Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov Free Sheet Music, Program Notes, Recordings and Biography

In 1862, an 18-year-old midshipman in the Imperial Russian Navy named Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov embarked on a nearly three-year voyage that would take him to England, North and South America, and the Mediterranean. Tucked into his sea chest was the unfinished manuscript of a symphony. Before leaving, he had fallen in with a circle of fiercely nationalist composers in Saint Petersburg, and their leader had insisted he continue composing while at sea. And so, in between naval drills and watches on the deck of the clipper ship Almaz, the young officer sketched out his first symphony. Composing with no piano, relying only on his ear and the encouragement of letters from home, he created what would become the first significant symphony by a Russian composer. This unlikely beginning—a naval officer moonlighting as a self-taught composer while sailing the globe—perfectly captures the spirit of a man who would become the architect of the classical Russian sound.

A Sailor's Symphony: An Unlikely Beginning

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was born into an aristocratic family in Tikhvin, Russia, on March 18, 1844. With a long line of military and government service in his family, it was preordained that he would join the Navy. Though he took piano lessons and showed musical talent, music was considered a mere hobby for a gentleman, not a profession. At age 12, he entered the Imperial Naval College in Saint Petersburg.

While in the capital, his passion for music deepened. He was introduced to the works of Mikhail Glinka, considered the father of Russian classical music. The crucial meeting of his life occurred in 1861, when he was introduced to the composer Mily Balakirev. Balakirev was a charismatic and dogmatic leader of a small group of composers dedicated to creating a truly Russian style of music. He saw the immense talent in the young naval cadet and took him under his wing, providing his only real musical instruction. When Rimsky-Korsakov was ordered on his global naval voyage, it was Balakirev who insisted he not give up music.

The Mighty Handful and Russian Nationalism

Upon his return to Saint Petersburg in 1865, Rimsky-Korsakov completed his symphony, which was successfully performed under Balakirev's direction. He was now a core member of the circle of composers that the critic Vladimir Stasov would memorably dub "The Mighty Handful," or simply "The Five." This group consisted of Mily Balakirev, the engineer César Cui, the civil servant Modest Mussorgsky, the chemist Alexander Borodin, and the sailor Rimsky-Korsakov.

What united them was a shared mission: to create music steeped in Russian history, folklore, and folk song, independent of the German and Italian models that dominated European conservatories. They were, for the most part, brilliantly gifted amateurs who learned their craft from each other, prizing raw, nationalist expression over academic polish. They studied Russian folk music, ancient chants, and exotic scales, incorporating these elements into their groundbreaking works.

From Amateur to Master: The Professor and Orchestrator

In 1871, in a move that shocked the musical establishment and himself, the 27-year-old Rimsky-Korsakov, still a naval officer and largely self-taught composer, was offered a professorship of composition and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Terrified but seeing the opportunity, he accepted. He later confessed in his autobiography, My Musical Life, that he knew virtually nothing of music theory. He bluffed his way through his early classes, secretly studying elementary harmony and counterpoint at night to stay one lesson ahead of his own students.

This intense, self-imposed academic crash course transformed him. He went from being a gifted amateur to arguably the world's leading expert on musical orchestration. He mastered the capabilities of every instrument, developing a near-scientific understanding of instrumental color and texture. This expertise made him the indispensable editor and arranger for "The Five." After the deaths of his friends, he dedicated himself to ensuring their works would survive. He famously completed and re-orchestrated Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov and Borodin's epic Prince Igor, creating the performing versions that would bring these masterpieces to the world stage.

The Master of Musical Fairy Tales

Having mastered his craft, Rimsky-Korsakov's own compositions flourished. He resigned his naval commission and, drawing on the nationalist ideals of his youth, turned to Russian and Slavic mythology, fairy tales, and literature for inspiration. This resulted in a series of fantastical operas, including The Snow Maiden, Sadko, The Tsar's Bride, and his final, politically satirical opera, The Golden Cockerel.

It is his orchestral music, however, that has enjoyed the most enduring international fame. In works like the vibrant Capriccio Espagnol and the magnificent Russian Easter Festival Overture, he put his unparalleled skills as an orchestrator on full display. His most famous work is the symphonic suite Scheherazade (1888). Based on the collection of Middle Eastern folk tales One Thousand and One Nights, the piece is a dazzling showcase of orchestral color, weaving seductive violin solos (representing the storyteller Scheherazade) with powerful brass fanfares and shimmering woodwind textures to create an unforgettable musical tapestry. The virtuosic interlude from his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, known as "Flight of the Bumblebee," has become one of the most famous encore pieces ever written.

Legacy: The Architect of Russian Sound

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov died on June 21, 1908. His legacy is twofold. He was a brilliant composer in his own right, leaving behind a body of work that glows with instrumental color and fantastical imagination. But perhaps his even greater legacy was as the great codifier and teacher of the Russian school of composition. Through his decades of teaching at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and his famous textbook, Principles of Orchestration, he trained generations of Russian composers. His students included Alexander Glazunov, Sergei Prokofiev, and, most importantly, a young Igor Stravinsky, who would take his teacher's orchestral wizardry and use it to ignite the modernist revolutions of the 20th century with ballets like The Firebird and Petrushka. Rimsky-Korsakov was the bridge, the master who turned the raw, nationalist vision of "The Five" into a professional discipline and handed its secrets to the future.

Section 4: References and Further Reading

• Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai. My Musical Life. Translated by Judah A. Joffe, Faber & Faber, 1989.

• Abraham, Gerald. Rimsky-Korsakov: A Short Biography. AMS Press, 1976.

• Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai. Principles of Orchestration. Dover Publications, 1964.

• Frolova-Walker, Marina. Russian Music and Nationalism: from Glinka to Stalin. Yale University Press, 2007.