midicnMusic History 中文

Mily Balakirev

Organiser of the Five, who turned folk song into a grammar for Russian music

RomanticPianoCharacter Piece

Who he was

Mily Balakirev (1837–1910) was born in Nizhny Novgorod and died in St Petersburg. He never attended a conservatory; he taught himself from Glinka's scores and from the church and folk singers he heard. In the 1860s he became the centre of the group known as the Five, with Cui, Mussorgsky, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov writing around him. With Lomakin he founded the Free Music School in 1862, conducted the Russian Musical Society concerts from 1867 to 1869, and published his collection of Russian folk songs in 1866.

His place

Balakirev was the first organiser of the Russian national school rather than its most prolific composer. He turned Glinka's example into a programme, insisting on folk song, oriental subjects and descriptive titles while still demanding Western formal training. His own output is small and endlessly revised: Islamey was first published in 1869 and reworked until 1902. In later years he turned to religious music and editorial work and appeared in public less and less.

What to hear

Listen first for the frame of the folk song. His folk-song collection does not harmonise the tune; it keeps the mode, the metre and the places where the singer breathes, which is why it can sound harder than a drawing-room song. Then hear the oriental rhythm. Islamey sets a Caucasian dance theme against perpetual-motion figuration, and the right hand has to stay as even as a drum before the middle section suddenly slows. Finally hear the patience of variation. The Grand Fantasy on Russian Folksongs Op. 4 pushes one tune from plain to elaborate, retexturing the theme at every return.

Key works

Influence

His influence as a teacher and organiser outweighed his own works. Rimsky-Korsakov called him his true teacher in his memoirs, and Mussorgsky's early pieces were tried out in his drawing room. He gave the whole Russian school the idea that folk song is not raw material but grammar, an idea still audible when Stravinsky handles folk tunes.

Listen in the library

Islamey Op.18C16:58《伊斯拉美》Op. 18——高加索舞曲主题加上无穷动音型，听右手怎样像打击乐一样均匀（C1）DetailsDumkaC14:58《杜姆卡》——一首哀歌式的变奏曲，听同一主题在慢与快之间怎样换气质（C1）DetailsGrand Fantasy on Russian Folksongs, Op.4C118:25《俄罗斯民歌大幻想曲》Op. 4——一串变奏把民歌从简推到繁，听织体怎样一层层加厚（C1）DetailsBerceuseC16:14《摇篮曲》——短小的沙龙小品，听歌唱性旋律怎样靠左手的分句托住（C1）Details

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Sources

  • 巴拉基列夫生平、五人团与俄罗斯民族乐派，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Balakirev, Mily"；本文为原创表述
  • 《伊斯拉美》与民歌改编的听点，参通行巴拉基列夫研究；实例 why 为本站听辨提示

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.