers
were : TamberJik, Calzolari, B osio, La Grua, etc. I heard Ros-
sini’s Otella II Barbicre di Sivi glia, Do n Gikvanni.
The Golovins and their circle were lovers of Italian oper-a.
They considered E ossini an especially serious end great composer.
Listening to their conversations, I thought it my duty to take it
all on faith, but secretly I felt a greater attraction for R o6rri Jr
Diable and A Li/e for the Tsar. They used to say in the circle
of the Golovins that Robert le Diablc and Les Hu quenots were
beautiful and “learned” music. A fqi/r /or ffie Tsar they also
approved, but txt Ruslan and L yudmila they said that even though
very “learned,” the opera was slighter than his A LV fe /or ifir liar
and inferior to it and that, generally speaking, it was a bore.
LT likh said that zf Aide for the User was "vairy koot.” These
discussion9 of R u3lBn and L uJmila were occasioned by questions
from me. Of Ruslan and In yudmila the C olovins had the music
Choodti y son (Wonder fu1 Dream) , L yubN ro s koshna a zv yend a
(Re9pleodeut Star of Love) and O polbe! (O, Field !) , which I
found and played through. These excerpts from the unfamiliar
opera struck my fancy deeply and roused my interest to a high
degree. It seems to me that in them I telt, for the first ttme
in my life, the immediate beauty of liarson v. I questioned P.
N. Golovin regarding R uslan and L)'admi/a and obtained the
opinion mentioned above.
\Vith Ulikh I played four-hands the march from Le Profir ie
and the Hehriden overture ; I liked both of them. Of any other
symphonic music I had no idea. During this year, I endeavoured
to compose some things, partly in my head, partly at the piano,
but nothing would come of it: they all ended in nothing but
iz M Y M U SI C A L L I F E
fragments and vague chimeras. Still the work of transcription
from two- to four-h ands continued ( I was traiiscr ibing something
from R uslan anJ L yudmila) . With Ulikh I learned two Bee-
thoven 9onatds OR D with the French horn ( F-ma jor) , the other
with violin ( also in F-ma jor) . Ulikh brought to the house a
horn player (Geruer, I think, still a )'oung man at the time)
and the violinist h4ich. I played those sonatas with them. I
played piano dUets wlth Golovin's sister, P. N. Novikova.
ThC Summer of 183 9 I spent again with my brothcr, on the
ship Prokhor. In the sChool years Of 183g—6o, i 8 6o—6 i, I was a
mediocre student, and want sailing in the summer on the ship kota
under the command of Tobshchin. My passion for music was
developing. In the season of 18 $ 9—6o I attended the symphony.
concerto given by the Director of the Imperial Theatres at the
Grand Thcatre, under the leadership of Karl Schubert. I also
heard one of the University concerts. .4t the Grand Theatre I
heard the Pas I oral S ynt pli an y, Thc birds tint mer iii gli I’s Drcam,
Glinka’s Jo M A ruyonrso, th e en tr’acte from 1.,o /i r 9pria, Liszt's
Prometheus,’ the rest I don’t remember. At the Uni \rcrsity I heard
Beethoven's Second Symphony. Schubert’s Farid oni y (sung by La
Grua) . At the Opera I heard Rossini s ,TO 5i ia fipirro,’ I. c.‹ Hu-
ynenots; somebody's D mitri D on Lo y - Marley' I) er E'rcischiit z;
Once more A Li fe. /or r6e Tsar, and, finally, Aii.t/aif and L›'ifdiai/o.
JVith P. N. hovikova I played four-hands Beetho› en's sym-
phonies, overtures of hlendelssohn, Mozart etc. In this way I
developed a passion for symphonic music. I took delight in Bee-
thoven's Second Symphony, especially the end of its Largketto
(with the flute) , when I heard it at the University; the Pas torat
8ymp loooJ encaptured me ; the to la bra gones a simply dazzled me.
I was in love with Glinka. The birds ummer lViy/ifi Are am,
too, I adored. I4'agner and Liszt I did not understand
Pro me theus left on me the impression of something vague and
queer. With the pocket-money I possc seed I began to buy piece-
meal single numbers of R uslan and I. j iidmila. The list of Slng1e
numbers printed on the cov•er of Stellovski's edition lured me
on with a sort of mysterious power. The Persian chorus and
the dances at Nayina'9 I liked beyond words. I remember that I
arranged the melody of the Pcrsian chorus for the cello and
Rubinstein’» (6t. Petersburg ? J. A. J.
 E A R L Y L O V E FGHi R L INK A i3
gave it to 0. fi. Denisyelt (a relative of the Golovins) to play,
while I played the rest on the piano. Denisyeft played out of
tune, and we got nowhere. For some reason, I arranged the
Eamarini kapa ' for violin and piano and played it with Mich.
That very year, as already mentioned, I heard Ruelan and L)•ud-
aim at the Mariinski Theatre and was throe•n into indescribable
rapture. My brother made me a present of the complete opera
Ru.Plan and L yudmila, for piano alone, which had just been pub-
lished in that form, While staying at the Corps one Sunday
(as a punishment for some misdemeanour we were not a)lOwcs
to go home) , I grew impatient and, giving the e'atchman ten
rubles that I had in my possession, I sent him out to buy rue the
complete piano score of A ñi/e /or the Z’ ur. I cage fly scanned
its pages, rec allitl@ my impressions of the stage performance.
As will be seen from the above, I had already become acquainted
with a considerabl e quantity of good music: but my greatest
liking was reserved for Glinka. However, I found no 9upport
in the opinions of the people who surrounded me at the time.
As a musician I was then a young dilettante in the full sense
of the word. I studied somewhat lazily under Ulikh, improving
but little as a pianist ¡ but I was extremely fond of playing four-
hsnds. I had heard no singing (except opera) , quartet playing
or good piano playing. I had no idea of the theory of music,
had not heard the name of a sinq=1e chord, was uuf amiliar with
the oases of the intervals. I had no thorough knowledge of
scales and their structure, though I could figure them out. And
yet I attempted to orchestrate the entr'actes of A Li/6 [OT the
'rear from the instruments mentioned in the piano arrangement.
Naturally, it was a dence of a result ! Seeing that I was getting
nowhere, I went twice to Stellovski’s store and asked they to
show me the orchestral score of A Hi/r for the Tsar which they
had. half of it I could not make out at all, but the Italian
names of the instruments, the super criptions c of and rome iopra,
the different clefs and the transposition of the French horns
and other instruments had some mysterious charm for me. In
brief, I was a sixteen-year-old mild, who passionately lot ed music
and pfa)'rd cii ft i’i. Between my di/«/faofe studies and the real
• Kim«rin Maya i u famasis for orchestra by Glinka, founded on x nuptial song
»d traditional dance he had heard in his native village. C. V. Y.
 i4 MYMUSICALLIF E
work of a young musician, say even of a conservatory pupil,
there was almost as much of a gap as that between a child’g
playing at soldiers and wars, 8nd actual milita ry science. At
that time nobody had taught me anything, nobody had guided
my steps. mind it would have been so simple, if only there had
been the person to do it l Still, Ulikh realized my musical talent
and, of his own accord, refused to give me lessons, saying that
I ought to go to a real pianist. F. .h. Kaoille was engaged
as my teacher, I don't know at whose recommendation. In the
fall Of I 86O I began to take piano lessons from him.
Kani(1e opened my eyes to many things. XVith what rupture
I lea rued from him that R uifao pnd L yudmila really was Ohr bed t
opera iii tits world, that Glinka was a supreme genius. Until
then I had felt it intuitively, now I heard it from a rrel mu-
sician. He acquainted me with Glinka’ Prince Kholmski, 2 d
Ni gh I in kladrid, some of Bach’s fugues, Beethoven's quartet in
E flat major (O . I z 2 ) , SChuffiann's compositl Ons and many other
things. LIe was a good pianist ; I heard from him the first
really good piano playing. \¥hen I played duets with him, we
got gcod results, although I was a rather tndi0erent player, be-
cause he played the prtmo part. Hasting learned of my passion
for music, he gave me the idea of devoting myself to compo-
sition. The task he set me was tO write an Alec9ro for a sonata
after the pattern of Beethoven's First Sonata (F-minor) . I com-
posed something in D-minor.

He set me to writing variations on a certain theme, with Glinka'9

variations on 3ryedi do lin y rovni a ( In the midst of a smooth
valley) as a model. He gave me choral melodies to harmonize,
• A trag*dY by Kooiro1'uik, for which Glinka had composed incidental tnusic. Chay•
_ kovski, by no means an indulgent critic of Glinka, says of thii work: “Glinka hett
'"' shows himself to be cue of the greatest symphonic composers of bis day, Many
touched in Prince Kbolmski recall lbe brush of Beethoven." C. Y. Y.
 E ARL Y COMPOSIT ION S iJ
but did not explain the simplest methods of procedure ; I got
into snarls and the results were poor. for did he give me
sufficiently clear explanations as to the form of composition.
Through him I came to know something about orchestral scores,
and the transposition of French horns was explained to me by
him. I tried to arrange the Sofa Aragonesa for four-hands
from the orchestral score ; I was getting on I airly well, but did
not finish it for some reason or other. He did not give suffi-
cient time to teachlng me piano playing; though I made some
progress, it was nothing to boast of. He, too, acquainted me
with Balakirefl's overture to lint Lrar and I conceived the
highest respect and awe for Balakirell's name, which I had not
heard of before.
In September 18 61, my brother, finding that I played well
enough, decided I no longer needed lessons. He did not attach
any importance to my passion for music, and thought I should join
the navy. This caused me grief. But Kanille told me to come to
him every Sunday and that he would keep on teaching me.
I went to his house on Sunday with the keene9t delight. Piano
lessons, in the proper sense of the word, cc add, some- how, but
the composition lessons were continued and, in spite o'f the lack
of system, I made some progress. In the nocturue (B
8at minor) I even invented some beautiful haimonic suc-
cessions. I also composed a funeral march in D-minor, a scherzo
in C-minor for four-hands and something like the beginning of a
symphony in E flat minor. But all of this was most elementary: I
had no idea of counterpoint; in harmony I did not know even the
fundamental rule of leading the seventh downward nor did I
know the names of the chords. Picking up a few crumbs from
Glinka'9, Beethoven's and 5chumann’s compositions which I played,
I fell to cooking up, with considerable labour, something thin and
elementary. Kanille did not develop in me a taste for writing
melodies, and yet it would have been more normal had I com- posed
“cruel” songs instead of labouring with symphonic travail. In 18 60-
6I I began to manifest musical activity even within the walls of our
school. Among my schoolmates there proved to be some lovers
of music and choral singing. I led the chorus formed by
them. We rehearsed the first male chorus from A ii fe for the
Z’›ar, together with the finale of the opera, which,
i6 MYMUSICALLIFE
I think, I had arranged oZ at least somewhat adapted for
formance by a male chorus alone, \Ve a19o sang boy fJ Dnyepr
(Hoy, thou Dnyepr) from Vyerstovski’s Askold’s Tomb etc.
For some unknowH reason, choral singing was tabooed by the
school authorities, and we used to meet secretly in unoccupied
classrooms ; we once paid dearly for that too. We took no part
in the church thoir. By that time a deep love for A Li)r for
the Teer and partly also for Rus!an and L yudniila had developed
among my schoolmates. I tontributed a great deal to the growth
of this a(Iettion, by frequently playing, in the evening, excerpts
from these operas on the harmonifiute ' belonging to one of my
schoolmate Prince A. D. Myshetski, an ardent mustC-1over.
Vety of ten the bclloivs z ere blown by K. A. ) ryetski, brother of
Natalya Alyeksandrovna Iryetskaya, at present of the
St. Petersburg Co nservatory. Oac of my schoolrnates, N. I. Skry-
dlof(, the hero of the Russo-TtII’kiSh \Y ar, used to sing tenor.
I made the acquaintance of his family. Hi9 rnOther was an ex-
cellent singer ¡ I visited them frequently and accompanied her ou
the piano, At that time I came to koow many of Gllrika’s songs,
partly through the Skrydlofls, par tIy by my9elf. Besides Glinka’s
songs, I also became acquaioted z-lth some songs of Dargomyzhski,
Varlamofl * and others. I recollect having composed then the
songs beginning with the u orde r;khodi Zo meye sioyoro ( Come
out to me, Signora ! ) , something like a barcarole, rather tuneful,
even in the pseudo-I talian 9tyle. Once, in November 1861 , Kanille
came to the Corps, on a Monday, and announced that the follow-
ing Sunday he would take we to Balakirefi's house. How pleased
I was 1 *
* An opera by All-ekaey Nikolayevich Vyerstovski (iyqg-z 86c), whieb attained aueh
popularity that it reached six buud red performances in 8t. Petersburg aad Moscow
alone, during ahe first twenty-five years of its existence. C. ¥. Y.
° farmouillute, einer der vieren Namen der ersten Rieniann (•9+9) •

° Alyeksandr Yegorovich Varlatnoff (‹8oi-i848) wrote zzj songs (pu1›lished ift

twelve books by gtg ll0Yski), of wiiich one, 2"he Red Sar aIan› ¥ z5 become world-
renowned, and has frequently been mistaken for a Russian folksong. C. V. V.
^ Wrieen in i882-S.
 C HA P T E R I I I
i 86 i -6 a
Acquaintance with Balakireff and his Circle. The 8 ymphppy. Mr
father's death. Reminiscences of him. Graduation as a midshipman. De-
tailed to sail in foreign waters.

From the very first Balakirelt produced an enormous impression

upon me. A magnificent pianist, playing everything from
memory; endowed with bold opinions, new ideas and, last but
not least, a gift of composition, which I already revered 1 At
our first meeting, my scherzo in C-minor was shown to him;
he approved it, except for a few critical observations. He can
likewise shown my oocturne and other things, as well as frag-
mentary materials for the symphony (E flat miROf) . He in-
sisted that I set to composing the symphony. I was enraptured.
It his house I met Cni and Musorgski, of whom I had known
by hearsay from Kanille. Balakirefl was then orchestrating the
overture of Cui's T he Prisoner of the CBucasus. l Vith what
delight I listened to real bus inei s discussiOHS. Oi lflStLumentation, part-
writing, etc. 1 They also played Musorgski's Allegro in
C-major for four-hands:

which I liked, I do not remember z-hat )3a1akirefi played of

his own music ; I think it was the last entr'acte from Kin9 Lead.
And besides, how much talking there was about current musical
matters! All at once I had been plunged into a new world,
unknown to me, where I found myself among real, talented mu-
sicians, whom I had formerly on)y heard of, in the society of my
dilettante friends. That was truly a strong impression.
 II Y M U S I C A L L I F E
During November and December, I visited Balakirefl every Sat-
urday evening, often meeting there Musoi gski and Cui. 4’herc
also I made the acquaintance of V. V. Stasof(. I remember \*. V.
Stasolf ' reading aloud to us passages from the Od ysse one Satur-
day, for the purpose of enlightening my own poor sell, Musorg-
ski once read Kookol'nik’s Prince Kholinski, and the painter Mya•
soyedof( read Gogol’s di)'. Balakiref(, alone, or four-hands w•I th
Musorgskl, would play Schumann's symphonies and Beethoven’s
quartets. Musorgski mould sing somcthing from fi a /ao and L yud-
ini/o5 (for instance the scene between Farlaf and Nayina) with A.
P. Arseoyefi who impersonated Nayina. As far as I recall, Bala-
kirefl was then composing a piano concerto, excerpts from which
he would play for us. Often he explained to me instrumentation
and forms of composition. From him I heard opinions that were
entirely new to me. The tastes of the circle leaned towards
Glinka, Schumann and Beethoven’s last quartets. Eight sympho•
nies of Beethoven found comparatively little favour with the
circle. Except foi• the A Midswnmer S'ighI’s Dr earn overture,
the K cbltden overture and the finale of the Octet, they had
little respect for Mendelssohn, arid Musorgski often called him
“h4endel” ; Mozart and Haydn were considered out of date and
naive ; J. S. Bach was held to be petrified, yes, evea a mere musico-
mathematical, feelingless and deadly nature, composing like a very
machine. Handel was considercd a strong natore, but he was
mentioned very rarely. Chopin was likened by Balakirefl to a
nervous society lady. The beginning of his funeral march (B
Hat minor) roused them to rapture, but the re9t was deemed
utterly worthless. Some of his mazurkas found favour, but the
grcater part of his compositions v,'ere loOke3 upon as pretty lacc•
work and no more. Berlioz, whose works they z ere just begin-
ning to know was highly esteemed. Liszt was comparatively un-
knoe'n and was adjudgcd cripplcd and perverted from a musical
point of view, and often eren a cai•icature. Little was said of
IVagiier. The attitude toward the contemporary Russian com-
posers was as follows : They respected Dargomy7 hski for the re•
citative portione of R usalk a, his three orchestral fantasies were
considered a mere curiosity( The Stone Gorii did not exist as yet) ;
Vladimir Vasiliyevich Gtaao$, a famous writer on ari end inueic ( isz9-i9ns).
 BAL AK IREF F iq
his songs 7’ñr Paledin and Oriental KIelod y were highly thought
df; but, on the whole, he was not credited with any consider-
able talent and was treated with a shade of derision. L’voft '
was deemed a nonentity. RU§instein had a reputation as a pian-
ist, but was thought to have neither talent nor taste as a com-
poser. Syerof( had not put hand to his Judith at that time, and
so was pause d over in silence,
I listened to these opinions with acidity and absorbed the tastes
of Balakireff, Chi and MuSorgski without reasoning or examina- tion.
hI any of the opinions were in reality z'ithout proof, f‹ r often
other peopl e’s compositions under discussion were played be- fore
me only in fragments, and I had no idea of the whole work ;
occasionally they remained altogethe i• unknr›w-n to me.Neverthe-
less I conned v ith admirat 1 on the opinions mentioned and repe ated
them in the circle of my own f ormc r schoo1m:itcs who were inter-
ested in mucic, as if I were thoroughly convinced of their truth.
Balskirefl grew very fond of me and used to say that I, as it were, had
taken the place of Gusakovski, who had gone abroad and of whom
they all had great expectations. If Balakl red lOVed me as
a son and pupil, I, for my part, was literally, in love with him. In
zn)' eyes his talent surpassed all bounds or possibility and every
word and opinion of his were absolute truth to me. fly relation9
with Cut and Musorgski were doubtless not so warm, but, at any
rate, the delight I took in them and my attachment to them were rery
coo5iderable. On Balakirefl’s ad›•ice, I turned to cornpOS1H,f(
the first movement of the E. flat minor Symphony from the begin- ,
nings in my possession. The introduction and the exposition of the
subjects (up to the development) were subj ected to considerable
critic’snt on the part of Balakirefi; I kept zeatons!) making changes.
For the Christmas holidays I w ent to visa t my parents in Tikhvin
and there I finished writing the entire first movement ; Balakirtfi
approved of it and had aImost nO COrrecti ons to suggest. ñ(y first
attempt to orchestrate this movement embarrassed me, and Bala-
kireff orchestrated for me the first page of the I ntrOduction, where-
upon the work went better. According to the opinion of B alakireft
and others, 1 proved to have a gift for instrumentation. During
The composer of what was, 1›efore the revolution, the Russian national anthem,
t7oJ tyvr i£e y›or. For L’voH's own account or how it , came to be written see Montagu-
Nathan'a ff ivory oJ B uzziaa A?uric (Scribncr’"), Page y. C• U. V.
zo II Y M U S I C A L L I F E
the winter and spring of i8 62 I composed the Scherzo (without
the trio) for my symphony and the Finale, which latter Balakirefl
and Cui praiscd particul arly. As far as I recollect, this fi”inale was
composed under the influence of Cui’s Symphonic Allegro, at that
time often played at Balakireff’s ; the subsidiary subj ect of this Cut
subsequently utilized for MacGregor’ s narrative in his William
RolcJl The pfincipal subject of this Finale was composed by
me oa a train, when late in March I was returning from T ikhvin
to St. Petersburg with my uncle Pyotr Petrovich.
My trip to Tikhvin wa9 made necessary by my father’s grave
illness I went there with my brother Voyin Andieyevich and
arriving on March 18 found my father no longer among the living.
My father died at seventy-eight. During the last years of his life
he had several strokes and began to ;igo perceptibly, though still
retaining considerable vigour of memory and intellect. Until
i 9—6o, approxlmately, he enjoyed good health, walktd a great
deal and daily wrote in his diary. Having renounced the hI asonic
order to z'hich he had belonged in the times of Alexander I, he re-
mained exceedingly religious, daily reading the Gospel and varlous
spiritual and moral books, from which he constantly copied nu-
merous extracts. His piety was pure in the extreme, without the
slightest taint of hypocrisy. He went to church ( at the Greater
Monastery) only on holidays, but praved long at home every morn-
ing and cv ening. He n'a9 an exceedingly meek and upright mao.
Having inherited some wealth from my grandfather and subse-
quently, upon the death of his fifst wife (Princess hf yeshcherskava
by birth) , having received a fine estate near Moscow, he finally
found himself propertyless thanks to his swindling f i tend who
traded estates with him to their advantage, borrowed money from
him, etc. His last post in the government service was that of ciril
governor of the I*o1hynian Government, where he was greatly
beloved. He went into retirement in the late thirties, evidently be-
cause his ktodly disposition was not in consonance with the demands
made upon him by the higher authoritie9 and the tendency to
oppress the Poles, Upon retiring from service, he settled in Tikh-
vin with my mother and my uncle Pyotr Petrovich, drawing a small
pension. Being opposed on principle to the system of serfdom, he
was dismissing, within my memory, one by one, the domestici who
still belonged to him ¡ finally he set them all free. I recall our
 DE AT H OF F ATHE R ai
former menials, numerous enough in the years of my childhood:
my nurse, her husband the ever drunken tailor Yakor, their son
Vanya, the dvornik (house porter) VaSlli, the other dvornik
Konstantin, his wife, thC COOL Atm a, a Varrara, an 6nnushk z
a Dunyasha and others. Having liberated them, we were left with
hired iervants from among th9ge very former serfs of ours. While
firing in retreat a t Tikh@in m)• Ia ti er was highly rrgarded by
T ikhvin society, often gave advice to many and settled disputes
and misunderstandings. On grcat holidays the re were no end of
risl tors at our
hIy father was burted at the C reater Monastery of TikhVin.
The following day my mother and brother went to St, l'etersburg,
and my uncle and I left the day after.
Since January i 8 6z Yo)'in AndreyevlCh had been director of the
marine Corps. After moving to St. Petersburg, mother and
uncle Pyotr Petrovich went to liv e with him, and I came there to
spend Sundays. L ntil then, since the death of P. N, Golovin, I
had been spending my holidays at the house o{ Go1ovin’9 sistem—
Praskovya Nikolayevna N ovikora, with whom I often played duet9.
My graduation as a midshipman took place April 8, i 86z. In
those day9 the title of midshipman was granted upon completing
the course of studies. The midshipmen had no set duties to per-
OrfR ] UIF O Cgy’g COfDfR lSS1Olj 3V;ilS CQn 0Ffi€d Ff tLf ’O /fl I@S O
service as a midshipman. A midshipman wag something rnidway
between pupil and of cer, and he was made an officer a fter a cer-
tain practical examination. UsualJ y a midshipma o was sent on a
two years' practice cruise. A similar assignment awaited me, too.
fly cruise was to be tnade on the clipper A Imag, under the com-
mand of P. A, Zelyouy. The clipper z•as detailed to a voyage
abroad. I was face to face with a voyage of two or three years,
a separation from B alakireff and other musicaJ friends and a cm-
plete isolation from mus›c. 1 had no desire to go abroad. Hav-
ing become intimate with the B alakiref( circle, I began to dream of
a musical career ; the circle had encouraged and directed me on
that road. By fhat time I really did love music passionately.
R alakirefl was deeply distressed lay tny impending departure and
wante d to do some "wire-pulli rig,” so as to have my sailing orders
catlcell ed. B ut that was unthinkable. On the other hand, Cut
insisted that I should not forego my first steps in the ser vice, con-
sideripg my youth. he said it was far more practical to go on the
trip and get my commission, and that two or three years later I
would have a clearer idea of what was to be done. I"oyin Andre ye-
vich was insistent upon my service and sailing. The beginnlngs
of composition in my possession at that time did not seem to him
suPicie ii t for rue tO risk giv•ing up a naval career at the very outset.
hIy piano playing disclosed so little of the virtuOSO, that even on
tha t score I did not appear to him to be possessc d Of a bcnt for art
such as promised even a modcratcly brilliant future. He was
right, a thousand time9 right in looking upon me as a dilettante : I
was one.
 CHAPTERIV
i85z
My career m my parents' eyes. fly musical preceptors. BalakireH as a
teacher of composition and leader of the circle. The other members of
Balakirefl’s circle in the early Sixties and the teacher-leader’s attitude to
ward them. Gusakovski, Cui, Nlusorgski, and I. The tendencies and
spirit at the Marine School and in the Fleet in my time. 5ailing abroad.

NIy parents, belonging to a family of old nobility, being people

of the i8zo—3o ‹lecade and rarely coming in touch z ith prominent
literary and artistic people, naturally were far from the thought
of making me a musician. My father was an emerited governor
in retirement; my mother, whO hdd gron•n up in the Gorcromrot
of Oryol in the family of we althy landowners, the Skaryatins, had
spent all her youth in the society of aristocrats and emerited men
of that time. My uncle Nikolay Petrovich was a well-known ad-
miral, director of the Marine Corps ln the Sorties and a favourite
of Emperor Nicholas I. As if to imitate hip my brother was
entered in the navy and really became a splendid seaman. Nat-
urally, I, too, was intended for sea-service, the more so as, carried
away by the lettc rs sent by my brother from his voyage abroad and
the reading of books of travel, I, too, did not avoid the path lai d
out for me. In out-of-the-way Tikhvin there was abgolutely
no real music, nor did anybody come there even to give concerts.
But still, when my talent and inclination for music had perceptibly
manifested themselves, my parents placed me under the best piano
teachers then obtainable in Tikhvin. Indeed, Olga Nikitishna
and Dlga Fycliksovna Fel, already mentioned by me, were the best
pianists in ouF town ; the best, because there were no others. Ac-
cordingly, my parents had done all they could 6o, at the tlme. But
as my instructres9es had not been ab) e to develop any geriatric talent
for piano-playing in me ( I did not play badly, but my playing s as
far from serious or impressive) , it is the more evident that my
24 M Y Cf U S I C A L L I F E
parents could not picture to themselves their son's future as that of
a musicien. Later, while at the naval school and studying with
Ulikh, I coultl practise piano only on Saturdays and Sundays. Of
course, even then my progress was inconsiderable. Not being a
real pianist, Ulikh could not gin e me the proper position of the
hands. And as for developing even an irregular technique he had
neither sulficient time or desire, nor proper coercive or stimulating
methods. Naturally, I could mcguire a genuine love for music
only after I reached St. Petersburg, whc re I first heard genuine
music, yenuinel y performed, even lf it was an Indra or Lucie di
/-ommermoor on the oper atlC Stage. But I' truly bcgan to love the
art of music when I came to know Ryslan and L ludmila as I have
already said in the foregoing page9 of my rcmi oiscences.
The first rcal musicien and virtuoso I met was Kanille. I am
deeply grateful to him for guiding my taste and the original
general development of my gifts of composition. But I shall
always find fault with him for haviog paid scant attention to my
piano technique and not giving me suPicient instruction in hsrmony
and counterpoint. The work of harmonizing chorales which he
had suggested to me was soon given up ; for, while making but lew
correcti ons in my writings, he did not show me the elementary
methods of harmonÎzation, and, groping abOut my task and
running into snags, as I did, I cooceived only aversion for them.
Y*h11e studying with Kanille I did not know even the names of the
principal chords, and yet I straioed to compose nocturnes, varia-
tions and chat not, which I carcfully concealed from my brother
and the Siolovins and used to show only to Kanille. Though rny
love for music was growing, I was but a dilettante pupil, playing
piano after a fashion and scribbling things on music paper, when I
finally got to Balakirefl. And now, after attempts amateurish in
their technique, but niusicianly and earnest as to style and taste, I
was stra ightway put to the task of composing a symphony.
Balakirefl who had never had any systernatic course in harmouy
and counterpoiot, and had not evan supcrficially applied himself
to it, evidently thought such studies quite unnecessary. Thanks
to his original talent and pianistic gifts, thanks also to the
musical environment which he had found at Ulybyshei(’ (who
° A music eritic, the author of a famous worf on Mozart. Balakirefi was brought
up in Ulybyihe8’s houichold. C. Y. Y.
 BA LA K I R E F F A S T EA C H E R z
had a private orchestra whiCh played Beethoven's symphonies
under Balakirefi’s leadership ) he somehow became at a bound
a genuine, practical musician. An excellent pianist, a superior
sight rcader of music, a splendid im proviser , endowed by nature
with the sense of correct harmony and part-writing, he possessed
a technique, par tIy native and pa rtly 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 marvellous critic, espe-
cially a technical critic. He instantly felt every technical imperfec-
tion or error, he grasped a defect in form at o.liCe, )Vhencver I,
or other young men, later on, played him our essays at composition,
he instantly› caught all tii e defects of form, modulation, etc. and
forthwith seating himself at the piano, he would improvise and
Show how the composition in question Should be changed exactly
as he iudicatcd, and f requently entire passages in other people’s
c(lmpositions heck me his and not their puts tive auth ore' at ml
He was obeyed absolutely, for the spell of his personality was
tremendous, Young, with marvellously alert fiery eyes, with
a handsome beard, unhesitating, authoritative and straight-
forward( in speech ; ready at any moment for beautiful piano Am-
provisation, remembering every music bar famili a r to him, in-
Staotly learning hy heart the compositions playe d for him, he was
bound to exercisC that spell as none else could. Though valuing
the slightest proof of talent in another, he still could not he(p
feeling hls own superiority; nor could that othcr, too, help but
feel it. Hls influence over those around him was boundless; and
resembled some magnetic or mesmeric force. Rut with all his
natire mentality and brilliant abilities, there was one thing he
fail ed to understand : that z hat was good for him in the matter
of musical education was of no use whatever for others, as these
Others hañ not one) grown up amid eotii•ely different sui•roundings,
but possessed utterly dificreo t natures ; that thc development of
their t:r1ents was bound to take place at diIIei•ent intervals and
ln a difiercnt manner. Moreover, he despotically demanded that
the tast.cs of his pupils should exactly COincide with Us own. The
slightest deviation from his taste ca9 severely censured by him.
'By means of raillcry, a parody or caricature played by him, what-
evcr did not suit him at the moment was belittled and the pupil
 zd MYMUSICALLIFE
blushed with shame for his expressed opinion and recanted for-
ever or for a long time to come.
I hare alrcady meotione d the general tendency of the taste
of Balakirell and his Friends who were manifestly under his bound-
less infiuence. I shall Add to it that, under the infiuence of
Schumann’s compositions, melodic creative gifts were then looked
upon with disfavour. The majoi ity of melodics and themes were
regarded as the weake i• part of music: the exteptions quoted
were few, e. g. the melody of Bayan's first song.‘ fi*e a rly all
the fundament al ideas of Beethoven’s symphonies were thought
iveak; Chopin's melodics z•erc considered sweet and womanish ;
hlenrJelSsOhn's sour and bourgeois. However, the themes of
Bach's fugues wcre undoubtetlly field in respect. The gi•eatest
amount o( attention and respect was showered on the musical
Elements called additious, introdiictions, brief but characteristic
phrases, ostinato dissonant progressions (but not of the enhar•
morris variety) , sequence-like progressions, organ-points, abrupt
conclusi ons, etc. I u the majority of case9 a piecc was critically
judged in accordance with the separate elements : the first four
lars were said to be cxccllent, the next eight weak, the melody
immediately follow ing dood-for-nothing, the transltiDn frr›m it
to the next phrase fine, etc. A cornpositi on was never considered
as a whole in its xsthetic significance. Accordingly, the new com-
positions which B alakirefi introduced to his circle were invariably
plaved in fragments, in bar9 and even piece-me;il : first the end,
then the bcginning, which usually produced a queer impression
on an outsider who happened to come tO the circle. A pupil like
myself had to submit to Balakireli a proposed composition in its
embry•o, say, even the first four or eight lars. Balakirefi would
immediately make corrections, indicating how to recast such an
embryo ; he would tritiCi ze it, would praise and extol the first two
bars but would censure the next two, ridicule them and try hard
to make the author disgusted with them. I 7ivacity OI Composition
and fertility were not at all in favour, frequent recasting was de-
manded, and the composition was extended over a long space of
time under the cold control of self-criticism. Having taken two
° Bay an was n famous minstrel. Rifns¥y-Kor sakof h ere refers to a tenor air in
Glinka's opera, R us ldc and L ycds ila, sung by a character named after the celebrated
old bard. C. V. Y.
 B A L .¥ K I R E F F ’ S S T RGA N E C NJ A R t C T E R 27
or three chords and having invented a short phrase, the author
endeavoured to account to himself whether he had acted properly
and whether tin re was nothing shameful in these beginnings !
At first glance such an attitude toe ards art sccms incompatible
with Balakireft's brilliant gift of improvisation. And really there
is a puzzling contradiction here. Balakirell, at any moment ready
to play a fantasy on any theme of his own or somebody else's
with greatest gusto ; Balakireff, instantly detecting the flaz•s in
the works of others and ready to show concretely how this or
that was to be corrected, how to continue a certain approach or
how to avoid a commonplace turn of phrase, how to improve the
harmonization of a phrase, the arrangement of a choi-d, ctc. ;
Balakiref(, whole talent as a composer shone da zzlingl for all
who came into contact with him, this very Balakiref( composed
with exceeding slowness and deliberation. At that time (he was
<4—•3 years of age) he had written several magnificent songs,
a Spanish Overture and a Russian one, and the rnti ic to King Inear.
Not much, but still his most productive pei•iod. His fertility
decreased with the years. Of this, however, I will speak later.
Obviously, at the time I could not make the obser vations which
resulted in the above lines. What has been said in these lincs grew
clcar to rue only subsequently. And, moreover, in those days,
Balakireff’s self-criticism and manner of treating his pupils and
companions in art had not as yet assumed that cfc ar, tangible form
which could be obserred beginning with i 8 63, when other musical
fiedgelings appeared on thc scene beside mysel f. Thus in cha racteriz
ing Balaki refi I have run ahead, but my char- acterization is
nevertheless far from being complete and I shall endeavour to
supplement it in the course of my reminiscences, rc- turning again and
again to this enigmatic, contra dictory and fas-
cinating personality.
On joining Balakirefl’s circle I proved to have taken, as It mere,
the place of the absent Gusakovski. Gusakov ski was a young
man, just graduated from the University as a chemist, who had
gone abroad for a long sta j*. He possessed a rigorous talent for
composition, was Balakirefi's favourite, hut, accordi rip to Bala-
kireft's and Cut's accounts, a queer, extravagant and sickly char-
acter. His compost tiozs piano pieces— were mostly unfinishc‹l :
a number of scherzos without the trios, a sonata allegro, frag-
2Q ä'8 Y II U S I C A L L I F E
ments of music for da«ii and a complète d symphonic allegro in
E fia t major, with Balakirefi’s instrumentation, all beautiful
mUSiC in the Beethoven-Schumann style. Balakiret guided htm
in composition, but nothing finlshed would come. Gusakorski
jumped from one composition to another, and the gif ted sketches
sometimes remained even unrecorded, sav e for those retained in
Balakirefl's memory.
Balakire fi had no diflÎculty io getting along with me. att his
suggestion I most readily rcwrote the sympliouic movements COm-
posed by me and brought them to completit›n z'ith the help of his
advice and improvisations. B alakireft considered me a symphony
specialist. On the other hand, creditlng Cui, as he diff, ivit li a bert
for opera he allowed a cc rtain degree of liberty to Cui's creative
genius, treating with io‹1ulgence many an elcmCnt that did not
meet his own tastes. The Auber vein in Cui’s music web jus-
tified by his half-French OPigin and was kindly z inkcd at. Cui
displayed no promise of becoming a good orchcstrator, and Bala-
kirelÏ willingly orchestratc d for him some of his w•orks, e. g. the
overture of Th e Pri oner o f the Caitcasus. At that time this
opera had been finished, and The hlatidarin’s Son (a one-act opera,
to Krylofl's text) was bcing written or possibly had already been
finlshcd. Cui’s symphonie Allegro in E flat major was apparcntly
written under Balakireft’s strict supervision, but was left unfinished
after all, for not everybody coulé siibmissivtly endure and zeal-
ously carry out his demands as I did. Cui's instrumental com-
positions finished by that time were a schcr zo for the ovcke9tra
in F-major ( B amberg) ,' and two other scherzos in C-major and
G slia rp rninor for the piano. Appa reutly Musoi•gski's syrnphonic
attempts allo tame to nothing unfer the pressure of Balakirefi’s
suggestions and dem ands. At that pci iod, the only of
h(usorgski’s recognl7.cd by the circle was the chorus f rom 6Edtp;ii.
Cui's scherz o, the dance9 from Th e Pri,so ner o f the Caiicasus,
Balaklrcfi's overture to I iit g K eur, hIusorgski's abovc-mcntioned
chorus :ind Gusakoyski's Allegro (with’ Balakireft’s instrumen-
tation) were performed pa rtly at the concerts of the Russian
IVlusicaI Society uiider Rubinstein’s direction, partly at a theatre
concert under K. N. yado(i’s direction, prior to my acquaintance
° This, too, possibly, yjth Balakireff’s instrumentation.
 BAL AK IRE FF'S C1R C L E zg
with Balakireff’s circle, but for some reason I did not happen to
hear them.
ACCOrdingly, during the wlnter of i 8 6 r —6s, Balakirefi’s circle
consists d of Cut, Nlusorgski, and myTel f. There is no doubt that,
for hoth Cut and hlusorgski, Balakireff has indispensable as
adviser and censor, as editor and teacher. \Vithout him they
n’ould have been unable to take a step. \Vho else could have
given advice an‹t show n them hOw to cor feet their compositions as
regards form ? 5'ho could hare put their part-writing in orher ?
U'ho Could hare been able to give ad vice as to orchestration and,
in case of need, do the orchestration for them ) JVho w ould have
been able to correct their slips of the pen, i. e. to read the proof of thC1
r coiTl OSS tions, so to speak?
Cut, who had had a few lessons from hIOf1lUSZ)O,* was fai’ from
heing able to manage clear ant( natural part-writing, and for orches-
trati on he had neither inclination nor ability. Musorgski, iVho
was an excellent pt anist, had not the sligh tcst technical training as
a composc r. Neither of them was a musician by profession. Cui
was an engine ering office r, and I'vIusorgski a retire d oP1cer of the
Prcobra zhenski Regiment of the Imperial Guards. Balakired
:i1onc wa s a re:il must can. Sirice his vOuth he had grown accu -
tome‹1 to secilig himself in the midst of Lllybysheft's orchcstra ; be-
i:ig a good pianist, lie had already appeai• cd in publiLc, at diversity
concerts, at soirée9 in the homes tif I.’rod, Odoyevski, Vyelgorski,
ctc. k)c had playe‹l every variety of charriber music with the
greatest artists o I the time ; had accompanied \*ieuxtemps and
many women singers. YI. I. Glinka himself had blessed him for
his activity as composer, giving him the theme of a Spanish march
fOl- his Overture. He needed Cut and h'Iusorgski as friends, 2d- ,
herents, followers and comra ‹)e-pupils ; hut he could here gone on
without them. Musical experience and life gave Balakirefi's bril-
liant talent an opportunity for rapid development. The devel or-
ment of the others began later, went more slowJ y and rcqiiire d a
guide. This guide was Balakirefi, who had acquired everything I ;’
his astounding many-sided talent and experience quite irithout la-
bour and without system, and therefore has) no idea of any systems.
I might say even more :”having himscl f gone through no prepare-
The Polish Composer whose principal work was the opera,
Haf,'a. C. V, V.
3o ,41 Y M U S I C A L L 1 F E
tor T school Balakirtft thought it unnecessary for others as well.
There was no need of training: one must begin to compose outright.
to cre ate and learn through one's oz n work of creation. Whatever
would be unfinished or uuskilful in this carly crcative work of his
comrade-pupils , lie himself would finish ; he would set everything
to rights, completc in case of nec(I, and the composition would be reat)y
to be issucd, for perfoi•mance or publicati on. And it was
necessary t u hui ry with publication the talents were indubitable.
And yet Cui was a li c ady z 3-2 6, Musorgski z I—2 2. Too late tO
go tO school, high time to live and work and make themselves
"1 here is no doubt that this guidance and guardianship
over composei-s who f aiIetl to stand on their oz'n legs, placed a cer-
tain general stamp on them, the stamp of Balakirefl's taste and
methods, much moi e pronounce dly than does the simple and in-
difict ent cii da rice ot some professor of counte rpoint. In the lat-
ter case there cOme into play the common method s of counterpoint
and ha ruins v, tl c gc•iiera l be rluctions from currcut m1JSlCa1 forms ;
in the former case, certain melodic turns were used, certain methods
of modril ation, certsin i nstrumental colouring, etc., which had or-
i ginatcr) in the tcndencies of Balakircft's taste, in his own technique,
by no means f aultless or varied, ao‹l in his own one-si ded erudition
in the fie lt) Of orchcsti atIon, as became clear to me subse quently.
hTeirertheless, at the time, Balakirefl' s technique and his lea rning
w'hich he had gained through practice, thanks to his own talent,
tastc. and innate powders of observation, infi nitely surpassed the
technique and knowledge of Gusakovski, Cut and M usorgski. He,
at all evelits, was a musician by nature and profession, while they
were gi tted amateurs.
IVas Balakirefl’s attitude towar d his pupil-friends right? In my
Opinion, alisoliitely w rong. A truly talented pupil needs so little.
It is so easy to shoe' all that is necessar y in harmony and counter-
point, in ordc r to put him on his own feet in this respect, it is easy
to di sect him ln unde rstailding the fOl’1T1s of composition, if only
the thing is properly taken hold of. A year or ts-o of systematic
study in the developmcnt of technique, a few exercises in free
composition and orchestration and the teaching is over, provl ded
he has a good tcchni que. The pupil is no longer a U II, a
schoolboy, but a budding composer striking out for himself. But
that was not the case with all of us.
 I GN OR ANCE OF T ECH NIQUE 3i
Balakirefi did what he could to the best of his knowledge and
ability. And if he did not understand how to manage, the cause
lay in those years of darkness for the music of Russia and in his half-
Russian, half-Tartar nature, nervous, impatient, easily excited and
quickly tiring, in his native talent, brilliant and abort ginal, which
met nowhere any obstacle in the way of its development, and his
purely Russian .self-delusion and 1azines9. Besides the mentioned
peculiarities of his nature, Balakirefl was a man capable of growing
warmly and deeply attached to people who struck a sympathetic
chord in him, and, on the other hand, he was ready, at first sight, to
conceive an eternal hatred or contempt for people who had not won
his good-will. All the9e complex elements had made of him a mass
of contradictions, enigmatic and fascinating, but afterwards brought
hint to many a pass entirely unforeseen and improbable at the time.
Of all his pupil-f riends I was the youngest, being only seventeen
years old. What did I need ? A piano technique, the technique of
harmony and counterpoint and an idea of musical forms. Bala-
kirefl should have made me sit down at the piano and learn to play
well. That was so easy for him as I worshipped him and obeyed
his advice in everything. But he did not do it: declaring from the
outlet that I was no pianist, he gave up the whole thing as alto-
gether unnecessary. I)e s'hould have given me a few lessons in
harmony and counterpoint, should have made me write a few
fugues and exr lained the grammar of musical forms to me. I4c
could not do it, as he had not studied it systematically himself, and
considered it unnecessary, hence also he did not tell me to study
under 9ome one else. having made me write a symphony after our
first meeting, lie cut me oil from preparatory work and the acqui-
sition of a technique. And I, who did not knol the names of all
intervals and chords, to whom harmony meant but the far-famed
prohibition of parallel octaves and fif ths, who had no idea as to
what double counterpoint was, nor the meaning of cadence, thesi9
and anti thesis. an* period, I set out to compose a symphony. Schu-
mann's Alan Jred overture and The rd Symphony, Glinka'S PTinc e
Kholins ii and kota Ara gone sa and Balakireft's Kin 9 L ar these
were the models I followed in writing the symphony; copied,
thank9 to my powers of observation and irritation. .'Ys for or-
chestration, the perusal of Berlioz's Trñié d’ Incirumentation and
 3< MYMUSICALLIFE
of some Glinka scores, gave me a little fragmentary inf ormatloli.
I had no idea of trumpets and French horns and would get con-
fused between writing for natural-scale and chromatic-scale instru-
ments. But B alakirelf himself had not known these instruments
and became acquainted with them only through Berlioz. The
bow instruments, too, were an absolute muddle to me : the move-
ments of the bow, the strokes, were completely unknov'n to me
I indicated int erminsble legatos, impossible of execution. I had a
very vague notion of the executiOD Of double notes and chords,
blindly following Berlioz's table, in case of emergency. FUt
Balakirefl himself did not knoz• this chapter, having the most con-
fused notion of violin playing and positions. I felt that I w4
ignorant of many things, but was convinced that B alakired knew
everything in the world, ant) he cIex-e i ly concealed from me and the
others the insuHciency of his informasi on. But in orchestral
colouring and cornbifl atIOf1 Of instruments he was a good pracrical
hand, and hls counsels were inraluablc to mc.
In one way or another, towards May, 1 8 6 z, the first movemeo t,
thc Schcrzo and Finale of the symphony had been composed and
somehow orchestrate t1 by me. The Finale in particular won gen-
, eral approv‹il at the time. Why attempts to write an .4dagio met
with uO SlICCcss, and it was Wireless to hope for any: in those days
one was somehow ash amet to wi-ite a cantabile melody; the fear of
dropping into the commonplace pi•cc1ude d any kin d Of sincerity.
In the 9 T)tig I visited Balakirefl ever j Saturday and looked for-
ward to thosc evenings as to a holiday. I also used to go to Cut's.
He wa9 living at the Voskresyenski Prospect and kept a boarding-
house to preparc boys for entrance to military schools. Cui had
two grand pianos, anal whenever I came, there was always some eight-
hand playing. The players were B alakirefi, MusOr.gskl'S brother,
Filaret Petrovich, who went for some reason under the name of
Yevgyeni Petrovich, Cui and occasionally, Dart ri Vasil- yevich Sta of(.
V. V. Stasof( was usually present also. They played Berlioz's @ifff*
71'fafi scherzo and Ball aI the Ca puts Is’, in
M. P. hlusorgski’s transcription for eight-h ands, as wcll as the
procession f rorn Balakiref(’s Kin g LeB F, in his own arrangcmerit.
They played four-hands the overtures to The Prisnner o f the Can-
racers and the mandarin’s Son and played also the movcrnc nts Of
my symphony as they were completed. Rlusorgski used to sing
 N AVAL ST UDENT CUSTO MS 33
wlth Cui excerpts f i om the latter's operas. Musorgski had a fair
baritr›ric voice and sang magnificently ; Cut sang in a composer’s
§r ice. Cut's wife, )Ia1vina Rafayilovna, then singifig no longer,
had been an amateur singer prior to my acquaintance with them.
In May, Balakirefl went to the Caucasus for the mineral seater
cure ; Musorgski event to tke country, and Cui to his somtner-home.
hIy brother left on a practice cruisc ; his family, my mother and
my uncle left for the island 8onion-Sari, near Vyborg, in Finland,
tO spend the summer. Everybody had gone. I was ordered to
malts a sailing ttip abroad on the clipper d fin az and was to trend
the summer at Cronstadt with a ship then being fitted out. aft
Cr onstadt I stayed at the house of K, fi. Zatnbr zhitski, a close
aCqua intance of my brother’s. I don't quite remembe r how I spent
that summer. I remember on1)' that I did very little with m5
iTiusic and composed nothing; btit why I don't know. I was
killing time in the company of my fellow-graduatcs. Once Kanille
paid me a visa t and stayed z ith me for two days. I received
several letters from Balakircfl. I sent on a few days' leave to
see my f olks on Sonioii-Seri Island. Thus the entire summer went
by —tedious and devoid of interest. Mv circle of schoolmates
could not be called intcllectual. In general, I an not boast of the
spiritual tendencies of the Students of the Naval School during m7
whole six-year stay thc re. Theirs was completely the cadet spirit
inherited from the days of Nicholas I and not yet affected by the
new times. Horseplay that was not always decent, rough protcs Ls
against the authorities, rude inter tourse with fellow-students, pt osy
obscenity in conversation, a cynical attitude toward the fair sex, a
disinclination for reading, contempt for the foreign languages ao‹l
subjects outside our special studies, and in the summer, during
practice cruises, even drunkenness—these were charattRFistic of the
school spirit of thO9e days. How little this environment accorded
with artistic aspirati ons and how deadly it proved to even the
slenderest of a rtlstic natures, seldom as these appeared there 1
They vegetated theve, quite fouled by the military humdrum of the
schcol. .4nd in this atmosphere I, too, vcgctated, languid and
emaciated, as rc o r‹)s General artistic, poctic and intellectual
development. Of 11 trtary artists I had read all of Pushkin, Lyer-
mo tofi and Gscool hile at school, but had not gone beyond that.
Though I was promoted from cIass to class, my writing was full
34 M Y hI U S I C A L L I F E
of disgraceful grammatical inistake9 ; I knew nothing of history,
and Just as little of physics and chcmistry. Only in mathematics
and its application to navigation I got alone passably. In the
summer, on practice cruises, my studits in naval art: rowing,
Mailing, rigging— went rather slowly. I was fond of the course
in making sail and was rather fearles9 in clirnbing masts and yards.
I liked sea-bathing and, with Skrydlofi and other classmateg, used
to sivim hve ship-leugths around the ressel irit£out pause or rcsf.
I never was seasick and ncver was afraid of the sea and ItS perils.
But, at bottom, I did not like sea-sc rvice and had no aptitude fOr
it. I possesse d ao presence of mtnd and had no executire ability
at all. Subsequently, during the sail abroad, I provc d to be utterly
unable to give orders in militzry styJe, to scOld, to swear at people,
to spcak reprovingly, to punish, to speak to a subordinate in the
tone of a superior, etc. All these gifts, indispensahle iii navy and
military ser vice, I utterly lacked. Those w•e re the years of rope-
ends and brutal blows on the mouth. On several occasions, willy-
nllly, I had to witness the punishment of sailors z ith zoo—3oo rat-
line blows on the bare back, ln the presence of the whole crew, and
to listen to the chastised man cxcla inning in ao imploring voice :
"Your Hooour, have mercy !” On the artlllery ship Pro k J/or, z•hen
the dranken crew e•cre brought in from shore-)eov•e on Sunday,
Lieutenant Dek, standing at the Companiouway, used to greet eaCh
dranken sailor with fist blows on the mouth. \Yhich of the Pro—
the drunken sailor or the lieutenant who hit him om the moutli for
the love of it had more of the beast in him, is not hard to
decide, in the lieutenant’s favour. Commantlers antl ofllcers, su-
per vising the tasks, swore with the technique of virtuosi: the choic- est
billingsgate filled the air with a he avy ste rich. Some of the
oflicers had a reputation for thci r fiery imagination and inventive
genius in abusive language, others for their efliciency in knock-
ing out teeth. For this lat ter exploit great was the fame of
first class Captain B oobnoft, who, they said, used to stage a ver-
itable M amay Massacre ' aboard his ship z•hile tacking under sail. I
have said already that, on entering the school, I had gained a good
footiog by at once a setback to the classmates who aonoycd
me. But in my second or third school year my temper
The famoua debicle of the Tartari under Mamay, on the Kulikoi-o Field
( 3 0) » J. * .
 U G
E L I IOUSOPI NIOh S 3
somehow became tlabby and timid to excess. 'Once I did not even
pay in kind my classmate M. who hit mc in the face without rhynie
or reason, and out of shcer malice. However, I was pretty gen-
erally liked ; I kcpt ou( of quarrels and followed our school code in
every dcta il. I' was ncve r afraid of the authorities, but my conduct
was generally correct. Durlng my last sChool year, after my
brother had been appointed director, I did bet ter in my studies and
ranked sixth amoog our sixty-odd gtaduates.
On making Balakirefi’s acquaintance, I heai•d from him, for the
first time in my life, that one must read, must look after one’s own
education, must becorne acquainted with litstory, polite literature
and criticistn. h'Iany thanks to him for it! BalakirelÏ, who had
only gr aduaterl from a G)'inod›iooi and had but a short term at the
University of Kazag, had done a great deal of reading in Russian
literature and history, and seemed to me highly educated. At that
time, we had no talks about religion ; but it seems, he was a perfect
sccptic even tlicn. As for me, I was nothing at that time, neither
bclierei•, nor sce atie ; religious questions simply die) not interest mc.
"fhough brought up in a prof oundly rcligious family, I had been
rather indifferent to prayer since childhood, I don’t know why.
I prayed daily, in thc morning, on retiring, and at church, but did
so, only because my parents demanded it. A strenge thing 1 \Vhen
a boy, standing at prayer, I occasi onally rentured to utter blas-
phemi cs, as if to test whether the Lord God would punish me for
it. He lid not punish me, of course, and doubt crept into my
soul ; sometimes I would be seized with repentance and self-re-
proachcs for my Stupid behaviour ; but, as far as I recall, these were
neithcr deep nOr stroug. I suppose such pranks must be cla ssed
in psychiatry among the co-callcd fix ed ideas. IVhile at school I
went to church on Sundays and was bored to dcath. But at Tikh-
v•in, I alivays had likcd the archimandrite's divine service and tbe
church singing for their beauty and solemnity. Aonually during
leent, I went to commuol on as is usual. There was one year in
which I treated this ceremonial with reverence, for no obvious
reason ; but in the ycars (OI owing I was rather careless. During
the last tro years of my stay at school, I heard from my school-
mates S. and K.--I(., that "there is no God and it’s all just inven-
tlon.” I(.-K. alh rmed the t he had lead Volt, aire's ( ? ! ) philos-
ophy. I took rather readily to the view that “there is no God and
36 31 Y M U S I C A L L I F E
it's all just invcntion.” However, this thought troubled me little,
and in reality I gave no thought to the9e weighty mattei•s. But
my piety, we ak even before then, had complete Iy evaporated, and
I felt no spiritual hunger. I now recall that when a boy of but
1 2 OK 90, I was not averse to free-thinking, and once pestered my
mother with question9 about the freedom of the j1ll. I told her
that even though everything in the world is done according to God’s
will, and all phenomena of life depend on Him, man must still be
free in the choice of his own act9, and, consequently, God’s will
must be powerless in this regard ; otherwise how can He permit
evil acts on the part of man, and then infiict punishment for them?
Naturally I had not put it exactly that way, but this was the
thought ; and my rnother was at a los9 how to make answer to it.
I have already spokcn of the comparative coarseness and low
level of intellectual life among my schoolmates. Such was the
case at least during my first four years at school. In the two
highest classes a certain improvement could be felt, howe›•er. I
have already rrtentiooed the propensity toward music and choral
singing amoog certain of my schoolmates in the upper classes: I
have also mentioned the circle which had f orrned around me owing
to my playing the harmonium and rehearsing choral works with
them. Since I had begun seriously to study with Kanille and
Balakiref , I held animated talks on music with my classmates I. A.
Bronyetski and Prince A. D. Myshetski. With Prince Myshetski
I grew very intimate and friendly. Mention must also be made
of my short-lived youthful attachment for the pretty II iss L. P. D.,
in the summer of i 8 5 9, whose acquaintance I had made at R evil
while stationed in the local roadstead. To be sure, she was my
senior by 7 or 8 years and considered rue a mere boy, l)ut my atten-
tions obvi ously amused her. I was also a viSitOF at AI iss D.'s home
in St. PeterSburg during the »utumn ; but my liking for her was
soon over ; I ceased meeting her, and my li fe ran along agaio in thc
usual, prosaic school groot e. Like the majority of j ouog men in
their teens, I was somewhat shy in society antl avoidc d ladies.
In revieying my spiritual and intellectual l ife during these years
at school, I digresscd from the consccuti ve narrative. I turn again
to the interrur ted story. I have air c ady said that I spent the
summer of 1 8 6z in C ronstadt, a tet)ioos and spiritless summer.
Of these three or fuur summer months I have preser ved no virid
 O F F O N A C R U I SE 37
recollections whatever. In September the clipper Afmoz came
into the roadstc ad ready to sail abroad. My brother's family; my
mother and my uncle returned to St. Petersburg. Balakiref(, Cut
and the others also came back. In vatn Balakirelt offered to so-
licit a rescission of the order for my trip abroad. I had to set out
at my brother's insistence, and thus, at the end of October we
started on tke ctuise. I saw Bal kirefi, Cut, and Kanille Koi the
la st time at the steamer-landing in St. Petersburg where they came
to see me off, when I was bidding a final farewell to the capital.
Some two days later, on October z I st, we weighed anchor and
bade f arewell to Russia and Cro ostadt , l
° Written in February
 CH AP TER V

The cruise abroad. Sailiug to England and the Llbau coast. Rear-Ad-
miral Lyesovski. The voyage to America. Our stap jn the United Sta tes.
Ordered to the Pacific. Captain Zelyony. From New York to Rio de
Janciro and back to Europe.

We started for Kie1, where we stajed some three days, and

thence for England, to Gravesend. On putting to sea, the clipp r’s
masts proved too short and, therefore, it was proposed to order
new mast and refit in England ; this was done soon after our
arrival. The work kept xs in England (G ravcsend and G reen-
hithe) nearly four months. My classmates and I visited London
two or three timer, to see the 9ights: Westminster Abbey, the
Tower, the Crystal Palace, etc. I also went to the opera, at Co-
vcnt Garden T hea tre, but do not rern#mber the bill.
On board the clipper there were four of u9 midshipmen, felloir-
graduates, together with several engineer's mates and rnech anical
engineers. All of us were quartered in one small cablo and were
not admitted to the ofilcers' wardroom. IVe midshipmcn were
not given any responsible dutie . We stood watch in turn, assist-
ing the oI)icer of the watch. h'evertheless we had plenty of free
time. The clipper possessed a fair library, and we reed quite a
bit. Every now and then we had lively discussions and debates.
The new ideas of tllC SlXties brushed us, too. There were pro-
gregsives and conscrvative in our midst. Among the former, P. A.
Mordo› in wn.s most prominent ; among the latter, .1. E. B akhtya-
roll. We rcad Buckle, whose works were in great x-ogue in the
sixties, Ylacaulay, )ohn Stuart Mill, Byelinski, Dobrolyubofi,' etc.
We read ficti on, too. In England, Mort)ovin kept buying piles of
English and French books, among them all sorts of histories of
revolutions and civiliz ation9. There wa9 enough to argue about.
• Two of the most famous Ruiiian critici. J. A. J.
 T H E P OL 1 8H U P R I S GI N 3q
That was the ttme of Herzen ' and Ogaryofl with their Ko loko I
(The Bell) . We even used to get the Ko)oIoJ. In the mean-
while the Polish uprising began. Now there were frequent quar-
rels between M ordovin and Bakhtyarofl over the former's sympathy
for the Poles. All my sympathies lay with Mordovin: Bakhtya-
roll, who admired Katkofi, was un9ympathetic ; and his convictio ns
were not after my on n heart: he was a violent partisan of serfdom,
as well as a noblcma n with the haughtiness of his class.
Beside corresponding with my mother and my brother, I kept up
a correspondence with Balakirefl : he urged me iO write, if possible,
the And ante of my Symphony I buckled down to work, taking as
a basis the Russian theme Pro Taiars ki Polon (On the Tartar
Captivity) , g1ven me by Balakirefl, and made known to the latter
by Yakushkin. ' I succeeded in composing the Andante while we
lay at anchor in England and sent the score to Balaki retd by mail.
I wrote it without a piano (we had none) ; perhaps once or twice
I managed to play the entire composition at a r¢staurant on shore.
Upon receiving the .)ndante, Balakireft wrote me that his whole
circlc had been taken with this composition and considered it the
best morement of’ the symphony. Still, he suggested by letter cer-
tain changes which I madc.
(n wv brought a smaII harrnooiflute.° On it I often
0

played whatever came along, for my oe n and my comrades’ amuse-

ment.
Late in NebrUary, i 8 63 , when our refitting had been completed,
new and unexpected orders wcre forwarded to the clipper ñfmaz.
The Polish uprising had burst into flame ; rumours were rife that
arms were being smuggle d for the Poles from abroad to the coast
of I,ibau. Our clipper was to return to the Baltic Sea to ctuise
within st gh t of the Libau shore and to see that no arms were
brought into Poland. In spite of the secret sympathy, withia the
young hearts of some of us (the members of the midshipmen's
cabin ) , for a cause that seems d righteous to us, the cause of a
distant and kindred nationality oppressed by her stster Hussia, we
were forced to set forth willy-nilly, at the authorities' order, to
serve the oppressor I aithfu11y• We bade I arewell to foggy Eng-
g Alyekea rtdr Herzen. J. A, ),
° The great Russian folblore co]lector, J. A. J.
^ get note on Page i 6.
4o )f Y M U S I C A L L I F E
land, and our clipper lett for Libau. I recall that in passing
through the North Sea we were caught in a stiff gale. The roll-
ing of the sea was aw(ul• for two days no hot food could be cooked.
But I was not seasick at aH.
be hugged the Libau coast for iyggp))7 four months, O¢Ca siooally
entering Libau or Polangen for coal and provisions. Perhaps our
cruise was useful in that it frigh tCncd those who had intended to
ship arms and munitions to the rel0cllious Poles ; but we never saw
z single suspicious fail anywhere In our vicinity. Once the smoke
of a steamer appeared in the distance ; we made a dash for It, but
the steamer soon vanished ¡ we coul3 not post tively say whether it
had been an enemy vessel or just a ch ance bOttom. The cruise ofi
Lib»u was tiresome. Foul weather and strong winds I olloived us
almost constantly. Libau offered nothing of interest ; Polangen
even less. At rare intervals, in P‹ langen or ashore, we rode
horseback for amusement. I remember that dui ing those tiiTtCS
I grew used to going without music, and that reading absorbed me
completely.
In June or July our cliqpper as ordered back to Cronstadt. The
purpose of our return was unknown to us. theo we arrived in
Cronstadt and had Iair in the roadstead three or four days, we
were ordered out again to sail in .4dmiral Lyesovski's squadron.
Y 7 e had the fo llowing ships cvi t h us : the frigate Al bc k andr iVycr-
xli, the corvettes bit)'Bz and far pa9 and the clippc r illsartooq.
The admiral was on the at I yeksatidr lS! ye‹•s ki. U'hile stationed in
Cronstadt I managed to i un down to St. Petersburg and Pavlovsk,
where the Golorins and the Novikolfs had summer homes. ñfy
mother, my brother's family, as well as Balakireff, Cui and the
other friends, were not in St. Petersburg then, because of the sum-
mer season. Johann Straus ( i 8 z3—99) was then conducting in Pav-
lorsk and I managed to hear Glinka's A xli9ht in Nladrid. I remember
it gave me the greatest pleasure.
On putting to sea, our fleet separated, and each vessel weat on
her own. When we were on the high seas we learned we were
bound for New York to join the other ships of the squadron. tb at
the object of our expedition was purely military. lVat with
land was expected over the Polish uprising arid, iii the event of
war, our squadron was to threaten English ships ‹n the ñtlantit.
V*e were to reach America unobserved by the English ; hence our
 C R O S SGI N T IN E A T L A N T I C i
course lay to the north ; for we avoided the usual route from Eng-
land to New York, by making this detour, steering a course where
not a single ship could be met. On our z'ay we put in at Kie1
days, to coal, keeping the object of our cruise a close secret.Flow Kiel
were to proceed to New York without a stop. the
greater part or this voyage wa9 to be made under sail, for we
would not have had coal enough for so long a cruise. By dou-
bling the for th of England, we no longer met any ships whatever.
On entering the Atlantic, our c1ippei• encountered stubborn head
winds which of ten attained the force of gales. Though under
full sail, we often literally made no head ay for days at a time,
owing to the strong contrary winds. The weather was quite cold
and damp. Prequ »tly cooking was done, since the clipper
rolled horribly under the huge waves.While crossing the route
of hurricanes, which, at this season of the ycar, issue from the
Antillean waters along the coast of North America and turn
across the ocean toward the English coast, we noticed one fine
day that we were entering the area of one 9f these hurricanes.
A sharp fall in the barometer and a closeness in the air announced
its «pproach, The wlnd grew stronger and stronger and constantly
changed its id Erection from left to right. Enormous waves
e ere raised. )Ve kept under one small sail. Night came and
the ligh tning flashed. The rolling of the sea was terrific. To-
ward morning, the risc in the bai•ome ter denoted the passing of
the hurricane. IVe had cut across its right wing not far from
centre. All was well; though violent storms continued to give
us trouble.
Near the American coast we crossed the warm current—, the
Calf Stream. I remember how surprised and delighted we were,
When we went on deck in the morning,— to see the colour of the
ocean utterly changed: from green-grey it had turned to a wonder-
ful bluc. Instead of chilly cutting air, we had 2z.5 ° F., the son
and delightful weather. Exactly as if we had reached the tropics.
Ever) moment fi yiog-fish leaped from the water. At night, the
ocean glistened with magnificent phosphoresccnce. The same on
the following day: a thermometer was dipped into the water
2z.3 °F. On the morning of the third day after we h»d entered
the Gulf Stream a change once more : grey skies, chl lly air, the
colour of the otean —grey-green, the temperature of the water
42 II Y hI LT S I C A L L I F E
3 9° —i i °F., the flying fish gone. Our clipper had eotcre d a neW
cold current, rulining J›a rellel to the G Ulf Stream. IYe bent our
course to the southwest tow a i d her York and soon began to
sigkt merchantmcn . in Ottolaer ( I don't recall the date) the
Aineric aD coast grey visibl e. lie took on a pilot, and soon
entered the Hudson and dropped anchor in New York, where we
found the othcr ships of our squadron.
We remalned in the United Statc9 from October, I S 63, until
April, i 86d. Rcsitles N'e›v Y ork, we visited Annapolis and Pal-
timore, From C hesapc ak e B.iy we went sight-se eln g in IYa sh-
ingtoli. During our stay at finnapol is, it was (iitte rly cold, tcm-
peraturu down to z * ¢ r zero ; the river whc rc our clipper and
the corvette Uuryop lay, froze Ov er. The ice was so firm that we
attempted to walk on it. But the cold snap lasted only two or
three days and then the ri Ver opened.
We (midshipmen and of cers) got a chance to run down to
Niagara from Ncw York. ThC trip was made on the Hudson
River by boat to rllbany and from there by train. The
hacks of the Hudson proved veicy beautiful and N i age ra Falls made
the most marvellous 1 mpressi on on us. I think it o as November.
Thc 1eaves oil the trees ever c many•coloured, the wee ther was fine.
Wc climbed over all the rocks, › eat under the arch of the water-
fall as far as we could on the C;inadian sidc ; we rowed in a boat as
near as possible ur to the I alls. The impression made by the
falls, vice cd from ]r]) I OF 5 pO1sts, especially from thc Tc rrapia
Ton er, is incomparable. This tower is built on rocks at the brink
of the falls ; it is reached t›v•er a ligh r bridge thrown from Goat
Island, u hich di vidcs the Falls in two : the Anne i ican anal the
Canadian (Horseshoe Fills) . The roar of the I ails is indescrib-
able and is audible foi mile s ai•ound. The .)mericans took us to
Niagara Falls at thei r oirn expense, with One hospl tality to their trans-
fitlan tic f ricnds. IVe z ere shown to rooms iB a magnificcnt hotel.
All thc officers and rnidshiFmen of our squa dron, dii-ided
into two parties, took part in the trip. .Sdmiral Lycsovski q'as
in our party. aft the N i alara Hotel I was asked to play for the
entertainment of the company. Of course, I objected, went to my
room and put tny boots at the door, pretending I was asleep, but,
at Lyesovski’s order clelivered to me by some one through the door,
I was obliged tn dress and come to the salDTt. I sat dDwn at the
 N E W Y OR K 43
piano and played, I think, the Krakovyak and something clse from
A Li fe for 1 hc Psar. Soon I noticed that nobody was 1isteni’ng
to me ; they were all busy talkiu g to my accompaniment. Under
corer of the conx er9ation, I ceased playing and went to bed. The
next evening, they did not disturli mc again ; nohody carer) for my
playing ; it had been called for to satisfy the mci e 1'him of Lyesov-
ski who unde i stood absolutely nothing of music and did not like
it at all. By thc way about Lyesox•ski. (Ie z•as a v ell-kn own
seaman, formerlj commander of the frigate Niuitd which had
gone doe'n nea i Japan during an earthquake. I-yesovski was
notorious for his irascible and ungovernallr trrnper and once,
in a fit o( wrath, had rushed up to a sailor, guilty or some
oflence, and bitten of his nose, for which he subscquently ob-
tained a pension for him, accordiflQ tO f Cport,
After two days at Niagara Fal1s, ene returned to New York Dy
2nother route, through Elmira, ii hen we passed u itliin sight of
Lake Eric and I.ake Ontario. Our clipper again replacc‹l spars in
L’ew York, the very spars which had just been mede for it in Eng-
land. Of the seren months spent by us in .AmeriCR, we stayed the
first three or four rnonths in New York, then made a trip to Chesa-
peake 13ay, Annapolis and Baltimore, as I have alr c ady mentioged.
rhe last two months o e spent age in in hTew ) ork. The expected
war wit h England had not materialired, and c did not have to
prirat eer and thre aten Ë nglish merch a ntmen in the Atlantic.
\Vhile we rere in C(iesapeake Bay, the frigate Al ycksundr F' ez•s ki and
thc corvctte U if)' az went doq'n to I lavaua. Touw rd the end of
our stay in North .fimerica the ivh oie squadron assembled in New
York. Dm‘iog the ivhole of our st ay iD the United States, the
mhm ericans were engaged in their Civil )J*ar. The Northern and the
Southern states fought over the question of slave-holding. We
fo11r›wcd the course of events with deep interest, though we kept
exclusively n'ithin the nor thc rn tcrritory, which fought under
Prevident I-incol o for the emancipation of the Negroes.
How did we pass the time while in z\me rice ? U*e supervised
our work, stood watch, read a grea t deat, and made rather stupid
trips ashore one uf ter amoth er. On shot-e Ieare, arriving at a new
place, we usually went to see what was vortk whit e. We visited
restaurants and lounge d about, eat'ing and occa st onally drinking.
There were no great revels among us, but an extra quantity of e'ine
 9 M Y 61 U 8 I C A L L I F E
came somehow to be consumed rather often. On such occasioni I
did not lag behirid the others, although I was net er among the
leiders in this respect. Once, I remember, our whole midship-
min's ward-room sat down to z•rite letters. Somebody ordered a
bottle of wine i it was immediately cmpticd “for inspiration” ; then
followed auother, and a third ; the letters were forgotten and soon
the whole company went askore, where the catousal continued.
Occasionally such drinking-bouts wound up by vist ts to street
wonnen how base and dirty !
In New York I hcard rather poor performances of Meyerbeer's
Robert le Diable and Gounod's Faust. I had entirely given up
music, save for playing the harmoDifiute, every now and then, to
entertain the midshipmen's ward-room or duets on this instrument
with the violin played by the American pilot, Hr. Thompson. He
and I played various national American anthems and songs ; to his
great anna zcment, I imiuediately played, by ear, the accompani-
ments to tune› I had heard for the first time,
By .lpril, i 8 6¢, it bccame known that there would be zo e ar with
England, and that our squadron would be sent on another mission.
liideed, our Glipper loon received or dcrs to sail to the Pacific
around Cape Horn, so that a voyage arouod the world awaited us,
i. e. two or three moTR yt ars of navigation. The corvette Faryap
had received similiar orders ; the other ships ware to return to
Europe. For some reason, Captain Z elyony was most reluctant to
go around the worId. But I received the nen's with joy rather
than otherwise. By that time I had grown almost una ccustorne d to
music. Letters from Balakirefi came rarely, since I, too, ivrote him
but rarely. Thoughts of bccomi ng a musican and composer grad-
ually left me altogether : distant lands began to allure me, some-
how, although, properly speaking, naval service never pleased me
much, and hardly suited my cd aracter at all.
In April, our clipper left New York to proceed to Cape Horn.
Ships Mailing at this scason of the year fromL the nited States to
Cape Horn, usually terri East to Europe, taking advsntage of the
prevailing westei•n winds, then, a short distance f rom the Azores,
they go south and, Cittching the fa vourable northe ast trades, cross
the equator as far as possible the American coast, that the
southcast trades of the Southern Hemisphere may by their direction
prove the more advantageous for reaching Rio de Janeiro or
 CAPTAINZELYOhY 43
M ontevideo, where ships usually call before rounding Cape Horn.
We, too, did this. Our voyage from New York to Rio was made
under sail in sixty-five days. The length of the voyage was due,
in the first place, to the fact that the clipper b/#tdz proved in-
sulfici ently fast in spite of our twice re-fitting its masts ; secondly,
because Captain Zclyony was a sorne\Vhat tiirii d st amao and dis-
trustlul man. He had no tai th at all in his oJficcfs of the u atch
and his first lieutenant, L. V. h4ikhayloff. l-le obliged them to
tai ry Small sails, which were taken in at the slightest blow of wind.
N Thile merchantmeri we met were under full sail, we zever vcfl tured
to imitate them, kut crept slowly along. During the voyage Ze-
lyony spent all tlay on deck in personal command of the vessel and
dored at right, in his clothes, sitting on the steps of his cabin ready
to rush at the first noisc and take over the cornmaad. Owing to
such distrust, the oPicers of the watch lost their iodependence and
referred every ti•1 fie to the commander who used to berate them at
their sllghtest tai time and humiliatc thcm before the crew. He
was disliked by both ofFcers and midshipmen, for his habits of
rudeness and dlstrust ; he was disliked also because they felt it
was impossible to Main experience nader his direction. On Snndays,
having first assembled the whole crew befoi e the ikon, Zelyony
usually recited prayers himsell, and then, on the upper deck, read
the navy laivs and regulz tiolis which proclaimed his unlimited
power over the crew. He disliked flogging; the crew and for this
one must give him crc dit ; but he was too free with his hands, and
was giren to coarse and indecent language.
But let me leave those impressions of the voyage which concern
only nat al ser vicc, naval art and people, impressions of which
enough has already been grid, and let me turn to my impressions
of the cruise as a vcyage in the oarrower sense of the word. Those
were impressions or an entirely different kind.
At first our cruise was Of the same rough nature as our pa9sage
from Russia to New York had been. Fresh and stormy winds
accompanicd us on our way to the coast of Europe, although this
time the (tlantic was less treaclierous oz ing to the comiog of the
spring season. Soon after our soUtherly turn (not far from the
Azores) the weather hogan to improve, the sky to grow more and
more azure, ever more wai’mth was wafted through the air ; finally
we entered the zone of the northeastern trade wind9 and soon
46 M Y 8J U S I C .4 L L I F E
crossed the Tropic of Cancer. )\*onderful weather, an even warm
wind, a gently agitated sea, a dark-azure sky with white dappled
c1oud9, did not change during our entire passage through the
blessed zone of the trades. IYooderful days and wonderful nights I The
ma i•§rcl1 ous dark-a zurc colOur of thc sky by day would be
replaced by a fantastic phosphorescent light at night. its we went
further south the t» iligh t grew shorter and shortcr, w)iile the
southern sky e'ith the new constellations was disclosed more and more.
\Vh at radiaDce of the II ilky with the constellation of
the Southern Cross, ivh at a z'onderful star C anopus (in the con-
stellation i¥rgo) , the stars of the Centaur, the brightly blaz ing red
Antares ( in the Scorpion) , risible in Russia as a pale sta r on
bright sumrnc r nights ! Sirius, known to us from winter sigh ts,
looked hcre t»•ice as large and hright. Soon all the stars of both
hemisphercs became visible. The G rc zt Dipper hung low just
abovc the horizon, while the Souther n Cross rose higher and higher.
The light of the fuIl moon dipping in and out among the heaping
clouds was simply dar.z1ing. Wonder ful is the tropical ocean with
its azure-colour and phosphorescent light, wonderf u1 are the trop-
ical sun and clouds, but thC tfiOplcal night sky ovcr the ocean i9 the
most z onderf u1 thing in the world.
As we approached the equa tor, the diflerencc in temperature be-
tween day and night ste adily diminished ; 8 6°F. (in the sha dc, of
cour9e) by day, 8<“f“. at night ; the temperaturc of the water also
86°F. or 84°f“. I did not feel thc hcat. The magnificent trade
wind gives one a sc nsation somch ow uf warm coolncss. To be
sur\e, it as stifi ing in the cabins at night ; that is why I liked night
watch, z'hvn tone coul‹l brc at he wonderful air and) admire the sky
and sea. Owing to the danger from sharks, wc doused each other
several times a day, instead of bathing in the sea. Once, for a long
time, we watched a shR rk sw ImmiiJg bChlnd our ship. )Ye tricd
to catch it, but did not succeed, somehow. ))'c often saw whales
spouting ; flying-fish ›v ere risible on both sidcs uf the ship from
morning till night. One of them eren flew up and tumbled on deck.
We made a two or three day call at Porto-Grande on the Cape
1'cr‹1e Islancis. ¥ desc rt and stony island with wretched, scorch-
ing i egctati on, anal a small tr›wn iv ith only a coal sul°p1y, gave us
neve rthelc ss a cer t at n dcgrc c t›f diver st on : u e had a ridc on dOn-
keys, which the negro boys who guided them mercy lcssly prodded
 R1ODEJAN1E R O 7
and beat with clubs. Having taken on a surply of prorisions and
coal, the clipper started for Rio de J zneiro. We crossed the calm
zone under sail. I lot w-eather, a cloudy sky, frequent rain-squalls,
attended our passa ge thrOugh this zone. Gloomy water-sp outs in
the shape of funnels joini ng cloods and sea z-ere frequently vis-
ible on the hor i zon. The crosslDg of the equa tor was st gnalizct1 by
th(i US8al feStI val of the Proccssion of Neptune and eva ter•dousings
—a festival devrilied mand times in almost ever y book of tr vels.
Haring crossed the calm zone, we met wit h southe ast ern tradcs, and
wond er full tropt cal we atlic r rctui-neal. The nearer we came to
the Tropic of Capricorn the Jower and lower the €ircater Dipper sank
( the Pola i star had ranished l ong defore) , and( the Southern Cro9s
shone high er and lii glier. =hboiit June r o the B ra xlli an coast
came into view ; the rock callcd the Silgar Loaf iodie ated the cn-
trance to the Hay of Rio dc Jaiieiro, and soon wc anchorcd in the
roadste ad of Bio de Janet ro itscl f.
W hat a strikiog Alace ! The l›ay, shut ln on all sidcs, but pa-
clous, is surrounded lv green-cl ad mount ains topperl by Corcova do,
at whose foot the clty lies strctched. It wsa s Jimc the win ter
month of the Southern I Icmisphere. But what a wonder fu1 winter
under the TrO IC of Capricorn 1 72 °F. or so in the shade in the
daytime, 3 i "— 6°F. at night ; frequent thunder-stOrfriS, but gen-
erally ele ar and mild weather. Thc water til the bay v,-as green-
blue bJ day and phosphoresce nt at night, the shores and mountains a
gorgeous grccn. The city and the docks teemed with ne groes of
every ]aossible shade from brovn to glossy bl‹tck, some in shii ts,
some half-naked i the hrazilians dresse d in black coats anct top-kate.
The market was filled z itli endl est qiianti tien of oranges, china-
oranges and w onderftil ban anas ; as wall as monkeys and parrots. Thc
fiTew World, the Southern lJemiS]aliere, a tropical winter in June !
Everything was difler ent, not the same as with us in Russia.
I roamed about a gcod deal with my comr iides, espccially with
I. P. A ndreycfi in the envii•ons of Rio, in thc woods and mountains,
taking tramps of zo—z 3 miles a day and cnjoying the bcauties of
nature and the magnificcn t si ghts. Sereral trees I went to the
Tijuca katerf al1s, and climbed t) e rnoont a ins, COrcovado and
Govia. Once our party lDSt its way and (t acl to stay overnight in
the woods, but that » as not daNyerous, as th erc are no v ild beasts
in the caviron9 of the clti . I r.leo en joprq d visitiiig the botanical
 8 RI Y M U 8 I C A L E£1 F
garden with its marvellous alley of royal palms, tall and straight
a8 co1unins• I found pleasure in looking at the wonderful and
varied trees of the garden. In addition to the native flora, A iatIC
plants grew there too, like the clore-tree, the cinnamon-tree, the
camphor laurel, etc. Tiny humming birds and huge butterfi res flew
ahout by day, while in the evening gleaming insects flitted in the
air.
Two or three days we spent at the Brazilian Emperor’s residence,
Metropolis, a small town in the mountains. There we made a
splendid trip to the I matoreti I\"atcrfalls, in the 9urrounding woods
of which remarkably tall tree-like ferns grew. Nor can I forget the
marvellous long and sombre bamboo alley ne ar Rio which looked
like a Gothie arch formcd by the touching tops of the bamboo-trees.
Altogether we stayed fn Rio de )aaciro nearly four- for the
following reason. After a two weeks' stay we had bidden f areivell
to Rio and had gone southw ar d toward Cape Horn. In the lat-
itude of St. Catherine's Island a strong pamperp blew up ¡ that
is the name of the stores which frcqucntly burst forth near the
banks of the Rio de la Plata. The wind was very strong, the sea
waves rose huge, but, for some reason, this time the captain kept
the clipper under steam. The streiv laid bore with each rising of
the stern caused a tremendous vibration, soon it turned out that the
vessel had sprung a bad leak. It was impossible to proceed ; we
had to turn to Rio de Janeiro and dock for repairs. A report
was forwards d to Russia that the clipper v as unseaworthy for a
long voyage around the world. The report contained a good
many exaggerations ; thus in describing the pamperos it said that
the ship’s deck. had been rippling like piano keys. One way or
another, repairs were a necessity. The repairs took time, and the
report had been sent. The o-ork of repairing kept us at Rio until
October, i. e. until orders came from Russia for us to give up the
idea of a v oyage around the \Vor1d ( to the captain's delight, be it
said) and return to Europe.
Having finishctJ the work of patching up the leak, and before
the final order to leavc for Europe had been received, our clipper
went for a few days' artillery practice from RI O de Janeiro to the
small island Ilha Grande, situated not far south of Rio. At Ilha
Grande we stayed five or six days. It is a mouota inou9 little is-
land, covered with a thick tropical forest. There are sugar and
 RETURN T O r nOr E )g
coffee plantations at one end of it. We walked a great deal in its
wonderful woods. Soon after our return to Rio Janeiro fi•om Ilha
Grande thc orders arrived. By now it was October : the
was beginning and the heat incr0aSIflg. Somewhat regretfully,
I left Rio with its w onderful natural beauties.
Our clipper headed for Cadiz, where we were to await further
instructions. Our return voyage to the Northern Hemisphere was
made in nOme 6o or 63 day9. Once more came the z•onderful
zones of the trade winds, but in reverse order ; the appcarance of
the stars of the L'orthern Hemispher c and the disappearance of the
Southern constellations, Somewhere this side of the equatoi-, it was
our good fortune to witness, two nights in succession, an extraor-
dinary phosphorescence of the ocean. Probably we had gotten
into the so-called Sargasso Sea, a region abounding iR seaweeds and
mollusc9, which lcnd special force to the phosphorescence of the
water. A rather poz-e rful tra‹1e was blowing and the ocean was
rough. The whole sea surface I rorn the ship to the horizon was
flooded with phosphorescent light which cast its reflection on the
sails, Whoever has not seen it, cannot ima grate so be autiful a
sight 1 On thc third sigh t the phosphorescence of the seater di-
minished and the ocean assumed its nocturnal aspcct. )Ve reached
Cadiz early in December, I lielieve. Having remained there some
three days, z e made, as per instructions, for the h I editerranean
Sea. •rr‹re o e mere to join, at Vill:ifranta, I-yesovski’s squadron,
deta iled to the now deceased Tsarcvich Nikolay Alyeksandrovich,
who was ill and spending the winter in Nice. On our way we
called at Clbraltar, where we went to see the famous rock and
fortifications ; we also put in at Port hf ahon on the Island of
Minorca. To tropical warmth we had lnng bidden farewell : still
the weather wa9 fine, though cool. The same we ather greeted
us also at Villafranca, which we reached toward the end of Decem-
ber.
At Yillafranca e c found and j oined Lyesovski’s squadron. 'Our
stay at I'illafranca was varied by short trips to Toulon, Gcnoa and
Spezia. When In Toulon I visited hI arseilles, and from Genoa
I went to the famous I'illa Pallavicini. A pleasant walk tu b’1ce
was my usual astime on days free from duty. I also took walks
to the mountains with 1. P. Aodrcyef. Beautiful stony moun-
tains, olive am1 orange groves and a magnificent sea, made a
yo h1 Y 81 U S I C A L L I F E
charming imprcssioo on me. I man aged also to visit the notorious
II onaco, whcre a stearnci• callc d ñu/fdop used to run in from Villa-
franca ¡ it had a reputation for its unusually disagreeable rolling,
So that 1, who had gi-O z n accustomed to ocean rolling, became sea-
sick on the trip to onaco. I tried my hand at roulette ; but
having lost several gold pieces, stoppcd, as I had not dereloped
any taste for the game. There was an Italian opera at Nice at
the time, but I did not atteo‹l it. during my ti i ps aslior e with my
COlTlPa des, who were fon‹1 of musir, I of ten playc d on the piano
Gounod 's Faith I which I h. d hea rd iii Ncw ) ork. Just then Fan I
was bcgl nning to be popular. I procur ed a piano score somewhere.
h'Iy audience were in ruptures ; truth to tell, I liked it myself a good
deal then.
fly comrades and I were then aire ady advanced to be mldshlp-
men ( i. e. real ofiice rs) and admitted to thc oHcers’ ward-room, In
April the Tsarcvich died. Hls body was transferred with
great ceremony tO the f rigate ?l I j chs nti lr ?5’Jrr.i#i, and our cnttre
squadron sta rted for Russia. \Ye called at Plymouth and C hris-
trans and. In N orw ay it was warm in April and everything was in full
lca f. From Cliri str ansa nd I went to see a beautiful wate rI all whose
name I don't remember. sts we were wearing the Gulf of
( inland, the weather kept getting folder and colder ; we even met
with icebergs in the gulf. lii the latter Fart of April we cast -
anchor in the CroBst adt rna dstc ad.
My sailing in for cign lands was over. hI any ineffacc able mem-
ories of the wonderful beau ties of nR ttlrc Of diS ta rlt lanti s anal the
distant ocean, many mean, coarse anal repulsive impressions of
naval service I broiigh t bRC$ with inc f rom the voyage which had
lasted two years and ciph t mon ths. find ivh at of my music ?
fifusic had been z holly forgottc n, an‹l my inclination toward artis-
tic activity had been stifled ; s‹› sti he‹t that, a f ter having gone to
see my mother, cv brother’s f ami ly a;id i3 alakiref , all of whom
soon left St. Petersliurg for thc summer season, I did not cnncc i n
myself with music at all, though I sla cn t thC summer in Ci•onst adt
marking after the dismantling of the c1i(›pcr, a rrel loathing with an
oHcer friend, K. E. Zarnhrz It itiJn i, ho h act a piano. I cannot
consider as work the playiog of sonatas for the piano :ind violin.
The latter was played by amateurs , naval friends of mine, who
 Ah OFE
FIC R - A M A T E U, R 3i
visited me from time to time. I myself becarrie an oPicer-amateur,
who was not avsrse to playing or hearing music ; but my dreams
Of ar tlStiC activl ty had enti reJy faded, and I felt uo sorrow over the
dreams that were gone.l
Written in Februftry and March I 8g ,
 CHAPTERVI
86 66
Return to music. Acquaintance with Bo;-odin. M y first symphony.
fialakirelt and the members of his circle. The performance of the first
symphony. 4 he musical life of the circle. Overture on Russian themes.
hIy first song.

In September i 8 6 , when the dismantling of the clipper Afmoz

coded, I was transferred to St. Petersburg with a portion of
the first naval crew, of which our clipper's company formed a part,
and then began my life ashore and in St. Petersburg.
fly brother with his family and my mother returned to St. Peters-
burg af ter the summer. My musical friends, Balakirefi, Cut and
II esoi gski, also arrix•ed. I began to visit Balakirelf, and again
commenced first to get accustomed to music and, later, to plunge
into it. Much z ater had run under the bridges while I was
abroad, much that was new had come into the world of Music.
The Free hlusit School had been established ; Ba1ak'irefi and G.
Y. Lomakin had become joint conductors of its concerts. On the
stage of the Rlariinski Theatre ludillt ' had been produced and its
author Syerofl had made a name for himsel I as a composer.
Richard U*agoer had come at the invitation of the Philharmonic
Society, had made the music world of St. Petersburg acquainted
with his works, and the orchestra had given model performance9
under his direction. After Wagner's example, all conductors have
since turned their backs to the audicflCe and faced the orthestra,
in order to have it under their eyes.
During my first visits to Balakirefl's I heard that a new member,
of great rromise, had made his appearance in the circle. He was
* The book of this ope ra is friUuded on Giustin‹api'9 tsiuditta which Syerofl and
hi z libreft ist had seen Ristori perform. 9’he style of the mu s‹c i i said to rec8ll
farmhon ser and Lo /icnpriii. XVi›en \Vagsiier isited SI. Petersburg in Liarch, z86j
Gyeroif «ubmittcd th c score to him, and the composer i# said to have ex-
prexted his approval of the orchestration. C. Y. Y,
 B OR ODI N y3
A. P. Borodin. When I pved to St. Pete(sburg, he was not
there, as he had not returne to town after the summer. Balaki-
reft played me fragments of the first movemc qt of his sviDphony
in E f(at major, which astonished rather than pleased me. Soon
Borodin came ; I was introduced to him, and our friendship dated
from that time, although he was soms t o years older than I. I
was introduced to his wife, Yekatyerina Sergeyevna. Borodin z'as
alreody profcssor of chemlstry at the hIedical Academy then, and
lived near the Liteyny B r1dge in the Academy building. He
remained until his death in the same apartmcnt. B orOdin liked
my symphony, which Balakireff and I\Jusorgski p)a ted four-ha nds.
Though he had not finlshed the first move ment of hij 9ymphony in
E flat major, he already had material for the othCr movemcots,
which he had composed abroad during the summer. I z as de-
lighted with these f ragment , having now fully graspc d the first
inovement which had mcrely astonished me on first hearing. I
bec4me a frequent visitor at Borodin's ; of ten staying overnight as
well. We discussed music a great deal ; he played his projected
works and shoived we fhe skefches of the symphony. He was
bitter informed than I on the practical side of orchestratiOH, kg he
played the cello, oboe and llute. Borodin was an exceedingly cor-
dial and cultured man, pleasant and oddly wi tty to talk wi th. On
visiting him I of ten found him working in the laboratory which
adjoined his apartment. U'hen he sat ove i• his retorts filled with
soms colourle99 gas and distilled it by mcans of a tube fi•otn one
vessel into another, I used to tell him that he was “transfusing
emptiness into vacancy,” 1 Having finished his work, he would
go with me to his apartmcnt, whe re we began musical operations or
conversations, in the midst of whiCh he used to jump rp, run back
to the Jaboratory to see whethcr sorn#thing had not burnc d out Or
boiled over ¡ meanwhile he Alled the corridor, with incredible se-
quences from successions of ninths or sevenths. Then he would
come back, and we procecded with the music- or the interi upfed
conversation. Yekatyetina Sergeyei na was a cha rrning, culturcd
woman, an excellent pianist, and she w-orshipped her husband's
talent.
Our company, now transferred to St. Petersburg, was quartered
' The Rusaian expression for "chewing the reg” or the xseieic word of the
Danzids. J. A. ).
Jq A( Y 5f S I C A L L I F E
in the Galernaya 'Gavañ, In the so called Dyeryabin house. I
lived in a furnished room on the 15th Line of the Vasilyevski
Ostro v,' with a printer or compositor of some sort. for dinne r
I used to go to my brother’s at the Naval School. I could not
live with my people at the time, as the Director’s apartment, la rgc
though it was, had no spare room. fly duti es did not keep tne
very busy. Every morning I had to spend two or three hours at
the oi)ice in the D yer yabin house, where I kad ckzrge o( corre-
spondence, scribbled all manner of reports and statements which
began : “I have the honour to report to Exce11••ncy” or
"Enclosing heren'ith a copy, I beg to,” etc.
I visited B alzkireft very of ten. C uming in the evenl ng I occa-
sionally remained overnight. hIy visits to BorOdin I have alre ady
dcscribed. I also visited Chi. Not inf requently our musical com-
pany: Balaki rc ft, Cui, hlusorgski, Bul’Odin, ¥". I”. Stasoff, arid
others gathered at the house of one of the abovc t hree, and a gre:i t
deal of fOUr-hand playing was ‹done. L rged by Bal4kirelf, I
turned once more to my own symphony ; (OY tllC Scherzo I irrotc
the trio which until then had l›een lacking; aga io, at his suggestion,
I re-orchestrated the whole symphony and rna‹ie a clean copy of it.
Balakired, then conducting with G. Y. Lomakin the concerts of tire
Free .4fusic School, dcci ded to produce it and orrlered the orChes-
trol pai ts to be copied. But what a terrible score it was ! O I
this, however, l atcr ; I shall say onl r that though I had picked up
all sorts of smatterings, I did not know the a b c of theory at the
time. Net ertheless thc symJ›hOn)' in E fat minor was in existence
and m1rked for performatiCe. The concert was announced for
December i S th in the hall of the Town Council and was preceded
by two rehearsals—the usual number in those d1 vs. The conduc-
tor's art was then a mystc ry to rue, and I looked with awe upon
E l kire0 who was of the initiatcd. HIS QOlny to the chorus
rehears•als of the School and the stoi i••s about these rehe arsals,
about iomakin, shout various things musical and various promi-
nent musical folk of St. Petersburg, all thls WCS full of mysterious
fascination for mc. I realized that I was a mere boy z'ho had
composed something, but that I was also an insignificant ignorant
1 On the Vasi l yevsk i Ostrov (Ya silyevski i •I nñ ) erery Street consist s of two £ inch,
the right side of the ¥1reet ( reckoned from the Ore at I i)eva I being denoted by ev-en
numbers (Line •. 4. °•«-I . ‹he left 8ide by dded numbers. C. \’. V.
 II US O R G S KI y3
naval officer who could not even play decently. And tkere, on tke
other hand, were the stories about this and that having to do with
music, about thCsc or Other “real” z orkers, and with all this Bala-
kirefi, z-lio kncw ererything and was respected by ei Terybody as a
real musician. Cui had already entered upon his activitics a
critic on the St. Pe lersburg V yedo mos ii ( Korsh's) and hence,
bCsidc the love for his compositions, he, too, compelled involuntary
admiration as a real iv-orker in the field of art. -As for Musorgski
and Rorodin, I regarded them as comrades rather than
teachers like Balakireñ and Cui. Borodin’s compositions had not
been per(ormcd ‹is yet, and his fret tunsidcr able work, the sym-
phony in E flat ma jor had just been begun ¡ in orchc stration he
was as inexperienced as I, although he knew the instruments bettc r
than I did, after all. As for hlusorgski, even though a fine
pianist and excellent singer (true, no longcr in such good voice
as formerly) an‹( though, of his smaller r ieces, a schei zo in B
flat major and tlie chOrus f rorn CEdipu: had already had public
performances under Benton Rubinstein, he yet had little knowl-
edge of orchcstra titan, as his compositi ozs performed in public
had gone throug•h Dalakireft’s hands. On the other hand music
was not his specialty and he gave himsel f over to (t only in his
leisure hours ; his rcal service lay in one of the ministries. By
the way, Borodin told me that lie recalled ifi lusorgski still as a
very young man. Borodin was on duty as physician in a military
hospital and ñlusorgski was of cer on duty in the same hospital,
still serving in the Guards then. There it was they had met.
Soon after that, Boi odin mct him again at the house of mutual
friends, and M iisorgski, a stripling of an oflicer, speaking French
magnificc ntly, was entertaining the ladies by playing something
from ff Trovatorc. V›’hat times! I sh:tl1 observe that, in the
sixtics, Ilalakirelt anal Cut, tkough vetv intimate with Rlusorgslci
am1 since rely fond of hirn, treated him like a lesser ligh t and of
little promise at that, in spite of his undoubted talent. It seemed
to them that there was somcthing missing in him and, in their
eyes, he was in need of adricc and criticism. flalakireff often
said that h)usorgski ha‹1 “no head” ar that his “brains z'ere
weak.” ñIeanz•hile the following relations had established them-
° From the beginning lie spared no effort i u his endeavour to sup9tcss the vogue of
Italian opera, and to elevate Russian opera to a at ate of favour. C. Y. Y.
y6 MYMUSICALLIFE
selves between Cut and Balakirefi: Ba1akir«tf thought that Cut
understood little in symphony and musical forms and nothing in
orchestration, but was a past master in vocal and operatic music:
Cui, in turn, thought Balakirefi a master in symphony, form and
orchestration, but having little liking for operatic composition and
vocal music in general. Thus they complemented each other, lout
each, in his own way, felt mature and grown up. But Boroditi,
M usorgski and I we were immature and juvcnile. Obviously,
toward Balakiretf and Cut, we were in somewhat subordinate rela-
tions ; their O Inion9 were listened to unconditionally, we "smoked
them in our pipes” and accepted them. Balakiretl and Cut, on the
other hand, really did not need our opinions. Accordingly, the
relations of Borodin, hJusorgski and myself were those of ColTr-
rades ; but toward Balakirefi and Cut we were in the position of
pupils. Moreover, I have already mentioned how I worshipped
Balaki relt and considered him my alpha and omega.
After successful rehearsals, at which the musician9 looked at me
with curiosity, since I wore a military coat, the concert itself took
place. The program consisted of Mozart's R «qoiem and my
symphony. The Myel'nikofi brother9 were among the soloists
singing in the R eqiiiem. I think I. A. AIyel'nikOll made his debut
then. The symphony went off we]l. I wa9 called out and sur-
prised the audience considerably w\th my o9itct's uniform.
Many people came to be introduced and congratulated me. Of
course, I was happy. I deem lt necessary to mention that
I felt almost no nervousness be fore the concert, and that scant
disposition toy ard nervousness as aUthor has remained with me all
my life. It seems to me the press spoke favourably of my work,
though not over-favourably; and Cut wrote a very sympathetic
article in the Peierhur gs ki ya V yedomosti (The St. Petersburg
Gazette) referring to me as the Jr i to compose a Russian sym-
phony ( Rubinstein did not count 1) , and I accepted it on faith
that I was the first in the succession of Russian symphonic
composers.^
Shortly after the performance of my symphony a dinner of the
members of the F’ree Music School took place to which I, too,
was invited. Various speeches were made and my health was
drunk.
Writtelt at Yalta (Crimea) on June zs, i 8q3.
 CONDUCTOR S 2
In the spring of i 8 66 my symphony performed again, but,
this tim• t not under Balakirelt. During Lent, when there were
no performances at the theatres, the Board of Directors used to
give symphony concerts ; originally they had been directed by Karl
Schubert, as I ha •e already mentioned, and, after his death, they
were entrusted to the opera conductor, K. N. Lyadofi. The
Board of Directors of the Theatres wished to perform my sym•
phony also. H ow it happened I cannot explain. Probably it
was not arranged withDUt Balakirell's influence on Kologrivofl,
then supervisor of musicians at the Imperial theatres. I delivered
the score to the Box rd, sod my symphony was p)ayed under Lya-
doll's leadership, with some success. I was not invited to the re-
hearsals. Evidently both Lyadoft and the Board cared little for
me. I was not particularly pleased with the performance, al-
though I recall it was not at all bad. But, in the first place, I fe]t
otfende‹l at not having been invited to the rehearsals ¡ secondly,
could I possibly be satis5ed wifi Lyadoll, when I had an only God
Balakiretf ? Moreover, Lyadoil as conductor enjoyed scant fa-
vour in Balakire It's circle, as did all conductors, save Balakirefi him-
self. In his articles, Cut often ranked Balakiref(, the conductor,
with Wagner and Berlioz. In passing, I shall say that at that
time Cut had not heard Berlioz as yet. Balakireil himse1;( doubt-
less believed in his own superiority and power and, to tell the truth,
in those day9, we knew only him, Aston Rubinstein and Lyadott,
among conductors. In this respect, Rubinstein was in bad repute
and I-yadofi was on the down-path owing to loose living. Karl
Schubert was remembered rather pleasantly ; as to foreign conduc-
tors we did not know them except R. Wagner, who was considcrc d
a genius in that respect. And so Balakiref( was ranked with him
and Berlioz, whom only Stasofi remembered. Although I had
heard neither IVagner nor Berlioz, I accepted this judgment.
Accordingly, I was bound to be dissatisfied with the performance
of my symphony at the Board's symphony concert. Still as I re-
call, there were calls for me.
How the spring of i 866 passed, I cannot recall ; all I know is
that I composed nothing, but cannot explain why. It must have
been because composition was then difficult for me through lack of
technique ¡ then, too, by nature I' was not industrious. Balakiref(
did not rush me, did not urge me to work; his own time went sense-
s8 II Y NI U S I C A L L I F E
lessly, somehow. I often spent my evenings with him. As I re-
call, he was then harmonizing the Russian folksongs collected by
him, was tinkering a great deal with them and making many
changes. I gained a thorough knowledge of the song material
collected by him and hls method of harmonizing it. Balakire0
had at that time a large stock of oriental melodies and dances,
memorized during his trip to the Caucasus. He of ttn played
them for me and others, in his own most deligh tful harmonizations
and arrangements. My acquaintance with Russian aurl oriental
songs at the time marked the origin of my love for folk-music to
which I devoted myself subsequently. As I also recall, B alakirell
had the germs of his symphony in C-ma jor. Nearly one-third
of the iirst movement of the symphony had alrea dy been written
in orchestral fOf m. Besides, there were skctches for the Scherzo
and also for the Finale on a Russian theme : Sharlatarla Pro iti
Pu rtarla, that I gave him, as my uncle, Pyotr l’etrovich, had
sung it to me. The second subject in the Fiiialc was to be the
song A my pro s o iJ eJ«/i (And v e were Jilanting millet) in B-minor,
approximately as it appeared in his collection of forty songs.
As for the Sche i zo, Balakire G once improrised its beginning
in my prescnce :

Subsequently, however, he substituted another for it. The fii st

movement of his piano concerto was ready and orchestrated ; there
were wonderful designs for the Adagi o and the following theme
for the Finale :

Then, in the middle of the Finale there was to appear the

church theme : “Jr Ghent bh qryad] ct” (Lo, the bridegroom
 T H E F I ¥’ E U O M P O S' E Jg
cometh) , and the piano was to accompany it with an imitation of
bell-ringing, In addition, he had the beginnings of an octet or
nonet with pi aim in I°-rna jor ; the first movement with the theme :

also a charming Scherzo. (ie was already somewhat cool towards

the opera Char 1’titsa ( I'll-e-bird) whIC11 he has( conceit ed ; but
he pt dyed many splendid fragments, based mostly on oriental
themes. the lions guarding the golden apples and the flight of
the fire-bird over e magnificent. I also recall some chants and the
service of the fire-worskippefs oH a Persian theme:

Cut was thtn composing billing RafrJi¢, if I an not rnlstaketi,

the scene at the Black Stone and Maria's aria were already in
existence. klusorgski was busy writing an opera on a lihretto
taken from Call iuat O.’ Occa sion a lIy he played fragments of it
at Balaki red‘s and Cut’s. These fi’agments called forth the high-
est approval for the beauty of their themes and ideas as well as the
scvc rest censure for dlsorde rl1ness and absurdity. hI adame Cut,
I remsmber, coult) not stand a noisy and absurd storm in this
opera. 11 orodin went on with lits symphony and used to bring
portions of the score to be looked over.
Yt'hat I have tlescribed abore constituted my staple musical food
at that time. 1 constantly spent my evenings at Balaltirefl's and
visited Cut and Borodin pretty often, But, as stated abo›'e, I
' hJ usorgaki began this work in r$ 6j, writing hig OWn I ibrett0, in wh icb, as was
customary with him, he gave the chyru9 a conspicous role, too consp introns, p¢rhap s,
tonsidRT UB the nature of the subject. Y1 e ¢Om]il eted, in the course Of' timc, one
scen e of the second act an d one in both the thi rd and fou rtli acts, a nd t herl he piJt the
work asid e, and ‹lid p ct retu rn to it exCept for the pm rpose of d rawing yarioljs numbers
from it whicb were transferred to his later works. C.Y.V.
6o M Y II U S I C A L L I F E
composed little or nothing during the spring of i 866 and, toward
summer, conceived the idea of writing an overture on Russian
themes. Of course, Balakirefl's orerture iooo Yes’ and the
overture in B-minor were my ideals. I chose the themes:
Clara (Gloria) , On core i Quorn i (At the gates, the gates) and
tea fxatiis hk] e chap an (Iv an has a big coa I on) . B alnklrefi
did not fully approve the choice of the last two, finding them some-
what similar; but, for some red son, I persisted in my view,
evidently because I had succeeded in z riting certain variation9 on
both of these themes and some tricks harmon)', and I was reluc-
tant to part with what had lieen begun.
I spent the summer of i 8 66 mo9t1y in St. Petersburg, save one
month, when I went on the yacht Colne for a sail in the Finnish
sherries. On my return from this brief trip, I composed the pro-
jected overture, and its score was ready toward the end of the
summer. I cannot recall where Balakirefl spent that summer,
most likely at Klin, with his father. ,1fter he had tone back
in the I all, he f requently played tu o oriental themes, subsequently
utilized by him for hig piano fantasy, Zifni/ie '. The lirgt D fat
major theme he had learned in the C iiUCasus, the other in D-ma jor
he had possibly heart that summer in hloscow from some singer,
N ikolayefl, I think. Along with these he began to play more and
more frequently .the theme» of lits orchestral fantasy Ta mara.
For the first subject of the .111egro he took a melody which we had
heard together while visiting the barracks of His Majesty's body-
guard in Shpal yerya; a Street. I vividly recall the men, Orientals,
making music on a balalayka-shaped or guitar-like in9trument. Be-
sides, they sung in chorus the melody ot Glinka's Pet‘sian Cfiorrfi,
though a 1•ariation of it:

In 18 66-6y a considerable part of Zoe era was improvised by

him and was often played for me and othcre. $oon lainmz j, too,
 P I A N O P L A YG I N 6i
bcgan to take form little by little. The symphony in C-major
had not progressed nor had any of the other beginnings.
Among the p'ieces of music looked over in Balakireti's circle and
played particula rly for us, Liszt's compositions, principally his
Me phis to Half er and To dient ann figured more and more fre-
quently since the beginning of the year. To the best of my re-
collection the To dteti tatie was played for the first time hy Gerke,
Professor of the Conservatory, at the Russiao NIusica1 Society's
concert, conducted by Rubinstein in 18 63 or 18 66. Balakircfi
uscd tO FClatc w ith horror Rubinstein’s opinion of this piece.
Rubinst ein had likened this music to a disorderly trampling of the
piano keys or to sometb ing like it. Subsequentl y H ubiostein,
though not fond of I.iszt, Still camc to have a diflerent opinion
of this z'ork. I recall that the Ta dt entan struck me rather
unpleasantly at first, but soon I fathonied it. On the other hand,
M pmis to ÏVal=er pleased me infinitely. I' purchased its score
and even learned to play it passably in my own arrangement.
In general, I applied my9elf that year quite zealously to piano
playing, alone in my roos, I think I lived then on Tenth J inc
in a furnished room, at a rental of some ten rubles a rnonth. I
diligently conned Crerny's Täyliche S Indien, played scales in thirds
and octaves, studicd even Chopln études. These studies were
carried on without the knowledge of B aIakireÏf, who never sug-
gested to me work at the pian though how necessary that was l
Balakire fi had long given me up as a pianist ; usually he played my
compositions himstlf. If occasionally he sat down to play four-
hands with me, he would quit playing at my first embarrassment,
saving he would rather play it afterwards with Musorgski. In
genc ral, he made me feel unconifort able, and, in his presence, I
usually played worsc than I' really knew how. I shall not thank
him for that. I telt that I was making progress in my playing,
after all, working rather hard at home. Bu was a fraid to
play before Balakitefi, and he was utterly unaware of my progress ,
moreover, I was ratc d “without capacity for playing” by others as
well, especially by Cui. Oh, those were wretched times 1 The
circle of ten made fun of Borodin and myself for our pianistic
achievements, and, therefore, we too, lost faith in oarselves. But
in those days I had not yet become wholly disillusioned and was
striving to learn things on the sly. It is siugular that in my
Ö2 hÏ Y h't U 8 I C A L L I F E
brother's house and at the houses of other people outside of
Balakirefi’s circle, they thought me a good player, used to ask mc
to play for the ladics and visitoi s, etc. I played. Dany went
into ecstasies from lack of uoderstanding. The result was a
sort of silly déception,
bly servlce gave me little to dO. ( w zs transferred to the
Eighth h'aval Company, quartered in St. Pet ershurg. bly duties
consisted of attendance for the day en the CompanY and the N aval
Department’ s stores, cal1e‹Ï hew l lolland. Occasionally I v as
assi gned for sentry duty at the prison. bly musical life begao to
cleavc : in one lialf, in B alakiref l's circle, I was considered a mon
of talent for composing, a poor rianist or no pianist at all, an
amiable and short-witted sti ipling of an officer ; in the other hall,
among Juy acquaintances and the relatives of Yoyin AndreyeviCh, I
was a naval oPice r, an amateur, a s ylendf d pianist, a connoisseur
of serious inusiC, COmposing something by the clay, On Sunday
evenings, when young folks, relatives of his wife, would gather
at my brother’s house, I used to p g r$ for their lances, quadrill es
from La Relle HEU ttc or flanc of my own manufacture, and
occasionally, du ring the intcrmi ssions, s-OUl d turii pianist, playi cg
with excellcnt touch some excerpts from operas. Et P. N, Novi-
kova's house I astonished them with tny skill, playing the .lJr5ùisto
Æa/zrr. \t the house of my brother’s friend, P, I. Vyelichkov-
ski, I played four-hands with hh dilUghters. VyeliChkovski playcd
the cello, violinist friends of his also came to the house, and I
arranged the Ix"a inäFf nskal'a and z1 iS i ght in ù’Iadi’id for riolin,
viola, cello and piano IOr four-h ands and eve played thèse.
B alakiref( and his circle had no idea of all thèse exploits ; I carc-
tully concealed from them thèse dilettante activities of ruine.
B alakirefl was not pleased with my overture, but having made
some corrections and suggestions, nerertheless decidetl to perform
it at a concert the Free School. The concert took place on
DeCflmber i i , I8 66, Together with my overture there was also
performed the I/rphiiio If*alzer. ( remember CT. Y. LOmaklri,
listening to the fNaJzrr at tlie rehearsals, half-closing his eyes as
if for r leasure, and telling rue: “How Mikhaj•il IVRftOVlch
(Glinka) loved such music I” \ hat was meant by such music ?
)Prohab1y “sensuous, voluptuous,” Lomakin meant to say. The
Me pliisto IVel••er tlelighted the whole circle and me, of course.
 F I R S T S ON G G3
Balakirefl felt himself conclusively a conductor of genius; the
whole circle, too, thought likewise. My overture went ofi well
and pleased more or le9s. I z'as called out. I recall that it
sounded rather cOlOurful and the percussion instruments had been
distributed be me with taste. I don't remember the prcss notices
Of this performance.
In December, 1 8 66, I think, I wrote my first song: /mfi Eli o yu
k s Itchek ye t y aio)'rv pritu•-his’ (Lay thy cheek aga inst mv ch eek) ,
to Heine's text. Why I conceived the idea of writing it I t)on't
remember. II est l'ikely from a desire to imitate Balakirefi, whose
songs I admired. Balakirefi approved it, but inkling the accom-
p niment insuficiently pianistic, (quite to be expected frOm me
xvhO was no piaJllSt) he recast it cntircly and rcwro ie it in his own
hand. With this accompaniment my song was subsequently pub-
lished.
 CH AP T ER VI
i 866 6
Rogiiyeda. Tlie circle's attitude toward Syeroff. Writing the Serbian
Fantasy. Acquaintance with L.I. Sliestakova. The Slavic concert. Grow-
ing intimacy with )fusorgski. Acquaintance with P. I. ChaykovsLi. N. N.
dyzherlski. Balakireff's trip to Prague. Writing Radio and songs.
Analysis of Sadao.

In the season of i 8 66—62 came the production of R o gn j eda '

at the h(ariinski Theatre. Having produced /oZfii6 while I was
abroad, Syerofl delivered himself of this second opera of his, after
an interval of several years.
R o gn yeda created a furore. Syeroil grew a full foot in ar-
tistic stature. Balakirefi’s circle made considerable fun of
R o gn] eda, pointing out that the idol-worshippers' chorus in Act I'
and a few bars of the chorus in the reception hall were the only
decent things in it. I must confess th t Ro y» du deep
interest in me, and I liked a good deal of it, especially the sorcer-
ess, the idol-worshippers' chorus, the chorus in the reception
hall, the dance of the sk omorokhi ( bufioons) , the hunters’ prelude,
the chorus in 2/4, the finale, and snatches of a good deal more.
I also liked its somewhat coarse, but tolour ful and efiective orches-
tration, whose vigour, by the way, K. N. yadofi consi derably
moderated at rehearsals. All this I did not dare to confess in
Balakirell’s circle and, as one sincerely devoted to the ideas of
the circle, I even berated it before my acquaintances, among whom
my dilettante acuities were going on. I remembc r what a sur-
prise it was to my brother, who liked R ogn yeda. Having heard
the opera two or three times, I carried az ay a good deal and
° fYccor ding to Montagu- N at han, this opera war produce d i o i 86s. He says that
the score “is remarkable for its composer’s secession from lVagnerian influences—
a retrogression to th e style of Ha livy i n able the tern.” For Chaykovski’s criticism,
she Mrs. Ncwmareh's P/ir Rust ian O/zra, Page r 33. SyeroH is represented in
Musoigski’z Peer fifi0w by t)j¢ quotation of e theme from R o nyede. C* Y. V.
4
 T H E R E RB 1 AN F A N T A S Y 6
played parts of it by heart, occasionally even before the dilettantc
half. At that time Syerofi in his articles began to inveigh merci-
lessly against Balakircff as a conductor, composer, and musician
in general. He also got into squabbles z•ith Cut and an unimagin-
able bickering began in the press. Syeroit’ relations e lth Bala-
kireff, Cut, an‹I Stasoff in former days (prior to my appearance
on the musical horizon) are a puzzle to me to this day. Syerolt
had been intimate with them, but why the break occurred i9 un-
known to me. This was passed over in silcnce in Balakiref('s
circle. Snatches o( reminiscences about Syeroll, chiefly ironical,
reached rue in rasping. A scandalous story, of unprintable nature,
was circulatcd about Sycrolf, etc. \Vhen I came into Balakirefi's
circle, the relations between Syerofl and that circle were most
hostile. I suspect that Syeroll would have been glad to make up
with the circle, but Ïl alakiref( was incapable of Conceding it.
In ihe season of 18 66—62 Balakirefi gave much of his time to
scanning folksorgs, principally Slavic and Hungarian. He had
a great number of all possible collections everywhere around
him. I, too, u9ed to peruse them with the greatest pleasure and
with pleasure, too, I listened to Balakireff playiog them in hls om
exquisite harnionizations. During that period he began to
show great interest in Slavic ada irs. Almost at the same time
the Slavic Committee came into being. In Balakirefl’s apartment I
often met Chckhs and other Slavic brethren who came and went. I
listened to their cOnversations, but I confess that I under- stood
them very little, taking a scant interest in the mpvemcot. In the
spring, some Slavic guests were expected, and a concert, which
Balakire fi was to conduct, was projccted In their honour. Apparently
this concert stimulated the composition of the over- ture on Chekh
thèmes, and, contrary to his custom, thts overture was ivritten
raiher rapidly by Balakiretf. I undertook, at Bala- kirefl's
suggestion, to write a fantasy on Scan thèmes, for orche9tra. In
undertaking to compose the e ia n Fantas y, I was not
at all carrled away by Slavism, but rather by the delight- ful
themes Balakirefi had selected for me. 1 wrote the Serbian Fentu:
y rapidly, and Balakirefi liked it. In the 'intr.oduction there
is one correction of his or rather an insert of some four bars ;
with this exception, everything else belongs to me. Save for
the disgraceful use of the natural-scale brass instruments, the
66 31 Y M U S I C A L L I F E
instrumentation, too, is satls factory. Of the fact that chrOfflatlC-
scale brass instruments had already been 1 ntroduced ever here,
Bslakirctf's circle had no inkling then, but, with thc benediction
of its chief and conductor, it followed the instructions of Berlioz'
Trait é d’In Atmmentation regarding the use of the natural-scale
trumpets and breech horns. We selected French morns iii all
possible keys in order to avoid the imaginary stopped notes ; cal-
culated, cOntriv ed, and grew unimaginably confused. And yet
all that would have been necessary was a talk and consultati on
with some practical musician. However, that z as too humiliating
for us. \Ve followed Berlioz rather than some talentless orches-
tra )eader. But before spend ing of the Slavic concei t which did
not take place till spring, I shall relate the f ollowing.
In January or February 18 62 Balakirefl took me along one
evening to see Glinka's sister, Lyudmila Ivano›-na Shestakox•a.
He had known and been friendly with her since Glinka’s time, but
I had not been introduced to her as yet. That evening Lyudmila
Ivanov na had Visitors, amOng them 4. S. DargomyzhskL Cut and
Musorgski, also V. V. Stasofi. Dargomyzhski was, at tlie time,
reported to have begun compOsing music to Pushkin’s Vfie SfO›tr
G flei L l I recall the dispute Stasofl hatt that evening with Dar-
gomyzhski over his R usalka. IVhile paying due respect to many
parts of the oper a, particularly its recitatires, Stasofi strongly re-
proved Dargomyzhski for much that was u eak in his opinion, re-
proaching him especially for main ritoriiel)o9 in arias. Dar-
gomyr hski played o» the piano one of the9e ritornellos disap-
proved by Stasotl ; then he closed the piano and gave up the dis-
cussion, as if to say : “If you can’t apprcciatc this, there is no use
discussin nythlng with you.”
Among Shestakova 's guests was one S. I. Zotora, née Byele-
Poshkin’s versio of the Don Juan legefltj, which differs cotls*dci’abl) from the
otb c r versiop¢, A its account of it and a discuss ion of ot her tlse9 of the legehd
may be ! ound i n uth€ 1’ 9p d Edwards'e I"Jie L yri cal Dra mu ( XS’. V. Allen ;
London ; i88 i). The Stone Gu est, f coij rse, is the statue of the Command c r, ivhlcli
Doii Ju an invites to dine with lit m. D argomjzh Ski's intention was to writ e an opcra which, iil
every respeat, shou1d exempIif y tlie pr*nciP Ice of tlie n eiv R iissian schooL He was
prcoc enpied ›v it h th e ta .•k of mak ink the mu tic the han(Inn ai‹j of the tcat. “With it
hardihood," says hf. Ca lvocor c8si, “unpa raIleled at that lime in the aonals of music a1 history
and \v hich is only to be compr red with that of Debussy when ptanping hjs Pc)(jcz eg
/l;fJ//ymoifp, Dy rgotn5'zh-•ki choee, ip place of tit e e.onventl onz 1 libretto, tht actual txt of
Pil9hkin himsel f.” ’I’lie work was accented by the group as a model and war known
as ”The Gospel.” C. V. Y,
 11.1! 8 O R C• S K I ' S C O )f P O S 1.1 I O N S 6y
nlt!iyn:i, a sister of L. I, Karmalina, the f a mous singer of Da rgom-
yzh ski s o ntl Clinks’s time. mid general acclamation she sang
several songs, irclu‹ling Ilalak lre h's Go?dJi/i, He r singing plea sed
me grea tJ y and give me a desire to compose songs : I had w i it ten
lout one thus for. During the spring I composed three more:
Th e E.a.‹tern R oinanre, The Cradl c Song and ip- sl yo- InoSikh
(Oct of my tears) , and with my own accompaniments, too.
After that I began to visit Lyudmil Ivanovna rather I requeHtly.
f3al akirefl usetl to be there, too. He liked to play cards on occa-
sion, and at I.. I. 's house a card party would be made up for him,
of w firth I nc›-er was one, as I could not bear cards ¡ I had no talent
for card playing, even less SO, perhaps, than for piano playing.
B a lakit c ft liked to p13y cards, but with out stakcs or for a small
stake. l’lie gaming table olfc red a field for his wit, for he was
listened to wi th profound re pcct. ,It times I was doomed to be
an onlookc r nier cl y in order to see B alakiref( home a ftcrwards.
In geiiclal, he ncrer valued my time nor dirt he accustom me to
Valtie it. A grc t deal of it was wasted in those days.
lii spi’iiig our Slav brethren catne together and the concert took
place at the Town Council Hall on Play I 2th. It the first re-
hCarsal a sma J1 row occui•red : the orchestral pa i ts of tlic Clinkh
Over iio‘r proc ed to contain an incredible number of errors ; the
musicians were clisgruntlc d. B at akire fi fumed. "l“hc concert rna s•
ter Vyelichkovski (brother of P. I. whom I have spoken of) made
some mist ake, a url Halakireft said to him : "You don’t understand
conductor’s marks I” Yyelichkorski was oPended and » alked out
of the rchears:iJ. In the cv-ening, in Balakirefl's apartment
ñ(usorgski and I helped correct tlie orchestral parts. The second
reliearsal went r›fi without a hitch. Pikkel took Vyekovski
placc. 5’l y )c rbia n Fan la› j, too, kad its premifire at this toncert.
Duriag the season of I 866-67 I became more i irnate with Mil•
sorgski, I used to i islt him; he lived with ht arried brother
Filaret, near thc Ksshin Bridge. He plaved me many excerpts
from his opera, 3ulainniho, which greatly del1ghted me. Then
also, I think, he playcd me his fantssy .Si. Ioltn’s Avr, for piano
and orehestra, concel ved under the influence of the Z’odicaiaoz.
Suhsequelitly, the music o I this fantasy, having undergone many
metamorphoses, w'as utilized as material for A iYipfi i on Sa/r/
Mount. He also played me his delightful jewish choiuses: Ffir
68 II S" 8f L I C A L L I F E
R out o f ten nach«rib and Io shyg. The music of the latter was
taken by him front •Safain nibñ. The theme of this chorus h zd
been overheard by h)usorgski from Jews who lived in the same
house as Musorgski and v•ho were celebrating the Feast of Taber-
nacles. ñ4u orgski also played me the songs which had failed
With halakiref( and Cui. Among these were Kalis tea I and the
heauti ful I antasy A"ip£i, on a tCxt by Pushkin. The song xadiibrat
was a forerunner of the realistic vein which klusorgski later made
his own ; whilc the songs A*iy/i / was representative of that idea4
side of his talent, whith he himself subsequently trampled into
the m ze, though still drawing on its reserve stock in emc rgency I
) his reserve stock had been accumulated by him in S alantmbo and
the Jez'ish choruscs, when he took but little thought of the coarse
mii== hik. Be it remarked that the arc ater part Of his ideal style,
such as the Tsar Boris's arioso, the phrases of Drnitri at the foun-
tain, the chorus in the Boyar Duma, the death of Boris, etc. v ere
taken by him from Mala minb0. His idcal style lacked a suitable
crysta1-cl ear Irish and gr aceful form. Thi9 he lacked, because
he had no knowledge of h‹irmony and counterpoint. ,ft first,
Balakirefl's circle ridiculed these needless sciences, and then de-
clared them beyond Musorgski. find so he went through life
without them and consoled himself by regarding his ignorance as
a virtue and the teChnique of others as routine and conservatism.
But whenever he did manage to obtain a bc autiful and IIowing
succession of nofes, how happy be was 1 I witnessed that snore
than once.
During my visits, Musorgski and I used to talk f reely, uncon-
trollcd by B alakirefi or Cut. I went into ecstasies over much
that he p gyed ; he was delighted and f reely communicated his
plans to me. He had many more than I. JuJ1o had been one
0 his projects i mposition, but he had long given up any thought
1t tO me. Balakirefi approved
this idea and I set out to compose.
The acquaintance of our circle with C haykovski belongs to the
season of i 866—67 . After gTaduating from thC Conserx atory,
Chaykovski went to liv e in h4oscow, having been asked to join
the stall of professors at the ñtoscow Conserve tort. Our circle
knew him only as having composed a symphony in G-minor, of
which the two rniddle movements had been performed at the con-
 C ï-ï A Y K O V S K I A N D R U B I N S T E I N 69
certs of the Russian Musical Society În St. Petersburg. As a
product of the conserv atory, Chaykovski was viewed rather neg-
llgcntly if not haughtily by our circle, and, owing to his heing away
frcm ht. Petersburg, personal acquaiotanceship pas impossible.
I don't know how it happened, but during one of his visits to St.
Petersburg, Chaykov ski made his appearance at Balakirefl’s
soirée, and our acquaintance began. He proved a pleasing and
sympathetic man to talk with, one wllp knew how to bc simple of
manner and always speak with erident sincerity and hea rtintss.
The ercning of our first meeting, he plajed for us, at Balakirefl's
request, the first morement of his symphony in G-miiior ; it proved
quite to our likisg; and our former opinion of him changed and
gave way to a more sympathetic one, although Chr kovski's con-
ser vatory training still constituted a con si derablc Carrier betive en
him and us. Chaykovski’s stay in St. Petcrsburg was brief, but
during the folloiving years, when visitilg St. Petersburg, Chay-
korski usually came to Dalakirefi’s, and we saw htm. At one of
thèse meetiiigs \*. V. Stasofl, and all of us for th:it matter, wcrc
captivated liy the mclodious theme of his overture, fi oaic o aad
lulie1 s hich suhscquently movecl V. V. Stasofi to suggcst to Chay-
kovski Shakespeare's Te inpcs t as a subject for a symphonic pocm.
Soon after our first meeting with Chaykor k1, Balaki refl induced
me to No with his to Moscow for a few days. It ivss cturing the
Christmas holidays. That winter the cell-known hasta Bridge had
burned down, and, to rcach Moscow, Balakircft and I had to cross
the Msta R iver on pensant sleds to take the traln waitilig for us on
the othcr bank. Wc spcnt all our time at ñloscow visiting Niko-
lay Rubinstcin who lived with Chaykovski ; La roche, Duliuque
and others. What the object of BalakireH's ti ip was it is hard
to say. lt seems to me he sought closer relations with N. G.
Rubinstein. Balakirefi had always shown antagonism to .finton
Rubinstein’s actlvity, denying his talent as a comppscr and bc-
littling, as ouch as possible, his great glfts as a pianist. As a
pianist of higher standing, in contrast tu him, Nikolay Grigorye- vich R
ubinste in mas usu¡tlly menti oned. At the same, the 1 atter
was pardoned his artistic indolence and tempestuOrtS life, both
explained as the result of the queer II oscow life. On the other
hand, the slightest thing was counted against Minton G rigoryevich.
AS fOr me, Balakireff dragged me to Moscow m.crely that he rnight
yo à( Y M b S I C A L L I F E
not be lonesome and as a sort of aide-de-camp. Other ise lt is
hard to explain our trip to see people we wc rc not intimate
with.
During that geason, one more member, Nikola y N ikolayevich
Lodyzhenski joined our musical circle.' Lodjzhenski, an erst-
irhile wea]thy )andowoer gone to min, was a young nan of adn-
Cation, queer, casil y carrie d ac ay and elidowed with a strong,
purely lyri2 talent for composition, and a foi rly good piano tech-
nique .in the performance of his own compositions. Thèse con-
sisted OU a huge number of improvisations mostly uni ccorded.
Among them were to bc found separate numbers and beginnings
of symphonies and even of an opera N mi/ri 8nmozroii) eff (The
False Dmitri) wedded to a non existent and me r eIy projectc‹l
libretto ; and finally, mere musical f r agments helonging noz'here
in pa rticolai-. .41l of this, ho» ever, was so graceful, be autr fut,
cxpressire, and ce en technically cor rect that it fortÎiwith won the
attention and gOod-will of all of us. . î mong hls Compositi‹ins eve
particul a rly admired the z'edding sccnc of Dmitri a d ñI arina,
ned a Solo with cliorus for Lyermontufi’s X o. el/‹ri. As a result
of his RuSsl an d ilettantism, all of thcse remaincd un fini 9hef, with
the excep tion of a fciv songé wliich where subsc qiiently culTlplctcd
and published at the sol icitation of myself and othcrs.
Amont the evcnts of I S 66—6¡ must also be mcntioned B alaki-
rest's trip to Prague to stage X ui/uti and I.] u(m ils, the première
of v hich took place on Fcbrua i v 5 , I S 6 j, under Bala)tirC1I's
leadership.°
At this date I do not recall I\J ili llyekseyevich Balakireft's
numerous stories of Prague, of rchcarsals and n f the pu i formance
of Ruslan and L yu dlnila. At all evonts, they centretl around
the intrigues with ivhÎCh th c Riissian conductor fotind himsel f sur-
rounded amont Chekh musical an‹l theatrical folk. z1 tJark
shadow hung all o ns•cr the composer Srnetana i•, ho was thcn the
opera house conductor and was to lead the pret i minary rehea1‘.•,a!s
prior to Balakireft's arrival. Often it turned out that Glinka’s
' Et present sv riting, Ru-•ii an Consul in New l’ork Clty. Note by fÏ ad2Me Rintsky-
Kor8akos’a.
° In A ppen dix I the re ader will find three memorantl a given me by L. I. She8taFova
at my reqtiest: one in her o›vn lit nd 2 Dd two dict‹it t•d by lier. T liose cootafn a
brick account of the p rodoci ion of ft oileia and L y s kmila at Prague and of the print-
irlg of the score of that y a•
 S A DK O 2i
music had been misunderstOod. Thus Lyudniila’s atia in Cher-
HOIDOi’'8 Cz SU e 3/4, B-minor (Act IV) , had been studied in an
exceedingly quick tempo. just be f ore the first performanCe the
orchestral scorc had been ''misleid” somewhere, but Balakirefi
came out triumphan t at that critical pass : to the great surprise
and bewilderment of those endeavouring to trip him he led the
n•hole per Norma nce from rnemory. According to B alakirefl it
was an o›•e rwhclming success, and the opera n'ent ofi in fine style,
He had cspecial praise for the baritone Lev ( Ruslan) and the bass
P alycchek ( I’arlal’) . Shortly afterwa rots the latter left the Prague
opera, settled in St. Petersburg and joined the company of the
klariioski Thcatre. Here he subsequently was made sta ge
managcr and coach, supcrvising thc production of all operas
including mine, beginning with Mlada. Balakirefl's trip to
Prague gave rise to intercourse with the abOre-mentioned breth-
ren who came to St. Pete rsburg.
heo summer cnrne, sy fi•iends lef t. Balakirefi went I do
not recall where, possibly to the C auoasus again. II usorgski
left for the country, Cui rvcnt to a summer cottage somewhere,
etc. I stayed in toyn alone, as my brother's family lived at
Tervajokt, neer Vyborg. During that summer and the f ollow-
ing autamn I cornposed Sffdh D an3 eight songs (los. 3-iz); and
my fii st four songs, to my great dcliglit, 5•e re set up at B alaki-
red’s solicitation ;ind published by Bernard (who, quite as a matter
of course, ncve r paid me a cent ) .‘
In September, i 86], our musical circle which had scattered for
the summer nog assembled agaio. The orchestral score of Sadfio
e hich I had begun on only i 4th was completed September 3oth.
by adk o wou general approval, par ticularly its third move-
ment ( lance in z¿’-t time ) , and quite proper ly, too.
IVhat musical tendencies guided my fancy when I composed
this s;•myhon i’c pii:tnre ? The Introduction picture of the calmly
surging sea— contains the h a rmonic and modulatory ha sis of the
beginninJ¿ of Liszt's “Ce qu’on ent end sur la montagne” (modu-
lation by a minor tliird downwa r ‹I) . The beginning of the
3/‹ , deplcting Saclko’s fall into the sea and his bcing tlra gged to the
depths b) the Sea King, is, in method, reminisccot of the moment
i b ritten at RivA, June i 9, i 9o6.
 72 M Y M U S I C A L L I FE
when Lyudmila is spirited away by Chernomor in Act I of Lei-
lan and L ludmila. However, Glinka's scale, destending by
z•hole notes, has been replaced by another descending scale of
semltone whole tone, semiton whole tone, a scale which
subsequently played an important rôle in many of my compositions.
The D-ma jor movement, Allegro 4/4, depictlng the feast in the
Sea King's realm, harmonically and, to a certain degree, niclodi-
cally as well, recalls partly BalakirefPs Song o f 1he GofdÿS6
wh ich was then a favouritC Of mine and the introduction to Ru-
salka’s recitative in Act I\' of Dargomyzhski's opera A uiaf£a.
The dante thème ( D flot major) of the third movement as well
as the caiitabile theme following it, are entir cly original. The
variations on thèse two thèmes passing into a gradually swelling
storm were composed partly under the influence of certain pas-
sages in the hJe phis to 1Uu/zrr, partly as reprcsenting certain
echoes of Balaki refi’s Tax ara, then still a long way from
completion, but familial to me from the excerpts played by its
authoi•. The closing movement of Tadk o as well as its intro-
ductory mov•ement, ends with a beautiful chord passage of inde-
pcndent origin. The principal tonalities of Sadk o (D Plat major
D-major D flat major) I sclected to please B:i1akiref(, who
had an exclu9ire predilection for them in those days. The form
my fantasy a sumeil u as due to the ubject I had chosen, but the
episode of the appearauce of Saint Nichola9 was unfortunately
left out by me, and the strings of Sadko's goosli ' had to break
by thcmselves, without the good Saint's assistance. Taken by
and large, the form of Sadk o * il satisfactory, but I gave too
much space to rte middle movemeDt in D-ma jor, 4/4 ( feast in the
Sea King's realni) as compared wÎth the prcture of the calm sea
and the dance to Sadko's playing; a fuller development with
transition to the storm would be very desirable. I am somewhat
discontented with the brevity and spar9eness of this composition,
in general, a composé tion for which 1›roader forms would be
more suitable. If long-ivindedness and verbosity are the faults
of many composers, my fault at the time was over-concl seness and
laconism, and thèse l ère due to my lack of technique. Never-
• A native in.•trument, a kind t›f horizontal harp '¡with I roin five to seven strings.
c, v. V.
* hsdéo ia «aid to have been the first Russian symphonic poem. C, Y. Y.
 SADKO 73
thcless the origiflality of my task; the form rcsulting therefrotn;
the frrshness of the dance thème and the singing theme with ité
purely Russian turn which had laid its impress also on the vari-
ations, second-hand, however, as to their method : the orchestral
colour scheirie taught as by miracle, despite my Imposing ignorance
in the rtalm of orchestration, all thèse made my composition
attractive and worthy of attention on the part of many musiciens
of cartons tendencies, as proven subsequently. Balaklrefl, whose
voice was predominant and decisive in our circle, paid my work
a certain trihute of patronizing and entouraging admiration. This
attitude of his toward me lasted io general, uutil I began to mani-
fest my persooal e go in tke creative field. Then he began to cool
little by little toward th‹s rio, which no longer sent back so
strongly the echoes of Liszt and hirnself.
 C HA P T E R V I I I
i862—68
Concerts of the Russian JIusicu1 Societi•. Berlioz. The circle’s achieve-
rents in composition. SoiNes at Dargomyzhski's. Acquaintance with tlie
Purgold fsrnily. Writing uf addr and first thought of Pi1oei/yaq,(p (Tlie
Plaid of Pskov). ’1“he Popular Concert. Analyis of Autur. Trip to
\’1s1t Ind)'ZIIeilski. Composiflg

The season Of 18 6)—6 8 t St. Petersburg was a very busy one.

Through Kologrivofi's rcpresentati one to the Grand Duchess Ye-
lyena Pavlovna, the conductorship of the Russian hlusical Society
concerts was oder ed to B alakirefl, and, at this latter'9 insistence,
Hector Bei•lioz himself z as invited to con‹iuct six concerts. The
concerts lcd by Bal;ikirefl were interspe rscd with those of Berlioz,
who led for thc first time on November i 6t1i. At the Balakiref(
concerts the following numbers among others s ere given : I ntro-
duction to Nos Jun aad Chorus from Le Pr oph‹te (A.K.
Lyadoff and C. O. Diitsch, two boys, pupils of the Conservatory
and sons of \vcll-known musici ans, wer c in the chDrus) ¡ Wagner's
T'au.s t O orrrriirr (the only work of that composer respecte‹l in our
circle) ; 13alakiref('s Clickh Overture my 8erb!Bn Can las y ( a
second time) , anti lastly md Sadko at the concert of December 9th.
Sadk o q-e nt off well : tlie orchestration satisfied everybody, and I
was called out several times.
I-Iector Berlioz calne to us already an old man ; though alert at
rehearsal, he was bowed down with illness and therefore was
utterly iodilf erent to Russian music and Russian musicians. Most
of his Ieisure time he spent stretched out on his hack COmplaining
of illness and seeing only B aIakiref( and the Directors. Once, he
was entertained at a performance of A Ltte for f/tr Tsar at the
b) ariinski Theatre, but left before the end of the second act. On
auothcr occasloo there was some sort of dinner of the Board of
Directors iv'Lli 1'. 1'. Stasofi and Balakirefi, which Berlioz could
f4
 B E R L I O Z ¥' I S I T S R U S S I ,q 7y
not escape. I imagine that it was not 111-health alone, b’ut the sell-
conceit of genius as well as the aloofness becoming a genius that
were responsible for Berlioz's complete iodifierence to the musical
life of Russia arid St. Petersburg. Forelgn notabilities u9ed to
concede and still concede with very haughty airs some musical
importance to the Russians. There mas no talk even of h(usorg-
ski, Boi odio an‹1 myself meeting Berlioz. \)'hether Balakiretl had
felt embarrassed to ask Berlioz for permission to introduce us,
feeling as he did Berlioz’s utter unconcern in the matter, or whether
Berlioz. himself had asked to be spared the necessity of meeting
the young Russian compo9ers of promise, I cannot say ; all I
remember is thiit we ourselves had not courted this meeting and
had not broachcd the subject to Balakirefl.
At his six concc rts 13c rlioz pcrformed Harold en Italie j pisode
de /o vie d ur Nrfts ie; seveTal of his overtures; excerpts from
torso and Juliet and Dam natiOH dc MBH 3t; several trifles ; also
Beethoven's Third, Your th, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies and ex-
cerpts from Gluck's operas. In a woi•d Beethoven, Gluck and
"I" ! Floyev-er, to those must be added the overtures of lfieber's
D r Fri is cly‹tz and O heron. C i course, hlendelssohn, Schubert
and Schumann wei e omitted , not to speak of Liszt or Wagner.
The e-xecution n'as excellent ; the spell of a famous personality
did it all. Berlioz’s bcat was simple, clear, bcautiful. No va-
garies at all in shading. And yct ( I repeat from B alakireft'g ac-
count) at a rehearse( o( his own piece Berlioz would lose himself
and beat threc instca d of two or vice versa. The orchestra tried
not to look at him and kept on playlng, and all would go well,
Berlioz, the great conductor of his time, came to us when his fac-
ulties were already on the declinc, owing to old age, illness and
fatigue. The public did not notice it, the orchestra f ot gave h›s.
Conducting is a thing shrouded in mystery.
I laviog bccomc the leader Ol the Russian Musical Society con-
certs, B alakil efi became also the Official conduCtOr for the concerts
of all sorts of soloists llkc due r, Lescheti zky, Cross, conccrts
v'hich began in Lent according to the custom of tke time. Men-
tion must lie ma‹le of one notable rehearsal he led on behalf of the
Ru9sian hlusical b“OCiety, in the hall of the h4 ikh aylorski Pal:ice›
to try nut the accumulation of new RuSSlan compositions. The
principal number at this try-out was Borodin's First Symphony iii
 26 II Y M U S I C A L L I F E
E Stat major, then just finished by the composer. Unfortunately
a wealth of mistakes in the badly copied parts Stood in the way of
a I airly decent and uninterrupted performance of this composition.
The musicians irctted at the incor rectntss of the parts and contin-
ual halts. Still it was possible to judge OI the great mc rits of the
symphony and its magnificent orchestrat1oo. to addr tion to
Borodin's symphony, there were performed an ovcrture by Ru-
by ets ; an overture by StoJypin, (a composer who forthwith van-
ished from the musical horizon) ; also an overtore and entr’actes to
Schiller's IFilhelm Tell by A. S. Famlntsyn 1 (professor of Musi-
cal History at thc St. Pctersburg Conservatory) , a rather well-
read but talentless composer, and conservative and dull music cri-
tic. By the way, the fo1loz•1 ng funny episode occurred between
him and Balakirefi. When FamintSyn had announced to Bala-
kirei( that he had iv rotten musiC tO H"ilheltn Tell, haJakirc If, with-
out a momtnt's thought, inquire d whether he had the following
theme:

F aml ntsyn was exceedingly ofiended and never c0Uld f OrgiVe

Bala kirefl this salty.
Our circle’s work of composition now presented this aspect:
BBlJkirel( was finishing or had n)ready finishcd hls ?iJaoiey, a piece
considered very difficult to perform. He often playcd it for us,
in parts or its entirety, and gave us great delight thereby. As I
have already mentioned, the principal subject of lslame y had been
jotted dog n by him in the Caucasus ; the sccond, subsidiary subject
(ltke a trio) had been given his in hloscow by some or cra singer,
a Grusian or Armenian by rlescent, po9sLibly ikolayef( by name.
If I am not mistaken, when Ylusorgski rcturoed from lits sum-
mer stay in the country, he brought the wonderf u1 ‹ r)'cii/i 5auii liii a
(Savis(7fIJ, my DarJlflg) On Ho pGh pto fU1‘HB SlleVcheflko's
words) which he had composed; and with these lie began his scries
of rocal compost t1ozs with the stamp of genius in their originality ,
1 mean Po drill ( Pick’ing hlushrooms) , $ oro ha ( Tlie II agpie) ,
 T H E B A N D A T W OR K 77
Aozyo/ (The Billy-goat), etc. which began to follow each other
in rapid succes9ion.
Cut was completing his wonderful R aiclip, swiftly composing
one number after another.
Borodin was completing the score of his First Symphony, a
trial performance of which I mentioned earlier, Besides, the idea
of an opera on the subject of fri»rr thor had been germinating
since the season before this and the fir9t sketches and improvisations
for this work were on hand. The operatic scenario had been jotted
down by V. V. Stasofl who also had beck the first to conceive the
idea of this composition. BOrodin, for his part, was making a
COn5cientious 9tudy of Ter S tory o/ fpor’s Band and the (Iy-
patron Chronicle, for the development end libretto of his opera.
Thc composition of his song Spyashcha ya Kn ya-hna (The Sleep-
ing Princess) belongs to the same period.
Lodyzhenski was incxhaustible in improvising most interesting
fragments which usually came to nothing, though a few of them
were subsequently developed into his published songs.
As for me, I was attracted by the idea of writing a second
symphony in B-minor, again a far ourite key with Balakir elf. Since
the preceding ycar thc re had been running through my head ma-
terial for a 3/¢ Scherzo (E flat major) which nsas to be one
of the movements of the projected symphony. The beginning of
the first movement, as well as some of its mannerisms recalled the
beginning of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.'
The second subject (D-major) had an unwelcome resemblance
to Cut's theme in the trio of the chorus fiyay erm odaiyr KanoGaza
( free Sons of C ailCasus) , while the concluding cantabile phrase,
of more independent origin, I subsequently incorporated into
in ye goorochk a ( h4 izgir : “O lyuhi me n ya I j ithin Oh, lore me,
love me ! ) .
I brought my Symphony only as far as the “development.” My
form of exposition of the themes did not satisfy Balakirelf, nor my
other frlends, either. I was disappointed. Balakirefi was utterly
incapable of ex]›1aining to me the defects of form with any ap-
proachto clearness. As was hi9 wont, instead of terms borrowed
from syntax and logiC, he used culinary terms, saying that I had
sauce and cayenne pepper, but no roast beef, etc. Owing to ignor-
' Gee cut on opposite page.
 y8 hI Y fiI U S I C A L L I F E
ance, the terms : period, clause (half period) , passage, addition,
etc. did not exist then iii Balakirefi's vocabular y and consequently
not in ours ; and everythin g in muslCal forms was vague and puz-
zling. I repeat I was disappointed in my musical oft spring and
soon abandoned or postponed indefinitely the idea of writing a
second symphony.
Living alune, as before, in a furnished room on the Vasilyevski
Island, and i aki ng dinner at my brother's, I spent my evenings
rnostl at Balakircfl's, Borodin's, Lodyzheiiski's, more seldom at
Cgi’s ; II usorgski, too, I saw frequently. I also risited thc Bye-
lyeoitsyn sisters ' who lived with their mother. Musorgski and
I had long talks on art. ))'ith Lodyz hcnski we spent entire eve-
nings on improvisati ons and va rious expc riments in harmon r r(t
Borodin’s he and I used to examine the score of his symphony,
talk of Ni tore Thor and Z'fiy Tsar’s E riJe; to compose this opera
was at one time Borodin's passing dream, as it later became mine.
Borodin's day was rath er quecrly a rranged. His wife, Yeka-
tyerina Sergeyevna, who sufiered with insomnia at night, had to
have a nap during the day and often got up and dressed at 4 or
3 P. M, Octast onally thcy had di nne r at 1 1 P. If. I of tc n stayed
till 3 or 4 A. si. and, to get home, had to cross the Nyeva in a skill,
as the old wooden Lite3 ny Draw was opeDe d for the night.
In the latter half of the season, toward the spring of i 868,
most of the members of our circle met almost every week at
Dargomyzhski's, who had thrown his doOrs open to us. He was
then composing Th e S tone Gu es t vt white heat. Its first tableau
had been complete d; the second tableau was ready up to the duel
scene, and the rest was being composed almost under our very eyes,
to our great delight! Until then Dargomyz hski had surrounded
himself with admirers who were amateurs or musicians much
infei ior to him : Shchiglell ; Sokolofl (author of several songs
and consei•vatory inspector) ; Dyemidofi and others. But now that
he had devoted himself to writing The 5 tone Gues I, an advanced
work whose importance he clearly saw, he came to feel the need
of sharing with leading musicians his newly crystallized musical
ideas. Accordingly, he maple a complete change in the personnel
of the circle surrounding him. Now the frequenter9 Ol hig
° The older sister waa then separated from htr husband Zotoff ; subsequently
Princeai Golitiyne,
 T H E PGU R O L D F A M I L Y 79
entries were : Balakirefi, Cut, Mpsorgski, B orodin, V. V. Stasofi
and I, as well a9 Gen. Vclyaminofi, a music-lover and devoted
singer. In addition, thcre were among Dargomyzhski's regular
vi sitors the young sisters Alyeksandra and Nadye thda NikOlayevna
Piirgoltt with whose family he had long been on friendly terms.
4lycksa nd ra Nikolayevna, a high meHzo-soprano, nsas a fine,
talented singer; h adyke zlitla N ikolayevna, a highl y-talented musical
temperament, was an excellent pianist, pupil of Gerke and Za-
retnba.'
Each soirfie at Dargomyzhski's showed Z’/ir Rione G ues I to have
progressed ma rkedly in regu)ar siicccsslon, and the newly written
f ra gment was immc cliatcly performed by the f ollowing cast : the
author, in the hoarse voice of an old man, inter preted, neverthe-
less, Don Juan splendidly ; II usorgski was I.eporello and Don
Carlos ; Velyaminofi the Friar and the Commander ; A. N.
Purgold I.aura and Donna Anna, and Nadyezhda N ikolaycvna
took the piano. OccaSiORally the songs of h(usorgski were sung
(by the composer and A. N. Pui•gold) or the songs of Balakircfl,
Cut, and myself. 54 y Sadho and Dargomyzhski's Fi nnis h Pantae y
were played in I T adyez hda Nikolayevna's arrangement for four-
hands. These erenings were exceedingly interesting.
By the end of spring our circle had formed an acq 4 in tance Lvl th
the Purgold family. Theii family consistcd of the mother Tuna
\otonorra ; three sisters —Sof ya N ikolayevna (subsequently
A(me. Al‹lish a rumor a) , .)1yeksandra Nikolayevna and NadyePhd a
L T ikola yevna ; and their eldcrly uncle \'ladimir FyodorovlCh, a man
of splendi d SQ1rit who was like a second father to the Purgold girls,
4“he other Purgold SIStc rs were married, and the brothers Iived by
themselves. The gatherlngs at the Purgolds' were also excluyively
musical. The playing of B alaki retd antl hlusorgski, four-hands
playing, rllyeksandra Nikolayevna’s singing, and talks about music
made these gatherings interesting. Dargomyzhski, Stasofl and
)'elyaminof came to thesc evenings also. Cicn. I'e1yaminoff was
amusing: holding on to the accompanist’s chair ; invariably hold-
' Zar emba was satIti*ed in hltisorglki's Pee/ S/ter as that “denizen of cloudlaod"
who addressed his pupile somewli at in the ;following manner:
“If ark my words : the mlnot ke5•
1• the source of man's fi rst downfall ;
Bul the m0 jor still can give
Salvation to your erring souls." C. 1'. V,
8o MYMUSICALLIF E
ing a key in his right hand for some unknown reason ; with one
leg flung behind the other, straining himself to sing Jvyc rid
avishng (Savishna, my Darling) pasting for lack of breath, and
imploring his accompanist, at nearly every bar in y/q time, to give
him a chance to catch his breath. Having gasped out his plea,
he resumed singing, then immediately appealed again : "Let mo
catch my breath !” etc. Afflicted with heart di9ease, Dargo-
myzhski did not feel quite well at that time ; yet, carried away by
his work of composing, he kept up courage, was cheerful and
animated.
Having indefinitely postponed writing the symphony in B-minor,
I turned to Syenkovski's (Baron Brambcus) beautiful tale An far
at Balakirefl's and Musorgski's suggestion : on this subject I had
planned to compose a symphony or symphonic poem in four move-
ments. The desert ; the disillusioned Antar ; the episode with the
Gazelle and the bird ; the ruins of Palmyra ; the vision of the Pert ;
the three joys of lif revenge, power and love, and finally
Altar's death, all of this was tempting to a composer. I set to
work in midwinter. The birth of the first idea of an opera on the
subject of Matey's Pt fiosiiyaafia ' ( Maid of Pskov) belongs to the
same period. This idea again was suggested to me by Balakirefi
and hlusorgski who were better read in Russias literature than
I. At that time Act I of the play (now the PrOlpguc) seemed to
present some difficulty. At a general conference it was decided
to do away with it, and begin the opera directly with the porJr/fii °
zcene ; then have the drift of the prologue conveyed in some way
In the dialogue between Tsar Ivan and Tokinakoll. The question
of libretto had not been raised; it was assumed that I o ould
write the libretto myself as need arose ! However, for the time
being, work on AntaT come to the fore with me. Save for the
prlncipal theme of Aatar himself, which I had composed under the
indubitable influence of certain phrases of William Ratcli , and
the Peri Giil Nazar’s theme with its florid Oriental embellish-
ments, all the other themes purely cantabile, ( the 6/8 melody in
F sharp major in the First M ovement, and 4/4 A-major melody
the accessory subject of the Third Movement) I had borrowed
from a French collection of Arab melodies of .9lgiers, which
I This pgra’ is now generally known as tfr fñ rrib Ic. C• V. Y.
• A Ruiaian catching game. J. A. J.
 ANTAR 8t
Borodin happened to possess. As for the principal subject of the
Fourth Movement, it had been given to me, with his own har-
monization, by Dargomyzhski, who, in turn had taken it from
Khristianovich's collection of Arab melodies. For the beginning
of the Adagio of this Movement I retained Dai gomyzhski's orig-
inal harmonization (English horn and two bassoons) . The First
and the Fourth Movements of Antar sveY e finished by me during
the winter of i862=68 and won pr rise from my friends, except
BalakireJl, who approved them with reservations. The Second
Movement, /oy o f R evenge, in B-minor, which I had composed at
the same time, proved a complete failure, and I left it unused. In
passing, let me remark that in the spring of i 8 68, while I com-
posed AT taT some sign9 of coolness sprang ur between Balaki-
red and me for the first time. I was in my twenty-fifth year, and
independence which had been gradually awakening in me, began to
assert itself by that time : Balakirefl's cutting raternal despotism
was growing burdensome. It is hard to state exactly what were
these first signs of coolness: but soon my uttc r frankness toward
Mili Alyekseyevich began to decrease as dial, later, the need of
frequent meetings. It was pleasant to come together and spend
an evening with B alakire fl but, possibly, )t was still more pleasant to
spend the evening wlthout him. It seems to tne I »•as not alone
in this feeling, that the other membc rs of our circle shared lt ; but we
never talkvd of it to each other nor di‹) we criticize our older comrade.
I say older, meaning in rank and importancc. Cut was a
year older than B alakiref(, and Borodin was a year older than Cut. Late
in the spring the wrl ting of Antar was i ntcrruptcd by an- other work ¡
Balakirefi made mc orchestrate Scliubcrt’s Grand March in A-minor,
IOr Kologrivof’s Pr›pular Concert at the Manage. The
orchestration of a considerable work of somebody else, with
abundant forte and tutti in addl tion, pi-oved doubtless a task much
harder than the orchestration of works of my own fancy, for one
who knew as little as I did in this field. For such
n•ork the most important requisite was f arniliari ty with in-
struments and ‹orchestral devices, as well a9 experience, experi-
ence possessed by every good workman-like leader. I possessed a
certain amount of orchcstral ima gination, and it had served me
in good stead in writing my own compositions, but Experience I had
none. Nor dld Balakirefl possess any, and there was none
82 ii v sri s i c A L r i r E
to instruct me. the instrumentation prored lifeless, pallid and
useless for any purpose whatever. Sttll the ñJarch was played,
but it failed to make much impression.
1'. A. Kologrivolf, reputed to be a good amateur-cellist, was
inspector of orclicstr as of the Theatre BOn z6 of Directors and
one of the founders and directors of the Russian Musical Society.
As Inspector of theatre orchestras he was in a position tO bring to-
gether all orchestral musicians and arrange monster concerts at
the II ikhaylorski Manege. The first of these concc rts had take r1
place in the Spring of 18 6 7 under the leadership of Balakiref( and
U. N. Lyadofi. The second concert was conducted by Balakirell
alone in the spring of i 868. .$ vast chords pat ticipated to ad-
dition to the orchestra. Herewith I reproduce verbatim the rather
interesting bill of that concert:

Sunday, M ay s, i 868, Concert by A. KologriroH at the

Nikhaylovski Manege
Part I
i ) Introductiori to the Oratorio of it. Paul Mendelssohn
s ) Gloria Petri (Chorus without orchestra) Turchariinoff
3) Prayer Nc [erdat (with orchestra) Dargomjzhski
q) Funeral Starch Chopin-Mauer
5) Excerpts from Stabat Maler L'voff
a) He who without grief and sorrow
b) O eternal avenger of sin
6) Symphonic work, iTlth the national anthem Rubinstein

Part II
i ) Introditction to a Biblical Legend ñ4endelssohn
2) florin Domini (Chorus without orchestra) BaLhmetyeH
3) Introduction to Joitr rn fipJ'/ir Berlioz
4 ) Fragment of a Psalm Bortnyanski
5 ) flared for the Coronation Of Nicholas I,
o rcliestrated by Rim*ky KomakoI1 Schubert
6) Eox he fsar$'a klirani (God save tlie king!)
M. A. BalakireH, Conductor

All these choruses of Tur cha ninolt, Bortnyan9ki and Bakh-

metyeJl were nothing but these a UthOf ' Orthodox I anticles per-
formed in Latin, because the censor did not permit the perform•
 AN TAR 83
ance of orthodox ecclesiastic cauticles at concerts, together with
profane music. The chorus of oriental hermits, to a text by Push-
kin, with the words Ne perdas prefixed in order to mislead the
ecclesiastical censor, thus came into the cla9s of such quasi-catholic
praycrs. Rubinstein's symphonic wotk with the national anthem
was but his Fchtoiivert re renamed for a similar reason. Thu9,
with the help of some masquerading the ecclesiastic censor with
his absui d regulatioos e as duped.
U*hen summer came, the members of Our Circle left for various
parts, as usual. Dargomyzhski, Cut and I remaincr) in St. Peters-
burg. The Purgolds went to their summer home at Lyesnoy.
As in formc r summers, I livetJ at the Navy.l School, in the Di-
rector's apa i tment of my brother. It was unotcupicd, as my
brother weet on a practice cruise, while his family and my mother
went to pass the summer at Terva joki near 1"yborg.
During thc summer of i 8 68 I composed the Second hlovement
in C sharp of A iifur (in place of the former failure in B-minor)
and the Third Movement (boy o/ Pocr ) . Thus the work
on Ao /ar had been alinoit completed in score by the end sum-
mers I named this work, (rather unfoi tunately, too) , my Second
S ys phon y; many years later I renamed it a by itrp äoatc Stitt r. The
term Suite wa9 then unfamlliar to our circle in general, oor was
ft m vogue in the music literature of W ¢stern Europe. St111, I
was wrong in calltng Antar a symphony. h'Iy An I ar was a poem,
suite, fairy-tale, story or anything you likc, but not a symphony.
Its structure in four separate movements was all that made it
approach a sympkoey. Berlior's Jf«roJd » 1iaJir and Opm ode
de la vic d’iin Ar Eis te are incontestable symph ont es, despite being
program music. The symphonic development of the thernes and
tke sonata form of the Fitst RIo› ernents of these works remove
all doubt as to inconqrpity between their content and the require-
ments of symphonic form. On the other hand, the First Move-
tnent of N itior is a free musical dclineation of the consecutive epi-
sodes of the story, sav e that they are music ally unified by the ever-
rccurring theme tof Antar himself. It has no thema tic develop-
ment whatever ; only variations and ppf aphr ases. I u general thc
music of the introduction (the desert, Antar and the episode of
the ga zelle) , enfolding, as it were, the scher zo-like Ë sharp major
part in 6/8: agaln, Vorming as it does the contlusion of the First
 4 6J Y àt U S I C A L L I F E
Cf ovement, gives the latter a rounded structure› wlth suggestions
or an incomplète tripartite form. The Second Moveme ct Qte
o/ Acve»pr), in structure, brings more to mind the sooata form :
yet it is built upon a singh f undamental theme of Autar himself
and upon the introduttory phrase of threatening charact#r. The
first subj ect is in reallty a development of thèse motiver : Antar’s
theme and the introductory phrase. There is no subsidiary sub-
jcct, its place is taken by the same theme of Antar in its original
complete fotm (Trombones in A-minor) . Then follows the de-
v elopment of the came rnaterial omittitlg only the moment of the
return to the first subject. This Jeads directly to *4otar’s complète
theme ()“rombones in C sharp minor) , whÎch serves as subsi diary
subject. Then folJows a coda on thL iiitroductory phrase and a
soothing conclusion, again on Antar's principal theme. The Third
Movement (/oy o/ Pos tr) is a spccie9 of triurrtphal march (B-
minor D-ma jor) with a nbsidiary oriental cantabile melody and
a contlus›on on fintar's thème. They follows a sort of tniddle
part and light developmcnt of the two principal subjects ; return
to the principal subject of the march ; transition to Antar's coo-
eluding theme, and coda built on the sub ldiary oriental subject.
The conclusion is a diverging passage of chords on an 8sceodiilg 8-
step scale ( tone, semitone, tone, semitone, etc.) , which I
had once before used in Sede o.
The Fourth h(ovement (lo)' o/ Éoz'e), after a brief intro-
duction borrowed from the First Movement (Antar reappears
amid the ruins of Palmyra) , is an Adagio. ft is built in the main
on the cantabile Arab subject (which Dargomyzhski had giren me)
and its development, together with the phrase of the Peri Gül
Nazar and Antar's prÎncipal theme. In form it is a variety of
simple rondo with one subjcct and subsidiary phrases ( whlch arc
episodic and enter, now here, now there, into a passage-liLe “work- mg-
ont”) , with a long coda on Antar' and Gül bazar’s thèmes.
Accordingly, in spi te of its rounded forms and the constant use
of symphonie development, An Par is, after all, no symphony :
something difieren t is associated in my mind with the conception of
syrnphonic form. Then, also, the tonalities of the four cove-
merts OI ofur present an unusual succession : F sharp minor—F
sharp major; C sharp minor— B-minor D-major ; and lastly D
Plat major (s9 a dominant of F sharp) .
 ANTAR 8J
When I examine the form of Amar now, after the lapse of
many* years, I can affirm that I did well with th19 form, exclusive of
outside ia8uences and h'ints. lf the form of Movement I flows
from the form of the very narrative, the tasks of depicting the
joys of revenge, power and love, on the contrary, are purely lyrical
tasks calling for no fixed form : they merely denote moods and
their changes, and thus allow complete freedom of musical struc-
ture. Where I got, at the titne, this coherence and logic of struc-
ture, this knack of inventing new f ormal devices, it is hard to
explain ; but now that I exarni he the form of A.mar e ith an expe-
rienced eye, I tannot help fec!l•g considerable satisfaction. Only
a certain excessive brevity of form of Morements I and II in A ntar
fails to satisfy me. The task called for broader forms, but in
default of accessory subjects, the diJ)icu1ty, nay even the impoi-
sibili) , of giving II ovement I I a broader development is almost
obvious. A certain incoherence is felt in the choice of the key of
C sharp minor for hJovement II in connection with the key of
F sharp in Movement I and B-minor in Movement III. But,
speaking generally, the play of tonalities in thy individual move-
ments of the composition is interesting, beautiful and legitimate.
The distribution of the keys shows that, at the time, there was
awakening in me a sense of the interplay of tonalities and their inter-
relation, an understanding that served me well through- out my
subsequent musical activity. Oh, how many composers including
Dargomyzhski and Wagner, too, if you like, are devoid of this
uuder9tanding I To the same period also belongs the de- velopment
in me of an ever keener sense of tlie absolute signifi- cance or sliat)e
of each key. Is this sense exclusively subjective or does it depcu‹l
upon certain general laws ? I think bOth views are true. You ebill
not find many composers who do not con9idcr A-major the key of
youth, merriment, spring, rind dawn ; but they are inclined to use
this key to express conceptions of deep thought or a dark starry
night. In spite of my incvit•iblc bluiiders, due to ignorauce of
clementa ry truths and methods, N o/ar, as compared with Sod o, was a
long step f orward in the Matte r of harmony, figuration, contrapuntal
experiments and orchestration. The com- binati ons of certain moti res,
the inte rtwining of one with another, were happy thoughts ; for insta
ace : the accompaniment of the sing- ing theme of Movement III by
a rhythmico-melodic dance figur-
8b M Y If U S I C A L L I F E
ation ; or the appearance of -Sntar's theme in auto duri Rg the
figurati on Of the violas ; or thc sustaining of the two-note motives
as against the rhythm of the cantalii le theme tn D fat major in
Movement I\*. One cannot help fccling the f elici ty of the intro-
ductory phrase of threatening character and the harmony it forms
in Movement II. The chord passages bringing Movement III to
a close as well as the passages which deplct the bird of prey in
pursuit of the gazelle are or tginal and logical.
In the iristrumentation thcre z'ere new derartui es, and I elici-
tons applications of familiar devices : the low registers .of Butes
and cla rincts, the liarp, etc. ; -Entar’s principal thcme, enti•iisted to
the viola s, as I recall it, in order to plc ase usorgski who was
especially fond of violas. Familiar ity with the scorc of Rnslan
L) iidmilu and Liszt s S »i phonis c.lie Did h tun y e n made them-
selv-es evident. The three bassoon s, subsequently reduced to two,
pointed to the influence of the orchestration of tier Pans I
Ouzertlire, Nor was the writing of A ater uninilucnced by the or-
chestration of Balakirefi's Cfi ek/i Over turc. Taken as a whole
the orchestration was full of colour and fancy ; in the forte passages
there came to my rescue my invariable instinctivc striving to fil1
out the mlddle octaves, a device tha t even Berlioz had not a1n•ays
employed. The gencral musics l influences perccptible ln A o/ar,
emanated from Glinka's Persian Chorus (The E-major variation
on the subsidiary subj ect in Movement III) and his Chorus of
Flowers, in Act II' of R uslan and L yiid mila ( Introduction in F
sharp major in Ylovemcnt I and beginning of M overnent IV) ;
they came from Liszt’s Hu noens chlacht and Wagner's Eine h’gu,t I
OifWrri re ( in Movement II OF An tar) . M oreovcr, certain meth-
ods of Balakirelf's Ch e1 h Ozei‘ture and Tu marm and the influence
Of random phrases from Wi/Jin m R adcli were constantly felt in
the music of ml u rer. The triplct figuration which accompanies
Antar's theme in hI ovement I II was due to a similar figura tion in
the finalc of R oyoJeda; only ruine is better and more subtle than
Syerofi's. Tlie abundant use of oriental themes lent my com-
position an OF 3 turn of its o1•n, hardly in z ide use until then,
and the happil\• chosen progr am gave it additional intc rest. It
seems to mc that I had properly understood the possibility of
expressing the joy of revenge and of love by external means ; the
 PSKOVITYA NK A 82
former as a picture of a bloody battle, the latter as the gorgeous
milieu of an E astcln potentate.
In addition to this, at the request of Cut, who was in a hurry to
finish the score of his William fiairJi¢, I orthestrated during the
summer of 18 68 the first number of his opera, the wedding chorus
in C-major and the blessing of the betrothed. The orchestration
of another's composition, and mainly with fuffi, was a task beyond
my powers, and it brought poor results. N ever theless this number
was performed at the Opera with my orchestration. As a rule,
orchestration gave Cut trouble in those days and somehow inter-
ested him but little. In many instances he had to seek Balakirefi's
advice and mine. But what useful advice could I give him at
that period ? In passing I may mention that hlaria's well-known
roman za in Act TH was orchestrated by Balakire fi.
I visited the Purgolds at their summer homc in Lyesnoy for the
first time in company with Da rgomyzhski and the Cuts ; we wcnt
by carriage. Afterwards, I went thcre alone many a time. The
two songs light zn3 Secret that I wrote that summer were dedi-
cated to the Purgold sisters : the former to Nadye zhda Nikolayev na
and the latter to Alyeks andra Nikolayevna. Among the ev•ents
of my life during that summer must also be mentioned my trip to
Ivan N ikolayevich odyzhenski's estate ( Kashin canton of the Tver
Government) ivhc re the B orodins were summering. Nikolay Niko-
layer ich Lodyzhenski, who early in the summer had been lodging in
St. Petersburg in a tiny room near the church of N ikola Trunlla
(on the St. Pctcrsburg side) , was leaving in July for his estate
and asked me to come along. I remember that sitting one day at
hOlTie, in my brothei-'s apartment, I received his note in which he
had appointed the day of departure. I recall how the picture of
the impending trip to the dreary intenor of Russia instantly
lo ought an access of indefinable love for Russian folk-life, for her
J-. ast in general and for Ps k ovit yanka in pa rticular. How, under
die prcssure of these sensatl ons, T sat dnwn at the pt ano and then
and there improvised the theme of the Chorus of Welcome which
the Pskov people sing to Tsar It an (Act If, First Tableau) , for
I had been thinking of the opera while compo9ing ntar. At
II akovnitsy, the estate of the brothers Lodyzhenskl, 1 spent pleas-
antly the better part of a week: I watched tlie #/iororo de (round
88 M Y M U S I C A L L I FB
dances) ; I rode horseback with my hosts and Borodin and ex-
changed all manner of musical ideas with the latter, at the piano.
During my stay at MakOvnitsy, Borodin composcd his song
Morekapa Tsgr yevna (The Sea Princess) with its curious seconds
in the figurations of the accompaniment. By the way, let mc
mention the song I had heard in the #fiororod at Makovnitsy,

though, to my regret, for 9ome reason or other, I could not later

utilize it.
Upon returning to St. Petersburg, having completed Anti, I
turned to some parts of Ps k ovit pa ala, wrote the tale “0/ Tsa-
r)•extia Lada,” also made a rough draft of the chorus Po malinu,
po smorodino (We're oil for raspberries, for currants) and the
for yelki game. A. N. Purgold was a magnificent interpreter
of my tale. V. Y. Stasof( w•ent into raptures, he rumbled and
he grumbled. However, he was not the only one to like the tale.
 C H A'P T E R I X
i868— yo
I(usorgski’s Meddiny. Concerts or the Russian Musical Society. Death
of Dargomyzlisk , L!iz hegorodtsy and billion fia/r/iJ at the Mariinski
Theatre. Boris God«u•]. Concerts of the Free )Iusic School. Gedeo-
naff’s $llcdn. Completing the orchestration or The prone burnt. Songs.

The beginning OI the season of i 8 68-6q found rue in possession

of a fUlly finished score of Antar. Musorgski returned to St.
Petersbui g with .ñct I of Gogol’s bedding ready, in a draft for
voice and piano. Borodin brought new fragments of Prince I gor,
tlie beginning of his Second Symphony in B-minor and the song
FIorsk a) a Tsar j cz'na (The Sea Princess) . The songs The False
Note and Of rdvO) JO(N)' moyi pt csni (fly songs with poison are
filled) hc had composcd earlier. Cui had completed lithium Hai-
rfi¢ and immediately submitted it to the Theatrical Board of Di-
rectors. the Stone Gue t was alSO cOmplete, except for the finale
of Tableau I, left unfinished, for some reason, beginning with
Leporello's wnrds: for ] esliclio Kiida kak nuzhno I (“And now
comcs this I And thls Was all we needed 1”) Early in the season,
Dargomyzhski's soirces recommenced. Z’fir broad Guest used to
be sung in its entirety. The Wrddiap also roused considerable
interest. We were all amazed at Musorgski'9 task, enthu9iastic
about his characterizations and many recitative phrases, but per-
plexed by some of his chords and harmqnic progressions. Mu-
sorgski himself sang Podkolyosin with his native inimitable talent ;
Alyeksandra N ikolayevna sang Fyokla ; VelyamiooJl sang Stye-
pan ; Nadyezhda Nikolayevna played the accompaniments, while
Dargomyzhski, his liveliest interest roused, copied Kochkaryofi’s
part in his own hand and sang it o ith enthusiasm. Everybody was
particularly amused by Fyokla and Kochkaryoft, the latter ex-
patiating about “nasty little mailing clerks ; nasty little rascals,”
etc., with a most amusing characterization in the accompaniment.
go MYMUSICALLIFE
V. V. Stasolf was in ecstasies. Dargomyzhski occasionally said
that the composer had gone a hit too far. Balakirelf and Cut con-
sidered the bedding a mere curiosity with interesting declamatory
moments.
Howerer, having composed Act I, Musorgski could not make up
his IRind to go on with the Shedding. His thoughts turned to
Pushkin’s fi orjs Go duno , and soon he set to work. Moreovc r,
he simultaneously began to write his D yetska ya ( hTursery) that
series of qua iot compositions for voice and piano, which Alyek-
sandra Nikolayevna Purgold interpreted so finely.
the health of Dargomyr.hski he was sufie ring from heart
disease had been on the doivnwa rd path since the autumn of 18 6 8,
and his soirces ceased. He used to say: “I I I should die, Cut
will complete The SI one Giiest and R lmsky-Korsakofl w'ill write the
instrumentation.” As I have already said, The Stotie G mrs i was
finished except for a few lines. In our circle Cut was consldered
a vocal and operatic composer par excellence, since William Rat-
cli was his third opera, although Th c Priso nor o f t he Caucasus
and Z’/rc Mandarin’s S oti had not bcen produced as yet. As for
me, I had the reputation of a talented tirchestrator. I rcally
did possess a gift for orchcstral colouring, along with a liking for
purity in part writing and harmony, but I had neither experience
nor fundamental knowledge.
I don't remember whether lVagncr's L ofir opriii had its first
r erformance at the h4 ariinski Theatre early in the fall Of 18 68 or
in the post Lenten season the spring before. K. N. yadoll con
ductcd. B alakirelf, Cut, Nfusorgski and I were in a box with Dar-
gomyzhski. Lo lien grin called forth utter scorn on our part, and
an inexhaustible torrent of humour, ridicule and venomous caviling
on the part of Da rgomyzhski. Yet at that time Wagner had al-
ready half-finished his D er R in g dev ibelungeti and had composed
Die M cis ter sin yer, in w hich with experienced and skilful hand, he
had broken neo- paths for art, far, far in advance of us advanced
Russians. I don’t recall whether it z as then or in regard to later
I.oficffpt’lii perform;inces tint Cut q•rOte the article : “Lo hengt in
or Pu ni:had Curio sit y.” This article was dCdicate d to rue, alth ougli
the fact was not mentioned in the St. Peters bHT q Gasket tel where
Cut functioned as inuslca1 critic.
In the season of i 868—*9. Balakirefi conducted all of the Russian
 BA LA K I R E F F’S P R O G RA II S qi
Musical Society’s Concerts, except one which Nikolay Rubinstein
had been invited to lead. Rubin9tein gave the Sal‹iintala orerture
and ,Anton Rubinstein's Ocean Symphony, and also played concertos
of I-iszt and Litolfl. The programs of Balakireft's converts were
exceedingly interesting. There were performed: Beethoven'
Ninth Symphony and ñ eooorr Overture ; Schumann's Second Sym-
phony and “Ovcrture, Scherzo and Finale” ; Berlioz's three move-
ments of R omen and Ju lie I and Act II of the opera Let
k Cartha e (ch use ; h Brads ; storm in the forest) ; Liszt’s Los
Iodel and to o episodes from Lenau's NouiI; Glinka's K m ri»-
ska ya and the chorus: Po gibn; ct! (I Ic shall pc rish ! ) ; Dargo-
myzhski's Finni-• li Fnnta. y ( i st time) and choruses from R iiialku.
Thcre is nothing surprising in the fact that exce rpts from R us lan
end L yudmi!a (Act II') or R usalha were in those days numbers
of interest at symphonic concerts : R uslan q'as given with enor-
mous cuts, while Rusafka tag not given at all.
I'robab1y ilnder pressure from the D 1 rectors of the Russian hIu-
SICJI Society, B alaki ref( also decided to acid to the p rogra Ans of his
couch rts the to i‘ipirf to \Vagner'9 Mets tors inger which he hated,
About the performance of this number Syerofi wrote that any
second riolin of the orchestra could hare conducted it as well as
Ealakil-Cff. Of course this wa9 on r Q prejudiced thrust on the
part of the far from impartial Syerofi. The programs included
thc following 1'orks by mcmbers of our circle : Borodiii's Sym-
phony, my N n fur’ and the Cho rue o f IVclcomc from Psk o•ai t v anka,
the theme of which I have mentioned alrea dy. The programs of
Balakirefi’s converts provoked all sorts of attacks on the part of
Syerofi, Rostislav (pen-name of Fyeofil Al atveycvich Tolstoy) l
and Professor Famintsyn. They were exasperated lay the lack of
classical number s on the programs and by such novelties as Poro-
din’s Symphony ; hy the partisanship shown in the partiality for
works of the membe rs of the clrcle (or “Eni yhI s' /. oorlifiu,” i. e. co-
terie as V. V. Stasofi had tactIcssly called our circle) and also by
the absence of woi‘ks of Syerofl, Lam1ntsyn, etc. The f ronta l on-
slaughts ivei c directcd by the ofende d Farn1nts)'n at Borodin's 9ym-
phony. Its per fOrfnance at the come rts had not passed off with-
out a h int of hisses. The critics also found fault wi th Balakirefi’s
' Ca ric2tv red in Musorgski’s Pt e9 5/low as professing an undying admiration for
PattL C. V. V.
gz M Y M U S I C A L L I FE
interpretation. On the other hand, Cut found it beyond all praise
in his artides in the 8i. Pe ter sburp Gezri ir. Between Cut and the
critics referred to, there a constant wrangling, caustic remarks,
bantering, in a word, party polemics in full swing. In passing,
the St. elersbur g G«ze tte also dug its claws into talentless Wagner
and Rubinstein, sour-sreet, bourgeois Mendels9ohn, and dry, child-
ish Mozart, and so forth and so on in the same manner. The ad-
verse party hurled accusations of ignDrance, partisanship, and
kooch his in (clannishness) .
h(y chorus from T6r 3'Iaid o f Ps k o•o was hardly noticed.
An tar, auspiciously played for the first time on Starch I O, 186p,
found f avour as a whole, and I was called out. Balakireft z ho had
not approved of it in general and had condemned its Second Move-
ment in partlcular, said, nevertheless, at the fi r9t rehearsal, after he
had played that mo› ement: "Y es, it is really very fine !” I
pleased. Af ter the performance of Ao ter, , h4. Tolstoy ( Ros-
tislav) stated his doubts to me about the possibility of expressing
in music the joy of power. I do not remember what Syerolt and
Famintsjn wrote of Hntar. After the performance of Sadk o,
Famintsyn burst forth in a censorious article, in which he accu9ed
me of imitating the Kemarinske pa (sic ! ) . This led Nlusorgski to
c:reate his Clansicis t whlCh ridiculed the tritic of the “rueful
countenance.” In its middle part, at the words : “I am foe of
the newest artifices,” there appeared the motive recalling the sea
in Sadko. By singing his Klanark II usorgski gave considerable
amusement to all of us, particula rIy V. Y. StasoH.
Towards the end of 18 68 Dargomyzhski‘s health grew steadily
worse ; if I am not mistaken, volvulus had now been added to heart
disease, and the Bez s of his death came as a bolt on January 3,
i S69. By agreement wlth his her rs, tlie Sioor Gorir was entrusted
to me for orchcstratioii, Cui being requested to finish tlie first
scene.
At the beginning of winter, Napravnik's opera Ninahe goro(ts y
(The People of Nizhni-N ovgorod) had its first perk ormance at thc
II ariinski Theatre ; IVilliam R atcli , too, was being prcpa red for
production undei• Napravnik's leadership. U. N. I.yadoll who was
killing himself with dry nk was ending or had ended his career as n
conductor. The date of his death I can't recall.
With regard to the production of V/z/iepo i odfs)', Cut found
 W I L L IA M R A T C L I F F. 93
himself in an awkward position : one had to write about Nil he go-
rodfs)', and Cut did not expect that the opera would be much good.
Yet N •P••vnik was to begin rehearsing his Rairfi$. Cui found a
u ay out by urgently plcading with me to write a review of Nizhe-
porodts y. Being a naive soul, I undertook the task: for a friend
nothing is too steep. A'izheporodfiy wa9 given, and I wrote the
desired review. I frankly disliked the opera, and my review was
unfavourable, smacking of Cut himself in style and method. the
ch a ractcri9tic expressions “h(endelssohnian leaven,'' “bourgeois
ideas” and the like, were there aplenty. The article appeared
above my full signature. haturally it spoiled my relations with
b apravoik for the rest of my life : soon afterwards we met and
then I was in for it during my entire activity as operatic composer.
Of course, Napravnik never permitted himself even a mention of
my review ; but I don't think he ever forgot it. The rehearsals of
IVilliam R atcli commenced soon after. Through Cut, I became
a habitual attendant at these. I liked everything in fiafcJi$, in-
cluding the orchestration. I watched Napravnik closely and mar-
velled at his ear, his executive ability, his familiarity with the score.
The pri!miére was in February. The opera was well received by
the audience. ) lie cast ( fi'(ycI'nikofi, Platonova, Lyeonova, ¥"a-
silyefi I and the rcst) did their best, and everything went well.
Subsequent perf(›rmaoces grew more slipshod, as the custom had
long been and is to this day. Still the audienCes, even though
they di‹1 not quite fill the theatre, listened to the opera with at-
tention and recci› ed it with f8vOUF. My career as a critic had
not run its course z ith the review of R!i•he gorodts y : Cut asked
me to review Safr/i§ for the St. Petersburg Gaze i ie. The review
was n'ritten and turned out to be an unmistakable panegyric as
rega i•ds both composition and author, a panegyric springing from
an lioncst hea rt, but a small critical mind. However, my un-
restrained entliusi asm for that composition of the highest talent,
at the moment of its first appearance, was natural on my part. In
the article I expressed ccrtain opinions, categorical yet undoubtedly
correct. For instance, I boldly declarcct that the love-duet of bet
III o aS thc finest love-duet in all contemporary musical
literature. I'. 1’. Stasofl highly compllmcoted me On this opinion.
Strange that Cut, who naturally entertained a very high opine on
opera, should have preferred to thi9 duet many other
94 MYMUSICALLIF E
passages like the so-called scene ”at the Black Stone," for instance.
The composer also attached considerable importance to Lcsley’s
comical pranks. These were the very scenes w hich our circle
consl dered weaker moments.
I need not add that all the other music critics of St. Petersburg
fell upon Cui and hi9 oper a with the greatest exasperation, and
thereby prejudiccd considerably the opinions of the public.

Having ended the series of Russian ñlusical Society Concerts,

Balaltî rcfl gavc one more concert at the Free Music SChool, with
Schumann’s First Symphooy and hIoz-art’s f. egr/iem on the pro-
gram. I must make a correctl on : Sycrofi's saying that any
second viclin player of the orchestre could have conducted as well
a> Bal akirelf, referred, perhaps, to h)ozart's fi r gaieoi and not
to thc Uciiicr i»prr vorspiel, as I hare said before. Rut I think
that really makc s no diflerence : Syeroft's opinion romains partisan
and is striking in its partiality and unfairncss. /¥t all events, the
criticisms and intrigues of the adverse party ( Syerofi strove with
rnight and maln to get on the B onrd of Directory of the Russian
Musical Societ y) were responsible for the impai red relations be-
tween Balaki i efl and the Board of Directors. The latter were
dÏsple ascd wî th him. So z-as the Muse E uterpe (The Grand
Duchess Yelyena Pavlo vna) . Probably B alakirelf, i»tOlerant,
t2Ctless and un rCstra ined, was also somewhat to blame for the
dissatlsf action that had developed. There were rumours that a
year earlier the Grand Duchess, who had then been well-disposed
toward Balaliircfi, had graciously olfercd to send his abroad, that
he rnight get in touch with the musical world, but he scorrtfully
refused the oft er, Possibly thèse are mere stones, but, at any
rate, B alakireft refused tO conduct the concerts of the R, M.
Society. this led to an unequal striiggle lastlng several years
between him and the R. M. Society, a struggle between progress
and ConservatisrR. One day, in the spring of r 869, I called on
Balaklrefi and found there A. M. Klirnchenko, one of the Di-
rcctor9 of the Russian hÎusical Society. From g fcz• words of
the convc rsati on, which was about to close when I carrie in, I
)udged that the conversati on had been conclusiv e.
Vt’hen The Stane Guys t had been handed over to rue, I set to
orchestratiog it. Tableau II was completed during the spring.
 T H E R I VAL C ON CERT S s
Besides this, the composition of Pskoz‘ilj anka was progressing
little by little.
The summer of i 8 6g went by quite uneventfully for me. I
lived in my brother’s unoccupied apartment, and went for a while
to Terva joki, to see his family. I had no acquaintances in St.
Petersburg. The Purgolds had a summer home in Pyetyerhof(.
Work on Pt fi orirJ col «, in sketches, progressed now consecutively,
and now at random. My o11icia1 dutics consisted of boresome
work as officer of the day and in guard-mounting,
The season O( i 869—2o was noted for Ralakircff's struggle with
the Dir ectot s of the R. M. Society, whose concerts had been
entrusted to E. F. Napravnik. R ivalry between the concerts Of
the Russian musical Sotiety and those of the Free YluslC SChool
became the main object of Balakirell's activit y as conductor, from
the moment of his break with the Board of Directors. The
School’s five concerts were announced, and, with them, began a
war to the knife. The programs of the concerts were splendid,
very interesting and advanced. I quote them in full.'
On the whole, tlie programs of the R. II. Society’s Concerts
were also not devoid of interest, though more conservative. The
coocer ts began, and w ith theiit began ne'isvpaper wrangling, too.
The audienccs of the Musical Society were not over large, nor were
those at the Free Music School. But the h)usical Society had
money, while the Free School had none. The result wa9 a deficit
at the concerts and the utter impossibility of undertaking concerts
the following season ¡ on the other hantl, the R. II. Society eras
fully able to continue its concerts during the f ollowing years,
accordingly, victory was theirs. I shall not describe the tension
with which Balakirefl’s entire circle and all those close to it watched
the fight br twe en the two concert organizations, sympathizing
with one and wishing all manner of obstacles to the other. The
9. 5(. Socie ty, in the persons of its represeo ta ti vcs, prCser›•ed the
Olympic calm of officialdom, while Balakiref('s excited 9tate of
mind was obviou9 to all.
In connceti on with the performance of Sa.duo I made a fresh
copy of the score, and some correCtion9 and improvements.
Through Balakircft's intervention, 8adk o e'as gi\•en to Jurgenson
of Moscow to be published as an orchestral score and in an ar-
e Cf. Appendix II.
 p6 MYMUSICALLIFE
rangement foi four-hands b7 N adyezhda N ikolayevna Purgold.
The latter also undertoOk the task of rnaking a four-hands ar-
rangement of Omar which was then on the presses of Bcssel. .\s
far as I ecollect, Jurgenson au well as Bessel paid me one hundred
rUbles for the publish(ng rights of thcse compositions.
During this rery seasoii M usorgski subreitted his completcd
Bc ri s G oduao$ to the Board of Directors of the I nipcrial
Theatres. It was examioed by a committee consistiog of: Nap-
ravnik the opera conductor, Manger nt and Betz —the orchestra
conductors of French and G erman drama rcsrcctively; and the
dOuble-boss player, G iovanni derrerÔ ; it was rcJeCtcd. The f rcsh-
mess and oi iginality of the music nonplussed the honourable mem-
bers of thé COfTliTiittee, wko reproved tke composer , among othct
things, for the absence of a decently important female rûlc. In-
deed, there was no Polish act in the original score ; colisequently
Marina's part was lacking. finch of the fault-findtng was simply
ridiculous. Thus the double-basses moisi playing chrornatic thirds
in the accompaniment of Yarlaam's song were entr rcly too much
for Ferrero, the double-bass player, ch O COUld not forgive the
composer this device. ñJusorgski, hurt and oft endcrl, v•ithdr env
his score, but later thought the matter over and decided to make
radical changes and additions. The Polish act in the t ablcaux and
the scene Vear Uro my were new conceptions. The scene in
which the story of the False Dmitri's excoinrnunicatioo is told:
“There came out, brethreii, a deacon, burly and big and yelled at
the top of h'is luogs : 'G rishka Otrepyc fi has been damned (’ ” etc.
was done a5'ay with and the YurOdivy ( Sirnpleton) was ti ans-
ferred from this scene to that of the ortc k! car Kro iii]. This
Tableau had been planned as the last but one of the oper a, but
subsequently the composer relcgated it to the end. Rlusorgski
set zealously to e ork ou the above changes, in order to re-submit
his revised Sorti Godono to the Board of DErectors of the Im-
périal Theatres.
lVithin the same period f alls the following work allotted to the
nnembers of our cirtle. Gedeono(t, Di rcctor of the Imperi al
Tüeatres at the time, had conceired the idca of pro‹)ucing a work
which should combine ballet, opera and spect acte. For this pur-
pose he had v ritten the program of a stage perk ormance in
four acts on a subject, borrowed from tlie Elba Slavs, and had
 MLAD A qy
commi.ssioned V. fi. Krylofl to vp the text. 3fiada, with
its mixture of fantasy and cv ery-day reality, was a mpst grateful
subjeCt (or musical treatment. Gedeonoft asked Cut, B orodin,
hlusprgski and myself to compose the music for it; moreover,
hlinkus,' the el)icia1 ballet composer of the Imperial Theatres,
was to compose the incidents l ballet music. who the initiator
of this older iv as, I do not know. I suspect here the Influence of
Lukashevich, an oHcial of the Board of Directors of the Theatres,
who had begun to gain poz•er under Gedeonoil. Lukashevi¢h
was intima te with the singer, Y. F. Platonova, and the famous
0. A. Pyetroft, and these two e'ere in hlgh faVOuY with L. I. Shes-
takova. Thus some sort of working connection was springing
up between our circle and the Director of Theatres. I also be-
lies e tkat the thing had not ha ppened without V. )'. Stasoft's hav-
ing something to do with lt, The four of us were invitCd to
Gedeonofi’s for a joint deliberation on the work. Act I, as the
most dramatic, was entrusted to the most drum a tic composer—
Cut ¡ Pict IV, in which the dramatic moments were blended with
momclits of elemental force, was entrusted to Borodin ; Act II
and III were ‹distributed between hlusorgski and myself. Some
portioiii of Act II (folli-v'ise choruses ) were assigned to me; the
£rs,t half of Act III ( flight of shadow s and appearance of A'llada)
was reserv ed for rue ; wh tie hlusorgslci ua‹lei tool tlie second half
appcarance of Chernobog (hl ack God) , for which he wanted to
utilixe kis /X'ip/i i out il«fd ilf own i, htretofote unused.
he thought o lJlada and the few sketches I made for it took
rue away from P k oxi i panka anal the work on Th e Stotie Guest.
Cui composed the whole first act of Mlgda rather rapt dly. Boro-
din, who had hrcn somewhat disappointed in writing miner Thor,
now took much of the suitable material from it, composed some
new mitsic also and thus u rote almost the whole draft of Act I\'.
h)usorgski composed the i!Iarclt o f thc Princei on a Russian
theme (subsequently published scparatcly, with the f'rio a11a
Turca) ; as well as some other portions of .Rct II ; he also made
suitable ch anges in his k Ti ght on Bald Mon n! and ad»r ted it to r
Chernobog’s appe1reccc iii hat III ct !8I lada. On the other hand,
my notc s of the chorus in Act II and fiigh t of sh adoz s in Act III
The composer asho coil aborated w*th Léo Det ther in, the ballet, £n $o«rcz,
fpr tlie Paris Opéra. C. \’- V,
q8 M Y M U S I C A L L I FE
were still uncompleted and nothing u ould come of them, owing to
a certain haz iness and indefiniteness of the task of writing music
to a scenario insufflClently worksd out.
Gedeonofi’s scheme was not destined tO be reali zcd. Soon he
left the post of Director of Imperial Theatres and vanished from
sight. The .lffada alf air dropped into oblivion, and all of us
turned to the work v'e had left for it ; z hatever wc had composed
for W/ada, found it9 way into othe r cotn positions, later. I set to
orchestrating I'm Rioar Giie i,' in March I ‹in chestrated Tablc an
I, and then the turn came for work on the composition of P,• k ve i-
t yanka. For the time being, my work was limited to pondering
and \vritiilg éhC out!inC. OF thc orchCs trol Score t)lc1’e ex)gtfld
only the Ch orue o/ Telcoine (Iater rc-z ritteii and calling for an
added orchestra on the stage) , and I'lasyevna’s f airy-tale with
Styosha’s preceding scene, which had been Orchestrated in Oc-
tober, i 8 69.
The stammer of i 82o was a repctiti on of the preceding one :
I lived in my brother’s unused apartment and ivcnt to Tervajoki
on a two-months leave. I had no acquaintances in St. Petersburg,
except one I amily whom I vlsitcd cv-e rv now anil then. the family
of Bla godarcfl, a classmatc of mi Ne at the Naval School and a
great lover ol music. The Purgol ds had gone abroad this tlme,
and the hI isses P. read proof on Slusorgski's •$ emrna i i: t5’ which
was on the presses at Let p ri g. because conditions of censorship
precluded its publication in St. Petc rsburg. B est dev The lXfBtd
o f Pshoz•, the sketch of which was grow ing at a snail's pace, l
worked on the orchestration of Table aux III and U S of th e S tone
GRr i, and therewith all work on this of spring of Dargomyzhski's
muse z s 6nlshcd during my stay at Tcrvajoki. In adrlition to
this, the songs : G d ye /y, fain ia)'.tJ’ ino5!a I eta j e t (lVhere thou
art, the i c flies my though't) ; T li e /frirrs So»p, U i›ui’‹i 'u rozJ
t Reina pTidi ( Comc to the realm of rhr rose and the wine I) ; Fu
z•j cr)'ii, ya fJu him ( I believe I am loved) ; /? iiioyrv pv c nye (To
my song) were conceived and written pa r thy in the summer and
partly in the u•inter of the same year.’ -
° This song po rtra ys the amorous preoccup ations of e IIdeological student. C. V. V,
° \Vritten at Riva sul Lago di Gard a, July i$, I QD6. ”
 C EI A P T E R X

Orchestration of Psi ot'i/ypn ée. Entering on professional duties at the St.

Petersburg Conserratory.

The season of i S Zo—7 I provcd barren of activities for the

Free h4 usic School. The money in hand had been spent on the
fivc concerts of the prcccding season ; a temporary lull in the ba ttle
with the Directors of the Russian Musical Society was unavoi d-
able. R alakjrefl was forced to submlt to circutnstaoces; nevet-
thcless, the though t of rcsurning the rivalrv the iicxt ye2r did not
leave him. He cxpectcd to bide a year without conccrts and
thcr cf ore without expcnses f or concerts, and then, having im-
proved the financial status of the School, resume concert activity
with thc sca son of I S2 I—2 z. )Vi th Islame) completed, B alaki-
fCfi's acti vity ds a composer came to a standstill : the work of wi•it-
ing Tamara stopped, and he became cornpletely ahsorbed in the
thought of the coming coHtcrts. Neveitheless he showed no re-
luctance to playing fris I.‹lame y as well as music by other people,
at the soirées of Te. I, Shestakova and the Purgolds.
In D cccmber, Anna Antonovna, the mother of the Purgolds,
fell ill and died, and the gatherings at their house were broken
up. In Fcbruary, I began to work assiduously oa the orchestration
of PAL o i i yanka w)iich was nearly i eady in the rough by then.
During February, Act I, as far as the beginniug; of the duet of
Toocha v ith Olga, was orchestrated. I cannot recall why, but
the writlng of my score was interrupted for three months and
resurned only in June. The summer of 18 2 r, as in the precc ding
years, I li vcd in the apartment of my hroth er, \*oyin .A ndreyevich.
During that summer, Musorgski nc›•e r left St. Petersburg at all
or else for a shop-t time only, retorning very soon. I moet him
of ten ; usually he came to see me. During one of his visits I in-
troduccd him to my brother, who had come to the city for a lew
too hI Y M U S I C A L L I F E
days, from his cruise. My brother had been brought up on the
music of the palmy days of Italian opera in St. Petersburg ; never-
theless he listened with deep interest to excerpts or B oTis Go dn-
Not which Modest gladly played at his request. hlusorgski and
I ireqornily called on the Piirgolds, who now lived in Fii•st Pargo-
lovo, by a lake. N.N. Lodyzhenski, who spent that summer ‘:
in St. Petersburg, once aCcompanied me when I called on them.
All summer I z•orked hard on the Score of Psi ovit yaw ka. ACt
I and II ahd Tableau I of .fict III were entirely ready in orchestral
score between June and September.
During the summer of 187 i, an important event occurred in
my music i1 life. One fine day there came to me Azanchevski,
who had just entered upon his duties of Director of the St. Peter s-
burg Conservatory vice N. I. Zaremba, retired. To my surprise,
he asked me to j oil the staft of the Conservatory as Professor
of Pra cti fa1 I omp os1 ti or and IristrutTien ta ti on a s well as Pro-
fessor, i. e., ieader, of the Orchestra Class. E v-idently Azan-
chevski’s idea was to invite new blood in my person and thus -
freshen up teaching in these sub]ects, which had grown mouldy
under Zarernba. The performance of my bulk a at a cont::ert of
the R. M. Society during the season just ended minifestly had
been a preliminary step on Azanchevski’s part to get into closer
relations with me and prepare public opinion for this unexpected
call to me to become professor at the Conservatoi•y. Reallring
that I was totally unprepared for the proposed appointment, I
gave Azanchevski no definite answer and promi9ed to think the
matter over. fly friends advisrd one to acrept the otter. Bala-
kireit, the only one to realize how unprepared I 1•as, insisted on
an answer in tlie aim rmativc, his main object being to 9et one o f
his own men into the hostile Conservatory. The urgings of my
friends and my own delusions, perhaps, won the day, and I accepted
the otter. In autumn I was to become a professor at the C onserv-
atory, without, fOr the time bciiig, giving up mv Naral uniform. ’"
Had I ever studied at all, had I possessed a fraction more of -
knowledge than I actually did, it w ould have been obrious to me,
that I could not and should not accept the proflcred appoiRtmCot,
that it was foolish and dishonest of me to become a professor.
But I, the author Sodk o An tar, and Z'fic Maid o/ P kov,
COmpositions that z'cre coherent and well-sounding, compositions
 A D
E IL T TA N T E P R O F E § S O R ioi
that the public and many musicians approved, I was a dilettante
and knew nothing. This I frankly confess and attest before the
world. I was young and self-confident ¡ my self-confidence was
encouraged by others, and I joined the Conservatory. .And yet,
at the time, I not only could not decently harmonize a choralc,
had not z ritten a single counterpoint in my life, but I had hardly
any notiOH OF the structure of a fugue ; nay, did not even know
the names of augmented and ‹diminished intervals, of chords, (ex-
cept the fundamental trlad) , of the dominant grid chord of the di-
minished seventh, though I could sing anything at sight and distin-
@U1Sh chords of every sort. The terms “chord of the sixth” and
chord of “six four” were unknown to me. In my compositions I had
aimed at corrcctness of part-writing and attained it instinctively
and by ear ; correctness of the grammar of mu8ic I also attained in•
stincti›•e) . misc, rn)• ideas of musical forms were vague, especially
of rondo forms. I, who had instrumentated my composition9 with
a good deal of colourhad not the requisite information as to the
technique of bow instruments, of the real keys (that were used in
practice) of French horns, trumpets, and trombones. As to the
condiictoi-'s art, having never conducted an orchestra, nor even
rehearsed a slnglc choral piece, of course, I had no conception of
it. clod fizanrherski took it into his head to offer a pro-
fessorship to a musician so ill-informed, and the musician accepted
without blinking.
Perhaps it will bq said that all the abo+ e information which
I lacked was unnecc ssary to the composer of Haddo and In /orJ
and that the very fact that 5ad/i o and ñ itiur existed proved that
that informati on was unnecessary. To be sure, to hear and rec-
ognize oii interval or a chord is more important than to know
their names, the more so as those names can be learned in a day,
if necd be. It is more important to orchestrate tolourfully than to
know the instruments, as military bandmasters know them, who
orchestrate by rout inc. Of course, to compose Omar or a
SBdko is more intc rt sting th an to know how to harmonize a pro-
testalit chorale or write f our-part Counte rpolnt, which seems to
be oecessa rj for organists a bone. But it 1s sh.arnefU) not know
such things and to learn of they r exlstence from one’9 own pupils.
)l oreover, soon af tc i- corRQOsi eg Ps k o bit] anka, the lack of con-
trapuntal anal harmonic technique displayed Itself in tlie abrupt
i ou M Y Il U S I C A L L I F E
cessati on of my creative f ancy, at the basis of which fay the self-
same devices that I had ridtlen to death ; only the deve lopmcnt oi
a technique that I bert all rny efforts to acqui re, permitted ne v
living currents to flow into my creative work and untied my hand
for further actu vity as a composer. In any case, with the infor-
mation I possessed, it was z'rong to take up professiooal duties,
dutics that involved pupils of all possible sorts : future composcrs,
cooductors, organists, teachers› etc.
But the step had been takeH. Having found myself to guide
the C onse rvatory pupils, I ha d to prctend that I knez everything
and that I understood all the problcms of all the pupils. I had
to resort to general jenna rks: in this I was helped by my personal
taste, my sense of form, understaoding of orchestral COlouring and
a ccrtaiu fund of Experience in the geiicral practice of composition ;
but I myself had to match information from pupils, on the fiy, so
to speak. IB the orchestre class I had to summon all possible self-
control to my assistance. I was uidee in this by the fact that at
f›tst none of my pupils COtlld ’imagine that I koew nothing ; and by th e
time they had learned enough to begin to see through me, I had learned
something mysel f 1 \Vhat came of all this later on? "fiie first
stndents who graduated from the Consc rvatory in my time,
Haller, I ujer and Startscfl, were Zaremba’s puppils c til cly and had
learned nothing from nie. I(az biryuk, ( a talent cd indiv-idflal who
bell to drinking and osent to the dois subseqiicntly) , who prad-
uated from the Conservatory two or three years a fter I had joined
it, was also cotirely Y. I. Johansen’s pupil in harmony and counte i -
point ; If he learncd anything frOm mc at all, it lay iii a certain
tastc in instrumentation and ils the gcncral tendency of his com-
positions. Indeed, la i emba kcpt his pupils on Gluck, hJ oza rt,
Chcrublni and hlendelssohn, ivhc reas I tli reced them to Bee-
thoren, Schumann and Glinka, who, indeed, were more modci n
and more to their liking.
Beginning with 7», I undertook to teach harmony and counter-
point. H aving thoroughly familiarized myscl f with orchestral in-
st mments, I acquÎred a fair technique, that is, I untied my
hands for my owo ivork of composition. On the other
hand, I began also to be of some use to my pupils as a pr actical
teacher. The subscquent generations of pupil who came to me
from Johanscn or those who la ter began their Studies directly
 T H E OR CH E ST R A CLAS S io3
under rnc, were real)y my pupils and probably will not deny it.
Thus having been undeser vedly accepted at the Consevatory as a
professor, I soon hccame one of its best and possibly its very be'.t
pupil, judgltig by the quantity and value of the information it
gavt rue I Twenty-five years after, when my Conservatory friends
and the Board of Directors of the R. II. Society honoured me
z ith jubilec grcetings artd speeches, I expressed this very thought
in reply to Cui's address. Thu s matters stood tn the Class in
Theory of Composts tOn and Practic al C Ompositlon. In the Or-
chestra Class things were somewhat di tferent.
Having begun rath ci• suspiciously as conductor in the Orchestra
Class, I kept that cl ass at a fairly high level. Its early as the
second year, tke Students' Soirfies had the assistance of the orches-
tra under my leadership. Once I tried my complete Third Sym-
phony in this class, but the reheqa rsal as a f ailure, as the pupils
who played from manuscript made innurnerablc errors. 5 ct I
had no hc art to weed ou t mistakes and makc the pupils learn the
symphony ; I did not want to exploit the studcnt orchcstr a under
my control nor to di vert it from its re gular assigned work and
exercises. Genera11 y speaking, my orchcsti a class got along hell,
if not brilli antly. ñ'evertheless, arnony somc of my colle ague pro-
fessors, the dcsire to conduc t the accompaniments for the solo
numbers or their pupil s was so ardent that they fre quently pushed
their way into the orcliestr al class for that purpose ; I yini ded the
conductor's baton to them out of politeness really, perhaps, out
of my innate easy-going disposition. Of course, I was a very
poor operatic conductor at tlie time ; yet the task of leadlng the
students' operatic perf ormances should have been assigned to me.
Huz'cver, during tlie first year Az anchevski undcrtook this duty
himself, and then cntruste d it to Ferrero. The reason he gave
for doing so was that Ferrero ivan supposed to have operatic tra-
ditions at his fingiers’ ends. A bric f, somewhat strained inter-
view on this subject with \zanchevski ( I lielieve, in the spring of
i 87 ) led to my resignation as the conductor of the orchestra
class. The class was enti usted to K. . Davydoll,’ but the sched-
ule of my* theoretical courses was sligh tly increased, so that my
salary of rooo ruhlcs remained aS heforc. From this period
' Karl Davydoff, ccl list, composer, and teacher. Born at Goldingen, Kurd and,
‹tick at hfo com, z 68y. C. V. Y.
i oq MYMUSICALLIFE
when I led the orchestra class I have retained one rather pleas-
ant reminiscenc the arraegiDg of a musical evening (in i 823,
I think) in memory of deceased Russian composers ; it was Feb-
ruary znd, the annirersary of Glinka’ death. The evening was
given under my direction, though the initiative belonged to A. I.
Rubyets, who had trained the chorus of Conservatory students.
For the first time before an audience, the student orchestra played
fairly well. \Ve gas e, among other things, H 7Viyhf ia i Madrid,’
Z'he Narrative o/ the Ideal (Act II, fio Jan and L yudmila) ; Intro-
duction to A Li fe for the Tsar,• Syerofi's Ho pak, Dargomyzhski’s
duet D yexerts y krasavits y ( II a ids of Beauty) , sung by a chorus
of women's voices. I have a recollection that D(itsch and Lyadofi
played instruments of percussion. Both orchestra and chorus ac-
quitted themse1v•es fairly well, and the impression z as most favour-
able. After that, for Seve Tal years, there was a custom of ar-
ranging public concerts of that nature every February and ; the
next was again directed by me, excerpts from the older Diitsch's
Kroatk g (The Croatian Girl) being on the program. The stib-
scquent annual evenings were directed by othe i s, as I had gi ven
up the post of professor in the Orchestra Class. having left
that class, I found my9elf insufficiently prepared for the work of
conducting concerts or opera. If I did, later on, achieve a certain
measure of success in conducting and was able sa fely to lead the
concerts of the Free If usic School, the Russian Symphony Concerts
and even operatic performances, it was due to my subsequent ex- -
perience with the Naval Bands and the Student Orchestra of the
Court Chapel, and again to my constant study of Napravnik's
methods, when he produced my operas at the Mariinski Theatre.
 CH APTER X I
18y 1 73
Illness and death of tny brother. Living with Musorgski. Difficulties
with the censor about PiloiizJaulu. h. K. Krabbc. Production of 7"ñ‹
6ioor Guest. marriage and trip abroad. Production of and
scenes from Dorir God«no$. Symphony in C-major. Appointment to
the post of Inspector of Musical Bands of the Naval Department. Study ot
wind instruments.

In tlie fall of i 8 i, my brother I*oyin Andreyevich's health,

which had been shattered for several year9 by heart disease, grew
considerably worse. IYith his wide and his three children he left
for Pisa to spend tlie autumn and winter thcre. My mother
went to Mo9cow to see her niece, S. N. Bedryaga. Thus my bro-
ther 's spar tinent was vacant all winter, and nothing attracted
me to Va ilyevski Ostrov. Musorgski and I agreed to tive to-
gether, and we took rooms or rathc r a furni9hed room in Za-
remba's house on Pantyeleymonovskaya Street. This, I imagine,
is the Only case of tiro composer9 living together. How could
we help being in ca»h other's way? This is how we managed.
hlornings until about noon, Musorgski used the piano, and I did
copying or else orchestrate d something fully thought out. By noon
he would gO tO his departmental duties, leaving the piano at my
disposal. In the evening time was allotted by mutual agreement.
M oreover, to ice a week, I went to the Conservatory at 9 A. M.,
while Musorgski frequently dined at the Opochinins ; so that things
adjusted themselres in the best of fashions. That autumn and
winter the two of us accomplishe d a good deal, with constant ex-
change of ideas and plans. Musorgski composcd and orches-
trated the Polish act of Boris Go duno and the folk scene hear
ILroni . I orchestrated and finished my lfaid of Pskov. To-
wards the beginning of October the second tableau of Act III and
I OJ
 io6 M Y 81 U S I C A L EL I F
the whole of Act IV of Ps kovit)• anka were ready ; only the over-
ture was to be written.
Early in November the even tenor of our life was interrupted
for some time as fo1lOfi’S. From Pisa came a telegr am with the
news of my brother’s sudden death. The Navy Department dix
patched me with a considerable sum of money to bring his body to
St. Petersbu rg. Hurriedly, I made i•eady and started for Pisa via
Vienna, Semmering and Bologna. Several days later my brother's
embalmed body was sent on, and I left for St. Petersburg, escort-
ing the fam'ily of the dccc ased. In \*ienna we stopped to rest for
some two days. At the time Anton Rubinstein was in Vicnna con-
ducting a series of symphony concerts. He was Prcparing to give
the first pci formance of Liszt’s recently finished oratorio, C/tris rue.
I secured Rubinstcin’s address and went to see him. He received
me very cordially and, immcdiat ely seating himsel f at the piano,
played me almost the whole oratorio from the advance sheets of the
piano score.
After I had returiied to St. Petersburg and Voyin Andreyevich
had been buried, my li fe slipped into its old groove, with Mu-
sorgski, in Pantyeleymonovskaya Strcct.
On Sunday afternoons one or another of our acquaintances
came to visit us. In passing, lct rue mention the visit of N. F.
Solovyoif, who eridently wished to knit a close r acquaintance.
But recently gratluatcd from the Conserratory, he had been close
7 to Sj crofl. L’pon the lattcr’s dcath, Solovyoll collaborated with
the widow V. S. Syerova to complete Vraz li ya Siln (The Fiend-
ish Power) from tlic composer's sketches, and he also orches-
trated .Act V of the opera. UrazJi \a Sila was produced at the
M ariinski Theatre and scOrcd a conside rable success, though less so
than R O yti yeta in its time ; hot So1o?yoft, who had completed this
composition, began to a ttract a measure of public attention. How-
ever, nO Closer relations were entered into, and he did not repeat
the visit.
Let me also recall the following episode. One Sunday H. A.
a roche ° came to see us. At first, conversation ran along safely
enough, but . \*. Stasofi, who dropped in hy chance, was at our
visitor's throat in an instant. V. V. could not stand Laroche
^ Founded on a pt ay by Ostrov-ski. C. Y. V.
* 8 yerod'e successor on the € olos. C. V. V.
X’. \ . S’I’ASOFF
 WEDDING f S S E T ioi
for htg ultra-cooservatism in music and his views à la Katkofl.
Stasofi had shown deep intere it in Laroche’s first long and splcndid
article on R nolan B Jtd Inludmila. But iii his Gulisequent articles
Laroche (he ivorked on Katkofl’s Moscom began to
express himself more and more as a courinced champion of tech-
nical perfection in art ; as an apologist of the old Plcmings, Palcs-
trina, J3ach and hlozart ; as an opponent of Beethoven, as a
preacher of eclettiCism, pro\r(ded it was accompanied by pcrfection
of technique, an‹l as a foe of “the mighty Soocb la (band) .” In
riciY of Laroche’s critical ar ticles and thcir tcndencies, his liking
for Bei lion's music was queer and inconiprehcnsible, music so
unusual, “disheveled" and, in any event, far from technically
perfect. Stasofi's squabble with 1 aroche 1•as long drawn out and
unpleasant. La roche tried to be restrained and logical ; while
Stasoff, as usuel, took the b›t in bis teeth ozd rushed into rude-
ness, accusations of dishonesty, etc. One could hardly get them
tO StOp.

In December, 187 i N adyezhda Nikol ay › ua Purgold became

my betrothed. The wedding was set for the summer, at Par-
golovo. Natui ‹illy my risits to the Purgolds, 'father frequent un-
til then, grew still more frequent ; I spent almost every evening
with Nzdya. F!evezthel ess my work continued. the or-erture to
Ps k ovit Lanka was being composed and was completed in orchestral
Score in January, i 8 2 z.
I submittetl the libretto to the dramatic cCnsor. The censor
Fridbcrg inst t d that cer thin changes and toning down in ex-
pres9ion should be made in the v yeche ( free city assembly) scene.
I had to subml t. The word9 syerfie, vol’nit.‹a (volunteers) , .i i) e-
lying posadnik ( actual mayor of a free city) , etc, should be re-
placed with the z•ords: skhodka (rueeting) , ‹from/mrna (yeomanry) ,
pskovs k i nani ynstnik (governor of Pskov) . From Toocha’s song
the following line9 were stricken out :
Dented have become our swords,
And our axes lost their edge.
Is there nothing left on which
We may sharpen nxe and sword?

At the censor’s o8ice I was told that all changes must aim at re-
 io8 MYMUSICALL1F E
moving from my libretto the slightest suggestion of the republican
form of government in Pskov and the vyecñr of Act II must be
transformed into an or dinary riot. In order to grasp the full
bearing of the scene, Fridberg invl ted Musorgski and myself to huts
house one evening and made us play and sing him the second act,
which he enjoyed in no sligh t degree. But the principal obstacle
was found somewhere else. In the Censorship Bureau there was
a document of the to’s, I believe, an order of H. I. Nf. Emperor
Nicholds I, which stated that rulcrs antedating the house of the
ROfrl8nO S ' may be represented on the stage in dram z and tragedy
only, but not in opera. To my inquiry: why? I received the
reply: “And suppose the Tsar should suddenly sing a ditty, well,
it would be unseemly.” At all events, there was His hlajesty's
Order, not to be disi egarded ; it n'as necessary to get by it in a round-
about way. In the 2o’s the Secretary of the Navy was
N. K. Krabbe, a courtier, arrogant, a poor seaman, who had
ieathed the post of Secretary by way or adjutant and sta9 service.
A man fond of music arid the theatre, and still more so of pretty
artists, but kind-hearted at all evcnts. hfy deceased brother,
Voyin Andreyevich, a splendid seaman, an impartiaJ and straight-
forward man, had 21way been at daggcrs drawn with the Secre-
tary ot the havy, in all meetings, councils and committees.
They held contrary riews on all questions that came up
at the Ministry, and Yoyin Andreyevich, who hcatedly stood
up for his opinions, often fought and won against the motions
of Krabbe (who strove only to please august personages) .
Occasionally the reverse happened, and th‹ngs were done that
V. A. thought inadvisable. Be that as it may, oflicial war be-
tween Krabbe and V. A. never ceased. On my brother's death,
the feeling of respect for the memory of his o1)icia1 enemy strik- '
ingl7 manifested itself in N. K. Crabbe's actiong. O f his own
accord, he hastened to do everything possible, in order to provide
for the family as well as the mother of thc deceased. N. K.
Krabbe’s feelings took me in, as well ; and suddenly I became a
favourite with him. He sent for me unsolicited and was gracious
and amiable ; he proposed that I turn to him in all diHculties,
and he gave me permission to visit him at any time. Tlie censor-
ship difficulties with Pskovit yank a made m apply to him, and
 TR OU BLE WI TH TH E CÉNSOR io9
with the gteatest readiness he undertook to solicit, through the
Grand Duke Konsta ntin, 1 the abrogation of the antiquated Im-
per tal Order forbidding the representation, in opera, of parsons
reigning Ge/ore tke Ho use o f Bomoiio s. Grand Duke Koustan-
tin also took up the matter with a will, and the censor shortly in-
formed me that Tsar Ivan had heen pc rmitted to appea r on the
operatic boards and that the libretto had been 1 eensed by the
censor on condition of changes in the matter of the vJ'cc§c. At the
same time my opera was accepted by the Board of Directors of the
Imperial Theatres, of which the immediatc management, af ter the
dlsmissals of Gedeonolf and Fjodorolf, fay in the hands of Luka•
sheviCll, whO was well-dispose d towards the members of our circle.
However, the supreme though unoificial direction of the theatres
de› ol› ed at that time upon Baron Mister, Controller of the Mlnls-
try of the Coui t. Therc was no real director. Naprarnik, though
not in favour of my opera, had to how to Lukashevich's infiuence,
and the work was announted for the f ollowing season. At any rate,
in the matter of its acteptance for a production at the hI ariinski
Thea tre, the intercession of the Crand Duke into ccnsorshlp a f(airs,
had surcly had a considerable elftct. I imagine that the reasoning
of the Board of Directors of the Theatrc was as follows : The
Grand Duke himself is interested in Rimsky-Korsakoll's opera
conscquently it is impossible not to accept it. Napravnik had be-
come acqua ioted z ith Psk ovit j atika one evening at Lukashevich’s,
where Rlusoryski and I were inrited. hlodest, who sang magnifi-
cently in every voice, helped me show the opera to advantage
before those present. O f COUrse, N apravnik did not express his
opinion, but merely praised our clean-cu t cxetution. Generally, the
perfoi’manccs of The J/oid o/ P,tlou with piano accompaniment at
Krahbe’s and Er equently at the Purgold house went as follows :
Musorgski sang Tsar Ivan Grnzny, Tokmakoff, and other male
rfiles. according to need ; a young physician Vasilyeg (a tenor)
sang Matoota and Toocha ; A.N. Purgo(d sang Olga and the
nurse ; my fiaflcfie played the accompaniment, and I, as emergeucy
dernaiided, ei thee helped out in thc other parts or played four-
lian‹)s with k’adya jrfia tever was impracticable for two-hands.
She, too, made the arrangement of 'fir 3foid o/ Ps kov for voice
* The Grand Duke Konstantin N ikolayevich, brother of Alexander II and, at thie
timt, figh Admiral of the Russian Fleck C. Y. Y.
 i io L1 ¥ II It” SI C A L L I F E
and piano. The performances with the above cast were excellent,
clear, fiery, and full of style, and took place every time before a
considerable gathering of interested listeners.

In February, i 8 22, Tlie Std nc YuriI, with my orchestration, was

performed at the hI ariinski Theatre. I attended all rehearsals.
Napravnik was i rnpassive, though his manner was irrep roachable.
I was content with my orchestration and quite delighted with the
opera. Thc opc ra was well cast. K ommissa r zhevski, the Don
Juan ; Platonova, the Donna Anna ; Pyetrofl, the Leporello were
all excellent ; nor did the others spoil the good impre9sion. The
audiences were perplexed, but the opera had success, nevertheless.
I do not remember how many performances Tñr Stone Goes / had ;
but not many, at any rate. Soon the opera w-as of the boards and
for a long period, too.
The war between Balakir efi and the Russian 1'v1usical Society was
renewed: five subscription concerts of the Free Nlusic School, with
interesting programs, were announced. Balakirc ft worked ener-
getically, but the attends nce was insuHcient ; the funds gai»e out,
and the fifth conce1 t cuuld nOt takc place. The war was lost ;
Balakirefi was crestf allen. In the spring he madc a trip to h izhni-
hovgorod and gave a piano rccit al there, counting on the total
interest in his as a Ha tiv e of Nizhm-hovgorod. Tlie ma11 eras
empty. B alakirefi called this concert "his Sedan'' ; On i•eturoing to
St, Petersburg he began to avoid people, even his close friends ; he
drew• back into his shell and for a long time gaje up all activity
neither appearing in public nor doing any creative work. A great
moral change was going on within him : this utter unbelievtr had
turned rcligious niystiC and fanatic. During the next fee- years of
complete estrangement f rom all, he held some clerical position in a
freight station of the Warsaw R a ilroa d. Rumour had it that hC
was mentally unbalanced ; this was untrue in any case, as his spirit-
ual reconstructi on c annt›t be considered a derangement in the
current sense of the w ord. It was said that lits close associates
were now Terti Ivanovicli Filippov and a certain “old-f aith” 1
' In d 3tia t II ist ory o f R //d y i«u .k In tic, =i^gu-N athan wi ites concerning t his cci:
"Dljring his regenes’, E or is God unolf m a d e an important change iti ecolesia xtca1 ad•
ministration. H itlie rto the R us x ion C1›ii rch h a t] been governed f rom Coast nntinop]e
in conse 9uence of tlie a doption by Rossia of the Byzantine loan of Chrjsi ianity.

• . mm m. v •,...•• ,*M..•+. ..•• . . .. . •. *'

 R I M S K Y -K O R S A K O F F S M A R R GI A E iii
priest ; and that thls latter had enshrouded Balakireff with thC Thy-
less gloom of ancient Russia ; to that extent the rumour subsequently
proved to be fairly correct. Balakirefl's moral crisis and estrange-
ment lasted for a long time, and only in the late 2o's did he gradu-
ally begin to turn back to public and cre a tire activ•ity, but he was
already a profoundly changed man. '
I spent tlie beginning of summer at First Pargolovo, where I
rented a small room in order to be near the Purgolds and my
fianccc. fly ma rriage took place June 3o. IVe were married in
thc church of Shuvaloft Park. fi4usorgski q•as my best man. The
wedding took place in the daytime ; after dinnci• at tlie simmer-
horse of my hTidt'9 famil7 we went to St. P ct ersburg, directly to
the \Yai saw Depot, escorterl by all of our conncctions ¡ from there
u e took the train for Switzerland and Northern Italy.
Wc returned to Russia in mid-August and spent the rest of the
summer at Pargolovo ; wee paid a bric f risk I, howe›'er, to my
mother at Tervajoki, as the still lived with my deceased brother’s
family. Earl y in autumn, my wife and I took rooms on Shpa-
lvernaya Street.
Meanwhile, at the Mariinski Theatre, rehearsals of P kovi-
i; anha began ; the arrangement for voice and piano had becn pub-
lished by Bcssel in the autumn. Owing to my trip abroad, I had
not read the proof of this edition, but had inti ustcd it to Cgi.
Godnnoff, d esirous of obtaining the bit pport of the Russian cl ergy, established a Pa-
l riarcbatc at Moscow. to this office Nikon was appointed in 1 6¢z. During his tenure,
'Nikon determined upon mak ifjg li at be considered a very necess ary revision in the
liturgical books of the Cburch. These hath for gene rations p'ist been copied by hand,
ah d many in accuracies had crept into i heir pages, Oii the adoption of printing, the•e
inaccura¢ies were of course invested with sanction. hikon went to the fountain-head and obta!
ned copres of the Greek orig mat* from Con*ta at1 nop I e with the object of making the
necess ary restoration. Errors had also been made in copying the p rinted lkon s or sacred
tokens. N icon introduced certain reforms in the ritti aI iii reference to the manner o f
making the Sign of the cross, of pronoiincih g the name of ) esus, apd of ‹alluding to tlie
Deity in the Crec‹l. These changes, together with those in the litu rg teaI buoks,
brought about tlie sch ism wit ieh di› i dcd tlie whole Riisai on Chu rch. The adherents of
the trad itional anal accepted for rn of worthip cal led ihern- selves OU Reli cv ets. N G*i3 ltlg
could more pt ainlv r¢ vegl th e I an aticisin v 'hich he s entered into tlie d ispute bet u'een
thc two bodie.• t halt the s« rv iv ing rejection ot s lI p rintcr{ ] iteI‘atiI re wh 'cli t1:c O Id D el ie
ve rs st i 1.1 com sider as more l ik e lv to cont a in e r rorB than ›v rii fen ve rsions. B v smite of the
D Ill fl eliei-c re , i o cross onese1 f before a painted ikon is ct aracteri zcd 2s an act of lxl a•
phem y. The Ortho‹lo.x Chat rch had been doing its best for nea r ly th ree lirin‹l red per rs
te st amp out theso non-conioimi eg zects, when, in i 9oS, Story pi n grit sted recognition to ali
religious sects in Rvis*ia.” C. \'. V.
' R iv 2, /UIQ 23 7 g O •
 i iz M Y M U S 1 C A L £1 F E
the edition case out with a multitude of mistakes in both tnusic
and text. In the text there were such errors as madc it absolutely
impossible to guess the sense of some of the word groups ¡ euaour
poeks, for 'instance, that actually appeared in the text, was sup-
posed to mean ; Mario us /of/ii, etc.
As customary, the rehearsals of Z’fie Maid o/ Pskov began with
the choruses. I attended the choral rehearsals, accompanied the
chorus, and later the soloists, myself. Pyetro9 sang Tsar Ivan;
Platonova sang Olga ¡ Lyeonova sung the Nui se ; Orlofl sang EIi-
khaylo Tooch3 ; Mye1’nikotI Prince Tokmakofi. I.A. Pomazsn-
ski afid Y. S. Az-) e get, the rhoir masters, wcrc highly deligh tcd
with my opera ; N apravnik was impassive and did not express his
opinion, but his disapproval made itself felt even against his will.
The singers were consicentious and amiable ; O. A. Py etrof was
not quite pleased, complaining of the numbcr of long drawn out
passages and stage mistakes which it was difficult to overcome in
the acting. He was right in many w aye, but youth made me fly
into a passion ; I therefore yielded nothing, wOuld not allow cuts,
and naturally and obriou9ly irritated both him and Napravnik ex-
ceedingly. After the choral and solo rehearsals, came orchestral
rehearsals for w-eeding out mistskcs. Naprarnik worked magnifi-
cently, pouncing upon all errors of the copyists as well as my own
slips of the pen. The recitatives he led in (normal) time, and that
angered me greatly. Only later did I grasp that h had been
right and that my recitatives had heen written tnconveniently for
free and unconstrained declamati on, as they were ov-c r-burdened
with various orchestral figures. ThC lTllIsic Of Matoota’s attack
on Toocha and Olga had to be Ilghtcned somewhat by changing
certaln orchestral figures to more practic able ohes. The same
thing had to be done in the scene of hJatoota's visit to the Tsar.
The flUtfSt Kiose, who had struggled to bloir a lengthy legato
figure without rests on the piccolo flute, finally t)ropped it, as his
breath had gix•en out; I was obliged to insert rests for brcathing.
But save for such ti thing shortcomings, all went satisfactorily.
The singers had considerable difficulty with the 3/4 duet in Act IV,
N apr avnik, too, frowned, but found a way out. Final ly stage
rehearsals commenced ; here, in putting on the z')'rcfir scene the
stage managers G. P. Kondratyelf and A. Y. Nforozofl throwed
great zeal: they dressed in costume and took part in the mass
 P S K O V I T Y A N K A P E R F0 R sI E D i i3
movements, both at rehearsals and in the early performances of
the op‹'ra, like any member of the cast.
The premiere took place January i, 73 The perf ormance
was fine ; the arti9ts gas-e of their best. Orloft sung magnificently
in the r')'rrfi scene, leading ofi the chorus of the free city rolun-
teers with splendid elect. Pyetrolf, Lyeonova, Platonova, as well
as chorus and orchestra were good. The opera met with,favour,
especially the Second Act ; I was called out many time9. Dui-iBg
the course of that season Ps kovit yanks was sung ten times to full
houses and great applause. I eras pleascd, though the press, with
the exccption of Cut, belaboured me soundly. With others, Solo-
vyofi found in the piano score of Pskovil pank a an incorrectly
represented tremolo (one of the numerous misprints in that edi-
tion) ; evidently alluding to my professorship at the Conscrvatory,
he renomously advised me to “JO tO SChOO1, 3nd repeat and go to
school.” Rappoport 9aid that I “had profounrlly studied the
secrets of harmony'’ ( at the time I had not studied thcm at all) ;
but then followed a multitude of all sorts of “buts” r roving my
opera worthless. Nor did Fyeofil Tolstoy (R ostlslav) , I arOche,
and Famintsyn pat my work on the back. Famintsyn laid especial
stress on the dcdication of my npera “to the music circle dc ar to
me” ; and from this he drew most extraordinary cnnclusions. On
the other hand, the scene of the Pskov +-ol’nilsa ( commons ealth
volunteers) struck the fancy of the young students, who were
bawling the song of the z'o/'aii›a to their hearts' content, up and
dow•n the corridors of the -Academy.
The Russian Opera, however, under Lukashei i ch's supreme
direction, did not confine itsel f that season to the pi oductioii of
T'he Maid o f P: k o•e. Towa rds tlie end o I the tlieatrc season were
put on, at some one’s benet t performance, te'o scenes of ñoi I.‹
God8aoJ: the Inn scene and the scene At the Fount ain. Pyetroff
wa9 magnificent as I'ar1a am ; Platonova, as hlarma and I(ommis
sarzhevski, as Dmitri, we re also finc. Tlie sccries scored i gre It
hit. Musorgsl‹i and all of us were in raptures, a n‹1 it was pro-
poscd to give fi crib Jo du»o$ in its entirety the fol1‹a1ving se ason.
After the above per formaHC0, Rlusorgski, Stasotl, .4lyeksand ra
hikolaycvna (my wi fe’s sister who had married N. P. II alas ' in
° Molas was a naval nicer. As Adm_iral of the Rossi an Fleet, he went down in
the fiagship, P 5'4t(opa+low h, at the entrance of tlie harbour of Part Artliur during
the Russo-Japanese war. C, V. V.
i 14 F1 Y II U S I C A L L 1 1 E
the fall Of 18 z ) and other pcople who stood closc to our music-al
activity, came together at our house, At supper, ch ampagne » as
drunk with wishes for the early pc r f ormancc and succcss of Koi i . “
fly wife and her sistcr, Mmc. A. N. hJ olas, tz o formerly activ e
articipants in all the musical gatherings at the house of \'1adim1r
Fyodorovich Purgold, were already like “slices oft the loaf” antl
no longer in the counting. Still the musical gatherings that had
taken place at V. F.'s house fOr so many years, did not cc ase
during the autumn pr feeding the production of Pak oz it] anka and
the sccn es from Boris, both Z’/ir ‹8 f one Gui•st and B oris Godunof,
in its entirety, as well as Fs kovit j anka we re sung there with the ^_
same cast.
At our house, also, Musorgski, )3orodin and 6t h OR met very
frequently. It that time MusorJ*ski’s thoughts had alrca dy
turned toward Kho•ea ns hchrna. I began w riti flg a Symphony
in C-major ; for its Sche rzo I took the E fl at major Scherz o ln
y/q time, which I had in my portf olio and thC trio of which I had
composed aboard some steamer on one of the It alian lakes during
my honeymoon abroad. IS'ork on the first movement of the
Symphony was slow, howcrer, and heset with difliculties ; I strove
to crowd in as much counterpol nt as possible ; but bcing unskilled
in it and hard Ut tO COlTib me the theme s anal motives, I drained
my immediate flow of imagin ation considerably. The cause of
this was, of course, my insuG cicnt technique ; yet I was irre9istibly “
drawn to add greate r interest to the structural style of my com- ”*
positions. A similar fate beI e11 the thi rd movement of the Sym-
phony Andante. The Fi nale prcscntc cl somewhat I ess di lficulty ;
but the combination of sev-cral SUbj ects at Its end proved amoth cr
stumbling block. Nevertheless, the stretch of the Symphony was
ready in the spring, and, from the rough draft, v•e tried it out on
the piano at our gatherings.
What Borodin was corn posing a t tha t timc, I do not remember ;
most likely he reckles ly dlvided his energies bet ween Pt iorr Igor
and the Second Symphony in B -minor, hUh as still a long way
frOm complction. Cui was once morc thinki rig of a new opera
and was composing many songs, of whlch If dif f5nii was tell i catc d -
to me and I•= ve d pnd)'ni a)‘a pOfo-‹’tf4 ( L 1 ftin g the little head from
the waters) to my cvi fe. O f those, 5'ho i*.•e re, so to speak, out-
siders in our intimate circle, Pla touova, Pa skh alof, the architect
 Hardman, and N. V. G lkin visited us that year. I remember a9
if it were today that on one occasion Galkin, who had come to see
us, helped us to make tea, as our only maid had suddenly left that
day. U'ith our combined eflorts we tried to make the s amozar
V'DT 8 Hd Galkio turned the charcoal with a boot-leg. Pasklia-
lot, who had come from II oscow as a newly discovered genius,
played us exccrpt9 from his opera A Grand R out u I Sarah’s Co art,
as well as a would-be orchestral fantasy in the nature of a dance.
All this fRuSiC Was immature and in reality ga› e but slight promise.
Paskhaloñ soon vanished from the horizon ; he began to drink,
Composed commonpla ce songs to make money, and died an early
death, leaving nothing remarkable in the way of compositi‹3ns. 1 I
aJsu recall the I one morning, u friend o1 my wift's, one Mayer,
I think, lirought to our house a boy who had obVious musical
talent and played the piano charmingly; Maycfl and I were to
decide together, whether the boy should be sent to the Conser v-
atnr). The answer was in the afhrmative. That boy z as E. A.
Krooslievski, sul›sequently my pu) il in the c1a ss o I composition,
later an accompanist, and finally second conductor of the Russian
Opera.
During the se ason of i 87 z—7 ) , B a lakl red rernalned out of sight,
as he had cntire)y withdrawn from music and from all people who
hat) for merly bceo close to him. The Free Music School no
longer showed many signs t›f I ife ; f1-om time to time cla sses of
some sort as w‹:11 as choir-d filling went on unrler Pomazanski's
direction, but th Director himself was never seen, and there wan
no talk of concerts. The life of the School was ebbin$ 9lowly
but sur ely.
In the spring of i 8y3, the Director of the Chancel)ery of the
Navy f)epartment, K. A. if ann, at a hint from N. K. Krabl›e,
summoneti me and told me that there had been established a new
post of I nspcctor of Slusic Bands of the havy Department ; that
I had bcen chosen for the putt ; that a complement of musician
pupl)s w'as belng oryaoi zcd, as holders of Navy Dcpa rtment fcl-
1ow•ships at the St. Petersburg Conservatory ; and that their
immediate surervision was c ntrusted to me. .TIy duties included
° V. N. Paskhalofi (i 8¢z—i 885) composed many songs, of which Dir yetb , m i!oit’
C 0.f O kiln i to / oyii (Baby m inc, tlie I.ord's mercy be with you ! ) is one of the m= :t
popular songs in Rossia. J. A. J.
 i i6 If Y 6J L* S I C A L L I F E
the inspecting of all T/vy Department Music Bands throughout
Russia ; thus I was to supervise the band-masters and their appoint-
ments, the repertory, th e quality of thc instruments, etc. ; I was also
tO Ti'rite a progi am of studies for the newly appointed fellows,
and to act as intcrmedia ry between the havy Department and the
Conserv atory. In II ay, the order alfc ctlng mc was issued. I was —
appointed to the nc›v post with Civilian Tank, and I parted with —
t)elight with both my military status and oflieer's uniform. The _
post took care of me rather well finaocia lly, and I was on the “
roster of thc Chanceller y of the Naval Department. Henceforth,
I a musician oflicially and incontestably. I was in ecstasy; so -
were my friends. Congratiil ations were showered on me. The -
clear 1'. . Stasolf dclightedJy PO hesie d that some day 1 would
be Di rector of the Court Chapel, and he would on that occasion
drink his beloved yellow- tea in my apartment nesr the Chapel
Bridge. Unrler such circumst ances the summer of i 73 came,
and my cvi fe and I movcd to a summc rhouse in First Pargolovo. '
A'If aQQO1 fitment tO the post of Inspector of hlusic Bands stirred
up a desire of long standing in me, to familiarize myself thor-
oughly with the construction and technique of orchestral instru-
ments. I obtained some of these: a trombone, a clarinet, a flute,
etc. and, with the aid of tables existing for that purpose, set out
to find out thci r fingering. At our summer home in Pargolovo I
played these 'instrumcnts, so to speak, for all the neighbours to
hear. I had no aptitude for brass instruments ; the high notes I
produced only with dilflCul th; tO ilCqnire R tCChnique on the wood-
winds I lacked patience ; yet I became rather thoroughly acqua inted
w'ith thcm after all. I\*ith the peculi»r haste of youth and a
certain rashness in the matter of sell-instruction, I immediately
conceived the idea of setting out to write the fullcit possible text-
book of instrumentation ; and, with this end in view, I made va•
rious outlines, memoranda and drawings which had reference to
a detailed explanation of the technique of the instruments. (
s'as eater to tell the z•or1d no less than a?J on this score. The
writing of such a manual or rather the outlines of such sketches
ft›r it, took a great deal of my time throughout the following „
se ason Of 1823=y 4. After having read a little in Tyndall and
8 \/rItten in Yalta, )uIy 3o, s 8 93.
 T E X T - D O O K O F O h C i—I E S T R A T 1 O N ii
Helmholtz, I wrote an introduction for my book ; in thls I en-
deavoured to state the acoustic laws pertaining to the fundamentals
of musical instruments. My work was to begin with exhaustive
monographs of the instruments by groups, with cuts and tables,
with description of all makes in use to date. I had not as yet
thought of Part II of my book, which was to treat of combinations
of instruments. But soon I realized that I had gone too far.
The wood-winds, in particular, proved to include untold multi-
tudes of makes ; in reality each maker or each factory has art IR-
dividual system. By adding an extra ralve or key, thC maker
either adds a new trill on his instrument or makes easier some
run that presents difficulties on instruments of other makes.
There was absolutely no possibility of Ending one’s w-ay through
all this maze, In tlie group of Class wind-instruments I (ound
some with three, four and five v-alves ; the construction of these
valves is not always the same on the instruments of the various
firms. To describe all this was absolutely bcyond my power; and
of what use e ould it be to any one i•eading tny text-look? All
these minute descriptions of all possible makcs, of their advan-
tages and disadvantages woultl but thoroughly confuse one who
wished to learn something. Naturally, the question arising in his
mind would be: which instrument, then, should T wrlte for ? IVhat
iS possible and what is impracticable ? -And in the end he would
fling my bulky text-book violently to perditioo. Such reflections
gradually cooled my zeal for my 1 ork, and, after st1’tIJ@11fl(* R
year with it, I gave it up. But in return, I personally had amassed
considerable information on the subJect by constantly• check-
ing myself up in the music bands of the hT aval Department, in
a practicsl way, and in the work over my text-book, in a theoret-
ical way. I had learned what every practical musician (a Ger-
man mill ta ry baudmaster, for example) knows, but xvh at, unfortu-
nately, artist-composers do not know at all. I un‹lcrstoo‹1 t!ie
basic principle of convenient and inconvenient passages ; the di Ter-
ence bet reen virtuoso dilficultics and impracticabil Qty; I came to
know all the uttermost tones of all instruments and the secret of
prodilCing some nOtes which everybody avoids thr Ough ignorance.
I came to see that all I had known or wind-instruments was wrong
and I alse ; and from now on I began to apply this newly acquired
 I i8 MYMUSICALLIFE
information in my composition9, as well as to strive to impart it
to my Conservatory pupils and give them at least a clear conception,
if not a full knowledge, of instruments of the orchestra. During ”
tlie summer of y 8 7) prys (jpc uplrd earth prattle 1 study of wlnd-
instruments ; with sketching the text-book that was never written ;
with polishing and orchestrating my Third Symphony, and with
trips to C ronstadt and St. Petersburg for the purposes of acqua int-
ing myself with the bands prior to taking up my duties as Inspector.
I n the bands of musicians I mas met as superiors are met : stand
to front ! I made them play thcir repertory in my presence ;
caught the wrong notes ; detected the slips (and thc re were very
many of them) in the instrument at parts ; examined the instru-
ments and made requisitions for new or addl tiOnal ones, according
to what was necessary. The authorities, who had jurisdiction
over the music bands, iverc unit a bye to me ; but occasionally I grew '
rather pepperv and humiliate d some bandmasters undese rvedly
or ridiculed pieces which I did not like, though the performance
of these was necessary and unavoidable in military bands. Thus
matters went on until autumn.
In August we moved to the city, to a new apartment, in Kono-
noft's house, on Furshtadtskaya Street. Oh August zoth our son
Misha was born.
 Debut as Conductor. ñJusorgski. His Rhoeoaihcf»na and 8 r chinih«ya
Sarinumc (The Fair at Sorochints)') . Operatic prize contest. Trip to
Nikola eff aed the Crimea. Studying harmony and counterpoint. Director-
ship of Free M u8ia School.

In the season of 18 23—24 the Samara Government suffered fam-

ine owing to poor crops. I do not remember who conceived the
idea of arranging a symphony concert at the Club of the No-
bility, for the benefit of the sufferers. I was invited to organize
and conduct the musit 1 part of the program. By agreement
with A. I. Rubyets, ever responsive any worthy undertaking, I
secured the promise that he would train a large amateur cholr
for this concert. We began to prepare for it. )n addition to my
Third Symphony, wh ich was entirely Onished by then, the conCert
prog‹ m inc1udv‹l Marr a's roma nz=a from fi atclip, Holoferne9’s
ñJarch from Eye rod('s Jiidii h, Musorgski’s chorus, Z'fir fi duf o f
SeaiiarJier)6, 1. Rul›instriri's Concet to in D-minor, etc. RubyctS
drilled the choruses ; I come to purely vocal rehearsals to ac-
company and conduct. The thought of public appearance as con-
ductor at a grand concert made me nervous in the extreme ; for a
whole month (be fore the concert) I could think of nothing elge.
I scanned the score9 and went through the motions of conducting
them whrle sitting in my study. For my debut before the or-
che9tra, I selected my new Symphony, to be able to act with the
greatest unshort I through appearing in the double capacity of
conductor and composer. fly per vousness before the orchestral
rehearsals had reached its height, but I ruse aged to master my-
self and “ acted” li(‹e an old haHd. The musicians were conscien-
tious, and I' strove not to burdcn them with polishing up details,
especially in numbers familiar to them. In fact, advice like the foJloz-
ing was volunteered: “Be a little stricter with us orchestra
i_o M Y )I U S I C A L L I F E
mu9itians like strictnes ,” etc. But how can one be strict with an
orchestra imbued with c prii dP (OT pS alid bound by no responsi-
bility to a strange conductor, an outsider I However, all went
well, we found our way through the Symp 7 honj , and the 3/4 -
Scherzo unfolded well enough. mention must be made that I
examined the orchestral parts and corrected them betime ; else,
at the first misunderstanding, 1 should have lost my head and
made a fiasco in the eyes of the musicians. After my Symphony,
1 took up numbers by other composers, Glinka’s Io ia Ara goriesa
and the h4 arch from Syerotf's /iidiaft. In the next rehea rsal the
ChOruses pa i tiCip ated as well. The chorus 2'/iu A our o/ Senoar/i- “
crib was performed partly with my orchestration. Musorgski
had composed for it a new trio, which greatly delighted Stasolf,
and, owing to lack of leisure, had entrusted its instrumentation to

The Concert for the benefit of the famine-striken population

of Samara occur red on Februa i y i 8 th. hJ. D. Kamyenskaya and
the pianist H artvigson (iv'ho was dissatisficd with my prchestral
accompaniment) wcre the soloists. I was somewhat languid after
the preceding excitement ; nevertheless everything went oH safely.
H oivevc r, we did not feed the hunger ridtlen Samarans, as our
audicnce was very small and we hardly co› cred the expenses of '
orchestra, lighting, etc. Thus passed my dcbut as orchestral con-
ductor. By the way, let me mention that bcf ord the csntert be-
gan I recci»ed from Balakiref( a very warm letter written in the
spirit of benediction and wishing me success. Personally, how-
ever, he attendsd neither the rchearsals nor the concer t, and my
Symphony remainc d unknoz•n to him.
This Symphony pleated my musical friends only moderately. ’?
Save for the Scherzo, it was found somewhat dry; my leaning to-
ward counterpoint was disapprored, and even its orche tratIOn
appeared most ordinary to many, V. Y, Stasofi for instance.
Appa rently the Symphony pleased only B orodin ; yet he said that
in it I appeared to him as a professor who had put on spectacles
and composed Erm yroi sc S ytnphonie in C, as befitted his rank. .,.
During the season described I often visited Borodin, and
brought along the wind-instruments I owncd, for us both to study
and dally with. It turned out that B orodin played the flute quite
dexterougly, and, with his finger-technique on this instrument, he !
 B O H I S G O D0U N PF P R OD U C E D izi
easily adapted himself to playing the clarinet as well. As for the
brass instruments, their high notes he produced with extraordinary
easc. We had long talks about the orchestra and the freer use
of brass instruments, as opposed to our former practices, borrowed
from BaJakireff. Tlic result of these talks old our eothuslasm,
however, was an excessii•e use of the brass group in Borodin's
Second Symphony in B-minor, w hich he was then orchestrating.
On my visits of inspection to the music bands I had charge of,
espccially the band of the port of Cronstadt, that of the Company
of the Guards and the Nav al School, with full complements of
brass and was led to orcheytrate for military
bands and provi‹(e them from time to time with pieces of my own
arrangement. During that year, and in several years following,
I made arrangements of the Co TOnation Ma((h from Le Pro phile
the Finale from A L i fe for the 7'iar; Isabelle's aria from R obers
/r kio6fc ( for clarinet solo) ; Berlioz-'s Murcfie Mirocainc,’ F.
Schubert's ñfurc/i in R-minor ; Introduction to 1,oheapria, the grand
scene of the Conspiracy from Let Hugseno is the Nocturoe and
Starch from A .)1id.›itaincr Ytpfir’i Dry am, etc. Where all these
score9 are now it is hard to say ; but they can probably be found
among the dnst-covered old music of the hands of the Navel De-
partment. In addition to my works of this nature, I asked Ïeaders
of the 5nnds in m)• charge to make arrangements of pieces selected
by rue. Occasionally I' was rather exacting towards band leaders
and I even dismissed one poor old man, because some musicians
in his band played thg base-tubes “in the wrong way” and thereby
systematically intrtiduced I alse notes into the pieces thcy played.
Holders of Naval Department fellowships who graduated from
the Conservatory, I assigned to bands at my own discretion, paying
no heed to requests or pressure from the Naval authOf I ties ; there-
by I aroused considerable dose z tislection, I am glad, howcver,
that while holding the post of In9pector, I succeeded in placing,
in the Naval Department's bands, two Russian bandmasters—
N. CliernoH and I. Koolygin from among the Conservatory
Fellows, whereas before my time the leaders had been exclusiyely
foreigners h‹real for the purpose.
On Janu fry z4, i 5 7 4 , Boris God8oo¢ was produced with great
success at the hI ariinski Theatre. We all iverc Jubilant. M usorg-
ski was already at work on Khovanshchina. It9 original plan was
 inz Of Y M U S I C t L I. I F E
much broader and ahouuded in nurnerou9 details which never got
into the final version. For instancc, there had been projected a
wkole tableau in the Gertnan suburb, where Lmma and her Uther,
the pastor, were to be the dramatis personae. h4usorgski even
played us musical sketches of this scene in quasi-IIomar tcan style
( ! ) , because of the German bourgeois surroundings of that scene.
By the way, there was most charmiog music in this scene. Like-
wi e, a scene Of a lottery, which is said to have been first lntroduced
in our country dunng the Khovanshchina epoch, z as projected.
Subsequently the muslc composed for this scene, bcczine the C-
major chorus at the entrance of Prince Ivan Khovanski in Act I.
The printer’ qoarrels in Act II were too long aBd too obscure in
their wording. hlother Susanna had at first played a pretty im-
portant rfile in Kho vanghcliina, taking part as she did in the reli-
glous dispute with Dosi fey. I n the prescnt version she is an un-
necessary cha raCter, quite forced and useless to all intents and pu r
poses. In Act I there had been a rather lorgish scene, in z'hich
the peOple demolished the court-scrivener's booth. Subsequently, *-
after the cOmposer's death, when preparing the opei a for publica- .,
tion, I cut out this sccne, as extremely unmusical and causing the
action to drag. Of the excerpts that h(usorgki played (or our tom-
pany of friends, we all were particul arly taken by the Persian
(iirls' dance, which he played magnificently; but in /fiovan £r/tina
it had been dragged iD “by the hai r," 6O to speak, as the only pre-
text for introducing it there was the possibility that amoDg the
old Prince Khovanski’s concubines the re z ere, or could have been,
Persian slave gir1s. Everybody liked, too, the court-scrirener's “
scene in -Act I. The melody of hI arf a the schismatic’s song hJu-
sorgski had obtaincd, I believe, from I.F. Uorboonoft, with whom
he had picked up an acqozintaoce in those days. Tke choral song
of glorification of Prince Khovanski (G-major ) and Andrey's
song (G slia rp minor) in Act Y are rif extr cmely doubtful origi-
nality, with unusually qucer intervals in perfect fif ths: and these
also he had recOrde d as heard from sonny pne among his acquaint-
:inces. The mclodies of M arfa’s songs and of the glorificati on
(wedding song) with their origiiial text I incorporated, with
Nlusoi•gski's permissi om, in my collecti on of r oo Russian songs.
Of the Khovansh china excerpts then played mention must be
made as well of the barbarous music of empty perfect fourths,
 M U SGO R S K I ’ S H A B T T S 123
which was intended for the chorus of schismatic afid which in-
finitely delighted V. I". StasofÏ. Fortunately, h(usorgski later
somez'hat changed his first idea, and the perfect fourths remained
only here and there, as odds and ends of Iris f orme r sketch in the
beautiful clioriis of schismatics in the Phrygi an mode in D (last
act of the opera ) .
None of us knez’ the real subj ect and plan of KBOvBH 3 hcliind
and from Musorgski's accounts, flowery, aftected and involved (as
was his style of expression then ) it was hard to grasp its subject a9
something whole and consecutive. In general, since the production
of Jot’is C oduao ¢, Musorgski appeared in our midst less frequently,
and a marked change was to be obser vcd in him : a certain mys-
teriousness, ray ei-en haughtiness, if you like, [iecame apparent.
I lis st:lf-conteit grew enorinously, and his obscure, iQ rpI voü manner
of expressing hirnself ( which had been chara ctcristic eren before )
now increased enormously. It o-as of ten impossible to understand
those Of his storie9, discussions, and sallies which laid claim to wit.
This is approximatcly the period v hen he Sell to loitering at the
Italy Yaroslavyets and other restaurants until early morning over
cognac, alone or with companions then unknown to us. IVhen he
dined with us or with other mutual friends, hlusorgski usually def-
initely refused wine, but hardly had night come, when something
at oncc dree him to the Maly Yaroslavyets. Sub9equently, one of
his boon-companions of the period, a certain 1 -ki, whom I had
known from Terva joki, told us that in the lingo of their set there
existed a special term “to trans-cognac oneself,” and this they
applied in practice. IVith the production of B or is the gradual
dccadencc of its highly gifted author had begun. Flashes of power-
ful creati› eness continucd for a long time, but his mental logic was
growing dim, sloivly and gradually. After his retirement from
service, after he had become a composer by profession, blusorgski
composed more Slowly, by fits and starts, lost the connection bc-
twcen scparate moments and jumped from one suliject to another.
Soon he conce’ived anothCr Opera Sorocliins ka Ja Yarmark a (The
) air at Sorochint«y) , after Gogol. It was composed in a rather
queer way. Its first Act and its last Act had no real scenario or
text, save musical fragments and characterizations. For the
market scene he utilized the music from fÏfJadd which was of simi-
lar purport. He composed and wrote the songs of Parasya and
 *>4 M Y M U S I C A L L I FE
Khivrya as well as the happily turned declamatory scene between
'Khivrya and Af anasi IVänOViCh, But bctwe en Acts II and III
there was projected ( for reasons unknown) a fantastic Intermez zo
The Dream o/ a Peasant Lsd, for which the music came from A
Ni ghi on Bald hloutit or 8i. Io liit’$ E ve (Cf. Chapter )*II, i 8 66—
67 ) . \Vith rome additions and changes, this music had dove duty,
in its time, for the scene of Chernohog (Blaek God) in II lada.
Now, with the addition of a little picture of early dawn, it was to
form the projected stage-intermezzo, forcibly squecz ed into Th e
Fair at Sorochin is]. I vividly recall Musorgski playing uS this
music ; and there was a pedal of interminable length on the no te C
sharp, to play which was the task of 1’. \*. StasofÏ, who took great
delight in its endlessness. V'hcn hluSDrgski subsequently wrote
this I ntermezzo in the form of a sketch for piano and x-oices he did
away with this inte i•minable pedal, to Stasofi's profound sorrow ;
but it could never be restored, owing to the composer’s death. The
melodic phrases appeariug toward the conclusion of this I nter-
mezzo, as it were the borden of a distant song ( cla rinet solo on
high notes in A h"i9h t on Said BIO ynt, in my arrangement)
belonged, in Musorgski's first version, to the characterization of
the peasant-lad who sees the dream, and those phrases were to
appear as ''leading motives” in the opera itself. The demon
language from the lkllada libretto was to supply the text of tlhs
I nterme zz o, too. An otchestral prclud•-, . 1 Stil Ir y Ida)' in O oI mina,
opened the oper a Soro chins ka Ja B1‘inoY ka. M usorgski himscl f
composed and orchestrated this prelude, and its score is still in my
possessi on. ' The work of composing II ho ans heli ina and Th e
Hair ai torochinii extended over many years ; the composer's
death on March i6, I S 8 I , left both operas unfinished.
V’l at was the cause of RIusorgSki's spiritual and mental decay?
To a consi der able degree it wat doe at first to the success of Joi’ii
(Owing to which his pride and ambition as author began to grown
later on it was due to its fa ilurc. Presently cots were made in the
opera, the splendid scene Near Km nip was omitted. Some two
years later, thc Lord know s why, producti ons of thc opera ceased
altogether, although it had enjoyed uninte rrupted success, and the
performa aces by Pyetrofl and, after hit death, by F. I. Stravin-
° It the present writing, arranged and orchestra ted by A. K. LyadoJf.
 M U s OR G S K I S D E C A Y izy
ski,' Platonova and Kommissarz hevski had been excellent. There
were rumours afloat that the opera had displeased the Imperial
family; there was gossip that its subject was unplesant to the
censors ; the result was the opera was stflCken from repertory.
On the one hand, V. V. St8GO '8 delight in Rlusorgski's brilliant
flashes of creative genius and improvisations had raised Musorg-
ski's self-conceit ; on the other hand, the adulation of people in-
comparably Intc rior to the author, yet his boon-companions, and
the approval on the part of others who admired his virtuosity,
though they were unable to distifj UlSh between its true llashes and
its felicitous talent for playing pranks, Still pleased and irritated
his vanity. Oven the bar-man at the restaurant knew R oris and
Uh oceans li china well-nigh by heart and honoured Musorgski’s gen-
ius. 3"et tlie Russian hIoSlCa1 Society denied him recognition ; at
the opc ra lie had actually been betrayed, though on the surface he
was still being treated with afiability. His friends and compan-
ions, ])orodin, Cut and I, still loved him as before and admired
WhatCvCr was good in his compositions, but we took critical measure
of much else of his. The press, led by Laroche, R ostislav and the
rest pf them, scolded him continually. Under these cirtumstances,
his craving for cognac and desire to lounge in taverns till the small
hours grew Stronger day by day. To "trans-cogs ac oneself” was
a mere nothing to his pals ; but, to his morbi dly nervous tempera-
ment, it was doe'nrlght poison. Though still keeping up friendly
relations with Cui and Borodin as well as smith me, Musorgski
regarded me with a certain suspicion. filly studies in harmony and
counterpoint which had begun to absorb me, did not please him at
all. It looked as though he suspected me of being the conservative
professor, who might convict him of parallel fif ths, and this u'as
unbearable to him. As fOr the C Onscr vatory, he could not endure
it at alL His relations with Balzkirefi had been lather cool for
some time. B alakirefl, who now no longer appeared on our hori-
zon, tied to say cv en in the old days that Modest had great
talent but “feehle brains,'' had 9uspected him of a I oiidness for
wine, and had cstranged him even then by s a yin g so.
The year 18 J4 may be considered the beginning of Musorgski's
decay, which was gradual and continued to the day of his death.
° Fatber of Igor Gtravinski, the composer, C. V. Y,
 i z6 Ii Y M U S I C A L L I F E
I have thus far touched in general terms upon the whole last period
OI 'S(USOfiQski's activity. The details and ups and downs of thC
subsequent period of his life, as I know it, I shall describe as I go
along in the further course of my reminiscences.
During the seasons of i 6)2—23 and I S) 3- 7s y u'if 0 did not
give up piano playing and took an active part at all our gathering9
as both accompanist and performer. II er performances of Cho-
pin’s Scherzo iti B-min or, Schumaiin’s ,Sllegi o and many othc r
nomkers, a s v'el l as ber sistcr’s singing, gave grea f pleasure to elf of
us. LX. V. G alki ri, who dropped in from time to time, p) aye‹l
violin sonatas with my \Vif e. I hare a recollection that once, that
year, I played at Cut's the i f 4 Scherzo of my Third Sympliony,
arranged for four-h and9 with ïans von Bülow (then glving coi-
certs a f the rapita)) , ar d that he liked it very rnuch. That very
day Cut showcd him what he had COlRpOsed for his Air gelo and
the two played four-h ands the Introduction to the opera.
Among the episodes of 18'y 3—y q also belongs the pri ze compc-
tition for an opera on the subj ect of Gogol's Ch ristma.s Ez'c, li-
bretto by Polotiski. The competition had been announced long
before and now the date was approaching, set by the Board of
Dlrectors of the Russian Musical Society, for submitting the
operas. I was invited to join the committce of judges who were
Nikolay G. Rubinstein, Napravnlk, /\ zanchevski and others, with
Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayerich as chairman. The sub-
mitted operas were distri1›uted to us for cxamination at our
leisure. Two of them proved to show merit. But z'lien the
committee met at the Grand Duke’s palace, it was openly said that
one of the operas was Chaykovski's. How this became knoe n
before the keats of the eovelopes had been breken—I don’t re-
member: but the prize was aiva rded t ti him uoanimously. True,
his opcra undoubtedly was the best submitted, so that no harm
came from the impi oper management of thc competition, but this
does nOt irnp rove the situation. N apravnik and N. G. Rubinstein
played Chaykovski's opera for the G rand Duke four-hands.
E rerybody w-as eni aptured o ith the music befor#hand, knoiving
that it was Chaykovski’s.
The other opera ( whcther it was awarded honourable mention
for hit opera,
v.
 B AKH CHISAR AY izy
or the second prize ' I don't recall) proved to be I rorn the pen
of Solovyoit. That was surprising. I had actually found some
of its music to my liking, when I examined the piano score.
In the spring of i 82d I was commissioned to spend the summer
at Nikolayeft for the purpose of transforming the local port brass
band into a mixed band with wood-wind instruments. I was
delighted with this commission, and when thc C onse i vatory ex-
aminations were over, my wife, little Misha and I repairs d to
Nikolaycfi.
On our ari ival in NikOlayeft, the local authOFl ties nl0t US
warmly and installed us in one of the wings of the so-called palace
on a high bank of the Ingul River. After meeting the families
of our superiors the Nycbol'sins and the Uaznakofls we visited
thcm frequently, occasi onally making joint excursions with them
to Spask, I.ycsIti, etc.
Soon after my arrival I took up the task of transforming the
port hand. New instruments were se ut for, several new musicians
werc engaged, while others were iea rnlng instruments anew or
arljusting themselves generally to the new make up of the band. I
supervised all rehearsing personally and even conducted many
selections myself. Soon the band, with its new personnel, began to
appear in public, playing on the boulevard in the evening. Early
in July, my wife, Elisha and I went to Syevastopol by steamer.
IVe took in the sights Of the envl rons and B akhchisa ray, and went
from there overland to the Southern Coast, via the Baydarski
Crate. Here we visited Aloopka, Oryeanda and Y alt a, and re-
turned to Nikolayell by steamer. The southc rn coast of Crimea
we liked cxceedingly, even though we had brit a flitting and super-
ficial view of it. As for B akhchisa ray p'ith its exti aordinarily long
street, its shops, its coHee houses, the shouts of its senders, the
^ According to Rosa Nevvma rch, both the fi rst and second prizei were a warm ed to
dli aykoveki. The £rst title of this opera ›vas f aloofu // r Serf/i. Un‹1er this title it
w plod need at St, Petersburg in 1 8y6. The revised version known a.• C heY I yr Chi i,
was produced 8t bfo cow in This opera is known by still a third tie:e, 0 bi aua’s
Ua/rire. The Russi an Opera Comp0 ny iv hich gsve a brief see9on of Russian works
at tlie New' Am ster dam Theatre in New 1'ork in 8f 2y, i 9zz, protluced this work, under
tlie ti tle of K/ief'erlfñii, on Fri day evea›ng, May z6, and I epeated it on tlie I ast night
of ilie se2sot3, May z2. I hea rd on e of thene extremely inadequate performances, but
e 'en under the ad ve rse condition s governing this hearing, I found the O her a ex-
tremely humorous, delightful, and I nntast ie. ñ’ñr7.ff£ngi Ayr is ofl e ot th e tales in
(iogol’s fantastic Florist o f iVtr garod. Using Gogol's title, Rifnsky-Korsako8 later
wrote an opera on the same subject. C. V. Y.
 iz8 II Y M U S I C A L L I F E .
chanting of the muezz ins on the minaret9, tlie services in the
mosques and the oriental music, it all made the oddest impres-
sion on us. It was while hearing the gipsy-musicians of Bakh-
chisaray that I first became acqua intcd with oriental music in its
natural state, so to speak, and I belicve I caught the main features
of its character. By the way, I was particularly struck by the quasi-
incidental beats of the hit drum, in false time, which pro- duced a
ma i vellous e Acct. In those ‹4ays the streets of Bakhchi-
saray, from morning till night, rang wi th music, w•h ich oriental
nations so love. In front of every cofiee house there was contin-
ual playing and singing. On our next visit (seven years later) ,
there was no longer a trace of this lcft: the addle-bra ined author-
itie9 had decided that music mcant disordc r, and banished the
gipsy-musicians from Bakhchisaray to somewhc re beyond Chufut-
Kale. During my first visit, Rakhchisaray had no hotels either of
European or of Russian style, and we lo‹Jged at a oiiiffafi’s oppo-
site the Khan’s Pa lace with its famous “Fountain of Tears.”
On returning to Nikolaycfl, I' continued to teach the bands for
some time. In August we lc ft Nikolayefl, returned to St. Pctcrs-
burg, and once more spent a few z•ecks at V. F. Purgold’s sum-
mer home in First Pargolovo.
During the ensuing season I came to be more and more ab-
sorbed in studying harmony and counterpoint, both of which I
had taken up the season bcf ore. Steeped in Cherubini and Beller-
mann, equipped with a few text-books of harmony (Chaykovski’s
among them) and every imaginable sort of chorale books, I toiled
assi duously, beginning with the most elementary exe rciscs. I sat
down so poorly informed that I found mysclf acquiring systernatic
knowlcdge even in elemcnta i y theory. Many and various ex-
ercises in harmony did I do, harmonizing figured bass at first, their
melodies and chorales. Counterpoint I studied from Cherubini
(in perfect major and minor) and fi om Belle rm ann, in ecclesia sti-
cal modes. However, I lost patience and undertook to ea ite a
string quartct in F-major, before I had acquirecl anything like the
proper training. I composed it rapidly and applied too much counter-
point in the form of continual fugatos ( which usually be gin to
be wea risome in the end) . But ili the Finale I succceded in crcat-
ing one cootrapuntal trick: the melodic pairs whiCh form the first
subject in the double canon, come in subsequently in the Stretto
 R1M S K Y -K OR SAKOF F ST UD IE S **9
without any change whatever and form a double canon once more.
One cannot always hit on such a trick, but I msaaged to gef through
tai rly cell. As subject of the lndante I took the melody of the
pagan nupti als f i om my music for Gedeonofi'g È flada. YIy
quartet was played at one of the Russian Of usical Society's per-
formanccs by Auer, Pikkel, 1'eykman, and Dat ydofi. I did not
attcnd. 1 recall that I felt some what ashar¡ied of my quartet.
On the one hand, I had not been accustomed to the role of the
cootrapuo List › ho o rites fugatos, a role considered somewhat
disgraceful in our coterie ; on the other hand, I could not help
fecling that in that quartet I rc ally was not myself. And this
haprcned, because the technique had no t yet ciiter ed my flesh and
blood, and it was still too early for me to write countcrpoiiit and
retain my oz u iBdivi duality ei thout imagining myself Bach or some
one else. I was told that Ant‹an Rubinstein, who had heard my
quartet perfornicd, expressed himscl t to the ¢f(ect that now it
would seem th:it I might amount to something. Of course, I
smiled scornfully when this was rclate d to me.
k(y friends who had shoivri little enthusiasm foi• my Third Sym-
phon) irere sti)I Jrss se tisfied with my quartet. Nor did my début
as contluctor sent anybody into ecstasies ; they began, indeed, to
look upon me with a certain pity as one on the downward path.
Besides, my studies of haY lTlOn y and tounterpoint made me a sus-
pect in the a rtistlc scnse. Neverthe)ess, having tried my hand
at the quartet, I continued my studies. O f course, there was
absolutcly nothing heroic in that ; it was simply that counterpoint
and fugue absoi bed me altogether. I played and canne d Bach a
great deal and came to honour his genius very highly ; yet in
earlier days, without a proper acquaintance with Bach, but merely
repeating BalakirelÏ’s words, I used to call him a “composlng ma-
chi ne” and hls ivorks “maids of beauty, frozen and soulless,'' if I
happcned to be in a favourable and peacef ui mood. I did not
understand then, that counterpoint had been the poetic language
of that composer of geoius ; that it was just as ill-judged to re-
proach him with his use Of countcrpoint as to upbraid a poet for
using verse and rhymc ( which, as it werk, embarrass him) instead
of empl oying free and easy prose. I had no iJc a of the historical
evolution of the civilized world’ music and had not realized that
all modern music owed everything to Bach. Palestrina and the
 i3o M Y l•1 L* S I C A L 1, I ( E
Flemings too, began to lure me. Then it was that I saz• how
foolish it o as o( Berlioz to say that Palestrina was only a series
of chords, a bit of nonsense often repeated in our coterie. How
strange it is ! Stasoff had once been an ardent worshipper of Bach;
he had even been nicknamed “Bach” owing to this worship. He
had also m o\vn and admired his Palesfrina and the other old
I talians. Later, however, owing to the lure of iconoclasm and
quest of new shores, he had sent aIl that to perditlOfi. Of Bach
he now would say that “Bach is beginning to pri›id /Iotr°’ whenever
in his fugues the contrapvotal voices begin to flow freely. II'ith
gusto it used to bc rclated how Borozdiu, a tr'icnd of Balakireft,
z'ould dance Bach's A•minor organ fugue ; he n ould first lead off
with one foot ; with the entrance of the second voice he would
brandish one hand, z ith the third voice the other foot, etc ; and
he would wind up like a mill toward the end. Possibly it was
even wttty: for a jest one oe›•er spares one's or n I a tlier. But
during my study of Bach and Palestrina all this became repugnant
to me ; the figures of these men of genius appeared majestic, and
as though staring with contempt upon our “advanced” frenzy of
obscurantism.
Parallel wlth my study of counterpoint and my tontrapuotal
period, I came upon other work new to me, as follows :
lii the autumn of i 8) J, a deputation of amateur members of
the Free Music School came to ask rue to become director of that
institution, vi ce Balaki retd z ho had resigned. IVhat had (ed to
his resigna tion I know but little, but I heard that it had come
as the result of insistent demgnd9 of the part of some members of
the School. Though retired Irorn the world of music, B alakireft
had not given up his post as Director, nor did he come to the
Sthool; ‹nd so the Shoot w as wasting a1'a) , dragging on a
wretched existence. Km o1 ing no tletails whatever of lialakircfl's
resignation, I accepted the deputation’s proposal and began ork
at the School z hich still had its quarters in the Hall of the Town
Council. We announccd in tlie papers t)etails regarding tlie ad-
mission of pupils and choral rehearsals ; a choru9 wa9 the
result. I divided the multitude of members into tu•o classes : the
lower class was taught elementary theory and solieggio ; tlie ad-
vanced class studied choral pieces and pea ctised for the public
concert. I personally conducted the rehearsals of the upper
 A C L A S S I C P R O G R A 61 i3 i
class twice a week, rind accompanied them on the piano myself.
The treasury had little money: its only regular income consisted
of the 3oo rubles per annum granted by its Most August Patron,
thc Tsa revich. I began to rehearse excerpts from Bach's St.
Ma tthew’ Pas Rio ii, the vocal parts of which were in the School
library. \Ve also rchea rsed a IN Erie of Palestrlna's. The choir
was large and thc amateurs sang with pleasure, while I myself
fennel the work was in tul1 agreemtnt with the contrapufital mood
I was then in. Our intention was to give the concert after a
i inque orchestral rehearsal, as the fund9 in the treasury were low,
and we wanted to realize as much as possible. For tlie orchestral
numbei I selects r1 Haydn's well-known D-ma jor Symphony. The
excerpts of Po.‹sion s musik were to be giv en in Robert Franz’s '
arrangement fur a modern orchestra. The concert took place
in the City (I aI1 on M a rth z2, i 8 , a fter three years of the silence
of the tomb on the part of the F ree School, i•uined by rivalry be-
tween Balakii efl’s amb ition and the Russian musical Society,
which was so hatcful to him. The program of the concert was
as follows : I. Excerpts from the Oratorio IsTael in E g)'pt
H nd 1 ¡ II. :I/inc rrrr .fillegri ; III. S y m phon; in D-nia(or
Hayda ; IV. A)'i’ic —Palestrina ; V. Excerpts from the Oratorio
Pa is tonsmusiL- B acli.
One of the music crl tics ( Famintsyn, I think) observed that
Joseph Haydn was the younget t composer on the program of
this concert !
It the relie arsal of the concert I displayed sufficient executlre
ability with regard to the chorus ; I was cii•cumspect with the or-
chestra, and all passed of safely. At the cOncert the hall was
fttll, 3 f1d the box oflice receipts good. The audience was pleased,
ñ nd the School's financial alfal rs began to improve. My "classic”
program astoun‹led absolutely everybody; nobody had expected
a program like that I i•om me, and my reputation took a decided
fall in the eyes of many. I had chosen such a program first,
because z'e had no money, and the concert had to be given with
a single rehe mrs zl, whicL meant the selettion or numbers easy for
the orchestra to perform. Secondly, and for the same reason,
the Ore hestra h ad to be a modest one. Thirdly, I was then
For a di ecu ssion of Franx’s contribution to the Bach scor ez, eee WVilliarn Foster
Apthorp'a Jul iridz end Pint ic-Le ver ,’ Charles Scribner’s ' Sons ; z 895. C. V. Y.
 i3z M Y II U S I C A L L I F E
studying both counterpoint and conducting, as well as choral mass-
leadc rship ; therefor e I z•ished to begin at the beginning and not
at the end. In tlie fourth place, the music I gave was old, jet
beautiful and most suitable and use fu1 for an exclusively choral
organization, such as the Free Nlusic School. hcvertheless I
felt somewhat d›sconcerte d ; and to me, who of tc n had misgivings
about myself, it seemed at times, that I had really done something
rather unseemly. I believe it was in connection z'lth this conccrt
(or possibly the next one in the season of i S 7 3—y 6, also with an
ultra-classic program, which I shall describe later) that I once
receired a lettc r fi oin B alakirefl, in which he referred to my
“languidness anal Sabbiness of soul” or w or ds to that effect. In
those days 1'. 1'. Stasoft kept darkly st lent, somehow, whenever
conve rsatlOil turned to my work ; Cui on tlie other hand, as I re-
call, made rather cutting remarks about it.
As for my work as Inspector of Naval Bands, I exploited it that
season, arranging, in the fall, a grand concert of the united bands
of the Naval Department, in C ronsta dt. The concert was given
at the M anége ; the bands of both C ronsta dt and St. Petersburg
participated. Among the numbers performed were se\rera1 or my
arrangements, liicludiiig the lit inon f Orrrnme, the II a rch from
I•e FropJtñrr5 and 8lavs ya! ( Be glorifie d ! ) . The concert went
with unanimity and precision under my direction. I stayed a
whole wcek ln Cronst adt for tlie rehearsals. There ivtl c two
anet sometimes even thi•ee rehearsals a day, separa tel '- loz thc
wood and the brass, and jointly for all. On thesc I spent my
time from morning till night with brief respites, and, truth to tell,
I was timeless. I don't know whether the Naval Bands will ever
again play with the same finish and unanimi ty as they did then,
but of this I am positive, that never before had they becn com-
pelled to pull themselves together, to such an extent. fly wife
and Cui came to hear the coiiccrt. The II anége was full enough.
The C ronstad t audience listened with their mouths wide open in
amazement at this event, so nov el and unheard of ¡ musically, how-
ever, they apprcci:ite d tlie conte rt but little. Since then, during
my entii e tcnui-e of I nspectorship, there was an established custom
of gi virig annually two or three such concerts under my direction.
Subse quently these concerts wcre transferred to a theatre where
seats were built on the stage as is done in St. Petersburg at the In•
 W R I TG I N GF U Ü L S 33
valid Concerts. After I had left the post of Inspector, thèse
concerts ceased entirely.
During that same se ason my An tar was conducted by me at
one of the Russiau Symphony Society’ concerts, and under the
following circumstance . After Balakirefi’s retirement, the con-
cci ts had come utider Napravnik's directioli. B etwcen the
time of lits playing my 8ad#o in i 82 i (before I bccame profcssor
‹t the C onsc rvatory) and the season of i 574—2 , rny compositions
were never performed by him for some reason. Azanchevski
told me that he had repeatedly ui-ged Napravnik to perf oi rn one
of my compositions, especially rccommending Ref or to him.
“Then he rnight as wcll conduct it himsclf," replicd Napravnik.
IVhat “then he rnight as well conduct it himself !” me ant, ivhetlier
mis disinclination to soit his hands with my composition or thc
desire to place me in a pi esumably diflicult position I do not
know. I repeat the story from hearsay. Owing to this reply,
Ghz anchevski prorosed to me to conduct H n1ur. I accepted With-
out any particular fcar, as I n'as bcgi un ing to feel a certain ease
in appea i img before audiences. I conducted An ier from memory,
and it went ofi in an orderly fashion, and even with some success.
Thc Hn far which was then performed had been re-orchestratcd
by me and harmonically somewhat purific d ; the score, as well as
a four-hands arrangement by my wife, was soon published by
Bessel. Vt'hen re-orchestrating it I did away with the third bas-
soon and the third trumpet appearing in the original score.
In the spring of i 8 2 I had a numbcr of fugues as iv•ell au
rather toler aille canons written, and also ti ted my hand at a
cayella choruses. \Ve rented a summer house in Ostrovki on the
Nyeva Riv•er, near Potyornkin's former cstate, and soOn moved
there. l
The summer want somewhat monotonously. At Ostrovki I
z orked assiduously at counterpoint. From time to time I made
trips to St. Petersburg and Crousta dt to rcvi ew the haval Bands
and, aboard the steamer, ivrote in my note-hook, without tiring,
verrous contrap unta l cxc rcises and friigme nts.- During that
IV ritien in Yah a, July •3, i 8 9 j.
* I n repa rat to Rimsky-liorsa'kolf's detenminstion to acqui re techn ique, CA aykovski,
w citing to hfnic- von M eel, says: ”R imsky-Korsak off was ov-ercome by de8pa ir when
he rea li zed how many linprofitable yesrs tie had wasted, and that he $Y29 following
a road which led now bere. He began to study with auch zgal that the theory of the
 i3J FI Y FI U S I C A L L I F E
summer I composed, among other things, several successful piano
fugues, shortly after published by Bessel, and some a rupr/la chor-
uses, but which precisely I don't remembe r. Thus the summc r
slipped by. We ljved in solitude and had visitors only on two
occaSiOLlS: the pianist D. D. Klimofi with his wife, and Cui. Early
in September we returns d to St. Petersburg.
schools soon became to him an indispensable at trio.sphere. During one summer he
achieved ilinumerable exei-cises in counterpoint and sixty-ton r fugu es, ten of wli ich
be sent m¢ for inspection. From concern pt of the school s, Rimsky-}(.orsakolf endd en ly
went over to tlie cult of musical technique. . . . At present ( • 7›) he ppear s to [ie
passing th rough a crisis, and it is hn rd to predict how it will eHd-” I n an earlier
letter ( i 8y5) to the composer of .1ntar, £'haykovski wrote: “5’ou mltst know how I
admire and bow down bet ore you r a rt istic modesty and your grcat strcup h of char-
acter I Thcse innunier able cuunterpoints, these sixty fugues, and all the othe r musieml
in rricacies which you liave accomplished—all thuse things frum s m an who lia‹I al-
ready produced a Sodto six yea rs previously—are the exploit a of a hero. ............. H oiv
smaI1, poor, self-satisfied and naive I feel in comparison with you ! I 2m a mere
ar1is‹in in coinpa i ison, but on wilt be an a7 Its t, iti the lii I lest seuse ti( tlie word. . . .
I am real ly convinced th at with you r immense gifts—and the id eat coiiscleni ioiisncss
with which you approach your worli—J'ou ›v i II produce music that must I ar sur pass
all which so I ar has been composed in Russia. I await your teD fugues with keen
impatience.” C. V. 1".
 CHAPTERXIII

A capetlu choruses. Concerts of the Free music Schonl. A. Ljadofi and

G. Diitsch. Collections of Russian Songs. The Pagan Sun-cult. Resump-
tion of meetings with Balakireff. The Sextet and the Quintet. EdIting
the scofes of Glinka. Revision of Pikovityanla.

The season of i 87 i 7 6 was a hard One for my family. In

October our daughter, Souya, was born. h(y wife elf ill and
did not lcave her leed for several months. I was in a miserable
frame of mind ; still my regular work continued. The Con-
servatory, the Free School, the Naval Bards, went on as usual.
As for work on counterpoint it had now passed to the composition
stage. I wrote several a capella choruses for mixed voices, prin-
cipally of contrapuntal nature ¡ some of them were afterwards
performed at the home soirées of the Free School, and all were
published. Owing to the predominance of counterpoint in the
work on which I was then engaged, many of the choruses are
heavyish and dix cult to perform ; others are dry. Among the
rather heavy yet success ful choruse s, nevertheless, I count Th c
O ld 5»p ( Koltsofl's 1 t ext) written in the variation form ; the
chorus, T’Jir II o on i.‹ aimn g, rings lighter and more transparent.
The acme of difficulty, in contrspuntal invention and for purposes
of execution, is to be met z ith In the four variations and fughetto
on the Russian song Nado yeli nochi, nadoskoochili (Tired am I
and wearied of the rllghts) for four female Voices. This number
might serve as a thorough solfeggio for an experienced chorus,
although it was written without application of enharmoni zation.
I at so published, through Bessel, three newly composed smaller
pieces: tValt=, 8out axd Nupur ( C sharp minor) and also handcd
ovc r to him for puhlfCation the hest uf my piano fugues. Once I
' K.oltsofl (i 8o8-i 8 ) , a poet of the 960 le who sung tlie steppes of 8ovthetn
P.user a, the life of the tiller of the soil, the monotonous ¢xisterce of the Russian peasant
woman. His poetic fornt has the irregularity of Russian fo]ksong. C. V. Y.
 *36 MYMUSICALLIF E
showed these fugues to Y. I. Johansen, a Conservatory colleague
of mine, who was considered an exper t in harmony and counter-
point. He was greatly pleased z•ith them and, I believe, was conx-
inced hencef ortli that I had got someirhere and would hOt exactly
shame my professional title. Yt'hile I was studying counter-
point, I occasiona1l)• asked Y. I. for adrice and hints, but never
showed him the exercises themselves ; that was the first and the last
time he saw the six fugues I had prcpared for publication. The
rumour that I had il'ritten some Jo fugues durlng tlie summer (the
number was somewhat exaggerated; I don’t remember their exact
number) and that I was hard at work on counterpoint in general, also
reach ed the 'Conner v•a tor)•. No»' they began to re- gard
mc a "strict” contrapuntist and "reliable” professor, and, from the
extreme lef t, they shifted me somewhat nearer the centre. The Free
School rum according to the system I had introduced.
IVe gave two concerts that season. The program of the first
toiiccr t was classic again.' I gave exccrpts from the Bach Mass in
B-minor, with which I was then enraptured. To lea rn the famous
and most difficult lyric war an achievement on the part of a chorus
of amateurs. Excerpts from the Oratorio, Sotus on, were given
with new orchestration written partly by myself and pa rtly by
Conservatory pupils, under my direction. To give Ham s on with
Handel's original score, calling for a large organ, whlCh alone
Could filI in all the gaps, was out of the question, and I preferred
re-orchCstratc it, with the assistance of my pupils. Thi9 gave
them an excellen t opportunity to exercise their talents. In the
8ainso» recitatives I had rather a hard time as conductor, but
everything went oil well, including the Cor to/aaui Overture. The
program of the second concert I made up entirely of Russian
numbers.°
Let me remark, in passing, that Borodin's closing chorus (given
by us) z hich, in the e piloguc of the opc ra (subsequently done
away with) , extolled Igor’s cxploits, was shifted by the author h'im-
self to the prologue nf the opera of which it nuw forms a part.
At present thIS chorus extolls Igor a9 he star to on his expedition
against the Ptilov-tsy. The episodes of the solar Eclipse, of the
parting from Yaroslavna etc., divide it into halves which fringe
° C I. Appeadix III.
*' Cf. Ap pendix I ¥’.
 E X C E S fi E S O P T E M P E R *37
the entirc prologue. In those days this whole middle part was non-
existent, and the chorus form«d one unbroken number of rather
consideralile dimensions.
The concert weet smoothly. It oftered some dilficulties for my
conducting. Two orchestral rehearsals preceded it. At that
period I wa9 soinewhat hot-headed t times, when I noted ncg-
ligence. I remember that during a rehearsal of one of that season's
concerts the orchestra’s errand-man Yuzeiovich, who had forgot-
ten to prepare something, got such a tongue-l ashing from me that
the musicians actually began to hiss me. I calmed down, as I
feared to irrits tc U e orchcstra. On suother occasloo, as I Te-
call it, at a rehearsal of the School, I yelled at the librarian of the
School, BuslayetÏ, because he did not briRg the music on time, or
somcthifig of that nature. Be that as it may, I should not have
raised my voice, speaking too much in the tone of a superior. The
amateur•librarian, of course, took oficnce, but the matter was ar-
ranged to our mutual satisfaction. Such fits of, taking the tone of
a superior occasionaJly seized me ; with gro wing seth-concert,
possibly the lessous of service in the havy ware resurrected in my
memory.
That very season the following occurred. Those inseparable
cronies, I, K. L)'adot1 and G. O. Diitsch, my talented Conser vatory
pupils, quite young at the time, had grown inctcdibly lady and maal
ceascd coming to my class altogether. .4zanchevski talked th.c
mattcr orer with mc, kut timing them unuianageable, decided to
expel them. Soon after their expulsion, the youngsters came to
my house, with the prorniGe that they meant to work, asking mc
at the same time to iotercede for their xc-admission to the Con-
ser vatory. I was immovable and refused point blank. The
qutstion is, whence had such inhuman regard for forms over-
mastered me ? Or was it the result of my contrapuntal studies,
just as excesses of commandeering ware the result of my military-
naval school training? I do not know ; but to this day, bureau-
cratie fit9 of this nature occasionally overtake me. Of course,
Lyadof and Diitsch should have been imme§iate)y re-adml fted,
like the prodigal sons that they were ; and the fatted call should
have been killed for them. For, indeed, Dütsch was very capable
and LyadoH was talented past telling. But I did not do t
The only cousolation, possibly, is that evcrything is for the best
i38 If 4" II Ł S I C A L L I F E
in thls world of ours— -both Dütsch and Lyadoft became my friends
subsequently. But let me return to the free School.
Its concert with a Russian progi•am rai9ed my credit anew in
the eyes of my musical friends : Cut, the Stasoífs, Musorgski, etc.
In reality it proved that I was not altogether a deserter or rene-
gade, that ìn my heart and soul I still clung to the hessian School.
As for Balakireß, I only know that he z'as not eotii ely in sym-
pathy with my idea of giving an exclusively Russian concert, and
that the dislike of specifically R ussian programs that had ever
been z ith him, remained with hím to the end. He recognized only
mixed conccrts of Russian 4nd foreign must c of modern tendencies,
and admitted an exclusively Russian program only as an ex-
ception, fof which there v as no occasion at thc School. îY hether
he thought that by putting Russian compositions in a sepai a te
box, as it wei e, we showed fear of st anding on a level and In
company Europe and, so to speak, chose on rselvcs a place
zt z separate table or in thC k itchen out Of def erenti at modesty ;
or whether he considered purcl r RuSSl In concerts less varied in
comparison z ith mixed concerts I have been unable to make out
to this day. He alie ged the latter reason, brit fi om certain sign9
it seemed to me that there was recogni zable in him the desire to
be morc frequently at one and the same table u ith Liszt, Bcrlioz
and other Europeans. I iszt, RirnskJ*-KorsakoS, Beethoven,
Balakirelf, Ctii, Berlioz, seemed to lie on an equal footing when
appearing side by side. Placed apart from the foreigners, how-
ever, the R nssians mould not enjoy that i igh t, as jt were. I be-
lieve this Was his reasoliing; hoz•cver, I do not set it forth a9
absolute truth.*
This year the financial aha irs of the Free School grew some-
what worse Thc preceding season's conccrt and the classic con-
cert of this season had brought in fair receipts, though those of
the second were interior to those of the previous year ; the Russias
Concert with its two rehearsals now brought a deficit. At that
time, in St. Petersburg there were already evidences of that lan-
' Edwar d ñłucDowell held a precisely similar theory in reg a rd to American music.
11e stoutly rim iotain ed, and nut without reason, th at no great comp liinenc wks
paid to America n composers by giv ing a concert corn posed exclusive ly of American
music. On the oth cr hand, to play an American composition between an overture
of Brahms and a Beethoven s3'mphony meant something. C. V. Y•
 I NT E RE ST Ih F OL K 5 0 NGS i3s
guid attitude towar d concert music, which has been more and
mort on tlie increase since. The revival of the Free School and
I, its new director, had roused the public's interest at first, but even
with the second scason that interest began to cool ; while the Rus-
sian progr am eviden tly did nOt strike responsive chords in the
hearts of the public. It is noteivor thy that the Free School's
large choi r whose members, it would seem, could attract their
friends to take an interest in the a hairs of the School and support
it, in real ity slid not a ttract the paying J›ublic. Ei erybo‹iy wanted
to get as many free tickets a9 possible, and nobody was willing to
pay even a moderate price. Thus matters stand in St. Petcrsburg
today; and not only in St. Pctcrsburg, but alSO throughout all
Russia.
According to thc Constitution and by-laws of the School, i ts
financial afi aIrs and txecutive powers z•ere tested in a hoard of
cight members of which I was chairman. I recall being inca-
pable of c‹ nductiog the meetings. I had no idea of parliamentary
rules. I was ill-informed as to the method of keeping minutes,
o1 voti rig, of unanimity, of minority opinion, etc. Our conducting
of business was honest beyond reproach, though negligent on
occasion, and I remember that once a member of the Board,
P. A. Trif onof( (subsequently a private pupil of mine and late l-
one of my intlmatc friends) , left the Board, owing to our slovenly
methods ; and he was pr obahly right. At our general meetings
for tlie purpose of reading annual report9 and electing rnember9
of the Bo:i i d, I had further ‹lilliculties ¡ admioi trativ•e matters
were not to my t ante. In addition to the above occupations,
another work, neis• to me, turned up in the season i 82 —y 6. Since
the previous year I had taken a strong intei est in Russian folksongs ;
I scanned all sorts of collections, of which, up to this timc, 1 had
secn very few, with the exception of Balakirell’s wonderfill
ga ther Ing. I conccived the idea of publishing one myself. And
now "F. I. F11ippol1, a profound lover of Russian songs, who had
formerly sung them splendidly, though no musician at all, pro-
posed to mc to take down from his dictation thc songs he knew,
and to compile for him a collection with piano accompaniment.
T. I. Fil ippofi made this oGer to me at Balakirefi's suggestion.
During his cstrangemcnt from us all, Balakirefl had grown in-
 *40 Y AI U S I C A L L
EIF
timate wlth T. I. on religious ground9, I believe. Rumours that
Balakireit had become a pious man were wide-spread. Filippotl
had )ortg been known as a man regions in faith and
church matters. Even in the old days, B alakir elf used to tell as
a joke, the droll story "of the passage of the holy galoshes from
Bolvanovka to ZhivOdyorka.'' The narrative wa s thc invention
of Shcherbina, I think, and relate d how T. I, Filippo0, while in
Moscow , on a visit to Pogodin’s on Bolvanovka street, had left
his rubbers bchlnd him. As a reward for his li fe aS it wei•e, so
filled with sanctity, the "holy galoshcs” hath come on by them-
selves to his lodging on Zhi\•odyorka ! It was alleged that in
honour of that ev-ent thc re was est abllshe d the feast “of the pa9sage
of the holy galoshes from Bolvanovka to Zhivodyorka” ! In
Balakirefl's actual mental estate, his intimate relations l ith Filip-
poll w'erc not ct all unnatural.
So them "f. I. came to me with the requcst that I take do»•n
h ussiaii songs as sung by him ; this I did in thc course of set eral
sessions. He role possessed but the f railc st remnarits of a voice
reported to have been fine in former days. In those days, loving
Russian songs as he dirt, lie usc‹J tu get toga the r z ith the best
singers f roni among the common folk, learning thclr songs from
thClR Of OCCasi ona lly holding contests cvi th them. The forty songs
I recorded from his rendering were principally ly-ric in character
(po/osoi'i)'a, or vocal, and pi or)'a JioiJa, or slow) ; some of them
seemed to me to have been corrupted by tlie solt]1ering and fa ctory
elements, while othe i s had rema tried pure. Of ceremonla1 and
game songs there were comp a ratively few ; yet it was in those
very songs that I was particularly interested, as the most ancient
that have come down to us from pagan titnes and have thercf ore
been preserved most nearlY in the original form. Tlie idea of
making a collection of my ow•n, comprising the grca test possible
number of ceremonial and game songs, pre-occupi ed me more and
more, Af tcr making a record of Filippofi's songs, ( and he was
satisfied with their accuracy) I harmoniz vd them twice or er ; I
was not quite satisfiCd wlth the first harmoniz ation, finding it z as
neither suPici ently s AmpIe nor even Russian. Some two years
later, this collecti on of Filippoll's songs, is ith a preface by the
collector, was published by Jurgenson.
fly own collection I gathered by slow degrees. First, I in-
 P A C• A N R U S S I A N SGO N S i 4i
corporated into it all the best material I had found in Prach's '
and Stakhoi ich’s old collections, which had become bibliographical
raritlcs. "fhe songs taken from these collections I set forth with
a more correct division as to rhythm and bars and also added ncw
harmonizations. Secondly, I took into my collection all the songs
I had learned lay hcart from my uncle Pyotr Petrol ich and from
my moth er, who in their turn had heard the songs in i 8 IO—2o in
localities of the Government9 of Novgorod and Oryol. Thirdly,
I w1 ote down songs from the mouth9 of some of my acquaintances,
like Anna Nikolzyevna Engelhardt, S. N. Krooglikoft, k(inc. Boro-
diia, Musorgski and others in whose musical ear and memory
I had sound faith. In the fourth place, I recorded songs from
the mouth9 of such of our sei•vant girls as had been born in districts
distant frOm St. Pe tersburg. I rigidly avoided whatever seemed
to mc ‹ ommonplace and of suspicious authenticity. Once, at Boro-
din’s, 1 struggled till late at night, ti ying to reproduce a wedding
song (Ez on Ibn(o Lol, R raging Bell) ; rhythmically, it was unusually
frcakish, though it flow ed naturally from thc mouth of Boi•odin'9
said, Doouyasha I"iliogradova, a nativ-e of one of the G overn-
ments along the Volga. I had all sorts of trouble with the har-
med ization of the songs, recasting in every way imaginable. Taken
toget her with my other work, the making of my collection took
nearly two year’s. I arranged the songs in departments : first,
the b ylinas ( epic songs) , thcii th e Fla in and the dance songs. Then
folloz•ed the Patna songs and rrrfMONinJ songs in the order of the
cycle of pagan sun-worship and the festivals, still surviving
here arid there to this day. Fii st in this series came spring songs,
then the r/sd/’oiJu ( for Whitsunday) , tlie tro yits ki 'a ( for Trinity
Sunday ) , arid s)'rai ifskit a ( for the seventh Thursday after Easter
Sund a y) ; then summer kh o rovod ( round dance) songs, marriagt
songs and z•) elichal’n yia ( glorification ) songs. I read somc de-
scri ptione and) essays on this side of folk-li fe by Sakha rod, Tyc-
ryeshchc nko, SP ejn and Af ana syefi, for instancc ; was capti U3ted
by the poetic side of the cult of sun-worship, and sought its
survivalg and echoes in both the tunes and the words of the songs.
The pictures of the ancient pagan period and spirit 1 oomcrl be-
for e mc, as it th en seemed, with great c1ai•ity, luring me on with
It was I rom this collection that Beethoven culled the RossiRn thetlles he ustd in
his Razumovski quartets, C. V. V.
the charm of antiquity. These occupations subsequently load
great influence in the direction of my own activity as compose r.
But of that later.
If I am not mistaken, toward the end of the season i 87 —y 6,
after a lapse of many years, I paid OCCasi onat visits tO B alakirefi,
who had begun, as it were, to thaw out of his long frozen state.
The immediate occasi ons for this renew-al of i isits wei c, in the
first place, my intei•course with Filippofi for the purpose of re-
cording songs ; iii the second place, L. I. Sliestakova’s projected
edition of the scores of fi usfaa and L)'udioi/u ant( A I.i fc for Hi c
7’iar, which B alakircli had undcrtaken to edit, at thc same time
expressing a desire to have a9 his collaborators myself and .fi. K.
Lyadoff (then nO longer a pupil of tlie Conservatory) ; in the
third place, the lessons in musical theory wlilCh I gave to various “
r l-ivate individuals, recommended by Balakirell, led to our mceting.
Regarding these Icssoiis, however, I have something to red ate.
So far, my only private pupil in harmony had been I. F. Tyu-
mjeheh, af ter wards author of translations and original novels,
as well as of several songs. While studying harmony and counter-
point mysclf, I had found It bOth useful and pleasant to have a
pupil in that field, to whom I impartetJ as systematically as possible
the information and devices I had acquire d through self-instruction.
Now, however, when my iv ork in harmony and counterpoint had
become known in the music al world, I was gaining the reputation
of a “theoretician,” despite the fact that in reality I always was
a “practical” man, pure and simplc. At the words “theory of
music,” “theoretician," in the minds of people without tlose aC-
quaintance with these matters, and even in the minds of those who
have musical talent, yet who have been spared that cup, there
forthwith arises some conception of a quite ahsurd nature. &
similar absurd conccption evidently hatt arisen in Balakiref(’s mind,
too. In those d:iys there began to spread zmORg amateurs, par-
tlcula rly among piano-playing ladies, the f ashiOn of studying
“theory of music." Balakireft, who then hatl a good many piano
pupils particularly among lady amateurs, began to recommend me
to them as instructor in the theory of music, and I obtained pupils
one after the other. fly pupils, male and female ( the latter out-
numbered the former) , did not seem to kno what they wanted to
learn. fly instruction embraced the study of elementary theory
 PUPILS IN HARMONY i
and the beginning of practical iiarmony•, mostly accord ing to
Chavko›•ski's text-book. hI ost of these women and men pupils
objected to solfeggio studies and ear-training ¡ accordingly, this
rauntcd study of theory was really not worth a pinch of snufi.
Yct, they yearned to study theory as a food without relish, and fre-
quently passed I:he whOle hour in talking of muslc in general. As
they paid wcll for their lessons in theory, they preferred to have
me teach them, coming so to speak to the fountain head ; but they
did not understand that there is ab9olutely no need of being taught
reading by a /iiitr«i rur, arithmetic hy an astronomer, etc. I com-
praincd to Ba)akirch tba t thc ladles he had rccommended to mc
often proved utterly talcntlcss, and that 1' 9hould prefer to give op
certain pupils, because teathing them was labour lost. B alakirefl
usually said that one should never give up any pupils ; and should
give to each even the little he is capable of grasping. This very in-
artistic logic appeased me, and so I was rather busy with lessons
during the nex t ten years. Filippofi's songs, the projected publi-
cation of Glinka’s score9, and lessons in the homes of Balakirefl’s
friends or acquaintances, brought us clOse to each other once more ;
the more so as Balakirefl was already on the mend and had come
out o I his seclusion. hererthe)ess, I found him greatly chaaged,
but of this later.1
In i S26, thc Russian Musical Society announced a prize contest
for a work in ch aml›er-music. The desire to write something for
tills COntest sei zed me, and I set to work on a string sextet in A-
major. I had bcgun it in St. Petersburg and I completed it at
our summer place in Kabolovka, where we lived that summer, in
the circle of relatives, together with V. F. Purgold and my wife's
sisters, times. A. N. Molas and S. N. Akhsharumova. By then
my z ife had begun to recover from her illnyss.
XJi sextet shaped i tsvlI into five movements. Jo it I now s )[p )re
less for counterpoint, but hlovement II (Allegretto Schcrzando)
I wrote in the form of a very complicated six-part fugue, and I
find it very successful as to techni que. I t resulted in a dOuble
fugue, even with counterpoint at the teeth. In the Trio of the
Scherzo ( h(oi emcnt I II) 1 also made use of the form of a three-
part fugue for the first violin, the first viola and first cello in tar-
antella time, while the other instruments play the accompaniment
' July z5, Yalta.
 44 MYMUSICALLIFE
to the fugue continuously in pizzicato chords. The Ad gio proved
melodious with a very ingenious accompaniment. Mov ements I
and 4" gave me less satisfaction. TakeH all in a((, the work proved
technically good, but in it I still was not myself. After I had
completed the sextet, I took it into my head to e rite for the same
contest a quintet for the piano and wind-insti uments ; of the latter —
I selected thc flute, the clarinet, the French horn and the bassoon.
1 composed the quintet in three movements. The First Movement
was in the classic style of Beethoven ; the Second (Aodante ) con-
tained a fairly good fugato for the wind-instruments, with a free
voice aCcompaniment in the piano. hI orement III (Allegretto
vivace) , in rondo form, contained an intercsting passage : an
approach to the first subject after the middle part. The Jute,
the French horn and the clarinet, by turns, play virtuoso c adenz as,
according to the character of each instrument, and eaCh is inter•
rupted by the bassoon entering by octave leaps ; after the piano’s
tudenza the first subject finally embers in similar leaps of the bas-
soon. Yet even this composition did not expres9 my real individuals
ity ; but at all events, it IS freer and more attractive than the sextet.
The sextet and the quintet, neatly transcribed by copyists, were
forwarded with mottoes to the Directorate of the R. ñ(. Society.
During the summer, I also composed several three-part choruses
a capella for men's x oices ; these s'ere later published by B itner,
and subsequently became Byel yayefl's property. The summer
passed in work on the above compositions arid my song collections ;
in the fall, after mo ring to our I ormer rooms in St. Petersburg,
our musical life resumed its usual cour se,
By autumn, my meetings with B alakirefl became quite frequent.
I have already said that I had , found a striking change in him.
As early as the last season, or even the season before that, V, V.
Stasofi, who had met him once in the street, had said : "Balakirefl
is not the same, not the same ; even hIs glance is no longer what
it used to be.” On visiting him I observed much that wa9 new.
Howev-er, many things did not appear ab9olutely new to me ; I
recognized some of his I oimer traits, onl7 they had assumed
altogether fantastic forms, I scrupulously a voirle d touching on
religion, but once I i•oused his irritation when I quoted the well-
known saying: “Trust in God, but don’t be rerniss yourself" (the
Lord helps those who help themselves) . Still I have it on good
 R E VI SIN GG L I N K A S SC OR E S i4J
authority that with some of his friends, like Trif onofl and Lj adofi,
who had begun to visit him at that time, he held rell gious discus-
sions ; in these he usually stressed the lack of sagaci ty and the
stupidity of those who held vicws differing from his. This, how-
ever, was his usual method in argument. In general, his intoler-
auce toward people who disagreed with him in anything or acted
at d reasoned in any way indcpendently, on lincs dilfe bent from
his, was as deep-rootcd as before.
Lyudmila Iranovna Shestakova, who worshipped the memoi•y
of her brother's genius, had decided to publisli, at her own expense,
the full orchertral scores oÏ Grieks‘s operas of which Stel) ovski
then held the publishliig rights. According to the agreement, she
reserved the right to a stated number of copies of these scores, while
the rest of the edition was to continue the firrn’s exclusive propere'.
There cxisted no original full orchestral score of R usland and we
used a copy of it that Dmitri I'asi1yevich Stasotl had in his posses-
sion, and which, .it was cla imed, Glinka himself had vcrified.
Of course, this part of verification by its author hall been e»tremely
superficial, and the score contained a large enough number of slips
of the pen and misundcrstandin S, V›•hich came to light upon our
pc rusal. The cograving was done by Röder in Leipsic, and we
examined the copies made for the purpose ( or copied many thing
ourselvcs) and read proof. R nolan wa9 edited first, then zJ Li fe
for /fte Tsar. We gave almost two years to the word; my slia i e
also included the orchestration of the stage music performed by
a milita ry band in R us lan and L j udmila. Balakireli and I proved
poor proof-re aders ( Lyadofi was thc best of the lot) , and we
issued both scores worth uumerous important m(takes. ï“or tx-
amples, in the enti 'acte to Act II of A us/aa a whole phra sc for the
violins was omitted. Some corrections maJe by B alakii cfl secm
vcry question able to me : like the bassOOn's hrases in the rome nza
O»u iooJr z/iiziI ( She is my life to me) , or the drum iiitroduced
by him into the first Sla s a (B e glorific d ! ) . In Glinka's orlginal
score there ha‹1 becn a line with "drum” v rit ten over it, but it had
no music, and the rhythinic di-um figures were inscrte d by B alckirelt
on his own initiative on the ground that Glinka, as it je re, had
forgotten to write it in. Such corrections of quasi-mtsunderstand-
mis D alakire11 was very fond of making, and I trust that, at some
time in the future, the scorcs of Glinka's operas will be re-pub-
 i 6 II Y II U S I C A L L I F E
lished after painstaking reVision by a conscientious musician who
knows his business. L Tndei• Balakircfl's influence, Lyadoll and I
often chimed in ith him iii the work on Glinka’ scores. Now, however,
I view the matter differently and am far from being de- lighted with
our handiwork. For my part, I was carried away by enthusiasm
and did many impracticable things, ix orchestr sting for a mllitary
band the respectl ve parts of fi o lan. Thus in the Introduction to Act I,
the stage band was to be brass, in Glinka's scheme ; I followed his
idea accordingly, but took a brass band with the full complement
current in our Guards regiments. For Act II', again in acCordance
with the composer's intentions, I wrote tlie orchestration for a mixed
band of bi ass and wood-wind, both again with the full complement
entrent in the Guards. Thus a perforiu- ance oL Riislan called for
two complete heterogeneous regimental bands. Glinka himself
hardly wanted this! But that is not all, In Act I', I had the
imprudente to unite the two bands in full com- plement the brass
band and the mixed band. The result of this was sonority so
deafening that no theatre orchestt a would hold its own aha inst it; and
this was manifested once, when B alakirefi gave the whole Ru.‹lan
finale at a concert. The thcme and all the figures for thC strings
were completely drowned by the military bands which performed
their parts in my orchestration. To the Glinka scores z ere also added
arrangements, for theatre orchestr i alone, of tlie numbers whose
performance, according to Glinka's score, called for a military band on
the stage. These arrangements were made by Balakire0 splendidly,
save for the (uti(e application of the natural-scale brass instrumcnts ;
as usual, B alakirefl was not strong on this, as he was guided by
Berlioz's Trai té d’Iiistrumen- tation and not by practical knowledge.
Howerer, these arrange• men ts sound he auti ful and right, and they
translate Glinka’s ideas correctly. The end of the Oriental dances
is an exception ; here B alakireft composed extra chromatic figures for
the wind-instrti- ments, but they are in the spirit of Glinka. The
edition of thc fias/aa score was sumptuous ; that of d Int[c for i/tr
Tsarp zs simpler and lees fine. Of course both editions were very
respect- able and useful achicvernents, undertaken at the initi atirc
antl
expense of the composer's sister, and carr ted out by ps. But our
sms were considerable, at all events, and Glinka still awaits a future
dc finitiv e correction of the edition e'hich we treated now and then
 ADMIR ATI ON FG OR L I h' K A *47
in too light-minded and 9elf-confident a spirit, even if we devoted
much energy to it. No sooner had the edition come out, than
numerous misprints and inaccuracies were discovered. N apravnik
began to conduct Glinka' operas from our scores ; however, he did
not corrcC t the bassoon's phrase in Ratmir's romanz a according to
the new score, but had it played as of old, and lie was right. Nor
did he venture to introduce the drum that Balakire fi had impro-
vised in the first 5faciya, and that too was reasonable. As for the
phrase for the v-iolins, omitted in the score (in the entr'acte to
Act III ) the musicians played it without further ado as their parts
had been copied from the old opera-house score. \Yhen this edition
came out B alakireft detected some rnisprints and corrected them ;
soon an ai rangemeot for a new printing of the R uFinn, score ( from
the same plates) , was made by Gutheil, who had just taken over the
publishing rights of Glinka’s compositions. But exclusive of some
fifteen mistakes which B alakireil corrected, there str11 remained, in
the new edition, a whole swarm of uncorrected Errors. As for the
score oI A I. i fe for the User, it retains to this day ' all the
takes we had overlooked.
\1 ork on Glinka’s scores was an unexpected schooling for me.
Even before this I had known and worshipped his operas ; but as
editor of the scores in print I had to go through Glinka's style and
instrumentation to their last inst gnificant little note. there were
no hounds to my enthusiasm for and worship of this man of genius.
Hos- subtle everything is with him and yet how simple and natural
at the same time I And what a knowledge of voices and instru-
ments 1 With avidity I imbibed all his methods. I studied his
handling of tlie natural-scale brass instruments, n'1iich lend his
orchestration suth ineffable transparency and grace ; I tudied his
graceful and natural part-»'riting. And this w'as a beneficent dis-
cipline for me leading me as it did to the path of modc rn music,
after my vicissitudes with counterpoint and strict style. But my
schools ng, evidently, was not yet at an end. Parallel with my study
of fi us/oo and .J Li fe fOT thc T3 BT I undertook a revision of

fly first thought was to compose the Prologue, which had l›ecn
entirely discardc d, although it plays so important a part in hIey's
drama. Then follow ed the idea of introducing the part of Chet-
 i 8 II Y ? I U S I C .S L L I F E
vyortka Tyerpigoreff, friend of ñlikhaylo Toocha, and simultane-
ously developing the part of hlatoota's daughter Styosha. There-
with the opera mould gain a merry, if not a comic couple. Bala-
kirell urged me to introduce the wandering pilgrims' chorus (in the
form of a song A lyeksey, the Godly man) in Act 11', in the first
Tableau of which che action t ches place in front of the Pyechorski
Monastery. The original melody of this verse in T. I. Filip O 's
collection was to be used for the air of the chorus. I believe that
Balakirefl insisted on this insert, because the tune was beautiful as
well as because of his predilection for saints and for the ecclesiastic
element in general. The fact that the action takes place near the
hlonastery was the only reason advanced for this insertion ; still I
yielded to the urgent admonitions of B alakiref( ¡ once an idea had
got into his head, he usually fought stubbornly to gain his pOint by
hook or crook, especially if it concerned somebody else’s business.
With my characteristic easy-going nature, I yielded to his influence,
as I had been accustomed to do in the Old days, But after admit-
ting this interpolation, I was bent on further developing it. I fell
upon the following expedient: after the chorus of the wandering _
pilgrims who had camped out near the cave of Nikola the Simpleton,
there was to appea i the Tsar 's hunting party, headed by Tsar Ivan,
caught in the sudden rainstorm. During the torm the simpleton
monk threatens the Tsar for shedding innocen t blood, whereupon
the superstitious Tsar Ivan, in fear, hurrie9 away with his retainers,
while the wandering pilgrims, together with h'ikola, pass into the
Mon a stern. the rainstorm quiets dow-n ; along p-ith the )ast dis-
tant rolls of thunder there is heard the song of &ir1s passing through
the forest in search of Olga. From here on the action ivan to run
as be fOrc, without any material changes. B alakireff approved my
plan, as this promised the realization of his cherished idea of intro-
ducing the song about Alyeksey, the Godly man. BeSidcs, he in-
sisted upon substituting the other new music to the tcxt of Go pod’
) edin y vo shrI'es hB j 0t m yortv Lh (The Lord alone doth resurrect
the dcad) for the final chorus which he hated. He urged both the
revision of 7’fie heard of Pskov and the inserts. He said that
since, in his opinion, I should nei•er write another opera equal to
Pskozi t yank a in rncrit I ought to give myself up to it and polish it
as it deserved. On what he based this assumption of his I do not
know, but I suppose one ought not suggest such a thought to a
 R f V I S I O N O F P S K O ¥’ I T 1’ A N KA i)$
composer not yet hall-way to his grave. Another in my place
world have taken his in earnest. But at the time I was not inclined
to meditate upon my future ; I merely desired to revise my opera,
the musical structure of which did not quite satisfy me. l felt its
harmonie exaggerations ; I was aware that the recitative were ill-
made and ripping open at the seams ¡ that there z as lack of singing
where sioging should be ; that there mere both under-de§relopmc nt
and over-lengtlis of form, lack of contrapuntal element, etc. In a
word, I was conscious that my former technique was unworthy of
my musiCa1 idea9 and my excellent subi ect. N or did the lnStfiu-
mentation wlth ils absurd choice of key9 of the English horus and
the trumpets ( z corni in F and z in C ; trumpets in C) , with rte lack
of variety in the violin bon•iny, n'ith its absence of a sonorous
forte,- give mc any rcst, in spite of the fact that I had won an es-
tabllshed réputation as an experienced orchestrator. In addition
to the mentions d inscris, additions and charges, I planned as fo!-
lows,——to expand the scene of the yor yelle i ( catching lame) ; to
rccast cOiTlFl c tely Olga’s arloso in Ach I II, v ith its pungcnt dlsson-
acces ; to insert Ivan Grozny’s aria into the final t‹ib1e au ; to com-
pose a short characteristic scene of the boys pl‹tying knuckle-bones
and I'lasyevna’s tilÎ with them ; to introduce a conversation betwe en
the Tsar and Styosha duriny the women's chorus in Act III ; to add
voice combinations and ensembles wherever possible ; to refine
ercrything, cut down over-lengths and recast the overture, the
closing inferoal dissonances of which now gave me no rest. I set
to work, and within ci ghte en months, arproximately by January,
18 y8, all this laboui had been accomplishcd, the Prologue had been
composed ; likewise the new scene at the Pyechorski monastc ry, as
wcll as all inserts and ch ante had been made, and the complete
score of the new P,sk omit)• atitu n'a s ready. As I had now mastered
my techniquc, it cannot be said that the work had becn done rapidly.
Nf oreover, one most take into const ‹leration the fact that I had
cvi ittcn my score very carefully and legibly, and that taken a good
deal of time, corn[a i ati•a‹•l y. hIy Prologue turned out to be writ-
ten in a st \•Ie of composition di be rent from the style of tlie opera
proper. I'yera's part, v hich included also the cradle song I had
written in I S 62 and published among my songs, was crowded with
melody. The tempi a nd rh) thms of the Prologue were va i•1ed ; its
musical fabric was well-knit and consist of
io M Y Sr r s i c x i i i r r
patches forcibly sewed together, For Vyera's account of her visit
to the Pyechorski M onastc ry, I borrowed music from Act IV of
the opera, when Olga appears in the woods near the cloister. The
'Boyar SheJoga's eiitralICC 'W as Ch a racteristlc enough, and the c)ose
was dramatlc. The Prolobme was preceded by a shirt Overture,
which opened with a happy trumpet f antare in Russian Style ; this
fanfare was subsequcntly intoned again and again behind the scenes,
prior to Bojar Shcloga’s entrance. Thc real, the long Overture
wns to be played after the Prologue, and )ust before the First Act.
I' had made indubitable pi ogress in operatic composition, and this
was noticeable in the Prologue, as a new composition. But in thc
course of the rest of the opera considci-‹tblc heariness was appa rcnt
as a result of the remodeling of its structure. hfy eagc mess to
make it contr aruntal, to create a wealth of independent parts, had “
placed a heavy burden on the musical content. Yet there wefie also
happy changes ; thus Olga's arioso in Act III had gained iii tune-
fulness and st ncerity of expression. The final chorus, with wholly
new music of seven-part structure, with a ci-escendo of the Voices
on the word “Amen,” proved greatly to Balakiretl’s liking, indeed
it had Green written in D fat me] or to please him. The Tsar
Ivan's air in the Phrygian mode was melodious, but it led some “
people to remark, for some unknown reason, that I vin G rozny
ought not tO sing it. As for the nez scene near the Pycchorski
NJonastery, thC pilgrims’ chorus written fugato plea scd B la-
kiref( and many others ; togethr r with many others, I, too, was
pleased with the entrance of th e Tsar's hunting pa rty and the
rainstorm, z ritten pa rtly under the influence of the scene in the
off rica n forest in Berlioz's Les Tro) e ns. But the part of Nikola
the Stapleton was weak past question, for it had been super-
imposed on the orchestral 1 ackg round of the storm ; it was an
empty role of dead, dry dcclamation.
The Prologue, in its entirety, was per formcd e'itli piano ac-
companiment, at my house. time. A. I T. NIolas sung the part of
\'yera ; O.P. ’yesI•elorskaya ( one of the active wosman rub ts “
of the Free UusIC Schoo1) sang Nadyezhda ; hlusorgski sang the
part of the B oyar Shcloga. Cui, Musorgski, and Stasoll praised
the Prologue, though more or less guardcdIy•. B alakirefl, on the
other hand, was indiffercnt both to it and to the entire opera in
its new guise, excepting the pilgrims’ chorus, the storm and the
 O R C H E S T RA T 10 N O F P S K O V I T Y A N KA iyi
final chorus. As to the othet changes and inserts in Ps kovit yanka,
Kiusorgski, Cui, and Stasoff approved them, but their attitude
toward its new form was, oa the whole, cold and restrained. It
looked as if even my wife regretfully looked back to its previous
form and as if the changes had struck no sympathetic chord in
her. Naturally all this rather hurt me ; and, most important of
all, I, too, felt that in its new guise my oper a was long, unintcrcst-
ing and rather heavy, in spite of a better structure and notable
technique. It q'as orchestrated with natural French horns and
trumpets. Now the9e were rea)ly natural-sca)e instruments, and
not the good-for-nothing parts that my former compositions had
contained. Still the exquisite harmony and modulations of 7'fir
Maid o f Psk ov, in realm , called for chromatic-scale brass in-
struments. I adroitly got around the diHcultie entailed by the natural-
stale instruments. Nevertheless, I injured consider alily the
sonority and natural quality of the orchestration of my opera, the
music of which had originally been planned without regard for
natural-scale French horns and trumpets, and thcre fore did not
rest on them in the way it should. In every other respect, the
instrumentation showed a step in advance : the strings played a
great deal and with s var›et of strokes ; the [nr te was sonorous where
the natural-scale brass did not interfere. The tri ii tura of the vocal
parts wa9 raised, and that was an improvement. After completing my
work on Ps k ovit yank a in i 8 7 8, I wrote to the Di-
rectorate of the Imperial Theatres of my desire to see the opera
produced in its new form. Lukashevich had lift the board, and
Baron Kister now managed its affairs single-handed. At a re-
hearsal he asked Napravnik, whether the latter had seen my new
score ; he replied in the negative. There the matter ended, and
Pak omitLanka was not revived. 1 confess I was pleased neither
with N;t prarnik’s attitude nor n'ith his reply ; but was N•apravnik
at fault in answering so curtlv and indificrently? In screw of
my keeping aloof from Napravnik, it would have been too much
to expect hapravnik to say anything in my favour, without having
seen the score. He was right a thousand times. Failures usua1l)•
hurt; but in this instance I felt the hurt but little. ) felt as though
it were for the best that I bide my time with Th plaid o f Pslow.
In compensation, I fe)t, too, that my 'preotice days where over, and
that soon I should undertake something new and fresh.
 CH APTER X IV
7 77
Various compositions. The fate of the Sextet and Df the Quintet. Three
concerts of the Free hlusic School. Borodin’s Lecood Symphony. The be-
ginnings of sha y L'“i yli t. Prize contest for choral cOID sitions. Soirees of
tlie Free hlusic Semen I. Our musical circle. Borodin’s home life. Over-
ture and entr'actes to Psi or ii Lanka.

During i 87 7 I tomposed, to to speak “by the way,” varia-

tions for the oboe on a theme of Glinka’s song Chto krasotka
motoda ya (\Vherefore doth the beauteou maiden ?) and a con-
certo for the trombone ; both of these with the accompaniment of a
military (wind) band. These pieces were performed by the oboist
Ranishevski and the trombonist Lyeooolf at the Cronstadt concerts
of the LTnitcd Bands of the Naval Department, under my direction.
The soloists gained applause, but the pieces themse1ve9 went un- -
noticed, like everything pei formed at Cronstadt. The audiences
here were still in that stage of musical development, where no
interest in taken in the name9 of composers, nor indeed in the com-
positions themselves ; and in fact it never occurs to a good many to
speculate on whether the composition has such a thing as a com-
poser i “Music is playing," ”He played that fine,” that is as far
as they got in Cronstadt.' These compositions of mine were
written primarily to proride the concerts with solo pieces of less
hackiieyed nature than the usual; secondly, that I myself might „
master the vlrtuoso style, so unf amill ar to me, with its solo and ”
tutti, its cadences, etc. The Finale of the trombone concerto WaS
not bad, taken all in all, and was efiectively orchestrated. My
third and last composition of this character was a Ko nzertitrick
for the clarinet with the accompaniment of a military band • but —
this was not performed at the Cronstadt concerts, as I did not like .
its heavy accompaniment, when I tried it at a rehearsal. During -
° A etate of affairs not exclusively Cronitadtian. C. Y. Y.
 SE X T ET AN D iU IN TE T s3
the same season ( i 826-22 ) I wrote four smaller pieces for the
piano : Impromptu, N ovellette, Scherzino, Etude, published by
Bituer. The fate of my Sextet and rny Ouiutet (sent in for the
prize competition) was as f olloivs. The jury awarded the prize
to Napravnik’s Trio with the motto “Ciod loves Trinity” (All good
things come in threes) ; it found my Sextet worthy of honourable
mention, but disregarded my Quintet entirely along with the works
of the other competitors. It Was said that escheti sky had
played Napravnik's Trio beautifulJy at sight for the jury, where-
as my Quintet had f allen into the hands of Cross, a mcdiocre sight
reader, who had made such a fiasco of it that the work was not
ev•en heard to the end. Had my Quintet been fortunate in the
'performer, it would surely have attracted the jury's attention.
Its fiasco zt the competition cas undcserved, neverthcl ss,
it pleased the audience greatly, when Y. Goldstein played tt ,ub-
sequently at a concert of the St. Petersburg Chamber UL uyc
Society. As to the Sextet, the Grand Duke Konstaniin NikoÎa-
yevich (who was as a rule well inclined toward me) once met mc
at the Conserve toi y and suid • “ V'ö a t pity the t (in an'arding
the prlzes) we did not know that the Sextet was thine (he used
“thou” iii addressing me, a force of habit) ; a great, gr•at pitj 1”
I bowed. Ont: can conclude f rom this as to how the business of
prize compétitions was managed in the RUssian Musical Society,
in those davs. .At the moment I recalled, too, the contcst for the
opera huhoàla ifiu 5wii li, when it was no secret to any of the jury
that one of the operas—and such and such a one—came from
Cliaykovski’s pen ; the question arose in my mind, whether the
names of some ol the composers had not been known in advance
this time as well?
Balakiref was qui te displeased that I had taken part in the
compctiti on ; this was knOivn to everybody, as my Sextet had re-
ceived hoiiourable mention, and the envelope containing my name
had been opened. He thought that I, as well as his friends and
protèges ought to be “out of the running." But I recalled how,
once upon a t1›nc, aftcr my 5erùiso Fantas y had been written,
B alakircfÏ ( then aJready an olhcer of the Russian ü(usical Society)
had suggested sent)ing in my Naiifoxy to a priz.e competition: he
would take it upon himscl f, he soid, to arrange a compétition in
the aliove Society for this very purpose, but I had declined, and
 *J4 M Y M USICAL LI FE —
our coavefsation had never been rcsumed. The loser is always
to blame ; but the winner is always right, no matter by what means
he has on. This time I was to blame ; however, had the com-
petition proposed by BalakireiÏ taken place, I should have been
in the right. Nevertheless, Balakirefl expressed his displeasure at
my “tactlessness,” for our relations at that time were far from
what they had been in the old days. Possibly my lack of piety
kept him from growing intimate ; howerer, had his attitude toward
me been the old one, he would not have hesitated forthwith to
begin leading me on the paths of righteousness, as he endeavoured
to do with A. Lyadofi, Trif onOil and others. Store likely, he had
simply cooled towards me and tried to ioiluentc me only in so f ar
as I was connected with aflairs that interested him. As for the
inner life, in which he was so fond of meddling, whenever he over-
whelmed me with paternal friendly cares, in that he let me severely -
alone. Of our talks during that period I shall cite the f ollowing,
but just hom it came about I don’t remember. I told him that
I considered others' advice injurious during composition, and that
I preferred to have the composition come out poorer, provided
it were at least origin al and altogether its author's. To this he
iep!ied that he viewcd the mattcr difterently, that the kiest method _
of composition would be one in which the composer, in the process
of creating, had been guided by the counsels of peOple with fine
critical abilities ¡ that these people ought not neglect the slightest
triple until the composition satisfie d them completely; and that in
this gray only could a composition turn out fiawless. And what did he cr
te in support of his view9? h*either more noi• less than the J esuit
Order ( !) where the acts of each member are irre- proachable from
the Order’s point of view, to be sire, since the acts of each have been
pondered and v,•eighcd by all the rnembers; and that thereln lies the
guarantee of the )esuit ' success. The Jesuit Order, and artistic
creation ! How strange a juxtaposition l No doubt, hC, of all peOple,
would never have endured collectivc survcillance of himself. But he
would not have endured it even
in the case of others, whose creative gifts he had at h«art; he -
world have done away with every vestigt of collectivc nesg and
replaced it with his own individual criticism, which he world have
considercd sole and absolute.
The aiiairs o( the Free School were beginning to moose a lively
 A S LI P O F M E M OR Y i J3
interest in Balakirell, and his pres ure on me was very perccp-
tible. Balakirelf insisted that we arrarige several subscription
cDnce its ; deferring to him, I consented to give three. Their
programs were suggested by Balakirc fl to a considerable extent.
N cver the)ess, I recall having over-ruled hiiti ön the point of per-
forming Schumafln's Manfred in its entirety. For some reason
E alakireIf held out against it, though he had always liked )foii/rrd.
Or was it perhaps, because Man fred had been suggested by mc,
»t my own initistive ?
The first concert, November 3o, 18)6, cousisted of the complete
score of Mam ft ed my 5erhian Fan tas y, excerpts from Rcrliox.’s
/.Olie (Harp of N olus and fantasy op Shakespeare's T em pe s i],
and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The concert went off splen-
didly ; only the rendering of Beethoven's 5ymphony was somewh t
ordinary. The chorus sang excellently. For thc requiem in
Plan Jred I pIaced the chorus members in the front rows op the
orchcstra, which had been reserved for that vci•y purpose. Tlic
ef(ect was excellent. This number we per f ormed in F.-minor
(half a toue higher than writteo) , and the orchestra had to trans-
pose the music. At rehearsals for this concert I had noticed that
the chorus flatted irrcsistibly, when singing this requiem in the
origioal key. It occurred to me to raise it half a tone ; and the
singers kept on the given note without ilatting ä j Ot. Therefore,
I dectded to do the sarfit at the concert, and the chorus was sung
finely; I beliere it wss even repeated. I had familiariz ed inyself
thoroughly with the StDres of the pleces to be perforrne d, and
tonducted the entire concert from memory ¡ I remcmber, hovrever,
that in the transition from the Scherzo to the Finale of Bee-
thoven's Symphooy friy memory began to play me false, and I
looked qui zzic ally at the concert-master GrigOfiOVICh ; he oodded
his head at thc approach of the Finale, and I was able to change
the time and the tempo at the proper moment. This traosition
is, of course, a passage di lficult to memorl ze, owing to the
monotony of the sustained harmony and of the uniform violin
hqyres endlessly repeated, with only the last toro bar9 rrrm ofoiido
to ivarn of the approaching Finale. I could not forgiv•c myselr
my absent-miJ dedness and my fiounderiBg, though nobody had
noticed it ; and since that time I decided alivays to conduct with
the score under my eyes. zlud really, the conductor must always
 i36 MYMUSICALLIFE
be in a position to come to the musician’s aid during a perform-
ance and show him when to come in ; yet this is utterly impossible
to do in conducting a whole concert from memory. Even if it
is a pleasure to the audience to watch the self-confidence of a cone
ductor leading from memory, tlie opposi te is always pleasanter
to the orchestra ! Afterwards I observed, and ct en had orches-
tra Ifltisicians tell me, that B alakirefl (who up to a certa in time
always led from memory) never showed them when to come in,
and that the musiCl ans, unaided by him, had to be on the alert for
themselves. An accident at the performance of Sack o, which I
shall relate in its proper place, made Bala2ireft resort to the sCore
ever after.
The second concert of the Free School, on January z3, i 822,
consisted of Mozart’s fi rliiicrt and Borodin’s First Symphony,
which latter I tonductcd very badly.
At the third concert ( Starch 8, 1 8)2 ) I gave excerpts from
Liszt's oratorio, Chris tus excerpts from Schubert's Unfi wished
Symphony (B-minor) , my own Old hong ( chorus a capr//a) ;tild .-.
Balakirell's z ooo Fcai i, not yet rechristeoed Nuos’ ( Hussia) .
The concert went ofi safely ; even the Utahat platt r 8perio i o, most
difficult of performance ( from Liszt's oratorio) . The enharmonic
modulations in thig latter chorus dragged the singers irresistibly
to a gradual lowerIng of pitch, while, in the interims bet» een thc
singing of the choir, there are interludes for the organ. Th,e or-
gan ( harmonium) z•as played by my conscr vatory pupil Bernh ard
(subsequ ently professor and inspector) ,' and, z hcne›•er the choir
sang half a tone flat, he transposed his interludes also half a tone,
and thus we endcd safely a third below where we had started.
.Subsequentl)•, whcn Borodin relatcd this to Liszt, the latter said
that in Germany the same thing had always happened iii perform-
ances of that chorus !
I4ax•ing carried through three couch Its Wlth rather di9icult pro-
grams, I felt, to a ccrtain degree, secusonicd to tlie cOnductor‘s
art ; and therein lay the benefit I derived from them. As for the
money side of the business, the three siibsc ription concerts had quite
disap rointed the school, despite the fact that, thanks to BalakireH,
we had sereral honorary members paying from 3o to i oo rubles.
For the greater part, these honorary members u erc wealthy pupils
* I.ater Director of the Conservatory.
 B O R Oh D I S S E C O N D S Y II P H O N Y iJ2
of Balakirefi, and he had tnade thetn 9ae the advantage of enroll-
ing. A f ter all was said and done, so little money was left in the
treasury of the School that it z a useless even to dmam of con-
certs during the ensuing year , l
.lmong the musical events of the season of i 876-› 7 uGt be
noted hapraroik’s performaoce ob Borodin's $ econd S ihn
in B-minor, at a Russian Xlusical Society Concert. I can’t recall
how and under whose influence this performance was brought
abotit, but I viv idly remember the concert its lf.
Written an‹l i•evised during tnany years, the B-minor Symphooy
e'as reduced to its Ultimate form by the composer principally under
the infiuence of our talks about orchestration, talks that had begun
some three years earlier. Studying, together with me, much con-
Kerning wird and particularly brass-instruments, B orodin was as
Rnthusiastic as I over the fluency, the ease of handling the tones,
and the fulness of the scale of chromatic brass-instruments. lt
taTne ü out that these instruments were not at all those unwieldy
implemcnts we had heretofore iniagined, and many composers still
imagine them to be. M ilitary band scores and various x irtuoso
solos convincett us of that. And that was perfectly true. But
at this point our enthusiasm ran away with us. The B-minor
Syrnphony was orchestrated too heavily, and the röle of the brass
was too promine et. How often Borodin delightedly showed me
his score and hoc- enraptured I grew with his bold handling of the
orchtstra's hrass i In Napravnik's performance of the Symphony
the u hole heav-iiiess of this method of instrumenta tlon was
brought out. The Scherzo sultered most, for in this movernent
the rapidly chaDging chords had been entrusted to the French
horns. Naprarnik found it necessary to take thls 8Chc Izo at a
misch slower tempo than proper that it might be performable
and clear. Und we ivere vexed at him and swore at the coldness
of his per formance and his distortion of the tempo ; yet he was
perfectly righ t. People liked the Symphony Mary nioderately;
and u e naturally wcre most displeased. However, some two
years late r the author himself realized his mistake : the instru-
mente tion Of 1lie Scherzo was consi derably ligh tened, and at the
tiext performance of the Symphony (under my conductorship, in
the season of 18) —i9) it wa possible to play it in the right tempo.
° August z, Yalta.
 i 38 M Y hf L* S I C A L L I F E
V.V. Stasofl a1n•ayS called this the “paladin Symphony," and this
characterization is correct ; the only exception is the Scherzo
( though not its Trio) , which is of a character alien to the rest of
the Symphony. By the way, the brief modulatory transition from
B-minor to F-major at the beginning of the Scherzo was invented -
( i. e., improrised) in the old days hy B alakirefl ; in Borodin's
scheme, the Scherzo had originally begun with the note C repeated
in the French horns.
The summer of 18 7i I spent at the villa in Shuvalofi Park
( First Pargoloro) . Here we lived together with V. F. Purgold,
the Akhsharumof(s and the ñ4olas family, as in the preceding sum-
mer. The season slipped by uneventfully. I worked at PsL•ovi-
I anka, devoting a good deal of time to it ; and occaSlOflally I
made brief trips to St. Pctersburg and Cron9t adt in connection with
my oPicial duties. That summer, in the intervals be tiveen regu-
lar work, my thoughts turned more and more frequently to
Gogol's Ma y YiJfii. Since childhood I had a Not zd Evenin ys at a
baru fiooJe J I preferred Afar Ni gli t perhaps, to all the other
stories of that cycle.
f/veii during our engagement, my wife had often urged me some
Lay to compose an opcra on this subject. Togcther we had read —
this story on the day I proposed to her. Since then the thought
‹ f UaJ Night had never left me ; and that summer especially it
seemed to near realization. Certain musical ideas for this opera
had suggested themselves even ea rlier, but that summer they came
. ith greater persi9tence. I had already jotted down the plan and
in part the libretto ; I follows d G Ogol exactly as to subject mat-
ter, preser vilig as far as possible the dialogue in which the story
abounds. I recall that in the summer of r 8 22 I had in mind the
melody of the song “about the hI ayor” ¡ the theme ol the burden
ln the Trinity Sunday song of the girls; the beginning of Ka-
lenik’s Nope /‹ ( Ooki ainian dance ) and such like trifles. Still I had
made no serious attcmpt to carry out the idea of writing boy
*5'iqfii; I kept on revising Psi osit Lanka, As far a9 I rccall, the
COmposition, or at least the orchestration, of the Ko nzerts trick for -
clarinet, too, belongs among my occupations of that summer. At
that time I was also partly busied with preparing for the press my
own as well as Filippofi's folksong collection. I n add ition to all _
this, I also wrote an « ropr/fo chorus to the word9 and tune of the
 B L A R A II BGE R iJ9
folksong “Pro Pai«ritt Polen” (On the fzztzr Czp‹ivi ).
This chorus as @rell as another on Ko1tso(I's text, in the form of a
five-part fugu# (written soon after the summer had erided) I
w‹shed to submic for the prize corpstition aooounced by the St us-
sian Musical Society. I shall relate here the history ot these
choruses, thus running somewhat ahead.
lVheo tht final date ol submitting the choruses approached, it
turned out that I had been appointed to the jury that wa9 to judge
the submitted compositions. I did not want to decline, for fear
of rousing suspiciou that I z as one of the contestants. How-
ever, when considcred the submittt d compositions, I evaded
giving an opinion ; and later I kept away from the final delibera-
tions ; the jury designated my two choruses among the six to
which the prir es were awarded. The authors of the othcr prize-
crowned compositions were Taborovski, Solovyof(, B la rambe rg
and Afanasyefl, I believe. The leader of the jury in awarding
prizes was F. F. C zerny, professor of the cdor al class at the •
Conser vatory. Solovyof(, whO wäs älSO of the jury, had be-
haved approximately as I had. At this contcst, there appeared
for the first time on St. Petersburg’s musical horlzOo the name of
Blaramberg, who had long lived in J'vIoscoiv and was instructor at
P. A. Shostakovski's h4usic School. P. I. Blaramberg, with ivhom
I became intimate subsequeotJy, wes ri.lrea dy known to me as a
musician who had tried his hand in the field of cornposition. In
years gone by, I had occasionally met him in Balakiref(’s circle ;
however, I had known him but slightly, and his essays at com-
position had not been hemd of in those days. later on he had
vanished from sight for a long time. Prior to the abore contest,
I had become familiar with his manuscript work ; there was soms
sort of suite of oriental melodies and dances, litt1C to ray liking.
During the season of ›7—7 there came an involuntary lull
in the activity of the Free School. There was zo money ; it was
impossible to give concerts. Nevertheless, I strove with might
and main to keep up the non-public activity of the insti tution.
)Ye continued rehearsing various pieces, and arranged scveral
soirées in the Town Council Hall with a low charge for admissioo
to the public. The chorus sang either a cap 11a or with piano
accompanimeut. Some of the amateur-mernLers o( the School I
iustructed in Mende)ssoho's qua rtets, which e'ere then sung at
 no M Y hI U S I C A L L I F E
the sources. I also invited some Conscrvatory pUp11 solo per-
formances on the cello, the p'iaoo, etc. Of the vocal soloists
ñ4mes. A. N. Molas and 0. P. Vyesyelovskaya, whom I have al-
ready mentioned, sang ofice each. The sisters, 0. P. and Y. P.
Vyesyelovskaya, had been zealous amateur-members of the Free
Music School since the Lomakin-Balakirc£ days, participating
at first in the chorus and later as membc rs of the School Board.
During my directorship, 0. P. taught singing aild theory in the
preparatory class, while Y. P, was trca sure r of the school, accom-
pany fng the chores at the abOve musICJ1 evenings "at home.”
the other active members of the School in my time let me mention
the Messieurs Milanofi and Terms. All the bustle in arrangiog
our concRr ts, all Sale of tickets, all blllboa rds, sending out
notices, Obtaining oPicial permits, etc, fcll upon them. and I
marvelled at their real and devotiDn to the cause. G. I. Tsirus,
in addition, sang base in the choir, of which he was a good and
firm leader. In all “at homes” he was nex•er averse to singing in
quartet, nor woul d hc refuse even a solo, like Glinka's MiditipJi f
R e+•iew. The in9tructor of the men’s section of the prepar atory
class was one hf ukhin, sexton and, Iater, deacon of the Church of
Samson. P. .4. Trifono9 was no longer active at the School. S.
N. I(roog1lkofi, subsequently one of my close friends, z as at that
time also a niembcr of our chores.
OUT honorary members, enrolled by il alakircfl, continued to
pay their dues during that slack season of the School. Our or-
gani z ation of honorary members was a peculiar one : one could
pay 3o rubles, or I oo rubles, but the hundred-ruble members en-
joyed no spiritual or material advantages v hateve r ov-er those
p.lying fifty. Furthermore, neither the former nor the latter
enjoyed any advantages over the ordinary attendant at concerts.
For his 3o or I oo ruhles, an honorary mcmdc r received a single
personal ticket in tlie first row of the orchestra for all concerts
during the year. But a first row season ticket could be bought
by a regular subscribe r for i 3 or zo rubies. This being the c use,
what was the object of becoming an honorary mernhe r? \Vell,
in the Russian NJusic al Society such members had the privilege
of atttnding all the cmicerts, regular as yell a s non-subscriptional,
of the Society, all public and private soirées of the COnser vatory
and all rehearsals. At the Free School, thc re were no such privi-
 EH CH ERBACHO FF i6i
leges ; the honorary members, persuaded by Balakircfi, disinter-
estedly paid in their i oo or 3o rubles, though enjoying no special
rights, not even that of sitting together with the members of
their families. The latter had to buy ordinary 9eason tickets.
The dues of the honorary members supported the School ;
yct those membc r9 did not provide support for the School’s sake
or for music’s safe, or for the take of me, the School’s Director
who did not Itnos' some of them from Adam. They gave sole)y
in anse er to Balakirefi' pleas. In this respect, then, the School
had Balakirell exclusively to thank.
Sometime during these last years, N. V. Shchc rbachofi reap-
peared in St. Pete i•sburg, ivhere he occupied a luxurious apart-
ment at tlie to lel Ei i ope. E s before, he composed a grea t dea).
On his Visits t‹ my house, v•hen the music circle gathercd, h
occasionally played his new pieces, after long coaxing. h) any of
his pieces we liked, though many of them seemed rather unfin-
i9hed. He also played numerous fragments which never saw
completion at al). To the same degree as he was at home in the
purely pianistic style, so much at sea was he in the orchest,ral ;
accordingly, the excc rpt9 from hls /frro and Legnder it. Ccri/t«
and other symphonic and choral w orks are hardly destined to be
hcard in public. However, despite a certain lack of originality
in the creative gift, there was much in his music that was beauti-
ful and Grace ful. His ii 9-zag, Papillons and much else found
favour with us.
Balakireft began to visit us, even if rarely. As a rule he did
not stay long, and strange thing 1 we all felt relieved when he
went. In hi8 pre9ence we were all too shy to expre9s an opin-
ion, to play anything new or something recently composed, and
even too 9hy to be unconstrained. After his departure there
usually sprang up a freer conversation : and both Borodin and
Musorgski were not at all reluctant about playing some ncw or
fragmentary piece of theirs. Mu9orgski played excerpts from
Kh ozatis bchina and sang songs of which he wrote quite a number
at that time. To these days belong his PI j as ka em yerti (D zrice
of Death) anal B›•e z irfiii.iu (IVitliout 5un) , wry ttcn to texts
lay Count Golyeoishchefi-Kootoozofi. Excerpts from Borodin’9
pr ince J gor and material for the .ñ-ma)or Quartet were playe d
 i6z M Y MUS1C AL L1F E *
eraf pt eceding years Borodin had wrl tten in the rough the fol-
lowing parts of his opera : Konchak's aria ; Yaroslai-nd's arioso
and her lameot ¡ Vladimir Galitski’s song ; Prince Igor s aria and
the duet of A ct JV. Konchakovna's seductiv e arla still rernained _
uncompleted, was being Revised, transposed and played in bits,
and in various forms. The magnificent dance of the Polovtsy
and the M arch over e nlso extant in rough draf ts. _
S’. S!. StasotÏ was an unfailing memlier at all gatherings : a
distinct lack was felt when he absent. .5ccordiDg to his in-
variable kabit, lee hardly seemed to listen to what o as being
played, he ceasclessJy and very loudly chattcd with those near
him ¡ this, however, did not prerent him from going into great
rzptures and exclaiming fTOm time to time: “Splcndi d! Siipe rg l”
etc. Cut's visits were comparatively rare ; jet he appeared now
and then with new songs, of which he composed a vast num-
ber ahout this time. N. N, Lodyz.hensk1, whose oHcial duties
kept hlm abroad, came on to St. Petersburg hut rarely ; and so
his presence at our gatherings was a rarity. Having joined the
serv•ice and having thus, so to speak, stritken himself from the
roster of promi log cornposers, he no longer let his amb itioo
divell oD an opera, or on a syrnphooy, nor did he play his innum-
erable fragrnents and l egionings. Notw\thstznding V. S". Sta-
sol(’s rcminders, his R usalka remained tlncompletcd. Every
time he returned from St. Petersburg to the place of his service
in the Sla ic lands, he protnised to send Ri.sal Ja and let mc
orchestrate it, but, to the infinite regret of all of us, his prom-
ises remained un fulfille d. Approxirnately to the same period he-
Jongs the appearance, in our tirt1e, o( a young amateur singer,
V. N. Ilyinski. Having come to St. Petersburg as a medical stu-
dent, Ilyinski, \Vho had a ba ritone v-oicc, proved iO be an ardent
lover of the music of our circle. He amazed us all with his under-
standing and ta lcnted interpretation of songs, espcci all y hIusorg-
ski's cr›mic songs. h'Iusorgski’s fiavoè ( Peep Show ) and 9eniin-
erist he sang superbly; the COmposer himself was highly pleased
with the interp retations.
Of all my intimate musical friends I x•isited Borodin the of ten-
est. during these latter years his aIf a i i s and sui i oundings had
changcd as follour Borotlin, who had at› ays given but littl e
of his time to music and who often said (when reproached for it)
 BO R O D I N S H AB I T S iG3
that he loved chemistry and music equally well,—began to devote
still less time to music than beforé. Set it wa9 not science that
enticed him. He had becomc one of the prominent workers in
establishing medical courses for women and had begun to par-
ticipate in rai iotis socicties for the ai d and support of tudent-
youth, especlally womcn. The meetin gs of, these societies, tlie
ofice of treasurer, which he filled in one of them, the bustling,
the sell(citations in their behalf, came to take up all of his time.
Rarely did I find him in his laboratory, still more rarely at musi-
cal com;›osition or at the piano. Usually it turned out either
that he had just gonc to or was just returned from a mcctiiig; that
he hat) spent all day driring about on those same errands, or
else had l›een writing business letters, or working over his ac- count-
books. Add to these his lectures, the various boards and
meetings of the academic con ference, and it will become clear that
tlicrt was no time at all left for music. It always seemed old
to me that cert a in ladies of Stasofi’s society and circle, who ap-
parently werc admirer9 of Borodin's talent as composer, merci-
lessly dragged him to all sorts of charitable committees, har-
nessed him to the ofiice of treasurcr, etc. and thereby robbe d
him of the time which could have been used for crcating wonder-
ful, artistic musical works. Thanks to the charitable hurly-
burly, his time was f i ittered away on trifles that could have heen
attendcd tu by such as were not Borodins. l II oreover, know ing
well his k ind and easy-going nature, medical students and all
sorts of studc nt-youth of the fair sex, bcsleged him with every
minuet of solicitation and requcst, all of which he tried to ful51
with characteristic self-denial. His inconvenient apartment, so
like a corridor, riever allowed him to lock himself in or pretend
he was not at home to anybody. Anybody catered his house at
any time whatsoci er and took him away f rorn his dinner or his
tea. Dear old Borodin would get up with his meal or his drink
half-tasted, woul d listen to all kinds of rcqucsts and complaints and
would promise to “loOk into it." People would hang on him with
cnintell igible explanations of their business, gabble and chatter
by the hour, while he himself constantly wore a hurried look, liav-
' "Joy winter,” Borodin o rote to a Iriend, “I can only corn pose when I am too un-
-we]] to g ive my teeth rcs. So my f riends, reversing tbc H;tla I custom, never say to
me ‘I hope you are well’ but 'I do hope you are ill.' ” C. V, \’.
pity. “T. i':ten, ‹I.•ar Si r, this is tOo much of a good thing l” says
Boi•odin, but q'ithout stirring; and the cat lolls blissfully on.
A. P. BORODIN
 CHAYKOVS KI i6
Bororlin was a man of very strong physique and health ; a man
of no whims and easy to get along with. He slept little, but
could sleep on anything and anywhere. He could dine twice a
day, or go dinner less altogether, both of which happened fre-
quently. Borodin would drop in on a friend during dinner ; he
would be invited to join the meal. "sts I have already dined to-
day, and, Consequently, have formed the habit of dining, I might
as well dine once more” Borodin would say and seat himself at
table. They would otter him wine, “As I don't drink wine as
a rule, I may treat myself to' it today” he z ould reply. Next
time it might be just the contrary. I faring vanished and re-
mained lost all ‹lay, he would drop in at evening tea and calmly
sit down near the samovar. His wife would ask him where he
had dincd and only theo would he recollect that he had had no
dinner at all. Dinner would be served, and he e'ould eat it with
gusto. At evening tea he would drink cup after cup without
counting. His z'ife would ask: “Have another?" ''How
many have I had ?" he iv ould ask in turn. “So and so many."
“\Vell, then I’ve had enough.” wlnd it was the same in many
other things-
Approximatcly in i 8 26, Chaykovski, who then lived ip Mos-
cow, began to come to our house occasionally , once or twice a
year. His visit9 often coincided with our musical gatherings.
Once (I do not recall the year) he came and, in reply to the
usual inquiry, as to what he had composed, said he had just writ-
tenhis Second Quartet in F-ma jOr. \Ve begged him to let us
hear it, and, without much coaxing, he played it through. All
of us liked the quartet ver • much. A few years later Chaykov-
ski cc ased plavl rig his own compositions for others. I also recall
that during one of his visits at our house he stated that he wa9
composi eg an orchestral fantasy on Shakespeare's Ternpes t. He
added that, in depicting the sea, he intended to use as his model,
within limits, II'agner's introduction to Dna R hein yotd con-
structed on a single tried. Subsequently, how ever, when I heard
the Tern[es I per forme d by an orchestra, I ‹lid not find any per-
ceptible similarity betw een Chaykovsk'i's dcllnc ation of the sea and
'Yagner’s of tlie Rhine. At that time, as well as afterwards,
Chaykovski s'as charming to talk to, and a man of the world in
i66 II M U S I C A L L I F E
the be9t sense of the term, always animating the company he
was in. In the course of my reminiscences I shall hav e numer-
ous occasions to return to him ; I shall therefore confine mysel f
now to the abovc remarks.
In the fall of i 8)2, I became convinced that the rev-ision of
my Pak ovil) atill « had led to no sztisf actory results in the artistit
sense, and that it was necesc a ry to work o› cr the opera once
more ; accor dingly, I decided to utilize in a difierent v ay thc
material that came into the second vcrsi on of Th e hlaid o/ Ps ko•a
and, after suitable selection, to arr Ange incidental music for
Cley’s drama The minor overtur e to the Prologue ; the I ntro-
ductlon to the r'y rr/ir scene ; the introducti on dcpiCting Olga (to
pict 11' of my frrst version) were exactly rigkt for thts purpose.
To this I added the eetr'acte to pict III of the drama ; I took the
music from the scene of the gamc of Knuckle-bone9 and com-
posed an additional entr'acte to the last bCt. In x•icw of
the reTerence to the Pyecho rski hlonastery ln this act, the thcme
was the melody of the verse about llyeksey, the Godly man.
Thus the mUsic to Mey’s drama Ps k avit yank a assumed the fol-

a) Overture to the Prologue

b) Entr’acte to Act I ( Olga)
c) Entr’acte to Act II ( Vyeche)
d) Ef1tr'acte tO ACt I If ( Game ‹il Knuckle-bones)
e) Entr’acte to Act IV (on theme of the verse)

The same orchestration jpas returned as to the setood version

of the opera (with natura1•scale French horns and trumpets. )
 CHAPTER XV
lÄ 7 79
Beginning to compose Mai L'ighi. A. LyadoH. Paraplirases. Proposed
trip to Paris. CompJetion of Way L“ight, rte characteristics. Burodin and
II usorgski. Concerts of the Free )I usic School. First trip to )Ioscow.
Compositions to coirinemorate the m enty-fiJth aaniversary of the Tsar‘s
reign. Beginning to write The Fairy-tale. The Russian Quartet. Word
on Prince I foi . Borodln at liÎs summer home.

During the winter of i 822—28, lldJ Night bcgan to absorb me

more and more, and in February I set to work in real earnest.
I wrote the orchest1-al scor c directly on enormous sheets of music
paper ruled lcngthwise, jotting down only the roughest, ,moi.t ft-
agmentary pencil notes. In the course of February, M arch and
April I had done these scenes : yevko ; the water nymphs and
Pannochka (inclusive of Pannochka’s disappearance) ; and the
sunrise. The writing went easily and fast. As I recall, I worked at
the end of this scene till far into thee night. Ilesit)es this, 1 had
writtcn the li opak of Kalenik and the Trinity Sunday Song of Act I,
I orchestrated with all manuer of abbreriations ( Clarinetti coi
Oboi, Viola co1 Yioloncellti) counting as I did on an excellent
copylst Pustov alof( ( fi utist in the Preobra zhenski R c giment) ,
hOf22 1 had in view. In addition to the composed portion, there hall
accumulated a fair amount of material for the whole opera. The
above instalrneot completed, I showed it oiily to An. I-yadofi.
Both any wile and young Lyadofl liked, with- out reservations,
what I had compo ed.
T hat winter Anatoli and I grew more intimate ; he liked to
visit up : our form er relations of professor and irisubordinatc
pupil had vanished. At that time and for a long time a f ter-
wards, I.ya tlofi lived with his sister Yalyentina Konstantinovna
(an artist of the Russian Dramatic Theatre) . On his visits to
our house, he was usually made to play the opening of his B flat
i6z
i68 II Y II U S I C A L L I F E
major Quartet, with its magnificent singing second theme. This
f i agrnent delighted us all, including Stasofl, who afterwards, in
hi9 article, Tmra/y-Joe Heors o f R us sian Art went so far as to
proclaim that Lyadofl had in his portfolio a complete, magnificent
quartet. Unfortunately, that quartet has nerer materialized to
this day, and, of course, never will materialize. The fact that
there was no continuation of this excellent opening belongs among
those incomprehensible things about Lyadoll to which I shall have
to refer many times. Besides this opening, Lyadofl played us
also other fragments of h‹s, chic fly for the piano, his B ii jul’ki (Jack-
Straws) for instance. At that time it was still possible to
make him, a youth of twenty or twenty-one, sit down at the piano
and play a composition of his own. Not so afterwards. Whether in a
spirit of contrariness, or a desi re to make a show of hard-
heartcdness, a sort of "Let them surer,” so to speak ; or whether out
of sheer laziness, no amount of COC ring, in later years, could
induce him to play even a fully-finished compo9ition of his own.
wlnd yet sometimes he would sit down unbidden and, for a full
hour, to evei•ybody’s delight, play x arious frag- ments of
compositions he had planned or actually begun. Though not a
pianist, he played rather gracefully and nt atly, even if some- what
sleepily, never forcing his tone bcjond mcr.zo-forte.
Anatoli Konstantinovich was the son of Konstantin N ikola-
yevich Lyado(i, COnductor of the Russian Opera, whom I have
menti oned several times before this. His father, his uncle .4lyek-
sandr ( conduCtor of the B allet Orchestra) , a second uncle (a
chorlster) rind a third ( a cellist) had rcce ived their training nil-
der the Directorate of Theatres and had each passed a life-time
as employees of the theatre, mOving about in the theatrical world.
I believe aH of them, except the last, z ere a little inclined to
loose living.
The brilliant musical gifts of Anatoli’s f a ther were stifled in
continuous revelling and ca rou sing. He frittered away his activ-
ity as co+ r oser on mcre no things, composing dance-music and)
pieces to order. Of his more important works, the skilfully knit
fantasy, vyith chorus, on the song to z/ye r['Fchhi, rozf)'r trio la
(Near the river, near thu bridge) is still widefy-known.
Ot lnatoli's mother I know nothing; she had long departed
this world, when I first came to know him. Anatoli and his sis-
 A N A T O L I L Y A D OF F i6g
ter Y. K. (subsequently wife of Sariotti, a slnger of tlie Russias
Opera) had been left to grow up as best they might. Their
father, deep in his carousing and his liaison with the singer L.,
was never at home and never laid eyes on his children for weeks
at a stretch. Though he drew a good salary, he very often left
his children without a copper, so that they had to borrow
money occasionally from the servants, to escape starvation.
Of formal education and instruction there could be no question
at all. On the other hand, however, Anatoli had unrestricted
access behind the scenes of the Mariinski Theatre, where one
and all, f rorn the leading singer to the lait lamp-lighter, spoiled
him as the conductor's son. At rehearsals, he larked in the
wings and clambered all over the boxes. In those days, that is be-
fore Napravnik’s arrival, rehearsals were run in slipshod fashion.
Niot infrequently Konstantin Lyadofi gathered the orchestra, in
groups, of course, at his own apartment. Before much work had
been accomplished, they all eat dozen to a "bite” of something.
There was no such thing as a piano-score in the case of many op-
eras. The soloists were rehearsed to the accompaniment of sev-
eral desks of the quartet. The musiC Of the missing wind-instru-
ments the conductor played on the piano or harmonium.
The social life of artists at that time was quite unlike that of
the present. Wine flowed in abundance, and the tree tment of
the fair sex was qulte free. The first week after Lent, when
theatre per forniances had ceased, picnics on a large scale were
the order of the day. To be sure, little Lyadofl could take no
active part in these, yet he could observe to his heart’s content.
But he, the pet of the opera-troupe , the pet who frequently had
nothing to eat at home, was irresistibly drawn by the operatic
stage. Glinka he loved and knew by heart. fi opny rdd and
Judith delightett him. On the 9tage he appeared in processions
and crowds, nd later, when he had come home, he mixed a
'Ruslan or Farlall, before the mirror. Of singers, chorus, and
orchestra he had heard enough and more than enough. Amid
such surroundings his boyhood had passed, without supervision
and without system. Finally he was sent to the Conservatory;
he was boarded at the house of Shustoll, one of the directors of
the Russian hlusical Society. At the Conservatory he was
taught violin and piano, and indulged in numerous pranks with
 no M Y )I U S I C A L L I F E
his cronies, G. O. Dutsch and S. A. Ka zakoil (subsequently a
Vlolinist in the Opera orchestra) . Aoatoli did not study the
violin any too long ¡ when lie got as far as Kreutzer’s Etudes he
deserted the violin and took up theory. In Johansen’s class in
Theory, too, he did almost no work at all, and busied himself
rather with essays at composition. h’Iusic pre-occupied him a
great deal ; in music he lived, composing in all its imaginable
varieties ; but he was most ncglectful of class exercises. At last
Joh aosen managed in some way to draw a tight rein on him, and
Lyadon brilliantly completed his courses in harmony, counter-
point and fugue. U'ith all his heart he yearned to join my class,
but, having once entered it, he began to show less and less zeal,
and finally ceased coming to class altogether. At last the matter
went so far, that Az anchevski was obliged to expel him and
Diitsch from the Conservatory•, as I have already mentioned else-
where. The wretched surroundings of his childhood and the
lack of proper rearing had made him lazy and incapable of
forcing himself to do anything. When he lived at his sister’s, it
is said that occa slonally he would ask her to give him no dinner
until he completed his fugue or wh atcver other task had been set
him at the Conservatory. He could do only what he particularly
desi red to do. He would receive a lette r inviting him some-
where, for instance ; since he had no wish to go, he made no mov’e
to, in fact, nev-er even ansz-ere d the letter. But notwithstanding
all this, back of L3-adofi j r great natural intelligence, the kindest
of hearts and enormous musiCal talent.
In the spring of i 8 28, Anatoli made up his mind to earn a Con-
serv-atory diploma, and to pass the final test which consisted
mainly of composing a cantata. In orber to be able to count on
a performancc of this test-compOsitlon at the Conservatory grad-
uation exercises and, moreover, to avoid tests in extra obligatory
courses, it u as necessary to re-cut er the Conservatory. IVith
K. Y, D!avydofi's consent, he was enrolled in my class (to be sure,
merely to comply with the above formality) . that year L. A.
Sakketti antl .fi. R. Bernhar‹l were to graduate from my class.
These two Lyadotf joined. The cxamination task required the
composing of music for the closing scene of Schiller's Ohr Bride o f
Me is ina. However, that assignment applie d only to Bernhard
and Lyadoft ; Sakketti composed a Symphonic Allegro and a minor
 T H E P ARAPH R ASE S i2i
psalm. All three pupils graduated brilliantl y ; but Lyadoft gave
us reall) a fine piece of work. How Casy it all was for
him I Sphere did he draw his experience from! I ndecd, he was
most talented, and so clever, too I His srene, per formed at the
graduation exercises in May, I828, caused general delight ; Stasoil,
for his part, made a great to do about it.
L¡ttc in the spring of that year, Borodin, Cut and I engaged on
a joint composition of a peculiar nature. Lyadofl also joined
us. there is w•h at it was. Some yeai•s before, Borodin, in fun,
had composed a most charming and odd polka on the following
motive :

H epeated over and over again, this motive wuz intended, so to

speak, for one unable to play the piano, while the accompaniment
called for a real pianist. As I recall it, I o as the first to conceive
the idea of writing, jointly with Borodln, a seri es of s ariations
and pieces with this theme, constant and unchanging. I induced
Cut and Lyadoff to join in the w ork. I recollect that at first Boro-
din showed hostility' to this idea, preferring to publish his polka
by itself, but sOOn he joined us. In passing, I remember Cui’s as-
tonishment, when I brough t him the fugue on B 3 C IN (B
flat A C- E ) , which I had COmposed with the accompaniment
of the above motive. Without discIosing the secret, I played
through the fugue on B A C H minus the motive. Cut,
naturally, t4id not warm to mv composition. Then I asked him
to play the tune ; at the same time I, mysel f, struck up the fugue.
Cui could r ot get ox•er his amazement.
By the time we had to leave town for the summer, had ac-
cumulated many pieces on this motix'e. I has) e ven to o many of
them, and later excluded some from our collecti on, such as : sona-
tina, the chorale tier /csfr Bur g, the recitative a11a J. S. B ach, etc.
A jew pieces of this collection, named Paraphi‘ases and christened Pkti-
fiti by 1”. )^. Sta soIf, were written in the summer of i 8 28, and
snme during the following scason. In 18 8o the Pam phrases were
given for publics tion to Eater ( the firm of Bitter) and he
)2z II Y 51 U S I C A L ). I F E
published them. the Paraphrases so delighted Liszt, that he
added a short transition of his own on tke same motive and v•rote
us a flattering letter about them ; this, V. V. Stasoif published in
due course.
Balakirefi showed a riolent antipathy towards the Pdrap/mares,-
he was indignant at us for engaging in such nonsense, printing
them, and showing them of. IYe had askRd hlusorgski to take
part in our joint composition; hc had even tried his hand, com-
posing a gallop or something of the sort; he played us ivh at he
had composed. But he had Swerved fi om our original plan, and
had changed the constant motive, and his result Was quite difter-
eRt. XVe called his attention to it. He replied that he had Bo
intention of f agging his brains over it ; accordingly, his pal ticipa-
tion in our joint wrl ting came to nothing.
Towards the summer of i 8 7 8 the great exposition was being
prepared in Paris. There were plans for conce r ts of RiIS9i an
music at the Espo9ition at the hall of Trocadéro. The initia-
tive in this enterprise belonged to the Russian Musical Society.
K. Y. Davydofl, who had t akcn part in the meetings held for this
purpose, suggested me as conductor of the projected ronce Its,
and this was approved by the Directorate, led by the Grand
Duke Konstantin A*iko1ayevich. I had received no official noti-
fication ; but Davydofl assured me that tlie matter had been
a rrangcd. I was leisurely thinking out the programs of the con-
certs, and preparing to go early in the summer. As my wife was
to go with me, we did not look for a summer residence. The
matter dragged along rather slowly and suspici ously. Nothing
in writing and oPlci al came to me. Suddenly I learned (toz'ards
the end of hI ay) that Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein himself
wished to assume the direction of these concerts, and that
the Grand Duke was inclined in his farour. Probably in N. Ru-
binstein's mind and later in the Grand Duke’s, therc had sprung
the thought that I was ioeXpcricnced and had, besides, exclusive
and partial leanln6s toward our own circle, and was theref of c
not the person to conduct the Paris concerts ; N. R ubiostein, on
the other hand, was a reprcsentatii c musician exactly right for
the Occasion. Eventually it turned out that It was Rubinstein
who went to Paris ; I was side-tracked. Davydoft felt dceply
offended at this turn of aflairs ; ke told me a rather “stormy''
 T HE PAR I S E X POSIT I ON i23
scene had taken place between the Grand Duke and himself.
At the close of the Interview with the Grand Duke, Davydofi
started out of the room; but the Grand Duke caught hold of his
hand ; he strove to free himself ; in short a semblance of a strug-
gle tOok place.
Thinking over at this hour what occurred at that time, I
come to tlie conclusion that, although it was not quite fair of Ru-
binsteiito cut the ground from under me, nevertheless both he and
the Directorate were justified in their misgivings about me. I
was indeed inexperienced ; for me to go to the Paris Exposition
was a tribe premature. Davydoft's suggesting me had been ill-
adrised and the cause of Russian music had but gained by the send-
ing of Nikolay Grigorycvich. For a year or two after, I was
sulky with him, and avoided him when he visited St. Petersburg;
afterwards, hoivev er, all e as forgotten.
IYe found a summer home late at Ligoro (hlme. Lapotniko-
va's) going thcre in mid-June. IVe rented it jointly with Vl.
f“yod. Purgold and the Akhsharuniofls ; the latter lived with us
only a short while, presently going abroad.’
During the summer of i 8 28, at Ligovo, I wrote, in orchestral
scoi e, the overture, the entire scene of I4anna with the Mayor
and Lyevko, yevko’s story, the love-duet, yevko’s first song,
and also the song about the Mz) or. Besides these, in August,
I composed the whole finale of Act III (after Pannochka's disap-
pearance ).
EKCcpt for two or three trips to C ronstadt in connection with
my oflicial duties, I did not leave our summer home, as I recall
it. In the latter part of the summer a frequent visitor was An.
Lyadoll, who had spent the beginning of the summer in a v-illage
of the Borovichi canton. I remember that, as pastime and
exercise, we each used to write a fugue a day on the same theme
in D-minor.

On October , our gon Audrey was born. .fifter the usual

days of bustling and uneasiness, I turned once more to my opera.
In October, I wrote the First Tableau of Act II, except the
Yinokur’s (Brandy-distiller’s) story, as well as the Proso (millet)
' Written Sept. 5, i8q5.
 *74 hI Y M U S I C A L L I F E
chorus for Act I. Far ly in November, I wro te the Vlnokur's
story and the Second Tableau for Act II. Thug the entire
opera was ready in orchestral score, and I forthwith set to tran-
scribing it for piano and voice ¡ this I finished approximately
near New Year. The libretto svzs submitted to the cen9oT, itnd
was licensed for perf ormance ; then the score, the piano-score
and the libretto were forwarded, with the usu al letter, to the
Directorate of TE eatres.
In my reminiscences of i 8 y6—y2 I spoke of my etithUsiasm for
the poetry of pagau wor ship, an entliusiasm that had originated
in mv work on ceremouial songs. That enthusiasrn had not
cooled even now ; on the cootr ary, with 3faJ A*ipfii it lsd to «
series of fantastic operas ln which the woi ship of the sun and of sun-
gods w:is introduced. I did this eitlic r directly, through sub- j
ect-niatter drawn from the ancient Russian pagan z oi ld (as in in
yc goorocli ka and 4llada) , or indirectly, by refi ection, in operas the
sub ject-matter of which had been taken from laten Christi ati time9
(as in tim Ni 9ht or in Chris tntas Eve) . I say iudi rectly and by
reflection ; for though sun-worship had entirely faded be- fore the
light of Christianity, yet the whole cycle of cerernonial songs and
games to this very day rcsts on the ancient pagan sun- worshl) whlCh
liv-es uncoDsciously in the people. The people, as a n4tion, sing
their ceremonial songs by force of habit and cus- tom, Def ther
understanding nor suspettiug what really underlies these ceremoni
es and games. Today, hoivever, the J ast vestiges of ancient song
and, with them, all sign9 of ancient pantheism are evidently
vanishing. All choral songs in my opera have a
In his preface to •SIodern Rue s ian Sonpt (Oliver Ditson Co. ; i gai ) , E rneet New-
hamd rows a n i nteresting clist 1 liction bet\x'cen the G erman and R u8sia n use of folk-
elements in music. “Tlie variety of ltyl e of the Russian song is the result Of the var-
iety of influences, racia], local, and cultura1, to which it h as been subjeCct. erman
ttrt-song Has drunk as deeply of the fountain of fol kgoflg ¡ but German a rt-mugiC
G
and ermatt fo]k-rnttsic have °I aye been so intifnat'ely ae ociated thai it is nard to
say- Lvl etc the one end* and th e other begins. It is not eo much that the fold-music
h as been an influence upon the composers as that it hag been part of t heir bone and
b lood 2nd being. The moods, the prosody, the structtir e, tlie cadence o{ the I olksong
run, broa fly .•pe at ing, t hroug h aImost all Gthe ermon mu.tic, sae red and secu1ar,
vocal and instruments 1, ct th a test three titind red yeatx. . . . In Rossia the evolution
was differ cut. Russian Vol L-music hall existed to' g before Runs ia ii a rt-music came
into beipg ; w ith the resir It that i› It en coin posers fell under itg spell, it became a
penuifl e fn flu ence of u'lirem they over e more oi less conscious. z¥rt-music, as the Ger-
ma n inusici a it of the in i‹l-nincteen i It centu ry knew it, could not go to th e tleiman
i‹›Jkso»g for raspirat ion, I or it had r eu1! y tie ver quitted it- But the Russian corn•
 M A Y N I GH T iJ
ceremonial colouring or a game-colouring: the spring-game Pros o
(millet) , the Trinity Sunday song Rav yu v yenki (I shall weave
garlands) , the rifsaf oi)'a songs ( for IYhitsund ay) , the slow song
and the fast in the last Act, and the khorovo d itself (round dance
and song) of the water nymphs.' The rery action of the opera
I connected with Trinity or Rusal'na) a week, called the Green
Christmas ; and even Gogol’s drowned women I have turned into
nymphs, In this way I managed to connect, with the subj ect I
adored, that ceremonial side of folk-life which gives expression to
the survivals from ancient paganism.
Stay h'iglit was of great importance in my activity as composer,
for reasons other than the one mestr oned. Despite the abundant
use of counterpoint (the fuglietta, Po os t’ oo==na girl clit o - nachin
i fast’ “Let them learn what pos cr means ;” the fugato on the
woi ds : Sat an, Sat an! ’ tie Sat an hi nisel f I, the combination of the
slow and the fast ruea Inn ju songs ; the multitude of imitations scat-
tered everywhere) , I cast oft in this opera ifir sfiock/ri o/ coun-
t rrpoior still perceptible in the revised .1?uid o/ Ps k o•o. I lere I
introduced, for the first time, laage conjoint singing numbers ( en-
sembles) . In liandJing the voices, I adhered strictly to their real
individual ranges ; there is nothing of the kind in Ps kozit yatiba.
7 he numbers are always rounded of(, 1'herever the scene permits.
Singing melody and phrase replace the former inexprcssive reci-
tative superimposed on the music. here and there a tendency is
shown tow atel the rrro recitative, which I employed subse-
quently, beginning with in ye go oro chk a. However, in Ma 5' 'i 9h I,
this tendency did not bring very happy results. Its recitatives
are still somewhat awkward and really unsuitable for easy exe-
cution. Beginn'ing 1 ith Ha y Ni ghI, I seemed to hav-e mastered
transrarent opc ra tic instrurnentattOR lfl Glinka's manner, although
poser who, h av ing learned his technique and imbibed a good p art of h›s idiom from
tlie Western music of his day, iiirned then to his native folk-music, found in it an
i nc xb austibl e treasure-house of novelty. Thus we can apeak of a genuine influence
of Russian i of ksoug upon Russian art-song.” C. V. V.
' Girls, desc r ted by their love re, iY ho, accord in g to tlie legend, have kil I ed them-
*e lve› a nd become watt r ny mphs. Th ese f anta stir creatercs also appear in D a rgo-
mj zl ;ii’s ftu,ta/f«, to Piiccini's f,c f’i)/t, an d in Adolph e Adam'a bad let, O ii cI/z. Sfoj'
Niyht xx u 5 beatitiftily pto‹l nee‹1 (thotigh with exteilsi ve cuts) in I.on don by Serge de
17)'a gif yr9’s R tissian flat let end Opera Coin p any in tlie sum mer of rg J- I heard
one of these pe rformattccs 0 nd wolf ltl sa y that, althoiig¡h the oper fl h a 8 Nov ely lyric
moments and som e eElective comic scenc s, on ilie iv hof e it sountls old-fashions d and
is uni urt li y of tlie 5 enin s of the com pose r. C, 3^. V.
i y6 M Y II U S I C A L L I F E
here and there it lacks sonority. On the other hand, the strings
play much and with freedom and vitality. Eddy N ighI is orches-
trated for natural-scal e F rench horns and trumpets, in a manner
to enable them really to play the opera. The scene demands three
trombones without a tuba, and only ia the song about the Mayor
two piccolo-flutes are employed, so that, in genet at, the instru-
mental colour-scheme calls to mind that of Glinka. However, in
Pannochka’s singing, a distinct novelty was introduced : the ac-
companiment in constant glissaiidos of harps.
The theme of Ma y If igltt is bound up in my mind with memo-
ries of the time when my wife became my fiancée ; and the opera is
dedicated to her.
The orchestral score or my opera, submitted to the Directorate,
was shortly examined by Napravnik and accepted upon hit fa-
rourable verdict. The Board of Directors sent it for an opinion
also to K. Y. Davydofi who found it to his liking; still, Napravnik’s
voice carried the chief and deci9i ve weight. The parts were giren
to copyists ; and, as early as the spring of 1 87 9. chores rehearsals
began. The chorus-masters were I. A. Poma zanski and Y. S.
.fizyeyef(, the same as in the days of P/ir MaiJ o f Fchov. It was
scheduled for production during the following season of I 8)9—80.
During the season of i 8 28—yq, the Free Musit School had ac- cumul
ated funds, af ter a year of silence and rest. Thanks to
Ralakireff's eflorts, the honorary members had been paying their
dues. Concerts could now be resumed. I announced four sub-
scription converts; they took place on January i6 and zg and Feb-
ruary zo and 22. Each was a mixed program as 'in former
years. Among others, the fol1o5 mg numbcrs were performed for
the first time : The Kliorovod ”Proso” ( j3jlllet) , the chOrus of
oymrhs and tlie song about the hlayor from Ma 15’i ght,- Liszt's
Mamle t; the chOrUS fY OfR Lyadofi's Drid « o f J)/rfiioa; Kouchak’s
aria, the closing choru9 and Polovtsian dances from Borodin's
Prince Jpor, the tableau at the Monastery of the Miracles ( Pimyen
and Grigoi i) from hlusorgski's Boris Crodono$,- Balakirefi's
Ch•kh Ov rum . At that time, Prince I 9or moved slowly, but
progressed notwithstanding, Hol' much pleading and importun-
tag I had to spend on dear old Borodin to persuade him to orches-
trate several numbers for these concerts. His swarming engage-
ments in connection with his professorship dnd medical courses
 P R I N CGE I O R ii2
for women, were always in the way. His home life I have
already described. Owing to his infinite kindliness and his entire
lack of self-love, these surroundings made it extremely inconven- ient
for him to work at compo9ition. One might come again and
again and keep demanding how much he had written. Net re-
sult—a page or two of score, or else nothing at all. To tlie
query: “Alyeksaodr Porfiryevich, have you done the writing ?” he
would reply: “I have.” And then it would turn out that tlie Writ-
ing he had done was on a batch of letters i “Al)eksaodr Porfirye-
vich, have you finally transposed such and such a number of
the opera score?" “Yes, I have.” he replies earnestly. "'\?i'ell,
thank the Lord I at last 1” “I transposed it from the piano to the
table” he would continue with the same earnestness and compo-
sure ! —A really definite plan and scenario were still non-existent ; at
times more or 1es9 completed numbers were composed, and again
numbers that were mcrely sketchy and chaOtlC. Still, by this
time, there had been compOsed Konchak's aria, I'ladimir Ga-
lit9ki’s 9ong, Yaroslav•na's Lament and her arioso, the closing cho-
rus, the Polovtsian da aces and the chorus at Vladimir Galitski's
feast. I had to beg the author for these excerpts, for perform-
ance at the concerts of the School. Konchak’s aria he had or-
chestrated throughout, but there was no end to the waiting for the
orchestration of the Polovtsian dances anet of thc closing chO- rus.
God yet these numbers had been announced and rehearsed by me
with the chorus. It was high time to copy out the parts.In
despair I hcaped reproaches on Oorodin. I Ie, too, was not over-
happy. At last, gix•ing up all hope, I offered to help lien with the
orchestration. Thereupon he came to my house in the crening,
brlngmg earth him the hardly touched score of the Polo vtsian dances
; and the three of us, he, An. Lyadoff, and I, took it apart and began
to score it in hot hastC. TO Q3ln time, we wrote in pencil and not
in ink. Thus we sat at work until late at night. The finished sheets
of the score Borodin cove red with liquid gel- atine, to keep our pencil
marks intact ; and in order to have the sheets dry the sooner, he hung
them out like z•ash on lines in my study. Thus the number was
really and passed on to the copyist. The orchestration of the closing
chores I did almost singl e-handed, as Lyadofl was absent for
some reason. Thus, thanks to the concerts of the Free Music
School, some numbers were finished
i28 M Y 3i U S I C A L L I F E
partly by the composer himself and partly with my help, dui in,¿
th at year as well as during the following sea son of i 7 9 •
all events, had there been no concerts of the Free Music School,
the fate of the opera, Prittcc I gor would have been different.
At the rehearsal of the scene from Boris Godyno , hlusorgski
behaved ver y quee rly. Either unr)er the influence of wine for
from mere pose (he had dereloped a coositlerable turn for pose
in thosc davs) he often acted oddly ; often he delivered hiinsel I
of obscure and involve d oi ati one. At the rehearsal in questioli,
he listened z ith a show of significant intensity to what was
played ( for the most part in ecst asy at the performance of iodi
vidual instruments, olten during thC most COmmonpl ace and in
di fterent phrases) , new pensivcly drooping his hcad, now haughtily
lifting it erect, shaki rig his mane of hair, ant) then again raising
his hand with the stagey gcsture that had becn his even be fen
that. Whcn, at the end of the scene, thc tamtam representing
the cloister-bell rang pianissimo, flu sorgsk i matte a low and def•
crential bow to it, his arms crossed on hls brc ast. That rche a rsal
was preceded by a liome-rehc a rsal at thc house of the siege r
\"asilyeft I, who sang Pimycn. I was in charge of the rehea rsing
and di d the aCcoinp anyieg. ñ'Iusor ski, too, was present. A fter
the rehearsal supper was sc1 v'ed ; the host got quite rIrunk and
talked much bosh. hIusoi’gski, on the contra ry, kept himself well
in hand. G rishka Otrep\•efi's part was sung by the teIIOfi Vasilycf(
II. He was the old, pattest plodded of the Russian Opera, v'hu
toiled and moiled on the stagc without artistic ambition or vanitv.
Once upon a tlme he had a rery fine voice ; he was a man of much
routine ; irrep roach ably exact in all i filcs ; lout tlesplte all those
qualities, he inani Iested no talent +’liatsoevcr. But, when it
was necessary to learn a rñle in a day, or to substi tute owing to
some one’s sudt)en illness —for such thIrigs, Va silyeft was the
man. Goodness know's tiny marry of the hi Chest and hardest
parts he sang, from Sabinin in .f /-ifc f or the Tea i‘ ( where he
took the high C 1 ith his chest) tlown to insignificant couriers and
messengers. The artiS ts use aI I y tank part in the School conce rts
gi atis. )Ta silye fi II, too, san( v.'ithout ra y, asking onlv three ru•
bles foi• gl oves. As z•as his wont, he was letter perfect in his
part ; but at the end of tlie scene, when I suggested to him to sings
the recitative freel)', ad libitum, and prOmised to keep an eye on
 11 I S H A P A T A C O N C E R T i7 p
him, he refused, saying: “No ! I'd rather watch the stick (bri-
ton) .” In this respect, the singers of the Russian Opera had
been rigorously drilled by N apravflik, who allowe d no liberties.
)’he choruses from Play Ni ghth the exce i pts from Pritice I gor
and the scencs from Bori went of well and met with favour.
))orodin’s B-minor Symphony, performed at the Third Concert,
1 cnt well, too. Its Scherzo o’as taken in the right tempo, thanks
to the fact that Borodin had made a number of corrections and
had 1 a rgely done away with the piling up of brasses. Borodin
and 1 had given a good deal of thought to it this time ; by then
nur craxe for brass instruments had waned, and the Symphony
gained much from our corrections.
At the Fourth Conccrt, a rather serious mishap occurre d. The
pianist I(limoft was to play LiSzt's E Fiat major Concerto ; but he
missed the rehearsal and decit4ed to play unrehearsc d ; I wa9 so
imprudent as to give rriy consent. It the concert, Klimoll grew
nei vous anal confused, it was impossil le to follow him. During
the piano-pituscs, when it was easy to rega in self-composure, he
would inopportune ly he gin to second the orchestr a or nod to it,
indicating iv rong entrances. Thus in the opening of the Schei•z o,
after the triangle solo, he played the orc.hestra’S entrance a bar
too soon, putting everybody of ; the confusion lasted to the very end
of the oumbe r. The performance was a disgrace, the orchestra
was at odds with thC pt anist from first to last. My mortification
was unbOunded, and I' literally cried for chagrin and shame on
reaching home after the concert.
Throughout the q-inter anlt the spring, Cui, Borodin, Lyadoll
and 1 went back from time to time to composing Téti-téti.
Our collection of pieces accumulated. I believe the last numbers
composed wcre yadofi’s gall°F slid my tarantella. That was in
June, 18 2p, at the summer home ip Ligovo, where we had gone
as in the previous year.
In midwinter, I went to h loscow for a fortnight’s stay*, to con-
duct the orchestra in Shostakovski's concerts. An excellent
pianist, Pyotr Adamovich Shostakovski (a pupil of the renowned
Kullak) , had been invited to a professorship at the NIoscow
Conservatory several years before, but had soon found himself
at odds with its Director, N. U. Rubinstcin, and had been
obliged to leave. What the differences had been about, I do
i8o MYMUSICALLIF E
not know exactly. According to Shostakovski'e account, the
cause lay in the alleged fact that hikolay Rubinstein could not
bear ncar him a pianist of equal powers and would not permit
him an appearance at any concert of the Russian Mu9ica1 Society.
How much truth there is in this, it is impossible to' say. But
the fact is that Shostakovski left the Conservatory and turned
to giving privy te lessons ; soon, however, he established a piano-
school of his own, and later ev•en some new musical society under
the same Philharmonic. Durlng the season of 1828—29 he
brought me over to conduct the orchestra, first, at his own
concert at the Grand Theatre, and, secondly, at the concert of
the Philharmonic Society at the Hall of the Club the Mobility.
Besides this, he had brought over to participate in these concerts
tlie singer, D. SJ. Lyeonova, who had left the St. Petersburg
Opera stage SOfrle years previously. Lyeonova was long past her
youth, but she still had a voice.
Of my o«'n orchestral works, I gave the overture to Psi o-
v. I yanL-a and, I believ-e, the Scrbian Fantae y, at Shostakovski’s
concert. At the concert of the Philharmonic SOciety, I per-
formed Sad Lo, Balakirefi's overture to Iain y Lean, and other
things. The concerts were crowded, and my pieces won ap-
plause ; San:I( o sv zs even encorcd. The grea test animosity pre-
vailed between Sliost akovski and the Russian Musical Society,
and my particip a tIOrl In ShOStakorski's concerts was, cvidently,
a thorn in the side of the hloscow Conservatory and the
musical Society. I l owever, friendly artistic relations grew up
beM'een Shostalcovski and myself. He promised to come to
St. l'etersburg to play at the Free h(usic School ; and I promised
to come to him the f ollo wing year. Thus I established, for the
first time, a musical contact with hloscow, where my name had
been all but unknOwn thus far ¡ of my compositions, my Third
Symphony h,ad been the only one given, and that in a single per-
formance, ( in 18 2 y, if I am not mistaken) , N. G. Rubinstein
conducting. I inust sa r$ by the way, that P. I'. Chaykovski had
at that time been music critic on one of the Moscow dailies and
had written a very sympathetic review of my Symphony. On my
prcs*nt visit to hf osc oiv I did not meet Pyo tr Ilyich, as he was
not at NIostow, ?Yt all events, by that time he had given up
for good his activity as reviewer. There was then ta]k aplenty
 C H A Y K O V SK I ' S M AR G R’IE A i8 i
about Chaykovski’s queer carnage. He had married a person
who was ill-suited to htm, and shortly (in a month or two) the
couple had parted for good.' Presently there were rurnours that
tte was mentally or nervously ill ; hos ever, immediztely after- o-
ards, thc re came complete recovery. levertheless in those days
he shunned friends, went nowhere and never visited St. Pe- tersburg
cxcept in the strictest incognito.
My trip to hfoscow loft a pleasant lmpressi on with me. On
returning to St, PetersÎiurg, I went back to my regular work.
In the summer ni i 829 two persons one Tatishchefi and a
certain Korvin-Kryukovski made their boe' to St. Petersburg.
They came to me, to Borodin, MusOrgski, Lyadof, h aprarnik
and sever al other composers with the follow•ing proposition.
The te•enty-fifth anniversary of the rcigri of His Imperial
Majesty Alyeksandr N ikolayevich (Alexander II ) was to occur iii
i 88o. For that occasion they had written a grand sccnic produc-
tion, coosisting of a dialogue between the devint o/ R us.eta and
ïfiiiorJ, and this was to be accompanied br tableaux meant to
represeut various moments of that reign. For the proposed
solemn performance the M essrs. Tatishcheft and Korvin-l(ryukov-
ski had obtained permission from the proper authorities; they
now turned to us with the plan that we compose orchestral music
in keeping with the subject-matty r of the li ving pictures• lt must
be admitted that the personalities of thèse gentlemen, who had
livcd in Paris till then, appeared somewhat odd ; theit- mode of
convcr ation as well as their manners recalled Bobchinskl and Dob-
chinskl.* the dialogue between the Genlus of Russia and His-
* Chaykovski'a marriage remains a tragic and mysterious episode in this composer'e
life- His biogra j›hers ref pi- ip it ifj vei led and suppressed whispe re. I\'I rs. New-
march writes that Ka.•likin thighs that Chayko vsL i kept lits engagement 8ecrct from
his friends for some i ime. Ka sbkin met tlie newly ma r ried couple at s pa rty given
in their honour at the )utgensons'. This was the on ly time he ever saw' them to-
gether. Ch sykov ki continued to attend to his work at the Conserv-a tory, brit his
fri ende obser ved a change in hirft. He b ad become reserved and aL$t•IJt•W 19d t•d a nd
8ecmed anxious to avoid intimate conversation. As time went on, thi8 ma rri age an d
its trag ie con.•equences *ere regsrded as an amusing comedv 1›J' outside rs, 0 ntl hig intimate
I riend s knew few of the real I oct s. INasSkin w‹as fi1 ied »'ith the gravest appre
hensions, which pro ved not to be groutjd less. Ch ayk ovsLi a ftg r w£trds a‹lmitted that lie
had ried in many ways to end his life. Once he hari gone so f4r as to sta n d in tht
river, with the water up to his chest, on a frosty Septemb*i night, hoping to catch a fatal
cold a nd to gtt rid of his troubles without sea nda1. C. V. 1’.
* The comic pair of eronres with one mind and two tongues, in Gogol's I among
Cursor tlnspcctor Gciierai) . J. A. J•
 i8z MYMUSICALLIF E
tory was bombastic to a degree. Still the moments for living pic-
tures had been selected happily and gratefully for music ; and we
consented to write it. 9“hus were composed, partly during that
scason and partly during the next, my chorus 5Jn ua (Glory !) ,
on the theme of a Christmas Carol ; Borodin's la Cen tTal .4sia
(subsequently a very popular piece) ¡ Musorgski'S march, Fñc Cn
piure o f bars; ' Napravnik's I don't remembc r the name ;
and Zike’s Z’/ir Black Sea. hlusorgski's Ma rch was takcn bodily
f rom the mus'ic to Gedeonofl's MladB, where it had done duty
as the March of the Princes ; its trio in oriental style (on some
Kurdish thrmc) was newly written. 6ubsequently this Ha rch was
named simply lforcfi, with tY in , alia Ifft ru. Our compositions,
including the splendid picture In Cen Oral Asia, wc7e writt en rap-
idly, but Messrs. Tati>hchelt and Kor vin-Kryukovski (whom
yadoH usually called Ra zdyeri-Ru2ava, i. e, Rip-Slccves, for
fun) vanished no one knew where, and the questi on of producing
the performance of their invention was dropped. Thus this
scheme came to oaught ; only the above enumcrated pieces rc-
maimed, and were performs d subsequently at concerts in St.
Petersburg; the tableau, In C’cnfra/ .4era, was giv en rather fre-
quently even abroad. This work took the f ancy of Liszt, to
whom borodin had shown it during one of his trips abroad.
Lazy and procrastinating I-yadoft had not done his share.
In the summer of i 8 7 9 , we lived at Ligovo at NIme. Lapot-
nikova’s summer-place, just as z•e had done the year before. I
conceiv-ed the idea of writing a lai ge orchestral work of I anta9tic
nature, to Pushkin's prologue to his R uslutt uad L bud iuila “Oo
lookomar) a dooh =-cl y o y5,” (At the curve d shore a green-cl ad
oak) . 1 began, and by the end of the summer had a goodly
part of it ready in gketch fOl’m. In addition, I composed
a string quai’tet on Russian themes ; this I Sllbscquently ivorke d
ovcr Into a sin fOlli tta for the orchestra. Its separate move-
ments bore the titles: I. In the fiold. II, aft the Cli a i iva ri.
lIl. In the th orovo d (Routed dance and song) . IV. Near the
Cl oistcr. The last movement, which did not go into tlie Sio-
fonictta a ftcr all, was written on a chu rch thcme, commonly sung
at Te Deums (Pr5• epodohn y oirh r ited a r yeh, ni oli B o ga • a mm—
A stronghold in the Caucasus taken from the Turks in after a long siege.
J. A. J.
 W O R K O N Ph R IE CG I O R i83
li c› ei end )ather so and so, pray God for us i ) in imitational style.
This quartet of mine never had a public performance. Once I
took it over to K. Y. Davydofi and asked to have it played at
a qua rtct rehearsal. Davy doll, blue r, Pikkel and Veykman played
it for me. It did not please them such ; and I found many
shortcomings in it myself. The first movement was monot-
onous, having been written on a single theme ; the Scherzo had
no coda, while the Finale was dry; I did not venture to let the
public hear my quartet.
Be fore going away for the summer, I induced Borodin to
al)ow mc to copy personally and put in some work on polishing
up the chorus and the parts of the qo odocJinifii ( rehec-players)
in the scene at V ladimir GalitSki’s house in Prince I gor. This
scene he had com r • sed and written down ra’ther long ago, yct
it was in utter disorder ; some things we rc to be abri dged, others
were to 1›e tr ansposed into other keys, here and there the choral
parts were to be written, etc. ñleanwhile tlic work had not pro-
gressed ; he was preparing, could not inake up his mind, put
things off from day to days and the opera did not more. It
distressed me extremely. I was yearning to aid him ; I proposed
myself as musical secretary to him, provided his w onderful
opera rlerivcd some gain from it. .4fter frequent refusals on
his part and urgings on my part, Borodin consented, and I took
the above-mentioned scene with rue to my summer home.
W e were to cor i espond about tlie work refcrred to. I began
my labour and rcally accomplishe d somcthing. I wrote Borodin
a letter about t’ci tain doubts that had arisen, but received no
letter lOr a long time. Fiilally an answer came, saying that he
preferrcd to talk the whole matter ovei• in the autumn. Thus
the aflair ended ; and the scene had made only slight progress.
F’or several yea i s now the Boroding had been going for the
summer to CentTijl Rrissi a, in the Toola Government prlncipally,
I believe. At their summer homc they lived queerly. Usually
they rented it unseen. As a rule their summer home consisted
of a room› r easant-int a (hut) . They would bring but few be-
l ongings. They had no hea rth-plate ; cooking eras done in a
Russian oven. Apparc ntly their mode of living was extremely
uocornfort able, in crowdcd quarters, with all sorts of privati one.
The ever-sickly Yekatyerina Sergeyevna, went barefoot all summer
 i84 81 Y M U S I C A L L I F E
long, for some reason. But the chief discomfort of this sort
of life lay in the absence of a piano. Borodin's summer leisure
was in any €\-ent hardly productive, if not uttr rly barren. Al-
lays harassed by his oPicial duties and all sorts of out9ide aflairs
during the winter, he could do very little work on his music ;
then came summer, and with it leisure, and yet work was impos-
sible all the same, owing to the discomforts of this way of living.
In this strange manner life shaped itsel f for B orodln, and yet
what could have seemed mofe propitious for work than a sit-
uation like his : alone with his wi fc, and a wife, tOO, who loved
him, who understood and valued his enormous talent?
 CHAPTER XVI
i 879 8o
Production of May Ni9hi, Opinions about it. Concerts of the Free
Music School. flalakireH. Lyeonova and hlusorgski. My second visit
to hfoscow. Beginning of Sn$cpoor0chLa. Krooshevski. Sasha Gla-

Soon after returning from the country I showed B alakireft the

beginning of S/‹dzka (Fairy-tale ) which J had ready. Although
he liked certain parts of it, he did not approrc the work as a whole ;
the for›ri conceived by me was not to his liking, nor did he like
the very opening itself. All this made me cool toward Fair]-dale,’
I barely refrained from tearing up what I had composed: in any
event, I abandoned the idea of continuing the composition. Soon
my thoughts wandered to my Orrr1i‹re on fio rico Tfienies that I
had written as far back as i 666. I wa9 seized with the desire to
revise it, and bcgan gradually to ponde r its revision and re-orches-
tration. The work came to its end as late as the spring of i 88o,
when the thought of a new opera was already possessing me ; but
of this I shall speak later.
In October, rehearsals of ha y Highi began at the Martin ki
Theatre. The rfiles were distributed as follows : Lyevk
léommis arzhevski, Hanna Slavina and K;tmyenskaya, Svoya-
chenit9a (Sister-in-law) Bichoorina, Mayor Koryakin and Stra-
vinski, Kalcnik Myel'oikofi and Pryanishnikoft, Vinokur (Wine-
distiller) Ende, Scrivener Sobolyef(, Pannochka Vyellnskaya.
(Already in those days two performers were cast for certain röles) .
Rchcarsal9 got along well ; everybody tried his best ¡ I invariably
accornpanied a)J rehearsals myself. Napra mik was reserred, but
o as att'entive and accurate as usuaL The choru lang well. For
the ballet I hart to put together the rio/oo ri pttiteur part of the
dances of the nymphs: owing to c#rt;tin complexities of the music,
i8s
this was rather hard to do. I went to see the ballet-master Bog-
danofl, played him the dances and told him my wishc s in the matter.
In due course orchestra rehearsals, too, bcgan. Is far as I rc-
call, all was ready in December. the scencry, too, was ready.
Thi9 scenery was made over from the iovestitiir e on hand for Chay-
kov•ski’s Ko own yets Vak oola ()*akoola the Smith) which had 1›eeii
taken off the boards, with the sole diherence that winter turned
into summer. Owing, however, tO various causes and short-
comlngs that seemed bound to occur in oui• Directorate's pro-
ductions of opera s, lfoJ A*ipfii die) not have its pr cmifi re until Jan-
uary 9 , i S 8o. It had considerable success. The song a1›out the
II ayor, as z cll as Lycvko's song (-fi-ma jor) were demands d over
and orer again. Thcre were many curtain calls for the artists and
rnyselJ. Ende (wine-distiller) and Soliolyeft (scrivcncr) were
rery comical. BlClioorina (sister-in-law) was cxccllcnt and deliv-
ered her rapid-fire talk furiously. The others were all fair ; with
the exception of I(alenik's role which suited hJyel'nilioft poorly,
anrl Yjelinskaya, who occasionall r$ y@ was her wont, sung of key.
Tlie ballet was poor. The scenery of Act 111 hatl been bungled,
so the fantastic scene went badly. Thc gcneral verdict of the
artists was as follows : the first two acts were very good ; the third,
somewhat lacking ; the £ inale, they said, bad, bad altogether. )'et
I was cont ince d that Act III contained the fincst music and many
scenico-poetic mOUlcnts, the bcst being ( i ) two verses of k.yc› ko's
song "O) iJ in es ya1s \asn)'” (O, thou bright moon !) , a fter which
the window in the master's house opens, Pannochka’s hcad appears,
and her call is heord, accompanied by the harp glissando ; ( 2)
Pannochka's leave-taking of Lyevko and her dis:appearance. This
latter disappearance lost in particular in the pcrformance: Pan-
uochka did not disappe ar, but simply walke d off ; the sunrise was
g1oom)• and overcn,st, and the faoia stir seem as a w)iole was car-
ried through rudCly and tastelessly. That season my opera was
giren eight times. Toward the last, Naprarnik had alreat4y made
cuts in Act III, the principal cut being the first game of “raven” (B-
minor) . Through this omission the scene did not gain, it lost.
First, Gogol was distorted ; second, the sense was lost, as Ly evko
was given no choice in recognizing the stepmothe c ; thlrd, the mu-
° Gam The mother covers the children, the r^ven seizes them. J. A. J.
 M A Y N I GH T i82
SiCal form Was the loser tw , and the author's intention destroyed
ct›mpletcly, as the game, the first time, is founded on the simple
theme:

o hile the second time, when the stepmother play›s, this theme is
combined with the stepmother’s phrase:

which adds the cmi IIOVs character so appropriate here. I felt pro-
voketJ at these “cois” (hTapravnik's pronunciation) ,“ but what wa.t
to be done ? The success of UaJ *Vipli/ at the later per formance,s
lapsed somewhat, but the housc was filed nevertheless. When
I retall the pi’oduction of Th e !I aid o Psk oz, I cannot help ad-
rioting that my first opeTa achieved greater and more lasting sut-
cess than the second. ThC flCKt season ?1JaJ N ight drew less well ;
and the next aftcr that, still less. The receipts were fair, but
hardly more than that. Dui ing the subsequent seasons some of
the artists where changed. Lyevko was sung my I odi and later by
1"a9ilycfi III : :ifter Ende died, Vinokur’s part wits sung by Va sil-
yefi II. The performanccs grew more anal more slipshod, and
after eigh teen representations ( in three years, I believe) interest
in the ope ra crioled, and it was stricken from the repertory.
/\t its premiere, my ope ra p1ease‹J our circle morc or lc,ss, but
not much in general. Balakitefi liked it but little. Y. fir. Stzsofl
ii is plc ascd alone with the fantastic scene and the game of “raven”
allot e all ; he made much ado about it and cxtolle d it, giving a
deal of appror al also to the hborov od of the nymphs of which the
prlnclpal ideas were borrowe d from the 11Hada k horo+ o) ( k o Io ')
z•hic1i both 5tasofi and hlusorgski had liked cv-en in former
" Napravnilr, z C hek h, pronounced kupira ( wCth (ter man umlaui) instead of
k iipyur n (from Fr ench cor ipure ) ut. J. A. J.
- iiolo (wheel, circle, ring-dance) is the equi›'aleiit of khorovod with the lVestetn
and Soul hern Slav s. J. A. ).
 i88 MYMUSICALLIFE
years. They also liked moderately Pannochka's singing with the
harps, suggestions of which, too, had existed in Mlada and which
z as therefore not unf amiliar to them. But Lyevko's songs, the
nymphg’ chorus, etc. they cared for very littlc. At that time Mu-
sorgski had grown cold to other people's music in general, and was
cooler than before to the khorov od. He frowned a little,
and said of dia y F'i yht as a whole that it had somehow missed
the matk. Apparently my newly sprung tendcnty toward cantabile
and rounded forms found little I avour with them all ; beside9, I
had so frightened all of them with my study of counterpoint that
I was looked upon with some prejudice. Praise me, thcy t)id, but
their former ''fine I incomparable ! capital 1" were no longer heard.
Cut wrote an extremely cold reviev•, setting forth that my themes
and phrases were punk throughout, and that the best of them were
borrowed from the pcs sant-Colic. His wide once met me nt Bes-
sel’s and said with v enom : “Now you havc learned how to write
operas,” alluding to the decent measure of success that i3f uJ 7 JJ/i t
then enjoyed with the public. I shall mention in passing that abort
that time, Cut, in his articles, lavished praise on Napravnik as well
as on Davydoll, but belittled C hayk ovski as much as hc could.
Taken all in all, the critics handled my that .Yipfi i rather roughly
cavilling at everything and pc rcei ving no good points at all. Of
course, all this helped cool the public, as I have mentioned above.
On the whole, Psh o•oiI j BE ka had rece lved more praise, more cen-
sure and more .success than lMa j k ight.
In i82g—8o I arranged again four subscription concerts of the
Free Music School at Kononoft’s Hall. The programs were
again miscellaneous, arid were made up under s trong pressure from
B alakirefl. Among others of the non-Russian numbers z ere given
Beethoven'9 Sixth Symphony and music to E gin otit,’ Liszt’s music
to Pr omc th‹•ns, hI oszkoivski's SymphOfly I0atin£ d’,)rr, and ex-
cerpts from Bert i oz's I. rs Krn j en . Cil Russian numbers ther•
»•erc : Introduction to Act III, the song of the wandering Pil-
grims, the entrance of the Tsar’s hunting party, the storm and
the song of the gi rls frr›m my Pak over t yanha ( sccOnd v•ersi on) , as
n•ell as the cradle song from the P rolog frr antl the closing chorus
and Ivan Grozny's car a tina (sung by I. P. Pryanish iiikofl ) from —
the same. From /por were given : Yai-oslarna's Lamcnt,
mir Ga1itski’S sOng, YarOslavna’s scene with the girls, thls time
 WkO R G I N FOR H1S F R1E ND S t8q
all orchestrated by Borodin himself. But the excerpts from Kho-
vans hcliina performed at the Second Concert, were not all orchcs•
trated by the composer. The chorus of 8iryrfriy (archers) and
Nlarfa's 9ong every from his pen entirely; but the dance of the Per-
sian girls were orchestrated by me. Though he had promised thi9
number for the concert, Musorgski diJ)y-dallied, and I volunteered
to orchestrate it. He as9ented at the first hint, and, at the perform-
ance, was quite pleased with my work, although I had made many
corrections in his harmonies and part-writing. An amusing thing
occurred in connection with the program of the Fourth Concert.
.). Lyadoft's Scherzo in D-major was to have its fir9t performance,
but the author, whom laziness was beginning to overcome, had
hat] no time to finish it. Something had to take its place. At
that timc I occasionally visited by one Sandow, an Englishman
by birth, st ill very young, who had studied in Leipzig and now
lived in St. Petc rsburg, where he gave music lessons. He used to
b ring me his orchestral compositrOrls ; very dry and involved, most
ol them. by chance he had once brought me a Sclier zo and asked
me to per form it at one of the concerts. I had derlined. Later
I reCalled hi4 request and, now, proposed to him to put iiii Scherzo
iustea‹1 of Ly .tdo1f's, on the program. And that was done.
After the perf‹›rmance the author z'as called before the curtain,
though the Sclierzo was colourless and full of petty bustle. I was
assured later that hc had been called out through error, as the
name Sandow had been taken as a rnisprint for Lyadofl, whose
name z as held in high esteem.
Thus, owing to the wish for the performance at the concerts
of the School of a grcater number of pieces from the pens of con-
temporary Russian composc rs of talent, such as Borodin, Musorg-
ski or Lyadofi, orfe r an up against thei r insulin cicnt activity, now
orchestrating for them and noir extracting compositions from
them by any and Clue ry means, fair and foul. There was no need
of applying such measur cs to Cui and Balakire fl ; moreover, at
that time, the former composed nothing but songs, while the lat-
ter composed nothing at all. Still, Balakirefi was, at the time,
bcginning more and more to resiim¢ musical activity and to ad•
rance, albeit v cry sluggishly, his Samara r.'hich had remained at
a standstill since the 6o's. He had yielded to the importuoate
pleas of L. I. Shestakova, when he turned bad to it. During the
 *90 II Y II U S 1 C A I 1\ I F E
year described he even malle one appearance at a rehearsal of a
concert of the Free h'Iusic School (the first a ftcr a long lapse of
time ) , when I w•as prer »ring lits O crrii re oii R u: Sian Th cmes ( B-
minor ) . But he did not behav•e in a manner Are ry plc asan t to mC ,
lie was irritable, now- lourlly scolding the violinists z ho had sti•uck
a snag, now pointin g out to me the true motions aad methods of
a conductor, an act altogether otit of place at a rehearsal, in the
presence of the whole orchestra.
Of sololsts, at the School Converts that yea r, in addition to
some opera singc rs, we had also ShOStR)OVS I, who playe d Lisz t's
E fl at rn ajor C once rto ( ii ven success full y) and D. fi1. I.ycoiioi a
who sang excerpts f mom Jlh o• cns li chma. But i f Liszt's Concerto
went oft sa fcly this time, the bepinning of one of the excerpts f i om
Berlioz's Lri T'r n5!eUs did not. This number z its beguli disgrac e-
lmly oz iqg to the orchestra's constant ch attering anal inattention,
despite my lifted baton. P. A. K rasnokootski, the concert-maste i ,
was to blame, more than any of them. lit tcr a bar or two had
been played, we had to stop and make a fresh start. however,
this incident remained unobserved somehOw by both audience and
critics ; but I felt grieve d and angi•v, of course.
Lycono va, who hdrl travel led to Japan, now lived in St. Peth rs-
burg, giving lessons in singing. She ari•anged thcse lessons in
grca I style, cstalilishing a sort of small musiC SChool. Lyeonov:i
was a talentc d artist, z•ho hat) once had a fine contralto voice ; but
in reality she had never had any training, and was, thei•efore,
hardly capablc of teaching the technique of song. Occasionally
something of the gipsy rang in her own singing. Yet in dramatic
and in comic pieces she was often inifnitahle, And in this regard,
of cour9e, she could be OI use to her pupils. For heginners, how-
ever, this was insufficient, and, accordingly, of all her many pupils,
only the tenor Donskoy, subsequently an artist of the Moscow
Opera, gaiocfl prominence. Thus her instruction consisted mainly
of coaching jn songs and excerpts from operas. An accompanist
and musician was needed echo could supervise the correct rehearsing
of the pieces, a thing that Lyeonova hersclf could not do. Mu-
sorgski found himself filling the post for her. At that time he
had been long on the retircd list, and was in need of funds. Lye-
onova's classes furnl shc d him some means of existence. He gave
rather much of his time to instruction in these classes, teaching as
 LY EO NOV A igt
he did even elementary theory and composing some trios and quar-
tets with horrible part-writing, as exercises for Lyeonova's pupils.
Lyeonova was very fond of talking of herself, her merits and her
pre-eminence. By that time her voice had grown quite worn ; still
quite unaware of it, she wnu.1d proudly relate how this or that
artist or famous person was const antly going into raptures over her
voicc, z hich, according to her, grew stronger and wore voluminous
with years. She related that a plaster cast of her throat sent
to Paris hall called forth unive rsal aStOfllShment therc. Acct3rding to
her, the only true school of singing was to be found in her classes ;
she asserted that contemporary artists tlicl not know how to sing, that
things had been bctter in olden ‹lays, etc., the usual pattc r on the
lips of aging artists. Ipyeonova's husband), one Gridnin, who had once
written a play, managed the ads ertising and business end of the
cantatrice's activity. .4mong others, concerts with Lyconova's pa
rtici ation z'ere arranged in the ñI enchants' Club: I was to conduct
the orchestra. Only the first concert of the scheduled series
took place. I do not remember tlie whole pro- fi am. sts
I recall it, it contained K ant arins ka ya Laura's song ( fi(me. K
lebek) ; Mark a’s song from Khovan bchina (I..yeo- nova) ; LVondcr
ful Dream (Ditto) , etc. Fv erything ran smoothly. kJusorgski's
associ:iti on \-as an adve rtiscmcnt for Lyeonova to
a certain degree. His funtti›n in her classes was, of course, un-
enviable ; still, he was or, at least, tried to be Unconscious of th at.
\1'Ork at the composition of HH OF ans li chin‹i z nd Soror/imfi /raya
l"artnurka flagged somewhat in those days. In ordefi iO S ced the
completion oI Kltovans hchina and luring some manner of satisf ac-
tory order into the ill-joine d anal co r icatcd scenario he abridged
a good deal in hls Opcra ; thus, for instance, the scene in the
Ger-man Subui 1› disappcn i ed altogether-, whilc many details were
me rely basted together. In The' Fu ir at .$ orochints j, too, there
was Something queer going on : the publisher, Bcrna rd, undertoolc
to issue excerJits of it for tlie piano, a freeing tt› pay Musorgski
a sm.11 corn pcnsatioii for the privilege. Being in need, Musorg-
ski concocted in haste for Bernard va rious numbers from his opera
for the piano, two-h anda, although he hall ne lther a rcal libretto, a
tj¢tailed scenario, rough sketches with vocal parts. h'Iusorg-
S(i had really finishcd Only Kliivrya's song and Parasya’s song,
as well as the scene of Alanasi Ivanovith and Khivrya. In those
 '9° MYMUSICALLIFE
days he also wrote many songs (principally on texts by Count
Go lyenishcheff- Kootooz off) which remained unpublished.
I shall run somewhat ahead. Lyeonova undertook a concert-
tour to Southern Russia in the summer of 1880. MUSorgski went
with her in the double rfil e of accompanist and participant in her
converts as pianist. Though a fine pianist in eai’1y youth, M odcst
Petrovich never worked on his pt ano•technique and had no reper-
tory whatsoever. Lately he had I requently appeared at converts
in St. Peter9burg as accomp anist for singers. k(en and women
singers were very fond of him and prized his accompaniments.
He followed the voice finely, accompanying at sight, without re-
hearsals. But going on tour with Lyeonova he had to appear as piano-
soloist. This time his repertory was queer, indeed; thus, at conce
i ts in the provinces, he played the introduction to R u Ian and L
judmila in an improvised arrangement, the bet I- tolling from his
B oris. I\*ith Lyeonova he toured many towns of South- ern Russia,
visiting even the Crimea. Under the impression of the natural
beauties ol its Southern con st he wrote two minor piano piece Goo
rzoo f and On the Saiilheru slightly felicitous,
these pleccs were published by Bernard on h4usorgski’s return.
I recall beside9, that he played at our house a rather long and quite
ahsurd fantasy that was to depict a storm on the Black Sea. This
faotas)•, after all, remaine d unrecorded, and u as lost forever.
In the spring of i 8 8 o I wcnt to h(oscow for the second time, to
lead the orche Stpa in Shostakovski's concert. Of my compositions,
I believe, I performed the Orerrifre on Rli sera n Tlieni re, revised
just then, and the Overture to Ma y iYipfi r. I recollect that the
rehe.arsal s were slipshod and dlsorderly, Towards the end of
the first rche arsal I wanted to go over my Russian Overtui•e once
more, but the musicians told me very politely that it ›va9 time for
them to go, that they had alrea‹)y sat an extra lialI hour expressly
for my sake and would have Ie ft much ea rlicr, had I not been I.
It turned out that at II oscow rehearsals usually lasted only two
hOurs and not three, as at St. Pcters1›urg; yet Shostakovski ha‹t
told me that I had thrce hours at my disposal. All this was very
little to my liking; I bCgaR to bc disillusioned in Sliost akovski in
general. I saw that he was not an artist, but a man striving after
effect and courting self-adV0 rtiscment. The date of the concert co-
p incided with the day of Solovyotl's attempt on the llfe of the Tsar,
 S NGY E O O R O C H K A i 93
i d I had to play Bo sche VsofiJu khrani (God save the Tsar l )
four trees in succc ssion. Some j yiljtary man demanded that the
hymn be performed oiice more, but I did not do it. The ri, Wlth
thre ats and demands fOr an explanation, he tried to get at me over
thc stage ; to my delight, however, the theatre authorities pre-
vented his doing so. During this trip I visited A. N. Ostrovski
iii hI oscow in the following connection.
In the winter I had conceived the idea of cornpOsing an opera on
the subject and o-ords of Ostro› ski’s Su ye gooroclika (Snow-
maiden) . I had first read 3n ye goorochkg in i 8 4 or there aliouts, v-
hen it had just appeared in print. mbt that reading I had liked it
but little ; the kingdom of the Byeryendyeys had appearc d queer to
me. IVhy? Were the ideas of the 6o's still alive in rue, or did
the demands, current in the 2o's, that ubject mat ter be taken from
so-callcd li fe, hold me in their grip i Or had Musorgski's naturalism ca
rric d me away on its current ? Probably all three together. In a word,
Ostrovski’s wooderful, poetic f alry-tale had
made no impression on me. Durlng the winter of I 87q—8o when
I re-rcad Snde yoorochka, ’its wonderful, poetic beauty had
become apparent to me. At once I conceived a longing to write
an opera on the subject; and the more I pondered m T in ten tion,
the more enamoured I felt of Ostrovski'9 larry-tale. bly ivarmth
towards ancient Russian custom and pagan panthc ism, which had
manifested itself little by little, now bla zed forth in a bright Name.
There 1 as no bette r theme in the world for me, there were no
fiiier poetic figures for me than Snyegoorochka, Lyel' or I'ye,sna
(Spring) ; there was no better kingdom than the kingdom of the
Byeryendyeys with their wonderful ruler ; there was no better
view of worId 1nd religion than the worship of Yarilo-Sun. Imme-
diately upon reading it (in February, as I recall) there began to
come to my miiid motive9, themes, chord-passa ges, and there began
to Slimmer before me fieetingly at first, but mOre and more clearly
later, the moods and clang-tints correspouding to the various
momcnts of the subj ctt. I got a thick book of music paper, and
began to Jot it all down in the form of rough notes. With these
thoughts I went to Moscow to Shostakovski and visited Ostrov-
ski tO Obtain his permission to make use of his work as a libretto,
with authorization to make changes and tuts that might be neces-
sary. A. N. Ostrovski receired me very amiably, gave me author-
 iq4 MYMUSICALLIFE
ination to handle his drama as I saw fit, and pfesented me with
a copy of it.
On my return from Moscow, the whole spring was consumed in
preliminary work and thinking over the opera in its indiridual elc-
ments ; by summer I had quite a considerable number of sketches
accumulated.
Among the compos!itioos I wrote or finished during this sea-
son must be set down the chorus Stoma ( Glory ! ) , a Christmas
Carol ( January) , referred to earlier in my reminiscence9 of the
past season.
O f my Conservatory pupils there graduated this season E. A.
Krooshevski (subsequently active at the Imperial Russian Opera) ,
an excellent pianist, an exceedingly capable and gifted musician as
regards ear and quickness of pcrception, but exceedingly dry as a
composer. However, he later wisely abandoned the field of com-
position in exclusive favour of the path of conducting. Disda in-
ing neither time nor place, he sought tO acquire the art of conduct•
ing, accompanied on the piano, conducted in the summer at Oran-
ienbaum, at Dyemidofl's Garden, etc. Accordingly, he developed
after a time into an excellent technician, and when called to the
Imperial Itussian Opera, he prored at once a finished leader.
During this season Balakirefl sent me sever a1 pupils in the theory
of music. Usually theory prov-ed only elcmc ntary theory. All
these ladies and gentlemen studied scales, intervals, etc. under me
at Balakirelt’s behest, but really took slight interest in tlie subject.
Theory got along somehow ; but in so1feggio the case was bad. y
pupils belonged for the most part to the families of the Bot- kins
and the Glazunof(s. Ca sually, Balakire fi once 1» ought me the
composition of a 4 Or i year old high school student, Sasha
GI a zunofl. It was an orchestral sco!re wi i tten in childish fashion.
The boy's talent was indubitably cfc ai-. Shortly afterwards (in
the season of 79—* ) Bdlaki refs introduced him that he mi ght
take up studies under me. IYhile giving lessons in elementary
theory to his mother Y elyena Parlovna Glazunova, I began also
to teach the youth ful Sash a. He was a charming hoy u'ith beauti-
ful eyes, who played the piano very clumsily ; N. N. Yely enkovski
taught him piano pIaying. Elementary theory and sOl fcggio
proved unnecessary for him, as he had a superior ear, and Yelyen-
kovski had covered harmony also with him to a certain extent.
 GLA ZU N O FT ig
After a few lessons in harmony I took him directly into counter-
point to which he applied himself zealously. Besides, he always
showed me his improvisations and jotted dow n fragments or minor
pieces. Thus work at counterpoint and compo.sition went on si-
multaneously. In moments of leisure, Sasha Glazunoll played a
great deal and on his own initiative con9tantly acquainted himself
z'ith musical literature. At that time he was particularly fond of
Liszt. His musical development progressed not by the day, but
literally by the hour. From the very beginning of our lessons, my
relations with Sasha, from mere acquaintanceship and the attitude
of teacher to pur il, began to turn gradually into friendship, despl te
the disparity in our ages. Balakireff, at that time, also took consid-
erable interest in Sash a's development, playing much to him and dis-
cus9iDg with him, thereby doubtless attaching the responsive youth
to himself. Nevei•theless, a few years later, their relations grew
cooler, dric r ; frankness between them vanished, and finally a
Complete break came ; but of this I shall speak later,
 CHAPTERXYII
i88o —8i
The summer at Stelyovo. Composing Sn 9o oroclil a. Completion n
Star la ( Faii1-tale) . Analysis of fogepo oroc/ma.

Spring came. It was time to look for a summer home. Our

nurse, Avdotya Larionovna, called our attention to the estate Ste-
lyovo, owned by II ariaoofi, some twenty miles beyond Looga ;
there she had lived betore she came to tare for oU f Children. I
went to look over Stelyovo. Though old, the horfe was com-
fortable ; a fine, large, sh add garden with fruit trees, and genui ne
country wilds. According to the terms of agrc ement, we could be
complete rna sters of the cstate during the summer. U'e rented
the summer home and moved there on Stay 18th,
For the first time in my life I had the opportunity of spending
the summer in a genuine Russian village. Here everything
it'as to my liking, everything deligh ted me. A picturesque loca-
tion, charging groves ( “Zakaznitsa” and the Podberyezye
grove) , a big forest, l 7olchinyets, fields of rye, buckwhe at, 11ax and
even z hcat, a multitude of scattc red villages, a small
river, where we bathed, a large lake Vryero, nearby, jm-
penctrable roads, solitude, antique Russian names Of villages, like
Kanyezerye, Podberyezye, Kopytyets, Dremyach, Tyetye-
revino, Khvoshnya, etc., everything threw mc into raptures. The
excellent garden with a multitude of cherry tree9 and apple trees,
currants, u iId and garden strap, berries, gooseberries, lilacs in
liloom, an infinity of fieltl fiowerg and tlie incessant singing of birds,
everything was someh oe• in peculiar hai-mony with my pan- theistic f
rame ot mind at the time and my passion for the subject of Sn ye
goorochka. S th lck crooked knot or stump Overgrown with
moss, appeared to me the wood demon or his abode ; the forest
)*olchinyets a forbidden forest; the bare Kopytyets hillock
Yarilo’s mountain ¡ the triple echo heard from our balcony—
 L 1 F E A T $ T E L Y O V'O * 97
seemed routes of wood sprites or other supernatural beings. "I“he
summer v•as sultry and dense witk thunder stores. From mid-
June until mid-August, thunder storms and heat lightning occurred well-
nigh daily. On June z3, the da)• of Agrafyena Koopal'uitsa, ligh
tning struck the earth near our vcry house, and my wife, who sat at
the window, was knocked down, armchair and all, by the concussion.
She was unhurt, but badly frightened and for long afterwards under a
peculiar nervous strain during thunder storms, which she now came
to dread, thoUgh formerly fOnd of them. She trembled and wept at
thc glare of the lightning and the peals of thundei . This state lasted
for a month or so ; only then her nerves began to citln t , and .ske
again reacted to thunder stotms as before, without nervous dread.
Despite thi,s, Nadve zhda Nikolay- evna liked Stelyovo very much,
and the children had a fin time, too. ))*e were monarchs of all we
ui veyed not a neighbour any- there. IVe had at our disposal cows,
horse9, carriages and the little scrap ny pe2sant Osip with his
family, who took care o( the esta te ; all were at our service.
On i he first day of settling at Stelyovo I began z'orking on 5a)'e -
goorochkg. I composed every day and all day ; yet I managed to
do much z alking with my wlfe, helped her make preserves, gather
mushrooms, etc. But musical thoughts and their fashioRing pur-
sued mc persistently. There was a piano, old, brokcii and tuned
a iv'hole tone too low. I used to call it “piano in B-flat” ; never-
theless I contrired to extempori ze on it, and to try out z'hat I had
composed. I have said already that toward the summer I had
enough musical matetixl accumulated ior the opera themes, ntm
tives, chord-successions, beginnings of individual number s ; the
mood9 and contours of separate moments of the opera were outlin-
ing themselves in my conception. All of this was partly jotted
down in the thick book, partly kept ln my h ead. I turned to the
beginning of the opera and )otted it down in orchestral score ay
proximately up to and include rig V •esoa's ( Spring's ) aria. Ut
soon I notiC0d that my fancy tended to ou tstrip the rapidity q'ith
which I wi ote the score. Moreover, from a certain insufficiency
in the co-ordinati on of the jvhole, there resulted defects in the
score. .ñccordingl y. I abandoned this method, I ormerly applied
tO s considerable extent in IlqJ iS'ipllt, and began to write SaJ'e-
poorocfila in a rough draft for voices and piano. Both composing
i98 11 Y M U S I C A L L I F E
and recording what I composed went very fast, now in the order
of act and scene, and now by leaps, running ahead. Llaviilg
formed the habit of superstribing the date on completing nearly
each piece of the rough draft, I give them below :
June:
I. Introduction to Prologue.
Recitative and atia or I’yesna (Spring) .
3• Continuation up to the dance of thc birds.
4. Song and dance of the birds.
Continuation to SnyegoorocJika's arta.
i8. SnJ'egoo rDchka's aria, etc. up to Butter-week.
2O. Seeing nut of Butter-week.
End of Prologue.
2j. first song of Lyel'.
z6. Introduction to Act I ; second song of Lyel’ and little chorus.
Scene of Sni-egoorochira up to Lyel's songs.
a8. Wedding ceremony.
July:
Promslon of the rsar and hymn of the ByeiJ'cndyeys.
3• The heralds’ call.
The scene of the wedding ceremony as svcll as. the scene of the kiss
from Act I II. -
d. the zecit at ivc an ñ dance of the sk cm oro Alis (merry andresvs) .
Introduction to Act 11I, I/ioroeod and song about the beaver.
8. Con rinuation and the tsar’S second cavati6a.
9- Scene of tlie kiss (continuation).
to. Scene of Snyegoorochka, Koopava and I.yel' (Act III ) .
i i. Postlude in B-major and Snyegoorochka’s arioso.
DfllS O OWC l’S ACt ) . ¿_
Vycsna sinks into the lake.
Duet of hl i zgit and 5 »Y‹ goo roclika (ACt IV)
Finale of Act I.
Chores ct qooi/ydri ( dulcimer-players) .
2J. Judgment scene up to Snyegooroclika’s entrance (Act II ) ; tlie
tsar's fhst cavatma, etc. ftp to tlie final chorus.
a3. finyegoorocllka‘s entrance. (Act II) .

August: *_
z-3 Scene of Snyegoorochka and hlizgir.
3. Recitative in presence of the heralds (Act IN)•
 S NGY E OOROCHKA
y. Act I, after wedding ceremony to the finale.
q. Scene of Snyegoo rochka and Vyesna (Act IV) .
11. Chorus Prom (millet) and the drawing of Snyegoorochka.
i s. Closing chorus.

The entire sketch of the opera was finished August I zth. In

the intervals where the dates are not consecutive, evidently details
were thought out, and the numbers, missing in the above list, were
composed. No previou9 composition had ever come to me with
such ease and rapidl ty as Sn)egoo rochka.
A ttei- completing the sketch in the latter part of August, I took
I:p the Sk ask a ( Fairy-tale) for orchestra, which I had begun the
previ ous summer i I finished and instrumentated it. About October
I , With thc enti i e rough dra ft of 5ayrpoorsr/t#o and the orchestral
score of Foir y-tale. completed, the family and I removed to St. Pe-
tersburg ; after that I spent also some time gt Tayitsy, the summer
homc of \0. Fyod. Purgold. Soon, however, life at St. Petersburg
licgan to run in its usual order› the C onservatory, Free music
School, h aval Bands and all.
Nly principal work during the season of i 88o—8 i was the orches-
tration (›f ‹Kit ye goorocliha. I began September ), and finished
R(arch 26, i S 8 i The score contained 6o6 closely written pagts.
This time I employed an orchestra larger than the one in Any
5'i yh 1. I imposed no particular limitations on mysel f. The four
Frcnrh horns were chromatic, the two trumpets—likewise; a pic-
colo fl ute was used apart from two ilutes ; the tuba was added to
thc trombones ; from time to time the English horn and the bans
clarinet appeared. Even here I did not dispense with the piano, as
I oecdad an imitation of the yoosft (dulcimet) , a metkod be•
qiieathed by Glirika. My familiarity with wind-instruments, aC•
quired in the navy bands, did inc good serv ice. The Sn yegoo-
rorfe /‹a orchestra is, as it were, the R usfao orchestra perfected,
in the sense of using chromatic-scale bTass. I CaTefully strove not
to Brown the singers ; 3s it turned out later, I acheived this, except
in the song of Dyed II oroz (G raodfather Frost) and Mizgir’s
last recitatix•e, where the orchestra had to be subdued.
In making a general rcview of the music of Sn)e poorochla, 1
must say that in this opera I made considerable use folk-tunes,
borrowing them principally from my Collection. I'n the following
zoo hf Y M U S I C A L ELI F
moments of the opera, the themes have been borrowed from folk-
sangs .• Or hal vo)!evoda pyrrrpJrJ pod yacht ( Eagle the com-
mander-in-chief, quail the court cfc rk) in the dance of the birds;
V bese I yci°ik o teb a •os lryechat’ price yccliat’ (A joy to meet thee, to
greet thee) in the seeing out of Butter-week; the initial melody
(the first four bars) and the immediately following theme of the
oboe—in the wedding cerrm0oy; the song by so po I y e Iipy enlta
(Oh the dear little linden tree in the field!) , the theme Ko • pal •
hob yor (The beaver was bathing) , and lastly the chorus Proso
(millet) . In addition to this, many minor motives or tunelets,
the component parts of more or less long melodies have undoubt-
edly been borrowed by we from similar little tunes rn variou9 folk-
melodies that I did not introduce into the opera in their entirety.
Such are certain little motivcs of the seeing out of Butter-week,
some phrases of Bobyl’ and Bobylikha ; ñ4izgir’9 phrase : Du,
alto ya strashen, to pravdit t y skazala (That I am dreadful, indeed
you've told the truth !), etc. The motives of a pastoral character:

are also of folk Oflgin. The second motive A. K. I-yadof( had

communicated to me, the first I remembered from my own c hild-
hood.
’The mot re: Mask yenitsa moki okhvos tka, po yezz ba y doIo y so
dvora (\Vet-tailc d Butter-week be of the courtyard ! ) is a scolfingly
sacrilege ous reminder of the orthodox pass for the dead. But the
melodies of ancient orthodox canticles, are they not of anclent
pagan origin ? Are not many rites and dogmas of like origin*
fh e holidn.ys of Easter, Trinity Sunday, etc„ are not they ad-
aptations of Christi ant ty from the pagan sun cult? And the doc-
trine of Triniq ? For all thts cf. Af anasyeH.'
* Afafla•veff ›s s the Orst scientific collector and edit or of R uzsia n F airy-ta les. I-lii

¡url) is probab ly u' hat R.-IN. reIe re to. J. A. J.

 F O L K AN D B I R D S 0 N G S zoi
The tune of the heralds’ call I remembered from my childhood:
a horseman, equipped by the Monastery, would ride thi ough the
streets of Tikhvin and call in a stentorian voice: “Aunties,
mothers, fair maidens, please come to rake hay for the Mother of
God I” (the wonder-working ikon of our Lady of Tikhv in was
in the Church uf the Great Friary which owned hay meadows on
the bank of the Tikhvipka River) . Some songlets of birds
( cuckoo, the cry of the young mcrlin, etc. ) were borrowed for the
dance of the birds. In the introduction, the cock-crow is also gen-
uine and was given rue by my wife.

One of the motives of Spring (in the Prologue and Act IV) :

‘ ’‘ , •• . .. • • •F •.. -e+ . - •*• '”'*” -• *”

in o . . •

is the altogether accurately reproduced song of a bull-finch which

had fired rather long in our cage ; only that our dear little bull-
finch sang it in F sharp major, while I took it a tone lower for the
convenien ce of the violin harmonics. Thus, in obedience to my
pantheistic frame of mind, I had hearkened to the voiced of folk
creation and of nature, and yhat they had sung and suggested I
made the basis of my creative art, —and for so doing I subse-
quently incurred not a few reproaches. The music critics, having
noticed both in Sn j e goorot hka and day Niq6t, two or three mel-
odies borrowed from collecti ODS Of folksongs (to notice many they
v•ere powerless, as they were ill-acquainted with folk creation) , pro-
claimerl me incapable of cre ating my own melodies: at every oppor-
tunity, they kept stubbornly repeating this opin‹on of theirs, despite
the fact that my operas contain by far more melodies that belong
to me and have never been drawn from song collection9. Many
melodies that I had successfully composed in folk spirit, like all
three songs of Lye1’, they considered borrowed and they used
zoz MYMUSICALLIFE
them as material evidence of my reprehensible conduct as com-
poser. Once I even lost my temper over a 9a1ly of thls sort. SOOn
after the production of in ye goorochka on the occasion of some-
body's singing the Third Song of Lye1', M. M. Ivanofi ' made the
remark in print, as if casually, that this piece h*d been written
on a folk-theme. I countered with a letter to the editor request-
ing him to point out the folk-theme from whith the melody of
Lyel’s Third Song had becn bOrrowed. Of course no such state-
ment was forthcoming. As for creating melodies in the folk
spirit, mine must beyond a doubt cont afn snatche9 and turns which
are contained and scattered in va riou9 genuine folk melodies. Can
two things resemble each other as a whole, if no component part
of the one resembles any component part of the other ? The ques-
tion there is : if no single particle of a created melody resembles
any single particle of a genuine folksong, can the whole created
melody recall folk creation?
As for making use of brief motives such as the shepherds' tunes
given above, the songs of birds, etc. does that stamp a composer
as only of scanty fancy 7 Surely the value of the cuckoo's cry or
of the three notes played by the shepherd is not the same as thC
value of the song and dance of thc birds, of the Introduction to
Act I, of the M arch of the Byeryendyeys in Act IV, is it 7 In
the pieces mentioned, had not enough sweep and activity been left
to the composer’9 fancy? The working up of folk-theme s and
motives had been bequeathed to posterity by Glinka in his E uslan,
Ku muriuska ya, the Spanish overtures, and partly in A ii Je for the
Tsar (The .song of the Looga driver, the figuration accompani-
ment to the melody: too da zaryo/ ya rat Thither I've led
you) . Or shall we accuse Glinka, too, of poverty of melodic in-
ventiveness ?
Of my• former sketches for Gedeooofl's Mleda only two ele-
ments were taken into Sn ye goorochka.- Mizgir's soaring motive
O, i kuzhi, ifiazfii inn ye, molvi odno sfovo (O, tell me, tell rue, say
but one word ! ) and the harmonic base of the motive of the glow-
worm. All other musical material sprang up entirely in the course
of composing Su yegoo rochka.
Music critic {of A'o'roye frreyo), authoñ r of 2Tirmry o/ Ruisian 2furie (in a
volumes, k9io-i9lz, at Petersburg , biased) , and composer (operas, syeiphoniq works.
 S NGY E O O R O C H K A zo3
As in the course of composing 3faJ NiChi [the nrst khorovod
Pro s o (mille t) , the soogs of the approaching chorus in Act H U,
the ancient modes continued to interest me in Sr e gooroc kka.
Lyel's first song, some pa rte of the seeÎng out of Butter-week, the
call of the heralds, the hymn of the Byeryendyeys, the khorovod
by co pofye fipyeii da (Oh the dear little lioden tree in the field 1)
are zn itten in the ancient modes or with ancient cadences, prin-
cipally the degrees II, III, and V (the so-called Dorian, Phrygian
und Mixolydian modes) . Certain sections, such as the song about
the beaver with B obyl s dance, are written with transition into dif-
ferent keys and diilcrent modes. The .striv•ing for modes pur-
sued me alu subsequently throughout my whole actif ity as com-
poser, and I doubt not that like the other composers of the Rue-
sian school, I have achieved something new in this field ; while the
most tecent working up of ancient modes in West European music
flashes only in lfidlVi dual and rare cases : Liszt's Todtcntanz va-
r iatioDs, Berlioz's Nubian Dance, etc. '
In cornparison with ba Ni ght I woocd counterpoiflt much tess
in Sn ye yo orocfika; yet, on the other haftd, In the latter opera I
felt still greater freedom than io the former, in the field of botli
tounterpoint and figuration. I beliex e that the fugato of the
growing forest (in Act III) wlth the ever-varying theme

ds Well as the your-part fugato of the cliorus bye 6yi ai ratoo

porn yan i•• n yenodu ( Ncver oDte been def amed with betrayal) ,
togcther with Koopava's lament, furnish good examples of
this.
In respect to harmony, I succceded in inventing some new things ;
like the chord (›f six whole-tone not’ es of the scale, or of two aug-
mente‹l triads, when the wood-sprite embraces Mi zgir (in theory
it is hard to find a name for it) ,- by the way, sufliciently expres siVc
of the given moment; or the use of the exclusively major triads and
the dominant chord of the second (also with a major triad above )
alrnost through the whole length of the final hymn to Yarilo-Sun
The Russians opened this Old to Debussy and the othey jrlodeto Ficnthmen.
C. Y. V.
 coq hI Y Ai U S I C A L L I F E
in *N, and this lends the chorus an especially bright, sunny col-
ouring.
I have made wide use of leading motives (Leitmotivc) in No)e-
goorochka. At the time I knew little of \Vagner and ivhatever
I did know, I knew super£cially. Nevertheless the employment
of Leltmotive is present in Ps k ovit yanka, Ma y NtpJi f and particu-
larly in in e goorochlia. No doubt my use of leading motives is
different from Wagner's. Edith him, they serre as the m teri sI
from which the orchcstral fabric is woven. In addition to this
latter use, with me the Leitmoti\re appc ar also in the singing
voices, and of ten they are component parts of a more or les9 lengthy
theme, as for example in the principal melody of Snyegooroclika
herse)f, and likeivise the therne of Tsar Byerycndyey. Sotnetimes
the leading motives are truly rhythmico-melodic motives, but oc-
casiofially they are mere ha rmonic successiOnS ,- in such cases they
might i-athe r be catie d l f t-har EIOnic.i. Such leading harmofiies are
not as easily perceptible to audiences as the U'agnerian leading mo-
tives which recall rough milita ry signals. And the abllity to grasp
harmonic sucee9sions is give n only tO a fine and trained musical car,
that is, a more subtle understanding. Among the lcit-harmonies
mos t perceptible Ïi om the fi rsr rust b mrmberer) the cliaractcr-
istic augmentcd fourth G-C sharp in stopped French horns $,
which reappears with each ncw miraculous apparition in the fan-
tastic scene of 5Jizgir’s roamings in the forbi‹1‹Jen foi’csc.
In 8iiyepooroc/i kd I succe etled in giving felt freedom to an easy-
ilowing recitative and that, too, so accompanic d, that in the ma-
jority of cases, the delivery of the r ecita tivc is possible o piacere.
I remember how happy I glas when I succee ded in writiug the
firft I’CaI recitati re in my life Vyesna's address to the
birds, before the dance. In the › ocal fieltl, too, 8›iJcpo ororfi ka
represented a COflSi der ahle stride fors ard on mv part. All rocal
parts proved to h (r e qbecn r-itten coni•eniently and w itliin the nat-
ural range of voices ; some moments of the opera ai-e ei•en grateful
and et ectire for perfoi•mance, likc the SOn@S Of Lycl' and the
Tsar's cavatina. Characterization of the dranr atie pers on was
in evidence, too ; in this respect one c nnot help meuti Oning the
duet of Koopa ra and User Byer) eudyey.
I n the orchestration I never mani f estcd any fendency toe ard
freakish efiects that the musical foundation of the composition itself
 SN Y EG OOROGHK A not
did not call for ; I always have preferred simple means. Un-
doub tedly, the orchestration of in be goorock la meant with me a
step forward in many respects ; force of .sonority for example. Un-
til then I had nowhere succeeded in reaching such tonal power and
splendour as in the final chorus, or such succulence, velvetiness ant4
itlness as in the D flat major melody of the scene of the kiss. I
was successful in somc nez• efiects like the tremolo of three flutes
th chords on the Tsar's words 7Vo ro=ovo) carbe, v vten k ye feel you
how ( At roseate dam n, in a green wreath) . In general, I had
always been inclined to more or less individuali zation of separate
instruments. In tit is sense, Sn5 e gooroclik a abounds in all manner
of instrumental solos, fOr both wind and string insti•uments, in
purely orchestral movests and in accompaniment to the singing.
Stilos for riolin, ce llo, flute, oboe and cm rinet occur i er)* frequently
in it, especially solos for the cl arinet ( then my favourite instru-
ment in the wind group) , and this gives the clarinet a very respon-
sible part in this orer a. In Act IV uf the opera, in the hl arch of
the Byeryendyeys on the stage, I niatle use of s separate small or-
chestra of wood-winds, to represent, as it we re, the shepherds' horns
and reed-pipes. Subsc qiieiitly, howcrcr, in the new edition of the
score, I did away with it, OVL1 ag to the impractihilitj of this device.
The forms of 8nv e gaorochka partly follow the Glinka ti•adi- tions,
that is they represent separate finished numbers (mainly in
songs) ; partly they are passa gclike, fused as in IVagner (mainl
in the Prologue and Act II') , but niainta inIn g a certain architec-
tonic plan which is manifested in cOnsequent repetitions of cer-
tain portions, and in rnodulatory devices.
V*hen completing 3ti ye9oorocltha I felt a fully matured musician
and opera tic composer ho had finally Come to stand on his own
feet. Nobody knew anything of my composing in yr9O Oroc hka,
as I had kept the matte r a secret ; when, on my arrival in St. Peters-
burg, I announced to my close friends that the sketch had becn
completed, I greatly astonished them. As far as I recall, early in
tlie fall I show etl my opera to Balaki retd, Borodin snd Stasofl,
playing and si aging the entire 8n y I’]O OT Ochha for them, from covCr
to cov•er. All three were pleased, but each in his own way. Sta-
rchand Balakirefi were gratified chie fly wlth the folk-li fe and
I anta stic portions of the opera; however, neither of the two under-
stood the hymn to Yarilo. Borodin, on the other hand, seemed
oo6 hI Y hJ U S I C A L L I F E
to appreciate Su)e gooTochka in its entirety. Curious that even in
this case B alakirefi could not curb his passion for meddling, de-
mandihg that I transpose the fniti al (ntroduction into the key of B-
minor, but this I refused to do, By transposing in this man- ner I
should have deprived myself of the natural harmonics and open
.strings of the violins ; besides, the themes of descendlng Spring, in
that case, would be in B-major ( cellos and French horns) and not in
A-major with which Spring was .indissolubiy 1in(ed n tny
imagination. However, after a little scolding, Balakirefi this time
forgave rue and kept praising in ye goorochka, assuring me that
once, when he had played at home the seeing out of Butter- week, his
elderly servant M arya could not rcsist and began to dance to it.
Hoe•ever, this was slight consolation to me, and I
,should have preferred Balakirefl to appreciate the poetical nature
of the girl Snyegoorochka, the tomic and good-natured Oneness of
2“sar Byeryendyey, etc. Aaatoli was enraptured by trip opera ; as
for Musorgski, who became acquainted with excerpts of it and
somehow displayed no interest for the whole, he lightly praised
a few things, and then remained totally indiscreet to the composi-
tion as a whole. And it could not have been otherwise. On the
one hand, his fastuous sell-conceit and conviction that the path he
had chosen in art was the only true path¡ on the other hand, com-
plete dedine, a1coholi 9m, and, as a result, an evcr•befogged mind.
 CHAPTER XVIII

Flavia (Fairy-tale). Concept of the free Music School. Death of Mu-

sorgski. Resignation from directorship of the Free music School. Trip
to the South. Cuncr•rts of the Russian ñ(usiwz1 Society. Production of
.YrJz‹foorochks. "I’he critics. Balakireff‘s retura to tlie Free M4mic
School. Glazuriofi’s F@st Symphony. Our circle. Work on Khovan-
i6cbioa. Visit to Aloscow. Acquaintanceship with M. P. Byelyayeff.
F’och" na L¥soy Forte (A Night on Bald ñJount). Concerto for the
piano. famara.

\Yhile mak'ing up the programs of the Russian Musical So-

ciety, hapravuik addrc sed an inquiry to rue as to which of my
compositions I should like to hear performed at these concerts. I
indicated the recently written Skazka ( Fairy-tale) and gave the
score to Napravnik. Shortly afterwards, the latter proposed that
I conduct the piece myself. I consented. At one of the earlier
concerts of that season, the dairy-tube was placed on the pro-
gram. I conducted. The performance would have been quite suc-
cessfu1, if the concert-master Pixel (then growing morbidly nerv-
ous) had not jumped out, without any reason, at the entrance of
the violins diviii toward the end of the piece and had not by so
doing confused the other violinists. However, the violins speedily
recovered, and the mistake had hard(y been noticed by the audi-
ence. Save for this episode, I was pleased with the perfOrrnance as
well as with the piece itself, which rounded colourful and brilliant.
In general Flavia undoubtedly recalls in style kxy eqoormJt#u, as
having been composed simultaneously with it. Strange that tp this
day the hearers grasp with di9iculty the true meaning of the fairy-
tale’s program : they seek in it a chained-up tom-cat walking
around an oak tree, and all the fairy-tale episodes which were jotted
down by Piishkin in the prologue to his R uslan and L yudmila and
which served as the starting point for my Fa'iry-tale. In his brief
zo8 M Y M U S I C A L L I FE
enumeration of the elements of the Russian fairy-tale cpos that
made up the stories of the miraculous tom-cat, Pushkin says:
“One larry-tale I do recaII,
l'll tell it now to one and all,”

and then narrates thg fairy-tale o Ruslan and LJudmilo. But I

narrate my own musical falry-tale. By rny very narrating the mu-
sical fa try-tale and quoting Pushkin’S provoque I show that my fairy-
tale is, in the fir9t place, Russian, and secondly, magical, as if it were
one of the miraculous tom-cat’s fa iry-ta les that I had overheard and
retained tn my memory, Yet I had not at all set out to depict in
it all that Pushkin had jotted don n in the prologue, any more than
he puts all of it into his tai ry-tale of fi usfan. Let ereryone seek
Îfi by fai f y-tale only the episodes that may appear before his imagi-
nation, but let him not insist that I include everything enumerated
in Pushkin's prologue. The endeavour to discern, in my fa'iry-tale,
the tom-cat that had related this same larry-take—is grouiidless, to
say the least. The two above quoted verses of Pushkin are prioted
tu italics in the program of my Fair j•talc, to distinguish them
from the other verses, and direct thereby the auditor's attention to
them. But this han been understood neither by the audiences nor by
critics, who have interpreted my 5kazka in all ways crooked and
awry and who, in my time, as usual, of course, did not approve of
it. On the whole, however, the Fairy-tale won su9ieient success
with the public.
During the season of i 88s-8 r, I risited Noscow for the tliird
time for Shostakovski, at whose concert I conducted. Four con-
certs of the Free h'lusic School were announced for that se ason at
the Hall of the Municipal Credit SOCiety. The proposed programs
of thèse four concerts I do not recall now ¡ of there only the ftrst
concert February 5, I S 8 i, took place, the assisting artists be-
mg Cross and Stravinski. The lattcr sang Schumann's Der Scltla-
fe née Ritter, orchestrated by A. R. Bernhard (though his orches-
tration was coosicJe rably rewritten by me) and Dargomyzhski's
Palc‹lir with A. K.. J yadofl's in strumen tation. Df orchestre) pierrs
I gave Antar and Berlioz’s Car ri aval fi oindio—both stccessfully.
Of choral pieces h4usorgski's Pour o f Sennachcrib was per formcd.
The author was present at the concert and came out in response to
call9 from the audience.
 DE ATH OF MUSORGS K I Log
This concert was the last at which a composition of Musorgski's
was performed within his lifetime. A month or so later he was
taken ti› the Land I-Iospita1 owing to a fit of delii ium tremen . Dr.
L. B. Bertenson had placed him there and was attending hire. On
learning of tlie misfoi tune that had he fallen ñ(usorgski, z•e Boro-
din, Stasofi, mysel f and many other began to visit the patlcnt. I-
Ie was risited also by my wife and her sister, tlme. A. N. Violas. He
was frightfully feeble, had greatly changed and had turned grey.
Rejoicing at our vidts, he occasiOnlilly talked with us alto- gether
normally; yet suddenly he would pass into a mad delirium. Thus
things went for some time ; at last, at night, Starch 6th, he died,
apparently from paralysis of the heart. His powerful organ- ism
proved to have been completely undermined by alcohol. On the
day before his death we, all his closest friends, sat long at his
bedslde talking with him. As is well-known, he was buried at the
Alyeksandr Nyerski Monastery.* V. V. Stasofi and I attended to
much of the dreary business in connection with his funeral.
On Musorgski's death all his mam cripts and sketches e ere
brought in a mass to me that I might set them in order, complete
and prepare them for publication. During Musorgski's lest illness,
at Y. I*. Stasof(‘s in9istence and with the composer’9 consent, T. I,
Filippof( was chosen and confirmed his executor with the purpose
that, in the event of his death, there might be no delay nor hindrance
in the publishing Df his works,— on the part of relatives of the de-
ceased. Musor gski's brother Filaret Petro i ch »•s s still li ring;
there was sparse information about him ; his attitude toward pt he
fate of Modest Petrovich's compositions could not be known,
accordingly, the test thfng to do was to choose an executor from
among the disinterested admirers of the composer. T. I. Filippofi
was the very man. He made an agreement s'ith Bessel's firm to
which he handed over ñ(usorgski's work for publlCation, the firm,
in its turn, binding itse)f to do it in full w1thin the shortest time pos-
sible. The publishing house paid nothing in return. For my part,
I undertook to set in order and tomplete all of ñ)usorgski’s works
and turn over grati to the Bessel firm those that T should find suit-
able for the purpose. For the next year and a half or ts•o years my
work on my dead friend’s compositions went on. The f ollowing
Dintoytvski, Chaykovski, and Rubinstein are also buried here. C. Y. V.
 u io MYMUSICALLIF E
compositions were among his remaint: Khocdes ltcJitao, sttl( tn•
complète and unorchestrated (with slight exceptlons) ¡ sketches of
certain parts of Soro chine kaya Yarmurku (The Fair at Sorochin-
tsy) -tlle songe of Khi vrya and Parasya had tteen publislied separ-
atcly; a good many $ong9, the most recent and some of the old
once all finÎshed ; the choruses Z’ùe fi o@ o/ Seitnacherib, loi hua,
the chords from pido3, the maideos' chorus from Salamm bô,-
A i)’i9ftt on Bald M ount in •evzsaÏ versions • for orchestre Scherzo
in B fl at major, Interne zzo in B-minOr and the karch ( trio alla
tm ca ) in A sharp ma jor , various record5 Of 8oligs ; juvenile
sketches and the Sonata Allegro in C-ma jor of ancient days. All
thèse were in exceedingly irnperfect order ; there occurred absurd,
incoherent harmonies, ugly part-writing, now strikingly lllogical
modulation, now depressing absence of any at all, ill-chosen instru-
mentation of orchestrated pieces, in gcnera l a certa in audacious self-
conceÎ ted dilettantism, at times moments of technic al dexterity and
skill but more n f ten of utter tCchnical iinpotence. Withal. in the
major ity o( cases, thèse compositions showed so much talent, so ouch
original ig , oGercd so much that was new and alire, ttiat their
publication was a positive obligation. But publication worth- out a
skilful hand to put them in order would have had no scnsc
save a biographico-historical one. If ñlUsOrgski's compositions
are destined to live un fadcd for fifty yea i s affer thei r au thor’s
death, ( l lien all his o orl‹S Will become the property of any and
every publisher) such an archmologic ally accurate editiofl will al-
wa r@ be possible, as the manuscripts went to the Public Library on
leasing me. For the present, though, the re was need of an edition
for performances, for ptactical artistit purposcs, lot makiog his cD-
lOSSal talent known, and Dot for the mere studylng of his person-
ality and artistic sins. C f my work on Khovans hchina and fi
8!iélit ri ti BBfG Silori n i I shdll speak a while la ter, in due course ;
coiiccroiog the rest I consider suificient z hat I have just ›sai d. I
shall add only that, with the exception of sketches that proved
utterly usele9s, all thèse works hare been looked over, re-orches-
trated, arranged for the piano by me and copied in tny own hand,
and handed ovc r, as joon as ready, to Bessel's where they were
printed under my er)itoi ship and v ith my proof-re ading.
Of the Free Music School concl rts, only the first, as I kave said,
took place, the other three had to be cancellcd owing to the assas-
 T H E FER E M U S I C“N C H O O L*’ at i
slnation of Emperor Alyeksandr Nikolayevich ( Jexander II) .“
On Emperor Alexander III »iountir1g the tlirone, "new appoint-
ments came in thc administrative world. I. A. Vsycvolo zhski was
appointed Director of Theatres.° I made it know n to the Direc-
torate that I had 5oyapo oror/iko ready in my possession. I made
ATapra vnik and the artists acquaintcd with my opera by playing
it through for them in the foyer of the ñlariinski Theatre. All
of them, in general, timidly approved thr opera. h apravnik
hemmed and hawcd for a long time, but said in the end that,
owing to the absence of dramatic action, this was a "dead” opera
an‹) COUld not be successful ; however, he had nothing against its
being pi-oduced. The opera was acceptetl, for production the fol-
lOwing season, by the Director who rnanifestedly atrued to make
a shoz•ing with a fine production early in his management. The
publishing r tghts were sold to Bessel ; the piano scores were being
engraved ; the orchestral score was printed lithogtaphicx1(y, the
parts were copie‹1 by the Directorate. In the spring the chorus re-
hearsal!› began.
Balakirefl's cOnSt2 ut meddling and pressure in the affairs of the
Free music Sthool had become intolerable to me by that time.
It seemed to me, and true it was that he was eager to become its
head himself. In addition to ererjthi rig, I was extremely busy
with Musorgski's compositions, work in COaoection w’ith the pro-
duction o1 8n] e goor ochke a z lOOming, and I therefore decided
to resign the Directorship of the Free School, of course giving lack
o1 time as the only reason for my resignation. At first, Balakire II
slightly bristled up at me, saying that my action was forcing him,
so to speak, to take hold of the School. I expressed the opinion
that that would lie a very desiralile result. Immediately the Free
Music School voted me an address of thanks and turned to Bala-
kireJf. He consented, and thenccforth returned to the ranks of
the activ c musical a i•my, for some years to come.
The follOwing summer my family went to a riff a at Tayitsy,
where they lived with V. F. Purgold, the Akhsliarumolfs and the
'hlolas family; while I went to Nikolayefl under orders from the
hfarch i, i g8 i, J, A. j.
° The Plan agement of the Mariin8li i Theatre was connected with that of five other
Theatres: the Alexander Theatre, where Russia n dmrnas And comedies were given;
thy Uikhaylovaki Theatre, reserved I or French plays: the Grand Opera house; and
two theatres in Moscow. C ¥’• V.
212 äJ Y M U S IC A L L 1 F E '
Navy Department. The object of my trip, according to the re-
quest of the N ikolayeft port authorities, was to review the Black
Sea port na val band straf J trad transforined mom bi ass into a mixed
band seven years earlier. This band I found in satisfactory order ;
its playing was correct. At L ikolayeh I met z ith a cordial rc-
ceptiou oa the part of the h'yebo1'sin family. As op tiie first
occasion, I was again givcn quarters at the zo-cal1ed palace on the
bank of the Ingul, A concert was scheduled to be given under my
direction in one of the city parks. Among other plec#s, I arranged
this time ( for a wind band) the entree conspiracy scene from Le.i
Hugueno ts. I also placed on the program several pieces from
the repertory of my Cronst*dt concerts. Zealous rehearsals be-
gan, two a day. Choristers, too, par titipated in the concerts,
though they were not numerous cnough to vie with the wind band.
Finally the concert took pface success fu1l)•, and thcn its l-epe titian.
By this time bTadyezhda N ikolayevna had arrived; and having fin-
ished my business with the muslc of the Navy Depar tmeat, I left
with her for Crimea via Odessa.
We put up at the Motel Riissia in Y alta, l and made all man-
ier of excursions and trips along the Southern coast. Numerous
acquaintanccs turned up at Yalta : Sofiya Vladirnirov na F’ortunato
(V. V. Stasoft’s daughter) and family she managed the (lotel
Russia ; P. A. Blarambe rg and wife ¡ Time. Syerova, and (unex-
pected meetlng !) , P. A. Zelyony ( the quondam commander of the
Glipper Alma•) and ivife. Once the whole company weet on a
picnic to Yayla, we also being of the party. At the Fortunato
house we f ormc d an acquaintance with the family of Anastasyetls,
proprietors of a sniall estate at üJagarach ; we also made them
a visit and, with them, went to sec the Nikit ki Garden. That day
is memorable to me, because in the eveniug, on our return trip from
Anastasyefis, the oldest Fortunato boy entered our carriage, near Iy-
Danil with his chum, Fycliks M ikliaylovich Blumenfcld, a yr›uth
of eigliteen or so, whom he there introduced to us. Our ch ar
ming new acquaintance prove d to be a lively pianist of promise, a
bouotlfu fly endoived musical tempo rament. For several days v-
e kept meeting him constantly at the Fortunatos', in the Ho i‹f R
us ta. There was a fire grand piano in the hotel drawing-room
and more than onre, for my Yalta friends, I had to play exCefpts
1 The must fashioaable Of the Crimean bathing-referte. C. V, V.
 D AVYDOFF SUCCEEDS NAPR AVNI K at3
from SaJrpooror/ifia which interested everybody at the time.
Fycliks seem cd to listen with delight.
From Yalta we went by carriage to Simfjcrepol and Syevastopol,
via .4looshta and ChatyrtJag• We boarded a steamer at Syevas-
topol and sailed to Constantinople, whe i e we stayed three days. Our
return tr'ip fay through Odessa. In crossing the Black Sea we
passed through a great stoi-m. For auld lang sync, I was not seasick
at all. On the way North w8 vlsited l(iyefi, and returning
to St. Pete rslaurg, spent the remainder of the summer at Tayitsy. during
the summer of 188 i I composed oothihg. My work
con9isted only of some arrangements for hr ass bands (those I had
made at N ikolayeh for the concert) and in teading proof of the
orchestr al score of $ u5 e goor ochka, then being lithographed. Af-
ter removing to St. Petersburg, my principal occupation during the
season of i 88 1- 8 2 o as with Nlusorgski's compositions, op whiCh
therc was work enough.
The free h'Iusic School o-as row under Ba1akiref('s direction ;
at the Russian II usical Society the follou ing episode occurred.
In one of the newspapers, (the St. Pe ier› hur g kan ette I be lfeve)
there appeare‹j an ar ticle by N. F. Solovyoff ( already a pi ofessor
at the Conserva tory) attacking the activity of N apravnik as con-
ductor of the syrnphony concerts of the R usslao b4usical Society.
Having read through this articJ e, E. F. Napravnik considered it
necessary fiatly i o resign his conductorship of the Russian Musical
SOciety concerts. The concerts ware le ft conductorless. The Di-
rectors proposed to I4. Y. Davydofi that he assume the vacant of-
fice. As if fielding to cntreaties, Davydof( consentcd ; as a mat ter
of f«ct, of course, he »•ss orerjovcd. Since (jiidgiog by gossip)
intrigue was stl(aposcd to have played a considerable part in the
whole epi9ode, and since the orchestra itself apparently felt hostile,
owing tp the removal of the former leadc r, K. Y. felt very timid
about his first appearancc, fearing soms derfiooltrati om of pro-
test. He, theFe fore, thought it expedicnt to turn to me as a per-
son who waar an otrtsidcr to the suspected intri gue ; he requested
me to open the concert with my 0 erture oti üus iran The inen after
that, the audi ence, having grown a bit accustorned to the fact that
a nee person ha‹1 supplantc d N apravnik, might he expected to treat
as ealmly the appearance of Davydofi himscl f at the Conductor's
dcsk. This reaioning was correct ; either that or else all those
2l§ II Y M U S I C A L L I F E
“suppositions” had been figments of DavydoIt's i magiñation alone.
1 conducted my overture safely, and presently the entire concert,
too, went ofi safely. li. Y. led the concerts till the end of the
season.

In December, orchestral rehearsals of $ n) e gooroch ka began.

By then N apravnik had success fully insisted on many cuts in the
opera. IVith di Pitulty I managed to maintain Butter-week and the
Chorus of Flowers intact. Snyegoorochka’s a rietta ( G-minor)
in Pict I, Koopava’s a riett a, the Tsar’s second cavatina OOh hOW It
d)'rii rcs 'o/)' (The merry day is wamng I) and many other bits,
a bit here, a bit there, throughout the opera were remorselessly
cut. The finale also of Act I eras disfigured. 4’hat was to be
done ! One had to grin and bear it. For there was no z•ritten
agreement »'hei ein the management had pledgcd itsel f to make
no cuts. The scenery was ready, the music had been copied at the
management’s expensc ; and, lastly, where else could the opera be
given if not at the Imperial Theatre 7 For the first time in my
life I had to face the question of cuts. ’the hard o f P.Ok ov zn‹1
Y/a) iYiph i are short operas ; there had been no talk of cuts at
their production. The cuts in Ma y 7YipJit were made af ter the
first performance. $sJ rpoororltña is a long opera, indeed, and
in terrnissions, too, are long, according to the traditions of the
Imperial Theatres. It was said that the profits of the ref resh•
ment room had something to do wlth the length of the intermis-
sions i on the other hand, to carry the performance beyond mid-
n'ight is against tustom. So it was a case of butting a stone
well! '
The parts in my opera wei e distributed as follows : Snyegoo-
i’ochka Vyelinskaya, Spring—Kamyenskaya, Koopava If aka-
rova, I.yel' the talenterl B ichoorina, Ryeryendyey—4 asilyell III,
Mizgir Prvanishn ikoft, hloroz ( Front) Stra i-in ski, Bernivata
Koryakin, etc. Ererybody sang with a will. Myel'nikoif, who,
too, had the part of Y(izgir assigned to him, declined it for some
reason. At i-ocal rehea rsa1s I accompani ed p.•rsooally ; one of the
rehca rsals I even carried through independently and quite
* GI ill more cuts were made in this scots at the performance at the Mettorolitan
Opera House in New York, in i 9zz, undec tht direction of Artur Bodanal.y. C. V. 1’.
 P R E M I E R E O F S NGY E O O R O C H K A zi J
without Napravnik. The latter, as usual, was magnificent at or-
chestral rehearsals in the w•eeding out of errors, but exacting and
‘cold at the gcnc ral rehearsals.
Nadye zhda Nikolayevna was with me at rehearsals rather fre-
quently; she was in prime health, although in the last days of prcg-
nancy. On the night of January i 3th, after she had attended one
of the final rehearsals, our son Volodya was born.
Sn) e goorochka had its premifire January z9th. Nadye zhda
N ikolayev•na, who had not left her bed, in despair that she was
destined not to witness the first part ormance of my opera. I, too,
felt out of sorts over the matter ; I even took too much wine at din-
nei-, and came to the premiere gloomy and indifferent to all that
was going on. I stayed persistently behind the scenes, trudging
only, from time to time, to the stage-manager's room ; I never heard
my opera at all. Nor did I come out in response to ca1l9 for me.
The opera was a success. I was presentetl with a wreath.
By the second performance, Nadyezhda hikolayevna had recov-
ered and had left her bed. Taking all possible precautions, she
came to the opera house. My spirits leaped. The opera con-
tinued to please ; but still another cut was made : at the instance
of Prjanishnikolf, who was eager to close Act III with the scene
of Ritzgir, in order to make a bid for applause, the closing trio
( Koopava, Snyegoorochka and Lyel') was done away wrth, and the
Act closed with M izgir. Yet Pryanishnikoll gained no more ap-
plause than before. Best of sll the audiences liked Byeryendyey'
cavatina and the third song of Lye1’. They were usually encoi•ed,
while Lyel's song was given even three times. Occasionally also the
hymn of the Byeryendyeys, Lye1's first song and Snyegoorochka's
aria in the prologue were demanded again. These encores and
the interminable intc rmissions (the intermission before Ac t IV
lasted frore 3 to go minutes) dragged the opera out until nearly
midnight.
As hath been their wont, the critics treated Sa)'rpoororfika with
scant sympathy. Reproaches for my lack of dramatic action, for
the pOver ty of melodic inventiveness which manifesto d itself in
my partiality for borrowing folk-tune9, reproaches for insufficient
originality in general, admissions that I "possessed talent” as a
symphonist, but not as ao operatic composer,- all those showered
down on me in the newspaper reriews. Nor did Cut lag behinrl
z i6 MYMUSICALLIF E
the others, trying his best as he did, not to praise my opera, and
Still keep within bounds of decency. Resort was also had to the
reviewers’ trite trick of belittling a present work at the expense
of previous ones which, in ther r time, had been hounded no less.
It is remarkable, however, that Cut, who treated my compositions
with such discretion ( as if approving with reservations) , treated
Napravnik'9 works with warmth, attention and delight. The crit-
ics' review s irritated me little, as in former days ; perhaps I felt
most provoked at Cui.
fter a long interval, Ba)akireif re-appeared as conductor of an
orchestra at the first concer t of the Free Music School, leading
Beethoven'9 Fifth Symphony. As conductor, he now appeared to
me cntl i•ely difierent from ivh at he had before. The former fas-
cination had gone forever for me. With the audience he won ap-
plause as one returned to activity.
The sixteen-year-old Sasha Glazunofl, who had been developing
hourly, not daily, had by then completed his First Symphony in E-
major ( dedicated to me) . On March i 7 th, it was played under
Balakireif’s leadership at the Second Concert of the Free MusiC
School. That was ti•uly a day of rcjOicing for all of us, the
St. Petersburg act'lve workers of the Young Russian School.
Youthful in inspiration, but mature in technique and form, the sym-
phony reaped gi•eat success. Stasof( rumbled and grumbled full
blast. The audience was astonished when the composer, in a
“Gymnasium” ( College) uniform, appeared in response to calls
for him. I. A. Pomazanski presented him with a wreath bear-
ing the curious inscription : “To Alyeksandr Glazunofi Herman
and Kazyenyofl.” Herman * and Kazyenyofl were the well-known
cotljurors then performing in St. Petersburg. tlie part of the
*
0

critics some fuss and froth was naturally unavoidable. There ap-
peared also caricatures representing Glazunofi as a suckling babe.
Gossip kept busily spinning assurances that the symphony had not
been written by him at all, but had been ordered by his wealthy
parents from "everybody knows whom,” etc., etc., to the same ef-
fect. This symphony was the first of a geries of original com-
positions by the highly-gi fted artist and indefatigable worker,
composition9 which gradually Spread also to Western Europe and
I £ferman the Greet (the Elder) known in the United Stalest ). ¥. J.
 T H E N E W C I R CL £ zi2
came to be the finest adornments of contemporary musical liter-
ature.
At the same concert my Sadko played as the closing number.
This time Balakirefi simply made a fiasco of it. In passing to
Movement II he indicated the change of tempo a bar too soon.
Some instruments tame in, others did not. An unimaginable mess
resulted. From that time on, Balakirefl abandoned his rule of
conducting aln'ays from memory. z\t this season's concerts of the
Free hlusic School there appea red the young talented pianist Lav-
rolf, and the re fiittetl by, too, like a pale shadow, the hloscow
pianist NIye1'goouof1, a dry theoretiCi an, 8nd compiler of a barbar-
ous collection of Russian songs. At that time Balakirell fussed
over him like a child over a new toy.
In the autuirin of r S 8 i, our new friend F. M. Blumenfeld came
to St. Petersburg and entered the Conservatory under Prof. Stein.
The personnel of the circle that visited our house was approx-
imately as follows: Borodio, Lyadofi, V. V. Stasoll, Glazuoofi,
Blunienfe ld, the talented baritone singer Ilyinski, whom I have re-
ferred to before, and Ilyin9ki's wife. About the same time there
hcgan to appear in our circle M. M. Ippolitofl-Ivanofi, who' had
been graduate‹4 in the class of theory of composition, a pupil of
mine, who promised to develop into a talented compo9er ; shortly
afterwards he married the singer V. M. Zarudnaya (an excellent
soprano) . both husband and wife became professor9 at the Mos-
cow Conservatory a number of years later. Cui ha rdly visited
our circle at al), keeping quite by himself. Balakirelf came very
rarely. He would come in, play something and leave at an early
hour. After his depsrture, everybody breathed more freely; g
lively Conversation began, new or recently conceived compositi one
werc played, etc. During the last years, besides IppolitoIf-Ivan-
of(, there graduated, from my class of the Conservatory, A. S.
Iryeoski and G. A. Kazachenko ; the former subsequently our
well-known talented composer, the latter a composer and chorus
master of the Imperial Russian Opera. Huring my work on $n ye-
yooroclika these two pupils of mine kindly aided me in making
the arrangement of my opera for the piano and voices. I shall
say by the way that Aryenski, when still a pupil in my class, com-
posed partly as volunteer work and partly as class assignment—
z i8 hf Y M U S I C A L L I F E
several numbers of to yevoda 2 [Can aa f^ofpyr—Drcsm oa the
Volga) after Ostrov»ki ; these later formed part of his opera on
this subject. I vivldly recall his playing, in thc class room, of
the scene at the bridge, the crad)e song, etc.
In the interim between work on Musorgski's compositions I
somewhat re-orchestrated the overture and entr’actes to the dralna
Psko+itCanha, changing the » tural-scale to chromatic-scale
French horns and trumpe Is. These numbers I had excluded f roin
the second version ot the Maid o Psk ov because, on the one hand, I
had no hope of having this opera produced, ivhl)e, the other
hand, I had been dissatisfied with the setond version. In the first
version I had suffered I rom insufficient knowledge, in the second
from sup«rabundance of I.aow)edge and iflabi)ity to direct it. I
felt that the later version had to he abridged and worked over
once more ; that the right, desk rable form of Pt k ovit yank a lay
sonnet here mi’do•ay betw'een the first version and the second: and
that, for the time being, I was incapable of striking that form.— Yet,
the instrument al numbers of the opera of the later version were
ioteres ting. Therefore I trra ted them in the above mance r. The
result was a composition in the style of the entr'actes to Frinc‹
Kholmski or E gmon t.
The surnmrr of i S 8z we spent again at dear Stelyovo. The
weather was fine as a rUle, but there were frequent rain-storms.
Now all my time was consumed by iverk on Khovans Aching. Much
had to be altered, abridged and added. In Acts I a d II there
turned up much that was superfluous, musically ugly and a drag
to the scene. In Act V, oa the contrary, much z'as lacking al-
together, while a good deal existed only in the roughest of rough
draft records. The chorus of radio/'niki (schisrnatits) with the
strokes of the bell, prior to the self-immolation, written by the
composer in barb arous empty f ourths and fiI ths, I recast entirely,
as its original foi m was impossible. For the closing chorus there
existed only the melody (recorded from the mouths of some
Schismatlcs by Ka rmalina and bv her communicated to Musorg-
ski) . Availing myself of the given melody I composed the entire
chorus from beginning to end, but the orchestral figure (of the
pyre blazing up) was entirely my own. For one of Dosifey’s
ChaykOv8ti had written sn opera to this libretto fourteen years previously, but
subsequently deterred the score. C. V. V.
 K HOVANSHCHI N A Fig
monologues in Act V, I borrowed music from Act I bodily. The
rzriations of Ma rfa's song in Act III as well as the chorus “Pr he-
r yekokhom i pr yepryek ho m:!” (We disput ed and we argued! )
weLV CORSiderably changed and worked out by me. I have said
already that Musorgski, so often unrestrained and wanton in his
modulations, oceasi onally ran to the other extreme : he could ilot
struggle out of his one tonality• for a long time, thus throwing the
composition into utter languidness and monotony. In this case,
in the latter half of Act III, from the moment of the court-clerk’s
entrance, he clung tenaciously to the key of E flat minor to the
end of the Act. That was intolerable and with no reason what-
orer, as the whole section undoubtedly 5ubdi slides itself into two
parts—the scene of the court-clerk and the irr)›eJ'rsy’i (Strelitz's)
appeal tO Old Khovanski. The first part I left in E flat minor as
in the original, the other I transposed to D-mlDOr. The result
both answere(1 the purpose better and offered greater variety.
The parts of the opera that the Composer had instrumentated 1 re-
orchestrated and, 1 hope, for the better. All the rest was in-
strumentated by me, too ; I, aha in, made the arrangement ( for the
piano) . By the end of the summer the entire work on Kh ozan•
'ic/iim could not be finished and I wrote the last of it in St. Peters-
burg. '
Before remoVfNg to St. Petersburg I had composed music for
Pushkin’s Archart * for basso. I was not quite satisfied with the
composition and it lay in utter obsCUrity until 189d.
In the latter part of the summer, my wife and I made a trip to
'Moscow for a fortnight or so. There was an All-Russian Exposi-
tion at that time in Moscow, at which there were planned, among
other things, symphonic concerts in the name of the W osCOw Di-
rectorate of the Russian hJusical Society. Owing to the deattr
of N. G. Rubinstein, hT. A. Hubert filled the post' of D iFeCtOfi Of
the Conservatory. having undertaken to arrange the Exposition
concerts, he invited mc to conduct two of them. An exclusively
Russian program was desired. I assented to this plan. Thus
^ For the production of this opeta in and Lotidog in i9 i 3, M aur ice Ravel
orchestrated the read ing of the tikaacs, the hymn to Prince Ivan Kilovans{i i, the
it net between Emma and young Khovansk i in the first act, part a’s song, and Kooz'l‹ a’s
*eng with chorus, after Musorgski's autograph sketches ip the Imperial Lib racy
at St. Petersburg. C. Y. V.
° The Upas Tree. C. V. Y.
 220 MYMUSICALLIFE
there came about my trip to Moscow from Stelyovo. At the too
concerts under my direction, there were given, among other things
(I cannot recall them all) , Aiiiar, Glazunofl's First Symphony,
excerpts from Prière fpor (sung by 5travinski) , the cria zùor
i mo y Both heat and ardour, (Bichoorina) , ChaykovskÎ’s piano-
concerto ( Lavroft) and Napravnik’s piano-fants sy on Russian
thèmes ( TimanDva) . All went n•ell and scored success. Sasha
Glazunoll also came expressly for thèse concerts. Before the re-
hearsal of the Symphony commenced, I was approached by a tall
and handsome man with whotn I was not acquainted, though I had
run across him in St. Petersburg. de iiitroduced himself as Mi-
trofan Petrovich Byelyayeft and requestcd permission to attend all
rehcarsals. II. P. Byelyaye lt was an ardent music-lover, who had
been cornpletely captivated by Glazuiiofi’s Symphony at its first
performance at the Free music School and who had come now ex-
pressly for its 9akc to NIoscoiv, From that moment dates my aC-
quaintancc with this rema rkable man who subsequently was of such
enormous coDsequence to Russian music.
S. N. Krooglikoif ( formerly active in the Free School) who had
settled in Moscow some twO years earlier did not forsake G lazu-
nolt and me during our entire sojourn in II oscoiv. Glazunolf,
Krooglikofl, N adye zhda Nikolaycvna and I passed our time tjuite
pleasantly, dividing it among rehearsals, the sights of the Ex-
position and ivalks through II oscow. Gratified z ith our trip,
we returned to Stclyoro, where, during our absence, our children
had been taken care of by my mother atcd my ivife's brother, Niko-
. fay Nikolayevich, the two lrving with us all summer.'
During the season of i 88 2—83 I continued ivorking on Khovati-
s lichina and other compositi ont of h(usorgski’s. A X’i9Jii on Bald
Ho iint sv z the only thing I could not find my way with. Origi-
iially composed in the 6o's, under the influence of Liszt's Cod ten-
tons, for the piano with accompaniment of orchestre, this piece
(then called .8/. lo hn’s Eve and both severely and J ustly criticized
by Balakir eft) had long been utterly neglected by rte author, gathe r-
ing dust among his (’inac hez•é. When composing Gecleonofi’s
Mia âa Musorgski had made use of the material to be found in
A h"ipht on Bald aboutit and, introducing slnging into it, had writ-
ten the scene of Chernobog on II ount Triglav (Three Peaks) .
° Vyechasha, June i¢, z qoy.
 A N I O H T O N B A L D LI C› U N 2’ zzt
That was the second form of the same piece in substance. Its
third form had developed in his composing of flic Fair ai toro-
c htmt y, when hlusorgski conceived the que er and incoherent idea
of inaking the peasant lad, without rhyme or reason, see the
Vt'itchcs’ Sabbath in a dream ; this was to form a sort of stage in-
termezzo that did not chime at all with the rest of the scénario
of Soro chine hala 1"arm arka. This time the piece ended with the
i•inging of the village church bell, at the sounds of which thc
frightened cv il spiri ts vanished. Tr anquility and dawn were built
on the theme of the peasant lad himself who had seen the f antas-
tic dream. In working on blusorgski’s piece I made use OI its
last v-ersioo for the purpose of closing the composition. Now
then, the first form of the piece was for piano solo with orchestra,
the second fnrm and the third vocal compositions and for the
stage, intra the harga'in (unotchestrated) ! None of thèse forts
was fit to be published and performed. With Musorgski's mate-
rial as a basis I declded to create an instrumental piece, by retain-
img all of the :iuthor's best and coherent materia l, adding the lew-
est possible ini erpolations of my owo, ft was necessary to create
a form in which hIusorgski's ideas could mould in the best fashion.
It was a diffîcult task of which the satisfactory solution balfled me
for two years, though in the other works of Musorgski I had got
on sith comparative case, I hatt been uoable to get at either form,
modulation or orchestration ; and the piece lay inert until the fol-
lowing year. U*ork on the other compositions of my departed
friend, however, was progressing. Progressing also was their pub-
licati on at Bessel' under my editorial supervision.
A mong any oivn works, jotted down during this season, must be
set down the sketch of a piano concerto in C s'ha rp minor on a
Russian thème, chosen not without Balakirefi's advice. In all ways
the toncerto proved a chip f rom Liszt's concertos. I t must be
said th at it sounded beautiful and proved entirely satisfactory io
the sen se of ç i znO technique and style ¡ this greatly astonished
Balakirefl, v ho found my concerto to his liking. He had by no
means expectcd that I, wh o was not a pianist, should how to
compose aoyth ing entirely pianistic. I recollect that once a little
i iff occurred between BalakireJt and myself regarding some detail
a my concerto. Yet th4t disagreemen t did not cool him toward
ay composition. 1 cannot charly recall, cxactly when I first con-
222 ) Y II U S I C A L L I F E
ceived the thought of setting to work on the piano concerto, nor
w•hcn the concerto was finally ready and orchestrated.
During this see sOn's converts of the Free Music School, the fa-
mous Tannura, now at last completed, was performed. A fine,
interesting composition, though one which seemed somewhat heavy,
sewn tone tliei• of pa tches, and not altogethe r devoid of bullish
spots. The spell of the former improvlsations of the late 6o's was
no longer there. find it could not be otherwise : the piece had been
composing for over Gif teen years (with interruptions, to be sure) .
In fif teen years a man’s entire organism, to the very last cell,
changes several times, perhaps. The Balakirefl of the 8o's Wa9
not the Balakire If of the ’6o's.
 CHAPTER XIX
88 86
Court Chapel. The Coronation. Organizing the instrvtmental and tlie
precentors' closets. Abolition of the post of Inspector of N ax'aI Bands.
Byelyayeff’s Fi’idays. A, Lyadofi's marriage. Text-book of Harmony. ByeljaveH—
publisher. Rehearsal at the Pyetropavlovski School. Rei-ision of Symphony
in C-major. Beginning of Russian Symphony Concerts. Trip tD the
Caucasus.

The changes occasioned by Alexander III coming to the throne

affected also the Court Chapel, of which Bakhmetyefi was tlie di-
rector. He was dismissed. The status of the Chapel and its lists
were worked out afresh. Count Sheryemetyelt, who was not
even a dilettante in the art of music, was made chieI of the Chapel.
Thi post was, as it were, only representative and honorar y ; the
work in reality fell upon the shoulders of the Chapel Surerintend-
ent and his assistant. Sheryemetycif chose Balakireft as supei‘-
intendent and the latter, in turn, chose me as his aid. The mys-
terious thread Ieading to this unexpectcd appointment was in the
hands of T. I. Filippofi (then Imperial Comptroller) , and pro- curator-
general l'obyedonostsef(.' Balakirefi Filippolf Count Sher
yemetyetf the bond of these men rested on the ground of religion,
orthodox faith, and remnant9 of Slavophilism. Then f ollowed
Sablyer and Pobyedonostsef( and Samarin, and, po99ibly, Katkofi
those ancient bule•arks of ab9o1ute monarchy and ortho- doxy.
ñfusic proper had played only an insignificant rñle in Bala- kirefl's
appointment; still the thread had led to him, really a re- markable
musicixH. On the other hand, Balakireft, who felt no firm
theoretical or pedagogical ground under his feet, took me as
assistant, since I had plunged into the theoretical and pedagogi- cal
activity of the Conservatory. My appointment as assistant-
superintendent of the Court Chapel took place in February, i 883.
8 { the Holy Synod. J. A. J.
z 4 II Y hI U S I C A L L I r r
On joining the Chapel Balakirelf and I were utterly at a loss
as to how to go about the unf amiliar undertaking. The Chapel
choir was magnificent. Its four instructors, Smirnofi, Azyeyefl,
Syrbooloif and Kopylolt, were men of knowledge and experience.
1 rom ancient days, as far back as Bortnyanski's time, the well-
arranged matter of church-singing had becn i unning splendidly.
I lowever, the instrumental classes for boys, their bringing up, as
z elf as their general instruction were bcne ath all criticism. The
adult singers received both salary and lodgings on a par with offi-
cials ; they throve, more or less. But the illiterate boys, l›eaten
without mercy as they were, uneducated, and taught the violin,
the cello or the piano only after a fashion, those, as a rule, met
with a sorry fate, after the IOSS Of thei r roices. They wcrc
voided with a Ccrta in amount Of money due them and were disiTlissed
from the Chapel to the four quarters of the globe, ignorant and
unaccustomed to work. From their ranks came scrivenci s, com-
mon servants, prorincial singers and in the best of cases igno-
rant preccntors and pctty officials. Many of them took to drink
and z'ent to the devil. Our first care was, Of course, to impi ove
their bringing tp and education, to train the most musicall y-gifted
of them as good orchestral musicians or precentors and to secure
them bread and butter for the future. It was unthinkable to ac-
complish this during the first spring of our connection with the
Chapel; and all we could do was to make obsernations. The in-
structors in musical subjects at the Chapel eye re : Kremyenyetski
violin, hlarkus cello, Zhdanoit double-bans, Goldstein piano,
the ancient )oseph I lunke theory of music. Go1dste'in, a talented
Pianist, was not a particularly zealous instructor. B alakireh (an
implacable Jew-hater) conceit ed a hatred for Goldstei n owing to
his Jew-ish eKtractioo and got rid of him that very spring. be
also dismissed the Italian C avalli who taught the adult voiccs solo-
singing. For some time in the beginning nobody was engaged to
replace thcse instructors.
The coronation of Tsar Alexander III was set for kIa1 I Cth.
The entire personnel of the Chapel, Bulakire fi and myselI included,
went to II oscow. At ñJ oscow o•e had to stay some three z eeks.
First came the preparations for thc solemnity, then the Emperor’s
entry, the coronati on proper, and, finally, the consecration of the
Temple of the Saviour. The Chapel was quartered in the Krem-
 T H E C O R O N A T I O N O F A L E XAN D E R I I **s
lin. Balakiref( and I lived in the Grand Moscow Hotel. In real-
ity, I personally had nothing to do. The choristers and their
teacliers were busy, while all economic and admiuistratfve duties
devolved upon Balakiref(. Arrayed in uniforme of the Court, we
attended the coronation at the Oospyenski Cathedral (Cathedral
of the Assumption) , standing in the choirs: Balakirell in the
i iglit, I ln the left one. Near rue stood the artist Kramskoy, com-
missioned to sketch the picture of the solemnity. He was the only
man in evening dress at the Cathedral, all the rest ivore uniforme.
I’he cei emony went of wlth pomp, the Emperor recited the Creda
ifi it Clear-cut vOi ce ; the singi»g was safely over. Tears of emo-
t!‹ u rolled in strearns down the cheeks of onc of our singers, our
secretary K. A. Vargin. As a whole, the spectaCle was beautiful

Also the consecratiou of the Temple of the Nativity of the

a viour passc d oft solcmnly; at the most important moment of the
ei voice the drawing asunder of the verf a canticle of sereral bars
( manu facture d by me ) , of eight or even ten-part counterpoint was
sung. After the per forrnance in Moscow, I never saw and com-
pJetely forgot the score of this canticle, which Balakire fl had made
›hC COIft Osc for the occasion. hI ost probably it is still lying tucked
aw'ay somcivhere in the Court Chapel.
After returning to St. Petersburg with the Chapel, I moved to
Tayitsy for the summer.
The summer of i s g3 passed unproductively for me in regard
to composing. During the summer the Chapel was quartered at
the English Palace in Old Pyetyerhof. Frequent trips there con-
sumed a gond deal of my time. I gave the youngster singers what-
ever I could: taught them elementary piano-playing, elementary
theory, heartl their violin and cello lessons, if only to accustom
them to some slight regularity of study, to a serious attitude to-
wsrds their musical future and to kindle in them a desire and love
for art. At home, as far al I recall, I drew up plans for the fu-
ture organiz ation Of the classes, tried my hand at sketches of ec-
clesiastic canticles, and r »rt1y pondered revisions of my Third
SymphOny in C-ma jor, with which I was extremely dissatisfied.
For diversion, my wife, my son M isha and I made a trip to Ima-
tra.' In the fall of i 8 93 we gave up the »partment where we had
^ A famoue waterfall in Finlantl. J. A. y.
226 M Y $J U S I C A L L I F E
lived for ten years. )Vith the growth of my family it had bccome
inconvenient, and we moved to Vladimirskaya, corner of Kolo-
kol'naya Street.
All my activity during this season was directed towards improv-
ing the progress of the musical classes at the Court Chapel, with
it9 former resources and instructors ; the ensuing academic season
toward organizing the Chapel' instrumental class and the pre- centors'
class on new principles, after having considc red and worked out a
clear program. I h*x-e already spoken of the instrumental
class ; as for the pi•eccntors’ class, none such had existed at the Chapel.
Young men who wished to learn a little and receive a
precentor's diploma, usually came to the Chapel from the interior nf
Russia and were assigned to one of the f orii• i nstructors in eccle-
siastlc singing, to Iearn the "deep niyste ry.” I-Iaving studied with
thc teacher and having passed an examination according to some
vague and indefinite program, they received the desired certifi- cate
and left IOz the four points of the compass. Tlie entire sys- temof
instruction, for the instrumental class as well as for those Speciali zing
as precentors establish ed by I.’volt, the composer of E
op•he TsBI’)!a hhrani I (God save the Tsar 1 ) , was gOOd for
nothing. E vcrythiiig had to be made over, or rather, crc ated
anew . To this end were directed all my thoughts and designs of
that year.

At one of the ltussian XIus1ca1 Society Concerts, given under

1. G. Rubinstein's dii ection, I conducted, at his invitation, the
Orerture and entr’actes to the ‹lr ams Psi ovit anka, as I have rncn-
tioned ea rlier. At the Frce School Concert of February 2 7 , i 8 St,
my piano concerto was played by N. S. Lavrofl for the first time,
and excerpts I rom Kh ovan.‹lirltin a iii my arrange ment and with my
orchestration were performed at the same occasion.
In the sprIng of i S 5 4 I was rclieverl of my duties as Inspector
Of Danis of the hTary Depa r tmcnt. Tlie new acti rig head of the
Navy Department, ShestakOfi, ieaugui ated va riots reform9 along
Wlth the intl Oduction of a civil service qualification. .ñmong these
tire ful reforms must be considered also the abolition of the post of
Inspector of Bands. The Cor responding Ost in the Guards con-
tinued to be considered indispcnsable, but the liavy musicians were
 B Y E 1. Y A Y E F F S F R I D A ¥’ S zz2
allowed to play according to their own sweet 1'ill, as the band had
faece placed under the super vistou of some adjutant Df the Nag'
Stat(. Accordingly, rijy government service was confined exclu-
sively to the Chapel, that is to the Court Department.

hf. I'. Byelyaye0, an a rdent 1over of musir, partlcularly cham-

ber-music, himsel f vi ol a-plv •e r atld a zealons player of quartets,
had loog beMore their begun to gather his friends, thorough quar-
tctists, at his house, e› ery Friday. The cvenlngs ilsually opcoed
with I-I;tydn, thrn came È I ozart, then L eethoven and last, some
i,uartet of post-Beethoven music. )’he quartets of each com-
Poser folloived one auother promptly til their uumerical order,
If Haydn's First Ouartet was played one week, the second come
the following weck, etc. V›*hen the last one had been played
the first z'as taken up again. Toward the winter of i 883— 8 §
Öyclyayefl's “Fridays” became rat her well-attended. In addition
to the usual qua rtet-pl ayers (Prof. Gesechus, Dr. Gelhke, tkc
lïngineer Evald) th ey were attended hy Gla zunofi, Borodin, Lya-
tlofl, Diitsch and manj othcrs. I, too, became a regular attend-
nut at Byelyayef(’s Fridays. The evcnijjgs wei e lnteresting,
Haydn’s, Mozai t's and b eethoven's ea rly quartets q'ere played
competently. the later quartets not so well, occasionally eren
quite badly, Although the quartet-players real the music fiuently.
IVhen our circle made rts appearance at the “Fridays,” their rep-
ertory was lncreased. Quartets of recent timts were periormed
in order to rouse familiarity with them. Sasha GlazunOft, com-
posing his First Ouar tet in D-ma jor, tried it out at thC Ryelya-
yefi I ridays. Subsequently all his quartets and quartet-suites, even
thO9e not quite finished, were played at the house of Byelyayef( who
z'as thorouglily in love with the youthful composer's talent. In
addition to his own compositions, how many difiercnt things GIa-
zpnofi arranged for Byelyayef('s quartet l Fugues of Bach and
€iricg and manv others, innumerable. Bvelyayefi's Fri-
days grew very lively and were never permitted to lapse. If one
of the quartet-pl aye rs fell ill, Byelyaye If secured some one else in
his stead. Byelyayefi himself was never ill. The personnel of
the quartet was as follOivs .' the cellist origlnal1y was a certain
Niko1'ski, whose place was taken by Evald, first violin C“elbke,
zz8 MYMUSICALLIF E
second violin Gesechus, viola Byelyayefl. Thus constituted, the
quartet existed for many years, until death carried away the cor-
dial host.
The music over with, supper was served at one in the morning.
The suppers were generous, and laced with abundant libations.
Occasionally, after supper, Glazunoff or somebody elsa played on
the pianO sOmething new of his Own, just composed or just arrangcd
for four-hands. Adjournment was late, at 3 . M. Some, fi ding
insuificient what they had imbibe d at supper, would, after parting
with the host, repair to use a mild term to a restaurant “to con-
tinue.” At times, after supper, during the music-making, a bottle
or two of champagne appeared on the table and was opened to
“baptize" the new cOmposition.
In the course of time, during the subsequent years, the “Fri-
days" were ever more and more numc rously attended. Fyeliks
Rlunienfeld, a graduate of the Conservatory, and his brother Si-
gismund came. To quartet music were added trios, quintets, etc.
with the piano. Other pianists, too, sometimes merely on a visit,
appeared. Conservatory youngsters, graduated from my courses,
also began to attend the Byelyayef( Fridays. if any violinists
turned up. A. K. Gla zunoll, who sometinics played the cello,
also took part in the quintets, sextets and octets. Vyerzhbilovich,
too, made his appearance. The libations at supper also increased.
Bat of that later.

Aoatoll Lyadofi, then already an instructor at the Conservatory,

married during the i 8 83— 4 Season. I recall him, one morning
shortly before his marriage, telling me of his intention, and the
two of us leaving the 'Conservatory that morning and roaming
about the city almost till dinner, having a heart to heart talk about
the impending change in his life. Yet, when Nadyezhda Nikola-
yevna and I later expressed our desire to meet hi9 wife, the queer
fellow flatly refused. He said he wished hia marriage to bring
no change whatever in lils relatlons with his musical friends. His
home crrcl e would be made up of the close friends and acqua int-
ances of his wi fe, while toward his frientls in art he wished to re-
main, as it were, of the bachelor estate as befc rc. After mar-
riage the status he had desired established itself : he introduced
 T E A C HG I N H AR M O V Y zzg
not e of his musician intimates and friends-in-art to his wife, went
cve I ywbeze alone, even to concerts and the theatres. Visiting him
rarely, I never 9aw his wife, as he always received me in his
study, carefully locking the dooi•s to the other rooms. Curious
by nature, Byelya yell could not endure this state of aS airs ; know-
ing that Anatoli was not at home, he once rang their bell, called
his wife to the dnor, to transmit 9ome nonsense to her husband,
and, h‹ivlng introduCed himself, made her acquaintance. Subse-
qucotly, many years later, Lavroll, Byelyayefl, Glazunolf, Sokoloff
and IVihtol gained admittance to his family. Yet Nadyezhda Ni-
kolaycvna and I never have seen his wife, d spite our friendly life-
long relations with this bright, dear and mort talented man.
Upon the ancient I lunke’ leaving the Chapel, I took over his
class in Harmony and grew exceedingly irterested in teaching that
subject. Chaykovski's system (I followed his text-book in private
lessons) did not satisfy me. from constant talks with Anatoli re-
garding this subject, I tame to know his system and methods of
instruction, and conceived the idea of writing a new text-book of
Harmony, accordiflg to a wholly new system as regards pedagogic
methods and consccutiveness of exposition. Essentially, Lya-
doll's system was *n outgrowth of his professor Y. I. Johansen's
system, and mine of Lyadoll's. Four scales were taken as the foun-
dation of ha rmoo) : major and minor natural, and major and minor—
harmonic. The first exercises consisted of harmonizing the upper
melodies and basses with the aid of the principal triads alone : the
tonic, the dominant and the sub-dominant and tkeir in- versions. With
so scant a stock of chords, the rules of part-writing proved very accurate.
Through exercises in harmonizing melodies, with the aid of only the
prlncipa1 steps, the pupil's sense of rhyth- mic and harmonic balance
and tendency toward the tonic were de- veloped. Later, to the principal
triads there were gradually added accessory ones, tlie t)ominant chord
of the seventh and the other chords of the seventh. Figured bass was
Entirely done away with; on the other hand, to exercises in the
harmonization of melodies and basses was :idded independent
writing of half-periods from the same harmonlc material. Water
followed modulation, the science of w hlCh was based on the
relatlonship of keys and the modulatioual plan, and not on the external
connection (through common tones) of chOfdS foreign to each other. In
this way,
z3o M Y 6f U S I C A L L I F E
modulation proved ever natural and logical. After modulation
f olloived suspensions, passing notes, subsidiary notes and all otlic r
devices of figuration. Finally, came the science of chromatically
transformed choi•d and false progressions. Until the beginning
of summer I only thought over, but did not write my text-book;
I tested my pedagogic methods on md Chapel pupils, with consider-
able success.
In the spring of i 88d I recast and re-orchestrated my First Sym-
phon) , its principal tonality being changed from E flat minor to E-
minor. It sccmcd to mc that this youth ful and, low the present time,
naive woi k of mine, provi dcd its technical side were im- proved,
could become a repertory piece for student and amateur orchestras.
Subsequently I found that I had somewhat erred in my
calculatiOns : times had changed, and student and amateur had begun to
gravitate towards Chaykovski's and Glazunofl’s sym- phonies and my
oz'n pieces of moi e modern tendency than that of my first
compositlon. Nevertheless J3essel's arm gladly undertook to publish
my First Symphony in orchestral score and parts. That year there
graduated from my class at the Conservatory—Ryb and
N. A. Sokolofi. The former subse quently instructor in mug1CR1
thcory at Kiyefl, the latte r i talclited Composer and teacher at
St. Peter9burg.
The summer of i 88d we spent at Tayitsy as before. On June
our daughter Nadya v as bOrn.
As in the previous summer, twice a weeJc or so, I visited the
juvenile sjngcrs at Pyetyer)iof, contirul g m instrtictic›r of them
and procc cdiflJ tO form a pupil s' or rathci children’s string
orchestra, foi• which I made several easy• arrangements, principally
excerpts from Glinka’s operas, like Kak cal’ ooh ifi (When they
killed mot her) , F)' n ye ylac li', biro tinu: hka (Do not cry, thou Or-
phan poor) , etc. While at Tayitsy, I set to writing the text-book
of harmony, which q'as reasy tow-ar‹1 the beginning of autumn and
r ublished Jithographically, v'ith the help of my assistant at the
Chapel library, tlie cliorister G. V. \rJnitski, who copied the
text-hook in lithog r aphlC Ink.
Besides thls I worked on my orchestral s1nfon'ietta in .ñ-minor,
recast from the first three rriovernents of the Quartet on Russian
Themes. The fourth movement of the quartet (on the ecclesiastic
theme from "fe Deum) I did not make use of, after all.
 B Y E L Y A Y E F F S P U B L I S H I NG H O U S E a3t
After my rernoval to town, at the beginning of the academic
year, the precentors' and the instrumental class of the Chapel were
definitely organized by me. P. A. K ra9nokootski was engaged
as iostructor in v•iolin, 1. V. Rclchard piano, A. K. Lyadofl,
and later N. A. Sokolofi and I. R. Shchigleft harmony and elemen-
tary theory for the pretentors' cla sS. In addition to these, the
former liistructors taught, as well as S. A. Smirnofi, E. S. A zyeyell,
71. A. KopylOfi (violin, piano, church singing and rubric) . Har-
rnony in the instrument al class was taught by me ; I also taught th-•
orchestral class ( then still exclusively strings) which was already
maklng considerahle progress.
The Chapel's lists were already new ones, and its fina ncial re-
sources had inc Lease d.
I was invited to conduct one of the Russian h(usical Society
Concerts. Among othc r numbcrs, there was performed for the
first time the C sharp minor Overture of the talented Lyapoonofi,
a young composer, Balakirefi's favourite, who had lately graduatc d
from the Of oscow C oiisei-vatory and recently made his bow in St,
Petei•shurg.
bly first Sympliony in E-minor was played that 9ame season ]pr
the St. )'etersburg Univ•ersity students' o1 chestra under Dütsch's
leader ship.
Delighted by the brilliaot beginning of Glazunofi's activity as
a composer, M. P. Byelyayeft proposed to him to publish his FirSt
Symphony (E-major) in orchestral score, orchestra parts and
arra ngement for f onr-hands at hiG, Bye1yayef('s expense. Despi te
some objcction ou the part of B alaki refÏ, who urged Sasha not to
give his consent, as Byelyayel( had been neither music-dealer nor
music publisher, Glazuno( yielded to M. P.'s pleas. Byelyaye fi
communicated with the Röder fii m in Leipzig and proceedcd with
publication ; and the young composer's symphony was the begin-
ning of the honour able and noteworthy publis'hing activity of M. P.,
who establishcd forever the imperishalil e house of “ RL P.
Byelyaye(i, Leipzlg,” for publishlng the works of Russian com-
pose i•s. The Symphony was followed, in progrCsSive order, by all
of Clazunofi’s newly-a ppearing compositions, my piano conccrto,
$#ogIo ( Fairy-tal e) , the Overture on P uf iiaa Themen etc. ; after
me follOWCt] )3orot)i ri, yadO0, CUI ; then came other young com-
posers, and the business grew litcrally every hour. IH aCcordance
z3z M Y M U S I C A L L I FE
with Mitrofan Pctrovich’s fondamental rulc, no composition what-
ever was acquired witho ut payment therefor, as is frequently done
by other publishing houses. No orchestral or chamber-musiC com-
po9ition was published otherwise than in orchestral score, orchestral
party and arrangement for four-hands. With authors hI. P. was
pUHCtual and exacting: particular as to correct proof-reading, he
paid the author's fee only after the second proof had been read.
In choosing works for publication, M. P. was guided at first by
his own taste and the greater or lesser authority of the composer's
name. Later, when many young composers appeared, who wished
to be published by his firni, he began to consult Sasha, Anatoli
and me, constituting us into a permanent official music al committee
with his firm. For the marketing of his publications, II. P. made
arrangements with J. I. Jurgenson’s music-shop, and for the man-
agement of the publishing business ta Leipzig he eogaged aii ex•
perienced man G. Schäfier.
During the season of 18 4— I Byelyayelt, who was afiame with
the desire to hear once more the First Symphony and with impa-
tience to hear the orchestral suite Glazunoll had jtist composed, set
his mind on arranging, at the hall of the Pyetroparlovski School,
for an orchestral rehearsal of thèse compositions. The opera
orchestra was brought together and some people close to the
matter wcre invited: the Gla zunofis, my wife, V. V. Stasofi and
other . Diitsch and the compOser were to conduct. Sasha was
ready to undertake it ¡ but, seeing well that Sasha was unprepared
for the conductor's task and rnight east ly injure himself in th•.
orchestre's eyes, I dissuaded him from appcaring as conductor for
the time being, convincing M. P. Byelyaye tt, as l ell. This re-
hearsal was conducted by Diitsch and myself. Ererything went
ofi in the best of style. One of the numbc rs of the Suite, O rieiifu/
Jonre, very odd and savage, was left out upon my plea ; everything
else was given in full. Thc au thor, Byelyaycff and the audience
felt inordinately gratified. This rehearsal was the foundatlon of
the Russian Symphony Concerts, inaugurated by Byelyayefl the
following seasor,
Absorbed by activity in the Chapel's instrumental class and
precentors' class, I hardly turned my thoughts toiva rd my own
work as composer during this seanon, just au in the one precediog.
Yet I began to think occasionally of revising my Third Symphony
 T H E C O U R T G H A PE L z33
in C-major, the 5rst movement of which I managed to finish during
the following summer.
Th e summer r›f i 883 we spent again at Tayitsy. Trips to Pye-
tyerkofl to visit the Chapel, revision of thc Symphony, composition
and harfrtoriiZation of certain ecclesiastical cantitles, and study of
musical forms filled up my time. As far as I recall, during my v-
isit to the Chapel I r isited the Sla zunoffs who had taken a house, that
summer, in Old Pyetyerhofi. At that time, Sasha began to show a
v«ry deep interest iH wind-instrurneats. He had a t1zrinet, a
French horn, a trombos e and something more of his owu• I
essons on the french horn he took from no less a player than F
rancke, the first french horn of the opera orchestra ; on the other
instrumeots and the cello he practised iVithout a teacher. In order
to gain closer familiarity witk the wind-instruments, I, too, took
part in these exercises. The crowning point of my progress in
clarinet playing was reached during the following years, when I
per forrned on that instrument the part of the secoad violin in Glin-
La's Ouartet,' Dütsch playing first violiii, Glazuuofl, cello, and
Vt*ihtnl, as I recall it, viola.
Early in the season 1883—8 6 the rebuilding of the Court Chapel
z as begun, and the capella itself, tn its entir cty, temporarily moved
to a private house in hI illionnaya Street. The quarters were nar-
row and inconv cnient. The precentors' class, organized the
year before, it was found necessary to install in stables in the yard,
the buildings being remodelled for the purpose. The orchestra
class was quartered in the dormitories of the young chorister9.
hTevertheless, work went on successfully. In the precentors' class
there were already mary non-rtsident pupils, prineipally from
among the regimeotal singers ; in the instrnmental class I begari,
graduall7, to introduce the wind-instruments, in whlch instructors
were engaged from the court orchestra and from the opera. At
first the pupils in wiud-instruments naturally could not, as yet, take
part in the orchestral class ; but the players of bow-instruments
had advanced consi derah ly and were beginning to play fairly we]l
things more or less diRcult. Octasiona1ly I invited wind-m9tru-
ments from the regimental band for joint playing ; in that way it
was possible to perform symphonies of Haydn and Bcethos en in
the proper marine i . with my orchestral class, I' succeeded in
' F•maJor (x83o3. J. A. ),
*34 II Y U S I C A L L I F E
giving a sulficiently neat rendering of the reeently orchestrated
first movement of my Symphony in C-major. Borodin was present
and seemed qui te pleased.
Hans von Büloiv, who conducted the Russian Musical Society's
concerts that season, was very cordial toward Gla zunofl, Borodin,
Cui and myself, and readily played our compositions. Of my own
works he gave fi mar; for some reason, however, he was in ñ
capricious mood at the rehearsal, testy with the orchestra, even
suggestiog irritably to me to conduct it in his stcad. Of course I
declined. Presently Bülow calmed down and led Antar in excel•
lent fashion.
The pi•eceding season, II. P. Byelyayefi had arranged a re-
liearsal of Glazunofi's compositions before an intimate gathering ;
hr now conceived the idea of giving, this season, and at his own ex-
pense, a public tonce rt of other works besides those of Glazunof(.
3“he concert took place at the hall of the Club of the Nobllity.
€î. O. Dütsch was the conductor. Among other things, my con-
certo was played, and, où Glazuooff's compositions, his very i’e-
eently finished S t yenkB Rau-iti.’ The audience was not particularly
large, but Byelyayefl felt content, neverthcles .
Of other musical events of this season let me note a rery fair
first pc rformance of hIusorgski’s Kli ozgns hohina by amateur mem-
bers of the DramatiC Circlc, under Goldstein's leadership. The
opera took the f anCy of the public, and had three or four perform-
ances.
My work during this seasOn consisted of: composing a Ueiperi,
in collabor ation u l th the teachers of the Court Chapel, Smirnoff,
Azyeyefl, Kopylofl and Syrboolofl ; hrlnging out my text-bOOk of
Harmony (printed, not lithographe d CS lH its first editlon) ¡ fur-
ther work on orchestratiog as well as revising my Third Symphony.
Of my, C onsc rvatory pupils, those graduating were Y. I. I¥ihtol,
A. A. Pyetrofl and il utipofi. Despite his undoubted talent, the
last named, owing to insufficient activity and a very characterl stlc
dlssolutcness, would not have managcd to finish the A lle gro sct for
his examination task, if he had not been helped on the sly by
* The symphonic poem, Styrñfa Dszia, writes M. Montagu-Nath en, in his J6 orf
If irfory »/ B ui ian Mu i ir, is “based on a story of the Cossack raider of that name,
whose revolt against the Czar Alexis (son of th e first Romanof) ended in his
capture and execution in i 6/z, tlie date of Peter the Great's birth. Styeiika Razin ia
the hero of many national ballads,” C. V. V.
 R U S S I A N S Y M P H O N Y C O ‘N C E R T S n3J
Gla zunofi, z ho orchesti•ated his composition for him. Glazunolt
dashed the thing où for his orn practice exclusively; the author,
meanwhile, was naïvely tonvinced that he him eff world not have
orchestrated it any worse if he had not been pressed for time. All
thig was kept a secret ; the composition sounded well and was subse-
quently published by Byelyayeli, who was quite aware of the truth
about it, howevcr.
H ehearsal of Glazunofl's the yCar be forc, and the con-
cert arrauged by Bye)yayefi during this sea son, led me to think
tha t several yc a rly concerts of RussiaD compositions would be
most désirable , the number of Rtissian orchestral cnmpositions cas
gi•owing, and there were alu av dit cultics in fintling a place for
them ou the program of the concerts of the Russian musical So-
ciety and other organi zatiOns. I communicated my idem to Bye-
lyayefl ; it struck his. huey, and with the next season hc decided to
ioauguratc a series of annual concerts madc up cxclusi› ely of Rus-
sion compositions, to be conducted by Dütsch znd m7self, under
the name of R usslao Symphony Concerts.
Haring settled at Ta yitsy for the summer and left our chil‹l rcn
in their grandmother's care, Nudyez.hda N ik olayevna and I wcnt
on a trip to the Caucasus. lVe travcled to N izhnt-Novgorod by
rail, boarded the steamer, and went down the ,Volga to Tsa ritsyn.
Crossing iO Kal ach by steamer over the Don R iver (where eve ran
aground some ten times ) l'e reached RostolÏ-on-the-Don, and
thence, by rail, •ci the statlOn M ineral'niya Yody (h(ineral Wa-
ters) , we arrivcd in Zhelyeznovodsk and make ourselves confort-
able there fur a while. No cure had been prescribed us, and we
therefore spent our time in glorioiis tramps about the cnvtron9, to
the Zhelyeznaya Gore ( Iron Mountai n) , to Beshtau, etc. Having
also visited Pyatigorsk with II ashook and Kislovodsk and reached
l'l’adikavkaz, eve trave1(ed by carriagc ovev the Llilitary Gruzian
(Ceorgian) ROnd as far as Tifi is. Ile etayed a lew days at Ti f-
lis, took in Borzliom, then boarded the steamer at Batoom,' started
for the Crirnea to Yalta and, via Si 7erDpOl!, )OUrncyed to I.o-
zovaya: from here, a fter a visit to the estate Of Et. M. Ippolit'ofl-
Tranoft who lived there, we returned to St. Petersburg and Ta-
yitsy. In all, this trip consumed nearly two months and was ex-
ceediugly pleasant and intcresting. The Volga, the Caucasus, the
° centr e of the famous Russlan oiI-fieIds. J. Æ J.
z36 M Y M U S I C A L L IFE
Black Sea, the Crimea and many other things worthy of note, had
left the best impression with us.
During our stay at Zhelye znovod k, I did some work oa the
revi,sion of my Third Symphony; I finished it, however, only partly
at Tayitsy ; the rest I did at ter our removal thence to 8t. Peters-
burg, the following season.
 CHAPTERXX
886-88
Russian Sjmphony Concerts. Fantasy for the vioJin. Death of Borodin.
Balakireff’s circle and ByelyayeH’s compared. Orchestrating Prince I ynr
COiRpOsitlOri of Daprirci0 itfid its perfDrma,rlcP.. Nl«1fier'dZff /o jurer
Overl ure.

The plan of Russian Symphony Conccrts was carried out dur-

ing the season of i 88 6— 7• Four concerts were given by M. P.
Öyelyayefl at Kononotl's Hall on October I , 22 äfld z9 and No-
rember y. The first and the third of tikese were conducted by mc,
the second and the fourth were led by G. O. Dü tsch. The attend-
ance, though not over-large, was fair, and the concerts were a
success morally, if not materially. Among other numbers I did
particularly well with Borodin’s Symphony in E 8at major, with
which I took eSpecial pa ins on this occasion, having first noted
dOivn numerous fine nuances in the orchestral parts. The com-
poser, as I remember, was delighted,
The orchestration of A iS'ight on Bgld Llount, which had badly d
me so long, was finished for the concerts of this season, and the
piece, gil en by me at the ftrst concert in a manier that could not
be improved upon, was demanded again and again with unanimity.
Only a tamtam had to be substituted for the bell ; the one I se-
lected at the bell-store proved to be of-pitch in the Hall, owing to a
change in temperature.
Having finished the revision of my Third Symphony and having
grown interested in violin technique (I had galoed a rather thor-
ough fsmiliarity with it in the instrumental class) , I conceived the
idea of composing some virtuoso plece for the violin with orche -
tra. Taking two Russian themes as a basis, I composed a Fantasy
on these and dedicated it to P. A. Krasnokootski violin instruc-
tur at the Chapel , to whom I was indebted for many explana-
téons in the field of violin techoique. This Fantasy 1 tried out
with my orchestra of Chapel pupils who had made con9iderab1e
progrcss by that time. I z’as pleased with the piece, and took
it into my head to write another vir tuoso piete for violin and or-
chestra on Spanish themcs. However, having made a sketch of
it, I gave up the idea, preferring as I did to compose, subsequently,
an orchestral pt ecc with rirtiioso instrumentation, on the same
themes. hf ention must also be made of the joint composition of
a quartet on the theme of B la I (B-A-F) for M. P. Byelya-
yefi’s birthday which was celebrated at a gathering of numerous
friends, and accompanied with gigantic dining and wining on an
rqua1ly heroic scale. As is well-known, tke fitst movcment of this
quartet belongs to my pen, the Scrcnade to Borodin, the Scherzo
to Lyadofi and the Finale to Glazuoofi. The Quartet was per-
formed before the dinner, and the hero of the occasion was thor-
oughly delighted with the surprise we had given him.

F.arly in the morrlng, at an unaccustomed hour, on February

i6, 1 8 S2, I was astonishcd by a visit from Y. \*. Stasoft at our
house. I'. V. was beside himself. "Do you know,'' he said with
agitation, "Borodili is dead.” Borodin had died late the evening
before, suddenly, instantaneously. Gay and animated, among
guests gathered at his house, he had fallen stark dead, in the very
act of talking to some one. Y ekat)Rrina Sergeyevna was at Mos-
cor that ivinte r. I sh all not say what a blow this death was to
myself and all his other intimates. Immediately the question
came up : what was to be done with the unfinished opera Prince
Igor ,nd his othe r unpublished and unFnished compositions ? To-
gether with Stasoft we forthwith went to his apartment and
fetched all his musical manuscripts tO 7 house.
After Alycksandr Porfirycvich had been buried at the cemetery
of the Nyevski M mastery, Glad unofl and I together sorted all the
manuscripts. We declded to finish, orchestrate and set in order
all that had been left bchind hy A. P., as well as prepare it for
public ation on which M. P. B yelyaye) had resolved. In the first
place there xvas the unfinished Prtoce f yor. Certain numbers of
the opera, such as the 6rst chorus, the dance of the Polovtsy,
Yaroslavna's Lament. the recitative and song of Vladimi i• Ga-
litski, I(onchak's aria, the arias of Koochakovna and Prince Vladi-
Be-la-efmByelyayeff. J. A. J.
 B OR O D I N S U N F I h I S II E I) ' O R K S z3s
rjii’ Igorevich, as well a9 the closing chorus had been finished and
orchestrated by the composer. Much else existed In the form of
finislicd piano sketches ; all the rest ur as in fragmelita Py rough-
draft only, while a good deal simply did not exist. for Act lI
and III (in the camp of the Polovtsy) there was no adcquate
libretto, —no scenario even, there were only scattered verses and
musical sketches, or finished numbers that show-ed no connection
betivecn them. The synopsis of these aCts I knew full well from
talk9 and joint discussions with Borodin, although, in his projects,
he had been changing a grc at deal, striking things oUt and putting
them back again. The smallest bti)k of composed music pi oved
to be in Act III. Glazunolf and I settled the matte i• as for lows be-
tween us : he 4-as to iill in all the gaps in Act III and write down
(torn memory the Overture playe d so of ten by the composer, while
I iYaS tO of chest rate, finish composing and systemati ze all the rest
that had been le ft unfinished nd unorchestrate d by Borodiu.
Communicating to each other oiii• intc ations and taking counsel to-
gcther about elf beta its, Glaziiiioif and I went at our task at the
hcginnmg of spring. A mond Borodiii's othc r works, the tw-o
movymtnts of the unFnisliet) symphony hcld the place of honour.
For tke first mom emeut thCFG (•XI SUd an nnrecorde d exposition
of the themes, which Gla zuooll remembers d lay heart. For the
second movement the re had becn projected a recorded *o ether zo
for thc bow-quartet, without trio ; for this latter the composer
h4d intended to use material that had not gone into the opera
the narrative of the merchants.

Oi the concerts of the season of i 8s" 6—8 2 let me mentl on one

given unrler B aIakiref( s direction, by the Free Music School, in
memory of Franz. LisZ.t who had died in the Summer of i 88 6. As
I have already said, Balakirefl's conducting fell far short of weav-
ing about us that potent spell which » e had felt in old days.
V›7ho had changed, who had advauccd Balaklre Q or we ? \Ve,
I suppose. \I’e had grown, had learned, had been educated, had
seen and had he3fi/ i Tal skir efi, on the other hand, had stood stock-
still, if, inctee d, lie had not slid track a tribe.
Hut w-h O we re we In the Ei ghtics ? In the Sixties zHd the Ses•en-
ties we were B alski red's c i rcl e, at first node r his absolute leader-
ship, later little by little c acting of( the yolte of hIe absolutism and
z4o M Y Al U S I C A L L I F E
gaming gi•eatcr iodependeoce in the parsons of our individual
members. This circle, which had been irontcally nicknamed the
”mighty koochka (notaris) ,” had consisted of .BalakireS, Cut,
Borodin, Musorgski, my elf, and later An. Lyadoll and, to a cer-
tuin extent, Lod) zlienski. The circle’s member in perpetuity, V.
V. Stasoft, as one ivhO was nOt a musician by specialty, I place in
a class by himself. Oar cirrle of the E ightics, especially begin-
ning with the latter half of that decade, e'as no longcr Balakircfl'
circle, but BycJ) ayeft's. The forrnrr had rentred around Balaki-
refl as its sent oi• member and their teacher, the latter grouped
around Byelya y#fÏ as its II xcen z , publisher, impresario and host.
hJusorgski was no longer among the living, and in 1887 Borodin,
too, followed mini. HR ving Tc ceo ed an appoiatment to Slavic
larnls, in the service ot the Department of Forei gn Af(airs, Lody-
zhensk i had raoishcd, complctely forsaking all musical 9tudy. Cut,
though keeping up cordial relations with Byelyayefl’s circle, held
aloof, nerertheless, and b • himself, gravi tating more toward for-
eign (Parisian and Belgiao) music folk, with the ard o( The
CouBtess h 1erc d'ArEenteau.' But Ba)akirefi, as the formcr
head of his scattered circlc, admitted no intercourse whaterer
with ByelyaycfÏ’ s cirtle, o•hich de apparently hcld in scorn. As
for hls relations with Byelyayefi personally, they irere more than
cool, ow]flQ the latter's unwilJingness to subsidize the concerts
of the Free h)usic School, as v-ell as owing to certain misqndcr-
standings in t)ie publishiog geld. Balakirrfl’s attitude towards
Byelyaycfi soon hogan to turn to open enmity towards Byelyayefi
himself, to the whole circle, and to al) its af(airs ; beginning with
the hineties, all intercourse between Byclyaycf('s circle and i3ala•
In i88z the Couiiteis hlercy d'Argcnteau, a music-Iover irving iii Belgium, re-
Cflived from a frie¢nd copy of sortie dgficgg by N apravnilr. She was interested
enough *o ask lier f riend to w rite Napravfiik f or more information in regard to his
own music, and the music of the important modem Russîan composers. Napravni£,
entirely academic in hls tasteà, sent her the reqiii*td particular• in regard to himself,
and added tba f, nuteidt of C haykovsk i, he knesv of nn other Russi an eompoicrs of
outstand›ng meiit. The Countess, afier examining the works receivcd, decided th at
Naprav»ik’s works were “conductor's music” and that the music of Cha yko›• k i left
her “cold." The folJowing year her friend scnt htr corn positions by Borodin and Cui.
Eipecl ally liking Cui’i piere, she w rote to the composer und received in retqrn his
pamphJet, M i sic in B u»ie. This pamplilct gave a full chronicle of the wotk of the
Five, and tire Comte.•s lost no Urne Je procu riog all the avait ab΢ corn positions of the
Band. de early know lctlge of the Modem Russian school in Belgium was due to
her enthusiasm. Through her intervention, Tûe Pérenne r o f iii e C'erraiur cas p roy
duced at Liège in r88i, an‹J Cui wei ir vitid to superinteed the production. C. Y. Y,
 BY EL Y AYEFF S C1 RCLE z4i
kirefl was brokcn off. Balakireff wa9 joined for good and all by
S. M. Lyapoonoft who had f allen completely under his swsy.
The relations between Balakirefi and Cui also became rather
strained, but z'Ith mc B alakireft was somewhat more intimate,
owing to our joint duties in the Chapel. So then thv “mighty
koochka” had gone to pieces irrevocably. The connecting links
between the formcr circle of Balakire fi and the newlY to rmed circle
of 13 yelyayefl werk Borodin, Lyadofi and I ; and, after Borodin's
delth, Lyadofl and I alone. Gla zunoII cannot be counted a con-
occting link, sincc his appearance in the field coincides with the
:ime erf the inigh ty coterie’s dissolution.
Beginning with the lat ter half of the Eightles, wr, or Bye11'a- y-
11's circle, consisted of Glazunofi, Lyadoff, Diitsch, F cliks
Blumcnfeld, his brother Sigizmund ( a talente d singer, accornp2n-
ist and composer of songs) , and mysel f. Later, as they gradu-
ated ffom the Conservatory, tkere appeared N. A. Sokolofl, Anti-
poif, Wihtol and others, of z'hom I shall speak in due course.
The venerable V. V. Stasolf always preserred the same cordial
and close relations with the new circle as well, but his influence in
it was no longer the same al in Balakirefl’s.
Can Byelyayefi’s circle de looked upon as a continuation of Ba-
lakiretÏ's ? U*as thc re a certain modicUrfl Of simila rity between
one and the other and what con tituted the diflerence, apart from
the change in its personnel in the course of time ? The similarity,
indicatief that Byelyayefi's tircle was a continuation op Balaki-
refl’s circle (in addition to the connecting links) consisted of the
adv anced ideas, the progressivism common to the two of them.
But Balakirell’s ci rclc corresponded to the reriod of storm and
stress in the evolution of Russl an musiC ; Byelyayefl's circle rrp-
resented the perlod of calm, onward mar ch. Balakirell’s clrCle
was revolutiona ry, Byclyayefl’s, on the other hand, was progres-
sive. II nee learc out of account Lodyz henski, who had accom-
plishe‹I nothing, and I yadofl, n•ho had appearcd later, Balakirefl’s
circle consisted of Balakire ff, Cut, Musorgski, Borodin and rny-
self (the French hav e retained the denomination of "l cs cinq”
for us to this ‹lay) . Dyelvaye fi's cii•cle v as uumcrou9 and grew
more so in the course of time. All the five members of Balaki-
retd’s circle were subsequently recount zed as prominent representa-
tives of Russian musical creative art. The other circle was
a4z M Y II U S I C A L L I F E
variegated in makc-up: it contained prominent composers of
talent, and men of lesser gifts, and men who were not composere
at all, but conductors like Diitscli, for instance, or solo-pei formc1‘S
itke N. S. La rroff. Ball.kireif's ctrcle consisted of musicians of
feeble technique, amateurs almost, w ho were piOne ering by sheer
f orce of their cr eative talents, force that occ asionally served them
in lieu of technique and, occasionally, (as was f requeotly the case
with ñlusorgski) , was insufficient to conceal its shortcoming9.
ByelJ ayefi's circle, on the contrary. Rons is ted of cnmposers and
musicians technicall y trained and erlucatCtl. The origin of music
that intcreste d it » as traced by Balakirefi's circle no further back
than tO B eetho›•en ; Byelyayeft' s Circle respects d not only its musical
fathers, but its grandfathers and great-gr and fathers as well, go-
ng back ss far as Palestrina. Balakirefl's circle i•erogniz ed ivc)l-
high exclusii ely the oi chestra, the piano, the chorus and vocal
solos with orchestra, ignoring chamber-mtisic, vocal ensembles
( excepting the operatic duet) , the chorus a rupefJu and the solo
for bow-instruments ; Byelyayeft's ci rcle had a broader outlook
on these forms. Balakirefi's circle was exclusive and intolerant ;
I3yelyayefi’s was more indulgent ‹nd eClcctic. Balakirefl's circle
did not want to study but hroke paths forward, relying upon its
powers, succeed jn g the reln a nd learning ; Byelyaveft' circle studi ed,
attaching as it did yi cat importance to technic a1 perfection, but
it also broke new paths, though more securely , even if less
spcedily. B alakirefi's circle hated Yi*agne r and straioc d to take
no notice of him ; those in Byelyayeft’s circle had their eves and
ears open wlt h e gerness to learn and respect. The rclations
of the one circle to its head were those of puplls to a teacher
and elder brother, relations that had grown weaker as each of the
lesser Ones grew older, as I have poititc d Out more than once.
Byelyayefl, on the other hand, was not the heat), but rather thc
centre of his Circle. How could B yel) ayell bccomc such a cent rc
and wherein lay his force of attraction ? Dyclya yefi was a we althy
man of commerce, with a number of r ersonal crotchets, but
ivitlial an honest, kind man, frank to the point of brusqucncss,
Occasi onally straightf orward to the verge of rudeness, yet with
a heart that possessed tender strings undoubtedly ; a cordial host
and hospitable mao. But his force of attr action dit1 not lie in
his broad cordiality nor the opportunities of feeding at his table.
 B Y EL Y EFF S CI RC L E z$3
It lay (aside from the sympathetic spiritual qualities of his nature)
in his unlimited love for music and his devotion to it. Having
conceived an intei•est in the Russian School through his acquaint•
ance q-ith Glaziinofi’s gifts, he gave himself up completely to the
fostering and aitvan cement of that School. He was a Mzcenas ;
but he was no gentleman-M acer as to squander mone) on art
to suit his whilTl while i eally advancing it nowhere. To be sure,
had he not been wealthy, he would have been unable to do for art
what he did do ; but in this rega rd he planted himself on noble,
firm soil. He became a conce rt-impresario and publishe r of
RUSsi an music without counting on any personal benefit ; on the
contrary, he gave to the cause enormous sums of money, con-
cealing his name moreorer to the utmost of his ability. The
E ussian Symrhon y Concerts he f ounded proved subsequently an
institution with a life a9sured forever, while the publishing house
B elaie , 2-cipzip became one of tlie honoured and best-known Eu-
ropean firms, likewise securc d for all time.
lccoi dingly, P yc ly ayeff drew people to him by his personality,
his devoti on to art and his we alth not per ie but as a mc ans he
applietl tow a i ‹1s a sublime and disintc rested object ; and this made
trim the centrc of attraction of the new circle of musicians iVho
had only a certain hereditary connection with the quondam
“mighty loorJitu.”
by force of in:itters purely musical I turlied out to be heiid of
the Byelya yet( circle. .As the head Ryelyayefi, too, const dcred
me, consul ting mc al›ou't eve rythiug and referring everybody to
me as chief. I was considerably older than the othe r members
of thc cli cle (hut some eight yc acs younge r th;io BycJ yayc II) ; I
was the general teacher of the members of the circle, who hart, in
thC ma jOrity of cases, graduated from the C onscrvatory und cr
my gut dancc or liart at least received some measure of instruction
from me. Gl a7luotl had not studie d much under me and soon
came into the relatlOPt Of youngc r friend. Lyadofi, DC t9Ch, Soko-
I oft, IVi htol and othe rs 1›cc ame my pupils in instrumentation and
ft-ce composition , after having heen pupi1 s of Y. I. Joh arisen up
to fugue inclus we. Somewh at later I medau to guide my pupil s
from liarmony on : zccor‹1‹ugly, men like Cheryc pnin, Eolota ryofi
and othcrs u ere my pupils cntirc1 y. In the carly days after tlie
forms non of Byclyayefi’9 circle and at the beginning of his
z 3f Y ff U S I C A L I. I F E
activity as a free lance, every young composer of the circle usually
first showed me his new composition and availed himself of my
criticism and my advice. Being devoid of Balakirell's exclusive-
ness and despotism , or perhaps being merely more “omnivorous,”
I strove to make my influence on them felt less and less as they
gained more and moi e independence in creative work, and I re-
joiced at all se1f•reliance developing in my former pupils. In
the h ineties Glazunoft and Lyadolf began to share the leader-
ship with me ; upon hI. P.’s death, in accordance with his last
will and testament, they formed with me a Board of Trustees to
manage the publishing business, the concerts, etc. But I shall
speak of that th the proper place when I relate (in the orderly
course of connected reminiscence ) the details of the mutual rc-
latlOfls of thc circle’s ’members to each other and to Byelyayef(.

For screral years the Russian Musical Society's Conterts had

been passing from Rubinstein’s hands to visiting conductors (Hans
von Btiloiv, f or one) and then back to Rubinstein. A certain
shakiness a nil instability made themselves felt. Once, at the end
of the season, Rubl l3ste in Called rue to his office and proposed
that I conduct tlie concerts of the Itussi an Musical SoCiety the
fo1lov'ing se ason. I meant to think the proposal over, and even
jotted( r(nwn a program in the rough ; but there the matter
rested. Somehcw, Rubinstein suppressed this question, nor did
he raise it the next season ; probably he did not like my pro•
gram or else was in general reluctant to rely on my powers.
Of course, I ncve r mentioned it to him again.
F or the summer of I S 8 we rented a rilla on the bank of Lake
Nyelay, at tlie hiko1'skoye estate, in the Loogz canton. Through-
out the summc r I workcd assiduously on the orchestration of
Prince I yor and managed to accomplish a great deal. In the
rniddlc of the summer this work was interrupted: I composed
the 8pani Jr Ca[rice to f1‘om the sketches of my projected rirtuoso
v iolin fantasy on Spanish themes. According to my plans the
k api‘iccio to glitter with da rzling orchestra colour and, man-
i fcstly, I hall not been z rong. The work of orchestrating Prince
I yor also came easily, without strain, and was evidently a suc-
cess.
 P R I N C E I GOR z4s
That summer thc re wa9 a total eClipse of the sun, as if pur-
posely coincide nt ei th my work on Zpor, wherein the prologue
depicts a solar eclipse as an evil omen to Prince Igor, ocho in
storting out on an expedi tion against the Polovtsy. uit Niko1'-
skoye the eclipse did not produce the right imprcssion, as the stay
was overcast, and the eclipse occurred early in the morning (soon
after sunrise) . Our nurse A \rdo tya even 1 eet so far as to deny
the very tact of eclipse, considering it a gloom due to the fros-ning
cloudy sky.
I'isiting Pyetyerhofl from time to time in connectl cii with my
oJficial duties and iisually staying overuight at the Sla zonofi s’
who had a sumrnc r home there, I had talks with Alyeksandr
Koostantinovich, and the tz-o of us togcther pondered and dis-
cussed our work on Prince igor. During the se ason of i S 8 2—
88 this s ork continued. To the task of orchestration was now
added the need of a rocal score cxactly agrc cing with the orches-
tral score. This w-ork was undertakcli by Gla zunoff, Diitsch, my
wife, the two Blumenfelds and rnyself. The orchcstr al score and
the piano score were being prepare d for publication which h4. P.
Ryelyayefi had undertaken. Soon printing liegan, and proof read-
ing became the order of the day.

The new quarters of the COurt Chapel were now rcady, and,
quitting its temporary abode in hlillionnaya Street, the Chapel
had a house-warming.
This time, for M. P.'s birthday, Gla runofl, Lyadofi and I com-
posed a quartet suite fm5'cnin y (Birtlida y) in three movemcnts,
of which the third, Khorov o d, was from my pen.
The Russian Symphony Concerts (five in number) of this sea-
son were given at the Small Theatre. Owing to G. 0. Dutsch's
illness, I conducted all of them. The first concert v'as given in
memoriam of Borodin and Consisted OI his compositions ; among
these there was performcd for the first time the hI arch of tlie
Polovtsy from Prin r4 Iqor; I had orchestrated it iD the summer,
and it prored clfectis e in the extreme. .-After the pci formance
of this number I w as presented with a large laurel irrcath bear-
ing the inscription: “In the name of Borodin." This same con-
cert also saw the premieres of the Overture to PTince I9or afld
z4G M Y II U S 1 C A L L I F E
of the two movements of the unfinished 5ymphony in A-mine r,
At one of the subsequent concerts my Sparti h Ca priccio was played.
At the first rehearsa), the first morement (.1-major, in
)( ) had hardly bcen finislied z'hen the whole orchestre began
to appl aud. Sirnllar applause folloz ed all the other parts wher-
ever the pauses permitted. I asked the orchcstra for the privi-
lège of dedicatlng the composition to them. Gène mal delight
was the answ-er. The Caprirrio went without diflicultics 4ad
sounded brilliant. tôt the concert itself it n'as played v ith a pcr-
fection and enthusiasm the like of ivhich it never F•ssesstd sub-
sequently, even when led by N ikisch himself. Despite its length
the composition called forth an insistent encore. 'r opinion
formed ivy both tritics and the public, that the Cupriccio is a
miami[centl orches atcd fin«— i, •o•,. rhe Capti 0ëig iS a
brilliant co ni po›i/ioii for r/te orches m’a. The change of timbres,
the fellcitous choice of melodic destins and figurati on patte rns,
cxuctl ç sui ting each Lind of ip9Prpmeo t, brief (rtuoso caken z s s
for instruments solo, the rhythrn of the pu rcussion instruments,
etc., constitutc here thC very ris c full Of the composition and not
its garb or orchcstration. The Spanish thèmes, of dance char-
acter, furnishcd me with rich ma teri al for putting in use multi-
formorchestral eflects. All iii all, tlic Capriccio is undoubtc dIy
a pure lj extc mal piece, hut vivit))y Öf lllj4f1t lot all that. I cas
a little less socccssful in its third sect'on ( filbora do, in B fiat
major) , ivherc the masses somewhat droivn the nielodic rlesl gns '
of th e wood-ivintls ; bp t this is v'ery easûr to remedy, i f the conductor
will pay attc ntion to it and moderatc thc in‹1ications of the shades
of f orcc in the brass-instruments by rcplacing the fortissimo with
a simpJ e forte.
In the Russian SJ'mphony Concerts of this season, best des my
Ca priecio there v•us also played my F •utas y for ri olin ( Îk ras-
nokootski ) and the d f?d ir from Ïlorodin’s Quartet, which I
arranged for violin solo with oi-cliestr al accr›mp anlrncot. The
latter piece attracted no attenti on on the part of eithcr audience
or riolinists, and qui te undeservedly, in my opinion.
In the middle of the ivintef, engrosscd :ts I was in my z ork
on Pt ince. f por and other things, I conce ised the idCa of whiting
an orchestral composi tion on the subject of certain c pisodes from
Shekherazada, as well as an overture on the thèmes of the ohi•
 fi H E K H E R A Z A D A 24)
khod.* With these intentions and suitable music sketches I moved
with my entire family, early in the summer, to the estate of Glin- ki-
KIavrioy, N'yezhgovitsy , some t1!eIve miles beyond LOOgu, on the
Cherycmcnyet skoye take. hty Iarnily was increased in January: a
daughter, lasha, was born to us.'
During the summcr of 188S, at Neyzhgovitsy, I finished 8fie-
khei azada (in four movements) and The fit ipfii Holt day5* an
has ter O•eerlure on themes of tlie o h/k lto d. In addition, I wrote
for riolio and a small orchestra a mazurka on the Polish themes
SUng by my mothcr and heard in the Thirties and remembered
hy her from the time when her father was Governor of ¥’olynia.
These themes were familiar to me from Inf ancy, and the idea of
basing some composition on them had long interested me.
The program I had been guided by 'in composing Shahhera z-ado
consisted of separate, unconnected episodes and pictures from The
Drab ian E'i yhts, sea tiered through itll four movcments of my
suite : the sea and Sinbad's ship, the fantastic narrative o1
the Pi inte I(slender, the Prince and the Princess, the Bagdad
festival and the ship dashing against the rock with the bronze
rider upon it. "the unifying thi ead consisted of the brief intro-
ductions to Al orcmcnts I, II, and I\' and the intermezzo in Move-
ment III, written yp \rioli n solo and define ating Shekhera pada
herself as telling her z•ondrous tales to the stern sultan. The
final conclusi on of hJ ovc meet I\' serv•es the same artistic purpose.
In rain do people seek in my suite leading rnotive9 linked un-
brokcnly with ever the same poetic ideas and conceptiOns. On
the contr ary, in the majority of cases, all these seeming leitmo-
tives are nothing but pure ly musical material or the given motives
for symphonic development. These given motives thread and
sprcad orer all the movements of the suite, alternating and inter-
twining cach with the orher. Appearing as they do each time
under diffe rest illuminati on, depicting each time different traits
and exprcssing diIiercnt moods, the self-same given motives and
themes correspond each time to dift erent images, actions and pic-
tures. Thus, (or instance, the sharply outlined fan(are motive
° O / ii /io‹i of elm rch singing is a collection of the most important and most frequently
tised canticles of the Orthodox Chui-ch. The oéii8 nd was the first printed music in
Russia. ( NO oscow, i y2z) . ). A. ).
* Ri va, June 3n, i 9o6.
° The popular Russian name for Easter. J. A. J•
248 31 Y II U S I C A L L I F E
of the muted trombone and trumpet, v hich first appca rs in the
Kalender's Nar rati \ c ( II ovemcnt I I ) appears afresh in Move-
ment II', ln the delineation of tlie wrecking ship, though this epi-
sode has 1io connection with the Kalender's Narrative. d’he princi-
r al theme of the Kalender’s Narrative (B-minor, ) and the
theme of the Princess in Movement III (B flat major, °/s, clari-
nctto ) in altc red guise and (jUlCk tempo appear as the secondary
themes of the B agdad festival ; yet nothing is said in The Arabia n
14"i yh 1s about these persons taking part in the festivities. The
unison phrase, as though depicting Sheklicrazada's stern spouse, at
the beginning of the suite appears as a datum, in the Kalender's
Narrative, where there ca nnot, however, be any mention of Sultan
Shakli ria r. In this manne r, developing quite freely the musical
data taken as a basis of the composition, I had in view the creation
of an orchestral suite in f our movements, closely knit by the com-
munity of its themes and motives, yet presenting, as it were, a
kaleidoscope of fairy-tale images and designs of oi•iental char-
acter, a method that I had to a certain degree made use of in
my Skaz ka ( Fairy-tale) , thc musical data of which are as little
distinguishable from the poctic as they are in Slick he ra=ada.
Originally I had even intended tO label Nlovement I of She-
k hera= adn Prelude ; II Ballade ; III Adagio ; and I\* Finale:
but on the advice of Lyadoff and other s I had not done so. h4y
aversion for the seeking of a too definite program in my com-
position led me subsequentJ y (in the new edition) to do away
with Wren those hints of it which had laIn in the headings of each
movement, like : The Sea ; Sinbad’s Ship ; the Kalender's Nar-
rative, etc.
In corn rosing •$ hekhe› azada I meant these hints to dircct but
slightly the hearer's f ancy on the pa th which my own fanCy had
travelled, and to leave more minute and particular conceptions
to the will and mood of each. All I had desired was that the
hearer, i f he lifted my pt ece as iyaipfioair musie, should carry
away the impressiOil that it is beyond doubt an on ental narratijre
of some numerous and varied f at ry-tale wonders and not merely
four pieces played one after the othc r and composed on the basis
of themes common to all the four movements. IVhy theo, if that
be the case, docs my sultc bear the name, precisely, of ‹$ /irñfir-
razada Because this name and the title The Arabiait Ni ghIs con-
 T I—I E EA S T E R O V E R T U R E a49
note in everybody's mind the East and fairy-tale wonders ; besides,
certain details of the musical exposition hint at the fact that all
of these arc various tales or some one person (whith happens to
be Shekheraza da) entertaining therewith her stern husband.
The rather lengthy, slow introduction of the
Overlord on the theme of “Set God Arise 1'' alternating with
the ecclesiastical thcme “min angel wailed,” appeared to me, in
its beginning, as it were, the ancient Isaiah’s prophecy concerning
the resurrection of Christ. The gloomy colours of the 'Yndante
lugubre seemed to depict the holy sepulchre that had shone with
inelfablc light at the moment of the resurrection, in the transi-
t1OR tO the Allegro of the Overture. The beginning of the Alle-
gro, “Let them also that hate Him flee before Him,” led to the
hOliday mood of the Greek orthodox church service on Ch£t9t’s
mat(us ; the solemn trumpet voice of the Archangel replaced by
a tonal reproduction of the joyous, almost dance-like bell-tolling,
alternating now with the sextoo's tapid reading and now with the
ronrentional chant of the priest's reading the glad tidings of the
Evangel. The ohik hod theme, ''Christ is arisen,” o hich forms a
sort o( subsi diary part of the Overture, appeared amid the trum- pet-
blasts and the bell-tolling, constituting also a triumphant Coda. In
this Overture were thus combined reminiscences of the ancient
prophecy, of the gospel narrative and also a general picture of
the Easter service with its "pagan merry-making.” The caper-
ing and leaping of the biblical King David before the Ai•k, do
they not give expression to a mood of the same order as the
mood ‹if the id‹il-worshippers’ dance ? Surely the Russian ortho-
dox obihho‹I i s instrumental dance music of tke church, is it not?
And do not the v•av ing br ards of the priests and sextons clad in
white vestments and surplices, and intoning “Beautiful Master”
try tke tempo o( Allegro vivo, etc. transport the imagination to
pagan times ? And all thesc Easter loaves and twists and the
glow ing tapers . . . How far a cry from the philosophic and
sociallstlc teaching of Christ I ' This legendary and heathen side
of the holiday, this transition from the gloomy and my9tcrious
' . A*, Sokolo4, a fine and gifted story-tel ter, once described tn rfie afterwa ide the
folio wing littl e scene: during Holy Week, n Vlad lniirsk aya Place, a half-d runken
en ip of a peasan I stoppetl iti I rout of tlie bell-toocr, wlie *e all the bells were rung I ml
tilt ; at first he kept c =sii Rg himself, then became pepsi ve and at last broke out into
dancing in bthe and rbythixt of the tp]lfHg. Trtlly a spi ritua] merriment I
2jO Of Y M U S I C A L L I F E
eveoiog of Passion Saturday to the unbridled pagan-religious merry-
making on the morn OK E astcr Sunday, is what I was eagc r to
reproducc in my Overture. Accordingly, I' requested Count
Golyenishchelt-Kootoozoft to write a program in vcrse, which
he did for me. But I was not satlsficd with his poem, and wro te
in prose my own program, which 9arne is appended to the pu1:-
li hed score. Of course in that program I did not explain my
views and my conception of the "Bright Holiday,” leasing it to
tones to speak for me. Evidently these tones do, within certain
limits, speak of my feelings and thoughts, for my Overture ra isc s
‹Joubts in the mind of some hearers, dt ipite the considerable
clarity of the music. In any event, in order to appreciate my
Overturc even crer so slightly, it is necessary that thc hemer
should have attended Easter morning-service at Ieast once au‹L
at that, not in a domestic chapel, but in a cathedral thronged with
people from every walk of life with several priests conducting the
cathedral service, something that many intcllectual Russiao
hearers, let alone hearers of other confessioos, Suite back ftowa-
days. Ad for myself, I had gained my impressions in my Child-
hood passed near the Tikhvio Monastery itself.
The Caprirro, Shek herazada and the Pas t r Over iuTe close this
period of my activity, at the end of which my orchestrat‹on had
reached a consi de rable degree of v1rtuosity and bright sonority
without Wagner’s infiuence, within the limits of the usual make-
up of Glinka’s orchestra. There three compositions also show
a considcrahle Calling off in the use of contrapuotal devicrs,
which i9 noticeable after 8aJrpoorocfi ka. The place of the disap-
pearing counterpoint is taken by a streng and virtuoso develop-
ment of every kind of figuration which sustains thc technical in-
terest of my compositions. Tiiis trend Jast#d u ith rue f or seve ra1
years longer ; but in the orchc9tra tion, after the works referred
to, there is notice«ble a change which I shj1 speak of in my
further narrative.
 CHAPTERXXI
i888 - 9 2
PfoduCtÎOn of fer Rin9 dec Nibelunyen. The Polonaise from R cris
G0ûuuo) with new orchestration. Russian Symphony Concerts. Beginning
of l4îuda. Trip to Paris. Completion of the sketcli of Mlgda and its orchestr:ition.
Trip to ÏlrussclS. Domcstic inistortunes. Quartet-of-a- ccntury jubilee.
.Ncw tendencies in Byelyayeft’s circle. Production ot Prince I yur
Protluctioo of Mlada does not take place. Revision of Maid o/ Pi£ ov. Re-
orchCstfating 3adLo. Acquaintanccship with YastryebtselL

During the season of i 8 — 9. the Directorate of Imperial

The atres began to lead us a fine dance with the production of
I’t trice Lgor ivhich had been finished, published and forwarded to
the proper authorities. \Ve were led by the nose the following
season as well, n'ith constant postponements of production for
some rcason or other.
In the middle of the season of St. Petersburg’s operatic life
there occurred a very important event : h Teumau n, the imprésario
f rom Prague, turncd up at the M ari lnski Theatre with a German
opera tompany to produce Wagner’s king des 14'ihelunge n under
ñluck as conductor. All musical St. PetersbUrg was interested.
Glazunofl and I attended the rehearsals, following them score in
hand. hluck an excellent conductor rehearsed ÂI'agner's
works with great care. Our orchestra trove with all their hearts
and surprised .Muck with their ability in quickly gi•asping and
mastering wliaterei• lie demanded. Wagner’s method of orches-
tration struck Gla zunofl and me, and thence forth IVagner' de-
vices gradually began to form a part of our orchc stral tricks of
the trade. The first application of lVagner's orchestral methods
and of an iocr eased orchestr a (in the wind-choix) was made io
my orcliestration of the Polish dance from Boris Godunop for
concert performance. As rega rdv orchestration this Polonaise
was one of the Uss successful portions of Musorgski’s opera.

. "' . . ._,.„, , ..
zyz MYMUSICALLIFE
The composer had first orchestrated it, for the perf orniance of the
Polish scene in i 8 $, almost exclusively for box i n truments.
Musorgski conceived the unfortunate and z•holl indefensib le idea of
imitating the “vingt-quatr e violons du rot,” that is the orchestra of
the time of the composer Lully (Louis XI I') . Wh at connec-
there was between this orchesti•a and the time of the False Dmitri '
as well as the life of Poland of that period is incom-
prehensible. This was one of Musorgski's crotchets. The
Po lonais e, performed in Boris G oduno ’u la vingt-quatre violons
du not, produced no clect, and for the follow.eg year, i. e. for
the perf ormaBce of the opera in its entirety, the composer recast the
orchestration. Nevertheless, nothing Of consequence resulted from it.
Yet, in its music, the Po low are e was charactc ristic and
beantiful ¡ for this reason I undertook turn if into s concert
piece, the more so as B orid G oduno was no longer on the boa rds.
I linger on thi9 intrinsically lesser opus of mine, because I attach
inn Ortance to it, ;tS being my first essay in the new field of orches-
tration that I had entered therewi th.
Der Ming des Ntfirfunpco was given in several subscription cy-
cles, but Wagnerism had not yet taken hold with the St. Peterliurg
audiences, as it did later, beginning wl th the close of the hineties.
During the scasoa of i88 — 9 the Russian Symphony Concerts,
under any direction, were transferred to the Club of hTobility; they
were six in number. heklterazada and the Eat ter Gverl ure were
plrtyed with succe9s at the concerts of this season. Glazunow, too,
made his bow z9 conductor of his own compositlofls. (119 f rst
essay9 iR this field were by no means brilliant. Slow by na ture,
maladroit and clumsy of movement, the maestro, spcaking 91owly
and in a low voice, many festly displayed littlc ability either for con-
ducting rehearsals or for siva yiBg cue orchestra dUf’1og a concert
performance. Nevertheless, the consciousness of the great merits
of his compositions induced the orchestra to aid rather than ob-
struct hiiTl. II*ith each fresh appearance, however, he made pi•og-
ress and )ost constraint both a t rehea Tsels aad concerts. Prar-
tice and his own great, lncomparab1e musicianship di d their r a rt,
and in a few years he hall developed i ntO an excellent perf orrncr
of his own as well as of other people's compositions ; in this he was
 P R I N CGE I O R a 3
helped by the ever-growing authorlt y of his name. then making his
first appeai•ance as a conductor he was more fortunate than I in
this respect. He knew the orchestra and orchestration better than I
had kncwn either at the time of my first appearance ; be- sides, I
couJd guide him and give him advice. As long as I had found it
made isable to allow him to appear as conductor he made no appe
at ance, Byclyaye ll's pleas to the contrary notwith- standing. 1s for
myself nobody had helped or advised me in my time.
ThC COndu cting of concerts and the study of Der Ring de s Nib e-
Inti9en did not allow me to concentrate on composition. In addi-
tion to orrhestrating the Palonaise, I also re-orchestrated my
‹Ki ri›ian L’antax for the new edition undertaken by Byelyayeff, who
hall brought it back from tlie Yohanson firm. Not contenti ng him-
self with neiVly appearing works, Byelyaye fi bought from the pub-
lishers, in addition, as far as possible, the publishing rights tO
soinc liussi an compositions. Bitncr’s firm resdily Surrendci ed to
him fny )/u)' 1S!i gltt Yoh Aneon tlie <K erhian Fa mus y and Rlusorg-
ski's songs. Evidently these firm9 did not charge hint much and
wevc glad to get rid of pul›lications that brought them no prohts.
Eut with Rtsscl's firm the case proved different. The author of
Prince I you had incautiously given to Bessel’s firm two or three
numliers from his opera with the Freoth translations by the Coun-
tess hI ercy d'Argenteau. After the composer’s death, when Bye-
lyayeft had acquired the right to publish the O Cra Wlnd it turned
out that the above-mentioned numbers had been published by Bes-
se1 aire ady, Byclyayetf had to pay B essel exactly three thousand
rubles in order to buy back these numbers from him, qrhile Bessel
had got them from Borodin possibly for nothing.
On the second anniversary of Borodin's death, V. V. Stasolf,
Gla zunofl, Lyadoff, Byelyayeff, my wife and I gathered in Boro-
din’s formsf apprtment ( now occupi# d by his successor Drank n)
in order to spend a few hours together in memory of the dear
man and to play various sketches for •Hlada zs well as others that
had not found the ir way into Prince 1por„ had not been published,
or bi ought into any sort of order. Among thcse was the finale of
Theda, which depicted ñlorena’s cxorcism, the ’inundation, the de-
struction of the temple and the apotheosis. I must say in passing
 Jy hI 1 If U S / C .1 ï. L l Y E
that the music of the inundation, composed by Borodin for M tada,
b ad at one time been planned for transfer to the third act of
Prince I ‹)or. The author had read somewhere that during Igor’s
!'ight with Ovloor from the camp of the PolovtSy the Don over-
ig obv ed its banks and hindered the PolovtSy from pursuing the
f ugitives. Nevertheless, Borodin gave up this idea, as too minu te
:i detail. On this ground Glazunofi and I had made no use of
this material in working orcr the third act. )Vhile glancinq=
over the skctch of this finale I decided to orchestrate it, and sub-
sequently did. In the midst of talk and reminiscence of Borodin,
Lyadofi was suddenly struck with the thought that the subject-
matter of 5llada was exactly suitable for mc. He expressed him-
self to that eflect, and, without much refiection, I replied deci-
sir ely, “Yes, you are right, I shall set out forthwith to work on
this opera-ballet." From that moment, my thoughts began te
ü z eII on the proposed subject. Gradually, rnusica 1 1 deas canic
also, and a fcw days later there was no doubt that I was compos-
ing M lada. I made up my mind not to re9trict mysclf in means
but to have iii view an increased orchcstra Jikc \Vagner‘s in the
R in9. V. V. Stasof( w ai delighted with my decisioii and made
‹yuite a to do about it. During spring, the composition began to
progress. The missing text wat made by rnyself.
In the summer of i 88 9, the Paris Univer9al Exposi tlOn took
place. BWelja et decihed to give there two symphouic concerts
of Russian music at the Troca déro Llall, under my direction.
Havihg got in touch with the proper authorities, he arraaged the
matter and inVitCd Cï azunofi, the pianist I.avrofÏ and IIiyseJf to
go with him. Our children were again placed at our summer home
in L'yezhgovitsy, under my mother’s care, while my wife and I,
with Byelyayetf, Glazunotl and Lavrofl, lcft for Paris, expccting
to rejoin our families, after the concerts ware over, and to spend
the rest of the summer at Nyezhgovitsy.
The concerts 1 were set for Saturdays, June z z and z 9 , new
style. Upon our arrival in Paris, rehearsals commenced. 'the
orchestra, which proved to be excelleu t, the men being amiable
and painstaktng, had bcen borrowed from Colonne. Their play-
ing the concerts was fine ; among the chance shortcoming9 I re-
* Cf. Arr endix V.
 I N PA R) Ñ 2$J
wall the oboe-player’s mistake in the Ïourth movement of Au tar.
"the sUccess was considerable,' with applause aplenty, but the at-
tendance was not large, in spite of the Exposition and the enor-
monk throng of visitors. The immédiate cause of this is to be
sought in our inadéquate advertising. Europe is fond of adver-
tising and needs it, whereas Byelyayc f( was an emery o( all ré-
clame. While advertisements of every kind of institution were
berné displayed at every street-corner, shouted everywhere, car-
ried on people's backs, printed in newspapcrs in largc type, —Bye-
lyzjell conflned himself tO rflodRst announcements. Hls reasoo-
ing as follows: whoever is interested will find out and come,
and he who docs not find out is tito /acio not interestrd ; while
those come, because they have nothing else to do., art not
wanted at all! Îth suCh ideas no large attendance was to be ex-
pected. Byelyayefl lost a large sum of money had expected to
do so : but Russian symphonic music wss not any the more known,
cor had it attracted sulficient attention .on the part of Europe and
Paris -Byelyayelf could not hai•e desired it, Back ol this im-
médiate cause of the incomplète Success of the concerts, a cause
due to laCk Of adrertising, there lay another radical reason, the
insufiicicDt importance of Rus ian music in the e)'e9 of foreigners.
Audiences are incapable of becomiog acquainted z'ith the unfami-
lier ; they w RlCome only what is knoivn, familia r and fashionable,
i. e. again what ls koown. .4rt is rcleased from this magic circle
Ïn A Jfred Bru0eau’s d tf s iqit t$ de Rnette (B ibIiotheque-Cha rpentier ; iqo3 ; pige
2o) tha t French composer-critic writcs: “1 made the acqoa ietauce of R imsky-I(nisa-
koH dor’ing the Exposition of i88g, at the T rocadéro, where tte gave the first P ans
audition of his Ha/•r. Et thin epoch, al ready distant, the French were only' sligbtly
fAm ili 8r H ith frlode r ri R tisâia n mutit•. II lily $ft)§ei o/ Û ect r rif N UO orodIn and
some or her short p)eces by Slavic composers had been perforroed here and there, to be
sir re, buf wc were ignorant of th e longer works total we src applauding now. bf. Rimsk¡'-
KoizakoR cas out iuitistox. . • . 1 came away from the concert f All of enthu- 5iasm sud,
99 I wa s just begirining niy career as critic, I wrote the followiag fon- ce rning a?sr:
'ft il nwessary to pl ace Rimslry-Korsakoff's .¥nfsr out ide the ranb nt symphony, lt 1s an
instrumental tale in four parts strongly boiind tog;ether b5 thèmes vvh ich Combine and
inte ri ace with ext raordiriary eo»e. The compo.•er› h ere, possesses not only a bril li ant
palette to which je ewe hix metxncholy i eme, his leapmg gazrlle,
»nd his heavy blact bird. Flo alao pairtts, in a search‹ug *indy, the thtee gteat hu-
man passions: Vengeance, and Love III that with an lnComp8r2 b le vîQOU£
and ovigiiiality. li is thete 4hst the superiority oÎ music sho›vs 1t•elf. The8e three
sentiments, each fiowing through ineasures, tonal ities «nd variotis rhythms over svhich
liovers (he lcad itlg phtase of Andar, are fa it hfuI ie Section s of our tormented, inde-
ci»i c, and mysterioiis souls. Sounds clone can render the induite rnob i!ity o! thought.
Ï\4. RIrilskv-Rorsak où has expre8sed all thèse p rofountÏ nuances of the heart in a l°n-
guage which i8 eloqnent, solid, new, and hztdy? " C. V. V.
zJ6 21 Y M U S LI C A L I F E
by two things: tempting advertisements and popular a rtist9.
Neither of thèse two things was on hand this time. The only
practical result of the Russian Symphony Concerts at the Exposi-
tion was an invitation to me to come to Brussels the f ollowing
year, although this was ratJier the out-croppirig où the seeds solrp
there by Coiintess Merry d’Argenteau.
In the midst of rehearsals we vi9ited the Exposition. here
were allo diouers in honour of the Russian musicians at Colonne’s
hoqse and in the editorial offices of 9ome paper where, after dinner,
a loathsome, old, stout operetta diva sang, and my Ce priccta and
Glazunoff’s St)!eüka R amin were played four-hands on a grand
piano by Pugno and M es9ager. IVe were also invited for a soirée
to the Ministre des Beaux-Arts, where wc met, among other guests,
II assenet with the singer Sanderson and the ancient Ambroise
Thomas. Of the musical acqua intance made in Paris I shall also
mention Delibes, Mine. H olmès, Bourgault-Ducoudray, Pugno,
and Messagrr. We a1 o made the acquaintance of hJichel De-
lines, subsequently translator of On ye gin and of my adko, tth
the exception of Delines, all thèse acquaintanceships prcoved ost
superficÎ al. DelÎbes gave one the impression of a merely amiable
gentleman, ' U assenet of a crafty fox; the composer Urne. Holmès
was a ver)• décolletée persou ; Pugno proved an, cxcellent
planist and rcader of music ; B ourgault-Ducoudray a serious
musician and bright cao ; messager was rather colourless. Saint-
Saëns was not in Paris. Delines was a kind man, danced atteo-
dance upon us, aided us in many things. All the other transient
acquaiotances: edotors, rri tirs, etc. seemed to me f airly empty
babblers. At the Grand Opcra we saw Shakespeare’s Te mpes t
io Arnbroise Thomas's musical sitting, and at the Opéra-
COmique —Massenet’s E clarmotide with Miss Sanderson in the title-
rôle. The performance was excellent. In the orchestra of the
Opcra-Comique wc recogni red musiciens from C olonne's tirchestra,
who h ad played in the Russian Symphony Concerto. The butlding
of the Paris ConservatOi re and its library wc also weet to see.
OU my musical impressions of Paris I shall mention the musit in
Thi• I» an allusion to the two chitractets in fiogol’s Men:zor,- tenner the dramafi8
persona e they are denoted as: "A lady pleasant in every respect" and "a merely p l eas-
ant lady.” J. A. J
 MLADA
the Hungarian and Algerian caf és, at the Exposition. The
tuoso-playing on the ts ez nitsa (Pan's pipe) gave rue the idca of
introducing this ancicnt Iostrument in Lllada during the scene of
dante before the Queen Cleopatra. At the Algerian ca ffi, in thc
dance of a little girl with the dagger, I was captivated by the sud-
den blows struck hy a Negro on the large drum at the dancer's
approach. This elect, too, I borrowed for the Cleopatra
scene.2
Hay rug done with the concerts, my wi fc and I parted with ou r
friends (who stayed on in Paris) and left for Russia v ia Vienn a,
making brief visits at (,ucerne and Zurich and going to see S alz-
burg with Iozart's house, and the salt mir es at Salzkamrnergut
and Kiinigsee. E arl7j in July we were already back at Nyez hgo-
vitsy. I immediately set to work on Mlada. The final Impulse
was given by the idea of introducing on the stage, in the scene of
Cleopa tra's dances, an orchestra consist IRS Of Pan’s pipes, lyres
glissando, a large drum, small clarinets, etc. The outline of
Lllada grew by the hour, not by tlie day, and was finishc d by Sep-
tember. To be sure, the musical material had been maturing in
my head since spring, yet the recording of it all in pi oper se-
quence and the working out of details and of the scheme of
modulations were done this time particularly fast. The contrib-
uting factors were in the first placc, too great laconism of the
text (in contrast with )Vagner) , which I had been enable to de-
velop, so that its dramatic part proved rather z-eak; in the second
place, the U*agnerian system of leading motives had considerably
acccle rated composing; in the third place, notable absence of con-
trapunta1 writing also helped to speed the work. But to make up
ior it, my orchestral intentions were novel and ambitious fi la
)Yagner ; there was in store for me enormous labour on the or-
chestral score and it consumed a whole year of my time.
In September wc moved to governmental qoa rters at the Court
Chapel. At the house-z arming, I had to treat I'. V. Stasofl to
yello w tea, as many years before that he had predicted that he
would drink yellow tca in my home at the Court Chapel. On what
he had based his prediCtion I know not, but here I really found
myself at the Chapel, and yellow tea had to be brewed.
This music was employed for the entrance and unveiling of the queen in The
Russian Ballet, Gléa fñtrc. C. V. V.
2JÔ M Y M U S IC A LLIFE
The Russian Symphony Concerts of this season were given again
at the Hall of the Club of tke Nobility, tindcr my direction, Ghz-u-
col conducting his own compositions. It had been and bcc ame
thereafter a custom to give iovariably at least one composition
by Glazunolf at each Russian Syrnpliony concert. Thc productive
author gave no occasion for breaking this rule, and the pulilic began
to grow more and more actustomed to his name and appreciative of
his talent. Yet hÎs name ditl not draw audi‹’nces, just as the
Eussian Symphony C oncerts' reputation th4t began to gain â SOlld
footing did not add to the number of f of loive i•s of the “young
Russian school,” as the cii cle of composcrs centerinq= around Byelya-
yefl began to be called at that time.
I' began the orchestratÎOn of Elle dB v th Act III of the opera.
Yhen thIS act \vas fini shed, 1 placed it on the program of the
Russian Symphony Coocer ts and it was pei formed with Lodi as
Yaromir and the opera chorus taking part in the performance.
The Pan's pipes were played by the musiciens of the Finnish Rcg-
irnent, the small clarinets by A fanasyef( and N ovikoh, pupils of
the Court Chapel and, la ter, artiste of the C oui t Orchesti a. The
pipes of Pan had been made upon my order ; their glissando caused
no slight wonder amoog the auditors. All in all, rny orchestral
contrivances hit the mark and the successl ons of the fantastic
colouring of the afterworld, of the fiigh t of shadow-s and of
Mlada's appearance, of the hellishly-orninous appearance of
Chernobog, of Cleopatra's oriental bacchanal and of day aivaken-
ing with the birds- produced a deep impression. I was plea sed
with the new current that had ilowe d into my orchestration. As
for performance, tny cont rivances ofiered flO ‹lit CUI Il CS. Q)'OfiT
on the orchestral score of U/dJa ram smoothly, though the Con-
servatory, the Court Chapel and the Russian Symph ony Conccr ts
took up rather a great deal of my time.
During Lent I reserved an invitation to come to Brusscls to
conduct two concerts of Russian music. I acccpted the ofTe r and
left at the end of Lent. It turned out that my invitati‹in to Brus-
sels had been occasloned by the reftsal on the part of Joseph Du-
pont, the permanent conductor of the Symphony Concerts at
Brussels, to lead during that season, or ing to some unpleasantness
with the Directors. It had been decided to invite foreigners.
Beside9 me, the invltatton had been extended also to Ddvard G rieg,
 1N B R U S S E L S aJq
Hans Richter, I believe, and some one else. I met with a kindly
rcceptif›n in Brussels. Joseph Dupont, who had not completely
withdrawn from the concerts, but had merely refused to direct
them, gave me ex•ery possible assistance. I met all the prominent
musicians of Belgium : Gevaer t, Edgar Tinel, Huberti, Radoux,
etc. d“hcy invi ted me everywhere, they dined and they WIKI d me
in cabarets. There were two concerts with six rehear9als spiece,
including the gcner a1 rehearsal to which the public was admitted.
-Among other picces the following were performed: Borodin's
F«irst Symphony ¡ An far,- Ca priccio Ei p 9nof; la tr oduclio n and
En tr'actes from Cut's I. e Flibu tier; Glazunofi’9 Po Min e k yrique;
the Overturc to Ruff an and L yudmila; Balakirefi's Russ ian Over-
tilrc A :S’i yhi on Ba!d Whount. The rehearsals took place at the
Hall, the concerts at the Thé atre de la Monnale. The houses
were full, and the success w4s pronounced. I was presented with a
wrcath. The concerts attracted Bclglan musicians from other
cities T.iege, h(alignes, etc. In Brussels I had the good fortune
to liea r I) I r F tic gende Holl’‹inJer, to see the Conser vatoire muse-
um, to hear G evaert play the spinet9 4nd clarecines, and also to
(become acquainted with the oboe d'amore. The Belgians parted
*riends with me.
On returning to St, Peter9burg I found my wife ill with a
dangc rous infi ammation of the throat. Soon my son ,§ndrey
also fell ill. Spring passed in worry and dread. For the summer,
we moved to hyezhgovitsy again. In the wiotcr our I Emily
p=ained one more member : in December, 1859, a son, SlavChik,
was born to us. My mother ( 8 2 years old) felt exceedingly fee-
ble, j ct expressed a desire to live earth us, and I brought her to
the summe r home.
By the vza y, be fore the summc r, I had managed to orchestrate
the finale of Borodin's M!uda for publication, and dUring the en-
tire summer I was engaged in orchestrating my own M/ado which I
intended) to finish in the fall. Work on it progressed.
In .August, my mother had to be removed to St. Petersburg,
that we might call in medical aid for her. However, in spite of
all measures we could take, she rapidly sank and soon died, because
of merc old age. After burying her at the Smolyenskoye ceme-
tery, we spent the remaining days at Nyezhgovitsy and then re-
moved to St. Petersburg. Bad luck pursued the family: in
 a6o II 1’ Bl L S I C a L L I r r
Decembcr little Slavoni k fell ill and died, and later Mama, too,
was taken ill.
December I p, ' 9° arked twenty-five years of my activity as
composer (since tlie production of my First Symphony). fly
fricnds decided to celebrate my jubilee. Byelyayelt got up a con-
cert of my woi ks at the Hall of the Club of the Nobility, under
the direction of Dütsch and Glazunotl. The numbers performe‹l
- were rh‹ r:.st S mphony, Amer," the Concerto for the piano
(Lavrofl) , the Eai ter O•crt time. SoR@S had nlso been scheduled
( Fride) ; of them, the song The Wir free and the Palm, orches-
trated by me shortly before that, was published in orchestral score
as a surprise to me. Unfortunately, Ow ing to Fride's sudden ill-
ness, the SOogs could not be given. There were also played Glori-
bcarions, composed by Gla zunofi and Lyadof for this occasion.
One had been written by Gla zunofi on the Russian theme “3lava.”
The audience was rather large ; there were nurnerous calls for me,
presentations, speeches, wreaths, etc. They came to my house
with tongratulations and addresses. I was greeted by the Con-
servatory with Rubinstein at the head, Balakirc fi with the Chapel,
etc. In answ er to all these honours, we gave a dinner at home to
our more intimate fric nds. The guests were many and thc dinner
war livcly and ivithout constra int. The only One who f ailed to
accept our invitation was B alaki reff with whom I had had a falling
out over some trifiing matte r shortly after the jubilee festivities.
When T wert to invite hJ. I, to my house, he replied in a hard
cold roice : “Ü o l I o-oo't come to dinner at hour house.” Re-
Nations between us grew worse ever after and finally came to a
Complete break.
In the winter or spring of I 8q i Chaykovski came to St. Peters-
burg on quite a long vJit, and from then dated his closer intimacy
with Byelyayeß's circle, particularly with Glazunofi, Lyadoll and
inyself. In the years following, Chaykovski' visits became quite
frequent. ßitting around in restaurants till three in the morning
with Lyadofl, Gla zunolt and others usually put a finishing touch to
the time spent together. Chaykovski could drink a great deal of
ivine and yct keep his full pow-ers, both physical and mental ; but
New could keep up with him in this respect. In their comp aoy
By the way, A. G. Rubinitein, on hearing d man, exprei scd hiinielf; “lt ie haltet
 CH A Y K O I’S K I z6i
La roche bcgan to appear mort and more frequently. I avoided
Laroche to the best of my ability and as a rule dawdled very lit-
tle in restaurants, lcaving long before the rest. At this time there
begins to bc noticeable a consider ablc cooling où and et en some-
that inimical attitude towa rés the memory of the "mighty
ùoochùa” of Balakirefi's period. On the contrary a worship of
Chaykovski and a tendeDc toward eclecticism grow ever stronger.
Nor could one help ooticing the predilection (that 9prang up then
in our circle) for I talian-French music of the time of wig and
farthingale, music introduced by ChaykOVSkl in his Pin ONa) 4
Dania (Queen of Spades) and ŸOlBHta. By this time quite an
accretÎon of new elements and young blood ha d accumulated lu
Byelyayefl's circle. New times—cciv birds, new b'ir‹Js ncw songs.
During his visit in 18 Q i Chaykovski came once to our house ;
Byelyayefl, Glaziinoll and othcrs were alsti there. Uo1›idden, La-
roche dropped iii and stayed through the whole ci cning. Hot-
ever, N adyezhda Nikolayevna treated htm so sti9ly that he never
came agaÎ n.
On C)ctober 23, i 8 9o, Princc I QoT was produced at last, re-
hea rsed fairly well by K. A. KuChera, as N'aprarnik had decliDed
the honour of corducting Borodi n's opera. Both Gla zunolf and f
mere pleased ivit h our orchestration and additi ons. The cuts later
introduced by the Directorate in Oct III of the opera did it con-
siderable harm. The unscrupulousncss of the II ariinski Theatre
subsequently west to the length of omitting Act III al togethe i•.
Takcn all in all, the opera was a success and attractctl ardent ad-
mirers, particularly among the younger generation.
At one of the six Russian Symphony C once rts, the thirt) act
of my Af/ads wz z performed anew-. After its publication by Byc-
lyayef, 4llada z•as submit ted by me to Director of Theatres, Ysye-
volo xhskl. Becoming interested in its scenc ry, tte immediately
agrecd to produce it and f aith fully promised to carry out all any
conditions to make no cuts, to procure all necessary instruments and,
in general, scrupulously to follow out my directions as author. To the
summer of r *9 I turned my hand to Ps Lo+'it s!anka. Its
first rersion was unsatisfactory to me, the secOnd still more so.
I made up my mind to revisc my opera ; I meant to keep closely
to its first version in general, ithout increasing its bulk and yet
replace parts that did not satisfy me, with corresponding portions
z6z M Y If U S I C A L L I F E
!borrowed from the second versioh, The place of honour among
these borrowing s belonged to the scene of Olga with I"lasye›-na
prior to T9ar Ivan's entry. Chetvyortka Tjerpigorefi of the sec-
ond version was to be done away wI th, Nikola Salos likewise, and
so were the wandering pilgrims, The thunder-storm and the
Tsar's hunting party I intended to retain, but only as a stage Uh-
beau before the G-major chorus of the girls. The Tsar's talk
with Styosh a during the eoterta inment I planned to introduce into
my new revision, but the final chorus I left in its original form,
save that I meant to develop it somewhat. The cnti re orchestra-
tion with its natural-scale brass was good for nothing, and tliC
opera was to be orch estratecl on a new principlc, pa rtly north
Glinka’s orchestra, partly with Wagner's.
During my entire activity as composer, now one and now a-
other subJ ect attracted my :ittention fi’om time to time, without
how ever, actually coming to rea lization. Thus thc su1›jects of
Tsar.‹ka j g k’5'ev)!ei ta (The Tsar’s Bride) , $ c m'ilia and 8sJ/‹o
had flitted before me more than once, t empting me to ttirn my hand
to them. Be fore the surnme r of i 8q i the subject of to rJ iii/i ku
( Daybreak or A Night at the Cross-roads) had preoccur' ed mc,
but not for long; yet some music a1 ideas, that proved of use sub-
sequently, had begun to germinate in connection with the subjcct.
The summc r of i 8q i we spent abrOad, as ñ) aSha's illness made
it necessary. \Ve lived in S1 itze rJ and, on the Sminenberg near
Luceme, in Engclbcrg, at Lugario and again on the Sonnenbe rg.
I did no z•ork at all ‹luring the whole summc r, unless it be an at-
tempt to orchestrate some zongs, quite unsucccss fully, hoz ever.
Our ti•ip abroad brought no relief to oui poor dear little girl.
The producti‹ n of i)f/edu did not take place during thc season
of i *9 9° • The choral portions were being rehearsed, hot for
the re*t we e•erc being deceived. h(oreovcr, A*apravnik fell ill.
In order not to delay the matter, I proposc‹l to hifri to conr)uct in
J›erson the “w•e eding out” re he arsals of the oi chestr a, and two of
these took place. Tlie scenic artists maintainctl that between the
scene9 of Chernobog and tlie Cleopatra sc enc no dextctous scene-
shifting was possib1 e if directions were follo ed as inti icaterl
in the score. Feeling tired and incapable of furt her work On the
composition of Lllada, I re‹juested G larunoff to s ri te an inter-
mezzo on my themes, so a5 not to interrupt the music during the
 YA S T R Y E B T 5 E F F aba
change of scenery. Glazunof( consented and skilfully composed
an intermezzo by cleverly adapting himself to my style. Subse-
queotl y, however, this interme zzo was not used, as it was found
possible to elm ft scenery in a moment, and my original plan was
adhered to. Napras-nik recovered, thR production of M lads
was pOstpoued until the ensuing season. ‘rd make vp for it, dur-
ing Lent, at the toncer t of the Dì rectorate of Imperİal Theatres,
the entire third act was given under Napravnik’s leadership ;
its suCccss, however, was not overwhelming. Along with it was
given Napravnik’s Do n /qea '—a tedious, uDinteresting and ínter-
miDahle composition.
The Rossi an Symphony Concerts ran their course. I was en-
gaged on 2’/i« Mail o f Pskov and, in addition, orchestrated anew
the eriti re sccond scene of Õoris Godiiao;{f (The Coronation
Scene ) , wkich was the cornerstone in ni7 further of
ñJusorgski’S wOi’k, undertaken later. At the end of the season
I did one more Jiiece of work: I rewrote the orchestratíon of my
5ddćo ( toøc-poem) . IVith thig revision I settled accounts witłi
the past. ID this z ay, not a single larger work of mine o/ the
prr/od aorcdaiiitp df «y *Sity ùi remained unrevised.
Nly acquaint ance with 1'. I*. Ya stryebtsefÍ, an ardcnt admirer of
mine, dates approxirna telv from this time. Introduced to me at
a concert, lie gradually visited me more and more frequently, re-
cording (as proved afterwards) his talks with me, the ide2s ex-
r ressed by rue, etc. in the form of memoírs. In his library he
had all my compositions in full scores ¡ he collected my autographs,
and knew by heart well-nigh every little Mott in them, at all
events every interesting harmony. The time of the begin-
ning and completion of each of my compositions was recorded by
him with the greatest care. In the company of acquaintances, con-
stant and passing, he was a fervent partisan of my compositions
and my def ender against every variety of critical ons1augh*.
During the first years of our intimacy he was a(so a violent Ber-
liolist, Subsequently this passion of his tlied down considerably
and gas e way to z worship of Wagne .’
tncidcnta 1 music to Alyekoey Tołst0y's drsea Dan boon, op. 5ș, x89z ( polo, chorus
øtlestia, declam0tion) . Of To1stoy'e Tri!vpy, one U*or teen fts f’rrrilfe was
played iø New York (March i, i9oJ) by Richard Msnsíield, and Tsar F yader by
Ur]yenyeł - and Nazimo a, in EŁussÎan› (s‹joSț . J• A. Ț.
^ F łorence, August 8, zÿo6•
 C H APTER X X II
1 89 2 9 3
Studying wthetics and philosophy. Production pt fodo. Nofonfn.
"friendly” ‹dinner. lVeariness and ill-health. Ptodqction of 5ayegooroch-
1« in Moscow. Altani, ñfay :4’iyht on a private state. Leoncavallo.
$nlDMOii. Impressions of visit to Russian Symphony Concerto.
Krooshevski. @Mxfnn and Lyodmifa anmversary.

The summer rat 9• I spent with my whole family at Nyezh-

govitsy without leasing it once. OU my task with Pskovit yanke
there rcmained to revise the overture and the clo ing chorus, and
that I did io the course o1 three or four weeks of stay in the coun- tr7
This work I did very unwillingly, feeling a sort of iveariness and
as•ersion for it. Nevertheless, thanks to my being a» expe-
rienced hand, thg revised or-erture o s Tathcr successful, and the
thought of adding "Olga's chords” at the end of the closing chorus
can only be called felicitous. As before, I left the chorus in E flat
major ¡ I transposed the overture to thé key of C-mioor; I corn-
pletely re-orcliestrated and changed the end, substituting more de-
cent music for the barbaroug dissonances of the first version. I
was also in a hurry to finish the work on T’he ,lJatd o/ Psk ou for
the reason that I was more and more absorbed ia the thought of
wri ting a compréhensive article or even a book about Russian
music and about Borodin’s, Musorgski's and my ou n compositions.
Strange as it may seem, the thought of writing a ci•itical estlrnate
of myself pursued rue pers1st#otly. I beg»n. But my work z•as
to bc preceded y a lengthy introduction ernbracing general æs-
thetic thèses to which I should be able to make a reference. I jotted
it down rather rapidly, but imme diately and of niJ• oe'n accord per-
ceircd great shOf’tromIngs and gaps and tort it up. Then I get out
to read: I read Hansllck's Non ?1fufikaJi.irIi•8rliiinra, .4mbros's
Dir d reozrn der Poeli c un J ùliisik and ma Clara's blographi es of
great composers. Readlng Hauslick I was nettled at that writer
of slight ivit and exceeding paradox. This reading aroused io me
 B R A I NGF A
once more the desire to proceed with my article. I began, but
the thing grew more and more bulky than before. I tell to
dclving into general æsthetics and the treatment of all the arts
in gen t ral. From all the arts I was to pass to music and from
this lutter—to the music of the Young Russian School in par-
ticular. While w•orking on this, the feeling grew on me that
I lacked not only philosophic and æsthetic training, but evcn
familiarity with the most necessary tcrms of the subject. Once
more I thrcw up my work and turned to reading Lewes's His rory
o f Philos oph y. In intervals between reading I jotted down brief
articles on Glinka and Moz art, on conductors and musical educa-
tion, etc. All of this proved clum9y and immature. Reading
Lewes, I wade transcripts from the book and from the philosophie
doctrines hc quoted and also recorded my own ideas. For days
at a stretch I pondered thèse matter , timing niy fragmentary
thoughts this way and that. But lo and behold 1 one finc morning,
at the end of August or the bcginning of September, I was over-
takeu by an extrême lassitude accompanied by a sort of rush to
my head and utter confusi on Of thinking. I was frightened in
real earnest, and the first lew days evcn lost my appetite com-
pletely. When I told my wife of it, she, of course, urgcd me
to give up all work. I did so, and until wc left for St. Petersburg,
read nothing whatever, but walked the livelong day, taking
care not to remain alone. IVhenever I did remain alone, un-
pleasaot obtrusive, fixed ideas persistently crept into my head.
I thought of religion and of humble reconciliation n'ith Bala-
S›refÏ. lIowever, the walks and the rest helped, and I moved to
St. Pctersburg quite myself again. But I had grown altogether
cold to music, and the thought of occupyiog myself with phil-
osophic education pursued me unremittingly. Agalnst Dr. T. I.
BogomOlofi's advice, I began to read a great deal. I had a text-
book of logic, and herbert Spencer’s Philosophy, Spinoza, the
æstketic works où Goyot and Hennequin, parions histories of
philosophy, etc. Nearly every day I bought books and road them,
jumped from one to the other, scribbled their margias with notes,
me anwhile unceasingly pondering, pondering, making mcmoranda an‹1
whiting note9. I conccived a desire to write a magnum opus on the
œsthetics of the musical art. For the time being, the Russian School
was shouldered aside. But instead of
z66 MYMUS1CALLIFE
z sthetics I was straying into general metaphysic , for fear lest
I begin too near and too superficially. .Ind more and more fre-
quently very unpleasant sensations began to rccur in my head:
somrthing like lluxcs, or possibly refiuxes, pe thaps dizzines9, b nt
moet likely a weigh t and pressure. These sensations, which went
hand in hand with various fixed idcas, greatly oppresse d and
frightened me.
However, I found some diverzLon in the production of Mlada
at the M a riinski Theatre. Qujte energetic rehearsals of my opera
tommenced at the beginning of the theatrica l season, and I was
iiivitcd to the rehe a rsals, choral and orchcstr al. E ven as early
as September the choruses sang well ; the only thing that oflered
didiculties in the way of commitment to mcrnory was the idol-
worshippers' chorus of .1ct II, owing to its constant change of
riiea ur-es ( ,>i, J], §i, etc, ) . Napra mik kept me unea s y wi th
fear that, with all its williogness, the chorus would be nuable to
memorize that number. At one of the choral drills, when an
attcmpt had been made to Sing it by heart, one of the best chor-
isters Nl ycl'nichenk o ( tenor) lost his way and dragged othcrs
with him. hapravnik laid great stress on this occurrence.
Pomaz anski and Kaz achenko, the chorus-masters, assured me that N
apravnik exaggerated and that the chorus could be mcmorized, z'hich
presently prored the tact ; I myself had never had any misgivings on
that score. In the opera lobby, where the united choral rehe a
rsals were held, the roices rang beautiful)y, the closing chorus of brlght
angels bei ng given pa rticularly well and with great zeaI. At one of
the rehearsals an incipi ent scandal OCCurred : lnstead of the words :
cho o kh, cli ookm! ( Hc ar’ I I-lear l ) the chori- sters began to sing:
Wmo os h, ühO OS U l (Nonsense, nonsense ! ) . I remarked to
them that I did not doubt at all that It really was gr cat
nonsense, but nevertheless I should ash thern to sing what was
ivritten. Isif to apologizc for the men’s lack of tact, the wonnen of
the chorus began to applaud rue after the rehearsal was over.
Still I wat told that the next day the chorus had
received good wigging from the sta ge-manager.
Ad Mme. Lits in' had left, the solo parts were distributed as
' Fel i a Litvinne, sister-in-law of Edouatd d e Reszke, sacg in New York in i 885-6
(as LitvinoH) and I896- 97 * r a consitlerable pcriod she was the principal dramatic
soprano at tht Parie Opéra. J• A. J•
 M L AD A a67
follows: Voyslava Sonki ; Loomir Dolina ; Yaromir—Mikhay-
lofi ¡ Mstivoy Stravinski and Koryakin. Mme. Sonki asserted
that in her pat t in A ct IV there were some aivkward iiioments,
ariel that it was an achiev•ement for a song tress to take the high
C sharp in _Act II. With a voice like herb it wat, of course,
shameful to talk like that, and yet I had to make a slikt, im-
perceptlble change for her benefit. I stated to G. P. Kondratyetl,
lead st age-manager, that no substitute s had been assigned for the
parts of I*oyslava and Taromir and that the opera might be the
suftcre r on that account. Hoivever, none could be f onnd for the
tcnor part: for F gner the rfile was considered unsuitable for
some reason, and why A)yedvyedyefl ' had not been assigned the part—
I know not ; brit, at my suggestion, a substitute for Voy- s)avR’S
part U as fouflt) in Ü(de. l'ginR, 7tld this rÜlCt fR tefL¡) C sharp
and all, prored easy for her. At rehearsals, Krooshevski accomp ant ed
on the piaiio, whilc kTcprarnik f olloz ed, orchestral score in liand.
This ttme I decliilCÜ to play the accompaniments (nOt aS I had done
at the pro‹1octioos of ?IJay A'ip/tr and ‹$it)'e- goorochk a) as I fclt that J
attc rly I had grown altogethcr un- accustorned to the piano. Soon the
orchestral re hearsals, too, be- gan. N aprav-nik cal)ed two preliminary
rehe arsals : one for the
srrlngs, the other for thc wind-instruments alone ; then f oJloived •
three gene ra1 rehe arsals of the whole orchestra and later the
singers also were added. Altogether there wee re not more than
6v e or six rehea rsals for the orchrstra with the siogers. As a
detector of false noted, Napravnik was inimitable as usual, hut
hc laid insuR cient stress on shading and deta iled polish, alleging
lack of time. On this occasion, how•ever, I had zo qua rrcl with
him as regards tempi ; wliethe r I had pleased with my tempi,
or whether he was irilling to carry out my dir Actions exactly- I
do not knoiv, but he was amiable and Charmiug to me in gencral,
cvincing i f anything a certain liking for my cornposition. And
things at the Russian Gpera really did verla stingly 9h ape them-
selves in such a mannc r that time was iodec‹l lacki ng. Singe ts con-
stantJy f alling ill and, consequently, changes of repertory necessi-
faded thrreby demanded innumerable extra rehe arsals of old
* A df2ril0tic tenor (with voice 1 all gone) visited New 1’or* '» •19* and gave
(on the East Side) performances of I.0 I nish, G Ir lie, Ca r tu eu and to in ion ct Uaii/O
that were among the most memorable I have sten- J. A. J.
z68 M Y M U S I C A L L I FE
operas. Eternal haste, five performances a week, a stage that is
ilOt ;t1way9 free for rehearsals, being oI ten occupied by the ballet,
all thCsC take timc from quiet and sedulous re he arsals, such
as are required for prorer artisti c execution. Al oreove r, above
all this there often reigns at the II ariinski theatre a spirit of
presum ptuousness, routine and weariness, in conjunCti on 1 ith fine
technique and experience. Singers, choir and orchestra all con-
sider themselves first -hors concours, and, secondly, experienced
artists who have seen enough in their lix-es, whom no thlng can
take aback and who are weary of everythin ;, ne› crthclcss feel
they wiI1 mGuage quite well, even though it is not worth whilc
to tire onesel I too much for it. This spirrt oftcn crops Out
through all outward courtesy and even cordiality, when the atrical
impresarios, warmly pressing the composer's hand, tell him how
much pains they have taken on his behalf. I suppose that at Bay-
reuth, and B ayrcuth only, matters stand dificrentlv, thanks to the
U*aguer-cult that has developed. Be that as it may, nobody can
so quic)tly grow tired, fell into routine and think he has f athomed
all mystery es, as do the native Russians and Wlth them those
foreigners whO have grown up with us in Russia. Imagine ho w
astonished Conductor Chuck was, when, hav-ing produced in St.
Petersburg D er Ring deg k! ihc )un gon with only six orchestral
rehearsals for each of the four lyric dramas (abroad they have
from twenty to thirty of them) he saw that in the first cycle of
Wagner's work everything went perfeCtly, in the second cycle-
horse, in the thi rd downright slovenly, etc., instead of improving
as the composition became more fame liar. The cause of this lay
in the fact that in the early days the orchestra had stt-lven to
show of before a conductor f i•om abroad and really had
shown oil ; while dunrig the subsequent cycles, self-confidence,
routine and weariness got the upper hand even of the spell of
iVagner’s name. The orchestral and general rehearsals of
Mlada went saIeIy ; the orchestra dial not drown the voices, the
orchestration prov ett fml of colour, varied and indi vidual, I
was pleased with it. Only the Pan-pipes v ere not up to the
mark in sound, and that, too, I imaginc, n'as due to the ex aoper-
ating acoustics of the ñ'Iarilnski Theatre. Soon the scenery was
being addc d ; to my mind it appeared handsome, but the elects
of various lightings and tableaux could not be called altogether
 MLADA z¢q
successful. The stage rehearsals in conjunction with the scenic
effects proved rery complicated and require d many repetitions. In
the midst of this I had two surprises : one a pleasant one, tlie
other quite the reverse. The pleasant one was that the shifting
of the first scene in Act III (mountain pass) to Cleopatra‘s Hall
was made instantaneously, a9 I had planned while composing ;
heDee it was found possible to omit the interme zz o that had been
written by Gla zunofl to gain time for the slow change of scenery,
and the soft chord of D Hat major ('is) , with which Cleopatra's
scene begins, came in immediately after Chernobog’s exorcism
( “Appear, O Cleopatra I” ) and the crash of the tamtam. This
sudden change of mood and colouring after the spirits’ wild
Shouts and Chcrnobog's con)uration in utter darkness, a soft
purple light illuniining the Egyptian Call which gradually cmc rges
from obscurity has always seemed to me one of the most port c
moments of ,1?foda. The unpleasant surprise was as follows : tlie
sccnery of the final apotheosis was so arranged that it w•as im-
possibl e to start tlie procession of the bri ght gods and spirits
of light through the clouds, and it nsas necessary to content onesv•l I
with a motionless tableau. As a result, the tlosing chorus proved
too long, as the scene was tcdious and a nnoyingly monotonous.
It was impossible to remodel the scenery, and I was obligcd to
make a considerable cut in the closing chorus ; this grieved me
in the extreme. And all of it occurred, because, at the Russian
Imperial Opera, the scene-painter's department, the costumes, the
machlnery, and the stage-management, and the music run each
for itsclf, and in the Directorate there in no person to unify them
all. Each of these departments knows only itself and is ready to
play a trick on the others rather than attune itself to them. When
the time comes to produce an opera and to “reduce everything
to a common denominator," it turns out that many things don’t
dov'ctail ; and still every one considers himsel f tree f rorn respon-
sibility for the actions of others. Fven though the production
of 71/fadu had been preceded as early as the year before by a
meeting of the heads of the various departments ; but at one sitting
it is impossiblc to clear up everything, and, bcsides, many things
were forgotten.
thus, in spite of my stern warnings in the preface of Mlada,
where I requested that no cuts be made or that my opera be set
z2o 6i Y M L S I C A T. L I F E
o›-er altogether', a cut had to be made after all. The only con-
clusion to be drawn from that is that no words and zo prohibition9
whatever will avail, if it is impossible to hail one into a court
of justice for violating the conditione. N oz , the Directorate
of the Imperial Theatrcs cannot be hailed into a court, and,
thercfore, it behooves a COffiposc r to be gentle and meek. itichard
IVagoer would have given it to them one and all in Germany, if
a trick like this had bcen played on him !
The productions of operas at the 51ariinski Tht atre lach 4
suifici ent number of complete rehe arsals. Now the orchestra mers
are 311 on hand, but the singers sing half \r ’ice ; now orchestra
and vingers function properly, but the scenery is )acking, because
there is to be a performance in the ev-ening, and there is no time
to make the ch ange ; again the scenery is in place, btit the lighting
is out of order, or the rehearsal is held to the accoinpaniment
of a piano, etc. And yet it is necessary tkat an opera, and
particularly one so fantastic and complicated as 1 Ilada, ne re-
hearsed many times with full stagc settings. Only thcn can all stage-
scenes and changes be fi tted to the corresponding bars of muslc and,
lllOrever, the groupings of singers be properly arranged so that the
voices produce the desk red ed ect in accordance with the acoustic
properties o( the theatre and, if necessary, the change
As a preface to Hludy, wher e musiC 2 Rd dance alternate in the moat remarkable
manner, Rimsky-Korsakoff pt aced a list of directions which are worthy of a p lace
side by side with tlie femous notes that Berlioz made for his €r 2’royriii.'
“Should the firemen be afraid of £re, the machinists of water, the theatre-managers
o1 ever)•thing together, this Lynn phonic intermezzo should be stricken out” ; or: “I
indicate here this cut, being I may axva re of the feeling of liapp iness that inspires
manage rs, singers and conductors, firemen, macilinists and i Iltjrninators, when wet
they eqn menit an author and down his work ; I should feel unhappy, if I did not,
to the utmost of my powef n, cnntribute to the gr atification of such noble instiocts."
Along with the painful irony of the Fr enclunan one may ap pr ec)ate the imperioua
masterfulness uf the Slav : “ lie opera must b¢ given without cuts or abbrevia-
tions: z ) becau xe it cvi 1] not I atigiie any one, thanks to its bre› ity (two and one
qua rter hours of music) ; z) bec2use the author has thoroughly iv cighed his inten-
tions. 'Tlie compo-•er permits no ch0urge in ittdividua I ]ia rts ; the orchestral, choral
and s lo parts have been written in a fortn that is fun ly practicable. He wishes
ihxt esery specieys o$ ari s =oises on tlie std ge (such as thund er, wind, etc:) be
avoided, as only the orchestra and it olon e has to imitate those sounds f-1 e attaches
great irn portance to the descripti ve portions of his must c ; hence he does not permit
th¢ str ghlest deviation I rorn his id eas in this regard.” . . .
Cute, it may be stated, pur sued Rimsky-K orsakof{ throughout h›s caree t, in spite of
his horror of them. Sincg his death h is widow has protested against the perform-
ance Of Xhcb h«ra Mala and Le C,oq d’Or as ballets. Recent ly the Charl II ir I o-i
from the opera 8adlo has been made into a fox-trot and used for d Att0ing• C. ¥". \".
 T H E 81 A R I I N S K I T H £ ñ T R E z2i
made in certain dynamic nuanccs in the singing of the chorus,
in accordance with those same acoustic conditions. Such joint
rehezrsitlg is not at all in vogue at the Mariioski Theatr e.
Thanks to it, many things in llflada turned out differently from
what I had intended. For instance, iii ,Act I, the chorus accom-
panying the appearance of the goddess Lada and placed, ac-
cnrding to my intentions, on high, among the rafters, was hardly
audible ; the orchestration, transparent as it was in this pas-
sage, had to be hastily abated. The chorus behind the sCcnes,
which accompanies the appearance of the shades in pict IN,
missed fire completely, because the very appearance of the shade9
had not been tricd out until the dress-rehearsal proper, and
the choir had been placed too deep in the wings. The clos-
ing chorus lost much, lieca use the chori’sters could not be
placed near the pro*cenium and they, too, had to be shoved
the wings. lii general, among the shortcomings in the produc-
tions at the M ariinski T hcztre must he counted the fact that the
chores people who sing with finesse and shading at the rehearsals
in the lobby, forget the shading and begin to sing roughly on
emerging upon the stage, and yet no prope r attention is paid to
it. During tlie scenic rehearsals, O. O. Palyechek, the chorus-
rcgisseur, show ed special zea1, incessantly leaping on a chair and
in‹licat ind the propc r moments to the choristers. Thanks to his
efforts, many choral scenes went of i•ivid1y and naturally, espc-
cially the markct scene in Act II. The handling of the dances
and of the rnimetiC movements was poor as a whole. The ballets
masters Ivanoft and Ceccheti usually do not know the music to
which they fit the dances they put on, and if the music is not of
the i’outine ballet type, they don't understand it at all. De-
spite the detai l ed Eli rcctions given by me in the pt ono-scOre, they
looked into it too late, it seems to me. As in antient days, the
ballet rehearsals are usually conducted to the playing of two vio-
lins n•hich are to translate the entire orchestra. The music be-
comes almost unrecognizable not to the ballet-ma9ter alone, but
evcn to the musicians themselves ; hence the character of the move-
ments invented by thc ballet-master9 i9 invariably ill-suite d to the
character of the music. To the accompaniment of a hea vy forte
graceful movements are put on, to a light pianissimo ponderous
2) 2 MYMUSICALLIFE
leaps ; the short notcs of melodic ruas are thumped out with the
feet with a zeal worthy of a better fate. Of all the dances, only
the Hindu dance, thanks to the dancer Skorsyuk, a lively vigorous
artist of the Gipsy type, as well as the groups of sh ades, elegantly
arranged by the ballct-ma ster C eccheti, met with success. But,
ou the other hand, Cecchcti failed utte bly with the dances and
groupings in the scene in Cleopatra’s chamber. The combination
of two simultaneous danccs, one slow and pa ssicoate, the other
rapid and frenzied, missed fire completely, since Ceccheti had not
grasped at all the combination of two contrasting rhythms in the
music. Nor wc re happicr results attained with the Llioro•uod
(Colo of Act II) which provc d monotoiious and boring in the pro•
ducti on. Ceccheti was amusing at the tentative ballet rehearsals.
He ran about, capered, made faces to represen t the der i1, his head
bound with a handkerchief which soaked up the sweat that ram
like beads of hail down his face, I doubt that Time. M. M.
Petipa, who played the shade of Mlada, knew and understood her
röle or was letter perfect in the verses that explaincd the purport
of her performance. I-ï(q- appc arance at the beginning of Act III
had not been settled finally even as late al the dress-rehearsal.
She made her entry now at the right, now at the left ; now on the
rock and( nos• below it. The difilcul ty was hOw to plac C Y3 POiTii r
(who f ollowed her) ia such a manner that he might be heard Eis-
tioctly. I nstead of rehearsing this scenc separately sereral times,
Mlada's entry was changed at erery rehe mrs al, and each time the
result was preclpitate and incoherent. The persistent thought of
"not delaying rehearsals” is uppermost in every one’s mind, and
hence the lock of finish in the production.
At one of the last rehearsals II ikhaylof(, who had caught cold,
grew hoarse aed begun to sing half-voice. mbt the dress-reliearsal
(to which the public was admitted) the same thing happeDed.
IR the matter of rnise-en-scène the dress-rchea rsal was rery shaky.
In Act IV, the shades, instcad of vanishiug, fairly ran oIï, as the
stage was not suPicicntly dark. The musical part went off without
a hitch. The theatre was crowded, but the success wa9 slight
and approval inaudible. .4fter the dress-rehca rsal there was to
be another, at which the Tsar and the Imperial family were ex-
pected. But the Tsar did not come, for some reason, and the re-
hearsal was the usual one, with interruptions. The first perform-
 Cf UD A zy3
ance took place on October aoth, a non-subscriptio n night. The
house was full. My family and I sat in a first tier box on the
left side. As usual, the whole musical world was present at the
theatre. After the Introduction (played fairly well) meagre ap-
plause was heard. The first oct met with a rather chilly reception.
Sonki sang Voyslav a. Mikhaylofi, a sick man, had to force him-
self to sing in order not to have the performance cancelled.
After the second act loud clamours broke out: "The composer 1”
I came before the footlights sereral times and wa9 presented with
a huge wrcath which V. Sr. StasotÏ had, of course, arranged for.
After the third act, as well as at the end of the opera, there were
numerous curtain Calls for me. I came out alpne, then with the
artists and presently with Napravnik. Behind the scenes the usual
hand-shadings, expressions of gratl tude and z ishes for success bub-
bled forth. I have spoken of the shortcomings in the producing
and rehearsing; the performance as a whole was rather smooth.
The opera cnded early. After it was over, 1". I'. Stasoff, Bye-
lyayefl, Lyadoft, Trifonofi, Glazunoll and other close Friends gath-
ered at my house.
The second performance of Mlada wa9 callcd ofi, because Ui-
khayloft had grown very ill. Then, after a leugthy interval, it 1 as
given in tara to all the three sets of subscribers ivl thout any suc-
cess. There were no curt ain-calls for me, antl very feiv for the
artists. Then, after a long lapse, it was given once or twice with
considerable succc ss to non-subscribers. At one of the perform-
ances I rooshevski conducted, and quite correctly, though v ithout
preparation, in place of Napravnik, who had f allen ill. The ma
jority of the nevtspaper reviews of 18Ilada were unf avourable,
while many rcvicws were downright hostile. Hy the way, Solov-
yofl, as had been his wont, inflicted a very ill-disposcd critical
artitle upon me. I believ e for the most sympath etic review- I
was indebte d to young Gaydeboorofl (once a pupil of filusorg-
ski's) , the music critic of the N yed yet ja ( Dhr Wcc£)'. Many
(like the N ov o)e Uremya, for instance) imputcd Üikhaylofl's ill-
ness to the diPiculties and clumsiness in the rfile of Y arOmir; in one
humorous maga zine I was rather amuslngly represented as driving
a carriage drawn by devils.°
The season-9tibscription audiences, indifierent to art, sleepy,
° Yaltn, June to, •*93.
zy4 M Y M U S I C A L L I FE
stolid and haunting the theatre only betause of besetting habit,
that they might be seen and chatter of everything but music,
they were all bored to the very death by my opera. As for the
non-subscribers, it was given for them only twice, and why the
Lord alone knows ! Perhaps becausc tlie artists had scant success
in it, as well as because His Majesty‘s Court had shown no interest
whatever: the expected visit of the Emperor at the final pertorm-
ance had not materialized ; only the Tsarina and her children came.
ñTor had the Tsar attcndc d any rehearsal, despite his habit of com-
ing with the entire court to dress-rehearsals. As I had been told,
the Minister of His hf aJesty’s Court had not found my opera
to hls liking, and that is of supreme import ance in the eyes of the
Directoi•ate. The newspapcr reviews had belittled Allude to the
best of thei r abilities in the eyes of the public, whose musical bra in-
centres are saturated and supcrsaturated u'ith thc "Figner-cult.”
Evidently, on the basis of all this, an impression was crc ated
that Nilaya was not much of a composition, and this opinion of
the rna jority has probably been established for a long time to come,
hence I don't by any means expect success for my opc•a in the
nearest fflture, nor indeed at any time at all, for that matter.
There is also this opinion current : “\Vh at undc r the sun have we
to do with all these gods, spirits, devils ; let us havg ETs ma and
drama, let us have liring human beings !” In other n'ords: “Let
us have rnellifiuous singing with high notes and gasping parlandos
in be twccn.”
Be that as it may, it turned out that my opera was given an
unprcccdently small number of times for a first season, although
all pcrf oimances brought good houses. It the end of the season
it might have heen given several times, but Chaykovski’s ¥olgti tg
and M ascagni' s Cav a!leria R usticana interf e red. The rehearsals
of these operas were attended by the Imperial f aniily, and both
Figner and hI ede a ' sang in them -so everything was fine. Uaraf•
leria R us licana I did not hear, but Yolanta I heard at a rchc a rsal
and found it one of Chaykovski’s feeblest compositions. To my
mind, everything in it is unsuccessful beginning with lmpudent
• N IkOI2y Signet, with a tather dry tenor voice of mezzo-carattere, but of unuspa1
finesse and iilter ptetativ c abi litres, and his 5v if e, ñJetle a hley ( xn ltalian by hiith) ,
a soprano of ext r aordinarv quality, a xtriii ing lb' beaiitiful women of butuiiig iemper a-
ment and an pretne dramat ie gifts, wete the reigning f avourites of the Imperial Opera
House (z 88 y-i qoj ) . hledea NIey sang in Buenos-Ayres (i9o3) . J. A. J.
 AN ARTISTS' DINN ER z2J
borrowings like Rubinstein's melody O trot i/ yc mayr Ayr moiriu
(Open wide my tlungcon cell) and ending with the orchestration,
which in this particular case C haykovski somehow had written
tops --tur vy: music suitable for strings had been allfi ttcd to wind-
instruments, and vice-v ersa, and hence It occa sionally sounds ev•en
fantastic in the most unsuitable passages ( the introduction, for
instance, scored for some unknown reason for the wind-instruments
alone) .
During this season, I rarely took a peep behind the w1nt,*s of the
II ariinski Theatre after the production of hllaJa; I had no desire
to keep my memory green, though the artists were ams able and
kind to me in the same old way. Apparently, after the production
Of I Ila3a the artists gave me a place in the r aiiks of “real-honest-
to goodness'' composers ; that was evident at least from the fact
that soon at ter the first performance of MlaJu, the artists invited
my z ife and me to a "f riendly” dinnc r at the restaurant “Nlyed-
vyed'.” Pogozhefl hiinsel f also attended the dinner. Naprav-
nik, being ill, ttid not come. The dinner went ofi in a someivh at
formal fashion : tlie first toast, drunk to the health of 2is ñ(ajesty
the Emperor, wa9 accomJianied with the singing of the national
anthem B ozkc Tea rpa klirani ( God save the Tsar ! ) , KOf)•3kln’S
roice dwarfing all others. Then followed all sorts of toasts
to the success of the opera, to the per f ormc rs, etc. By the w ay,
in his speech, Pogozhell called M/ada an arch*ological opera, for
reasons best known to himself, ivkile Ftgoer and M edea asked
me to w rite an opera ''for them.” In this connection, I must men-
tion that at one of the rehearsals of Elladay Signer had taken
me aside and told me that nothing would plc ase him better than
to sing in my )foy L!ipht anal that he had spoken to Kondratyefi
and N apravnik, but they had 9aid that Ma y Ni ght could be pro-
duced only prov-ided I rcwrote the third act. I told Figner that I
should be pleased to have him sing in ilfoy iVipfi f, but I did not sce
any need of rewriting Act III ¡ and that I was surprised at Kon-
dratyefl and Naprarnik and what they wanted with it. That
ended the conrersation.
The production of •M lada did not by any lneans spur me to
forther tomposing, and I liept reading and jotting down various
notes. Fatigue and uople asaot headaches came more frequently.
Yielding to the pleas of my wife and Alyeksaodr Pavlovich Dianin,
z26 M Y )I U S I C A L L I P E
I consulted Dr. E rlitski, who ordered complete rest and physical
exercise as well as certain mediclne9. I gave up reading; but,
possessing no inclination for manual labour, contented myself with
long walks, meanwhile regularly taking the medicines, I confess
that my condition depressed me. By fits and starts I ivculd do a
little reading: but it tired me and ca uscd pressure in my head ;
thereupon, sinking into despondency, I di opped my read.ng again.
However, the abstinence from reading, as well as the walks were
of benefit to me, and a trip to Moscow to see the production of
iii yc yoorochka ñ iverted me pa rticularly. Having heard from
Moscow that nothing was known there concerning the r •oduction
of the opera, I believed that it had been called off altogether. Yet
in January I i•eceiv#d an invitation from Altani to come to the
two final rehcarsals arid the first performance, announced for Janu-
ary z 6th. After brief reSection I left, and, directly from the train,
went to the theatre. The rehearsal had already 9tarted. Altani
halted it, and, after presenting me to the artists, recommenced from
the very beginning. Snbe goor ochl‹a was given in it9 entirety, with-
out cuts. The impression of the rehearsal was most plc asant to
me. Sny egoorochka ( hlme. Elchenwald) and Koopara ( h(me.
Sionitskaya) were very fine ; all the others were quite I air ; the
orchestra had been drilled with great care, the tempi, in the major-
ity of cases, were correct, and not those of St. Petersburg; the
chorus did some acting while singing on the stage, with a close
attention to nuances that one looked for in vain in St. Petersburg ;
the acoustics z-ere splendid. Two days later the dres9-rehearsal
took place. The performance was fine, the scenery sufficiently
handsome, but the metamorphoses and entries in Act III were
nothing to brag about. The co9tumes were middling fair. Evi-
dently in the decorati ve domain fiI oscow is weaker and more
primitive than St. Petersburg. Among the interpreter s some were
excellent and some good ; but the opera had been studied finely.
The orchestra which is probably inferior to that of St. Petersburg
in some wind-instruments, proved able to play with fines9e ; of the
qua litres of thc chorus, headcd by chorus-master Avranek, I have
spoken already. I observed that the per dormers had treated my
opera lovingly ; the absence of cuts proved it. I heard my opera
in its entirety for the first time, and, faith, how much it gained
thereby I
 N APRAVNIR AS CONDUCTOR z72
I had met Ippolit Karlovich Allant during one of my visits to
MO6COW to conduct at Shostakovski’s concerts. This acquaint-
anceship was of the most transient, and sitice then I had not seen
him. Ou r ewing acquaintance, during tke production
gooroch(a, tte left me the impressi on that tte was an experienced
tccliuician-conductor, but not an artist of the first rank ; I was
the fÏtore pleasantly surprised and ga incd the conviction that, giveo
the usual technique of an operatic conductor plus a lore for the
work performed, it is possible to accomplish a great deal ; that
is, to put on an opera in the way the composer wants it. It q-as
said that .)ltani had held some incredibly large Rumher o( re-
hearsals for Snyrpoororfièa,’ Naprarnik, on the other land, con-
tr’tves it all with a smaJler expenditure of the labour of o*hers and
h;mself. But the result is what counts. In ñloscow, .Sayepe o-
i’ocùla went off finely, with less choice orchestral forces and with a
conductor who docs not enjoy any especial musical authority in
anybody’s eyes. On the other lisnd, in St. Petersbui g. with an
experieoced and excellent orchestr a, with a conductor who pos-
sessed the highest authority both z ith the public and with must-
tians, it had been playcd in a cold, dead manner, at tempi scurry-
ing oliiCially fast, afld wlth most dlsgusting cuts. I actually con-
ctivcd a hatred for St. Petersburg and rte “great artisan," as I'. V.
Gtasuf( nicknames Napiavnik. His inestlm able virtue is his ear,
sensitif e to the point of morbidité ; his knack of pouncirg on mis-
takes and correcting them on the spot, at “eve eding-out” reheatsals,
is truly astounding. “Second French horn C sh arp l” “First
ba ssoon, what have you, E Ïlat or E ?'' “One must not play piano
when me zz 0-forte is indicated l” etc., keep flyiog about at ù is weed-
ing-out rehearsals. A firm character, preciseness, a besotiful beat
and char-eut syncopes are also arnoog his attribuées. But what
further? Then often impossibly rapid tempi, metronomic even-
ness, total lack of softness and roundness in the change of tempi,
and, in the last analysis, lack of artistic ioterpretati on, But I
have strayed from the ñ4oscow aflairs.
The dress-rchearsal went finely, except the scenic pa rt, and the
performance had bceo set for the follov ing day (January z6th) .
bly wife surprIse‹l me by coming to II oscow on the day of the
performance. I had a first tier box on the right: it accommodated
iriy wife, S. N. Krooglikolf, myself and N. M. Shtroop, wko had
z28 M Y II U S I C A L L I F E
come on from St. Petersburg especially for )he performance
of Sn] e goorochka. The pcrformance began at 7 3O sharp and
endcd at r 2 :4J. This w-as on'ing to tlie uuusUallJ long inter-
missions. The success of the opera was conside rable The songs
of Lyel', Siiyegooroclika's a rietta, the duet of Koopava and the
Tsar, the hymn of the Byeryendyeys, the song about the beaver and
tllC dance of the themor ok7iz (merry-a ndreivs) were encored. I
z as presented with several wreaths : from the professors of the
Conservatory, from the hloscoiv Plillfi orrnooic Society, from the
rarchestra, etc. ñf me. Eichenwald ( SnyegOorochka) also received
a wreath. Eiclienirald ( whose mother played the harp in the
orchestra) was re ry finc and graceful. Her polished Sll› ery so-
prano-roice I ttcd th e part of Snyegoorochka to perfection. SIO-
nitskaya ( Koopavs) played and sang magnificently. Zvyagina
(Lyel') e as oft pitch somewhat, but On the z•hole sang rat he r
well ; good also was Illetnyentyeff ( B obyl’ ) who danced the fr \ cpu /‹
spleadi diy. Bartsal z'as a good Byerycndyey, in spite of a voice
long past its prime. Krootik ora (Spring) was corrcct, lout K orsoft
( NJizgir') mil somewhat short of his part. "I“aken as a whole, the
performance was good, and showed united eflorts. The a rtlsts, Al-
tent, A vx zR ek and I wc re called to the f ootlights over and over
again. After the opera was over, I went with my wife, and N.
NI. Shtroop to the i¥?oice Who rc/ where we hall taken rooms
and there drank tea in a modest way. The f ollowing day we Icft
for St. Petersburg, by the fast train. Befoi c we departed, the
artists of the opera gave a luncheon for us, wit h the *casts and
good wishes usual on such OCT asions. Stage-manager-in-chicf
Bartsal and Alt ant saw us of( to the depot.
This time, in hloscow, I also had an opportunity to hcar my
Afo) ,hip Jr f given by Pryanishnikofl's private Opcra company in
Shelapootin's Theatre. The perf ormancc was very dliigcnt and
even exaggerat edly so. The funny pranks were stressed, the fiopaé
was danced in some incredible fashion. The small orches tra played
rather accurately under Pribik’s lcadership, hut, for some unknown
reason, without any piano ; this was of consideralile injur to the
orchestrati‹ n Of pict III, and even produced occa sionally a very uii•
desk rable emptiness. The tiny chorus sang quite correctly, yet th e
scene of thc nymphs was a total fzilur e. i fay X"iy/ii was being
gis en, I believe, for the fourteenth time (it had not been pro•
 MO S C OW z2g
duced previous to this season), the house was full and the opera
enjoyed success. On leai ning that I was present, the audience be-
gan to call for me ; the artists gathered on the stage and applauded
me Frith the rtain up. Pryanishnikofi told me that Ma y iVtpfi /
kept up his 'receipts tremendously and that only about that time
Leoncavallo’s opera Pu yliacci began to supplant it in this re-
spect. 'J“hat opera, a9 well as Cut's Th e !SIandari n’s $on I also
heard in Pryanishoikofi’s performances. I did not like Leonca-
vallo's opera. A cleverly handled subj ect of the realistically dra-
matic style and gcnuine swindler's music, created by that contem-
porary mu9ical ca reer-ch ase r, precisely similar to M ascagni, the
author of Cazalleria Rueticana, caused a furore. These gen-
tlemen are as remote from old man Verdi as they are trem a star
in the heavens. Elm Mandarin’s ‹hon appeared to mc a talent cd
composition with music unsuited for the subj ect which in I tselI
nceds no music at all and in so poor that it is nauseating to hear
and see it.
During my stay in ñJ oscow I also had an opportunity to atten‹l
a concert of the Russian musical Society under V. I. Safoooii u-
ith d'Albert as assisting artist. Excerpt9 from Saint-Saens's /,r Daly
ge, the overture to Gluck's I plot penig and Liszt's E flat rna jor concerto
were perf orrncd. SaI onof led the orchestra excellently. I also had
a chance to be present at a rehearsal of the Conserva- tory pupils'
concert. Beethox en's NI ass in C-major was sung ; here, too,
Safonofi seemed to me a musician who knew his busine9s. Until then I
had formed no impression of him as a conductor.
I left Moscow gencra lly pleased and rested ¡ yes, even filled with
a desire to remove to Moscow u'here life seerne d to me somchow
more youthful and fresher than in St. Petersburg, v•hcre every-
body is weary of everything, everything is familiar to everyliody
and nothing can surprise or rejoice anybody ! I also had become
convinced not only that Sribe goorochka was my liest opera, but
taken all in all —as to its idea and its execution—possib]; the best
of contemporary operas. It is long, but it has no long-drawn
passages and should be given in its cotii•ety or else with most
trilling cuts. I',*hen I called Altani's attention to the fact that
the performance was dragging too much and that, perhaps, some
slight cuts would be insisted ui»ou, I was therefore pleased to
hear from him that first of all he would endeavour to reduce the
2ÜÖ M Y M U S I C A L LB I F
duration of the intermi sions, and secondly, that he would try to
avoid encorcs desired by the audience ; that only then would he see
whether cuts could or could not be dispensed with.
On returning to St. Petersburg, I began again to read little
by little, as I felt rested ; but the unpleasant sensations ir. my head
had not left me entii-ely. I was also engaged in reading proof
of the new orchestral score of Ps èorifyaafia (then in the procent
Of engraviug) , as well as in reading proof of the orchestral score
of day 1S’i ylit engraved by Byelyayetl who had bought thi9 edi-
tion from the Bitner firm. This latter had passed from the de-
ceased Rater into the hands of the adventurer Müller.
Of the musical erents of thi9 year I shall note the following.
After my refusal to conduct them, the Russian Symphony Concerts
were placed in the hands of Glazunoff. But he tell ill before
the opening concert and A. K. Lyadofi took his place at Byelya-
ycft's and my own urgent request. He conducted linely the first
concert which he had at first done his best to escape. Among
other numbers there were givcn Glazunofi's Third Symphony in D-
major (first time ) and the Overture to Ma y 14 ighi, which Lyadofi
conducted delight fully, quite unlike Napravnik's fashion in days
gone by, at the Marilnski Theatre. I felt well pleased with my
“classic” insti umentation of the Overture, with its natural-scale
trumpets and French horns. The second Russian Symphony Con-
cert went well, unde i the direction of Glazunofl z ho coutinued mak-
ing rrogress in conducting. Though there werk some faults in the
performance of Sadk o given at the concerts from the new score,
everything else went splendidly. As in the years precious, the
chorus of the Russian opera took part also. .lmong other num-
bars, there was given the coronation scene from B oris Godunof in
rny revision. The efiect achieved was magnificent; and of this,
it wouJd seem, eren those of XIusorg9ki’9 admirers were con-
vinced who had been ready to accuse me of spoiling his ivorks, be-
cause of the alleged conservatory learning I had acquired, learning
that ran couoter to the freedom of treative art : e. g., Ylusorgski's
harmonic incolierence. By the way, in this scene, I was particu-
larly successful with the bell-tolling, z'hich sounded so beautiful
under Nusorgski's fingers on the piano and failed so uttclly in the
orchestra. Once again the Rolling of bella l How many times
and in chat different forms had I reproduced in the orchestrz tion
 MOSC OW Cgi
this invariable ftuturc of ancient Russian life, which is still pre-
served in pur own days 1 '
The concerts of the Russian Musical Society under Kroo-
shevski's direction this season However, one concert there
came from Paris, Lamourtux, who was little to my liking. Among
other things, Krooshevski produced Liszt’g In gen Ie vo n der heilñ
pro LJiiafirffi and, it was said, rather unsuccessfully, thanks to an
uttcr lack of understanding of Liszt's tempi. Botodio’s Second
S)mphony and my Shekhcrmada were performed by h'im beauti-
fully. The last named I did not hear myself, how ever, as I had to
stay at homc owing to my son Andrey’s dangerous illness. I also
did not kear Balakirefi’s 'opera in his interpretation ; very poor—
it was said, Ki•ooshevski, a former Conservatory pupil of mine,
is a fine musician, a tlexterous pianist who accompanies frOffl piano-
scores the most diPicult passages at 9ight and in proper tempo,
without omitting a single note for glibness. His fine ear, spleu-
dld beat, organizing at(lity and sang-froid make him a living rep-
lica of Napravnik. He is no artist at all, and once he has
gained a footing at the opera as accompanist and coach of solo
singers, he does not bother about anything apart from his official
duties. Napravnik is a compo.ser himself; he kas hi9 likes and
dislikes in music ; to I(roosherski, however, music means a series
of sounds forming melodies and chords in various measures and
tempi, v ith various shades of force, etc„ a trade for which one
is paid, but not a poetic art. It seems to me he is a born oiiiifoaf
conductor, and not a conductor, exactly as there are associate mini-
sters, who are v ery useful but can never become ministers, or dea-
cons who are never promoted to be priests, etc. Napravnik is very
fond of him, and already he is known as secOnd conductor of the
opera ; in time to come he will be principal conductor. But he ia
under no ci1 cumstances the conductor for s prominent concert
organization like the Russian hlusical Society. He has no teo-
denci es, no ideals. .Apparently, he has never attended any othei•
concerts than those at which he has accompanied, either bRtause
concc rts have not interested him, or because he has been busy
^ he Russian. composers are fond of reproducing the effect of bells in their music.
Other examples may be foupd *p the orchestra I preltide to 2ffa'vo«zér/fiae, the prelutle
to the coronation seene itt &crib› in Ps bovii z'anda and in Uhaykovski's cvernire, J8z#.
The cifect is stso to lie noted in Rakbmaninofi’s choral setting or •'• ri• B li›
a8z SI X’ 81 U S 1 C A L £1 F E
giviag lessons. He ie not conversant with either Russian or for-
eign music-literature, and hence does not know tlie traditions. I
imagine that if lie had done well with Borodin's Symphony and
Shekheras«da, it was because, this time, he submitte d to the or-
chestra z'ho knew these But Tamara the orchestra hardly
knee-, and heiicc it fared badly at his hands. However, Krooshev-
ski had wanted to see me about the tempi of Fuuar«, and that
was conscientious on his part; but, owing to the composer being
within reach, I advised him to apply to the authors When I
mentioned it to Balakirefi, he said to me with his characteristic mis-
anthropy ; “Oh, please deliver me from that ! Show him the
tempi yourself, if you wish." Nevertheless Krooshevski whom I
had already giren the address reached Balakireff. \Vhat their talk
was like I don‘t know. Krooshevski reported that Balakirefi had
shown him whatever was necessary. Of course, Balakirell did nOt
come to rehearse).
In a‹ldition to the production of Mlada, Y olanta Shcb elf o on-
chit ( Y utczecker) , and CHvallc FiB R usticana there v-as also re-
vived Roifan and L bud mrna Lot the fit tieth anniversar)• since its
production. Especially for this Myel’oikofi sang, who had then
not a shrcd of voice left. Lyudmila Ivanovna Shestako› a sat in
a first-tier box and was presented with a wreath ( of rourse, V. V.
Stasofi's hand was back of it) . My wife and I were among those
in the procession presenting the wreath. To mark this solemnity
the Head’s narrative and the Finale of the Third Act were
restored in their entirety. hapraimik’s tempi e ere shaking, as
usual. The overture, the cntr’actes to Acts II and IV were played
with the speed of an electric current, if not with the speed of
light. The famous finale of the Oriental dances was not restored
after all, and the usual ugly code was performed. U'ith Mlada’i
happy omen the Opera H ou9e now possessed a double-bassoon ;
still N apravnik had not thought of introducing it into R nslan, ev•en
for this festive occasion, and yet it is named in Ruslan and L yud•
mila, according to Glinka's orchestral score.
 CHAPTER XXIII

i89s—sS
Quartet prize competition. Decision to leave the Chapel. Summet at
Yalta. Chaykovski's death :ind tlie Sixth Symphony. Trip to Odessa.
My return to contpo*(ttg. Begiflnmg of Christmas P.ve. Summer. I’yecha-
sha. Continuation of Ghrisimac Wave and beginning of S«71o. death of
Rubinstein. Trip to Kiyeff. at the Society of musical
Gatherings. CensnrshIp difficulties with Gltriiiains Are. Composing the
opera 3udko. Byel’ski.

The examination of the quartets sent in for the prlze-competi-

tion of the St. Petersburg Ouartet Society took place in ñf arch.
This time, the compett tion was open to none but Russian sub-
jects, and the money was given by Al. P. ByelyaycfL With Chay-
kovski and Laroche I was of the committee of judges. flew
quartets were submitted. We awarded two prizes of third rank.
One went to my former pupil llyeksey Avgustovich Davidolf (a
brother of Ivan A. Daridofi, also a pupil of mine, whom I hay c men-
tioned before) , the other went to Evald, the cellist of l3yelyayefi's
Quartet. Thus two more were added to the rather long list of
names of composers of Byelyayeli’s circle. Both quartets z'erc
written in a well-ordered manner, but nothing beyond that. Dur-
ing the se asoa dcscribetl, I seldom attended Byelyayefi's evcnings,
as thtJ had deteriorated considerably in musical interest. 1)*eII-
known e orks of Hussian composers were played iox•arizbly.
A mony the slighter novelties, tu o pretty p'ieces for the cello, Soko-
log’s ñ ieyy and R arc az one, stOOd out in a refreshing manner. 1 (y
son A ndrey, who had by that time show'n some signs of progress in
cello playing, was studying them under P. A. Rongioski. Occa-
sion xllv, V. V. Stasofl put in an appe a raw ce at Byelyayetl’s eve iiings,
as in former days, and demanded that one of Beethoven’s I:est
quartets be played. The evenings were also attended by I'yerzli-
bilovich and Hildebraod, who occasionally took a hand in the music.
2d4 M Y Cf U S I C A L L I F E
Once Lyadoff Delivered himsclf of a small composition for quartct.
But somehow the society at the Byelyayefi evenings did not pull to-
gethcr: all in all, too many new elcments begao to iotrude io it, and
a sort of tedium and routine madc thcmselves felt.
In February the ten-year periOd of my service at the Court
Chap«1 was to tcrminate ; I was entitle d to a pension under the
régulations of the Ministry of the Court, as more than thirty years
of my services had accumulatcd in all ; I got it into my head to
carry out the idea that had long pursued me —to retire. T he re-
lations between Balakirefl and myself had bccome so strained, af-
faire at the Ch apel were managed so stupidly, the eDtire personnel
at the Chapel sare the music in tructor s was no distasteful to
me, the whole atmosphère of the Chapel was so permezted with
gossip and partiality, that it was qui te natural on my part to by
cager to get out ; to all of thig was added my fatigue at the tlme,
I had a prira te talk with Balakirtfl a.bout resignlng ''because of
illoess.” But owing to the fact that just at that timc he was
rÎdding the Chapel of the inspector of classes in general sub-
jetts, Naziinofi, with whorn hc was dissatisfied, BalakirelÏ suggested
to me to defay my reslgnation uuti1 autunin. bly lea viog tte
treated in a very fine and conscientious spirit, promising to do his
very best in regard to arranging tfie pension. Cornplyi cg edith his
wishes I decided to wait until automn ; but obtained from him a
leave of absenCe for the summer. )”et the following circumstances
soon made me forego temporarily the thought of rcsigning.
Masha's sickness still persi ted and dragged, depressing our
spirits throughout the winter of i 8Qz—q3. This state of afiaire
had been gOing on for two and a half years. In the spring, my
v,tfe left for Yalta with M asha and Nadya, at the adn ice of physi-
cians. They planned to live there all of the spring, summer and
••uturnn, owing to the beneficial effect on II asha of the local cli-
mate. But what was to be done the Coming z•inter ? lt wai
qui te 1ike)y that n i fr] fe rnight have to stay in the Crime.a for the
winter as well, or go abroad. Under thèse circumstances, re-
virement from servlcr began to 1ont to tue inopportune, oiVlJig
to the decrease of income it would entail. I made up my minrl
to Jefer niy resignation until February, i 8 9 , the more so as this
retirement had been put off until the fall to ment Balakiref('s wishcs.
In February, 9J , I was round out thirt)'-five yen rs of service,
 B AEL A I R E F F ’ S P L A N z8
and z ould get au increasc in pension. I had another talk with
B alakirefl and ohtaiued his consent to my waitiog till the time
mentiooed.
Having banishcd Nazimofi from the Chapel, Balakiref( managed
to have B o9 appointed iii his place. Once he had got a foothold
in the Chnpcl as steward, this favourite of Balakiref's was be-
corniug his right hand. In all likelihood, hc had been the one who
had ousted Na zimofl. Whence he came and what his vii tues ware,
that had so endeared him to BalskirelÏ is a mystery. Thanks
to the tact that B off had been confirmed as inspcctor of the
Chapel classes in general subjects, Balakire fi ventured to live me
( privatcly) leave of absence for all of three months, a•, in the
event of his usrtal dcparture in August, he would be able to hand
over the management of the Chapel to B off and not to me as on
former occasions.
liefore leasing for Y alta to join my wife and daughters I had
a talk with Krasnokootski about my desire to resume, in the fall,
the orchestra class of the Chapel, that I had handed on to him
for one year only. Krasnokootski had no objections. But, on
learning of my intcntion, B alakirefl wro te ne a letter in which
he persuaded me, nay almost insisted, that I do not take uyon ry-
self the orchcstra class. The reason he gave was my irritability,
which he asserted had developed owing to illness and might re-
cur, dcspite my comiog summer's rest, if I began to teach the
orchestra class. Such solici tude, om Ba1akircIÏ’9 part, concerning
my health and lraDquillity, charly shoived rue that he was highly
pleased with the fact that I had not lsd the orcliestra class for
a year and thai there tould have been no dlsputcs or discontent
betivecn us in the matter. In brief, he was evidently pleased to
get ri‹1 of me ; hcnce I thought mis wish equivalent to a command,
and abaodoned for good and all the thought of taking jack Into
my hands my own crcatlon —the orchestra class of the Chapel.
filter the examinations at the Conservatory and at the Chapel
hatl been ended, I lef t, on Clay r3, for Yalta whence disquleting
news had been reachiiiy me of Masha's condi t1Of1• ÜO? tTt"O OF tIii-
we weeks before leaving I Said several visits a week to the studio (
neaT the Kalinkin Bri dgc) of I. Y. Ryepln, whO W39 aint- ing my
portrait on an order from B yelyayell. Prior to my depar- ture, on
my saint’s day, in the evening, Chaykovski, Byelyayeti,
 z8G II Y M U S I C A L L I F E
Glazunofi, Lyadof(, Yastryebtsef(, Sokolofi and Trtfonof( came to
my house. We sat and talked. Among other things Chaykoi ski
and I discussed the meeting which had taken place a few days
befOre, that of the Board of Director9 of the St. Petersburg branch
of tlie RHssian Musical Society ; to this meetilig there had been
invited also iuer, Solovyoll, Laroche and myself, although z e
werc not on the Board. The discussion had centrcd on elect- ing a
conductor for the concerts of the Russian Musical Society for the
ensuing season ; I had mentioned Chaykovslti. fly suqgcsti on
had been accepted, and the Board had alre ady approached Chay-
kovski with the request, but he was stlli undecided. A. S. Taneyeff,
one of the members of the Board, happened to be on the train
by which I travelled. He told me that Chaykovski had consented
to take charge of four or five concerts, while for the others, various
other conductors would be inv-i ted «nd, mong these, L. ,o.Ooh ( for ISO
concer t9) , R fact s-hich I was exceedingly glad to hear. On
reaching Yalta I found my poor little girl feeling worse than
»•hcn she had left St. Petersburg. The latter half of h'Iay and
June went moootonously with us. I read much, was busy writ-
ing the piano score of Ps kozit yanka, began taking sea-baths, but
walked li ttle. \Ve did not know how long we would stay at We•
bar' villa (near Yalta) , where we had put up, and so 1 di1. not
venture to rent a piano. Toward the end of June, I did rent
one at t r all, but improvised ever so little ; I jotted down a small
piece for the cello and recorded some few other things. )3ut k(a-
sha’s health taking a turn for the worse, we decided to take hcf
back to St. Petersburg and I gave up the piano. However, our
departure was postponed as at first N/ asha was too weak to tr owl,
then she felt a little better and, on her physician's advice, we re-
solved to w art. For nearly a year I had not played the piano,
and iVli enever I did come near it, it was to accompany tf‹e playing
of my children : 1’olodya on the v-ioJio and Audrey—rim the cello.
When engrOssed in rc ading I felt in no musical mood. Here at
Yalta this mood came over me for two or three days in succession.
Nlasha’s illness and our apprehension for her produced a depres-
sing elect on my wife and me. Dclight ful Yalta, with its won-
derful views, flora and blue sea grew downrl ght unbearable to us
this time. At the heginning of my sojourn in Yalta I iiad made
some progress on thc instrumentation of Ps kovit yanha and had
 D EATH OF M ASH A c8y
even turned to writing x text-book of musical foxms and a text-
hook of the theory of harmony; but instead of simple and sensible
text-I›ooks, some sort of philosophic di cams came into being. I
attempted to gO On With my interrupted work on the zsthetics of
musical art, work to which I had returned several times In St.
I'ttersburg during tlie spring, but even in Yalta I was dissatisfied
with my sketches. ' I gave up tkis work. and turned to writing
my reminiscences.
By August h)asha’s condition grew wore. home time after
the twentieth of that month I was to return to St. Petersburg•, as
my leave of absence was then to end We w rote to Llisha and
Sonya that they were to come on to Yalta that my iVife might not
remain alone in attendance on the sick little girl. Soon after
Misha and Sony a arrived, I left for St. Petersburg alone, but en
route, in Kharkolf, a telegram from Yalta overtook me, announcing
the death of Masha on August c z. I returned to Yalta imme-
diately. We buried our poor little girl at the Yalta cemetery and
started for St. Petersburg all together.
In view of my expected retirement from tlie Chapel, we imme-
diately began to look for an apartment, all the more so as the apart-
ment at the Chapel brought back sad memortes of Nlasha's il1oes9
and of the death of Slavchik. My wife conceived a positive horror
of this apartment. By September zo new rooms (on Zagorodny
Prospekt, a 8) were found, and we mored into them.’
IVhile serving my last months in the Court Chapel, I took a
somewhat languid attitude toward my duties ; yet I attended very
regularly. My own work oscillated between compiling text-books
of contrite rpoint and instrumentation and writing zsthctic philo-
sophical articles. Mid-season I threw up thcse f ruitless and ab-
surdly frii5di rected beginnings ( I destroyed them completely later
on ) , and my thoughts took a difierent turn. I once more expressed
a desire to take up the directing of the Russian Symphony Con-
certs, and B yelyayefl received this suggestion with joy.
During this autumn Chaykovski died, after having conducted
his own Slxth Symphony only a few days before his death. I re-
call haring askc d him, during the intermissiort, after the perform-
° All these sketches 1 burned (January zi, s9aq) , as being good to nothing.
a88 II Y II U S I C A L L I ¿
ance of the Symphony, whether he had a program for this
compost E on. He replied that there was onc, of coursc, but that
he did not wish to announce it. During that last visit of his to
St. Petersburg I saw htm only at the concert. A few cl ays later
the nez•s of his grave illncss wag in everybody’9 mouth. Tlie whole
world filed to his apartment se›-era1 times a day to inquire about
his health. His sudden taking of was a blow' to one and all.
Soon after the funeral, the Sixth Symphony q'ag repeated at a cen
cert with Napravnik as conductor. Th's time the public grceted
it rapturously, aed siiite that moment the fame of tlie Sympliooy
kept growing and growing, spreading gradually OvCr Russia and
Europe. It wss said that the Symphony had beeli made uncle i -
standable to the public of St. Petersburg by Napravnik’s intci preta-
tioa, something that Chaykovski, who was not a gifted conr)uctor,
had been unable to accomplish. Hcnce, they said, at tlic first
performance under its author’s directi on the public hari grccted
) t wlf)i COusi der able restraint. I think this is not trtie. The
Syrnph ony was played finely by N apravnik, but it had done §rery well
at the author's hands, too. The public ha‹i st mply not fath-
omed it the hi St time, and had not paid cnough attention to it ;
precisely as sever a1 years ea rlie r it had failed to give due :1t-
Section to Chaykovski’s Fifth Symphony. I imagine that the
composer's sudden death (which had given risc to all sorts of i
umours) a well as stories of his presentiment of approaching
death (to which mankind i9 so prone) and, further, thc propecsi ty
toward discovering a connection between the gloOmy morid of the
Symphony's )ast movement and such a presentment, all these
now focussed the public's attention and sympathies on this work, and
the splendid composition soon became famed and even modish.
Upon the organization behind the Px ussian Symplion y Conce i ts
devolred the moral obligation of devoting its first concert to the
memory of Chaykovski. As far as I recollect, that, to a consid•
erable degree, was precisely what had induced me to pride rt alie
the concerts once more, The concert of Chaykovski’s composi-
tions was giv-cn November 3o, undc r my d‹rcctioo, i‹ its the as-
sistance of F. M. Blumen feld (the Fourth Symphony, Francesca dB
Rimini, Star che slu•o e, pianoforte pieces, etc.) .
The conducting of the Russian Symphony Concerts (that season
 C O N C E R T S A T O D ES 5 A z8g
there were three io all ¡ at the final concert, my trrir about Al yek-
cet, the G odI y Man had rte fret performance) and the invitation
D. D. Klimofi had sent me, to come to Odessa to condct two con-
certs, gradually div<rtcd me from my fruitless work on the text-
book of æsthetirs. On the other hand, I made a final decis'ion to re-
ti re from the Chapel, as the pension I was entitled to appeared
.ulhcient, while service in the Chapel had grown unbearable, and
the relations between BalakirefÏ and myscl f were rnani feltlv im•
paired for all time. In Jantiary, 1894. I ••« in my resiguation and
went ofi to Odessa. I had been asked to conduct, in the municipal
Théatre, one concert in mern ory of Chaykovski and one with a
prngram of my compositions. In Odessa they paid me no
end of attention and granted me many rehearsals. I practised the
prograrn numberf with the strings alone, and the brass-instru-
ments aloiie in various pieces, drilling a fair but provincial orchestra
as lf thcy were pupils ; and I got out an excellent performance.
The assisting artists in the concerts were the singe r Mme. Zhcreb-
tsova and the pianiste Dronseyko (a pupil of Klimof() . The pro-
gramiu memor r of Chaykovski (February 3 ) was as follows:
Third Sympliony in D-ma jor ¡ aria from G ri yeanik« u D va (The
ñlaid of Orleans) ; the First Concerto for the piano ; songs, and
the overture, f. avec and latin. The concert suflered somewhxt thi-
ough Dronseyko, who played in ragged rhythm in the second
morement aiid thereby kept both orchestre and me at a loss.
The program of the other concert (February i z) iucluded the
First Symphony in E-minor ; the song of Lyel' ; 8adko; songs and
the Spu ish Ca[FfG0iO. The success of both concerts was quit<
considerable. I was induced to conduct one more concert ( fOr the
benefit of the orchestra) ; the Ca priccio was repeated, and also the
suite from Slicheli oonchik (Nutcracker) . My wife came on to
attend thèse concerts. Wc had to spend our time in calls
and at the musical sOirées of the Odessa Music School. The gov-
ernor of the city of Odessa at the time was P. A. Zelyony, my
quondam chief, once commander of the clipper Afwaz. A meet-
ing with him world have aborde d me no pleasure ; but, as luck
would have it, he was Out of town just theo. However, wc had
many occasions to mcet mis jvife ; once she even invited us to dine
with her ; but eve slippcd out of that. In Odessa we made the ac-
290 II Y 5i U S I C A L L I F E
quaiutance of the painter N. D. Kooznyetsofl and his wife (she in
a genuine Ookrainian) .
\Va1ks along the sea gave me my first though ts of taking up,
some day, a Homeric themc such as thc episode of Nausicad ; how-
ever, the intention was Only a passing one.
On my return to it. Petersburg I left rcfi cslicd by the trip.
To our Joy, my resignatiDR had been accepted. I had been granted
a satisfactory pension.
"1’o this pcriod bcloiigs the pi in ting of the rice orchestral score
of Fñe Maid o/ P.fñoz, undertaken by Bessel. I was deluged with
J:roof readl ng. Thc concc rts, the trip to Odessa, my retirerneiit
from the Chapel, my work on Ps orif yaa/‹a, all thesc together
distracted atteoti on from those barren, tlry and serve-racking
occupations as z ell as f rorn my thought-wands rings in philosophical
and +sthetic jungles. The desire seized me to wrltc an opera.
\Vith the dc ath o I Chaykorski, the subj ect of Chris tnia.i Erc, so at-
tractive also to me, had been released, as it were. Despite mar.y
of its musical pages, I had aIw ays consi dered Chaikovski’s opera
z eak, and I°o1onski’s libretto good for nothing. During Chaykov-
ski’s lifetime I should have been unable to take up thls sub-
j ect wit hout causing the man himscl I a heartache. Now I was
free in that respect, too, in addition to having r.livays been en-
titled to it morally.
Toward the spring of • 9+ I finally made up my mind to com-
pose Chris t mas Arc and began to » rite the libretto rnyse! I, closcly
lotion ing Gogol. Dut my predilection for $1 ›•!c “gods om'' o»d
devildom and sun-myths, had not left me since the days of tfoJ ill
i and cspc cially Soyepo oroc/i1 at it had not run its course in me even
with the writing of Af/odu. I clung to fragmentary motives
occurring in Gogol’s works like Ch ris tmas cnro//fnp, ifir ,‹furs play- ing
at blind m«o’.i bii¢, tlie fii ght of over-/oi’ñi and /tc‹iFf/i-firooai, tlie
encounter with a 7t’ffC/i, etC. Hayling read and re-react in Afan-
asycf( ( Tfie Star s’ forfir Uirwi o/ ?Vff iurr ) about the conncction be-
tween the Christian celebration of Christmas and the birth of the
sun after the ivinte r solstice, with rague myths of Or syeil, Ko ) yada ,1
O vsyefi or .fiv.•¿'eñ or iginaliy tlie fi rst dav of sp rt og, s4a rch i ( Ma rch was then
the £ rat rnoiit h of the yea r ) nnw tra nsf erred to New Yes r or hew Y eai'’s c ve. KOlyad a
( from Lat. eelraise, the fi rst of o month) , the ca rolling ant) gl orification if one hy
ycungstc rs und er the window s of people in order to get a few pennies during the
Ch ri trnas week and New Year, u mll Epiphany. J. A. J.
 C H R I S T Si A S E\ E Psi
etc., I conceived the idea oJ introducing these «xtinct beliefs into
the Ookrainian life desci•ibed by Gogol in his story. In this way,
my libretto, while clinging on the one hand faithfully to Gogt›l,
(not even barring his language and expressjons) con tained, on
the other hand, in its fantastic portions, much extraneous matte r
dragged in by me. To me and those n'ho desired to delete into it
and unde i-stan d me, this connection was clear ; but to audiences, sub-
sequently, it proved utterly iiicomp reliensible and even disturbing.
My enthusiasm for mvths, and my combining them with Gogol’s
story, was of course a mistake On my part; but a mistake
which oflc red the opportunity of writing :t we alth of interesting
music.
Soon, a rcspectalile amount of musical materi z1 had accomulatcd,
and the first t alilc an h*d been written in i ough draft. I remem-
ber that shOrtly before our going to the country, Sh troop,
off, Yastryehtsc(I and some other people gathered at our house.
Without telling thCm precisely ivh at I was composing, I played
them the introduction to the opera and asked them to guess wha t
it was al›out. To be sui-c, it was hnrd to guess, but most coi-
jectu7es rev olvttl abtiut what w as approxl mately correct ; there-
fore, I told them of my work and set forth thc pt an of the opera.
Cfirt iacs F.ve wz6 the beginning of my uiiintc rrupterl ope ratic
activity that followe d.
In II ay z-e rcmoved for the summer to tlie estate of Yyq•cliash a, in
thc L,ooga canton ( Plyoossa ? Iai 1OF) . I'yechasha is a charg- ing
spOt .' u 'oRñerlul large lake Pyesno and k vast ancicnt or- chsi rl
with century-old lindens, elms, etc. the hOuSc mas R heavy and
clumsy structure, vet spacious and comfortable. The propric- tress —
an old woman with her daughter, an over-ripe maiden, lived close-
by-, in a tiny house, but did not interfere with us. The bathing was fine.
aft night, the moon and the stars cast wonderful reflectiOns on tlie lake.
There was a multitude of birds. I had stumbled upon this estate, and
it took my fancy at once. Nearly were thc rillagcs Zapyc enye anal
Polosy; nOt far away was the Lubensk manor owned by tlme.
Bookharova. The woods were somewhat far, brit fine. IVe were all to Icv
c GVI th Vyechasha.
The secoDcl tableau of my opera had hewn begun by me when 1
was still in St. Petersburg ; here tlie compost tiOn advanced rapidly.
I compOsed almost without a break, devoting but a little time to
 °9° MYMUSICALLIF E
bathing and walking; by the end of the summer the ent're opera,
except the last tableau, had been writtcn in rough drafr, while
Oct I had ever been orchestrafed to a considerable extent. The
thought of introducing Tableau VIII (the last but one) with Va
koola's return fiight and the procession of Ovsjeñ and Kelyada,
came to me during the summer and was carried out forthœith.
At the end of the summer, Trifoooff, Yastryebtse fi and Byelya-
yefl eoch spent two or three days with me, and I played them
passages from the opera I was irriting.
Shortly before niy coming to Vyechasha, I had received a lutter
from N. K. Findeisen ' in whlcii he urged m# to set to work on
an opera on the subject où Sg)k o and proposed a certain plan for
the libretto. As an operatic subject, 5udko had interested me from
time to time, as early a9 the Eighties. Findeisen’s idea brought
it to my mind once more. In the ver y rnidst of other work, that
is while composiug Christ cas Lrr, my thought frequently turned
also to Sadk o. My pro]ect difÏered somewhat from Findeisen’s.
I wrote Stasofl of my idea ; in reply, he, too, suggested several
things ; thus he give me the idea of the First scene oÎ the oprra,
which I had not had io view origioally. During the summer, the
plan of the "opera éJ liam” (epic song, legend) Sodfio, as I rccall
it, took final chape in my mind, though subsequeBtly there crept
mto it certain important additions, of which I shall spcak in due
course. I had in view to uti)lze doc this opera the mattrial of rny
symphonie poeni, and, in any event, to make use of it9 motivés as
leading motivés for the opera. To be surf, the whiting of Chrir i-
ras Avu held first place with me ; yet even at that very tirrie there
came into rny head some new musical ideas for Radio also, like the
melody of SadIO’J bêta, the theme of Nyez.hata’s 6)ftna; something
for the finale of the opera. I remember that often the place
where I cornposed such material was on the long plant foot-
bridges running from the shore to the bathing p4vilioo on the lake.
The bridges ran down arnoog bulrushes ; on one side eve re visible
the tall bending willows of the garden, on the other side fay the
v ide expanse of Lake Pyesno. The whOle environment, some leo w,
disposcd me to thoughts of Scdka. Xct the ti•ue, real writing of
* Born in i 868. )iditor of the Qtiarivq 2fujifinl Da<zi/t, the first serious musical reg-
al ine in Russia (Hlon£bl) x8§4-Qq j weekly thereafter) . J• @• J•
 D E A T H O F H UB I N S T E I N z93
adko had not cornmenced, and was postponed until the completion
of Chris tmas Ez-e.
On my return from Vyechasha to St. Petersburg I soon finished
writing the entire rough draft of C Kris l mae bvb and set out to or-
chestrate the opera as well as to put the finis,hi»g touChes to it.
ByelyayefÏ agreed to publish my opera ; and, as the orchestral score
greg ready under my hands, it was sent on piece-meal for en-
graving by Röder in Leipzig. I can’t recall the exact month
z hen I had the entire orchestral scorc fioished and had made the
arrangement (of the piano score) ¡ I believe it wat toward the
end of the winter of 189+ 9I • JH in all, It tOOk a little less than
a year to do the entire composition with its in9trumentation.
On September z 8, my 3fay Ni ght was revii•ed at the IvIikhay-
lovski Theatre with Chooprynnikotl as Lyevko and Slavina in the
röle of Hanna. The performance of the opei’a was not bad, Na-
pravnik conducted, and apparently with a will. It was given sev-
eral time9 at the Mikhaylovski Theatre, With middliag success.
In the fall, A. G. Rubinstein died. The funeral surroundings
were solemn. The coHn was set in the Izmaylovski Cathedral ;
musicians kept i-igil at the coffin day and night. Lyadofi and I
ware on duty between two and three in the morning. I recall how
amid the church obscurity there entered the sable mourning figure
of U a1ozyomova, l who came to kneel before the ashes of her
Rubinstein whorn she had worshipped. There was cven some-
thing of the fant ast›c about it.
The Ru stan Symphony Concerts of this seasOn (they were four
in number) were under my direction. The first concert was de- v-
oted to the inemory of Rubinstein. The program consisted of:
Third 8yrnphony in A-ma jor ; aria from Ufo.tcs,- Doo Qr.ix o te ¡ the
E•ourth Pi ano Concerto in D-minor ( Lavrofi) ; songs ; and dancee
frOm the ballet tin oqr-adn a ya Loona (The Grapeivine) . At the
succeeding Russian 5ymphony Concerts the following nunibers were
1 Of this lad Mrs. New march writed ps follows: ”Mnie. Malozyoniova, whom I
met in 8t. Pctcr-bu g, was for many years ‹famr de en m fa9x ie, or chaperon, at
Rubinsteiii’e eta sse.° a t ihe Conser vatoire. She woe a devole,d friend of the master’s,
and few pcopIe knew more of his I ascinating personality or spoke more eloquently
of 11 is teacliing,” According to Riemaon, Sofiya A lyeksand rovna hI alozyomova was
a iitile more than a Jo / r br co m a yr ie. Born in i 845 i n St. Petersburg, 8he was
educatetl It the SmO1'ny Institute ; in i 8 6 j she entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory,
from which she wa s graduated in I866. She was a pu pil of LesChetizky and Robin-
slgin. Later she devoted her lifg to piano instruction at the Conservatory. C. Y. Y•
 9 iir v u si c A r r I r E
“first times” : Glazunofl, ballet Suite and Fantas y,’* also (at the
Fourth Concert, with the assistance of M ravina) : Inti odnction ;
Oksana's aria ; Koi yadka and Po lonais e from Chris trnas Eve.
Everything sounded excellent.
Among the events of my musical life of this season b-•longs the
delightful performance of Stiyrpo ororJiña, at my house, by artists
of the Imperial Theatres. M rarina, Dolina, Kamyenskaya,
Runge ; Yakovle fi, Yasilycf( III, Chooprynuikoft and Koryakin
kindly consented to sing the opera to the accompaniment of a
piano. Fyeliks Blumen fcld played the accompaniments ; Vyerzh-
l)ilovich played the cello solo in Byeryendyey's Cavatina. V’e
even had a miniature f emale chorus of ope ra-choriste rs who gave
their services gratis. The guests were numerous ; everything was
charming.
In January, I made a trip to K iye fi, at the invitation of the
Directors of the local ope rd, tO witness the production o I in be goo-
TOth ku there. I attcnded the dress-rehea rsal and the first two
performances. Thc pa i t of Byeryeiidyey was sung by M orskoy
(then still a prirate opera artist) , Snyegoorochka, by Ka ratayeva,
k.yel', by Koryetskaya, Vyesna ( r •1 s) by Azyerskaya, etc.
The conductor, Pagani, was haflle d by the 1 i time of the final
chorus, aftcr all. In general, the coining of a compose r directly
to the dress-rehearsal has little sense : it is too latc theii to make
corrections or changes, whlle to insist upon postponement of the
performance i9 tooth inconvenient and uoplc asant. On the whole,
all went off in a fair, though provincial way ¡ the orchestra was
suRcieotIy spirited during the ‘entire Butter-week chores. There
was dancing till their feet refused to bear them ; especl ally did
Doom a, the stage-manager, exert himself a1›ore all others. A9
prcscribet) by provincial taste, Bobyl' cut capers, w-hile at the per-
formance proper, during &yerycndvey's Cavatina, he pt aycd the
mountebank, clamber ed on the throne behind the tsar's back,
thereby thawing loud bursts of 1 aughtcr from the audience. hI ur-
skoy, who had no suspicion of this, fclt crnba rra sse d and apprc-
hensivc lest this laughter of the onlookers was the result of some
‹li sorder in his own costume. At the dress-rehearsal a i ery funny
thing happened: I was standing on the stage ; while the chorus
 S NGY0E 0 R O C H KA >9?
at the begroting of Act III was being sung, I noticed that the
motive

which wa9 played lv the first violins, was at the same t'me being
played three octas•es below that, by one o) the doukle-ba sses.
Pagaui, who was not partitu1arly keen o( ear in harrnony, did
not perccive it and Jcept on conducting. I weat over to the double-
bass player and satisfied myself that he vaas really reading the
motiVR j"Dhr his music. I stopped the orchcstra and asked the
doub1#-boss player to show me his part. It turned out that, insfea d
of the violin ene, the copyist had actually foisted this niotive upon
him and in the bass clef at that. I forbade the musician to play this
motii e and strutk the motive from his part. Then the dnuble-bass
player, z ho evidently seemed to have taken a fancy to that
motive, said to je in an imploring voice : “M r. R imsky-Korsakolf
! Ple ase let this motivc stay and perm'it mt to play i t ! It sounds so
well this way.” Of course, I could not al- low it, and thcrcb y
brought sorrow upon the uofOrtuna•e player. After the Gecond
performance, my wi te and I returoed to .St. Petersburg. In I(IyefÏ thcy
quite took to my opera where it latcr had a long run.
In Kiyefi I had a chance to meet my formcr pupils —Ryb and the
composer Lysenko.' _ht the latter’s house I ate saryeai#i " and
listene d to excerpts from his opera force Boof'Ja. Did not like
it. . . . I mean Taros Bool’ba, not the raryeai#t.
The Society of h)iisical Gatheriogs which ha‹I spruog up several
years before this in St. Petcrsburg and had ho› u New signs of
life heretofore, sudrlenly came to like this season, under the chaIr-
manship of my former pupil Ivan Avgostovich Davidofi. They
planned to produce my Psk ovit yanha at the I’ana)•evski Tkeatre,
under Davidofl's direction, after its new score as recently puh-
Lyseniio also wrote an opera op the subject of Gogol's f,'3risf mu Evc. 8olovyof£
and Ghchooro› ski were others who act this theme, C. Y. V,
° Dumplings tilted with curds, or berries, or cabbage, etc. This nat iona l ñ inti of
the ii ct,nsideied a great delicacy. J, A.J.
^ Based on Gogol's f among a tory by that name. J. A. J.
zg6 i 1 M U S I C A L L I FE
lished by Bessel. Choral and orchestral rehearsals ware begun,
and, as author, I was called in for guidance. hIy Sonya sang in
the chorus. Öwing to Davido0’s iJlness, the orchestra l rehe arsal›
for u ceding out errors fell to my lot; later the recuperated Davidofl
came into his owo. Thr Of aid o/ Ps kw was given on Thi;rsdzy,
April 6th, and had three morc performances. Ivan Grozny was
sung by Koryakin, Toocha by VasilyeJf III, lflasyevna by Moe.
Dore, Tokinakofi by Looflacharski, Olga by hlnie. Vyelinska ya
(no longer of thR Mariinski Theatrc at that time) . St the
second performance, Sokolovskaya sang Olga ; at the third per-
formance, the part was to be sung again by Yyelinskaya, but ow-
ing to some caprice she refused to do so and the part was
by L. D. Ilyina (a mezzo-soprano) who transposed her aria in
Acf II a thlrd 1ow#r. At the first performance a scandalous scenc
occurred. The orchestra came to a stop, and it was necessary to
begin afresh from sectioo number so and so. In general, however,
the opera was given fairly welk, considering its amateur chorus,
fts amateur tonductor and itf aniateur rehearsing.
During the season of i 894‘ 9i the instrumeatation and printing
of Chris trnas Evc was making forced headway, and I apprised
Director of the Theatres Vsyevolozhski of the existence of my
new opera. be demanded that I submlt the libretto to the dra-
matic censor, at the same time expressing serious doubt about
its being approved by the censor, pwiug to the pre9ence of the
Empress Catherine II (The Great) among the dramatic persons.
As I was somewhat familiar with censorshir requirements, I had
not introduced that name into the opera from the very outset, hav-
ing called tlie character merely huriiid, and invariaiily calling St.
Petersburg merely glad-s toli tea (capital city) . It would seem that
the censor might be satisfied: how many are the varieties of
marry a that appear in operas? On the whole, C/it’iirfftdJ 2ii'e is
a fairy-tale, and the fsoritsa merely a fairy tale personage. I sub-
mitted the libretto in this form to the dramatic censor, being
positive it would be approved and fearing for my scrive ucr rather
than for my queen. But nothing of that sort I At the censorship
bureau I was flatly refused permission to put on Tableau )'II of
the opera (scene before the Oueen's palace) , as, under an Imperial
Order of / 832 to the censorship bureau, under no circumstances
right Russian monarchs be introduced in operas. I argued that
 T H E C E N S OGR A A I M °97
there was no pcrsonage of the Romanoff house in my opera, that
only some fantastic queen appears in it, that the theme of Christmas
See deals with a mere fairy-tale, an invention of Gogol's, in which
I have a right to change any one of the dramatic persona•, that
even the word “St. Petersburg" is mentioned nowhere, that conse-
quently all allusions to actual history have been steered clear of,
etc. At the censoi•'s I was told that Gogol's story was familiar
to everybody and that nobody could have any doubts about my
queen being none other than Empress C athcrine and that the cen•
sorship burc an had no right to sanction the opera I I made up
my mind, if possible, to petition in the higher spheres for per-
mission to produce the opera. In this I was aided by the following
circumstances.
In tlie autumn of i 89d, Balakiref( left the Court Chapel ; a
new Director had to be appointed. One fine day, the Minister of
the Imperial Coiir t, Count Vorontso fi-Dashkofl, summoned me and
suggested that I assume Ba1akire1t'9 functions in his stead. My
free position, outside all government service, seemed so attractive
to me at the time that I did not feel the slightest inclination to
join the Chapel again, even in the independent position of Direc-
tor. I declined Count Vorontsoff's otter, asouring him that the
cause of my refusal lay solely in my deslre for rest and for the
free time which I so needed for compo9itioa. The Count was ex-
ceedi ngly ami able u'ith me and talked of many things concerning the
Chapel. Seeing that he was in good spirits and amiable mood, I
took it into my head to pray his intercession with the Emperor to
permit the use of the Chris t ina.‹ Eve libretto on the stage. Voron-
tsofl heard all my arguments and promised to do everything in
his power. I drew up a petition concerning the matter and sub-
mitted it to him• During the Christmas holidays a courier came
to me and brought from the director of the administrative section
of the h(inistry of the Court an announcement to this effect: "In
accordance with the most devoted report On the petition submitted
by you to the Ministc r of the Imperial Court, his M aJesty the
Emperor's permission has been granted for admitting the opera
Chris tnias Use composed by you to be produced on the Imperial
stage without Change in the libretto." (December 3 * 9+ ) ' I
was in a transport of joy and told Vsyevolozhski of the matter.
I have tlme docu ent in my possession.
z98 II Y II U S I C A L L I F E
Once the libretto had been sanctloned by his II ajesty and the cen-
sor had receivcd a slip in the face, a certain stir had been created
in the higher sphères ; the case, consequently, had assuined a dif-
ferent aspect. l'syev olozhski deligh tedly seized upon the idca of
glving Cliri tnias E c an especially magnificent production with
which he rnight even plcase the Court. Hc had a magnificent
portrait Of Catherine II and he iv ould exert himsel f to have my
queen made up to resemble as closely as possible that Express,
and in the mise-en-scène he would endeavoui to reproduce with
accii racy the gorgeous surroundings of Catherine’s Court. IV ith
all that he would manifestly do something pleasing to the Court,
and that is the main thing amoug the duties of a Director of The-
atres. I attempted sonnes hat to cool this ardour on VSJ evolozh-
ski's part and suggcsted to him not to sti•ess particularly my
tsariisa’s resemblance to C atheriue II, sayiog that it was not neces-
cary. But VsyevolOzhski would have his own way. Immed'iately
arrangements z ère made to actept my opera for production the
ensuing season in • 93—9 • During Lent a beginning was made
with drilling the choruses, parts were distributed to the artists, the
scene painting was begun and the enterprise was in full swing.
Tocards the spring of r 8q3 much musical material for the
opera Sadk o had matured in my mind ; the libretto was almost ready
and definitely workc d out in part ¡ for this I had scaoned and used
as a basis many Alliant, songs, etc. In the spring I began and
finished in sketch the first tableau (the feast at Novgorod) , which gav-
e rue satisfaction. lil Clay z e moved once more to dear Vyechasha fOr
a summcr's stay. l
This time my summer's sojourn at Vyechasha was exactly like
the prerious one. The work of composing Sedio rau on uninter-
ruptedly. Tableaux, I, II, IV, 1', VI and VII were ready one
after the other, and, toward the end of summer, the whole opera
( according to its original plan) v as finishcd in rough draft and
partly ( Table aux I and II) also in orchestral score. Whenever
I felt slightly tiret, I stopped work for a day or two at the ut-
most and then with as great a will once more picked it up where
I had dropped it. I have said that the work of composing ivent
on according to the orlginal plan ; Sadko’s wife, Lyubava Boosla-
yevna, had not been compassed in this plan, and, therefore, the
* Phr Îtten )a B(iafy t I ÿO§•
 T H E Ci P E R A SEA D O Egg
present Tableau III of the opera did not e i t a• such. Nor, of
coui•sc, did the scenes dealing with Lyubava Booslaycvna in Tab•
leaux IV and I'II, exist either. h’Ioreover, the scene in the
public square was incomparably less developed than subsequently:
the wandering pilgrims and Nyc zhata d'id not appear in it, and,
besides, Sadko's recital of his adventures in 7/ablcau VII did not
include the participation of the chorus.
In tlie middle of the summer I was visited at Vyechasha by
Vladimir Ivanovich Byc1'ski, who had been introduced to me and
had become intimate e'ith me the previous year at St, Petersburg.
lie was spending this summer at the Ryetcii estate, some six or
seven miles away f roin Vyechasha. A keen, educated, schola rly
in an, graduated from two faculties law and natural sciences—
and an excellent mathematician to boot, 5*l adimir IvanovlCh was a
great connoisseur end lover of Russian antiquity and ancient Rus-
sian literature -b ylinas ( epic songs) , 9ongs, etc. To judge by ap-
pearances, this modest, bash ful and most upright man could not
e)ren be suspected of possessing the knowledge and intellect which
came to the fore on closer acqua'intance. A passionate lov-er of
music, he was one of the warm partisans of modern Russian tnusic
in general and of my workg in pa rticula r.
During his stay at )'yechasha I played him some of the music
I iiad composed for Jadlo. He was to utter rapture. As a result,
there cropped up endless talks about the subject and its details.
The idea occurred of introducing Sadko's wi fe and maki rig certain
additions in the folk-like scenes of the opera, but for the time be-
ing all remained mere talk, and I could not bring myself to make
any changes, for the scenario was engrossing and well-knit even
z ithout them. In August, when the rough draft of the whole
opera had been finished according to the original plan, my thoughts
began to turn to Sadko's wife. It is laughable, but at that time
developed an indefinable longing for the F-minor tonality, in which
I had composed nothing for a long time and which thus far I had
made no use of rn Sadk o. This unaccountable yearning for the
key of F-minor drew me irresistibly to compose Lyubava’s aria,
for which I jotted down the verses on the spot. The aria was
composed ; it was to my liking and led to the origin of the third
tableau of the opera, for which I asked Byel'ski to write the rest
of the text. Thus, at the end of the summer, it became definite
3oo bt Y M U S LIC A LIFE
that there was to bf an additional tableau in my opera and that
in conf orinity with it, much must be added in Tableaux IV and VII
—the addition9 occasioned by the introduction or the figure of the
beautiful, loving, and faithful Lyubava. Thus finished late in
the summer, that is, finished in accordance with the original plan,
the opera turned out to be unfinished, after all, as that plan
was flow growing more comprehensive, the more so as greater
development of the folk-scene at the beginning of Tableau IV
was also proving advisable.
 CHAPTER XXIV

i 8s S 97
Orchestrating Audio. Production and adventures of Nfirirtmas Eue.
Work oa Borir and completing indd o. Boris at the Society of musical
Gatherings. hessian Symphony Concerts and filazunoff. The operas
ñlladu dhristmax and Sadie compared. Writing sings. Beginning

e
of Wozarr and Balmer.

On moving back to St. Petersburg, I did not, however, under-

take to carry out all my new intentions, particularly as I had en-
trusted Byel'ski with writing for me the new portions of the
libretto, and lie was faced with a huge and disîcult task. In the
me intime I set out to orchcstratc the parts of the opera that were
not to uiidcrgo any changes, such as Tableaux 1" and l’I, as well
as considerable pOrtioos Of Tableaux II' and VII. I recall that
the first half year I was completely occupied with pondering and
writing a rather complicated orchestral score, and that toward
the end of winter I had developed a feeling of fatigue, nay, I may
say even of indilference and almost aversion tow ard this work.
This frame of mind manifested . Isct f for the first time then, but
subsequently it would recur iBvariably toward the end of all my
major i 'orks. I t always made its appearance suddenly somehow :
the woi k of composition would l’un On as it should, with complete
enthusiasm and concentrati on ; then, suddcnly, wc arlness and in-
d’dference z ould creep on from apparently nowhere. After a
lapse of tlme this sickcning mood would pass of its own accord,
aqnd I ould again resume work e'ith all my former zeal. This
mood had no resemblance wh atcver to the one I hud experienced
du1 ing the years of *9 •— 3- There was no terrifying thought
rambling through philosophic and æsthetic juogles. On the
contrat, from then on, I was ever ready, perfectly calmly, without
leur and without pain, to play at home-spun philosophizing, as
nearly everybody does, to discuss masters weighty, "to ponder uui-
3oz M Y hI U S I C A L L I F E
› erscs” as a pastime, to turn upside down the beginnings of all
l

beginnings and the end9 of all ends.

The premiere of Christmas E ee cas set for November z I, as a
benefit performance to commemorate O. 0. Palyechek's twenty-
five years of service as a teacher of stage-deportment. The fol-
lowing circumstances had preceded the performance. As usual
there iverc rehearsals, orchestral and choral. The rñles had been
distributed as f olloz s: I'akoola Yer9hoft ; Oksana Mme.
M rarina ; Solokha II me. Kamyenskaya ¡ the Devil —Choopryn-
nikolf ; the Dyak ( Seaton) Oogrinovich ; Choob Koryakin ¡ the
h4ayor -Mayboroda ; the Tsaritsa (Queen) Pi1'ts. I' yew
lozhski kept amusing himself with the schemes for the misc-en-
scene, and hence everybody worked hard the scenery aild costumes
were on a lavish scale, the rehearsing was fine. Finally the dress-
rehearsal was announced, with the public admitted on issued tickets.
Simultaneously a placard appeared with a complete and accurate
designation of the dramatis personm, as per the libretto. The
Grand Dukes Vladimir .llyeksandrovich and hlikhayil Nikolaye-
vich came to the dress-rehearsal and both of them showed indigna-
tion at the presence ( on the stage) of the queen, in whom they in-
sisted on recognizing the Empress Catherine II. Vladimir Alyek-
sandrovich was roused to particular exasperation by it.
.fifter the end of the dress-rc hearsal, all the performers, the stage-
managers and the the atre-administration lost heart and changed
their tune, saying that the Grand Duke had gone from the opera
directly to the Emperor to ask that my opc ra be for- bidden a public
performance. For his part, the Grand Duke Rlikhayil Nikolayevich
or‹1ered the cathedral to be daubed over on the drop
represcnting St. Petersburg and the Pyetropavlovskaya Kryepost’ (I
ortrcss of St. Peter anal St. Paul) visible in the dls- taiicc : in this
fortress, he cried, his ancestors lay buried, and he coulrl not per rnit
it to be rcprcseot ed on the stage of a theatre. I'syevolozhski felt
utterly taken aback. Palyechek's benefit per- formance had been
announced, the tickets were on sale ; everybody was nonplussed and
qtiite at a Ioss what to do. I considered my case lost, as, accoi ding
to report, the Emperor had fully sided with Grant Duke 1ylad:mir
llyeksandrovich xml hatl ivitlirlraivn his sanctir›n for producing
my opera. Vsyex-olozhski, who was cager
Sycroff's phrase about 'ñ'agner.
 CHRISTM AS EVE 3o3
to save Palyechek's benefi t performance and his own production,
suggested that I substitute a Most Serene Highness (baritone) for
the isaritsa ( me zzo-soprano) . From a musical point of VICE'
this change prcsentcd no difficulties : a baritone could easily sing
the part of mezzo-soprano an octave lower, the part consist-
ing of recitatives throughout, without a single ensemble. To be
sure the result was not wliat I had had in mind, the result was
foolish, it amounted to an absurdity, as the maste r Of the queen's
ward role turned out to be a Most Serene. Further explanatl Ofls
on the subject are superfluous on my part. True, it caused me
both sorrow and amusement, but a human head is of no avail
against a stonew all, after all, so I consented, I's yevol ozhski be-
gan to “pull wii•es," through whom I know not, but he did obtain,
from the Emperor, peemission to produce Cir ris tinas Eve with a
Most Serene Highness instead of is arilea. Soon a poster, with
this change, was placards d, and the opc ra produced as a benefi t
performance for Palyechek.
I did not attend thc first performance, my wife and I s tayiiig at
home. I wishctl, at least thei eby, to show' my tlispleasure at evei-y-
thing that had happend d. fly chlldren were at the theatre. The
opera won a decent success. Yastrycbtse Ii brought a wreath to
my housc. .4 f ter Pal yechek' s benefit, ChrisIiii as Eve e as given
once to all subscribers and thi ec rnOre times on non-subscription
evenings. Of course, not one member of the Imperial f amily at-
tended any of the pc r formances, and after that Vsy ¢§r y1ozhski ’s
attitude toz'ards me and my compositions underz ent a profound
change.
During the season of i 8 93— 96 , the Russian Symphony Concerts
( four in number) were given under the direction of A. K. Gig zu-
nofi and mysel I, the two of us sharing the program of each concert
almost hal f in half.
My rapprochement with the lea ders of the Society of Music al
Gatherings, the brothers Davidoll, Goldenblum and others, a rap-
prochement that had taken placc the pres ious season, beginning
with the production of Ps k o"U it j anka, was progressing. This time
the 1e;tders in some Eva y got toget her with Corint A. D. Sherye-
mctycfi who liad a full concert orchesti a of his own, led by thc
conductor of the Court Orchestra, G. 1. I'arlikh. Count Sherye-
metyefl s orchestra was permanently qu artsred at his estate Oolya-
3o4 M Y M U S I C A L L I FE
novka, not far from the Ligovo station. Davidoit, Goldenblum
and I with them visited the Count several times at Oolyanovka,
whither the Count used to convey us by special train and then by
horses. After dinner we heard his orchestra which performed
program numbe i•9 fairly well. Once I tried out even the C orona-
tion scene from Boris G odunot, I was busy on it, just about that
time, writing the orchestral score and making a fresh a rrangc-
ment for piano and voices. By the z•ay, at first the work of orchcs-
trating Sa8ko and then work on B oris G oduti o , had so worn m.e.
out by springtime that I recall the following. On one occasion,
I believe while finishing the piano score arrangement of the next
to the last tableau, I kept thinking with repugnance 'thut I still hud
the arrangement of the last tableau t0 do, and had a feeling of hor-
ror at the prospect of such a task. After I had ransacked my Writ-
ings, I suddenly convinced myself that the arrangement of the la9t
tableau had been done by me and quite recently, too. Of course, I
felt very happy at having escaped so unpleasant a task for the fu-
ture, but at the same time I z'as in a fright about myself and my
memory. How in the world could I have forgotten that sO Size-
able a work had been done by fnc ! That was bad; and, in any
event, it showed deep fatigue.
The Society of musical Gatherings, which planned to produce
Schumann’s Gen oze•ua in the spring, had asked Count Sheryemet-
yell to lend them his orchestr a foi• the purpose. The Count con-
sented, and Croo•uero was given April 8th, with the assistance
of his orchestra under Goldcnblum’s direction, at the M ikhaylovski
Theatre, the use of which the Society had obtained from Vsyevo•
lozhski.
For the summer of i S 96 we did nOt intend to go to Vyecha9ha,
where cc rtain disorders had devcloped of latc in the management ;
and we rented a summer home at Smyerdovitsy, on the estate of
Baron Tiesenhausen, on the Baltic Railroad. In h(ay we moved
there. By then, I f elt rested again and could once more resume
work on SadL o as well as the additions to it.
» t » a n 4
The manor at Smyerdovitsy proved very roomy, even too much
so, for mv family. Near tlie house there was a magnificent park ;
the rest of the locality had nothing attractive to ofier: scrubby, ill-
k.•mpt woods, with stumps and hillocks every where ; a miniature
 B O RGI S ODU NO FF 3o
lake with low banks and chilly n•ater that permitted little indulgence
in bathing. Not far from the house ( appr OXilTiatcly I , y OO I ,8oO
heet away) ram the railroad road-bed; there the whistling of the
train echoed and re-echoed. That summer olodya and adya
had the measlcs, which caused my wi fe and myself some anxiety*.
Ne vertheless I ivorked on Sadk o assiduously and to good purpose,
as well as composl ng what ever had been lacking in accordance
iyith my ney plan ; I also orche sti sted much of it, namely Tablc aiix
IV and VII. In Tableau II', I ‹leveloped the big folk-scene in
the pu1›1ic square according to Byel'ski’s text (v ith the wandering
pilgrirns and mcrry-andrews inserted) and also thc scene tact geen
Lyubava and Sadko. In Tableau VII, yubav a s Lament and her
duet with Sadko were cornposed, Sadko's narrative was rew ritten
afresh and the finale of the opera developer. A lew things I
had to finish in the autumn, on i eturnlng to St. Pctcrsl›urg. By
a rrangement i› ith Al. P. Byeljayeft the printing of my opera was
undertaken.
5!. (. Byel'ski visited me at Smyerdox•itsy, and z•e had long
talks Wlth him and ‹)1scussed the libretto of the opera SBdlo›.
.1s ea rly as the spring Of 1896 , after the productioil of reoorsi'u,
the Society of Musical G4thcrings, which I. .fi. Dave dok had
given up for reasons unknowo to rue, had askcd me to acccpt the
chairmanship of the Society. I consented. At the samc time
there sprang up in the Society the idea of a stage producti on r›f
B or ii G odunof in my rerision. Choral rehe arsals h ‹t begun in
the 9pring under my guidance. In the fall of I 8q6 they com-
menced oncc more and went on with the greatest zeal. Gilden-
blum and illyeksey Avgustov ich Davidofl assisted me with ai tlour.
Soloists weike engaged, and they studied their parts. ))'ith the
Court Orchestra a rehcarsal was conducted once by Gnldenbliini,
both to test the orchestration and to weed out copyist s' mistakes
in the parts. For the performances a comla osite orchcstr a was
planned as Count 8heryemetyefi had suddenly dislianded his or-
chcstra that summer, and it was no 1ouge r in cxistence. The per-
f ormances were announced for the large hall of the Conservator j .
I do not rcmember who painted the scenery, but for the produc-
tion of Boris Go duno a ratlic r considerab)e. collecties of mone y
was made amoog certain lovers of music ( atnong others, T. I.
Filippolf, too, had contributrd) . I conductcd the orchestr al rc-
3oG hI Y fi1 U S I C A L L I F E
liearsals: Alyeksey .4vgustovich Davidoit and Goldenblum ted and
assisted in the wings. The opera was given under my direction cii
Thursday, November z 8th. boris was sung by Lo onacharski
ShOoyski by Safonof (subsequently prompter of the Imperial
Ru9sian Opera) ; Pimyen—by Zhdanofl ; the False Dmitri—by
h(orskoy i \*arlaam by Stravinski ; h(arina by Mme. Ilyina ;
Rangoni ' by Kyedrofi. The opera went well and gained suc-
cess. A slight, insignific act rnisunderstanding occurred only in
the chorus of the wandeling pilgriins, though it was remarkcrl
by none. I conducted correctly and attentively.
The seCond performance of Bo Eis G odyno p and the third, took
place on N ovemb•° ° 9th and December 3 rd under Goldfnblum's
direction, and the fourth, on December 4th, was to be given again
under rnioe ; bot Suddenly I succumbcd to an unaccountable timidity
and handed the directing over to Goldenblum again. At one of
the perforrnances the pitt of tke Nurse was sung bj jy d ughter
Sonya. In general, the cash vai ted slightly at each performance.
After the production of J ons G odiiiio the activity of the Societ y
of hlusical Gatherings nba ted somcivhat, and the 1 inter in gen-
eral passed in the usual way.
At th e Russian Symphony Concerts of this season there were
playerl Glaxrmofi's w ond.•rful Sixt h Symphony in C-minor ( fi rst
time) ; the Overture to Taiicyefl's Ores te ie; Chaykovslti' s Nui ui ; °
liakhmaninofl's Symphooy 111 D-minor, etc. These concerts were
gr -c n under the directi on of Glazuiiofi and mysel f; P. II. Bluinei:-
feld played the accompaniments of the solo numl›ers in some of
thc concert . The program of the concert of Fehruarj i ) th was
devoted to Borodin's compositions, to commemorate the tent h an-
' The sce ries of the plottin g Jesuit Can gon i ( in the Pol ish Tab lea u) ]igve at wfl ys
beea ctit iii tlie perf ormances at the M etropuliian Opera FI oucs¢. J. A, J.
° The follow ing quotation I rom the poet BatytshkoR, svgge*1e'1 to Ci ayliox ski
arts he bad comp let oil tlie score, served as a tnotto to FoI n iy ( 19eitiiiy) :
Thou k now est w hat th e white-ha ircd
8ai‹l iv heii lie left this I ife : If an is borri a sIat-e ,
A eta ve he die8 ; evilI even D catb reveal to hlm
Xl'hy thue lie lahour ed in this vats ct Iczi s,
Vt'liv thus he .•ii1fered, wept, end tired—then vanished ?
If re. Newmarcli assei'ts th at CI ay ko v.•ki destroyed the egore of thi8 ivork, “butt
as he was lii l ly aiva re of th .• ex istence of all tlie orcliest r aJ parts, it ml v be presiim ed
thot a restor 2tion of thi* x'otk won ld not be nItog 0thei disrest Nett ul to the ›v ishez
of tbe 3qyposer." The givex the date ot first peif or mance as kt aFch 5, x86g.
The score was ptibl ished, as a matter of fact, by ByelyayeI} in i 896. There 's a
in the Library of Congress at \Vasli iugton. C, V. V.
 T II R E E O P E R A S C O M r x n E D 07
niversary of his death. Among these, his Sp yashchaya Kn yazltna
f. Sleeping Princess) was sung (by Mtne. Ma rkovich) with my
instrument ation ¡ tO tlie latter nobody paid any attention, as no-
body heard in the orchestra the familiar tapping out of seconds l (in
days gonc by that had been consit)ercd a grc at ha rmonit dis- covery,
but to my mind it was merely an audi tory delusion alone) . The
author oI Ra yonda and of the Sixth S yinpmon y, had by this time
reached the gorgeous flow-ering of his enormous talent, lead-iog far
behind him the deeps of The SeB, the jungles of Z’/ie Fo r ›t, the
walls of the Kremlin and those other compositions of his
transition period. His imagination as well as his astounding
technique had attained, at this time, the highest point of their
development. By then he had become, as a conductor, an cxcel-
lent interpretc r of his own compositi ozs ; but neither the public
nor the critics ivoilltl or could understand that ; his authority in music
grew, not by the year, but by the tlay. His astounding ear
for ha rmony and his memory for detail in the compositions of
other people staggered all of us musiCians.

In manner and methods of composition, Cltris tinns Eve uu‹1

8adk o undoubtedly belong with 5floda. The insufficiency of
purely contrapuntal 1'ork in Chris tinas Nvr,' tlie high development
of intc resting figurations ; the proneness to sustained chords (Act
III of ikI lada, the nocturnal sky in Citrix Innus E«ue, the se a-deep;
at the beginning of Tableau VI of Sadk o) -, the glowing, rich or-
chestral colours—are the same as in iMlada.
Though they have a splendid ring in singing, the melodies arc
nevertheless of iDsti umental origin in the majority of cases. In
all three opc ras tlie fantastic elem ent is broadly developed. lii
each of these opera» there is a skilfully ivrough t, complex folk-
scene (the market in ilJlada,’ the great ko/ 'aJf:a, Chi is trna s enrol-
ling, iii Ch ri stni a› Eve,- the scene in the town square, at the begin-
ning of Tableau 1\" i a la dko ) . If Hlada sufiers from meagre
development of the dramatic element, which inadequately supple-
ments its folk-wise and fantastic sides,- in Chi i› trnas Eve the font astic
and mythological elements, well-dcve1 oped and even some- what
fOisted upon it, wcigh down the light drollness and humour of
Gogol’s theme much more than they do in allay iVipfi f. 3“he
The accompaniment ot the entire song is wriuen in iuetained seconds. J. A. J.
3o8 8J Y II U S I C A L L I F E
fiyfiod (heroic) opera Sadk o is more fortunate than its two im-
mediate predecessors in this regard. The fOlk-life and the fan-
tastic elcments in 3ad#o do not, hy their nature, oticr purely dra-
matic claims ; they are seven tableaux of f abulous, epic content.
Tliv real and the fantastic, the dramatic (as far as denoted bt’
the HJ/ia«) and the folk-wise are here in complete harmony one
with the other. The co«trapuntal web, wkich had worn thin iD
the previous operas and the orchestral compositions that had
preceded thcm, begins to be restored again. Mfada’i orchestral
exaggerations had bcgun to disappear even in Cfiriiiiaai Eve,
though the Orchestra does not lose its picturesqueness; while in
the matter of splendour, the orchestra of Mlada hardly anywhere
surpasses the scene ( “G old ! gold !”) in Tableau Iv of Sadk o.
The system of leading motix•es has been applied to a considerable
extent and success fully, in all three operas. The comparative
simplicity, harmonic and modulatory, in the realistic portions of
the opera, and the over-refinements of harmony and modulation
in the fantastic portIons—is a procedure common to all three
of the opcras. But the feature that does single out my 8adko
from the whole series of all my operas and possibly not my operas
alone, but operas in general is the b ylina, epic-legeii dary, recita-
tive. U'hereas in 1!I!adB and Christmas Ave the recitative (with
few exceptions, such as the scene of the Sexton with Solokha, or
the scene of the two peasant women in C/iriitotai Eve) , though
correct in most cases, had been undeveloped aed not characteristic,
the recitative of the fiJ/i »a-opera and especially that of Sadko hirri-
self is characteristic to an unheard of degree despite a certain inter-
nal uniformity of structure. This recitative is not conversational
language, but a sort of tonventionall7-regulated narration of par-
lando•singing, of which the prototype may be found in the declara-
tion of Ryabinin's 1 bClinas. Running through the entire opera as a
red threatl , this recitative invests the whole composition with the
national historical character that can be fully appreciated only b/
' Ti ohm Ni kolayevich Ryabinin, a native of the b]eak Horth (village of 8yeryod8i,
Olonyetsk love rnment, on the White Sea) . A maker of fishermen's nets, by trade,
Ry0bin in was a true rh apsode of 6y/io II, which he recited, cantillated by heart. H‹•
son, Ivan ( I 8jq) , h ad a still larger repertory than his father, of 6m›o v grses, con-
si‹lerab1y diflcring. Tlie son rrcired in St, Petersburg (i 89a) and R.-K, probably
cfex8 to him. ). A. J•
 T H R E E O P E R A S C O 81 P A R E D 3o9
a Russian. The chorus in '1+ ; Nyezhata s b)'lina ; the choruses
on the ship ; the mclv dy of the vcrsc about the Golnhise ya Kni 9a
(Dove Book) 1 arc oilier details which ttc U›, eli thcir part, to lend
the opt ra its historical and national character. I imagine that of
the thi ce abuse-namcd folk-scènes iii the last thrcc ope ras, the
scene in the public s‹Juare (prior to Sadko’s entr auce) is the
most elaborate and complex, The stage an l trlation, the change
of dramatis personæ and groups, such as z andering pilgrims, merry-
andrews, soothsayers, gay women, etc., and the b tinginp them
together, in conjonction with a clear and broad symphonie form
(sonieivhat recalling a rondo) cannot hut be callcd success- fu1 and
new. The fantastic scene9: the tableau on the bank at the I1’men
Lake with the sea-princess's narrative, the catching of the
goldfi9hes, the intermezz o Qreceding thc scene in the subrnar-
inc realm, the dancing of little rivers and little fishes, the procès-
sion of water-monsters, the wedding around the cytisus bush, th•
introduction to the last Tableau are no whit in ferior, in their larry-
tale colouring, to the corresponding scènes and moments OÎ Klada
and Chris tinas Eue.
First hinted at in Pannochka and Snyegoorochka, the f anta stic
ma idenly image, thawing and vanishing, makes a fresh appca rance
in the form of the shade of PrinceS9 Mlada and of the Sca Prin-
cess who turns into the \*o1khova hiver. The variations of her
cradle song, her fareivell to Sadko and her disappearance I coa-
st der among the best pages of my music of fantastic nature. Iri
this way .Ufoda and Chris tmai E e have been for me, as it wc rc,
two major tudic s that preceded 5adùo, while thc lutter, reprcscnt-
mg as it does the must f aultless ha rmonic conibination of an orig-
inal subject and expressive music, brings to a proper close the mitl-
die period of rny activity in the field of opera. I hare pui-poseI y
liogered in greater detail on the charactc riration of thèse three
operas, in order to pass to the ideas that allured me in the latter
half of the season *97
I had composed no songs for a long time. Tu ming to Alye!‹sey
Tolstoy’s poems, I wrote four songs, and the fe eling came over
me that I was not composlng in the same way as I used to. The
2 P robably a niisa pplied ref erenee to thg symbol of the £lol)’ Ghost. Th¢ book is
full of Apocryphal mysticisin. ). A. J.
r io II Y hI U S I C A L L I F E
melody of thèse songs, following though it dÎd the sinuosities of
the text, turned out purely vocal with me, that is it became such at
its very birth north but mere hints of harmony and modulation in its
train accompaoying. The accompaniment formcd and developeû
after the melody had been composed, ivhe reas formerly, with few
exceptiOns, the melody was creatc d either as if instrumentally,
(that is, apart from the text, though in liarmony with its general
purport) or it was stimulatc d by the harmonic foundation whicli
occusionullç prccedc‹à the melody. Fee)iny; that rny neir method où
composition was the true rocal music and feeling satisfie d, too,
with my first essa ys in this direction, I cornposed song a f ter song
to words by A. Tolstoy, M aykofi, PuShkin and others. B ]T the time
»-c rcmoved to the country, I had well-nigh a score of songs ready.
Besi‹1es this, I once sketched io a minor scene from Pushkin’t
Mo -art dvd SuJieri ( lozart's entrance and part of his talk with
Salieri) , my recitat[\re flow ing f remy, ahead of everything else, pre-
cisely like the melodies of rny la test songs. I had a feeling that
f was entering upon some new period and that I was gaining nlas-
tery of the method which heretofore had been quasi-accidentel or
exceptional with nie.
With thcsc thoughts, though without having outlined any dcf-
inite plan for myself, I moved to our summer home at Smychkovo,
four tuiles from Looga.
In the summer of 18 97, ° Smychkovo, I composcd much and
ceasclessly. My first comp Ositi OH WaS Svit e•-y a nha, a cao tata ftir
soprano, tenor, chorus and orchestre, with music borrowed f rtirn
an old song of mine. HOivever, the ncn• method of x-oc al composi-
tion was not utilized in it. Then followed a scri cs of numerous
songs, after z hich I turned to Puslikin’s \/ozun and Salieri in the
form of twO O ci atic scènes lu recitatire-a rioso stylc. This corn-
position was purely vocal i dccd : the melndic ivcb, following the
sinuosities of the text, was composerl ahead of all else ; the accom-
paniment, fairly complicated, sliaped itscl f 1 atcr, and its first ont-
line tiific rcd gréatly from the final foi m of its orchestral accompani
ment. I fclt content: the result was something that was new to'
me, and it appro achctl most closely the manner of Dargomyzh ski
in his tronc Gum i, however, without the form and modulatory
scheme of llIo art and katie ri bcing tjuite as mach an accident as in
Dargomyzhski's opera. For my accornpaoimeot I took a reduced
 N E U’ C O If F O S I T I O :4 S 3i i
orchestra. The two tableaux were connected by a fo «-Ilks inter-
mezzo, which I subsequently destroyed. 1 In addition to this I
composed a bow-instrument Ouartct in G-major and a Trio for
vi oIin, cello ash piano, in C-minor. The latter composition t•.-
maimed unfinished, and both of these chamber-music compositions
proved to me that chamber-music was not my field ; I therefore re-
solved not to publish them.
In the middle of the summer I wrote two duets for voices
Pan and The Son y o/ Songs, and toward the end of the summer
a vocal trio /farrr r-¢y, with a chorus’ of womcn’s voices ant( ac-
companiment of an orchestra, on a text by A. Tolstoy.
On June 3oth we celebrated the twenty-§fth n nniv ersary of our
marriage, and I dedicated to my wife a song set to v•ords by Push-
kin—NJraa›i» d r i potookh (The rainy day has died away) as
well as four songs on texts by A. To19toy.
l This Intermezzo has been preserved among N. K‘e papec$ in the fete of en or-
yhgstra I score as well as o I an a rr:ingement far form-hands- Note by Mmc. k.-K.
 CH APT ER XXV

* 9 7 -9 9
Radio at S. I. ñlamontofi’s private opera. F$era Thelma. the 'Fsar’c
Bride. Russian Symphony Concert. Snye9oorochka at t)ie Mariinski
Theatre. The young composers of Moscow. tsar Valfnn Lay «/ OJyrp
the I°ro§Jiefic. S. I. Taneyeff.

During the first half of the season of i 8gy-g8 I was engaged on

preparing for publication my newly accumulated songs. The songs
were published by Byelyayefi in two keys for high voice and
low voicc. They had to be transposed, proofs had to be read, etc.
LIozart añ d 8aIieri5 performed at home to the accompaniment of
a piano, pleased everybody. V. V. Stasoff made a great to do
about it. The Rlozarteau impro›-is tion I had composed hit the
mark, and proved of sustained style. G. A. Morskoy and M. I’.
oooachar ki were the singers. F. Blumenfcld was the accom-
panist.
That cry autumn I submitted my Haddo to the Directorate of
Theatres. Fot the purpose of becoming I amiliar with this work,
a hearing was arranged. In the presence of Director Vsyevolozh-
ski, Napravoik, K oodratye ti, Palyechek and others, as well as
of several artists, the opera was performed to the accompaniment
of a piano. F. Blumenfeld played the piano ; I sang a)oog and
explained as much ae I could. I must confess that Fyeliks was
not in the em for some reason, and played reluCtantly and some-
what carelessly; I was ver vous and soon grew hoarse. Appsrently
the listeners had understood nothing and not a soul seemed to
like the opera. N apravnik was surly and 9opr. The opera was
not played to the end "owing to the lateness of the hour.” Evi-
dently my composition had failed in Ysyevolozhski's eyes, and,
haring now become acquainted with it, he assumed an entirely
different tone in hls negotiations with me. He said that the con-
firmation of the repertory for the coming year did not depend
 S A0D K 313
on him, but as ever on the Emperor, who alyays scrutinized it
personally; that there were other z'orks which the Directorate was
bound to produce at the dcsire of members of the Imperial family ;
but that notwithstaoding and nevertheless he did not finally refuse
to produce Sadko. But it wa s cher to me thz t th s mae untrue ;
and I made up my mind to leave the Directorate in peace, ncvcr
again to trouble it with of ers of my operas.
In December, thcre came from II oscow, to visit me, Savvz
1 vanovich M amontofi, who had that year become head of a private
opera company in Solodovnikofi’s Theatre. He infoi•med me that
he intended, within a short timc to prOduce Sadko, and this idea
he actu’aIly carrl ed ou t during the Christmas Holidays.
N zdyezhda Yikolayevna and I went to ä'Ioscosv for the second
perf ormauce. The scenery proved fairly good, although between
Tal›leau V and 1'I therc was an int errupti on in the music for
change in scenery i some of the artists were goot, but as a wlioJc
the opera had been poorly rehearsed. Esposito, an Italian, con-
ducted. In the orchestra there rang many false notes ; moreover,
it lacked several instrumcnts ; in Tableau I, the choriste rs sang
from the music they held in their hands as though it were a bill- of-
fare ; in Tableau I"I the chorus did not sing at all, the orchestra alone
playing. Everything wes explaine d az ay by the luc rJ o/ pc oduc
tion. het with che public the opera was an #oormous suc- cess, and
that is what z•as wautc d. I was exasperated ; kut there were curtain
calls and wreaths for me, the siugers and S, I. gave me every mat k
of honour ¡ the only thing that 5’as left was to how and thank them.
.lmong the siogc rs Syekar-Ro7hanski, as Sarlko, and Zabyela ( wife
of the paintcr 1”rubel' ) as the Sea-Princess, dis- tinguished
themselvcs. Both were known to me, having been formei• pupils of
t1 e St. Petersburg Cooser› ator y.
By Lint, hIamoutofi's opera, in its ent'irety, turncd up at St.
Petersburg, with the theatre-hall of the Conservatory as its home.
The performances were to open with Sadko. Assiduous rehe arsals
of the opera under my direction were hegtin. I drilled the orches-
tra with great care, together with Esposito who prop eé{ a very
fair musician. Errors were corrected, dlIficult passages that had
been performed in a slovenly manner were studied painst akingly;
nuancing was strictly demanded. The chorus learned thc pas•
sage9 in which they were iveak, the soloists, too, received certain
3 4 hI 4" 31 U S I C •t L L I P E
suggestions, and jedio was produced in qui te a decent mannei•.
The solo-singers, except possibly Byedlyevich (The Sea-1(ing) ,
whOlTl I COuld not endure, were good. Zabyela sang rnagnificently
and made a most poetic figure of the Princess ; Syekar-Rozhanski,
too, was in the right place. The opera pleased the public greatly,
and was given several times. In addition to Sadko, there were
perJormed Kliovotishching; Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridtce Chaykov-
ski's Maid o f Orly ans, as well as Nsa y Nig hi and Sn)e goorocli ka.
I conducted the First performances of the last two operas myself
quitc accurat«Iy. But the cast of artists in Ma y Ni ght was unsatis-
factory, pa rticularly Inozyemt ch, the Lyevko. As for Snyegoo-
rochka, Il amontotï selected the young singer Paskhalov•a, a pro-
tégée of his. With a beautiful, though at the time small voice,
she was uttcrly inexperience d and could do nothing with her part.
To my regret, the rôle of .Snyegoorochka was entrusted to Zabyela
only at the final performance.
The Mamontoft Opera Company's visit at St. Pctersburg lasted
tÎl1 the first week after Easter or possibly later, and enjoyed con-
siderable success with the audiences ; however, it did not draw fuli
houses and occasionally, ag in Gluck's Or/co, played to almost
empty houses. During the company's stay in St. Petersburg, we
became well acquainted with N. I. Zabyela and her husband, the
painter M. A. Vrubel’.
In the spring of 18 8 I composed several more songs and
turned my hand to the Prologue to Mey's Psk ovit yanka Bo ya-
ry t“ia F yeTa S helo ya, treatiog it from two points of view : as a 9ep-
arate one-act opera, so to speak, and as the Prologue to my opera.
Vyera's narrative I rcstored, with trifiing modification, borrowing
its content from the second and unrealized Pshozit) anka version of
thc SeventÎes ; thus, too, the end of the act; on the other hard,
the entire beginning as far as the cradle song and after it to
Vyera’s narrative, I compo9ed anew, applying the neivIy•
mastered methods of vocal music. I retained the former cradle-
song, but gave it a new f evision. The composition of V ycra
3halo ga west rapidly and soon was finished together with its
orchestration. Thereupon I set out to realize my ambition of long-
standing—the composing of au opera on the subject of Mcy's Tsar›ka
j a N yevycs ta (The Tsar's B ride) . The style of this op- era was to
be cantilena par excellence ; the arias and soliloquies
 T H E TSAR S BRI DE 3i
were planned for development within the limits of the dramatic
situations ; I had in mind vocal ensembles, genu'ine, finished, and
not at all in the form of any casual and 6eetinb• timeing of voices
with others, as illctated by the present day requirements of qua st-
dramatic truth, according to which two or more persons are not
supposed to talk simultaneously. For this reason there were to
be certain additions and modific ations in Cley's text, ln order tc›
create lyric moments of greater or lesser length for arias and en-
scuttles. Thesc additions and modifications jvere undertaken at
m)' request by I. F, Tyumyeñeft, well-versed in literature and anti-
quities, and a f oi•mer pupil of mine with whom I had 1 ately grown
intimate agoin. Fven before removing to Vyechasha, which we
ha‹1 rentcd agein for the summer, I had alrcady set to work on
Act I. "I“he summer of 9 in dear \'yechasha passed quickly in
composing Th e 1’sar’ Bride, and the w-ork went rapidly and easily.
During the summer, the entire opera was comp oscd, and an act
and a half were oi•chestrated. In the midst of this z•ork the
sony A lfid‹umme› ?Vip/tf’s K r‹ant on a text by ñI aykofi, was also
copposed. ThlS latt er and the song Th c ,5'ymp/i, wrlttcn in the
spring, were subsequently dedicatc d to the 1'rubel’ pair.
)’lie work of cornp osing the ensembles -the quartet of Act II
aii‹1 thc sextet of Act III roused in me the particular interc t of
methods new to me ; and I suppose that in the matter of cantllcna
and grace of indcpendelit part-writing, there had been no such
operatic ensembles since Glinka’S time. Taken in general, ?\ct I
of The TsB1“’.s Bride presents possibly one or two somewhat dry
moments ; but a fter the scene (in Act II) written by a
hand that had alre ady become expr rt, the interest begins to grow,
and the touching lyric drama reaches powerful intensity in the
course of thc c ntire /\ct IV. Tsar s la['a lS'y ez j esta provcd to hav•
been ss-ritten for strictly doi ned voices and mos t gratefoll ter the
singers, in a t]d t tion. Despite the fact that the voiccs had been
inva riably hcld to tlie fore by me and the oi chcstra had been taken
in its usual complement, the orchestration and thc handlin g of the
accomp animcnt proved effective and interesting eve ryivhe re. It is
suficient to polnt out the orchestr aI intermez zo, the sccnc of Lyu-
basha v ith B omelio, the entry of Tsar Ivan, the sextct, etc.
Lyubasha's song in Act I, I decided to leave cntirely without ac-
companiment, with the exceptron of the intermediate chords be-
3i6 MYMW5ICALLIFE
tween the stanzas, and this greatly frightened the singers wl ‹›
feared thcy might get oil key. But their fear proved groundless,
the range of the melody in the Dolian mode in G-minor proved to
have been chosen so conveniently that all the singers, to my sur-
prise, always kept up to pitch ; I told them that thy song was a
magic one.
Contrai•y to my custom, in composing 7"/ie Z’Jar’s flrtdr, I did
not utilize a single folk-theme, save tlie melody of SlBña, demande d
by the subject itsclf. In the scene in which hlalyuta Skooratofi -
proclaims the will of Tsar Ivan who had chosen ñ4arfa to be a wifc
unto him, I introduced the theme of Iran Grozny (the Terrible)
Jrom PsGovt i yanka and combined it contrapuntally with the Slava
theme. '

At the beginning of the summer, my son Audrey who had com-

pleted his first 7car' s examinations at the University, went for rest
to the estate of the Dobrovo1'skis, Latovka (Government of Khyer-
son) , where my older son Misha was then on a mission from the
University, for zoological studies• Soon Nadyezhda N ikolayevua,
too, went to South Russia and, meeting Andrey, as had been agreed,
the two together made a trip to C i•imea to visit Masha’s grave in
Yalta. Thus our family found itself somew-hat reduced in numbei•
in the early part of the summer in Vyechasha. The I aithful Yas-
trycbtseil spent a few days with us. Also Bye1'ski dropped in on
us ; we had endless discussions with him oB various opera-subj ects
suitable for me. Upon the return of Nadye zhda Nikolayev-na and
Andrey› we resumed our usual mode of llviog—all together. Al-
most every evening various chamber-music trios were played at our
house, as my sons had then made considerable progress (Andrey on
the violin, and Volodya on the piano) , and with Nadyezhda Niko-
layevna's assistance, chamber-mtisic began to flourish among us.
In the autumn of i 8 9 8 I was occupied exclusively with the Drches-
MontaJgu-Nathan notes a decided ¥Vestern influence in the mllgic of this opera.
‘the subjeel, of course, *s pui'ely o ation^4, but the treatment in genera) i8 of a kind
which savours of b4ozait and the Italian opera.” This dictum will appear to br _
absolute nonsense to aIiy one who has heard I"/ie 7’iar’y Bride, one of the most
chnracter*3tica Ily Rus.•ian of the coniposer’a works. It has consistently been more
p ptt{;ir ip Russia than any of the other Rimsky-Koi'salioff opera s. It was produced
in New 1’ork, in a vile manner, by tlie Russian Grnnd Opera Company at tlie New
Amsterdam Theatre, May z7, i9za• C. V V•
 V Y E R A S H EGL O A 3 t7
tration of Pfir 7’iar’i Bride. This work was interrupted only for
a brief while, owing to my trip to El oscow to attend the produc-
tion of Bo yaryha V j era S helo ga and P› hovit yacha at Nlamontofl's.
The Prologue received scant attention, despite its excellent in-
terpr etation by Time. Ts› yetkova. On the otlier hand, Th‹• II«i l
o f Ps k o•o eDjoyed success, thanks to the hi ghly-talented Shalyapin,
whOse Tsar Ivan was a creation heyond compare. $ adk o was also
performed. Dinners, mild drinking-bouts, arranged by S. I. h4a-
montoíí calls on the Iyrubel’s home, on Krooglikoíl and othCl’s
;filled all my “f ree” time.
I íiiví ted A. I. Eabyela to sing my PrOlogue in concert form at
one of the Russi itn Syrnphony Concerts of this season, and she ivil!-
ingly ¿pvc her consent. ’the monetary remuneration wai not
mentioned. Yet, there was in storc an unpleasant situation out of
ivhich a way hall to be found. Byelya yc fi, who did not likc solr›-
ists in general and singers, male and fcmale, in particular, had es
tablislied once for all a compensati on of fifty rutales to a soloist per
concert. To certaln artista, cho were in straiten ed ci rcumstances,
so slight a rornp•nsation could still be offered, as a fter all it me ant
just that much lielp to them; bat to artista who did not feel the
pioch of necessity, it was unthinkable to nfler such beggarly com-
pensation, and in their time I had asked Mme. hI r avina and othcrs
to take part w1 thout any pay whaterer and mercly out of their in•
terest in art. Neve rthelcss, an artist from Nloscow could not be
expcctcd to travel to St. Petersburg and spend her o›vo money on
fare, etc. for the sake of a Russian Symphony Concert ; while to
ofÍer her a compensati on of fifty rubíes was absurd. Despite all
ru) talks with Byelyayelf, time and again, to the efiect that in cer-
tain cases the remunerati on mqst be incre ased, he would not listern.
I ofiered Zabye)a i 3o ruble9 and, without telliflg her, added one
hundred of my own to Byelyayefí's fifty. This remained a secret
to both Zabyela and Byelyaye0 ; but in order to malie up the Ioss,
I expressed to )3ye1yayefi the desire to draw again the fee he had
este bi‹sh«d for conóuctin g the con((Tt , a IcC I had wai v ed serera!
years before. To this M. P. gave his consent immediately.
I n order to ›erform Vyera Sheloga’s narrative, the pa rticipa-
tion of a secnod woman singer ix-a s necessary for the róle of Na-
dyc zhda. I sccured opc f i om among )f me. I ryetskaya ’s consc rva-
tory pupils, at a fee of fifty rubles, in accordance with Byelyayeff’s

. . _
3i 8 Cf Y M U S I C A L L I r E
rule. The narrative was performed spleudidly, although Zabyela's
lyric soprano did not entr i ely suit the rôle of I"yera, which demande
a more dramatic voice. The audience treated the music with com-
pa rati ve intlifierencc. The cause of this attitude lay in the very
cha ractcr of the composition which needs a theatre and not a con-
cert stage. Marfa’s aria from The Tvar’s B ridc, sung by Zaliyel a,
was liked, though receis-iog scant notite ; but the isct lV aria given
as an encore, to the accompanimeiit of the piano, was not noticed at
all. The singe r won a fcw plaudits, but nobody ev en attcmpted
to find out what she had sung, while the critics expresscd surmisc
that it was one of my new songs.
Ei-idently the Board of Directors of the Imperi 1 rheatres felt
somewhat ashamed that S adko which had met with success both
in ËI oscow and St. Petersburg in private opera houses, had avoldcd
the state theatres, which had not noticed it. On the other hand,
after my oncomfortablc experience with Chris Anna s Eve in i 893,
nr›t a single opera of mine had been giv•en on the FJ ariinski stage.
One way or another, Vsyevolozhski suddeoly concei v ed the desire
of producing rny Sn j e goorochka with a magnificence befitting the
Imperial Theatres. New sceiiery and new costumes were ordered,
and the opera e as produced on December i Jth, The settings and
rostumes were really costly, dsinty but u7tterlj cnfitted for a Russian
larry-tale. M oroz ( Frost) proved something like Neptune, Lyel’
resembled a Paris ; Snj egoorochka, Koopava, Byeryendyey and
other9 v ere deckcd out in like fashion. The architecture of Bye-
ryendyey’s palace and the little hut of ByeryendyeycvLa vi!lage, the
sun, palnted io the cheapest woodcut 9tyle, at the end of the opern,
were mismùtched, to the verge of the ludicrous, with the subject
matter of tke spring ferry-tale. In all this, there were apparent
both the inability to gr asp the problem and the French mythologi- cal
tastes of I*s r@volozhskl. Thc opc ra iva9 giv•en w•ith success. Mra
vina, the Soyegoorochka, was fine, but the omissions had no* been
restored, and the opera dragged till la te, thanks to the inter- minable
intermissions.
Toward s Lent, Mamontof 's opera, this time with Trufli as con-
rluttor, paid its second visit to St. Petersburg. Ps L•o•oit yunka, with
h h‹•lo a,- Sadko,- Noriz Goduno with Shalyapin, were the operas.
Uozurf ond $aÎieri was also produced. Shalyapin won cuormou•
success, and from this time dates his fame and the growth of his
FYODOR SHALYAPIN t it R teas k Y- KoRs.a ki›FF's :if src rt c» I s ali r,
 T H E Y OGU N E R S C H O O L 3i9
popularité. But taken all in ail, Mamontolt’s opera was not
ivarrnly CnOVQLi attended ; they made ends meet oflly thanks to S.
I. ñlamoDtoff’s playing the M æcenas.
Vt*c formed f ricndships with some of the opci•a-siDgers. On
one of iny visits to R). A. Vrubel’, he showcd me his painting 'tte
S mPrince s s. On thc canvas, among other things, there was pic-
turcd dawn and the crescent in the shape of a sickle, the fat ter with
its concare f acing toward the dawn. I called the ;irtist’s attention
to this error, emplaining to him that iu the morning, at dawn, only
the waning moon can be seen, but never the new moon, and tôt t,
nioreovc r, the convex side is always toz'ard the sun. M. A. was
convinced of his mistake, but would not consent to do his painting
over again. I do not know whether the painting retnined that
astronomic absurdity or whether he thaoged it subsequently, af tcr
all.

Byelyayef(’s circle was growing perceptibly. It mas increased

bj those of my pupils graduating ftom the C ooserv atory, Zolo-
taryolf, Akimycnko, Amani, Kryzhanovski and C heryepnin,' as
well as by that star of first magnitude newly-risen in Rloscow the
somewhat warFed, posing and self-opiuiooated A. N. Skryabin.
3“hc other Moscow star, S. I". Rakhmaninolf, though his composi-
tions had been performed in the Russian Symphony Concerts, kept
apart, his works being published by Gutheil. In general, Mos-
cow of late had beCome t’ICh in young composer blood, such as
Gryech aninotf, Koryeshcheoko, Vasilyenko ° and others i Grjccha-
° N ikolay Cherye¡inin, horn in i £25, abandoned bis studies in the lega1 profession
to become a pm Pi] of R fmsk3•-KorsakoQ. Probably his best-known wofik8, both pro-
duced by the Rtissian Bal Ïet, 0 re fie J’aziffoo d’dr mvi dr and Nor iii e. Fyodor Alii-
inyenito, horn in i 826, studied piazo under Ba lakireff, barmooy with Lyndon, , d
compositioo with Rimsky-Kor sako&. hevertlic less, even in his ¢ar]y ivork•, there is
little trace of natioua li.etic influenee, end a ft er he had visitetl P atie, he f elf dis4inctly
under the infiuenee of the modern impressionists and composed pieces eatitlcd, fs
the Luxcn hour g G ardcns and L'ndtr tlic Archer af A'o1rz Na we. Kryzhanovski, born
ili r8 6y, is also an ecl eet ic. Ilig compos it iotis are mo tav f ar piano. O. \'. V,
" Se *gey N, Va sil)'enk o, born in hfoscow in i 82z, won a gold med01 for his cad t ata,
The fnvixi blt f’i/y 0/ Kit yzx h, afterwards prodljcecl fls an opera. i-lis other works
include a. symphoTly Jn (j-minor, and a symphonic pocm, Nde* nT cut o) D€H1 It. T
Gryechani noif, born ‹n Moscow zn i8 6J, has w titteH operfl8, symphon ies, cantata s, and
works in several other forms. His works show G ermau info ounce. He wtote tlie
£ist Russian revolutionary anthem. A. N. Koryeshchenko, born i82o, pupil of
4’añeyeft and Aryerislri at tlie Moscow Conservatory, has written three operas, a
ballet, and a large number Of instrumental works. IN ia style is said to be based on
the music of Chaykovski and Aryenski. C. Y• V.
3zo )§ ) JT 1 C A L L I F E
uinoJf, however, was partly a denizen of St. Petersburg as being a
former pupil of mine. Togethe i• z ith these, there began to ap-
pear alsp signs of decadence wafted from Yt'estern Europe. Of
Skryabin I 9hal1 spa ak later on.
During the ivinte r I often saw ¥”. (. Byel’ski, and, together with
him, w orkcd up Pushkin’s Fair)-i uie o f Yr r Sat tan as a subj ect
for an opera. Our interest was also attracted by the legend of
the Invi,iib1e Cit y o f Ix"il e.p- h in conucction with the legend of St.
Fyevroniya of Al oorom ; we ircre drawn also to Byron’s heaven
an1 Ear I li, as well as to Od yssc us at tlie Palace o f IN in y 11cinoiis
and other things, but all of it z•as put of for some future occasion,
our attention focussing on Saltan for which we discussc d the scen-
ario together. V'ith the coming of spring, V. I. began to write
his splendid libretto, milking use of Pushkin as mtich as was pos
sible, and artistically as well as Skll fully imit ating his style. He
would hand me thc scenes one by one, as they were finished, and I
set to work on the opc ra. By the summer (which we had made
up our minds to se e nd at Vyechasha as before) the Prologue (In-
troduCti on) was rearly in sketch.
Exactly as the case had been pith Teai-s ka a ñ*)'cv 'ciro (The
TSil7’s Bride ) the prcviout summer, the en tire uJiuii wits COlTl-
posed, and its prolopyue, Act I and part of Act II wcrc orches-
trated dui ing the summer of 1 99 T he libretto came ‹O ITle pt ece-
meal, continuously from Byel’ski. S alt an wz 3 composed in a
mixed manlie r v hich I shall call instrumental-vocal. Its entire
fantastic pa rt belongc d rather to the first manlier, the realistic part
to the second manner. As far as the applic ation of purely vocal
creative art is concerned, I was particul a rly p1c ased with the pro-
logue. The enti re dialogue, of tlie two sisters with Babarikh a,
after the ditty for two voices ; the younger sister’s phr Esc ; Saltan’s
entrance, and the closing conve mation fio›- freely with strictly mu-
sical sequence. And yet the really melodic element lies inva riably
in tlie roices, which latter do not cling to fr agmeuts of melodic
phrases in the orchestra. .fi structure of simile r nature is to be
found in the comic trio at the bepinning of .4ct II of '5 la] F i ylit,
ñnt therc the musical edificc is far more symrnctrlcal, it is sulidividtd
into manifest units and it is less compact than here. The inten-
tir›n there, too, ivat exCCllent ; but for execution the pre-eminence
must be awarded to Salt an. Symmetry again, in the boasts of the
 T S A R S A L T AN 3z i
older sister and the middle one, invests the piece witty an intention-
ally fairy-tale character. Act I, entirely bound with folk-life in its
first half, grows dramatic in its second. The fantastic singing of
the Swan-bird in ACt II is in a way instrumental; but its harmo-
nies are novel. The dawn and city's rise into view recall Mlada
and Chrisicar Eve in method employed ¡ but the solemn chorus,
greeting Gvidon, written partly on an ecclesiastic theme of the
third mode ( “the churclily choir doth praise the Lord,” as Push-
kin's poem reads) stands alone. The marvels in the ta1e9 of the
ship-masters are made real in the last tableap of the opera by a
suitable development of that very music. The transformation of
the Swan-bird into the Princess-Swan is based again on a simi-
lar development of prcvious leading motives and harmonies. In
general, I have made wide use of the system of /etrm omrr in this
opera, while the recitatives have been invested with a special char-
acter of fairy-tale naivety. In memory of our nurse Avdotya
ariooovna, who had died a year before, I took the melody of the
lullaby she had sung to my children, for the nurses rocking little
Gvidon to sleep.
The same summer, as a rest and a pastime, I wrote also The La
o f 01 j e g tlie Pro phetic for solo and chorus ¡ however, I had con-
ceived it the pi cceding winter. Yastryebtseff and Byel'ski, as us-
ual, ri st ted us at Yyccliasiia this summer o3so, and I )et them see
such new thing as I had compose d. As always, Yastryeb tsefi was
somewhat hesitant at first hearings, but later went into wild ray-
met (his own pet expression) . On the other hand, Byc1'ski
usually seized and mastered, from the first, the very “littlest”
shreds of detail, thereby astonishing me not a little.
The first half of the season of 18 99—*9° I spent on orchestrat-
ing Skazka o Tea r)!o 8altgn y e. this time there was to be no
orerfure or pied ude to my opera: the prelude was supplied by the
introduction itself; that is, by the scenlc prologue. Each act, on
the contrary, mas preceded by a long orchestral prelude with a
program of definite content. But to make up for that, both the
pr(›logue and each of the acts or tableaux byegan ith the same brief
ti-iimpct fanfare, which had the meaning of a call or invitation to
hear and see the act which thus began immediately after it. This
is a device quite original and suitable for a faii‘y-tale. Out of the
rather longish orchestral pre1ude9 to Acts I, II and IY, I resolved
322 M Y Cf U S I C A L L I F E
to put together a suite under the title : Little Pi tur i to th
Fair y-the o f TSOt SaltBn.
As carly as the spring, when I set out to comp ose Saltan5 I had
spoken to Byelyayefl of it and inquired whether he wOuld undertake
to publish it. Byelya yefl replied more or less dryly and in the nega-
tive, stating that the ever-groiving number of my ope ras was be-
ginning to be a burden to his publishing business. ñccordingly I
ofi!ered 3dffari to Bessel, who g1at)ly consented to bring it out,
though at an honorarium of two thousand rubles only; consider-
ably less than the remune ration established by Byelyaycf(. Wc had
come to an agreement with B essel, and he was no\v whiting only lot
me to finish the score. Et this juncture Byelyaye(f, who had devel-
opcd an interest in the Little Picmres, mode rue an other to publisli
them. I replied that I had alreadJ" come to terms z itli Bessel.
Evidently this refusal of mine, as well as my agreeinent z ith Bessel,
oflended Byelyayel( iii a measure. But what n'as to be done ? The
fault fay with him not with rue. Neverthclcss thls did not aEect
our relations, which remaÎned as cordial as ever ; but after that
M. P. made up his mind not to publish and- orera scores in gene ral,
ostensibly because of the accurnulati on of orchestral and charnber-
music that bcggcd publication so ouch more pressingly than oper-
atic music for which publishers would always bc found. H owevc r,
he swerved from his os-n resolve, when he under took the pilbli ca-
tion of Taiieyeft's Om s teia. It will bc â propos to tell here that for
some years past there had been appc aring oH the hori zon a ion-
derful musicien and hlghly trained teathe r, Sergey Ivaoovich
TañeyeS. Once a pupil où Chaykovski and N. G. RubiHstein at
the Moscoq Conservatory, an excellent pianist, Tafîcyeû had been
Professor of countcrpoint at that Conservatory for many years.
Absorbed as he was for many long years in re9earch in the field
of so-talled double counterpoints and canons, 4s well as in pre-
paring fnaterials for a compre hensive text-book, he had rarely
lent himself to composition ; anti, indeed, his compositions had been
most dry and laboured in character. I recall him then still a very
young man, but recently graduated from the Conservatory, com-
ing to St. Petersburg to show his piano concerto, l I remember
also a later visit of his, with his cantata Nolianncs No m au rraiis.
^ I find no record of 8 pi8no concerto anjmhere• Only a piaeo-quartet in G-minor,
op. zo. J. A. J.
 T A N E Y EF F )23
I remember also hi* Solemn Osrrrure in C-ma jor with its extraor-
dina ry contrapuntal subtleties, which e as performed at a concert of
the Russian musical Society in the E ighties.
Taoeyefl of the E ighties had heen a man of glaringly conserva-
tive opinions in musical art. Toward Glazunofl’s early appear-
ances he had shown deep distrust ; Borodin he had considered a
clever dilett ante and no more ; and Musorgski had me rely made
him laugh. Pr(ibab1y he had placed no high estimate on Cut,
either, as well as on me. But my study or counterpoint ( about
u hich he had ie.1b 3C d from C haykovski ) had uubent him toward
mc iii some measure. He worshipped C haykovski ; and Chaykov-
ski had singlcd rue out from the rest of the St. Petersburgers sur-
rounding mc. his opini on conce ruing Ralakirelt is unknOivn to
me ; but I do know of his clash with Balakirefi at a rehearsal of
the cooce rt during the festivities in connectlon with the unveiling
of a monumcnt to Glinka at Smolyensk 1 where Mili Alyekstye-
rich conducted a conc c rt of works by Russian composc rs. (hon-
est, upright Tal eyc ft a1w'ayg spoke sharply and frankly. On the
other hand, B aliiki i en, of course, could never fo rgive 7“aiieyef( his
ha rsliness and frankness with regard to his own person.
In tlie kinetics, Tafieyeft's opiulons of St. Petersburg com-
posers untlcrrent a marked change : he came to appreciate Glazu-
nofi’s actii ity ; treated Borodin’s compositions with respect ; re-
garding only Musorgski iYith dislike and ridicule. This change
in attitude coinci dcd somehow with the beginning of the new pe-
rinc1 in li'is activity as composer, after he had thrown himself more
freely into creatire work and was guiding himself by the ideals of
contemporary music, though still preserving his astounding con-
trapuntal tcchuiquc. He arrived in St. Petersburg z ith his re-
cently finished opei a Orer beta, playe d it at our house, and aston-
ished us all with pages of extra oi•dioary beauty and expressiveness.
He had been at the comQOSl tiOll Of his opera for a long time, pos-
sibly ten yea rS. Before setting out for the real expounding of a
composition, Tr.neyefl used to precedc it with a multitude of
sketchc s and studies : he used to write fugues, canons and various
contrapuntal intc rliiciii)S On the individual themes, phrases and mo-
tives of the coming composition ; and only after gaining thorough
expcrience in its component parts, did he take up the general plan
Stay zo, i 885. J. A. J
324 MYMUSICALLIF E
of the composit1on and the carrying out of this plan, knowing by
that time, as he did, and perfectly, the nature of the material he
had at his disposal and the possibiliti#s of building with that matr-
'rial. The same method had bcen applied by him in composing
Ores I:cia. (t would seem that this method ought to result in a dry
and academic composition, dev oid of the shadow of an inspira-
tion ¡ in reality, however, Orc i ceia proved quite the reverse for
all rte strict prcmc dit ation, the opera was striking io its wealth
of beauty and expressiveness.
The opera was submittcd to the Directorate, and was produccd
at the Mariinski Theatre. Napravnik dodged conductiog Ores tète
and let Krooshevski do it. The opera met with instant public
favour. Yet after the first ts-o or three performances the
Directorate ( I imaw gine ith Napravnik's conni vance) introduced
many buts. The cOmpose r z'a9 exasperated, refused to sign a con-
tract with the Directorate, and the opera was stricken from the
repertory. Byelyayelf, who liked the opera, qu'ite sympa-
thized with Tañeyelt ; and indignant at the Directorate’s conduct,
he immediately proposed to Tafieyefl to publish his opera for him.
The publication was begun forthwith. Tañeyelt revised and sig-
nally improved the orchestration which had not been uoiformly
satisfactory. It is worthy of note that thereafter Tañeyelt began
to avail himself of Clazunoft's advice in orchestration ; of course,
he now mode rapid strides in that field.
how then, the business of publishing my operas beginning with
Sultan had passed into the hands OI Bessel who also took over my
O/)'ep. Nevertheless the Lit tle Pictures for thé fair y-tale op PABX
aftan were anoounced for pc rformance at the Russian Symphony
Concerts ; but the La y e/ OI ye g the Pro yhetic I promised for the
concerts of the Russian ,Musical Society, at the request of its
Dircctorate.
In the autumn, Mamontoll's Opera Company in Moscow studied
Th e Tsar’s Bride, alid I made a trip to that city to attend rc-
hea rsals and the first performance. The opera was a success.
Once more certain-calls, wreaths, suppers, etc. Zabyela, in the
rôle of hIa rta, sang excCllently ; the high notcs in her arias rang
out wonderfully, but, as a whole, this role suited her less wcll than
the rôle of the Sea-Princess, and her costume, made, as ever, ac-
cording to her husband's sketch, could hardly be called felicitous
 O LGY E 3zy
this time. Syekar-Rozhanski who sang the part of ykof(, re-
quested me to write an aria for him, pointing out a sU1 table fflO-
ment for it in Act III, I hadnever composed special arias for
anybo‹)y ; but this time I could not help agreeing with him, as his
remark about the ovci -inopportune brevity and incompletene ss of
L.ykofi’s part was qui te correct. On my return to St. Petersburg,
I askc d Tyumyeïiefl to ivrite suit able words, and on Christmas I
composed the aria in Act III ; I sent it on to Syekar-Îtuzhanski
and decided to interpol atc it pcrmanently i nto rny opera.
O/Jrp I lcd pc rsonally at the concert of the Russian musical
Society ; the soloists were Sha ronolt and hlorskoy, the choir was
very mediocre. Its soccess cas slight. The composition won
scant notice. The same thing had happened the previoùs year with
Svit yez j aiika. I think that this is the fate of all cantatas, ballade,
etc. for soloists and chorus with us ; ' our audiences do not like
them and don’t know how to listen to them. Nor do those per-
forining at concerts like this form of composition : rehearsals have
to be lieJ‹l, thc choruses have to be drillcd. The soloists like a
plais solo, the choirs like merely separate choruses. The pub-
lishcrs, too, don’t like thèse compositions, as nobody buys them.
\"c n r sad. .
The Russiau Symphony Concerts of this season were, contrary
tO CuStOlTi, glvcn ml the Grand Conserv-atory H all, owing to repairs
made at the Hall of the Club of the Nobility. The Little Pi cture s
for rfir Fairy-tata o f T's ar Salta n sounded brilliant in the orchestra
and were much liked.
' This ‹t i tante ii not peeuliar io Russian audiences. €. V. V.
 CHAPTER XXVI
8 —1 O L
Beginning of Cerni/ia. Mud fi^ipJiz at the FraRkfurt-on-ñ(ain Opera
House. Trip to Brussels, f”/ir )’sar’s Bride on i›=vate stage iti St.
Petersburg. Composing and orchestrating Scrzilia. 8oJlo at tlic Impci ial
Opera. Tsar Sallaa on a private stage in hloscoiv. Resignation from
conductorship of Russian Symj)hony Concerts. 33th AnniverSay°. \*arious
operatic plans.

Having done with the orchestral score ‹iI Salt att and having laid
aside for the time being the subjccts jointly worked Out by I)yel'ski
and myself, I began to gl ve mti i It ¡th() lTlO1’C t)IOtlQ1lt TO II ti)''S
5er‹i)ia. The p)an of taming i t mtn un operatic suh ject h,id come
to me often ev-en in former years. )’his tlrnt my attciitiou was
attracted to it iii earnest. A subject Healing with ancient Rome
gave one free rein in the matter of unli mpered style. Anythilig
was appropriate here, except Uh at was rioni/r if) cuiiir«dicior),
like the obviously German, the evidently French, the unt)oubtctlly
Russian, etc. Of antique music not even a trace has lieen pre-
served ; nobody has heard it, nobody has a right to reproach the
composer because his music is not Roman, pt-or idet) the condition
OF aVoidiiig what is ma ni fcs II y coii try Jicto i i! has bcen obse rv•cd by
him. Consequently there was almost entire and complete free-
dom. But music outside of nationalit r does not exist, and, in its
essence, all music which it is custr›ma ry to consider universal, is
national after all. Beethoven's music is Gci man music ; Wagner’s
indubitably German; BctJioz’s French; ñ(eyctbcci ’9 also ; pos-
sibly only the contrapunt al music of the old Flemings and I tali:us,
music rooted in calculati on i at her than in di Acct fccling, is devold
of any national tinge. Accordingly, for Se rvilin too, it was neces-
sary to select in general some OliC most appropriat e watt ona1 col-
ouring. Partly thC Italian, partly the Greek secmed
to me the most suitable. As for the moments dcpicting the fr›lk-
3z6
 M 3 Y N I G H T 1 N G E R M AN Y 327
life, for dances with music, etc., according to my understanding,
the Byzantine and Oriental tinge was highly appropriate there.
For, indeed, the Romans possessed nO art of their own, there was
only wk at they had borrowed from Greece. On the one hand,
I am convinced of the close kinship of ancient Greek music to the
Oriental, while on the other hand I belies•e that the rcma ins of
ancient Greek music are to be sought in Byzantine art, of which
the echoes arc heard in the ancient orthodox church singing.
Thcse are tlie considerations that guided me when the general
style of 5erz'i/ia began to grow clear in my mind. I spoke to no
one of my decision to compose 8crri/ia,- and, taking Mey's drama,
I 1›egan to work out the libretto of my opera. There was little
to recast and add ; beginning with the latter half of the season of
i 8$ Q— I )oo, inuGiCñl ideas, too, began to crowd into my mind.

The disturbances z hich commenced at the University ' in the

academic year i 8 q 8—p 9 causcd my wife and mc to prefer sending
our son .Andrey to one of the forcign universities. The Stra9s-
burg University was our choice. In the autumn of i 99 Andrey
lcft for Strassburg. ID the meantime the management of the
Opera at Frankfurt-on-ñfain dcsi red to produce my Any Ni pht
and wrote to me for suggestive information. Whatever I could
I suggested by letter, but that was manifestly insufficient, yet I
saw no possibility of going there myself. just before production
time it turned out that Vyerzhbilo vich ° was going to Frankfurt,
where he had been engaged to appear in concerts. I asked him
tO Call at the Opera House, upon his a rrival in Frankfurt, and in
my name to give them ccrt ain directions that had to do chiefly with
the misc-en-scene, the folk-life side of the opera, and the acting,
lest there creep in some too palpable absurdities in the sense of
interpreting Ookrainiao li fe, with which the Germans were entirely
unfamiliar. However, 1"yerzhbilovich, who had amiably and
obligingly uodert:tk.en this errand, did absolutely nothing, and never
° The famous massacre ot student-youth of both sexes by 'Cossacks on Vasilycvski
Ostrnv ( IaI and) occu rrcd on Feb. 8, z 599. These tlisturbanees and eI aughters ct
students we re a chronic disease in Russia, the massacre of Ma rch ¢, i goi, being ce-
pacia Ily notoi ions. ). A. ).
" The great Russian cellist (**49- s ), pupil and successor of ihe i amous Davydotf.
3z8 MYMUSICALL1FE
even showed up at the Frankfurt Opera House. Of course I
should noé have charged l'yerzhbilovich with any such er-
rand. . . .
The performance was fiiially aiinounced, and our _Andrcy, learo-
ing of it, skipped over to Frankfurt and was pi osent at the first
performancc. The musical pa i t, especially the orchestra, went
not at all badly ; but all thg doings on the stage provcd a shockiilg
caricature. Thus, for exemple, the Mayor, the Scrivener and the
Distiller, in the Second Tableau of Act II, kiiclt down and kept
shoutiny: “Satan 1 Satan I” ett. The opera was given three
times and then taken ofi the boards and immédiat ely forgotten by
everybody. As for the critics, they treated it condesceoGugly
and that is all. The relations that sprang up with the Prague
Opera were more successful: at l’rague, in the course of sere ral
succeeding years, were produced Via;• Ni gtte, The Tsar’ B riJe and
5oyrpoororfik a, all with considérable success.
Having reccived an invitation tO come to Brussels to conduct
a concert of Russian Music at the Théâtre de la M onnaie, I west
there in March. Thi9 time a certain d’Aoust, a wealthy and w•el1-
trained music lovcr, was at the head of af(airs. Joseph Dupont
was no longer among the living. I had a cordial reception.
D'Aoust and his family were most attelitive and amiable ; there
were rehearsals aplenty, exactly as on my former visit, and the
performance itsel f was excellent. I put ou Sodfi o, S liek tte razaûg,
a suite from GlazunotÏ’s Ra y mondB, etc. .Sadko pleased mod-
erately, Sh e khc i’azada very much. The concert was attended by
Vincent d'lndy, but he did not come in to 9ee me in the green-room.
I met many of my former B russel9 acquaintances, but did not get
to sre Gevaert, as he was ill. All in all, my trip was a succcss.
On returning home, I set to work assiduously on Sc il*B.
During the Easter Season the Kharkoff priv-ate opera company
under the management of Prince Tsereteli, began a season of per-
formances at PanayefÏ’s Thc atre in St. Peter burg. Aiuong others
they gave also Tvarska ja N yevyex tn, The talentcd M. N. Insa-
rora niadc a be autiful figure as M arfa. But I was extremely cx-
asperafed by the cuts : the Sextet in Act III and the cnsemble dur-
ing Nlarfa's f ainting spell had been omitted. I asked the con-
ductor Suk (a thorough musicien) for an cxplanation ¡ he told mc
that they had been in a liurry with the production of The Tser'
 O B J E C 7’ I O N T O C U T S 3zg
Beide in Kharkofl, and had made cuts to speed matters. Again
harte was the cause l But in reality it was laziness and a slip-
shod attitude toward music. hobody even thinks of the imprcs-
SIOH Oi the whole. Why rehearse some scxtet or othe r, whcn it
is possible to do without it? The opera can be studied more
rapidly and the money diddled out of the public. Indced, the
public pays the same money for the opera wiit the sextet and
seithout the sextet. The friendly critici are not familiar with
the opera and, consequently, jvill praise in equal measure a produc-
tion v ith the sextet and one without the sextet ¡ while unf rieodly
critics will abuse in equal measure, anyway. How disgusting l
and yet there is zo redress for a situation which could be allevi-
ated only by 9ound criticisni and sound audicnces. The author's
rights can be of but slight help in such cases. How, indeed, can
an author residing in St. Petersburg keep track of what is going on
in Kharkofi or Kiyefl ? But a good musician like Suk ought to
feel ashamed to make such cuts, since they clearly reduce his oen
worth as a musician. In addressing these words to Suk, I address
them to all other opera conductors. I insisted that the sextet
be restored, and this was done after a few performances. And
how much the opera gained thereby and how pleased the artist
thernselres felt l As for the ensemble of Act IV, I did not 9uc-
ceed in having that restored, owing to lack of time, after all.
Late in the autumn, I'. A. Tyelyakovski, DirectOr of the Mos-
cow State-Theatre9 came to sec me quite unexpectedly. The pur-
pose of his risit was iO ask me to let him have my SkBzka o TsaT] e
Saltan ye ( Fairy-tale of Tsar Saltan) for production at the Grand
Moscow Theatre the following season. I had to refuse him, as
I had 3lready promised that opc ra to the company of Solodovni-
kofi's Theatre. Of course I felt regret that the management had
come t‹› this, cotton a bit too late ; but it could not be helped, and
I had to refuse. I suggested to Tyelyakovski that he put on some
other of my compositions, Ps komt5!a nk a for example, the more so
as Shalyapin ' the inimitable T ar Ivan was at his disposal,
sinec joioing the Imperial Opera. Tyelyakovski gladly accepted
my suggestion, but the production of The Meid o f Pskov, as it
turned out after ward , took place only a year later.
Fyodor Ivanovicli Shal) apio (bom in was then barely a2 and had been
f amous for four ytars. J• A J•
 33o MYMUSICALLIF E
We decided to spend the summer en f amille abroad near my
hon Andrey who was studying at the University of Strassburg.
Via Berlin and Cologne we followed the Rhine as far as Maine,
and, after a brief stop in Strassburg, settled fo r a fairly long stay
at Peter thai, in the mountains of the Schwarzz'ald. Andrey
usually came to spend the week-ends with us. V°hen the Uni-
versity x•acations came, he and the rest of us went to Swit zerland,
n'here wee )ired rhiefl y at Vitznau b)= tlie Lake of the Four (1 orest)
Cantons,* on the slope of the Rigi Mountain. After visiting
Lausanne and Geneva we made a very success fu1 trip tO Cha-
monix 1'ith full opportunity to gaze to our hearts' content at Mont
Blanc and walk among its foothills ( ñ4er de Glace, Mauvais Pas,
etc. ) . Our return journey lay again via Berlin. U’e returned
to St. Petersburg by September.
I had no piano either at Peterithal or at Vitznau, where we
made long stays. Nevertheless the work of composing N miJia
got along without the aid of a grand piano. Act III and IV were
jotted down in their entirety, and Act I and V, in part. The only
opportunity I hatl to play these on the piano was at Lucerne, where
there was an excellent concert grand at the Catholic Sotiety's
Hotel. True, music written without the aid Of a piano is dis-
tinctly “Award” by the composer; oeverfhrl ess, when chance of-
fers one an opportunity to play (on the piano) for the first time
a considerable quantity of music composed without a piano, there
is a peculiar impression, unexpected in its way, and one to whith
the composer has to grow accustomed. The cause of this probably
lies in being weaned from the sound of the piano. During the
process of composing an opera the tones imagined mentally be-
long to voices and the orchestra, and when performed for the
first time on the piano, they sound somewhat strange.
Accordingly, on my return to St. Petersburg, I brought with me
(including what I had composed in 'the spring) Acts I, III and
IV complete, a few things for Act II, and the half-composed Act
V, which I finished in a short time ¡ only the wOrk Of composing
Act II dragged somewhat. I immediately turned to the orches-
trati on. I took the usual make-up orchestra, exactly as in
Tfir TsaP5 Bride with the bass-clarinet added here and therc.
The prevailing dramat.c theme of ScrviJia like the theme of The
Lac dev quatre-cantons, Ger. Vierwaldstiittersee, known as Lalte of Luceine.
 S E R ¥’ I L I A 33i
Ysor’i J ride, dcrnanded a purely vocal manner of composing; in
this feld I felt grotte free now, and my vocal phrases as well as
mélodies proved tuneful and full of substance. As for the orches-
tration, my task this time seemed to me to demand that I not
merely refrain from droivoing thc voices but rather give them
good support and help them, and this I athieved, as was proven
subsequently lu the performance. I imagine that Servilia'9 aria
iii Act III, and her deSth scene in particule i-, hit the mark in this
respect. The subj ect matter of Srrri/ia presented but a single
opportunity foi• rtsorting to a broad vocal ensemble. This mo-
mcnt prOved t‹› be the quintet at the end of Act III. I believe
that this quintct, wlth its beginning enunciated in canoH-form, is
not inferior to the similar of Ffiu Tsar’s Bride in its sonor-
ousness and its delica cy of part-whiting; yet, bcing inte i rupted by
the messenger's entrance, it does not pro‹)uce the full impression
on the hearer9, as the latter love emphaSi*ed und definite endings
and are not sufiiciently devclopetl as yct to grasp ensembles inter-
rupted for ‹lramatic purposes. The material for the closiog multi-
volced Urrdo had heeii borrowed by me from the closing A mrfl /
of the sccond rersion o) Psk ovit yanka, where it was out of place.
I cannot help feeling pl cased with the transition from the voices
of the soloists to the voice of the chorus growing crescendo In
this Credo. As in my preceding operas, the system of leading
actives was applied on a wide scale in Serzilia. Thus the work
of orchestrati cg 5r r•ciJia preoccupied me during the first half of
the season ¡ aftcr that I finished composing and brOUght into order
the missing Act II. Here the ensemble of the b hijHRttng Romans,
Xlontaiius's declarnation and the dance of the Mænads, as folk-
li fe element9, v•ere rigorously sustaiiied by me in Grcek modes.
Toward spring the cntire work was fnished, and its printing un-
dertaken by BesseL
I. V. l'syevolozhski was replaced by S. h). Volkouski.' The
ncz' Director irnmediately procced d to produce Sadk o at the
hlariinski Theat re. The cenery was painted from the sketches
of .(. Ä'asnyetsoH ; the costumes also l'ère made after his drawiiigs.
The best artists from among the company were pressed into serv-
' Prinr¢ Sergey FI. \’olko»ski [ectii red at tlie University of Chicago, the lectures be•
ink r i»i‹d pr. sss-8 , Pro9r i , ? •b thy \ Chic°g°) and as Pi our cz «) 7t «iiion hu-
tor ' and Russian Lilct-aturc. (Boston ¡ i89f) (Lowell Lectures pp.). ). A.J.
3ÿ2 ltI Y hf U S I C A L L I F E
ice. The Princess was sung by Bol'ska, Sadko by Yershofi, who
howerer for some rea son (intrigue or caprire) di d not sing at the
first performance, being replaced by Davydoff. N apravnik did
the rehearsing and conducting z ithout a frown ; nevertlieless he
subsequently yieltjed my opera to Fyeliks Blumen fe ld who h;td by
that time been placed on an equal footing with K i ooshevski.
"1“hus Sadk o was finally produced at the Imperial Theatre, ( high
time long ago ! ) but for this a nez• liroom in the person of l'rince
Volkonski proved necessa ry. The opera went excellently. It
was a pleasure at last to hear rny music with a larte orchestre and
after pfope r rchearsing. The "so-so” performances of prir ate opera-
houses were beginniug to oppress me. After the Ïirst three or four
performances Y ersho f(, too, made his appearance ao‹l gave
prominence to the rôle of Sadko. Sa ike xx'zs given with
some cuts that I had marked mysc Cf, as, if1 iIl/ opII3 lOfl P frl
dragged. Subsequently, however, I came to the conclusi on that,
with sli gh t exceptions, even thosc buts were undesirable. Üye-
zhata's b yliii a !s inr)ced a lait too long and monotonous, but with
the cut a hne orchcstral varla tion is Lost. The scene on the ship,
even th ough longish in itself, hardly gains by cutting. Here a
cut is more in place at the departure of the ship, z'hcn Sadko Iras
descended on a plank, with his moi fi ( dulcimer) . An omission
of the repc ats of certain parts in the dances of little rivers and
goldfishes, is perhaps desirable. But a sizeable cet in the finale
of the opera spoils things after all. I f Sadk o lires some fif teen
or twenty years longer on the stage, it is likely thèse cuts will be
done away with, au in the case of Wagncr’s operas which were
formerly given abroad with cuts and are now pc r formed uncut-'
Prior to the production of adko, I made a trip to h'IoscOW
in October to attend the production of Te ar Saltan by the company
of Solodovnikofi' Theatre. The so-called hIamontuiÏ Opcra had
lost its patron this year. S. I. A'lumontoff n'as ja ilcd for debts
incur red aS a reSalt of some commercial misliap in building the
Arkhangel’sk Ra ilroad. his opera company organized into an
association and began to perform independently, with almost the
same personnel as at SolodovnikolÏ's Theatre. S altan w•as pro-
duced as well as could be expected of a private company. The scen-
Shit is an errer- V›’agn e ’s music diamae are seldom performed without buts
zev*r, piQbab*7, Ouv Of C. V. V.
 H O N O U R S A N D O I’ A T I O N S g33
cry had been painted by Vrubel’, the costumes v-ere made also after
his drawings. Ylootin as Saltan, Syekar-Rozhaoski as Gvidon,
Tsvyetkova as ñI‘ilitrisa, Zabyela as the Swan and all the others
were fine. Even the Courier was sung by the prominent baritone
Shevelyeft. /¥s before, M. NI. Ippolitof(-Ivanofl nsas the conduc-
tor. The opera had its premifire on October z I, with much suc-
cess. I received several gifts.
Beginning with this season, I resigned front the conduttorship
of the Russian Symphony Concerts, though remaining their di- rector-
in-chief. Conducting had ceased to have attracti ons for one ; I
could not make any advance in this field, I was too old for that ;
in the sense of conducting, the Russian Symphony Concerts ofiered no
complete satisfaction, the orchestra was not sulficic ntly large in the
personnel of its strings ¡ and thea it was high time to yield to
younger blood. I decidcd to conduct only occasionally, when
circumstances should make it necessary for sOme reason or other. The
R. S. Concerts passed on to Lyadof( and Gla runoff,
and subsequently to F. Blumenfield and 7Cherj epnin. However,
this very season I had to conduct one concert of the Russian
ñ'IUS1Ca1 Society of Moscow, whither I was called by I'. I. Safo-
nt›fI ' who had f allen dangerously ill.
This concert had been set for December •3. While on December
I Q, I qOo, occurred the thirty-fifth anniversary of my activity as
composer. The hloscoiv Private Opera Company, availing itself
of my presence in hloscow, announced a performance of my Hadko
for December i 9 , sent me an invitation and arranged a celebra-
tion of fny jubilee. On the same evening, owing to my anni-
versa ry, the G rand The at re produccd my in ye goor ochka; having
becn invited by the Private Opera Company, however, I could not
simultaneously attend the performance of Sayepooror£éa, and this
had a somewhat disadvantageous eftcct on my relations with the
Moscow Di rectoratc of Imperial Theatres. I regret it.
I v a9 also honoured at the concert of the Russian Musical
Society. Worn out by all these ovations, I returned to St. Peters-
' For an enumeration of the folksongs useci in dior Sa//oo, see a footnote on Page
3 7 I Rose h ewmfl tell's T’6e Ru$s iaii O§zra. C. V. V.
° Vasili I ly ich SafonoIf ( i 8 z-i9i8), Director of the Moscow Con9ervatory, a promi-
nent p ianist and world-known conductor, was conductor- of the New York Philhar-
monic Society i 9o3-6 as guest conductor and i 9o6—9 as i.s permanent and sole leader.
334 M Y à1 L S I C A L L I F E
burg. But hCfie ä 8Oft OI continuons round of honours during
a whole month was in store foi• me. Now this and now that
musical society arranged a concert of my compositions, invited
me to dinner or supper, showered me yith add rcsses and wreaths.
There were so mary of thèse greetings and festivities that I cannot
begin to ennumerate them everything has groivn confused in my
head. V. \'. Yastryebtscfl probahly kriows the particulars. I
am grateful for all of it, but it was all unbearably boring and tire-
some. I called my jubilee “thronic,” like unto a llngering discale.
Ipdeed to hear day after day: "Deeply honoured Nikolay
Andreyevich l During thirty-five years . . .” or “It is thir r five
years since . .” is unbearable. And I don't believe, in f act, in
the sincerity of it all. It seems to me that my jubilee in some cases
did service merely as an advertisement, as an opportunity tO nudge
the world concerning the advertisers themselves. Only the Di-
rectorate of the Imperial Theatres took no part ; and for this I
give it my profound thanks. Of course, had I at all been able to
foresee what a protracted form my jubilee would take, I should
have fied in good season and as far as I could ; but où that I had
not ever a suspicion, and having acccpted greetings from one,
it was unbecomiug to refuse another. I wish no one a jubilee
of like nature ! . .
During the season I continued poodering various subjects for
operas. At my request, I. F. Tyumyefiefl wrotc an original
libretto, Pan Vo yevoda, being guided by my specifications. I gave
him an order for a play from Polish life of the Sixtc enth and
Scventeeoth centuries, of dramatic content, but without political
colouring. The fanta tic element was to be present in a limited
dcgree in the form, perhaps, of fortune-telling or witchcraft. Pol-
ish dances, too, were a desirable consideration.
The thought of writing an opera on a Polish subject had long
engrossed me. On the one hard, several Polish melodies, sung
to me by my mother in my childhood, still haunted rue, though I
had already made use of them in composing a mazurka for the
violin. On the other hand, Chopin's influence on me was indubi-
table, in the nielodic turns of my music as well as in many of my
harmonic devices ; but this fact the gimlet-e) ed critics had never
observed, to bc sure. The Polish national element in Chopin’s
compositions (which 1 wnrshipped) always roused my delight. In
 P A N V O Y EV ODA 331
an opera oa a Polish subject I wished to pay homage to my rapture
for this side of Chopin’s music, and it seemed to me that I was
capable of writing something Polish, national. The libretto ot
P«» to; evoda suited me perfectly; in it Tyumyeñefl had cleverly
touched upon the folk-life element ; the drama itself had nothing
new to oder, but it presented grateful moments for music. Never-
theless the composing of Pan to yevo da was put of( for the time
being. V›*ith V. I. Byei’ski I had discussed and worked out the
subjects of Nausica and Stir Tale o f the Invisible Cit y o f
I(it ye zh; fragments of the libretto of tlie first had even been writ-
ten by V. I. However, a different subject had riveted my atten-
tion.
One Sue day there caine to see me Y. M. Pyetrov ki, aH assist-
ant of N. F. Findeisen in the publishing of Ter R us Sian M asical Ga
• ct te, a man of education, a good musician, a fine and witty mus'ic
critic and a passionate, irrevocable Wagncrite. He offered
me a f anciful libretto in four short tableaux, which he had written,
under the title Kai hche y the Deathle.i s. This libretto gripped my
interest. Ftit I found it too )ong-drawn in its last two tab-
leaux, nor did I llke the versification. I stated my doubts to
Pyetrovski, and shortly aft eriva rds he submitted to me a different and
more comprehensive version of the same subj ect ; this, how- crer, I
did not like at all. Preferring it in its first garb, I re-
solred to puzzle out the necessary changes myself. Thus the
matter rested without any definite settlement, and I left town for
my summer stay, without knowing what to take up first.
 CHARTER XXVII

COfllpOsing the prelude-cantata Bron Momer .and Kas hche y the D eathlesz.
H$era $/ieJopo and the Maid o f Psk nv at the Grand Theatre in äJoscow.
Composing r › • :cdu. New orchestration of the St one Mesz. ‹$cr-
il/i/ at the h'Jariinski Theatre. A n›tcfieJ' i›n a private stage in Moscow.
Composing The Tale of Kit yezli. S limoga and Psi ovit yanku at the hari-
inski Theatre. Your Saltait on a private stage. Byelyayefi’s death and his
last will, r un r•yeooda and Scarf ia on private stages. Boris Godano
at the ñlariinski Theatre. Death of Laroche,

The nummer of i goI we spent at the estate Krapacliookha, near

the Station Okoolovka. Early in the summer I was still engaged
in orchestratinq= Act II of which was then on the presscs.
Having done with Serl!ilia, I composed a prelude-cantata, as if
to serve as proem to Nausicaä. The orchestral prelude depicted
the stormy sea and Odysseus tossed thereon, while the cant sta
was, as it were, the singing of drysds meeting the sun's emergenc«
and welcoming the rosy-fingered Dawn. As I had not defioitivcly
Scttled the fate of lVausicaä ( named my prelude-cantata from
Homer.
Thinking over Kai hche y ' in the meantime, I arrived at the con-
clusion that the contents of the last two tableaux could be easily
combincd into one. I declded to write this short opera in three
tableaux without a break in the music, and I turned to the libretto,
with my daughter Sonya, the two of us together writing new- lines.
The music of toe hchc y began rapidly to take form in my head,
• "Kaslicliey,” writes \V. R. S. Ralston in Iris B ‹»1s F»iii- falcs "ie mercly ome
of the many incarnations ot the hark spirit • • . sometimes he is d eS0tibed as aIto-
gether serpent-I ike in form ; sometimes lie seems to be of a mixed nature, partly human
and partly nphid ian, btit in some stories he is appar antly tramed after the f ashion
of a man - . . he ii calInd ’immortal’ or 'death less’ because of his superiority to 1li¢
ordinary laws of exi•*e=ce . • . sometimes his 'death'—that is, the obJect with which
his ride is indisaolubty connected—does not exist w ithin his body.* An evarnplc p(
this lattei instance occurs in Gtravinsti’s bsllet, Tñz FNebird› in wbicb Kashchey’s
“death” is concealed in an egg. C. Y. V.
336
 KA S C H E Y T H E D E A T H 1. E S S 33y
and toward the end of the summer the first tableau was ready ili
orchestral score, the second in rough draft. The composition
was acquiring a stamp of individuality, thanks to some new har-
monic devices that had heretofore not existed in my repertory as
composer. Thcse were the false relations formed by the progres-
sion of major thirds, the inner sosta ined tones and various inter-
rupted and false cadences with turns toward dissonant chords, and
al9o a multitude of passing chords. The rather lengthy scene of
the snow-storm I succeeded in plotting almost entirely on the sus-
tained diminished chord of the seventh. The form evolved was
connected, continuous, but the play of tonalities and the modula-
tory scheme, as always with me, were not due to chance. The
system of leadliig motives was in lull swing. Here and there, in
lyric moments, the form assumed stable character and periodic
structure, without, hoz•ever, possessing full cadences. The vocal
parts proved melodious, but the recitatives shaped themselves
mostly on an instrumental f oundatioo, in contrast to dozert and
Salient. The orchestra was taken in its usual make-up, the chorus
only behind the scenes. All in all, the mood arrived) at was
gloomy and bleak with rare flashes of light, and, occasion'ally,
with ill-boding gleams. Only the prince's arioso in the SecOnd
Tableau, his duet wlth the princess in Tableau III aad the finale
on the z ords:
O reddening sun!
Freedom, Spring and Love!

were to possess a bright character and thus stand out against the
general background of gloom.
With the beginning of autumn I continued working on Kai hche y,
instrumentatc d its second tableau, and, after some intermissi on;
jotted down and in trumentated the third. Publishing rights for
Kashtbe y were granted to Bessel who immediately proceeded in
the matter.
Prince Volkonski who had produced my SBdk o on the Mariinski
stage the preceding season, put on also The Tsar’i Dridc ‹during
tlie season o0f 1 9 i—oz. N apravnik conducted willingly, but
afterwards surrendered the opera to Fyeliks Blumenfeld. Bo1’ska
as hf arfa ; pride and M arkovich as Lyuba sha ; M orskoy as
Lykoli ¡ Syeryebryakotf as Malyuta ; Kastorski and Sibiryakof( as
 338 II Y M U S I C A L L I F E
Sobakin, were fine. But Yakovlefi as G rya znoy spoiled it all.
This singer, with his voice gone and his tastelessly exa ggerated
expression, z as simply unbearable to me. Yet, ivhethe r thanks
to his still handsome appearance or oz ing to his former successes,
he contrived to I'm p1audit9 from thc audience after all. The
opera was givcn s•ithout cuts.
During the same sc ason, the II oscow Opera produced my Hard
o f Ps bov together with V yera Sheloqa at the Grand The atrc. I
•.ttended the dress-rehearsal as well as the first performance.
judged as a whole, the performance was good, while Shalyapin
was inimitable. Pak ositLanka was given in its entirety, with tlie
scene in the woods, and then and there I was convinced that this
scene is supe rfi uous. The Proloque received scant attention, al-
thOugh Mme. Sa lina as Vycra Sheloga was very good.
In the spring I rna de a definitive start on Paii Vo yevoda.
The summer of 9oz we decided to spend abroad. fly son
Andrey matriculate d at the University of Heidelberg for the
summer semester, in order to attend old Kuno Fischer's lectures ;
for this reason Heidelberg was selected as our principal place of
residence. There we found a villa ; we rented a piano, and I
resumed work on Puii to ye+’oda. In addition to this I had an-
other task. Long since beset by the thought that the orchestra-
tion of Th e Stone Gues t, done as it had been by me iii my youth,
in the period preceding lfuJ 15Tigli I, was ina dcquate, I resolve d to
orchestrate a fresh Dargomyzhski’s great irork. -As I had orches-
trated Tableau I some tz o or three years before in spare moments
between other work, I now took up the rest, softening here and
thcre the extreme harshness and harmonic follies of the original.
Work went well. foil boy rroda moved, the orchestration of Z’£e
Stotie Girent moved, and, in addition, I read proofs of Kai hchc y
published by Bessel.
lifter a two-months' stay in delightful Heidelberg, we left with
the advent of the Uni versity x•acations. \Vc made a trip through
Switzerland, visiting this timc the Horner-G rath, and Via Munich,
Dresden and Berlin rcturncd home toEva rd9 Septcmbcr. In Dres-
den we were fortunate enough to hear an unabridged performance
of Wagner’s Giiiirrdfimm grimy, conducted by Schuch. The per-
formance was excellent.
 SERVILIAPRODUC E D 339
I came back to St. Petersburg with a considerable mass of rough
drafts for Pen to]! ev Odd and immediately set out to continue the
opera as well as to orchestrate what I had cOfR Os8 .
The post of I3irector of Imperial Theatres was held by Tyelya-
kOVS ' rim Prince Uolkooski who had left it. As early as tlie
spring, as is usu ally done, the repertory for the season of i QO2-
°3 •' as decided upon, and Srrcifid was included in it. Early in
the autUmn choral rehearsals were begun under F. Blumenfeld’s
direction, as Napravoik had f allen ill. Blumenfcld got things
as faf as orchestral rehearsals. As I apprcciated his labours anti
reali zed his desire to conduct my Se rvilig independently and not
met ely as Napravoik’s substitute, I add i esse d the latter, then al-
ready on the mend, with a request that he relinquish my opera
in favour of Fyeliks. Napravnik conseiited with no suggestion
that his feelings were ollendcd in any way. In October 5«rrifia
was given an excellent performance. tlme. V. I. Kooz.a in the
title riile of Servilia was very fine ; Yershofi as I'alerlus, Syerye-
bryakofi as Ser anus and all he others were fine. The opera had
been rehearsed excellently, and the artists, apparv ntly, sang gladly
and dil igently. Yakovlev( alone, as Ignatius, was impossible,
try as he might.
Scrvilia won a succcs d’es I inne ut the first p6f Oi mance, and none
at all (os usual) in the subscription perf ormaiices. G Even once
more to non-subscribers it did not fil1 the theatre by half and was
taken off the boar‹ls undeservedly. The next season the Director-
ate projected it for production in hJ oscow with the St. Petersburg
scenery and all the rest of tlie loca I mi9e-en-scene. During the
same winter the Mai•iinski Theatre produced Intc Goiierd‹sminrr-
uti g. Thus the entire cycle of Der R ing dos i5’ib eluy gen wa8 in,
full swing. zllso Napravnik’s new opera Fra»crsra da R in rat °
s as given. In J’lnscow meanwhile Kay hchz) was produced ; for
this production I was indcb ted again to the “dissociation.” It was
sung together with Yo tant a, and, for a priratr opera company, the
performance was not bad. I was pleascd with the sustained mood
of my tipera, and the roles of the so1oist9 proved quite singablc ;
but the hearcrs hardly found their bearings among their inipres-
' Previoos]j- Director-GeneraI of The Imperial Theatre nt Rloscow. C. V. V.
° Libretto based rim Stephen Phillips's tragedy Paulo urd Franees ca. ]. A. J.
34° h1 Y M U S I C A L L I F E
sions. \)*reatlis and calls for the author ( and there no lack
of them) do not prove anything in themselves, especially in Mos-
cow, where they are fond of me for some reason.
In the midst of work on Pan Vo Rev oda Byc1'ski and I pondered
intensirely the subject of Z’ñs Tale o f tlie In vii ible Cit y o/ Rtryez /i
and o f ltte iWuiden F ycvTa ni ya. U Herr the ootliiIe had been defin-
itively drawo, \'. I. set hand to the libretto and finished it by the
summer. It was still spring when I composed Act I in rough
dratt.
For the summer, after the wedding of my daughter Sonya, who
had married 1'. P. Troyitski, we moved to Krapachookha for the
second time. 2¥fter settling in our summer home, I finished the
orchestration of PB)) TO)!cvoda (ACt II) , first of all, and theH
turned to sketch Kit Nez li. Toward the end of the summer, Act
I and both tableaux of Act IV were ready in detailed rough draft
and much else w•as sketched in fragments. On removing to St.
Petersburg, I jotted dozen the first tableau of Att III ¡ then Act
II. I took up orchestrating.
The season of i po3—of was signall zed to me by the produc-
tion of Pak ovit yatik a with Slielo gg at the Mariinski Theatre.
Shalyapin was magnificent. N apravnik conduttcd. The opera
was given with the cut indicated by me : the scene in the forest
was not performed, whereas the music of the forest, of the Tsar's
hunting-party and of the rain-storm, was played as a symphonic
tableau before Pict III and concluded with the girls' ditty (G-
major) behind the lowered curtain. Giren thus, the result mas
good.
Shalyapin won success past all belief ; the opera so-so, not what
it had had in its first days I
At the Conservatory Theatre, 8aJiaa was performed by a pri-
vate Russian opera company under the direction of the impre9afilO
Guidi. However, since the music critic of one of the dailies of
St. Petersburg (a person with z horn it was undesi rable to have
any dealings) was its principal, though unofficial director of
repertory, I attended neither rehearsals nor performances of Del-
tau. I was told they were quite poor.
The Christmas holidays came. M. P. Byelyayelf, who had not
been feeling rell for a long time, made up his mind to undergo
a serious operation. The operation was performed successfully,
 DE ATH OF B Y EL Y AY E F F i
but two days later his heart gave way, and he died in his sixty-
eiglith year. One can easily imagine what a blow this was for the
whole circle whose centre had gone with him. In his detaile‹1 last
will and testament, after providing for his family, Byelyaye fi be-
queathe d all his wealth tO the cause of music ; he divided it into
funds for the R ussian Symphony Concerts ; the publishiog busi-
ness an‹1 composers’ fees ; prizes in memory of Glioka ; prize-com-
petitions in chamber music, and relie f of needy composers. There
were some other, minor bequests, besides. As the heads of the
directorate oÏ all these funds and mis entire music business tie huid ,
designated three parsons: GlazunofÏ, Lyadofl, and rnyself, who
were duty-bound to select our successors. These funds were so
large that only the interest thereon, and even thcn in part only,
was to be expcnd ed on the concc rts, publisliinp business, etc. ; the
principal itself was to rcma in untouched, growing larger and larger
in the course of time.
Thus, thanks to II itrofan Petrovich's unselfish love for music,
an institution until then unparalleled a nd unhea rd of was foun‹led,
which for ever assured Russian music of publishc rd, concerts and
prizes ; and at the head of it, for the first time, stood our trium-
virate. Still, there is no perfection in this -orld, and this in- stitution
in the very testament of the deceased, already contained certain
momentous shortcomings of which I shall speak some time in the
future.
L nder M. P.’s will, at fir9t the Russian Symphony Conccrts
were to be lirnit«d tO three each year. During Lent we announced
three concerts. ror the opening concert I composed a shOrt or-
chestral prelude Nadw )f o gilo ju (At the Grave) , on obitual themes
from the obikh ›3 (round of church canticles) , with an imitation
of the monastic funeral knell which had rcrnained in my memory
since my childhood at Tikhvin• This prelude was dedicated to
Byelyayeft's memory. The concert opened with it, and I con-
ducted it myself. The prelude hardly noticed. The other
numbers of the concert were conclucted by Lyadofl and Gla zunof(.
At the end my Fauster OFF f‘tui e WCS excelIeotl)• p)ayed unde r
Sasha’s baton. Thus we honoured hyelyayefi's memory. The
other two conc‹:rts were given under the direction of F. Blumen-
feld and Cheryepnin.
For the summer we removed to pur dear familiar ¥ echo zhs.
342 M Y MUSICALLIF E
Durf ug the summer I composed the unfinished second tableau of
Act III of the Tale o f Kit yez h and tomplcted the orchestration
of the opera. In addition to thi9 I was cngaged in rezding proo(
on Pati No yezOdB, which was in print at Bessel's and was to appear
in orche tral score and other guiscs toward autumu. On the other
hand it was intendcd to have Aiiycz /i done by the Byleyayelt firm,
so as not to burdcn the Bessel house too much.
Prince "rscreteli, who had supplanted Guidi as impresario of the
Conservatory Opei a )’heatre, exptcssetl a desire to opcn his sea-
son with P«ii No yevoda, whiCh had been accepted by the Direc-
torate of Impérial The atres for hI oscoiv this time and not for St.
Petersbiii g. At Tscreteli's opera Pan No ycvoda had been pi op-
crly reliears’cd by Suk, without cuts, and was given with knsarova
as Mar fa. This opcra had a sutcès d'cstime at the first per-
*ormance and audiences small in number t the othc r perform-
ances.
In October or November Boris Mod8o o$, in my rcvision, with
Skalyapin in the title rôle, was produced zt tke h(atiinski Theatre.
l'. Blumen fcltl condiictcd. The opera cas give ri without cuts•
However, after several per forma oces, the sce ne N car Krom y 1 was
omitted, probably oiving to political disturbaoces which began to
break out now lière and now there.
I rernained inexpressihly pleased with my revision and otthestra-
tion of B oti Go mino$, heard by me for the first time with a large
orchestra. hIusorgski'g violc nt admirers f roivned a bit, regretting
somethin6. . . But having arranged the new rev'isioii of fi orin
G oduno 1 had not destroyed its origiiial form, had not painted out
the old f rescoes for ever. II evcr the conclusion is arrived t that
the ori ginal is better, worthier than my revision, mine will be dii-
carded, and Sorti Godiinof z'ill bc pei formed according to the orig-
inal score.°
• This is the scene in the last act, depicting the a d vance of tht Pretend er, and con-
cluding with th e w« 1s of the vi le age idlot. C. V. 1'.
* Rim8ky-Korsa koff‘s emendations of Barit H oduii op have olfered opport unity for
a great deal of discussion. Store i 896, when Rimsky- Korsakoff's version appeared,
Miisorgc‹ki’ sesre h2s not been obta inable cor hai it held the st Age. hfontagu-Nath sn
admits th st Riirsky seems to liave “toried do wn s good many miisica l f eoture which
woul d have won accepte nce today as liavi ng beefi cxtrao tdin arily prophetic.” 5tasoff
was oppose d to the alter ation.°. “\\'hile adn kitt ing kfusotgski’s teclin real l imitations,"
writes Rhosa ewms rcli, 'aiid his tcndeucy to be slovenly io workrnanship, he thought
ft niight be better for the world to see this original and inspired composer with all
 B OR I S GOD UN OFF 3@
The opera stock-company of SolodoVniko ti's Theatre in Moscow
(that is, the former Mamontofi opera) had moved the prerious
season to the Aquarium Theatre ; at Solodovoikofi's Theatre a
new association had installed itself under the direction of Kozhevni-
koff, Lapitski and others. This association hid decided to pro-
duce my Servilia and I gave them permission to do so, as the
Moscow Imperial Theatre did not intend to put it on. Its con-
tluctors were the composer Koclietoff and an Italian, Barbiai. Al-
though N. R. Kochetoft had not the reputation of being a good or
experienced conductOr, I selected him ln preference to the Italian,
when the choice was left to me, because a composer’s musiciarlship
was more valual›le in my eyes than a fine Italian hand. And I
had made no mistake. IYhen I came by inv•itation to Moscow to
the dress-re hearsal I found that the orchestra had been drilled
conscientiously, that the tempi were correct and that my music had
been properly grasped by the conductor. The soloists and the
chorus were not sufliciently good, but that was nOt the conductor’s
fault. As for the opera, it was given fairly decently and again
hLs f aults ruthlessly c xposed to view than clothed in his right nsind with the assistance
of Rim*ky-Korsakof. . . . XVe who Ioved Musorgski's music in ip ite of its apparent
disheVeIrn¢nfi may not nun:iturally resent Rim8ky-Korsakoff’s conscientious grooming
of it. But when it actuaI]y came to the questio;j of producing the operas, even Stasoff,
1 am en re, realized the need for practical revisions, withoc• which Musorgski's
origirlal scores with all their potential greatne•i, ran considerable ri9k of becoming
mere archxological curiosities." Arthur Pougin (£zzoi fiiiforiqur x«r /n muii9ue ea
E ui s ie) I a]ls in with thji theory: “In reality the music of Musorgski only became
possible z'hen a friend Iy, experienced hand had taken the troubl e to look it over
and carefully correct it.” James Hune2er writes: ”Musorgski would not stud5• ahe
elements of orchestration and one of the penalties he paid was that his I riend, Rimsky-
Korsa(off, ‘edited' Btarts G aduno p ( in i 8q6, a new editlon appeared with chae get,
purely p r2ctica1, as Calvocoressi notes, but the orchestration, cJumxy as it is, largely
remains tlie work of the composer) and Khovanihc hina was scored by Rimsky-
Korsakoff, and no doubt 'edited,’ that is revised, what picture experts call ‘restored.' ”
Hi hi8 life of Musorgski, Calvocoressi contents himself with this laconic statement:
“In i 8g6 a new edition of Bcrib G oduno) appeared, revised by M. Rimsky-Korsakolf.
Lgrtaiti of the changes that one marks in t Hi is have a pure ly p ract teaI end, which is
to I acIlstate the execution ; others are only motived by the desire to take away I rom
the isolated aspect of the worlt, to render it less disconcerting to the publ ie.“ But
]ean Marnold (in •Ufl 'que d’autrcJaii ct d’au]ourd’hui) screams with rage: "He
(B imsky-i'iorsa¥o{f) changes the order of the last two tablea up thus denatu ring, at
its conclusion, the Exp ressly popular essence and the psychology of the dratria. The
scene of Botis, wiih Iris children is especially mutilated. R imsLy-K orsakoH cuts, at
his happincxs, one, tEvo, or three measurcs, as serenely aa he cuts fifteen or twenty.
At will, he transposes a tone, or a lialf•tone, mades sharps or flats natureI, ahers
modtilationa. He even corrects the harmony. During the tableau in the cell of Pi-
myen, the liturgical Dorian mode is Edu lttrated by a barial I3-mirror. The inte rval
of tlie augmented fifth (a favourite device of Musorgski) is frequently the object
344 )I Y h1 U S I C A L L I F E
with a succés d'estime. Generally speaking, I had long felt dis-
appointed ii1 the Russi an private opera Impresarios and made up
my mind under no circumstances to give my Kit yemli to a private
theatre.
Laroche, once famous among us as a music critic, but in reality
a copy of Eduard Hanslick, died after having dragged out a piti-
ful existence. Grown lazy and slovenly, during hi9 last years, he
now lired even 5ithout a roo f ov er his head, finding shelter now
at Byelyaye tf's, now at Lyadoft’s and now with others who har-
boured him out of friendship. Though living among strangers,
he nevertheless contrived to annoy them n•ith his caprice9 and de-
mands to hare his whims complied with. In his very last days he
received some support from his children and lived in a furnished
room. Tlie sympathy shown him by the members of Byelyayefl’s
circle is incomprehensible to me. Many said “thou” to him, for-
of his equllafer at ostr 2Cism. }le has no more respect for traditional harmony.
Nearly every instant Rimsky•KorsaL oH changes something f or the unique rcason that
il is his pleasur e to do so. From one end of the work to the other he planes, files,
polishes, pulls together, retouches, embed lishes, makes insipid, or corrupts. Harmony,
nielod5•, modulation, tonality, all inspire him to make changes. In comparing the
two scores one can hardly believ c one's eyes. In the a 38 pages of that or Rim«ky-
Korsakofi there are perhaps not twenty which conform to the original text.”
Musorgski’s orchestral score of Storm lits (or d id bet ore the revolution) buried
in the Imp erial Library of 8t. Petersbur g It does not appear that sny one has yet
been able to examine this- In i 87d, however, £ aint-8aens brought a piano and vocal
score from Russia and 1'et another examp ie of this Score seems to have found ita
way to Paris. There have been semi-available for examin ation, but it was not until
April, i9zz that Robert Godet published his •tu‹ly, Lri draw Boris› in No 4fuzi-
ru/r, giving comparative examples from the two scores. The evi dence is deadly.
“The differ ence in the two versions does not ]ie,” Godet points out, “in slight traox-
positions and casu al retouching: they attest, on the contrary, to the flagrant aed
persistent antagonism of the Evo mentalities. It appears dif5cult, indeed, after a first
inspection of the documents, not to become indignant o‹ er the sacrilege, to cry, one
is never betra¡-ed save by one's I r ende 1 The more one examines the two versions, how
c ver, the more one is inclined to modify this excessive in pression. Translated into the
language of good sense one finishes by summing the situation up in this wise: let u s
not speak of'; betrayal, rather let us call it simply incompatibility of character." In a
number of F/ir Secfi5/zf, published almost sinner ltaneously in London, E day in Ev;tns
discusses the que-•tion, euggesting that if a rev isioii seems neces a ry it should be made
in an advanced manner, by some one like Stravinski, rather than in a conservative
or 4raditional manner. He pnints out that because Ffusorgski iv rote a good many
pages which the musicians ot his time did not und erstand, it has aIways been held
that he did this through I ack of knots Iedge, rather th2n intention efly. He modulated
ebrupt iy without o formal reason. He i oterrupted himself. He contradicted hinise If.
Moved by compulsion, he passed rapidly, without transitional passa ges, from One *dCA
to another. It is these possibly intentional tn8nitestatiorn of original gtnius that
Rim«ky K orsakoff has taken it upon himself to correct- P. S. Mr, O. G. SonfiecL
informs me, in time to intcit )he information in the second edit ion of this book, that
there ig a copy of the Original piano and vocal score of Ba ru in the I,ibrary of Con-
gress at \Vashington. C. V. Y.
 DEATH OE L AROC C E 345
getting the past. Fortunate that his verdicts had not been en-
f O rced and his prophecies never came true. His activity wan mere
grimace and gesticulation, lies and paradoxes, exactly like the activ•
ity of his Viennese prototype.
 CHAPTER XXVIII
1Q O O

Disturbances among student-youth. Perfonnanœ o'f Kaihchey in St.

Petersburg. Text-book of Instrumentation. Pan Voyezoda in äloscow.
Aryenski's death. Aftair s at the Conservatory. Revival pf Snye9oorochba.
Concerts: ZIloti, Russian Sgmphony and Russiaa Musical Society. Addi-
tions to the score of écrit N odono@. kIusorgskf'$ Meddinp. Summer of
I QOÖ.

The courses at the Conservatory went oa more or less Success-

tully until the Christmas holidays. However, before the begin-
ring of tire Christmas inte rmission, a certain state of exCitement be-
gaii to be notice able among the pupils who reacted toward the dis-
turbances going on in the University. 4 hen came January 9th,
and political ferment seized all St. Petersburg. The Conservatory,
too, was aficcted ; its students were in turmoil. Xleetings were
called. The cowardly and tactless Bernha rd began to interfere.
The Directorate of the Russian NIusical Society also hegan to
meddle. Special meetings of the Art Council and of the Director-
ate becaine the order of the day. I was thosen a mcmber of the
Committee for adjusting dificrence z ith agitated pupils. All
sorts of measures werc recommcnde d: to expel the ringleaders,
to quartcr the police in the Conserratory, to chose the Cpnsrrva-
tory entirely. The right9 of the pupils had to be Champiooed.
disputes and wrangling greer more and more viOlent. If one
were to believe the conservatives among the profe sors and the
Directorate of the St. Petersburg Brunch, 1 myself was possibly the
very head of the rerolutlonary movement among the student-youth.
Bernhard behaved in the most tactlcss fashion imaginable. In
the daily ü oor’ ( Russia) I made public a letter ' in which I took
the Directory tc to trek for not uodersfaoding the pupils, and ar-
gued that the existence of the Directorate of the St. Potersburg
° Cf. Appendix II.
 ET II CONSERVATORYCLOSED 332
Branch was unnecessary, as well as that self-government was de-
slrable. At the meeting of the Art Council Öernhard devoted
himself to examining and condemning iriy letter. C ounter-argu-
ments were uttered, and he broke tip the meeting. Then a consid-
erable group of professors, together with me, suggested in a letter
that he leave the Conservatory. The result or it all ivzs that the
Conservatory was closed, more than a hundred pupils were ex-
pelled, Bernhard left, and I was dismÎssed f rom the racks of pro-
fessors of the Cooser vatory by the chief Directoratc, without pre-
cious consultation with the Art Council. On receiv ing notice of
this dismissal I wrote a letter ' about it to the neivspaper fi eoi’
and simultaneously resigiied my hoDorary niernbership in the St.
Petersburg Branch où the musical Society. Then somethitig incred-
ible occurred. From St. Petersburg, .4loscow and every corner of
RUSsia, there came fiying to me from every ra riety of in9titutions
and all sorts of people, both connected with music and having no
connection with music, addresses and letters bearing cxpressions
of sympathy for rue and indignation at the D) rcctorate ot the Îtus-
stan Musical Society. Deputations from societies and Corpora-
tions, as well as primate individuels kept coming to rue with dec1a7a-
tions to the same eI(ect. Articles discussing my case began to ap-
pear in all the pa.pers ¡ the Dircctorate was trampled in the mud and
had a very diflicult time of it. Some of its mcmbers left it, men
1 ke Persiani and Alyeksandr Scrgeyev ich Tañeyeft.° To cap lt
all, the students set their minds on giving, at Mme. Kommissar zhcv-
skaya’s Theatre, an operatic performance consisting of my Kat Ji-
rfiry and concert numbers. Kai ttc he) had been rehearsed very
finely under Glazuoofi's direction. At the conclusion of Ñ«.iJirfu•y
something uoprecedented took place : I was called before the
certain, addresses from cartons societics and unions v•ere rearl to
me, and infiammä tOr y speeches were delivered. The din and huh-
bub after eacii address and each speech were lndescribable. The
police ordered the iron certain to be lowered and thereby stoppcd
further excitement. The concert portion did not materializ e.
SUch ex agpe ration of my services and rny qu asi-extr aordi ri a ry
courage may be explaincd only by the excitement of Russian socicty
as a whole, which desired to express, in the form of an address to
Cf. Appendix VII.
an un tie of the more famous Tañey‹ff. J. A. J.
 5( Y bf U S I CLA L IF E
me, the pent-up indignation against the general régime. Realizing
this as I did, I had not the emotion that satisfies ambition. I
waited only to see how soon it would end. But it did not end
soon, it dragged on for two whole months. My position was un-
bearable and absurd. The police issued orders forbidding the
performance of my compositions in St. Petersburg. Some of the
crotchety provincial governors also issued similar orders in their
domains. On this basis there was also forb1 ddcn the third Russian
Symphony Concert, the program of which included the Overture to
my Ps kovii yuma. Too-ard the summer the force of this absurd
prohibition began to weaken little by little, and, owing to my being
in fashion, my Compositions came to figure with considerable fre-
quency on the summer programs of out-of-town orchestras. Only
in the provinces the zealous martinet persisted in considering
them revolutionary for some time longer.
The classes did not resume at the Conservatory. Gla zunofl
and Lyadolf sent in their resignations. fly other colleagues, how• ev-
er, after talking and making some little noise, remained, every
one, save ( for reasoos unknown) \*yerzhbilo› ich, Mme. Esipova
(who went abroad) and F. Blumenfeld, z ho grasped this f avour•
able moment to quit the Conservatory, a step he had been ach•
ing to take in any erent. On the other hand, at the private meet-
ings, held at Sasha Glazunotf’s home during these troublous days,
it was dccidcd, by an imposing number of the instructors, to eltct
Glazunofi direttor of a self-governing conservatory. But there
the matter rested.
The ereiits of the spring of i po3 at the Conservatory and
my own story have been described very briefly ; but the materials
articles, letters to editors, the of£cial message to me, con- taining
my dismissal- I have iii complete order. \Vhocvcr
wishes may av-a il himself of that material; as for me, I have no
desire to enter upon a detailed description of this long pause
in my musical ltfe.
For the summer of i po3 we moved again to Vyechasha. fly
son Andrey, su1f(q ing morn rheumatism, had gone abroad with his
mother and was taking thC cure at N auheim, whence they returned
to A*yechasha only at the end of the summer. Fortunately, the
cure brought the desired benefit, but another visit to Nauheim
the following year was planned in order to have Andrey’s health
 MORE DI ST URB AN CE S 34g
completely restored. Quite upset by the incident at the C onserva-
tory, I could riot turn to anything for a long time. After trying
my hand at an articlc containing an analysis of my Sn ye gooi ochkB,
I finally turned to carrying out a thought of long standing to write
a text-book of orchestration with illustrations culled exclusively
from my own compositions. This labour consumed the entire sum-
mer. In addition to th'is, the orchestral score of the Tate o/ li-
i ye• It was prep a red for printing, and much had to be copied clean
and polished :i bit. This time publication had been undertaken
by Byelyayell‘s firm. I shall also mcntion re-writing the duct
horny A/Joorfi (The Mountain Spring) as a vocal trio, as well as
orchestrating it, together with two duets and the song Z’Jir k 7 mph.
After my retui o to St. Petersburg, all my time was spent in
hunting up illustrations for my manual of orchestration, and in
evolving the form of the maniIa1 1 tself. The Conservatory was
closed. Al y pupils studicd under me at rriy house.
Early in the autumn I was callsd to Moscow to attend the
producer on of Pan to yevodu at the Grand Theatre. The talented
R akhnianinof( coliductcd. The opera proved to have been
ivcll rchc a rse‹1, but some of the artists were rather z eak, for
instance NIme. Polozova, the Ylarya, and Pyetroil the Voyevoda.
Orchestra and choruses ent sp)eodid)y. I » as pleased ii ith th e
sound of the opera both in voices and orchestra. U*hat had
sounded fair at the private opera house, gained manifold with a
large orchcsti a. The whole orchestration had hit the mark
squarely, and the voices sounded beautiful. The beginning of the
opera, the nocturne, the scene of fortune-telling, the h4 azurka,
the Krakovyak, the Polona tee pianissimo during the scene of Yad-
viga with Pan D zyuba, left nothing to be desired. The song of
tlie dying swan, which had taken very well at S t. Petersburg, came
out more pallid hcre at Polozova's hands, while Pyetrofl's execu-
tion of the Pan's aria colourless.
Tlie time oI tlie produCtion of Pan Vo yem da at Nloscow was
riotous. A few days before the first perfOf mance a strike of
printing shops bi oke out. Except for the theatre signboa rds, no
adi•erti$ement!. what ever could appear, and the first performance
di d not dra» a full house by half. There was nevertheless a succes
tI'cstimc ; but the ever-growing frequency of the strikes, the political
disturbances and finally the December uprising in Moscow led to
3 o 61 Y à1 U S I C A L L I F E
the disappearance of my opera from the repertory after lèverai
performances. Tyelyakovski was present at the first performance.
On learTling from Rakhmaninofl that I had Th e Tale u/ Kit yen= li
completed, he expresse d a desire to produce it in St. Pctersburg the
f ollowing season. I told him that henceforth I did not intend to
submit my oper as to the Directorate ; let the Directorate itself
select whichever it wished of my published operas. Still, owing
to the fact that Tyelyakovski took an interest in my Info o f
J•"it •-li I should present him with an autogi aphed copy of it upon
ils publication ; but whethc r my opera were produced or not, that
would rest z itli him : if he wished to put it on I should be
pleased, if tte dccided not to do so I should take no 9teps to re-
mind him.
Afttr listening to rny Sadko at Solodovnikolt’ Theatre in a
wrctched performance uude i Pagani’s direction, I returncd to St.
Petersburg.
In the autumB, death carried où ,), S. Aryenski. A former pu-
pil of mine, upon being graduated from the St. Petersburg Con-
servatory, ttc had bccome professor at the Moscow Conservatory
and had livt d in ñ(oscow a number of years. Recording to all
testimony, his life had run a dissipated course between wine and
card-playing, yet his activity as composer was most ferti le. At one
time hc had been the victim of a servons ailment, which had,
ever, evldently left no lasting eflect. Having left the stafl of pro-
Ressors of the Moscou Conservatory in the N ineties, he removed
to St. Petersburg and for some time was director of the Court
Chapcl, succeeding B alaki rein. att this post, too, the same mtide
of life continued, though on a reduced scale. On leaving the
Chapel, after Count A. D. Sheryemetycfl had been appointed head
of the Chapel, Aryenski found hirnself in an enviable position :
listed as some privy-commission functionary in the ñ4 inistry of
the Court, Aryenski drew a pension of some six thousand rubles,
and was absolutely free to z ork at his composing. He did work
much at composition, but that i just where he began to burn the
canclle at both ends. Revels, card-playing, health undermined
by this mode of living, galloping co8sumption as the final result,
dying at Nice and deSth at last in Finland. Upon settling in St.
l'etersburg, Aryenski had always been on friendly terms with
hyelyayefi's circle, but had kept aloof, all by himself, as a com-
 T H E N E W C O N SER V TO R Y 33i
poser, recalling Chaykovski in this respect. By the nature of his
talent and his tastes as composer he was the closest approxirnation
to A. G. Rubinstein, but he was inferior in the force of talent for
composition, though in instrument ation, as the child of more mod-
ern times, he outdistanced A. G. In his youth Aryenski had not
escaped entirely my own influence, later he fell under Chaykovski‘8
influence. He will be soon forgotten.

The all-Russian strike broke out. October i Cth came with the
strcct-demonstration of the i 8th. A temporary unlimited free-
dom of the press came, then the withdrawal of liberties, repres-
sions, the hI oscow uprising, again repressions, etc. IVork on my
manual, too, flagged for some reason or other. Neverthelc ss, in
the midst of all these disturbances, provisional rules for the Con-
servatory of a somewhat self-goY ining character were promul-
gated. The Art Council was granted the right to engage profes-
sors independently of the St. Petersbu i g Directorate and to elect
from their own ranks z Director for a definite term of years. On
the basis of these new principles, the Council immediately invited
me and all the other professors who had left the Conservatory be
cause of mc, to come back into their midst. At our first general
meeting Gla runof( was unanimously elected Director. The ex-
pelled students were re-irritated. But there was no way of resum-
ing studies, as the students’ meeting that had been called had
passed a resolution forbidding it, owing to the non-resumption of
studies in other higher educational institutions. It was decided
to permit only graduation-examinations in hI ay. My instruction
the pupils continued at my house. The meetings of thc Art
Council were stormy to the point of indecency. Some advocated
the opening of classes, slandering the student body in every pos-
sible way, and quarrelling with Glazunofl, who clung to tlie resolu-
tion passed at the meeting; others of his fOrmer partisans, turned
their backs on him under the influence of the reaction which had
overwhelmed a part of society. The position of Gla zunOlf, who
was worshipped by the students, was a difficult one. The conserv-
ative group of instructors snarled at him like dogs, at every
meeting. At one of these, I lost my temper and left the meeting,
saying that I could stay at the Conservatory no longer. Some
of them ran after me, begged me, tried to calm me. I wrote a
JJ2 M Y M U S I C A L L I £E
letter of cxplanation to the Art Council, confessing that I should
not have fiown into a passion, but stating the motives that had in-
ccnsed me. Hax•ing made up my mind to romain v ith the Con-
ser vatory until summer, I had in vieW IO leave it by the following
autumn, the more so as the St. Pe tcrsburg Directorate which hall
at first shrunk to zero, began to show signs of life by putting all
ma nue r of obstacles On the money 9ide in the way où Glazunol's
codeavour9. I spokc to Gl a zunofi of my intention to lcave, urg-
img him, too, to leave the Consei vatory that hall become unbear-
able. He was in despair, saiv in rny departure secds où tu rther
disorders, and would not consent to go hlmsel f, e »i cctinJ S t11l to
be of use to the institution. The month Of Li ay caine rrtt4 ivifb
it the time of examinatioos. Glazunofi conducted the ex amina-
tions zealou9ly and energctic ally. The minds of the studcnt 9, too,
had calme d someivhat with the opening of the examinations, and
the academic ycar came to a 9a fe close. Out of pity for beloved
Sasha as well as for my numc rous pupils, I decided to delay my
)eaving untel niiturnn, because GJazunofi's intc ntions were of thc
bcst, and it came hard to frustrate his plans.

During the latter half of the season at the Nlariinski Theater

in ye yoorocm Lea wus revived and given eleven times undcr the di-
rection of F. Blumenfeld. Notwithstanding the disturbed times,
the performances drew good houses. Sadko had also been pro-
jected, but it did not materialize and was postponed till the next
scason. Tlie Tiur’i Bride, produce ‹) early in the spring, appar-
ently had been stricken from the repcrtory, and, in the spring,
rehe arsals of The Tale o f the Cir j o/ Rii)'e==/i began at the inst ance
of Tyelyakovski, who had received from me a copy of the opera
as a present.
At the Ziloti Concerts my Symphony in C-ma jor was give n its
first pc rformance not under my direction. H eretofore, coo‹1iictors
appa rcntly had been afraid of it, probably because of its Scherzo
in '/i. In reality tlie Symphony did not prove too di Picult, anal
Ziloti conducted it success fully. Glazunoft's ñJ ooh fifies ( Hc ave-
ho ! ) and my D oohino oshk a (Th e little cut) ct) ,' composed nude r
the influence or ra ther on the occasion of rh rerolutiooa i ) dis-
* This folksong, possibly even better known than ft ooi5*eri, has always been ?/ie
revolutionary song of Ru•-sia, and its ringing was forbidd en for 'ears. J. A. J.
 S U N D R Y L A B O UR 5 3s3
turbances, were played at another concert. Exactly as much as
Glazunofi's piece proved magnificent, just so much did mv Doo b’u
uponhko prove short and insignificant, even though sufficiently
noisy.
The prohibition of its third concert in the spring of the previous
year affected the pecuniary aflairs of the Russian Symphony Con-
certs, and this season it was found necessary to limit the con-
certs to to•o only, under the direction of Blumenfeld and Cheryep-
oio. In memory of Musorgski, on the twenty-fifth anniversary
of his death, several of his pieces were performed (and all in my
orchestration I ) .
The concerts of the Russian Musical Society dragged on their sad
existcnre. The shadow that had faJlen on this orgaoi zation as
a result of the previous spring, obfuscate d these concerts, par tic-
nearly at the beginning of the season. Foreign conductors re-
fused to come, our own also fought 9hy. The young conductor
I' olchok did not attract any audiences. The conterts were saved
by Auer and the German Beidler, who came to conduct two of them. My
own musical lifg ran somehow barrenly, owing to my feel- ing out
of sOrts and I atigued. With Byel’ski we turned over cer-
tainoperatic suliJects in our minds, namely S t j elika R azin a high-
wayman's song, and heaven and Earth. V. I. Bye1'ski even jotted
doyen the libretto, but the musical ideas which infrequently came
into my head iv‹'rc short and fragmentary. The manual of orches-
tration, too, had come to a standstill. On the one hand its form
would not take shapc, while on the other hand I wished to wait for
thc prodttction of Kit yeah in order to draw some of my illustra-
tions from that source.
Nerertheless, in the spring I took up and finished another piece
of w-ork on ñ4usorgski's compositions. The reproaches which I
had had occasion to hear more than once for having omitted some
pages of BOTis G odunot when revising it, spurned me to turn
once more to that composition ; and, after subjecting the omitted
portions to revision and orchestration, to prepare them for pub-
lication as a suppleme nt to the orchestral score. In this wise I
orchestrated Pimyen's story of the Tsars Ivan and Fyodor, the
story “about popinka" (parrot) , “the carillon clock,” the scene
of the False Dnaitri Pvt th fl an goni at the fountain, and the False Dmiti-
. s SOliIoqily after the Polonaise.
 3y4 M Y M U S I C A L L I FE
The turn had come even of the famous ZLraii’8a ()Yedding) .
By agrc cment with StasotÏ, who had until then coDcealed this manu-
script from curious eyes, within the walls of the Impc rial Public
Library, Ehe Meddin g was performed one fine eveniog at tnY
hOn se by Sigi zmund Blumenfeld, my daughter Sonya, the tcnor
Sandoolyenko and the young Goori Stravinski. Nadyezhda Niko-
layevna was at the piano. Dragged into the ligh t of day,
this tompositioo striiclt us all by its wit, combincd with a certain
pi•ecooceived uomusica lness. Having thought over and deliber-
ated a course of action, I decided (to Y. Y. Stasoft's profoiind
delight) to kend this composition over to Bcssel ft›r publicatioo,
after havlng first looked it over and made the necessary correc-
tions and simplifications, with a view to orchestrating ' it at some
time in the future for a stage productiOn.
In addition to the above-mentioned occasion of the performance
of The Meddin g at our house, close friends gathered at our house
on every other Wednesday, and we had music, prinCipally voral.
New compositions wele looked over and sung. The ga therings
wei e often rather numerous. Once Gla zunolf played his Eighth
Syrnphony. Quite frequently F. Blumen fclt) came and Mme. N. I.
Zabyela, who was then already an artist of the MRr'IlHSki Theatre.
Her husband, the printer Vrubel’, for more than two years a
victim or a mental disease, had in addition completely lost his
eyesight ; he was then ifl a hospital, without any hope of recovery.
Until then his mental malady had run a course with interv als of
lucidity, when he 1 ouId take op work again. With the lost of
eyesight, work became impossible eren in momciits of mental
traoquility. A terrible situation l

I have alrcady said that it w as necessary for my son Andrey to

make another trip to Nauhcim foi• the complete recovery of his
health. Accoi’dingly, at the beginning of May, he went abroad
with his mother. After passing his final examinations, our son
\*o1odya became free, hav'ing graduated from thc University that
year. Yt'e decided to spend the whole summer abroad. Thc
three of us, Volodya, Nadya and I left early in June, via Vienna,
for Riva on Lago di Garda, whit her also Na dyez hda Nikolayevlia
° The fire z pages of the orche tral score, in cle2n copy, have been preserved
among N. A,’s parers. 1 ditot's note, (Mme. R.-K.)
 O R C H E S T R A TGI N SGON S 3sJ
was to come with Andrey as soon as his cure had been complete d.
After tfieir arriral we spent some hve weeks at delightful Hiva.
I was busy oi•chestrating my songsrbox 1y ethii]u aout’ (.fi Mid-
summer hight’s Dream) and Anchar; I also orchestrated three
songs of II usorgski ; composed a development anti continuation
with coda fOr my too brief D oobino os hkz and tleveloped a bit the
conclusion of IN asliche y (which had not satisfied mC) bv adcl =g
chores behind the scenes. But the ideas of the myst ery dari/t end
/fraveii did not pull together ; nor did St ye jika R as-in gct any-
z here. . . . The thought whether it were not high tlme to write
finis to my career as composer ' (a thought that had haunted me
since I had Enished The Male o f Kit ye= h) did not leave me
as well. The news from Russia nursed my restless frame of mind,
but I decided not to leave the Conserrato»y, unless circumstances
impelled me to take that step, the more so as the letters of Gla-
zunofi, who had taken up the orchestration of his Eighth Symphony,
gare me consolation. I resolved) not to part with him and Anatoli ;
as for the mattcr of composing let come what might. In any
cvcnt I had no rlesi re to gct into the stupid position of a “singer
who has lost his voice.” but •uirro z!et ra.
After we had li ved quietly at Riva nearly five weeks, we made a
trip to Italy and, having visited M ilan, Genoa, Pisa, Florence,
bologna and Venice, returned to dear Riva for two more ivceks.
Tomorrow wc leave R iva and go to Russia via Munich and Vienna.
The »i i17uiira/ ñi/r has been brought to its close.
It is w ithout order, is unequally detailed throughout, it is written
in wretched style, often even extremely dry ; but, in compensation,
it contains noffiiap #oi the trut lii and this e'ill lend it interest.
On my ari ival in St. Petersburg, perhaps, my long yearned for
idea -of z riting a diary will be realized. Whether the idea will
last long—z ho knows ? . . .
N. RIMSKz•K0R8AKOPF.
Riva su1 logo di Garda,
August c z of the old style, 906.
* Rimsky-Korsakoff was yet to write be C'og d’Or/ C. V. Y.
APPENDICES
 APPENDIX I
D FAR Ni KOLAY ANDRBVBYICH :
I had not intended writing, but was so overjoyed on finding all you want,
that I was seized with the desire to let you know it ; besides, w'hile rummaging
in thc papers I found sketches, which may perhaps be of use to you, hence
it would not be a bad idea for you when you have a free moment, about io or
i i in the IHDrning, to drop in on me.

L. S H ESTAKOVA•
Sept. 8, i 8g5.

II. A. BalakireH made his trip to Prague in i 866, in the month of

June, on my requmting him to make a stage-production of R uclan there.
However, lie returned toward thc cnd of July, without having accomplished
this errand. In September of the same year, haring obtained a letter of
introduction from V. 1. Lamanski ‘ to Riiger, in Prague, I went there on
the i6th, and with thc lattcr’s assistance, the question of producing fi «scan
was settled in a New hOUfs. Taking with him all the sketches of scenery,
costumes, and accessories, made by Gornostayefi at my request, M. A.
Balakiiefi went to Prague a second tIJfl on l3ecembt°F 2 i, of that year,
and there applied himself to the production of Ruslan and A Lifc for Um
Tim . It was our desire that Ruslan should be given on the stage for
tlie first time on Februa w 3 the anniversary of my• brother’s death ; but for
snmc reason that could not be done, and the premiere of R uslan in Prague
took place on February 4, i 86d, with M. A. Balakirefi conducting.

THIRD NOTE OF L. SH E8TAKOVA

StelIovsLi did not allow me to publish the orchestral scnre of R«ifao a nd

Jypdniifu. After Stellovski’s death, 1 arranged with his heirs the mattef
nf puhlishing fioiJ to, and entrusted to V. N. Engelhardt all negotiations
with Riider in Leipzig concerning the pulilication of that scnre. the negotia
tions began in the summer of i826, and in November of tlie same year
IJalaki red, Rimsky-Korsakoff and Lyadofi engaged in preparing them for
prtnt and usually brought me w-hatever they had made read y. )Vhat they
had set right I used to and to Leipzig, and I handed them tlie proofs re-
* Famous scholar ( Slavlc phi]o1ogy) and prominent leader of Slavophils, J. A. J.
36o M Y M U S I C A L L I FE
curved from Leipzig. I got the first published copy of the orchestral score
of R uitan from Leipzig on November to, 1828, and the very next day,
November i i, I invited the co-workers “Bach” ' for the evening. All
of us together made a joyous time of it, drank, at supper, a glass to my
brother's memory, and I thanked them all, heartily congratulating them
upon bringing the cherished task to completion. In i 88o, by agreement with
G. Hake, Stellovski published the orchestral soore or I Hi/r for r£e User in
St. Petersburg.
 APPENDIX II

FIVE SUBSGRI PTION RODC ERTS

OF THE
FREE MUSIC SCHOOL
I
OcToBER 26, I S69, AT I :3O P. si. , IN ZH B ICAL L oF x B C¿ ;i
OF TTtE NoBfLlZY

Rich. J*agner.
II. Scene ar the Excerpt from the music *o
FaHct, for solp, cho rus and or cliestra (first time) . Schumann.
Tlie part of Gretchen will be sung by Mine.
Y. F. Platonova. The part of the Evil Spirit
by G. I. Kond ratyefi.
III. Fantasy for ltte pianotorte with orchestra on
themes from Ruinec d’H Hi Ines of Beethoven
(first time) . Liszt.
IV. rooo Yfars, z musical tableau toy orchmtta.
V. Excerpts from the opera p heron,• a) Chorus o)
Elves ; b) Chorus uf tlie Khalif's
VI. Fifth Symphony in C-minor, fur orchestra. Beethoven.

II

oF THE NoniLrrv
I. Overture to the opera I) hi9enia i» Aulis With
concert-ending by Rich. aW*>. Gluck.
IJ. Concerto for the cello with orchestra, in A-minor
(first time) . Schumann,
The cello part ill be p+l'"d i Davydo
II I. tw» G •» r , a musico-characteristic picture for
orchestra (£ st t;me) . Int. Rubinstein.
26i
362 MYMUSICALLIFE
IY. Songs with the accompanim«t of the piano, eung
by Mae. A. A. Khvostova.
u) Lied der Braut.
b) Hebr fttr Kon9.• I sleep› but my 'alchful
firerf ii aoz orfrr9. Rimsky-Korsakotf.
c) Laura’s song from the ppera The Stone
Dargomyzliski.
V. Excerpts mom tlie Monodrama (drama for one
personage) Lelio:
a) The H3£ Df Rolu6 (orchestra) ; b) Fan-
tasy on Shakespeare’s 7’em/esf (chorus and
orchestra) . Berlioz.
VI. Overture to 5hakispeare’s drama A Midsummer
Nipfii’i Drtam. hlendelsmhn.

NovEMBm i6, i 869, AT '3 *T„ In( T4-lv, HaLL OP THE CLUB
8F T IE Nonirrrr
). ERcerp(S fofl2 C)U Or8tOriO e9endZ HOn Aez
hei/ipeo Elisabeth (first time) .
a) Introduction (orchestra) ; b) )Iarch and
chorus ot Crusaders (orchestra and
chorus) ; c) Death of St. Elizabeth (solo
antl chorus) . Solo part will be sung by
If me. Y. F. Platonova.
II. Episode from the bylina Sada o musical tableau
for orchestra. Rimslty-Korsakofi.
III. Third Concerto (on Danish themes) in E flat
major, for piano and orchestra. The piano part
played by F. O. Lesclietirky. L tolH.
IV. First Symphony in B flat rnajof, f0r orchestra. Schumann.

IV

I. Overture to tire tragedy fiorio/anui. Beethoven.

II. First Concerto (E flat major) for piano and or-
chestra.
The piano part will he played by N. G. Rubiu-

III. Excerpts I rofn the unfinished dairy comic opera

 A P P E h7 D I X I I 363
a) Chorus of Dervishes ¡ b) Chorus of Rog-
dana’s fairy maidens. Dargomyzhski.
IV. Piano-pieces.
a) Berceuse Laskovski.
b) Romance Chaykovski.
c) Oriental Fantasy /ifamzy BalakireH.
Played by N. G. Rubinstein.
Symphony in C-major, for orchestra. Fr. Schubert.

V
MARCH 2, i 8 yO, AT I :3O P. If., IN THE HALL OP TH b CLUB
OF 'H B TO BILITY

I. Two episodes mom the music to Lenau's Fault

for orchestra.
a) Nocturnal procession ; b) Waltz of Meph-
istopheles.
IL Introduction to the opera d«i/ao and Lyudmila
(without cuts).
The part ot Bayan will be sung by V. M. Vasil-
yefi.
III. Ninth Symph'ony, for orchestra, chorus and solos.
The solo parts will he sung by: Mines. Y. F.
Platonova, J. A. Lavrovska 'a ; Messrs. V. M.
Vasilyefi, I. A. Myel'nikofl. Beethoven.
 A P P E N D I X I II
FEBRUARY 2, i 826, AT 8 P. II., INTHEHALL OF THE
TOWN COUNCIL
I. Ovcrture to the tragedy Goriofenus. Beethoven.
II. Excerpts from the Class in B*minor.
a) Kyrie elelson (first time) ; b ) Aria Qai
srde sung by M. D. Kam) enskaya ; c)
Chorus Gruci,/isuiy d) Chorus Dona nnbic
( first time) . Bach.
III. Excerpts from the Oratorio Samco n .• a) Chorus
Df Israelites: “Then round about the starry
throne” ; b) Air of Dalila with chorus o1 Vir-
gins: “\Vith plaintive notes and am’rous moan,”
sung by home. O. A. Skal'korskaya ; c) Chorus
of Israelites: “Hear, Jacob’s God, Jehovah,
hear !” ; d) Air and chorus of Philistines: “Great
Dagon has subdued our foe,'' solo sung by O. A.
Skal’kovskaya ; e) Air and chorus of Israelites:
’Weep, Israel,” sOlD sung by fiI. D. Kamyen-
skaya ; I ) Recitative and Chorus of Israelites:
“Glorious hero” ; g) Closing chorus “Let their
mlestial cDncerts all unite.” Handel.
 APPFNDIX IV
MARCH 3. i8J6, AT 8 P. M., IN THE HALL OF THE
TOWN COUNCIL
I. Overture to tote tragedy lint Lear. Balakireff.
I I. Chorus from the last act of the Opera Prince
Igor time) . BOfO§in,
III. Rom«nza mom Act III ot the Opera liii.act
Rat lix, will be sung by tlme, A. N. Molas. Cui.
IV. Piano solo, will be played by D. I. KlimD
V. TivD choruses from the unfinished dairy comic
opera fiopdaua.' a) Oriental chorus of lier-
rnits; b) chorus of Princess Rogdana’s maidens. Dargomysliski.
( Orchestrated by Rirnsky-Korsakoff) .
VI, Narratire from Act IV of the Opera Berry
,Codooo@, will be sung by V. I. Vasilyeil. Musorgski.
VII. Songs: a) On the FI ills ct Gruzia. Rims¥y-Korsakofi.
b) The Orphan. ñ4usorgski.
c) Come to Me. Balakireff.
Surg by hf mr. A. N. kIoIas.
VIII. Chorus “Tartar Song.”
IX. IlnmariiaLaza, fantasy loz orchestra.
 APPENDIXVII

EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE DE ' 9

AUDITIONS MUSICALES
PALAIS DU TROCADERO
Le SAMEDI zz JUIN A a HEURES PRECISES

PREMIER CONCERT RUSSF

dent Musiciens moi fo Dirr rftoa dr
RIMSKY-KORSAKOW
PROGRAMME

I. Ouverturc de Rousslan et Ludmilla. Glinka.

II. Dans les stcppes de l'Asie centrale, tableau
musical. CO fodÎfl8.
III. Allcgro du I-er concerto de piano avec or-
chestre. Tschaikowsky.
Exécute par h(. Lavrow.
IV. Antar, z-e symphonie, d’après un conte arabe. Rimsky-KorSRkoW

V. Ouverture sur des thêmes russes. Balakirew.

VI. Marche solennelle. Cui.
VI I. a) Impromptu.
b) Intermezzo eu si b. majeur. Liadow.
c) Prclude en si mineur.
d) Novellette en ut ma;eur.
Exécutés par M. Lavroiv.
VIII. Fantaisie sur des airs Finnois. Dargomijsky.
IX. Stenka Razine, poème simphonique, exécuté
sous la direction de l’auteur. Glazounow.
 APPENDIX V

PALAIS DU TROCADERO
AUDITIONS MUSICALES
LE $A6I EDI 2g JUIN A z H£URES PRECISEG

DEUXIEME CONCERT RU8SE

RIMSKY-KORSAKOW

I. z-e symphonie en fa dièse mineur sous la direc- Glazounow.

tion de l’auteur.
I. Andante niaestoso. Allegro.
I I. Andante.
III. Allegro virace.
IV. Intrada. Andantino sostenuto. Finalc-
Allegro. Rinisky-Korsakow.
I I. Concerto pour piano et orchestre.
Exécute par hf. Lavrow. Glinka.
III. Kamariiiskaya, Fantaisie sur les themts russes.

IV. a) hI arme Polnvtsienne.

b) Danses Polovtsienoes.
( de l'opera le Prince Igor.) Borodine.
(Les PolovLsi étaient une peuplade sauvage de race turque en Russie au
II I-e siècle) .
V. Une nuit sur le ñ4ont-Chauve, tableau musical. Moussorgsky.
VI. a) MazurLa en sol béinol majeur.
h) Barcarolle. Tschaikowsky.
c) Etude en la majeu r. Blumenïeld.
Exccutecs phr )I, Litvrow.
VII. I —er Sctierzo pour orchestre. Liadow.
VI II. Capriccio Espagnol, RimSky-Korsakow.
 A P P E h’ D I X V I
a) OPT-iN LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY ROOS'

DEAR HR
In No. 5z of your esteemed daily there appeared a brief statement
of the thoughts expressed by me at the meeting of the Art Council of
the Conservatory on Februaq zJ, thoughts concerning the desirability of
broader powers for the Art Council. Finding that this news item is not
sufficiently complete, I hasten to state it in greater detail. Brieflv speaking,
I had expressed myself: I ) that tlie local Directorate of the Imperial Rus-
sian MuSical Society, which had given life to the Conservatory in the Sixties,
had given it its material support during many years and had obtained its
constitut Ipn and by-laws for it, had, in Subsequent years, and because of
thats cry cDnstitution, pre ed (in its persDnnel) to be a casual element and
only indirectly in touch Frith musical art ; 2) that for the Conservatory,
which at this moment appears to rue a grown-up and riiatur e institution,
there has grown ripe the need of changes in tlie constitution, with a view to
giVIng the Conservator' full autonomy ( under which the local Directorate
will become a supe rfi uoiis bureaucratic court of resort beHveen the Conserva-
tory and the Dr rectorate-in-chief of the Imperial Russian ktusical Society)
as well as with a view to establish ing correct eelat iotas betw ecu the Director
of the Conservatory and the Art Council by granting this latter greater inde-
pendence and broader powers of action. I suggest that the Conservatory
insist upon this, in the hope that the Directorate of the local branch will
lend It assistance instead of resistance. In conclusion I expressed the idea
that the Art Council would hardly refuse greater autonomy and broader
powers of action, and tlie D irectorat shrinli from the more frequent co-
operation of such an institution as the Art Council. Mav the two jointly,
in the nearest future, work out a suitable statement which they will submit
to the DirectDrate of the local branch and the Dirccto rate-in-chief of the
Imperial Russian hlustcal Society.
N. Rlsisuv-KORSAKOFr.

368
 AP P ENDIX \ I 3 9
b) EN OPEN LETTER TO TI-t R DIRECTOR OF 'rHE
8T. PETBR8B URG t2ONsERVA’PORY

NY DEAR IV(IUSï' R9DOL’FOVIC1I :

The movernent, which assumed the form or a strike et the students
of the Higher Educ«tional Institutions, has affected also the St. Peters- burg
Conservatory, which undoubtedly belongs with them in its problcm of musical
education. From the very outset of this agitiition, toget!ier with several Dther
of my mlleagues, I made efiorts by word and deed, to pacify this movement
and calm the participants' minds. IVhen, in sp rte of th is, the movement had
spread, the Conservatory was temporarily closed, till February z8. At the Art
Council meeting of Fel›ruary- 2J, I WAS Df18 O) the bventy-seven
instructors who cast their votes in favour of the
Conservatory until September i. Nevertheless, by order of the Directorate
of the St. Petersburg B ranch ot the Imperial )f usiral SOCIet\•, the Cnnserva-
tory pmved only temporatily closcd until h(arch i5. Because of anticipated
disorders that mÎ9ht break out \VIth the re-opening of the Gonservatory,
disorders amid which the normal course is unthink ble, I insisted once œore
that the period in which the Conservatory rcmaln closed be ptolonged until
September i, as had been decided by the majotity of s-otes in the Art Coun-
cil. Now that the strike of Higher Educational Institutions is a reality
which the professors and the Government have to face, the Conservatory,
guided by the Directorate of the Musical Society, has taken a stand apart
from all other educattonal institutions and, contrary to the exemple of :ill
the others ( in spite of the iesolution of the Art Council), bas decided to re-
open its classes heginning hlarcli i6th. The coosequences foreseen have become a
reality: today, after i I . hr. the Conservatory found itself sur- rounded by a
cordnn of mounted and foot police who scattered those pupils vainly desiring to
enter the building. Admission into the CDoservatory u=as by tickets
distributed hefDrehand to pupils who wished to No on with studies ; in this
categoy of pupils only an insignilicant numhcr put io an appearance (some ten in
all). Thus it has been today, so it will bc tomorroiv, the day after tomorrow,
etc. The striking pupils have been left to the icnder mercies of the police ;
while those who have not gone on strike are guarded by the same pnlice. IS a
regular course of instruction possible under such con- ditions? I find Ît
impossible ; many other instructors find it so likewise. The Conservatory
authoritie the Director, the lnspectors, the Directo rate of the musical
Society—-view it diflcrently, without being disconcerted by
things that make the Government itself stop to think. Is any progress in
the cause of artlstic possible at afi institution where the resolutions of
the Art Council have no value ; at an institution where, under its Constitu-
3yo If Y M U S I C A L L I F E
tion, the musical artists are subordinated to the D irectorate, that is, to a
circle of amateur-dilettantes¡ at an institution where, under the same consti-
tution, the Director is not elected for a term, but represents an irremovable
element; at an institution, finally, that is utterl)- indificrent to tlie rate of
its pupils in questions of education ? All the above regulations of the
Constitution as well as the acts of t1i'e Conservatory administration I And
inopportune, anti-artistic and harsh frorD the moral point of views, and I
deem it my duty to express my protest.
N, RI MSKY-KoRSAKOPP.

St. Petersburg, )(arch i 6.

 APPENDIX VII
AN OPEN LET' ER RHE DIRFCTORATE OF THE ST. PETERSB URG BR4 Ñ CH
OF THB IM PERIAL RUSSIAN Et USICAL SOCIETE

In accordance north the Directorate’s resolution adopted at a meeting on

hlarch 9. 9 :tnd oŒciâlly communicatcd to me, I have been under Art.
5, § 24 of the Constitution or the Conservatoiy and ,§55 of the Constitu-
tion ot the Russian Impérial Musical SOClgty, dismissed from the duties of
professor at the Ccnservatory, because I had
“publicly, in st arp manner and with perversion of facts expressed a
test against th¢ Dit’ectorate’S âCtlons aiming at restoring the interrupted
Studies at thé Conservatory ; and this œauifest)y h inders the Direcforafe’s
efiorts to bring tranquility and the sven tenor of edueational life into the
Conservatoy” ;
sud hence the Directomte
“considers impossible mv further activity as professor.”
II in my letter to the Director of the Conservatory reference has been made
to the tiventy-sevcn votes tast in f avour of closing the Conservatory until
that length of tÎme, while the majority favoured closing the Conservatory
”until passions shall have calmed,” an inexactness of that nature on iriy part
cannot manifestJy alter the sente f my IetteT, «Utile the phrase “fassions shall
have calmed” points tu a space of time possibly still more reinote than
5eptember i . For it cannot be asserted that on h4arch i5 the calming of
passions occurred. \Yherefore I reque*t the Dircctorate to state what f aCts
have sufiered perversion on my part. Without that, the hint (undeserved by
ine) of my alleged bad faith will prove a not altogether honourable procedure
on the Directorati.’s part. As for the act of di8iRiSSIng me over the heads of
the Art Council, this but proves once mDre that I em right in thinking that it
is from the Institution that the abnormality in the relations between the Art
C'ouncil , the D)cctor où the Conserve tory and the Directorate or¡ses. J
herewith beg to renounce my honorary mernbership in the St. Petersburg
Brancli.
N. RiMSKY- ORSAKOFP.
March z4.

P. S. several hour before the Directorate meeting of March i9, at which my

37° M Y M U S I C A L L IFE
dlSfRlS5al was decided upon, I had received, from one of the mtmbers of the
Directorate, a letter containing the following lines: “Would it not be more
advisahle, if, instead of protesting, you agreed, for the sake of calming the
passions of South, to take up the reins of administration, instead of A. R.
Bernllgtd ?'' PrObably the member of the Directorate held a minority
opinion, but signed the resolution, nevertheless. I sent a negative reply.
INDEX
 INDEX
A Drama am dc fa Can r nne, .
Auer, Leopold (violinist) , y5, iz9, t83,
Afanasyeff ( cl a rinettist) , a 58.
Af•nasyeff ( composer) , i 5g. *88› 333-
Af anasye8 ( folk-lorist) , iJi , zOo.
Avdot5'a Larionovna (nurse) , 3zz.
Avranek ( chorus-master) , z26, z78.
Aisha rHmova, S. . (née Purgold) 7v, Azanchevski (Director of 8t. Pctcr8burg
Conservatory) , too, ioi, zoj, zz6, i j j,
Akimyenko (corn poser) , 3 i q.
Albany, qz.
Asyer k ay• . *94
Alex0 nder I, zo.
A lexande r II, i 8 i, z gz ( attempt on his Azyeyeff, Y. 8. ( choiy•maste r) , z i z, iy6,
**4. *3*›*34'

”Bach" (V. V. 8taso0's nickname) , i 3o,

g6o
^«• (*liPP*r), * . s3. 3z. 3s 4i› s°, Bach, J. s., r8, «s, im, has, i in, iii.
212, 28Q. Guru 6J, kg, zip gz/.
Alt an›, I. K. (con(Iuctoi) , z76, zy2, t78, Pass inus must b› t 3 r.
279. Male i B-m in«r, t ¿,
Alyeksandr N)•evsit i ( f rigate), go, ¢3, 5o. Orpea /fl9or (,4-y ink;-) , t jp.
AJyeksaild r Porfiryi:vich=Borod in (q. v.) . Baklich isaray, i zy, i z8.
A1; casa ndra N ikolayevn a=Mme. MO1ag Bakhmetyeff, 8z, za3.
(u. v. ) . Ba kht§’2 £Odt A. E., 3 › 39-

Annas i (composer) , 3i 9. i 8, i 9, zo, z i, g , t5, t¿, g7, z8, gg,

An a stasyeffs, o rz. 63, 6¢, 6 , 66, 87› 68, 6 9 73. 74. 75.
Anatoli=z\. K. LyadoIf (q. v.) , z 67. 76. 77 7 79, 8°. 8•i 8°i 9°. 9• 9°.

Anti apolis, Js, q3. six) , i i 5, i to, i a i, iz5, i z9, i 3o, t3z,
.4ntil lean IVaters, ti. I46, i47, iJ8, z¢g, i 5o, i 53, 1.53, t $y,
Antipoff (composes), z (, a¿i. m 6, ;, s 8, rug, *6o, i6r, r z, tg ,
z83. i 8y, i 88, i 8.9, ig , i g5, zo5, zo6, ct z,

"A rabi an N ight ,” z4y, zJ 8. t5i, z3g -4o (B,'i circle vs. Byelva-
A rgo, aft, yell's circle) , z¢i, z¢z, z¢ , a6o, z6r,
A rscnyefi, A. P., t8. z65, z 8J, s85, zgy, 3zj, 35n, 35q,

FoJ wod«, or Dm nm on the Fa t9 a, zi8. F irebird, 59.

"Association," co-operative opera com• thoo hea ri, 6o, i 6 ( future Roor’) , zy9.
parry, vice Mamonto9's (q. v.1, jz,
33q, 3Jj (at 8oJodovnikofi's Theatre) . Tamara› 6o, yz, 86, qg, t gq, t (pre-
Aubor, z8. miere), z8z, a8z.
3? INDEX
lit an zy, 6o, y6, 9q. Bessel (music publisher) , 96, i •. 8.53.
Overture or Run ia x th•.m is
%, age.
CAD* O*eWre 6 6;, y, 86, i 6. 34°• 354-
hetz (orchestra conductor), 9é.
J3eyer, fi9rru -irans or plie us, 5.
Bie hoorina, 5. 186, z N, zzO.
Balk, g. Bitter (music-publisher), o. s3. °si
Baltic Sea› 39 e8o.
Baltimore, qz. 43. Bl2god are If, q8.
Barnberg, z8. Blar Omberg, P. I. (composer) , i 59, ziz.
Bara tlova, 6. Bluroenfeld, Fyeliks II. (pianist, cor-
Barbini {c0ndtlcto ) › 343- poker), zzz, zzy, zz8, z i, eJ3, z88,
Bz rtsal, z28. °94› 3° 6, 3 +>› 33+› 5 S3 337› 33f› 54'i
Bay-an’s first song, a6. 51< 34 › 35°› 3.52 › 354-
B ay r euth, z68. Blumenfe I d, Sigismund (song-composer) ,
Bed ryaga (R.-K.’e cousin) , io3. zz8, z‹H, zq , 33d,
Beethoven, 5, iz, z4, i , i 8, ion, zzy, z33, Board of Directors of TO eatres, 24, q6,
°4*› 3*6. 97› ^ 9› * fi *› *78i 3* -
3 st 8orlat a, i4 ¡ Sonatas in D-m2j or and Hobchinski and Dobcbin ki, z 8i.
A-ma]or (up. 3) , 5 ; Sonatas, Ta. B—off, z8 3.
E ymont, z 3z, i88, zz 8. Bogdanoff (ba llet-master) ,
f'oriola Liu r, z 36. BogomoloH, Dr. T’. I., z8 5.
(conore, g r, zoj, i 3.8, z¢¢. Bobogna, io6, 355-
S ymWho ni ez› z5, z6. Bol'ska ( d rarriatic soprano), 3 3z, 3 3y-
Boobro9, Captain. 34
' II It 73• Borodin, 5i. it. 5i. § 6, 5y, 9, 6 i, y5, y9,
IV, 73' 8 i, 8y, 9y, i i4, i zo, iz i, iz 5, i 36, iii , r
V, 75 9°› 3.5 i *' 8• 56, r 3.8, z 6z, i 6 3—5 ( * ome—life ) ,
VI, iz, 2.5, i 88.
•7' • y ( inertia ) , z yq, i 8z, 183-4
IX, 9r. ( home-life) , i 89, zo5, zo9, a iy, zz2,
ii . •i4. °38 ( death), zj9, zqo, air,
Early ou artcts ; Lit ter
2éJ, 3Oh, 3 t 3.
Last Qu artcts, g, at. I S twphony (E flat major'), 53, 5.3, y 5-
Qu a rtet in E fl a t m a j O r (op. * *7) › 4'
26, 77. 9 ' , I § 6, z3y. • 59 (B rtls8elS ) .
Reid her ( cond iictor) , 5.55 II 5ymphony (B-m mor), • °57. I 2g,
Be I Hermann, rz8.
Unfinished 5ymphony (in A-minor) ,
246.

1.62, 2/6-8, zyg, IB , Z 88, 220, 2$ 8,

(premiere) .

hrs Proyeilz 3 Cart/ippr, 9 i, 35o, i 8g,

z9o, so3 (N shia s Dan r) .
Storr/ie Flare rdiil¢, izi,
Ouattct on B-A-F, z38.
Carna val Rcmai y, yo8. Qua rtct in A-ma)ot, i 6 i, y6.
I n G. r ul r a I H $ia y 1.8 z.
Bernard (music-publisher) , i9i, zgz.
Potea ( n ParaphY as es ) , i7i.
Be rriha rd, .S. R. (Professor, Director of
Els da, z5.3, o 59, z 59.
Borodin a ( Mme.) , s3. i4. r * , km, i 6J,
3 9› 37°-
Bertenson, Dr. (I net to attend flu sorg- A8J 338.
Boosdiu, io.
 1hDEX 377
Bortnyanski (cliurCh-composer), 6, 82, Queur o f S ades, z61.

r.«zu is (concerto), 6.

Plaie Ch ant.

mei ‹u r antasy, 6q, i63.

Bosio, i i. II Qu artet, i 65.
Botkins, the, i 9¢, z 9. hard o/ Orfzas‹, zg, g, 32§
Bourgaqlt —Ducoudra y, a 6. i st Piano-concerto, z89.
B ronyctski, I. A., 3.6, NRf€fd€l er (b all et) , z8z.
Brovt yns, tlie, z. NHff. (a cbC r (suite ), z89.
B ¥U8Se18, 2.5.6, z58 (conducting there ) ,
S /f o›fi• : i, ä8, 6g ; Iii, «s9, iv,
°39i 3z8. 88 ; \", z88 ; \’I, z82-8.
Buckle, j 8. Fpancei ra do R imini, agg.
BulakhoIf, z i.
marche i lave, z88.
Bul akhova, i i.
fi° uro mad J iilict, 69, z8q.
Bulldog (steamer) , 5o.
Fa tu in, 3o6.
Uh low, Hans von, z t6, z3¢, zqp
Burgmiiller. Chernofi (band master) , ici.
Bay Int, . Cherubini, ioz, i a8.
Btl5] z5’e R, 3z- Cheryepttin ( composer) , z¢5, 3ig, j j j,
Butter-week, 2.
Byed lyevich (be so), 3 i . Chesapea ke Bay, ¢z, ¢3.
Bjelinski, s. Ch Oop tyn n ik off (tenor), zqj, zg , jns.
B)'ei'siri, Y. I. (librettist) , z99, job , 3o3 , Chopin, i 8, z6, 33 -s (influence).
Eiiidei, 6 i.
3*6, J*°' 3*' 3*#' JJJ' 34º› 353.
Byelyaye if, LI. P., r , 22c (meeting 8elierzo in B-minor, tz5.
With ), z2y-8 ( B.'s Fi'id aye ), zzq, Ch ristiansand, 5o.
Cologne, 3i<
R4o-4 f B.’S Circle ) , z y, s 3.3, *5 {, Colonne (conductor), z54› z56.
Consiantinople, zi j.
Corcova‹lo, 47.
Cou rt Chapel, ioi, ii6 (prophecy) , ••3.

z87, o9o (retirement) , z97, j jg,

Covent Garden Theatre, 38.

Cadiz, 99.
Calzola ri, z r. Concerts by Naval Bands, i 5z , z iz.
Canopus, 46.
Cape Horn, y, ¢ , 8. Crystal Palace, The, 38.
Cabe Verde Isl and , ç6. fl1, IQ, I8 IÇ 3Q, 2Ç ; gg âg( âgé jjy
Catherine II (T Ghe rcat) , z96, gqy, q8, * *°, *°, 54. 5 *6 s7 6 6r 66
3oz. 68, 78, 79, 8i, 83, 82, 9o, 9i (f.et zn-
Ca ucasus, 3.3, 3 S, yi , z35 ( d etai ted trip ) .
Cavall i, zz$.
Cecchet i (hallet-ma ster) , z 7t , z2;t.

z 8o, The iilasdar in’s Son, z8 3z, 9o› y 9.

r 8z ( ma¢ rt age) , ¥2g› z3c,, z6o, zy ç, Ja'pr/o, z z 6,
° 3 *8§, z86, z8y-8 ( d cath ) , z88 Le Flihiistier, z59.
37 I N D EX
D qmoat-d 'U rville› 7•
Dupont, Joseph (Belgian conductor) , z58,

Ditich, G. 0. {conduoor) , y4, °37.

i zo, s°7, °i i, °i°, =3s› *i+. °ii.
u , •w, »43› •45. z6o
Dütich, 0. (father of G. 0.) •
Zfrooifia, roy.
choral Dyefnid0íf . 7*
claiscs), i 9. Dyeryabin Houae, q.

D E
D’Albert (pianiit), zyg. Eichenwald ( soprano), *76, *78.
D'Aoust, jz8. El mira, ¢3.
Dargomy zhzki, A. S., z 6, 66, 62t 79› jude (operatic tenor) ,
8 , 8z, 83, 85, 7› 9 • Engelberg, z6z.
Thc Stonc meal› s 8, 66, 78, 79, 89, 9º, Engelbardt, Anna N., +4•
by 9¢, 97, g8, z in ( p temiére ) , 1°4i Engelhardt, Y. N., y 59.
3 io, 3 y 8 (re-orchestrated) England, j8, s9. 4º. 4 ++-
'uiallia, i $, 66, yz, 2q, 9 i. E rlitski, D£., *76.
Fittn ish to H10 z s 9, g I. Eiipova (pianiste) , 348.
plaids e/ Heaufy (duet), xo . Esposito (condtictor) , j i3.
tie Rd/ad is, i9, eo8. Europe, , 5, J8.
Oricnia) Of sted y› s9. Evald (cell ist), 2R2 283.
Davidofl, Alyeksey Avgustovich, z8g, gO3t
j0j, 3 !- F
Davidoff, Ivan Avgustovich tbrothor of
abovi) , e8 , z9s, zg6, 3o3, 3s, s°i- Farris ntsyn, A. S., y6, 9t, 9*› ° +3› +5° •
Davydofl, A. K. ( director of Jg fin¢ Feb, Olga Fyeliksovna, 5, 6, zj.
Cprpa) , 9- Ferrer o (doubTe•bass p) ayer) g6 log.
Davydoíf, A. M. (tenor) , jja. ( teadine i<•°• •74› *7s '
Davydoff, Karl Yulyevieh {cellist) , 1°5, 9¡[jppqg, T. I. (cong-cn]lector) , z io, t 59i

Findeiacn, N. K. (writer on rnosic), ag°i

Delibes, z5ó.
Definen, Michel ( tralislator of librelt08) , First Russian Symphony, st.
e56. Florence, 3ii
Denisyeíf, O. P., z g. Flotow.
Diana (f rigstc) , Ej. Indra io, y.
Dianin, s53. *75• Mgrla, to, xz, 6z.
Directoratc of Imperial Theatres (sec Folk-Melodi es usrd at themes by R.-K•
Board of Directora of Tfieatres), ^ 3° i @pd ¢re orrz pfdiiiia9 sitter, 58.
°74› 126, z r i , z5i , s63, z69, *7°i '88' At the gaits, the gates, 6o.
3•8› 3^ 3› 3W› 334› 339- › 3.5 ]vn n a$ a big cOO O It› 6O•
Directorate of Imperial T£eatres of f•o, i r I›rids9ro •o eno ‹th, 58’59•
Moacosv, 535. s4°
Dobro)yubo)$ 3*- (lt a matarla ]rOm Pa rIaY II, 7› 5 •
ha va ( Gloria ) , 6o, 5.1.6.

Francke ( F rench-horn player ), z3 j.

Don•Loy (operatic tenor'), i 9o. Frankf urt-on-Maiti, 3°7-› 3*
Dooma (sta ge-man a ger) , aq¢. Franz, Robert, 1.3 z.
Dorg (Orera-artiste ) , Zg6. Free Music School, The. s°. 54. §6, 6z
D resden, 3.3.8. y4, q§, 99, lot; z IO, fl 7.5, I 3O, 13.1,
Dronsejl;o ( pianiste) , 289.
Dobuque, 6g.
 I N DE X 3g
i 89, i go, i gg, zio, zz z, zI tj z i6, ¥ilIed Mother” ; “Do not cry, thou
2 £/, zzo, zzz, zz6, e$ s- . *4 Drphgn dea r”) , $ $g, $ 6o.
Fri‹1he rg (ccntor) , zoy. P#inca xholmiéi, z§, be, zz g,
Frjde (pr¡ma donna), z6o, j j2. Iota H ragoncsa i z i 5, x yo.
Fyodoroll, ioq. f"°'*•*. 833-
Midni9ht Rz‹riaw, i 6o.
G Poriofio» z on Sryrdi do/ioy
(In the midst of a emooth valley),
GalernaC2'a avañ, 5q. +4-
Cha lkin, N, V., i i 5, iz6. Spanish overtures (=A A'*9fit ia
Gaydeboorolf, z2 . Ma'drid,• Inta d ra9onesa), aoz.
Gedeono$, q6, 92, 98, 1o9, la9, x3o, 182, Gluclf, 23, rod.
Gelbke, zzy. Once, j iq.
€ieneva, jo. God tour roe 7’›ar, sqi . ••3. *75
C •noa, ¢q, 355. Gogol, i 8, j 3, x86, ago, z9i, z97, 5oy,
Gerke, yq. Ha y ii 9ht i $$.
Gcrner (horn-player), za. £eeoi»9z «i « fsrmñouzz, s 8.
Geseclius, z2/, 228. W*j', x g.
Gevaert, sag, Gol'denhlum, 3o , 3s , 3o , 3o6.
Gibraltar, q. Goldstein, Y. (pianist) , z 53, z•‹, •34.
Cilazunofi, A. K., i g , i 9y, a iy, aa8, avg, Golovin, P. N., 9, z z, zz.
z3o, zja, ej 3, z35, a39, zj.j, Golovins, the, zo, i i, z 5, zJ, n.
*44› °45, *5 , °5>› °54 * °i * I*!b **ya *•’9 3&-
z6r, z6z, z 6g, z23, z8o ( conducts R. 8. Golyenishcheff-Kootoozoff, Count (poet) ,
co next rtb) , 285, 2 é 30.3, 3.25, 52q, 5.3.5, 23O.
34+. 347. 34 › 25. 1 i 35*› 3.5.3. 3 fi 5 Tex t8 Of Musorgski’s songs, i 6z, i9z.
S ym[ma ares. I, zi 6, Zzo. •3+. •3• : GOrboonoR, I. F., tea.
III, z8o ; YI, 3o6, joy ; YIII, 3(4. Si i . Gorno8taye , 359
Orients I Dahl f (suite) , z3$. Gouood.
SIbenla Rabin, z3¢, z56. Fans I, by, 5o.
Q uarlet on B -A-F. 83 - Govt a, 47-
ref Quorfei (in D-niajor) , zz2* Gravesend (Rnglsnd), 38.
Qu artel-suite ( B iithday) , z¢5. Great Dipper, 46.
P Inn‹ £lrique. a5q. Grcenhithe, 31.
The Sea, 3oy ; b /ie Forest, 3o y. (Lyennnva’s husband ) , tqi.
Ohe Km mlin, o/, C›rieg, zzy, s58.
Alert rnfzooi, z6o. Grigorovich (violinist) , i 55.
7tovuoodo (ballet) , oy. 3• (Brussels). Gryechaninoff (composer), yr 9.
Dallet Suite and fionfnzy, z9¢ (1st Guidi ( opera-impresario) 34°. 34*.
time) . Gut I of Finland, 5o.
Ey oof /iñzm, 3 yz. Gut I Stream, the, ik, Hz.
Glinka, M. I., , 6, 8, 1it *3• *4. 5› ° › Gusaknvski, i 9, zy, z8, 3o.
* › *9› J*› po, 6a, 66, 6, )O, Jo*, p3› Tan I fragments, z8.
z 5z, i75, zy6, z 99, ao3, a3o, ago, t6z, S'ymphonir all e9ro, y8.
z65, 3 t, tit, t3›. Gutheil ( music publisher) , zq.
Kdm d t'inIid Nd, 2.3, é2, I, qfl, I I, 2O2. U¥Ot• * 5'

fl at /«ft dnd L ytt dm ila, i r , i a, z 3, 24, i It,

z8, ay, 2o (p remit re in Prague) , 28J HG ake, 3 .
› 9°› °°4› °°7 °4*› °45› ^46, ^47› If alter, inn.
x 5z, 1.2 , i26, I qz, r9q, ao* 859› 88* Hand el, z8.

N £i/e Jor iéc Z°rar, 4, 6, y, t i, zz, i 3, fiaazoa, r 36.

3. 0 INDEX
Ï2a rmoniRute, z6, 3p, ¢¢, Karatayeva (soprano) , zgn.
ïl a rtmann, z z S. Karma I ina, L. I. (singer), 67› °+
Ka5tO r ski (6 asso) , 3.3,9
KatkofT ( S) 8 v u While erÏ itor) , 3 g, zot, g2$.
Ka zack enko, G. A. (composer) , z z y, a66.
Heidelberg, 3i*.
H elmhphz, i i 2.
Flcnnequin, u6 5. l- tzy
Ienselt, Kh#IkOR, 3Sf, i28, @2@.
Si oiizau j'e/oi , 6. K llri8ti an ox-fch 8 £.
Herzen, A 39. Kiel, u.
Hit delarand, z8 3. ICing Dav'id, t 9.
Holmes, Auguste, z5 6. Ki ster, Baron, io9, i 5i.
Horner-Car ath, 3.3.8. Kiye&, o s, c9J- (production of fsJ -
Hoi e hoe FaÏ 1 *. 4+ J** * <!! *) 329.
11ubert, N. A. (Df sector pro tem. ol Kl emyeo t3’ed i °7 '
Moscow Conser vators’), zz9. Klebck, z g i.
Hube L *39- KÏ imchenk o, A. SI., 93.
Hud son River, the, )z. Klimofi, 19. D. (pianiet) , i3 , z y9, z8g.
Hunke, Joseph, s24, s29. Kl in, 6o.
K lost ( fÏutiat ) , 7 u.
Kochetofi, h. R. (composer, coiiduetor) ,
Ilha €1rande, 8, ¢9.
I l’mefi Lake, 3o9, Kologrivoff, V. A. ( Inspector or T{ieatre
Ilyina, L, D. ( mezzo-•opr #zo) , tg6, 3o6. U i chcstrae) , y, y§, 8 z, 8z.
I ly insti, V. N. (amateur baritone) , i6°, Kolokol (T[ie hell ) , 39.
Kommissarzhevskaya’s Eh catre.
Ilyiiiski, )$me., zly. 5q2 (Rni/rrfiey performance) .
Imatoreti ( iv aterfaIis) , 48. KommisSai zhevski (tenor), i to, i z j, izy,
lmatra ( vvaterf all) , sz 5. ' 5'
I nozyemtseff (tenor), 3+4- Koud r atyeff (stage-manager) , z zz, z6y,
I nsarova (sop••• I. 3* 34a
Ippol itolf-Ivano fl (composer), zii, 235,
Konstantin Niko]ay e ich (Grand Duke),
I iyetsii, K. A., I6. 109, hy, I j 3, £/2, I/3,
Ityetskaya, Natalya A lyeksand rovna, Con- K oochka, see h4ighty “KovhL a.”
ser v•atorJ' P rofessor, i 6, 1/. Koolygio (hand master) , ui.
Italj- ( northern) , i zi. Koozi (opcno) g.
Ivanitski, s3o. Kooz'ma, 6.
tva noll (ha het-ma ster) , ayi. Koozriyetso9, N. D. (painter) , zqo.
tvano0, M. hf. (composer, critic) , zoz. Kopyloft, ••i. •3'. •34
Korsoff (bp ritone) , oz8. Korvin-
K rvtlko vsk i, i 8 i, i gz.
J ^ P*° 4J• Kort ak in ( 09€f 2t1C basso) , z83, zij, a6y,
Jews (ballroom orchestra at Tikhvin ), 6.
Joh ansen, 1". I., too, i16, *78. **9. M-3
Jurgenson ( music publi.•her), q , q6.
}UF e9son, }. I„ 3j2. KO7hevnikoff, 343
Ko a hhP 10 1.0 , 1.1
K K rarnskoy ( painte r) , zz$.
K I'032chooli ha, 33.6, i+o.
Kabolovka, zjj.
Kra noko‹ygki (concert-master) , i go, zj i,
Kalinskis, th e, 6.
>3Z› 84 i 5•
Kamye osk aya, Of. D., i 20, I83, zr¢, zg3,
Kreml in, zz4.
3oz.
K roogiikoff, 8. N., in, i6ot °°°› •77. 3•7-
Kanillt, F, A., i , i5, i6, 1 7 *4› 3. 6, 37'
 I ND EX 3'
(estimate of) , jz , Qtr Fair e D intart, yo.
33^' firi roJfie, i 6z.
Kiooiik ova, z28. Lorna £in, G. )., z, 54, 6z, i 6o.
I<"ry emyenyei Ski, zzJ. London, 5.9.
KryloH, \". -4., 92. Looga, i 96, j to.
Is ry»hannv*ki (composer) , 3 i9, Loonacha rski (bans-ba titone) , zq6, 3o6,
Jiuchera, K. A. ( conductor) , z6i. j i t.
Kuno Fischer, 338. Lort zing.
Kyedroll (b asso) , 3o6. Z.ar und Zion mir mnn y, 5.
L. P. D, ( first 3ove) , 36.
Lucer me, z5y, z6z, 35o.
La Grua (songstress) , i i, i z. Lugano, z6z.
Lake Eri e, q3. Luier, zoz.
La ke Nye1 ay, zjq. Luisashev ich, 97. +=v. › ›3› ' 5 •
Laite u f the Fou r Canton s, j 5o. Lully, s
1.ake O ntai io, ¢3. I.’voIf, i9, z9, zz6.
Lake P3'esrio, z9 ›: *92. Ly 2d Off, K onstalitt li N ikO1ay e ¥’ICb (QQ -
Larnorisk i, \'. I., 3.59. era eotid uctr›r) , i i, zS, 5y, 6q,
La if:ma, zfi . 82, 9o ( conducts La Item grin ) , x 68,
Lamoiirclix ( corid net or) , z8i. i 69.
Lapit sk i, 3¢ .
Laroche, H, A., 69, io6, rod, i i j, iz5, i 68.
z6i, z83, z86, 3jJ—3 ( dextli) . EypduJf, .'\Iyek*aZ1ñ F 1. (cnnrIUCtD'£’ 0/
Lansa n c e, 33o. BeI let o rcliestr a ) , his brot het, i 6q.
La v roif, S. N. ( p1 arii*t) , 2.1 /, zzo, e z6, L)'adoff, Ana to11 Koiist a ntinovicli ( com-
2.2. 9 *4 2, 2 ii , 26O, 2 §3 .
I^ iP• iR, r 9. *g z , *3z, *93, 3.59.
I,enncaz•al1o.
z 8 z, z 8z, z 8y, zoo, coli, zo8, ?t y, zzy,
L eschctizk , T heo'Iore, y3, i J 3. z z8- 229 I a i riage) , z Z, 2}O, 2gz,
Lev ( liu riton e) , i I.
J.ewes
II istnr y o f @/f j/ .f G///d’ 2 6 5 ,
1..ibaii, 39, No. Qiiu rt‹t (in B-fl at major) , i 62.
I,Igovo, i23, i y9, i 8z. Colori[catre ns, z6o.
L incoin, Preside nr, 3. S’rherxn ( iii D-major) , z89.
Liszt, Franz, IN, z S, y3, 2.5, i 8, i y2, i8z,
Inel-stea ws, i68.
The Br idr o f Mei vina (caritate), rio,
+7 6.
Qu artN ori B-A-F, *3
'uarIel-su ite (Bii thday) , .
Pr cm tyevs, i z, i 88.
S y tu plionisr lie /7ir/iia a9en, 8.6.
Lyadova, Yalycntina Kon tantinovna (Mis-
ter of Anetoli), z 6y.

281.
Litviu, Feli a (dramatic sop1'fl rio) , z66.
Litolff, qu.
f odi ( tenor) , i 8y, z58.
Lodyzhcn•-di, h ikolay Nikol a yevich, 7º.
f6, Jy, 78, 82› xoo› z6a, 24o, 8)t.
( C-sha rp minor) , e5 i .
Lyeunofl (t rombon ist ) , i 3s.
L›'eonova, D. M. ( opera-artiste) , z r, z i a,
i i 3, l 8o, i 9o, i gi , z 9z.
Ly ermontoIf, 3.3.
Lyesov8lti, A‹]mi rat, Jo, 32, 4 J 49-
Lysenko ( Ookr ainia n composer) , z95.
T’y r i s Boo I’I n (opt ra ) , z95.
Lyudmi la Ivanovna (see Gbestakova),
67
 ]NI)EX
M
Milanofl, i 6o• _
@acauîay, 38. Mili Alyekseyevich-Balakirelf (q. v.),
hI ainz, $ jo-
Mill, John Stuà It, 38.
Mink°°› 97•
88. M inorea, ¢9.
b4alozyomov8, 295• Miss (L. P.) D. (5 rst lovc ?) , 36.
Mamay Massacre, 3J. Mitrof an Petro'v jch (or El. P.)=8ye!y^-
Cf ainontoH, is. I. ( opera yeH (q. v.) .
Mlad a, (compo.•ite work), 2i, si, gt, i*i,
Mangeant ( orChestra mnduCtor) , g6
Üaan, K. A., z i 5. Mod est (Petrovich)=b1iisorgski (q. v.
h4ari inski Theatre, i j, 5a, 64i y° i 74›
I gz.
gp, t¢¢[, t‹p6, iiÖ, I x1, 169, zt I, z6 8i
Mola , Mrnc. N P. ( née lyek Band ra
N ikolayevna Pu igold) 79› *i. s°›
y, 35d, 3q, 34º, 4z, i s°› 1s4- 7Qg, E I , 1 Id, ¥q , £ D, Coq, 7z z.
Marine Corps, 8, 9, In, 1 j.
Mon aCO, 5O.
MatLovich› 3 7› 337• Moniuszko, z9.
M ontcvidco, ¢5.
Marseilles, 49- Mootin, 553.
Marx. Mordoi'in, P. A., 38, 3g.
Morozoff (stage-managc r) , i is.
Morslf oy (tenor) , zgç, 5o6, 3 iz, ses, s57.
hfoscow, 6o, 6y, 6g, i8o,
Maxsenet.
E,sclarmozrbr, z56.
hI ayboroda, ou.
Mayelï, i i .

Medea ( M ey) ( d riimat il e0 t 8n ) › °74

^7S'
Mosxko s's£i.
Jeann y N'A rr ( Syniph ony) , i 8.8.

lt Alanio afin9ico, $.
Dor G iovanni› i i.
Repuirm 56, 94 * 3.8
Me rcy d’Argenteau, Countess, 4W, z 3,
){ravitia ( inge ) •›i. i•*. 3+7. 3' '
z56. Muck (conductor) , z5i , °68-
Messager, t56 Mukhin, i 6o.
)fiIlÏer (music p ublishe r), z8o.

hfusorgsk i, Filatet ( known a8 l’evgyeni)

Lei Hu 9ue nmi, 5, z i, *x, °°°›
Le Pro pli Ltr, 5, i I, yJ, °° › • 5*•
blich (viçi iiiist ) , i * i •3
Migfity “KooChka” ( terle'), 9r, r ,
b4:khayiI Ivano•icb=Gl inka l q. v.) , fra
Uikh aylofl ( tefiot , 267 2225.2 7 @.
Mikh ayloH, L. V., Çi rst I.ieuter ant, t5
Mithaylovski Theatre, °93› 3°4-
Petrovich, brothg r of M. P 3º. 62,
zog.
ÿjtlgorgskÎ, IVîodest PettO5• tell, @, 1.8, 79,
r6, 7.5. 7 , yq› 8º', 8.6, 97. 99. o8 ' 9›
i rr, R.-K.'r “best mao” r 38, r , lo,
i 5i, nz, i8r, i87, i88, zo6, zo9
3/3, 323, 3.5.3 (z $ th anniversary of
death ), 5.5 $.
*8; 5], 3[0.
 IND E X 3.3
dalammbé, 59, 67. 68, zio. N
St. John’s Eve, 6 , iz¢, zzo.
A Ni gbt ou Bald Mount 6y, 97a ^>4i
o'o. #°°› °3T› *59.
Dream o{ $ #zaaoof [a2, ms§.

loo, zo8, no.

Jei3ua (chores) , 68, z.-o.
Kuliitrat 6$.
Ni 91iI 68.

Frances ra de Rio ini, 3. 9.

Nachef i 34 i S 34'
Naval Bands, icy, i i6 (appointed to) ,
i 3 z, i gg, zz6 (leaves) .
Naval Gchoo 3S. s4. 3•
N azimo9, • 4. * 5
Neumann (Angalo) (impresario), a5z.
New York, 4°. 4+. 4*. 4i, +4. 45. 1
Peck 83ow, i6z. Niagara FalI8. 4*. 4s-
Hongs to texts my Golyenishcheff-Koo- Nice, 49› 5°› 35°•
toozoif, i 6i, i 9z. Nicholas I, t3, , ¥0 .
Dori i G oduna $. 9°. 96 (re)ected) , q9, Nikiich, t¢6.
ixx›, toy, +3, 4, i zr (premiere) , Nlkolay (violin-player), 6.
icy, iz5, zy6, z28, i y9, i 9z, z6j, 28o, Nikolay Alyekszndrovich (Tsar°* * ) 49a
iw 3o5. 3 * (p rivat ely performed) ,
ji 8, j)z ( revised with Shalyapin), Nikolayeff (finger), 6o, y 6.
35j (£n a1 revision) . Nikolayeff (city) , tzy, xz8, zi r, zia, az j.
thc ff’ eddinp, 8.9, 9o, 3 ¢ (edited).
Khavaushchiua, i i , z z i, i zz, iz3, i z‹t, Nikol’skoye, 7, *o. °45•
z z g, z 6 z, z g9, z $o, zgz, z za, as 8, e zg,
( re-orchestrated) , zza, zz6, 234. 3+4 Norway, So.
(prcmiere ) . Novikoff (clacinHist) , 8$8.
Sonme she 9ro in C-maJOr, axo. Nov›koifs, the, to.
Intern race in B-minor, 210. ' ovikova, P. N. (Golovi p’s sister), t4, ar,
^'° ^ *••••. 97, R (Capture of
Kates , zio. Novoye Vremya. °7S-
8 ore rh iii i he ya harmart a (Fair at Soro- Nyebol’sin, •*7. • •-
ehirtsy) , ia3, i ay, i 9 i, mo, zzi Nyczhgovitsy, W7. *i+. »s7› *59› 884-
(editing).
thoo rx oo f and On ffiz Soutlicrn to oil 0
(pi ano-pieces) , z9z. Odeiaa, ziz, atj, tt9, t9o.
.W/dJa, i zj, tz¢, I8z. Odoyevski, eq.
Myaaoye doll, i8- Odiiiros a/ ter Pnlatc o/ Wiop Alcia its
hfJ cdx yedyeH (dramatic tenot), z67. Rao.
bJyel’goonoff (pianist) °+7- Od)sey,
Myel’niclienlro (tenor) , a6S. ORcnbacD
Mygl’nikoif, I. A., 56 ( debut) , xx:I, s , La n eiie Hmn e, s .
i 8.6, aid, z8i ( reappea rg in both nu- Ogar)•off, 3g.
miv, pe rforinancc of R us ten and Olga, Fyeliksovna (=Fc1) , 5, 6, z3.
L yudmila) . Olga Nikitishna, 5, a3.
Myel’ni koff brothers, 56. Ol'gina, z62.
Myeshchersliaya, Princess, zo. Oogrinovieb, 3°•-
Myshetski, A, D., Prince, 16, 3ñ Opochinirn, the, xo5.
 INDEX
OF]O , ]I4, Ff]. Pugoo, zy6.
O strovki. 3s- Pit rgold: family, 29, 83, 8y, 9 , 98, gg,
Ostrovski, A. N. (d rqtnatist) , z j 5. +93' top, i i i, ih3.
Anna Antoiiovna (mother) , 29, 99
(died) .
Yladim I r Fyudorox*ich (tincle) , 29, i iq,
iz8, i y8, i23, i 99, zi i.
Pagani (conductor in Kiycff) , z9¢, z9y, Nikolay Nik layevich ( b rother ) , 220.
$]O. A ly eksalid ra N jkol ayevna, Mine. N. P.
Palcstrina, toy, izq, I 5o, zqz. hfolas (q, v.) .
yrie •3 , i s 6. Nadv•ezhd ft Niholaye›-D 2, Mme. Rim-
Palyechek (basao, stage manager) 7°.
Pargolovo (First), zoo, i i z, i i 6, i z8, i 38. umova (q. v.) .
Paris, =54. s3 6, z57' P ushkin, s3. 66, 68, 83, qp, °, °°7›

Paskfialolf (composer
(opera), i i 5,
P:isklia1ova (sop rano), 3iJ.
Pavlovsk, ¢o. Ruslau axd L yudin th, i 87, zoy, zo8.
Persiani (conservatory Professor) , jJ2. Pyettoif, O. A, (iingef) , i , g2, i xc, xxv,
Pclerbuc yzki yn f’yrd«^ozfi ( St. I•eters-
burg Gazette) , 56• PyetroH (singer), 349
Petersthe I, jjo. Pyet roif, A. A. ( musician) , e 3J,
Petty a, I'vf. M. (ballerina). •7° Pyetrovski ( writer on music) , 33.5.
Petropolie (residence of B raziliatl Ems Pyely erho{f, 9 , z5o, z33, z¢5.—OId P.,
P°*°°) 4 • zzy, zj 3,
Pliiharmonic 5ociety, Sz.
Pitkel' (concert-masttr), 47, ia9, i 8s, zoJ.
R
Pil’ts (niezzo-iopiano1 , 3nz. Radovx, z5q.
Pisa, zo5, ko6, 33 . ltakhrna min off, S. \"., 3 i 9, 3J9, j3o.
Platonova, Y. F. (singer) , 92, iio, i iz, S yination y in D-minor, jo6.
I i 3, i i , i° 5. Ranishcvski (oboixt) , i 5z.
Plymouth (England) , 3o. Rap poport ( music critic), i i 3.
Pobycdonostseff, 22.3. R:iter, music-pttb lis her, =Bitner (9. v.) ,
zyz, z8o.
Reich a rd, z3i.
Re s'e 1, zO, 3.6.
Polangen, Jo. Richter, Hans, z5g.
Polonski, z9o. Ri@i Mount.8 in, 33
RimsI‹¿-Korsakof(: Grand father s, eo (pa•
Poluzova ( opera-a riiste), 3i9.
tern at) , z)/ ( maternal) .
Porfia zaeski I. A. (choir-rnaster), k k•, zi 5,
Riinsky-I(or sat off' Parents.
i y6, zi 6, a66.
Port Mahon, ¢g. h0tl3ñ £• 3 q› › › 9› ° o (ditd1 , zi
Porto-Grande, J6.
Prach (compiler of a song-collection) ,
rez.
Prague, 2• . 3°*, i is.
P reobra rhensk i Regiment, z9. Rimsky-Korsak o : L*ncl es.
Pribik (cnr›ductor) , zy8. Ni0iay Puvovil, , %, z3 (2dmiru)
Prince Kholm z hi Panel Petr cv tel l musically giited) , ¢.
Kookol’nik’s Play, t8. Pyotr Pet rovich, 3. 7. 9, TO, Alt 5.3 /
Prokhor ( target-practice ship), to, iz, 3J. g, r¢r.
Pry•nishnikoff (baritone), °*5. i 88, up, Rimsky-Korsakoff: B roiber,
Voyin Andreyevicli, y, 8, q, xo, z z, z j,
 I N DE X
5o, 5°, 54, °, 1, 7*, 78› 83› 93, 98›
ęq, i‹x, io5, io6 (died) , io8, i I t.
fiimsfly-Korsako#, Miue. Nr dywshds
N ik ola yevna ( nee P iirgold ), 79. 17.
8g, $6, (bet rotheó), * 9. *
(married) , 3, ° 4, r i 3, i i 6, zz6,
z 2-, z 3$ (iłł) , zą$, z6y, zy6, z p7›
z63, z22, z28, e82, zfą, zg5, z86, z8y,
jay, jo , 3*° (z tb a mniv eraa ry o£
I'v1isha, i i8 (born) ••7› 225, 28/, 3 z 6,
Sonya, i j 5 (bO£ fi) , z8 7 *9*. 3° 53 i
34° (m2r ried 1*. P. 9’royitski ) , 5 5ą.
Andrev, i 7i (born) , z59, z8i (ill ) , z8*,
z86, 3 i 6, z/, 3z8, 5 5o, 3 is, 348, 3 i4,
3.5.5
¥"olodya, 2i (born) , 486, i s. 3i 6, 3ą,
2 $ 286, z82 (di * ) › 3 I6.
Slavcliik, z 5g (born), a6o (died) , z8y.
Rimsky-KorsakoH, N. A. 9o, ioq, i 38,
°9.S, 334› 35° 3S1 3##, 57 › 37'•
R im8ky-Kor g ak ofi, N. A. : W eric.
u!t r,!I y ( juvenile woik) , 8.
Ka marifts bn ya ( blink a’s) arranged for
viol in and piano, i 5,
Alfe z o [or Sonata (in D-minor), if.
-V orfsr f r (B fat minor) ; Funeral
Ma rch (D-minor) ; Sclicrz o in C-
urryor ( four-hands) ; ( Germs of)
E ym fhon y' (in E flat mjnor), z5, zy.
No nc out re me, Si yn*ra (songs , 6.
I S!i'mt man y (fi fi at minot) , i 9 (I
movcment) , s‹› ( Scherzo and Finale) ,
Symphony by a Russian ) 57 *3°
{ re-orchestrated) , z 3 k, z6o (z5th an•
niversary) , z8 g.
Ooeriu r« oa Riiiiian 7’ńrmzz, 6o, 6z,
63 (premiire) , i8 , igz, zi 3, z5t
(pqbłished) .
(G lix ka's) Romuriozfiay« and Yig/i/ at
miami fił a r raoged for violin, vioła,
cello and piano 4-i °nd8, 6?.
(first sOP#).
fiI er flio›t
*S3 'S5 '#°*S3.
E as fern Romanc«,’ f'radle S!on9›• Out
o f m y Tearc› 6 f.
38
(premi ere), 79, 85, 9z, qS, o=, o ,
z j g, 56, i8o, zi 2, z6 3 (re-orclies-
trated), etc, o8q, 3r8 (Brossels).
ah adO. (baliet collabor ation) , yz, 9y,
g g 1 ag, tgy, z 8 g, 202.
11 Sy m pha e y (B-minor) , y2, So (given
up) .
*t), r99—z‹x' I borro ted folf-times ,
oa . •• ^ 3 ( • s u od anc1e nt modes) ,
°"8) › >9°i *94 ( 2t R.-K.'s home) ,
z93-5 ( ii iye R) , j I4, i 8, 3 z8
( Pragtie) , jzq (Kha rkofl) , 3 3o, 3.3 i,
j j2 (Mariin ki Thcatre) , 33a.
8.8, 9 . 9•› 9s, 97 98, 99› ‹x', ro
zoo, io6, toy, i of, zoq, i i i, i rz, rrs
( premiér e ) , r i i. ^47- I 5 i ( £C v*$ ION 1 ,
i 58, z 66 (second revision (=incid cnt ml
music to Mey'e drama) ) , i i. +76,
i87, i 88, z , z i¢, z i 8, zz6, z i, z3 ,
t6i, z63. i6J, i8o (new ed itio0) , z86,
°9°i *Q t 29 › 30 t 5 7§› 3 • i 3. 1 , i 8,
2Q, 33F, 38 ( rand TO catVe, hloS-
cow) , jto, 3J&. For ProInque sce
F yera Slip In ga.
Ant ar, 8o, 8 i, 83 ( —-II S yni9lion y) , 8 -
8y ( ana lysis) , 88, 8g, •. 9°. Q6, ioo,
i or, i j , ao8, zzo, zjt, z55, z39, aGo.
Schiihen’s Mar c h ( for the cnrori ation of
Nicholas I ) =orcliestrated, 8 i , fiz.
ii ght and becreb 8 .
Wit r e r/i»u arI I bc e flies my t lion yht,•
The hebrew S Eng,’ C'o m e /o tlie
rraf m o/ I/ir roar and the r:i r e; I f'e
fiend f aia found, 'o ny .Soag, 98.
(hegtTn , I z 8, £ zg, I Bo, Z g6, Z2§, 18o,
* 2 s. •z•. *33 (revisioił heg\Itt) , 3j$,
Strin‹y Q uort c I, i z8, ia9.
w‹aYicd ul ihe ni9liis (fughctto) ;
386 INDEX
CaHz, Sony and Fupu« s $ 5. 3fasurba (Violin and small orchestra)

Clic rusz3 a ca9ella, z j¢; (nien’s voiees)

o

e
ya i s ) ; z 5z, z 6o, 3 ¢ i •
G • ‹•i•i! 44-. 5i M lada (opera) , Fy , zy¢, g5y, z38, z3q,
Ko uxer/ifií rá (clariaet and inilitary

theme) , 34. la dio ( open a ) , z 56, z6z, zgz (begiin) ,

Coy cerln or bra mmone i 5X.
f’our zm4/J 9 techi ]ur the l›i ir o, z 5j.
Chorus a ca fella on theme of "On the in l'vfo cow) , 3 ii (8t. Pete rsburg) ,
Tartar Captivity," r56-q.
Ma y h'i91a I z 58, z 62, iy3, iy4, iy 5 3JJ› JS7• 35°› J3^
( analysis) , ry6, z29, x 8y, i 86 (pre-
miere) , i82, 192, 197, zOl, 2O5, lo r yunti ba, z6 z ( interosted in ).
8M, * I 4i *55 i z63, g62, zy5, zy8-q
( brogue w) , z8o, z9o, z93 (revival),

o f TC eor y o f Ilarmon y› z82.

Pampli rat i (B-A-C-H) or Tó/i-f*/i,

F«9fiz (D-minor), x2 ( daily) .

G. hrist mal ry¢, z9o ( begtin) , yqi ,

Slurc ( chorus) , i 8z, i 94

Profequ y to Pa sii bir’c Ruslan and L yud•
iniba, t 8 z ——Fa iry-rafe. (q. v.)
trtn9 QU Hrt6I O n R l£$ial Alt eme£, s Zy
i83, 2]O• 'ria (violin, echo and piano) in C-
minor, 3i i.
lo rat mets.' Pnn and Clic Sea‹y of
2çg. ’°*9* 3*I•
H. ollcrtia n el Volt-st n9s, i 99.
A t t € k RT ( IOY É0ütO) , R£3 3
P rome -ca ccrlo (in C *harp minor) (on anniv crsary of inarr iage ), 3 z 3.
a Russj ap them e) az i (sk etched) , zzz
F yera Elicl09n ( P rotoque to

e.
( ready) zz6 (premie re) , z 3 i (pib—

o
l ishetl ) , z6o.
Cuafi‹/r for coronatioa of Alexander
III (seve r2 Ï bars) , «5-
Ilarmon y (text-book) , zz9, z3o, z34
l t›rinied) .

z¢6 ( Fir8t tiine) .

f unr)ef on By -.i-f'’, z38 ()oint-work). Ley o/ t9Jyry //ie Prof fiz/ir (solo and

e8tima te) , z o, z 6, pág, z8g.

ju‹iri‹i-s•ii• (Birthdal), \ (join‹-

z5o, z5z, z8 i , z8z, 3z$ ( B russell ) .

 1NDEX
3 j8 ( proof-reading) 33s ( Mœcow, Branch, z86, 34*. 147. s5*› g z, 368,
by the "Association") , 547 (P rotest- 369, 37°•
performa rice in St. Pefersburg) , 3 Russian Musical Society of Moscow, zi 9,
(conclusion develuped) . *79i 333-
Ar th« Grève (In Byelyayefl's memory) Russiac Symphony Society, i j j, z3z (ori-

The kIOurl air S f r ›’• • 34s (duet ye-

w ritten as a ttio) .
D achinoos li 8• 3ii, s s3. ss5 (developed
I urther) .
SI vñ Iu R az in ( planne I › 353, 3 s5-
R'o de I •••'•• +4. +s. 47. i iz
Rio tie la Plata, 98.
Riva, 5y , 3yy. S
ROrlet ( in there firm) , i45› z j i , eg j, j 59. 8ablyer, zzj.
Romanolf s ( £touse ‹›f) , 1o8, ion. *97- 8 afonoH (tenot) , 3o6.
Rome, z6. Safouoff, V. J. (pianist, conductor), sy9,
R ong irish i, P. A. ( e‹:hint) , z83. 333•
fiu or‘ (Ru•sian dai1j') , ‹t6, s47, 5t8 Saint-Saens, z 56.
II ed. Rosslan P reface, XXI 7. Mr D I’m ye, oy9.
Sakharolf (folk-lorist) , zJi.
Sakketti, L. A., 1 7°
Otell o, 5, 6, z i. Patina (soprano) , j58.
Salzburg, °S7'
Galxk arome rgot, 8S7-
Ro»tisl av (=F, h4. ' Folstoy) , qi, 9s, i i ; 8amario, sa3.
8andersoB, Sybil, z56.
Rubieste in, Auioa N., r9, z8, y5, 6r, 8y, SanJsoJyrnks { tenor! , 33j-.
9i, zo6, i z9, zz6, ejd, z6o, zgj, Gandow, i89 ( mistaken fot Ly,adoít)
(death) , j5i. 6 arga so Sea, y.
Â’PJf or£GP i‘rii p €, 8.3. Sarioti (singer, A. K, Lyadolf's brotber- in-
Oceisn Sy mJ leo i), g z, iaw') , i 69.
JE’ Coit cezl a in D -minor, z i 9, sg3• Sasha, pet-name of A. K. Glazunoff
troprsi e e ( balle:t ) , tg 5. (q. v. ) , t p).
£chäffert - °3>'
Gchr:herr, Franz, i z, 2.5.
oiai, zy j
Doit Q uiæd fr, z93. H rand March. in A-minor, 8 r,
Dimitri D oeMo y, i ilforrJi in B-minn r› zzt,
Rubinstein, N. G., 69, 9+, 8fi. ^72, 1/ 3, Um[ai hed Sy mfi may, i 36,
i y9, Schuhe rt, Ka rI (conductor) , i z, 5y.
Ru6yets, Scbuch, von (opera -conductor)- , 33
Rüge r, 3s9- 5chumann, Robert, zJ, i , i 8, 26, 8, 75›
Runge, Sql. ioz-
Riisl an and Lyudmila (P ushkin’s room) , f'irit S ymJia uy, 9q.
i 8i, boy, zo8. Jer nd 8yia/ fivo y, 9i.
Ril .•iŒ, 9. 45 47› 4 ' T/iir f Sym§3oay, j i ,
Ril Vsi au ÛÎflSICà1 p F ° ***› 3.3.5 Riten/Mrd (overtHre), jr, [comytctc)›
Russian M ilsica[ Gociety, z8, 6g, y¢, y 5, z 55.
° 9'› 94.. 91 99› 7O3 3 l Ot Gv ert ii rz, Scherre nnd Fry ale, 9 s -
1.2 $ t 7. 2 6, I Z9 I g £ , 1. 33, 1. 43 * 3.3 ' 5.7 i
£ $9, fi6o, 169, £72, 7 8O, 7o/, S£ 3, 7a6, n er Achta[cn de Rtâter, zo8.
°5 °54 °J5 M€ * r, *86› 323 3°4› lsDOWmvo, gd, go].
3z 5, 596, 547 3.5. 3 , 3.68, 6 s 37 8chwa f tw " i 33s
Ruasian Rlusica1 Society, St. Petersburg 5corpioa, q6.
3 INDEX
8emmering, io6. Spencer, Herbert, z6 .
Siia lyapin› Fyodor I vanovich (operatic Spe*ia, qq,
GU fnoza, z 6 .
1'aboW), 3qo, §§z if revirii3 of oril Spotitin i

Gharono*. 3• i Stakhovich (song-col rector) , ¡¢I.

5hcberbsclioff, N. \’. (composer) , i6i. Sta rtse If, tea.
Sick erbina, ijo. StasoH, Dmitri \'asiiyevich, brother of V.
Sh chigle H, z3 t.
Slleryemetye fl, A. D., Count, 22 j, 3o3, 3o),
jo3 ( disband: his private orchestra), 74. 79. i•. ›• gr, q , 9y, i D 6, ioy,
11.3 113 t 1 fi ń I JO, 12.3, r23, I * 3 1.30,
Ghesta koif, zz6. uż, i 3.8, iy, i 5o, i 5 i, i 5y, 6a, i 63,
Sfiesta Lova, LyiidmiJa I vafior na ( (ilin- tu, i2z, i 87, roy, zo9, zi z, z i y, z3z,
ka’s sister) , 66, gp, zg2, Zg$, 18g, z82, cj 8, u¢O. 2q7t 3$ 3, 2§3t *57› *? 3 °77
z8z, zft n, 89z, 72, 35Ę, NiCkłJanled
“Bacb," i 3o, 6o.
th c veIted (barit one) , z 33• 4Ę JćZfF,f O/ A II JJi On Arf (article ) , i 68.
Sh eqn (Vol k- lorist) , z\z. St. Cathei i ne'* Isl and. 8.

‹ 8O, Z QO, £ g3 I gg 408, *77• Stellovsk i ( mu xic-pobIishe V) , rzJ i +45

Stel¿o›•o, zg 6, z g¿, e i 8, azo.

Atoll’pln, /6.
nape) ; i ;8 (=First Pa rgolovo) . t. PetP J’*[3U1’g, 8, 9, zo, 2.1 , 3 b, 5/, qO, 5p,
Sihiryakofl ( bass0) , 337- s*, s s, 6o, zi $.
St. Pet cr slurp quartet Society, z83.
St. Pet ri sb(irg F yedo iii esti ( C;a zei te) , $ 5›
5 korsy uk ( bad ie fiifi ), zyz.

Stra us, Joh a ii <. 4-

Stra vinski, F. I. (ba*sO), Z23, 20 ,
2iq, ?aO, a67 jo6.
St ravinsk i, Gooi-i, 35J. (=Igor ?)
gmetana ( compose r) , yo. 8tigar Loaf (rock ) 47
6uh ( con t] uctor) , 3z 8, 5 z9. 3Jz ,
8rnolyensk, jz j. Switzcr la h d, z r F,
Sinychk n vO 3IO. 5yekar-Rozhsnski ( d r8matic I enor ), 3i 5,

Society of Music a1 Cath c rings, ey $, jo$, 8yero9, i 9, 52, 6s. vi, 9i

3°4i 3o5, 3o6.
SokoloIf ( Consc rr*torv Inspector) , 7g.
Sokololf, K. .X. (comrme ) , ez9, ego, zsi,
ztr, zJ3, z86.
Els y y ,’ Rarr‹i role› zS3.
Sokolov sk ay:i, e96.
Sri1oi'xoff (attempts tie life of Atexaodt r
II), *gs. 5\iboelo2, az . zg#.
koloVyolf, N. F., Jo6, £ £ 3, 7Z/, z yy, 2.13,

iz6.
8oiiion-dari Ill:ind ( in Finland) , j j, Taborovs ki, 59
Sonki (sopra ro) , z 62, z;'j, TamberJ ik, i z.
honncn6e tg, 2 Sz. T;ineyeff, A lyek sand t Sergeyev ich, z86,
Southern C r0ss, 4 47 2)2•

Tañeyeíf, 5- I.. 3° 2.
Tati*hcheff, z 8 i , a 8a.
T5ti-táti ( : Paraph rases, q. v. under
Rim sky-KoraakoR) , liz, up.
Tayi tsy, i gg *1.1 t 2I gt *3° °55 *3 fi› *38'
Te i tap in Tower ( Xiaga ra Falls) , pa.
Tervajoki (near Vyl›° sJ 7+› 83› 95 ) ›
1.2.3.
Theatre Boar d of Ilirectors, =Diree-
torate of Irnperial Th¢2tF¢9 (q. v.).
Thompson, America n piÍot, 44.
Tij uca N’at(•rf 01ls, +7.
Tikhvin, 3, c, 3, ••, 2 ••. •3. ›
Tikh v ink a R i ver, $, voz.
*mRFlUT”B ( giani8te) , STO.
"Vinel, EiJgnr, :z$g.
Tuhs)›cl in (eomir›an‹Tc r of Yola , z z.
Totilon, ¢g.
Tosve 1’, ’lb e, 3.8.
IHfno/ P. A„ jg, i¢ç ip, iGo, ey,
8 › °9' • °9°
Tm pie of Cancer, q 6.
Tropic of Capricorn, ¢y.
Troy tski, V. P. ( Sulija R.-K.’s husband ) ,
quo.
Trulfi (conductor) , 3 i 8.
Tnereteli, Prince ( imp rosario) , y z8, 5 .
Tsi rus, ے. I. ( basso') , i 6o.
Turch aninoH, 8z,
Tyelyakovsk i, V. A. (Director of Moscow
Theatres) , 3ag, j j q ¡ ( Director
Impe rial Theatres) 3s°. 3ii.
Tye r £9lich etiko, i 4i .
Tynd all, 1i6.
Ulybyshefi, •4. •
United States, The, s3
Unknvskaya, Yekatyerhina ikolayevna, ¢,
$,
INDEX 3.9
Yarlamoff, i 6-
Varlikh, C•. I. (conductor) 3°5-
Varyag (Corvette) , 4o, 4a, jj.
Vasilyefi (physician, a tenor) , ioq.
VasiI)'c8 I (oper atiC basso ) , 1.28.
Yasi]¿eB II (opeta tenor) , zy8, z 8y.
Y osi))eB ZII (tenot) , z By, zz4, z9 , a96.
V asilyenko ( componer) 3+ 9
VasiI›-evski Ostrov, 5J , rol.
Vasflyetsoff, A. (painter) , 3 y i.
Yelyamiuoíf, Gen., ys, 89.
l’ enic•! 35S-
Vera i, zyq.
frovat orc, 5.5.
I Rom 5nrJi, io.
Vey£man (qu 2£tet-pl oye r) , i 2g, i 83.
•••
1 illafranca, ¢y, So.
Villa Pall avicini, kg.
Vincent r1'Ind- . 3*
\‘ troy radova, Doon1'ash o, iii,
Yityaz (cui vette) , o, ¢$.
Yitzrtau, 3 jo.
Y-Ki (ñ4usorgsLi's 6ou‹t-cnmpanion ),
VI adimir Alyetsaiidrov ich, Grand DuLc,
3<°
Vo]g ( ghip ) , z z.
\"oIehok ( conductor) i 53-
YOlga, z36.
Volkonski, 8. NI., Prince, y3°, 33z, 337›
Voltsire, 3.3.
Vorobyo H, Colonel, 6.
Yorontloff-D ashkolf, Count, z9y.
\"oyin .5nd re yey ieh, R.-K.’s elder brother.
See iiu‹jer Rimskv-Korsa koif.
of l*rtj b¢ 1, If. A. (pa inte r, husband of ña-
br°l«) , 3 3› 3.4. 3•5. 3•7. 3•9 (“+ c
efl-Pril3c•*• ") i i 3. 33a (insane aIid
blind) .
VeyevoÍozhski, I. A. (Di rector of Thea-
tres), zi*, a6, zp6, *97* *0*• 3
3‹'3. 3w. J'•, J'*. 3s'(retired).
Ty<]*cl›kovski, P. 1 , 6s, 67.
\"vel ichkovski’a brother. 6y.
Vye l108k 2 fl, i8 , i 86, zu, zg6.
Vyerstovski.
Asbald’i Tsicl (opera) , x6.
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Vyerzhbifovich (cellist) , s z*. ¢83. *9t*
3°7› 5< i 34 •
Vyesyelovsk aya, 0. P., °5°. i 6o.
¥yc«yelovskaya, Y. P., (sitter) , i6o.
\Vagner, Richard, iz, i 5•. 57› 75› 5›
qa, zo ( Leading-harmony ve, Leit-
z68, zyo, j z6, 3 3z.
£inz f tuft O«i'rrifirr, 2q, 8.6.
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iV aslii igtoli ( D. C. ) , pa.
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O6rroa, 25.
Amisr/*?fs, to, I z, 75.
¥Yestminster Abbey, 38.
>4*› <43-
¥Yilhelm Tell (Faniintsyn's music to
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Yakovlefi (baritone) , z9$, 339.
Yakusllkin, jg.
Yalta, uy, ziz, az j, z33, z84, a86,
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IN EX
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Russian P refact ; z63 ( meeting with) ,
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Y ckaty¢rina Se rgeyevna-Mrile, Borodin a
Yelyena Pavlovoa, Grand Duchess, y ,
94
Yelyenkovski, N. N. (pi aumteacher) , i 9 r.
Yershofl ( tenor) , 3oz, 33z, j 3.9.
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Yuzefovich, °37-
Zabyela (=Rfme. Yrubel') , (soprano! ,
Za‹nbrshitskJ, K. E., , to.
Z aremba, N. I., 2q . '°*› '°S-
Zarudnaya ( opr2no) , wife of I ppolitoH-
Zelyony.
L et’t ures on A if ronom y, 7.
Zelyony, P. A., Captain, z •. TI. 4i. *+*›
( Governor) z8 q,
ZhrtannP (ha sso), 3o6.
Zhdannfi (double-bans player), zzq,
ZheT)exnovodS1, ^35. ^3*
Zherebt8ova (sing er) , z8g.
Zike.
The Blacb Sz a› i 82-
Z‹loti. A. (piariiet, conductor) , 3yz.
Zolotaryof ( compose r) , z¢i s+9.
Zotova, S. I. (see Byelyenitsyna), 66-6y.
Zurich, a32.
Zvl agiho,
 c o x• T r N T S
CHAPTER III I: I P$-93
Studying a stlietics and philosoph . Production oJ Mlada.
to lania. “l’rIeild ly” dinner. \Veariness and ill-health. Produc-
tion of isfl)'cvooroc£ be in Moscow. Altani. 3+• +'!’9! t on a pri-
vate stage. Leoncavsllo. Safonofl. impressions pt visit to Plcs-
cor. Rui«ian Symphony Converts. Krooshcvski. Ruclan and
z64
CHAPTER XXII I ' I 8 93-95
quartet prize competition. Decision to leave the Chapel.
Summer at Unita. ChRykovski’s death an d the 5ixtli Symphony.
Trip to Ode:sa. fly return to composing. Beginning ct Cliriii
ina. /ec, Sri runner, \”yechaslia. Continuation of Hfiri‹I rrt a.s Ez c
and beginning of SeJéo. Death of Rubinstein. Trip to K1yt•f'f.
Pet i ii y aaka at tlie Society of hI usical Cictherings. Ccnso rship
di 9iculties w ith Ch ister as E“v e. Composing the opera Sadao.
Byel’ski.
CHAPTI¡R XXI\’: I b 3—3)
Orchestrating Sadao. Pr ductlon and adventures of C!hristmac

of Musical Gatherings. Russian Symphony Concerts and Glazunoff.

§O)
CHAPTER XLV: 1897-99
Haddo at S. I. 5lamontoff’s pri rate opera. V y ern th elo9a.
th e fcgr’x Dride. Russian 5¿+ !•**Y Concert. 2n y egooroch la
at the ñf ariinski Theatre. The young composers of 1\(oscoiv.
Tsar Saltan• Lay of Ol be9 tlie Pin plieiic. . I. Taneye If.
CHAP'FER XXVI s
189 = no I
Beginning Df Serzilia. Ma y A'iglit at the Frankfurt Opera
house. Trip to Brunels. Tlie T'sc›’s Bride on a private stage
in St. Petersburg. Composing and orchestrating 3ertilin. Radio
at the Imperial Opera. 'tar ‹$a/he on a ptix•ate stage in ñ(oscoiv.
Resignation from conductDrship of Russian Symphony Concerts.
35th Anniversary. I°atious operatic plans. 3•6

Composing the prelude-cantata From for er and Kasltchey the

D eatltless. V y era 3licloga and flic Mms o/ P.‹kOW it the Grand
Theatre in Moscow. Composing Pan L*o5 epñda. News orchestra-
tion of 'fie talon e G next. Servilia at the ñiariins§i Theatre.
Kasli r h ey on a private stage in Nloscow-. Composing The frory
o/ XifJ r Jr. 5fie/opa and Pskovit yan ka at the Mariinski Theatre.
fear !Salton on a private stage. llyelyayefi’s death and his last v•Ill.
Pan Koycz'ozfa and terzilia on private stages. Boris Noduoo9 at
the ñJariinski Theatre. Death of Laroche.
C HAPTER V) : I9O§—o6
Disturbances among stufien t-routh. Performance nf Kmhchey
in St. Petersburg. Text-book of Instrumentation. Pen Voyeroda
MY MUSICAL LIFE
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N. A. WHISKY-KORSAKOí’F
 JUDAII A. )OFFE

CARL VAN VgCHTkH

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 CONTENTE

A I NTROOL CTION, BY CARL LAN GED HTML

PefrAca zO TH F JR5r R cs5iAN EoJziON, Bd N. HiMsmr -
KOR SAKOVA

PusrAcs TO THn S zcoxm RUSSiAN EDITION, BY N. JIñfSKAYA-

KosSAKOl'A
CHAP’T'rR Ï :. i 8 .4- 6
Childhood years in Tikhvin. The first manifestations of musical
abilfties. Studying music. Reading. Inclination towards the sea
and maritime service. First attempts at composition. Leaving for
5t. Petetsbury. 3
Crim zzz JJ: i 85G—6 i
The Golovins. the ñJarine Corps. Gctting acquainted with
operatic and symphony music. Ulikh’s and Kanille’s lessons. 9
CtiAPTER II I : i 86 I—(›2
Acquaintance with BalakireH and his cifcle. The Symphony.
bly father’s death. Reminiscences oï llIJ, ( jr@duätÎ0fl âS a trlÎd-
shipman. DetNled to sail in foreign waters.

fly carcer m my parents’ eyes. My musical preccptots. Ba-

lakirefi as a teacher of composition and leader of the circle, The
otheT memhtzs pt Balakirefl’s clrcle in the early Sixties and tlie teacher-
leadeI’s attitude toward them. Gti5akovski, Cut, Musorgski, and I. Tdc
tendencies and spirit at the marine School and in the Fleet in my
time. Sailing abroad.
HAPTr« V- i 862-65
The cruise abroad. Sailing to England and the Libau coast. Reat-
Admiral Lyesnvski. The voyagn to America. Our stay in the
United S taxes. Ordercd to rhe Paci£c. C’aptain Ze)yony.
From New 5"ork to Rio de Janeiro and back to Europe.
CHAPT« VI: i 865—66
Return to m usic. A eguointunce v ith ,Horodm. LI y first sJ m-
phony. llalakireff and the members of his circle, The perform-
ance of the first symphony. The musical life of the circle Over-
ture on Russian themes. fly first song.
CuAPTER II I ' i 8fi6-6y
Roin yeda. The circle’s attitude toward Syerofi. Writing the
Swtian Fantasy. Acquaintance with L. I. 8hestakova. 'The
 CONTENTS

SJavic concert. Growing intirnacy with Musorgski. Acquaintante

with P. I• Charkovski. N. N. Lodyzlleoski. Balakireff’s trip to
Prague. ritiog Suito and songs. Analysis of jedi o. 64

Concerts of the Russian k(us Ecrit Society. Berlioz. The clrcle’s

acliievements in comt» sition. Soirées at Dargomyzhsbi’s. Ac-
({l2äÎlltarlCc with the Purgold famil)'. Writing ul 1mur and first
thought of Pskouii yanka (The hlaid of Pskov) . The Popular
Concert. Analysis où A Nrar. Trip to visit Lodyzhenski. Compos-

CHAPrER IX : i868—2o
MuSofgski’s W end ing. Concerts of the Russian musical So-
ciety. Death of Dargom 'zhski. L' iz he yorodtsy sand tVilliain Rai-

Free music gchonl. CedeonoH's Mlaûa. Completin g the urclies-

9
ÄHAPISR #: IÛÿlÿI
Orchestratioii of Pif Ovityan fr, lintering on professional duties
at the St. Pcter»hurg Conservltory. 9S

Illoess and death of fay brother. f=iring with Musorgski. Dif-

ficultics with the censor about Psl'ovit yen o. N.K. Krabbe. Prof
ductlon of W/ie ftouc Noiii. Marriage and trip abroad. P reduc-
tion of Ft £ ni.ut5 ant a and scenes from Ruric N> oh‹no 9. SymJ hony
in C-ltJajor. Appointment to the post of Inspector of ñ4usic Bands
o) the Naval DepartInent. Study of wind instruments. IOS
CHAPTER XI I: i SJ3—t 5
D€but as Conductor. M usorgski. HI K£orunificfiioa and
/O)’OcIiiIi(bG ya lar inar §a (The Fair at Sorochintsy) . Operatic
prize co ntest. Trip to NikoJ ayef( and the Crimea. Studying
harmony and counrer Point. Dircctorship of the Free Itlusic School. II9

Co Pzz« XI I I: i87¿— 6
A cu) edta cAruses. Concerts nf tlie Free hlusic School. A.
Lyadofi and G. Diitscti. Collect ions of RiisflI5n songs. The
Pagan Sun-celt. Respna ption of meetings with I3alakirefi. The
Sextet and the Quintet. Editing the scores of Glinka. Revision
of Nx1•orffyd/iIa.

CiiAPTER XIV": iH26—2 /

Parions compositions. Th e f ate of the Sextet and of the @uintet.
Three concerts où the firce h Music School. Jlorodin’s $ecoii d Sym-
phony. The beginnings ot flfu$ A'iJ/ii. P rid.c contest toy cho ul
CO1Y1] OSi(i0ft5. Off ۥS OF t)je FrCt2 USIC fiti$lOOJ. Ur FHUSICa)
circle. BOFOdIn’s home life. Oveitilre and entr’-acts to Pzloei-
I yan pa.
 CONTENTS
CHAPTER V ' * 77—79
Beginning to compose May L'igh t.
Proposed trip to Paris. Completion of May R“ight,- its character-
istics. Borodin and hfusorgski. Concerts of the free hlusic
SchOOl. FIrst trip to ñloscnw. Compositions to commemorate the twcnty-
fifth anniversary of the Tsar’s reign. Beginning to write the Fairy-
tale. The Russian Quartet. Work on Prince Igor. Borodin at his
summer home.
CHAPTER XVI: iS29—8o
Production of they A'ipJir. Opinions about it. Concerts of
the l“ree hfusic School. Balakirell. I.yeonova anlt kfusoyski.
h(y second visit to Moscow. Oeginmng of Snyrpoorocblo. Kroo-
she 'sLi. Sasha Glkzunoff.

The summer at 5telyovo. Composing in ¡e9o ro rI iu. Comple-

tion of 5i«Io (Fairy-tale). Analysis of in be yo orochla. ig6
CHAPTER XVI I I: 188i —82
Star kg (I’aiti -tale) . Concert of the Free music School. Death
of i\iusorgst:i. Resignation from dir‹-ctorsh ip of tlie Free ñI usic
School. "trip to the South, Concerts ct tlie Russian II usical

return to the Free Itf usic School. Glazuooff’s I*i rst Symphony.

quaintanceship north M. P. Byelyayelf, h’or/i’ aa Tyron G or5 e

(A Night on Bald klouut) . Concerto fur the piRflo. Wumaru. 2O§

WI3 APTER J)J : 3-56

Court Chapel. ’The Coronation. Organizin g the instrumental
and the presenters’ classes. Abolition of the post of Inspector ot
Nasal Bands. Bye1yayeI(’s Friilays. A. Lyadoff’s marriage. Text-
book of Harmony. Byelyayeff—publisher. Rehearsal at the Pye-
tropavlorski School. Revision of Symphony in C-)IaJor. Begin-
ning of Russian S rnphony Correct ts. Trip to the Caucasus.
CHAPTER X X i 856-88
Russian Sjip phnn y Converts. Fantasy to r tin: v ioliti. death of
Borodin. l4alakireff's circle and Byelyayefl's compared. rChes-
trating Prin ce I9or. Composition or Cc pricr.in, and its perform-
2§)
ance. Shed li crnznd a, f ater Overture.
CuxPTER X XI : I 888—9 e
Production of Der Rin p deg Nihelun9en. The Polonaise from

certs. BegiiiixHg of Illada. Trip to Paris. Completion of the

sketch of dJ/nrfn and its orchestration. Trip to Brussels. Domestic

ByelyayeJl's circle. Production of trio r• Tier. Production of

orchestrating of Sarf/*o. Acquaintancesli ip w itll Yast rrebtseH.