Mily Balakirev

1. Mily Balakirev Symphony No.1, III: Andante

2. Born Mily Alekseyevich Balakirev on January 2nd, 1837 Although, USSR “Old style” dictates that he was born on December 21st, 1836

3. Mily’s mother gave him his first piano lessons by age 4. By the time he was 10, she had introduced him to Alexander Dubuque, who gave him his 1st professional-grade piano lessons.

4. Mily composed his first pieces while in attendance at the Alexandrovsky Institute, where he was promptly discovered by a wealthy and connected music enthusiast, Alexander Ulybyshev.

5. At 18, Balakirev ventured more than 1,000km with Ulybyshev, from Alexandrovsky to St. Petersburg, to meet Mily’s idol…

6. Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka Mily Balakirev studied in great depth the works of Frederik Chopin and Mikhail Glinka. It was by the latter the he was inspired to create Russian- themed music, which he was has become famous for. Glinka immediately recognized Balakirev’s talent, unconventional thought it was. It was then that Mikhail took Mily under his wing and shaped him into the musician he was meant to be.

7. The Mighty Handful The New School of Music The Five The ever famous group of Russian nationalist musicians, who received patronage from their very own Tsar Nicholas in establishing the Free School of Music in opposition to the pro- Westernization of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, with Mily Balakirev as their leader. Cesar Cui Alexander Borodin The Balakirev Circle Modest Mussorgsky Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

8. The Balakirev Circle cont. By the time Balakirev was 25, The Five was in full force. They were not formally trained, every one of them a self- taught musician. Their natural talents and support from the Russian community helped them thrive in the musical world. They were dedicated to the nationalist cause and every member looked at Balakirev as their mentor, both musically and philosophically. ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫

9. Just before the formation of the Mighty Handful (so named by a fan and journalist, Vladimir Stasov), Balakirev suffered a pair of great losses that left him feeling more empty than he did after the death of his mother 10 years earlier – the deaths of both his mentor, Mikhail Glinka, and his friend, Alexander Ulybyshev. It was then that Mily’s mental health began to dwindle, as a horrible depression set in. He even suffered a minute case of brain fever not soon after their deaths, at the age of about 21.

10. Mily’s suffering lead to his infamous demeanor. His colleagues and students often complained about how rude Mily was, saying that he was over-critical, pompous and supremely autonomous. He shared in the obstinacy found in many Nationalists and wouldnot heed his peers, never changing his methods of education or human interaction. Balakirev had an innate and astounding memory. He had the ability to memorize a piece after hearing it only once or twice. For this, he was egotistic. Also, he was too proud to work as a virtuoso, as so many famous composers and musicians have done in order to become well-known and, especially, pay the bills. His overbearing behavior caught up with him, however. The first of his peers to tire of him and leave to pursue his own path was Cesar Cui. The irony is not lost that Cui was the first of The Five that Balakirev met and thereforehad been dealing with him for the longest. Most under Balakirev’s leadership followed Cui’s lead and left his company.

11. As Mily’s social life began to crumble beneath him, his fathered died, leaving Mily responsible for the care of his 2 younger sisters. The pressure was too much for him, not to mention how betrayed he had felt by his peers, so he took his leave of the musical world to work as railroad clerk and support his family.

12. About 5 to 10 years later, Mily made his way back into music. He had undergone a “personal transformation” in the form of Orthodox Christianity. Truthfully, the only thing that was different about Mily was that he had added strict Christian values to his already strict, close-minded ways. However, he did what he could to repair the damage he’d done with The Five.

13. in C Major Mily began writing his first symphony in 1864. He wrote two-thirds of it then was promptly distracted with an overture of particular interest to him, his Overture on Czech Themes. 30 years later, he picked it back up and revamped nearly the entire piece, adding purely Russian themes to the first movement and writing an entirely new theme for the final movement. Balakirev’s Symphony No. 1

14. The third movement was written for all strings, including two harps; we then have timpani, triangle, snare drum, and bass drum for a percussion section; and finally the woodwinds and brass consisting of three flutes (or two flutes and one piccolo), three clarinets, two bassoons, an oboe, two trumpets, four horns, an English horn, a tuba, and three trombones. Symphony No.1 in C Major,III: Andante

15. The movement is started by the woodwinds, who also introduce the main theme of the movement… …The strings offer homophonic texture in the background before taking over the theme and introducing the first subject…. …The flutes take over the theme once again before handing it back to the violins… …This passing along continues from the violins, to oboe, to clarinet, to bassoon… …About four minutes into the piece a second subject is introduced by the violins, taking the song to an almost lamenting tone…

16. By minute six, the woodwinds begin to take us back into the first subject… …The bassoon takes over as the song for just a second to return the orchestra to the original theme… …At minute seven and a half, the brass are finally featured as they deepen the tone and broaden the pitch, preparing the listener for a dramatic change of pace… …That pace change is accentuated by the violins, and then resolved by the full orchestra as they return to the original theme…

17. Minute nine features the brass once again building the piece up and crash!, the percussion section allows a release into the height of the movement… …Once again, the woodwinds recover the from the drop with the resounding first subject, only to be taken back up to the height of the third subject by the help of the violins and the brass… …The violins provide the theme while the brass keep the energy up by playing the beat…

18. The third subject is like the combination between the theme, and first and second subjects, daring the listener to feel apprehensive only to feel that apprehension lifted while a touch of serenity… …Minute thirteen then brings back that apprehension by reintroducing the original theme… …Somehow the theme feels different, likely due to the glissando of the harp and its sisters the violins backing it up with quickly stroked dire sixteenth notes…

19. That glissando combination instills a sense of beautiful fatalism, as if whatever was about to happen would determine the future of the world. And then as quickly and suddenly as it started, the movement is over with a quiet goodbye from the woodwinds before the symphony ventures onto the fourth and final movement.

20. When he returned into the world of music, Mily took up the position of Music Director of the Imperial Chapel in 1883, choosing Rimsky-Korsakov as his assistant. At no surprise, Balakirev had a disagreement with their publisher not 3 years later and consequently he was removed from their roster. As years when on, Mily became more and more bitter toward his colleagues (because they remained a large part of the music community and offered him less and less support as years went on) and left no bridge unscathed. He died alone at the age of 73.

21. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mily-balakirev-mn0002129104/biographyhttp://www.allmusic.com/artist/mily-balakirev-mn0002129104/biography http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/49735/Mily-Balakirev http://russiapedia.rt.com/prominent-russians/music/miliy-balakirev/ https://sites.google.com/site/ibhistoryrussia/syllabus-overview---imperial-russia/a-background-and-nature-of-tsardom http://www.52composers.com/balakirev.html http://www.turgenevmusica.info/en/balakirev.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_%28composers%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mily_Balakirev http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._1_%28Balakirev%29 Works Cited