Alexander Borodin

Great Composers Datebook: November 12

 

Alexander Borodin: Beyond Love for Chemistry  

Brief biography of Russian composer Alexander Borodin, a successful chemical scientist by profession, with equal passion for classical music.One of 'The Five', a group of nationalist Russian composers.

 

Alexander Borodin is famous for his opera Prince Igor which he left unfinished and completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Aleksander Glazunov, first performed in St. Petersburg in 1890.  He is a member of 'The Five' or 'The Mighty Handful'  group of nationalist Russian composers including  Mily Balakirev (leader), Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. 

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin, Russian composer and chemistry scientist by profession, was born in St. Petersburg on November 12, 1833, the illegitimate son of a prince.  Having been illegitimate, his father, Prince Gedeanov, registered Alexander (or Aleksandr) as the son of one his serfs.  His mother later married a retired army doctor.  

As a youth, Borodin developed parallel interests in music and chemistry, teaching himself cello at the same time qualifying in medical chemistry. His music life was apparently subordinated to his research and his activities as a lecturer at the Medico-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg.  At age 23, he received his doctorate in chemistry.

In 1862, while professor of chemistry at the Academy of Medicine, he began to take lessons from Mily Balakirev, his music mentor.  The following year he  married Ekaterina Protopopova, a pianist.  He began working on his only opera Prince Igor in 1869.  Prince Igor includes ‘Polovstian Dances’ and ‘Maidens’ Dance.’ He worked on it at irregular intervals. The familiar melody of 'Stranger in Paradise' was originally from a segment of the Prince Igor opera called "Polovtsian (or Polovetsian) Dances, Gliding Dance of the Maidens".

From 1872, he lectured on chemistry at the School of Medicine for Women until his death and wrote important treatises on his subject. He worked for nearly 20 years on the opera until his death in 1887.  

To this day, the theatre audience and Borodin admirers recognize a theme from his ‘Polovtsian Dances’ as “Stranger in Paradise” from a popular Broadway musical hit  Kismet during the early 1950s for which Robert Wright and George Forrest converted some of his melodies.  Kismet also contains the popular love song love song “This is My Beloved” which was based on Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D major. The song earned him a Tony Award in 1954, posthumously, 67 years after his death. "And This Is My Beloved" is a the nocturne from the third movement of Borodin's String Quartet in D. The same melody had earlier (1946) been used for a song credited to William Engvick, Bert Reisfeld and Alec Wilder entitled "Spring Magic," which was recorded by Charlie Spivak and his Orchestra.

Listening Pleasure: 

Alexander Borodin Quartet play Borodin String Quartet no. 2 - video 1973. YouTube, uploaded by ADGO. Accessed November 12, 2021. 

Alexander Borodin: In the Steppes of Central Asia. YouTube, uploaded by Main Line Symphony Orchestra. Accessed November 12, 2021. 

Alexander Borodin - Prince Igor: Polovtsian Dances, conducted by Andrzej Kucybała. YouTube, uploaded by Akademia Filmu i Telewizji. Accessed November 12, 2021.

Aleksander Borodin - Symphony No. 2 in B minor. YouTube, uploaded by Philharmonic of Republic of North Macedonia. Conducted by Viktor Mitrevski. Accessed November 12, 2022.  

Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D major. YouTube, uploaded by HarpsichordM. Accessed November 12, 2022. 

Kirov Opera: Alexander Borodin - Prince Igor / Князь Игорь (Part 1). YouTube, uploaded by EuroArtsChannel. Accessed November 12, 2021.

Video Credit: 

Borodin's String Quartet No. 2 in D major. YouTube, uploaded by Brooklyn Classical. Accessed November 12, 2022.

 

Borodin work includes: 

Symphony No. 1 (1867)

Symphony No. 2 (1876)

String Quartet No. 1 (1879) 

In the Steppes of Central Asia for orchestra (1880)

String Quartet No. 2 (1881)

Symphony No. 3 (1886)  Completed by Glazunov

Opera, Prince Igor, including 'Polovtsian Dances' and 'Maidens' Dance' (Completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov)

Little Suitefor piano

Songs

Chamber music, all using traditional Russian themes.

Such a remarkable man to become a famous composer, at the same time a chemistry scientist by profession. Overworked, Borodin died from a heart attack  at St Petersburg  27 February, 1887.  One wonders what he might have achieved had he devoted all his time to composition or to science.

 

(Note: I wrote this article for Suite101.com, June 10, 2007. / Tel) 

 

Image credit: 

Alexander Borodin.  Public Domain. 

 

Resources:

1. Classical Music, The Great Composers and their Masterworks by John Stanley (1994)

2. The Grove concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie (1994)

 

(c) November 11, 2009. Updated November 11, 2021. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Pietro Mascagni

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: December 7

 

Pietro Mascagni is known for the lyrical “Easter Hymn” and the passionate but tragic interlude of "Intermezzo” from his opera Cavallaria Rusticana (Rustic chivalry.) The “Intermezzo” was used in the film “Raging Bull”.

 

Mascagni's Early Training

A baker’s son, Mascagni was born on December 7, 1863, in Livorno, Italy. His father wanted him to take up law so he studied music secretly. When his father found out, an uncle rescued and took him in his care. His musical ability was great that at 18 years old, the teenage Mascagni already wrote a symphony, a cantata and a mass. 

 

Mascagni's Formal Music Education

He formally studied at the Milan Conservatory where he shared lodging with Giacomo Puccini, both of them taught by composer Amilcare Ponchielli, famous for the opera La Gioconda.

 

Mascagni's Early Career

In 1884, he travelled by working as a conductor with a touring opera company, married, managed a small town school and give piano lessons.

 

Mascagni's and his Signature Opera Cavalleria Rusticana

In Rome on February 21, 1890, Mascagni was summoned to present his opera Cavalleria Rusticana. It had outstanding success winning the Sonzogno contest. Mascagni won first prize in a competition for one-act operas. The première of Cavalleria rusticana was held May 17 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. 

With this opera, he rose to immediate international acclaim. This one-act opera is based on a short story and a play. It is a tale of adultery, revenge and death, revolving around an Italian peasant. With Cavalleria Rusticana, the vogue for verismo (realism) was effectively established at that time.    

Below video:  Pietro Mascagni's 'Cavalleria rusticana - Intermezzo'.  Lim Kek-tjiang conducts Evergreen Symphony Orchestra. Accessed December 12, 2010.

Mascagni's Later Works

Although some numbers from L’amico Fritz and the oriental Iris have survived in the repertory, none of his succeeding operas was anything as successful as Cavalleria Rusticana. He once said: "It is a pity I wrote Cavalleria Rusticana first; I was crowned before I was king!" (Dictionary of Composers and Their Music by Eric Gilder, Sphere Reference, 1987.)  Mascagni's later works include the comedy Le maschere, the unexpectedly powerful Il piccolo Marat  and Nerone, this last testifying to his identification with fascism.  

 

Mascagni's musical legacy

Mascagni belonged to Puccini’s generation of Italian opera composers. During the last years of the 19th-century, they contributed to the movement called verismo (meaning realism), featuring stories of ordinary people rather than the traditional grand and noble themes. In a manner of a true Italian son, simple yet intense drama appealed to him. He died in Rome, 2nd of August, 1945. 

Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana ensures him a place in the history of opera.

 

Operas by Pietro Mascagni

Cavalleria rusticana ('Rustic Chivalry')  1888

L'amico Fritz ('Friend Friz')  1891

Iris 1898

La maschere  1901

Il Piccolo Marat  1921

Nerone ('Nero') 1934

 

Image Credit:

Pietro Mascagni. Karadar / Public Domain 

 Resources:

Dictionary of Composers and Their Music by Eric Gilder, Sphere Reference (1987)

The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan Publishers (1994)

 

(c)  December 2010. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Vincenzo Bellini

Classical Music / Composer's Datebook: November 3

 

Italian Opera Composer of the Romantic Period

Vincenzo Bellini's brief biography – his life, opera, and major works. He is best known for opera Norma and 'bel canto' (beautiful singing).     

 

Vincenzo Bellini is best known for his opera Norma which established him as the master of the Italian operatic bel canto style of singing, with his arias having long melodic score and dramatic tension brilliantly crafted. The story and settings take a back seat in favour of bel canto ('beautiful singing.')  

  

Early Years 

Born on November 3, 1801, in the Sicilian town of Catania, Vincenzo Bellini started piano lessons given by his father. A child prodigy, he could already play very well at five. He developed simplicity of melodic expression in his compositions. He studied at Naples Conservatory.

His first opera, Adelson e Salvini, was produced in 1825 while still a student. This attracted the attention of Domenico Barbaia, who commissioned him to write Bianca e Gernando, produced at the Teatro San Carlo. Norma and La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker) followed in 1831. In I Puritani (The Puritans), his last work, he discovered a new boldness and vigour of orchestral effect. 

 

Later Years

Two years after he wrote Norma, he travelled to London and Paris, where he met and befriended Gioachino Rossini and Frédéric Chopin.

Like Mozart and Schubert, he also died in his thirties. His popularity after his death was enormous, but later his operas fell into neglect. Since World War II, however, singers including Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, and Montserrat Caballe, have helped restore Bellini’s popularity particularly with his masterpiece Norma.

 

He once wrote in a letter, “Carve in your head by letter of brass: an opera must draw tears, cause horror, bring death, by means of a song.” This is exactly what his operas portray.

Bellini was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. He died from gastroenteritis, in Puteaux near Paris, aged 34. 

Bellini was a contemporary and rival of Gaetano Donizetti, famous for his opera L'Elisir d'amore. With Felice Romani his librettist, Bellini and Romani were the Rodgers and Hammerstein of their day. They collaborated on six operas. 

 

Suggested Listening:  

Bellini - Norma, Casta Diva / Presentat° + New Mastering (Maria Callas, Ct. record.: T.Serafin 1954). YouTube, uploaded by Classical Music / Reference Recording. Accessed November 3, 2020. 

 

 

Bellini's Major Operas

Adelson e Salvini (Adelson and Salvini)  1825

Bianca e Gernando (Bianca and Gernando)  1826

Il Pirata (The Pirate)  1827

La straniera (The Foreigner)  1829

Zaira 1829

I Capuleti e i Montecchi (The Capulets and the Montagues)  1830

La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker)  1831

Norma, including 'The Warriors' Chorus'  1831

Beatrice di Tenda  1833

I Puritani (The Puritans)  1835

 

Suggested Bellini Recording

Opera Norma (highlights), either performed by Maria Callas or Dame Joan Sutherland in the leading role. 

 

Resource:

Sadie, Stanley, Ed. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2^nd Edition. London: Macmillan Publishers.  2000

Note: This article is an abridged version.  I originally wrote and published a longer piece for suite101.com in October 2007. / Tel

(c) November 3, 2010. Updated November 3, 2022.  Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.    

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Literature / American Writer & Poet

 

American Essayist, Poet, and Transcendentalist

 “Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.” ~ R.W. Emerson

 

Biography and works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, one of America's great poets and  essayists, 19^th century leader of transcendentalism.  

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an important 19^th-century American poet and essayist, a  transcendentalist, and an orator. His ideas had a strong influence on the development of American culture. He's famous for Nature, his first book.

Early Life of Emerson

Emerson was born on May 25, 1803, the son of a minister, was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Like his father, he attended Harvard and then entered the ministry. He was appointed pastor of the Second Unitarian church in Boston, but three years later, at the age of 29, he had a crisis of faith and left the church. A year later, he went to Europe and visited England, and became a close friend of the writer Thomas Carlyle, with whom he corresponded for almost 38 years.  

Works Published

Back in the United States, Emerson settled in concord, Massachusetts, and began a successful career as a lecturer and essayist. His first book Nature, a prose rhapsody, was published when he was 33, summed up his ideas. This was followed by "The American Scholar," an oration delivered at Harvard. Emerson's address in 1838 before the Divinity Class in Cambridge produced a sensation, especially among the Unitarians. 

Philosophy of Transcendentalism

Emerson formulated the philosophy of transcendentalism or in simple term, an idealist, who advocated self-reliance, spiritual independence, and rejected traditional authority. He is famous for the often quoted "Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you." Emerson believed that people should rely on their reasons to learn what is right and should try to live a simple life in harmony with nature and with others.

More Lectures, Poems and Essays

Emerson became famous for his lectures. He encouraged American scholars to break free of European influences and create a new American culture. His first collection of essays, in which he explored his ideas more fully, was published when he was 38. They were widely read and further collections followed. At the age of 44 he published his first collection of poetry. Later he became involved in the antislavery movement and worked for women's rights. In 1849, he revisited England to lecture on Representative Men. 

Considered 10 of the Best R.W. Emerson Poems

1. The Bell
2. The Snow-Storm
3. Boston Hymn
4. Give All too Love
5. Brahma
6. Concord Hymn
7. Water
8. The Rhodora
9. The Mountain and the Squirrel   
10. Terminus
    

Analyses presented from Poem Analysis by Emma Baldwin. Accessed 25 May 2022. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson died at the age of 78, on April 27, 1882.

 

Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nature, 1836

Essays, 1841

Essays, 1844

Poems, 1847

Representative Men, 1850

English Traits, 1856

The Conduct of Life, 1860

May Day and Other Pieces, 1867

Society and Solitude, 1870

Letters and Social Aims, 1876

Natural History of intellect, 1893

 

Photo Credit:

R. W. Emerson. Public domain.

 

Resources:

1. Goring, Rosemary. (Ed.) Larousse Dictionary of Writers. (1994)

2. McGovern, Una, (Ed.) Chambers Biographical Dictionary. (New Edition). (2002)

Note: I first published this piece for Suite101.com, 26th May 2008. / Tel

(c) May 2010. Updated May 25, 2022. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.