Here's something you might be interested in.
I’ve wanted to get back to Balakirev ever since I mentioned him in regards to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. Here is my chance.
If you’ll recall, at the San Diego Symphony concert a few weeks back, Nuvi Mehta came out before the performance of Romeo and Juliet and gave us a rundown on how Balakirev held Tchaikovsky’s hand in the compositional process.
This type of input seems to be what Balakirev was most interested in. He wanted to establish a Russian school of music which was separate from Western European influences.
In this endeavor he recruited some raw yet talented composers, all of whom had a day job. The tribe was formed in the late 1850’s and early 1860’s.
The group Balakirev founded became known as The Mighty Handful or The Five. I want to make a “mighty handful” joke but perhaps just mentioning it is sufficient.
The Five were Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Mussorgsky, and Cui. The influence that Balakirev exercised on these eager bucks was substantial but over time it wore thin.
Balakirev’s process was to take a new composition by one of the other four composers, seat himself at the piano and proceed to improvise on it until it sounded the way he wanted it to. Eventually the others realized that while the input was valid, it made their music sound as if it were Balakirev’s.
Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky were the first to drift and the others followed. The same process happened with Tchaikovsky except it was Balakirev who left music for five years after Tchaikovsky dedicated both Romeo and Juliet and the Manfred Symphony to him.
During these five years it was rumored that Balakirev suffered a nervous breakdown. He returned to music in 1876 but had converted to a severe sect of Russia Orthodoxy. Part of his new belief included sensitivity toward animals.
The only meat he ate was fish that had died of natural causes. By the time he died 1910, he was composing music in isolation except for a houseful of dogs, cats, and religious icons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk_DZoeAKyE&feature=related
I’ve wanted to get back to Balakirev ever since I mentioned him in regards to Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. Here is my chance.
If you’ll recall, at the San Diego Symphony concert a few weeks back, Nuvi Mehta came out before the performance of Romeo and Juliet and gave us a rundown on how Balakirev held Tchaikovsky’s hand in the compositional process.
This type of input seems to be what Balakirev was most interested in. He wanted to establish a Russian school of music which was separate from Western European influences.
In this endeavor he recruited some raw yet talented composers, all of whom had a day job. The tribe was formed in the late 1850’s and early 1860’s.
The group Balakirev founded became known as The Mighty Handful or The Five. I want to make a “mighty handful” joke but perhaps just mentioning it is sufficient.
The Five were Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Mussorgsky, and Cui. The influence that Balakirev exercised on these eager bucks was substantial but over time it wore thin.
Balakirev’s process was to take a new composition by one of the other four composers, seat himself at the piano and proceed to improvise on it until it sounded the way he wanted it to. Eventually the others realized that while the input was valid, it made their music sound as if it were Balakirev’s.
Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky were the first to drift and the others followed. The same process happened with Tchaikovsky except it was Balakirev who left music for five years after Tchaikovsky dedicated both Romeo and Juliet and the Manfred Symphony to him.
During these five years it was rumored that Balakirev suffered a nervous breakdown. He returned to music in 1876 but had converted to a severe sect of Russia Orthodoxy. Part of his new belief included sensitivity toward animals.
The only meat he ate was fish that had died of natural causes. By the time he died 1910, he was composing music in isolation except for a houseful of dogs, cats, and religious icons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk_DZoeAKyE&feature=related