Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Russia, 1861–1908
Russian composer (1844-1908) of The Five, known for orchestration. Scheherazade and fifteen operas draw on Russian folk tale, and his manual Principles of Orchestration was used in teaching for generations.
MusicRoots documents 4 artists who influenced Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and 7 artists Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov?
- Mily Balakirev — Balakirev took the teenage naval cadet under his wing and directed his first symphony bar by bar — the founding mentorship of 'The Five'.
- Hector Berlioz — Berlioz's Treatise on Instrumentation was Rimsky-Korsakov's self-taught orchestration school, which he later extended in his own manual.
- Mikhail Glinka — Glinka's operas were the sacred model of the Russian school for Rimsky-Korsakov, who co-edited the critical edition of Glinka's scores.
- Franz Liszt — Liszt's programme music and orchestral colour were a model for Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic poems, alongside Berlioz.
Which artists did Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov influence?
- Igor Stravinsky — Rimsky-Korsakov was Stravinsky's teacher — the art of orchestration passed directly from him.
- Wayne Shorter — Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral colour is the other classical source Shorter names behind his compositional thinking.
- Anton Arensky — Arensky studied composition with Rimsky-Korsakov at the St Petersburg Conservatory before teaching in Moscow.
- Anatoly Lyadov — Lyadov was Rimsky-Korsakov's pupil at the St Petersburg Conservatory and became his colleague there — the fastidious craft of Russian orchestral miniature.
- Alexander Glazunov — Glazunov was Rimsky-Korsakov's private pupil from age 14 — his prodigious First Symphony (1882) the fruit of that mentorship.
- Nikolai Myaskovsky — Myaskovsky came up through Rimsky-Korsakov's St Petersburg Conservatory alongside Prokofiev, his lifelong friend.
- Sergei Prokofiev — Prokofiev studied orchestration under Rimsky-Korsakov at the St Petersburg Conservatory — the brilliant instrumental colour beneath his modernism.