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The “Consanguinity” Between Rimsky-Korsakov and Stravinsky Revisited:
Pathways to Neoclassicism and Other Symmetries
Keywords: Nikolay A. Rimsky-Korsakov, Igor F. Stravinsky, Mikhail I. Glinka, Johann Sebastian Bach, Russian traditions, neoclassicism, internationalism, fugue, counterpoint, self-learning
Author: Graham Griffiths
About the Author
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3519-1874
e-mail: graham.griff@gmail.com
PhD (2008), Honorary Research Fellow at City, University of London
Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, United Kingdom
Submitted on: 17.09.2020
Published on: 15.11.2020
Abstract
Stravinsky’s profound indebtedness to the teachings of Nikolay A. Rimsky-Korsakov, particularly in the field of orchestration, is widely acknowledged. Building upon this research, the present article engages with Rimsky’s long-standing respect for Bach’s instrumental fugues and explores how this fascination, together with his oftenexpressed values of ‘restraint’, may have impacted upon Stravinsky’s pursuit of ‘objectivity’
and his subsequent neoclassical re-invention. In particular, Stravinsky’s super-valuation of counterpoint can be viewed, at this distance, as a very Rimskian sentiment. In the process of considering this creative / aesthetic issue several other Rimskian / Stravinskian ‘symmetries’ are proposed.
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For citation: Griffiths, Graham. “The ‘Consanguinity’ Between Rimsky-Korsakov and Stravinsky Revisited: Pathways to Neoclassicism and Other Symmetries” (Translation into Russian: Vladimir Khavrov, editor of translation: Natalia Braginskaya). In Opera musicologica, vol. 12, no. 4 (2020), pp. 6–18 (in Russian). DOI: 10.26156/OM.2020.12.4.001.