M.A. Balakirev: the way to create a new school of composition

Tsyangpin Go Candidate of Sciences, Lecturer, Department of Vocal Faculty, Music Academy, Chongqing Pedagogical University 400000, Kitai, Shapingbanskii raion, g. Chuntsin, Universitetskii Gorodok, Srednyaya doroga, 37 tsyanpin.@bk.ru

The history of the creation of the creative community of Russian composers, included in the chronicle of the musical life of Russia under the name "Mighty Bunch", is devoted to works in the field of musicological literature – studies by B. V. Asafyev, R.I. Genkina, E. M. Gordeeva, A.P. Zorina, A.I. Kandinsky, Yu.V. Keldysh, G.L. Kiselyov, E.M. Orlova and other authors. In these works, the activity of the creative association is traditionally considered from the standpoint of the unity of musical and aesthetic views of composers on the problems of the ideality and nationality of musical art, the identity of their attitude to Russian folklore, common views on the role and fate of musical genres, etc.

The relevance of the article is due to the need to clarify the ways and means of relationships within the creative community, which were not always accompanied by full understanding and approval, as it may seem at first glance: there were both small artistic differences and significant ideological contradictions, and even creative envy, which eventually led to the collapse of the composer community.

M. A. Balakirev, a talented musician from Nizhny Novgorod, organized and headed the creative community "Mighty Bunch". Having decided to link his fate with music, M.A. Balakirev left classes at the mathematical faculty of Kazan University and moved to St. Petersburg at the age of 18. Possessing a sharp critical mind, energy, integrity, undivided devotion to his beloved work, the young man turned into a leading musical figure of the Russian capital with phenomenal speed.

During the formation of the "Mighty Bunch" M. A. Balakirev studied a lot and achieved a lot. He was the owner of an extensive music library, inherited by his will from the author of an extensive biography about V. Mozart, the Nizhny Novgorod landowner A.D. Smybyshev. According to the memoirs of the famous Nizhny Novgorod writer-publicist P.D. Boborykin, during his four years in St. Petersburg, M.A. Balakirev "developed very much not only as a musician, but also became more literary in general, read a lot, was interested in theater and began to get acquainted with writers ... he has already declared himself as a serious composer" ^{[1, p. 305]}. 

Advanced views on music, a principled attitude to the content of works, commitment to the high ideological art – all these qualities of Balakirev were immediately appreciated by the leading figures of Russian musical culture – M.I. Glinka, V.V. Stasov, L.I. Shestakova, A.S. Dargomyzhsky.

A year after his appearance in St. Petersburg, a creative community of young composers began to form around M.A. Balakirev, who later became his like-minded friends. The community was free, united on the basis of creative communication, common views. Russian Russian Musical Society and the St. Petersburg Conservatory, which opened in 1862, became the main idea of the commonwealth to oppose itself to the academic direction in the Russian musical art, represented by the Imperial Russian Musical Society. According to Yu. V. Keldysh, like writers and artists, the group "resolutely opposed the stagnant academic routine, separation from life and disregard for modern requirements, leading the advanced national trend in Russian music" ^{[6, p. 619]}.

All the young composers gathered around M.A. Balakirev were officers by education. They studied music independently – either in the family or through private lessons, so they mastered musical notation and piano at the student level. Their training in musical composition and form took place in a circle, under the guidance of M.A. Balakirev, and was regarded by them as a "passage" of the conservatory.

The basic principle of learning in the circle was a thorough analysis of the works of other composers. According to the memoirs of C. A. Kui, "we played everything that was written before us in four hands. Everything was severely criticized, and Balakirev analyzed the technical and creative side of the works" ^[8]. Priority in the study of musical samples, along with foreign contemporaries, M.A. Balakirev gave L. Beethoven and M.I. Glinka as the founders of the high classical style.

The meetings of the circle were very informative. The system of classes, according to E.M. Gordeeva, feasible "only for geniuses" ^{[3, p. 102]}, was organized as follows. In addition to studying other people's works, all the members of the "Mighty Bunch" brought the works in progress, they were immediately played by M.A. Balakirev or M.P. Mussorgsky, who knew the piano well. In friendly communication, under the guidance of M.A. Balakirev, new works were actively discussed, shortcomings were identified in them, practical advice was offered. As N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov recalled, M.A. Balakirev's creative method of work was creative improvisation: he, "sitting down at the piano, improvised, showing how to correct or redo the composition" ^{[10, p. 30]}. He was a very authoritative critic: "he immediately felt the technical imperfection or error, he immediately grasped the lack of form" ^{[10, p. 31]}, so the "kuchkists" themselves considered classes with him very productive. 

Despite the fact that M.A. Balakirev had a harsh and unruly character, "he did not say compliments" ^[8], during the formation of the "Mighty Bunch" he gained high authority among the members of the circle. According to the memoirs of C. A. Kui, he "was a head taller than us in everything. Like a mother hen with chickens, he messed with us. All our first works passed his strict censorship. He also did not allow any of them to be printed until he reviewed and approved them."^[8] From this statement it becomes clear that M.A. Balakirev was jealous of any manifestations of the independence of his "chicks" and even later, when his "youth" gained creative independence and turned into major geniuses, "until his death he said that only what we wrote under his wing was good" ^[8].

Perhaps due to his strictness and independent disposition, it was M.A. Balakirev who managed to unite young composers with views close to him. Russian Russian musical culture at the end of the 1850s, Yu.V. Vasiliev states that there was no authoritative leader in Russian music at that time: M.I. Glinka went abroad in April 1856 and died there, A. S. Dargomyzhsky sharply reduced his popularity after the dysfunctional production of the opera Rusalka. In the eyes of Balakirev residents, A. G. Rubinstein was a "Westerner", not a "soil scientist", and A.N. Serov was practically unknown as a composer ^{[2, pp. 35-36]}. Therefore, only a musician with composer's authority could be a leader in Russian music of that period, since no achievements in the field of performing, musical-organizational, scientific or critical activity "without confirmation of recognition of composer's merits could not create for their owner the authority of the head of the entire national school at that time" ^{[2, p. 36]}.

Despite his youth, in the creative personality of M.A. Balakirev, all these qualities "converged" in an amazing way: by the early 60s he had the fame of a virtuoso pianist, his compositional position "strengthened" (three symphonic overtures, the first part of the piano concerto, an Octet, piano pieces, numerous romances), there was a huge creative potential in the field of musical and organizational activities. In addition, M.A. Balakirev, as Yu. V. Vasiliev writes, "could perceive himself as a direct, independent of any "order", heir to Glinka's artistic pursuits, guided by whose precepts he received the indisputable right to lead Russian music further to new shores" ^{[2, p. 37]}.

Thanks to the efforts of M.A. Balakirev, a "mighty" school of composition appeared in Russia in the second half of the XIX century, as T. A. Zaitseva writes, "for a long time led by Western European art", and in his talented hands turned "into a leader of the world musical art" ^{[5, p. 58]}. Russian Russian "new school" was formed in the absence of professional musical education in Russia, which further magnifies the importance of M.A. Balakirev as an outstanding Russian musical leader, and the more tragic it is to perceive his further creative destiny. Resolute and strong-willed, "caressed" by M. I. Glinka at the beginning of his creative career, who received recognition and respect as a tireless "engine" and the true head of the Russian school of composition in the 1860s, M.A. Balakirev could not withstand collisions with the rough practical side of life and "broke down hard" ^{[3, p. 168]}. He died forgotten by everyone, having lost touch with the living reality, according to I. F. Kunin, "fastidiously shutting himself off from the music of younger contemporaries" ^{[7, p. 3]}.

M.A. Balakirev's deep spiritual crisis began with his unceremonious resignation from the post of conductor of the Russian Musical Society. It was, according to the apt definition of P. I. Tchaikovsky, "nothing more than a whim of the authorities" ^{[3, p. 128]}, but it cost M.A. Balakirev very hard. The injustice hit the composer's ego hard and painfully: it was very difficult for him to withstand and endure the suspension from successful artistic activity.

Unfortunately, at the same time, M.A. Balakirev had a great personal grief – his father died suddenly, and the composer took care of two younger unmarried sisters. In addition, a Free music school required investments, in which it was not possible to organize its own orchestra, and the invitees had to pay. M.A. Balakirev tried to arrange concerts to no avail (in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod). He was ashamed to talk about his everyday difficulties, so no one in the "Mighty Bunch" knew about his plight. As E.M. Gordeeva testifies, "Balakirev, upset and overly excited, began to see his relations with his comrades in the wrong light" ^{[3, p. 133]}, as a result of which he began to avoid friends, often did not leave the house for several days, began to visit a fortune teller, in his failures he began to see something fatal.  

During this difficult period of creative crisis for M.A. Balakirev, the "kuchkists" friends were completely absorbed in their problems. Having assumed the post of professor of the Conservatory, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov deeply focused on his self-education. M. P. Mussorgsky, after the Mariinsky Theater refused to stage Boris Godunov, concentrated on finalizing his favorite opera. A.P. Borodin was extremely busy working at the medical and surgical Academy and actively organizing the first higher women's courses. In this situation, M.A. Balakirev felt deeply lonely and unnecessary, and saw this as a betrayal of former friendship. According to E.M. Gordeeva, "Balakirev closed himself, holding himself emphatically cold and aloof. It was clear that a richly gifted person was going through a severe internal tragedy" ^{[3, p. 133]}. As a result, M.A. Balakirev had a firm decision to break with music. Material need and bitter resentment against like-minded friends, disappointment in the activities of the "Mighty Bunch" forced him to enter the service of the Warsaw Railway in July 1872.

Shocked by what had happened, the "kuchkists", together with V.V. Stasov and L. I. Shestakova, tried in vain to return M. A. Balakirev, wrote letters full of love and reverence. However, experiencing a professional and life tragedy, M.A. Balakirev, according to L. Nanqiao, alienated his friends, students and like-minded people due to his inherent despotism, "the roots of which are in a sincere desire to take care of, a thirst to educate in accordance with his ideas about musical creativity" ^{[9, p. 205]}.

After the departure of M.A. Balakirev, the "kuchkist" friends continued to meet, but they gathered much less often. After M.A. Balakirev's departure from the leadership of the Mighty Bunch commonwealth, the role of leader gradually passed to N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. Educating the younger generation at the Conservatory and in parallel – in the Court Singing Chapel, in the 1980s the composer gradually became the creative leader of a new generation of musicians who gathered in a new "Belyaev circle", named after the famous Russian philanthropist M. P. Belyaev. By its composition and creative attitudes, the Belyaevsky circle was close to the "Mighty Bunch", but the ideological and artistic attitude of "Kuchkism" was not fully shared by the creative youth.

The first of the creative community "Mighty Bunch" died M.P. Mussorgsky (1881). The last years of the composer's life were spent in constant material need, accompanied by deterioration of health, and as a result – pessimistic moods, alienation from friends-musicians. M. P. Mussorgsky died in the full bloom of strength and talent, not fully completing his great masterpieces. Six years later, in 1887, A. P. Borodin died suddenly, without completing his main musical "brainchild" – the opera "Prince Igor". The youngest of the "kuchkists", N. A. Rimsky–Korsakov, had to finish and orchestrate the unfinished works of his friends. The longest of the "kuchkists" lived Ts.A. Kui and M.A. Balakirev himself, who returned to musical life in the late 1870s. However, as T.A. Khoprova states, "he no longer had the energy and charm that characterized him at the time of the 1860s. Creative forces died out before life" ^{[12, p. 145]}.

These were the reasons for the collapse of the creative community "Mighty Bunch", which determined the natural process of creative self-determination, the search and finding by each of the composers of their individual path in art.

Summing up the results of the creative activity of the Mighty Bunch musicians' association in St. Petersburg and the significance of their work for the Russian music of the XIX century, the following conclusions can be drawn. 

1. The creative activity of the composers of the "Mighty Bunch" was a reflection of the Russian democratic culture of the era of revolutionary populism. There are three periods in the development of the "Mighty Bunch": the stage of formation (1855-1862), associated with the arrival of M. A. Balakirev in St. Petersburg and his alternate acquaintance with C. A. Cui, M. P. Mussorgsky, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A. P. Borodin; the stage of flowering (1863-1869), associated with the appearance of the first composer's masterpieces the stage of disintegration (1869 – mid-1870s), associated with the departure of M.A. Balakirev and the manifestation of creative differences and contradictions within the creative community.

2. The fundamental role in the association of musicians "Mighty Bunch" was played by M. A. Balakirev – a magnificent virtuoso pianist, composer-innovator, tireless musical and public figure, who was the organizer, ideologist and inspirer of the creative community of young Russian composers. The historical merit of M. A. Balakirev lies in the outstanding pedagogical guidance of young talents, in the organization of their original creative interaction and participation in the form of a friendly community based on common ideological views and beliefs.

Possessing a phenomenal musical memory and broad cultural erudition, M. A. Balakirev chose the following methods as the main form of "compositional" training and education: acquaintance of his pupils with a large volume of musical literature; deep and thorough analysis of musical expressive means, composition and musical form; intensive development of creative imagination. Showing an unbending creative will, acting, according to A. S. Dargomyzhsky, as an eagle "flying ahead of everyone", M. A. Balakirev was the musical figure who was able to take over the baton right from M. I. Glinka and create the Russian national school of composition. He became the man about whom the friend and colleague of the "Mighty Bunch", the outstanding music critic V. V. Stasov wrote the words stamped on a commemorative stele near the house where the composer was born: "If it were not for Balakirev, the fate of Russian music would be completely different" ^[11].

3. Having existed for twenty years, the "Mighty Bunch" broke up in the mid-1870s of the XIX century. The root causes of the beginning of the collapse of the creative community were a deep creative crisis, accompanied by the departure of M. A. Balakirev, and the entry of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov into the post of professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, regarded by the "kuchkists" as a creative betrayal. Gradually gaining creative experience, the Balakirev "chicks", each in their own way, began to show bright creative independence and deep individuality, which caused friendly misunderstandings, creative jealousy and even envy.

Growing up and acquiring new life circumstances, basic (non–musical) duties in the main service, families, new interests and creative preferences, the composers of the "Mighty Bunch" continued to maintain friendly relations for some time, until death claimed two mighty talents - M. P. Mussorgsky (1881) and A. P. Borodin (1887). Despite the return to the musical activity of M. A. Balakirev, the role of musical director of the new creative direction gradually passed to N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, who taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory for more than 40 years and educated a whole galaxy of young composers grouped into a new creative community – the "Belyaevsky Circle".

4. The main goals of its activity "Mighty Bunch" put forward the struggle for progressive democratic art, the promotion of music by young Russian composers, the assertion of the principles of nationality, national identity, the improvement of the musical culture of the people. The compositional, musical, educational and pedagogical activities of the "kuchkist" composers were aimed at creating a "mighty" Russian national musical art.

5. Naturally, various creative differences related to the manifestation of the creative individuality of the composers manifested themselves in the "Mighty Bunch". M. A. Balakirev, who quickly "burned out" during the formation of the creative community, after returning to music, could no longer establish creative contact with his "chicks", composed little, limited himself to the sphere of symphonic and vocal-Ts. A. Kui, who took a hostile position towards M. P. Mussorgsky during the creative heyday of the creative community, also gradually moved away from friendly communication and lost his authority in the eyes of the "kuchkists". M. P. Mussorgsky, the first to pass away, did not appreciate the progressiveness and vital necessity of N.'s pedagogical activity.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, who lived the most fruitful creative life of all the "kuchkists". A. P. Borodin, who was distinguished by a deep scientific approach to all his affairs, most wisely and soberly assessed the relationship in the music circle. However, due to his incredible "scientific" employment, he managed to compose little, remained not fully understood by his friends in terms of the epic conflict-free musical images.  

6. Despite the creative differences within the musical community, the Mighty Bunch represented the ideological platform of the new Russian direction in music of the XIX century, which was based on the priority of the opera genre, reliance on folklore origins, continuity with the traditions of the great M. I. Glinka, democracy and nationality of musical art.

Russian Russian music of the XIX century was immensely important for the development of the creative activity of the "Mighty Bunch": a new school of composition was created, the beginning of professional (written) collection and deciphering of Russian musical folklore was laid, friendly relations with Western European composers were established, and the implementation of higher professional musical education in Russia began. Thanks to the activities of the musical community "Mighty Bunch", as T. A. Zaitseva writes, "Russia has turned into a recognized musical power" ^{[4, p. 5]}.