Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov. He united music and the sea

Music and the sea became his passion since childhood. Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov was born on March 18, 1844 in Tikhvin, into a noble family for whom maritime service was a tradition - the great-great-grandfather of the boy was rear admiral under Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, his uncle was rear admiral as well as his older brother later. Little Nick, who sought to imitate him, at the age of 12 entered the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg.  

But music came into his life even earlier - he became interested in it at the age of 6, and from the age of 11 began to compose it. There were no conditions for serious music classes in Tikhvin, he fell in love with folk and church singing, and he was taught to play the piano by a neighbor and a familiar governess.

While studying in St. Petersburg, the young cadet not only began to take music lessons from the famous pianist Fyodor Cannile, but also learned about the opera. He was impressed with the operas of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka “Life for the Tsar” and “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. Studying in the cadet corps did not stop the novice composer from immersing himself in world music culture, on the contrary, he tried to connect music with the sea and "... began to show musical activity within the walls of the school", as Rimsky-Korsakov recalled in his autobiographical book “Chronicle of My Musical Life”, Which is available in the electronic reading room of the Presidential Library.

The most significant event of this period was the familiarity of Rimsky-Korsakov with Miliy Alekseevich Balakirev, who led the community of musicians, known as the “Mighty Handful”. He made a “tremendous impression” on Rimsky-Korsakov. It turned out to be extremely beneficial for the young man to communicate with members of the Balakirev circle. “I immediately plunged into some new, unknown world, finding myself among real, talented musicians that I had only heard about before, turning between amateurs and comrades”, - he wrote. Under the direction of Balakirev, the 17-year-old composer begins to create his first significant work - the First Symphony.

After graduating from the Marine Corps in 1862, the midshipman Rimsky-Korsakov went on a voyage around the world, lasting three years. Later, love of the sea, admiration for its beauty inspired the composer to create such opera masterpieces as “Sadko” and “Tale of Tsar Saltan”.

Upon returning to the coastal service, after several sea expeditions, Rimsky-Korsakov again plunged into the world of music - talked with the "Mighty Handful", composed, and gave concerts. In 1871, the director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory unexpectedly invited him to "... join the conservatory as a professor of practical composition and instrumentation, as well as a professor, that is, as a leader, of an orchestra class". 

The long creative life and professional activities of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov were unusually rich and diverse. He served as inspector of brass bands of the Maritime Department, worked in the Court Singing Chapel, replaced Balakirev as director of the Free Music School. He devoted a lot of time to preparing for the performance and publishing of the operas of his already deceased friends - Khovanshchina by M. P. Mussorgsky and Prince Igor by A. P. Borodin. Often he himself picked up a conductor’s stick or acted as the author of musical and theoretical works and reviews.

The musical public also knew him as an exceptional educator, leaving behind a whole constellation of talented students. A. K. Glazunov, I. F. Stravinsky, A. T. Grechaninov, S. S. Prokofiev and many other composers shine in this constellation, more than 200 in total.

It is impossible to fully embrace Rimsky-Korsakov’s musical legacy in its genre and thematic diversity. Symphonic works, world-famous operas ("The Snow Maiden", "The Golden Cockerel", "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia" and others), vocal lyrics - they all develop the best traditions of Russian folklore, other musical cultures, cover a wide range of topics, from folk-historical to love, generously colored by fairy-tale fantasy.

The creative path of the composer, which lasted more than 40 years and spanning an entire era from the abolition of serfdom to the revolutionary beginning of the 20th century, became a kind of connecting link between the school of M. I. Glinka and musical innovations of the XX century.

The Presidential Library’s portal features interesting archival materials that spotlight the unique personality of Rimsky-Korsakov - his portrait photographs, letters to Vrubel.

An article dedicated to the memory of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov in the magazine Russkaya Starina for 1908, an electronic copy of which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal, provides such words about the composer: "... a beautiful image of a Russian man tirelessly developing, finding a new connection with a folk creative spirit, everything will shine with an intensifying light”.