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Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

Faculty Sponsor

Dr. Janice Dickensheets

Faculty Sponsor Email

janice.dickensheets@unco.edu

Abstract

Russian composers, including Glinka and The Mighty Five, helped establish a fin de siècle Russian nationalistic style in art music through the implementation of idiomatic folk music gestures and other commonly employed musical elements. Scholars, including Richard Taruskin, Barry Bilderback, and Pieter Van Den Toorn, have identified many of these elements, however, they have not provided clear codification of a Russian topic. Likewise, the music of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov has been largely ignored when compared to that of his contemporaries, though most research indicates he was heralded as a nationalistic composer.

The purpose of this research was to create an initial working lexicon of the Russian style through a synthesis of the musical elements identified in the extant scholarship with those derived from an analysis of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel. Among the most important of these lexiconic elements are pentatonic and octatonic scales (particularly when connected to a rotation of thirds), the Russian submediant, interpretations or mutations of folk music, and orientalism. While these gestures on their own are not specifically Russian, when used in conjunction with each other, they generate a strongly nationalistic topos.

The Golden Cockerel, a musical and theatrical satire of Alexander Pushkin’s 1834 fairytale, is particularly suited to an exploration of this topos. Its use of folkloric theme mutations and allusions to traditional rhythmic patterns, orientalism, the Russian sub-mediant, and pentatonic and octatonic-flavored melodies demonstrates Rimsky-Korsakov’s adherence to this nationalist style. Analysis of the work also reveals its colorful intersections between fantasy and the human world to be an ironic social commentary.

Most importantly, this initial lexicon provides a tool for future scholarship that will refine the definition of the topic through comparisons of other works by Rimsky Korsakov and his contemporaries and potentially provide insights into Stravinsky’s unique brand of nationalism.

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