Rachmaninov – quest for euphony in an age of despondency

By Satyajith Andradi

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines music as “the art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion”. From its beginnings in the middle ages, right up to the end of the nineteenth century, the tradition of western art music faithfully conformed to this definition. Music of that time was both beautiful and expressive of emotions, albeit in varying proportions. However, in the early twentieth century, something terrible happened. Beauty, euphony, and Shakespeare’s proverbial ‘concord of sweet sound’, dropped from the active music lexicon of many leading composers. For them, it no longer mattered whether music was beautiful or ugly. Tonality, which was the foundation of the harmonic structure of western music, was abandoned in favour of atonality. Dissonance displaced harmony. The insatiable thirst for novelty and nervous excitement replaced the quest for euphony. Amidst this cataclysmic turmoil, which is variously known as Avant–garde, Expressionism, Futurism, atonality, modernity, musical experimentation, etc., some composers continued to strive to write beautiful music – music that was melodious, harmonious, and pleasing to the senses. The famous Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov was one of the greatest amongst them.

Musical Upbringing

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov was born in his family’s Oneg estate near Novgorod on 20th March 1873. He belonged to a wealthy land-owning aristocratic family. His father was an officer in the imperial Russian army, whilst his mother was a daughter of an army General. Both his father and paternal grandfather were talented amateur musicians. As he showed musical gifts during his early childhood, his parents arranged piano lessons for him. When Sergei was around nine years old, his family was financially ruined due to their inability to pay huge debts. They were forced to sell their Oneg estate and move into a modest flat in St. Petersburg. There Sergei attended the junior section of the St. Petersburg Conservatoire. Thereafter he was sent to Moscow for further musical studies at the famed Moscow Conservatoire, where he studied piano under N.S. Zverev and A. I Ziloti, and composition under Sergey Taneyev and Anton Arensky. In 1892, aged 19, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire, winning the gold medal for composition.

Pianist, Conductor, and Composer

Rachmaninov first came to the limelight as a composer, whilst he was still a student at the Moscow Conservatoire. In fact, his first piano concerto in F sharp minor, Op 1, the popular prelude in C sharp minor for piano, Op 3, No 2, and the one act opera ‘Aleko’, based on Pushkin’s poem ‘The Gypsies’, were composed during the last years of his studentship. However, the monumental failure of his first symphony in D minor, Op 13, in 1897, dealt a heavy, albeit temporary, blow to his creative powers. It brought his composing career to an abrupt halt. This prompted him to embark on a musical career as a virtuoso pianist and an orchestral conductor. However, thanks to the hypnosis treatment by doctor Nikolai Dahl, Rachmaninov regained his creative powers a few years later – in the summer of 1900. The revival of his composing career was heralded by the composition of his glorious and deservedly ever popular second piano concerto in C minor, Op 18, which was completed in the spring of 1901. This was soon followed by the sonata for cello and piano in G minor, Op 9. By the following spring, he was happily married. His creative powers remained with him for the rest of his life. It is true that Rachmaninov became a respected conductor and one of the greatest pianists of all time. However, it is as a composer that he made his greatest contribution to the world of music.

International Career

Like many gifted Russian musicians, Rachmaninov embarked on an international career. He launched it with his concert tour to London in 1899, as a composer–pianist of repute. This was followed by a lengthy residence in Dresden, Germany, with his family from 1906 to 1909. The Russian Revolution of 1905, which was largely precipitated by the humiliating defeat of Tsarist Russia in the Russo–Japanese War, most probably played a part in his relocation abroad. However, during his stay in Germany he composed many works, including his second symphony in E minor, Op 27, and the symphonic poem ‘ The Isle of the Dead’, Op 29. He relocated to Russia in 1909 and completed his wonderful third piano concerto in in D minor, Op 30, in the summer. Shortly thereafter, in the autumn, he embarked on his tour of the USA, where he was the soloist at the world premiere of his third piano concerto in New York. He became the sole owner of his wife’s family estate ‘ Ivanovka’. In 1918, shortly after the October Socialist Revolution, Rachmaninov left Russia with his family for good. Naturally, as a member of the country’s wealthy aristocratic elite, the revolutionary socialist transformation of contemporary Russia would not have been to his liking. His estate was expropriated by the new communist state. Henceforth, he engaged in his hectic and lucrative international career from Switzerland and the USA. In the early 1930s, during Stalin’s notorious early purges, Rachmaninov’s music was banned in Russia. His music was described as representing ‘the decadent attitude of the lower middle classes’ and ‘especially dangerous on the musical front in the present class war’ ( The Oxford Companion to Music : Percy A. Scholes). However, a few years later the ban was lifted, and his music became very popular again in Soviet Russia. After the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Rachmaninov moved to the USA permanently. Shortly before his death he became a citizen of the USA. Sergei Rachmaninov died in Beverley Hills, California, on the 28th of March 1943.

Being Russian and cosmopolitan

From the commencement of his musical career in the mid-1890s, Rachmaninov was well connected to the artistic and social elites of imperial Russia. His outstanding musical gifts as well as his aristocratic background would have brought about this enviable situation. For instance, he was well known to literary giants such as Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekov as well as musical luminaries such as Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Taneyev and Arensky. As a result, his music was deeply influenced by the artistic and cultural traditions of Russia. Musically speaking, he was subconsciously gravitated towards Tchaikovsky and the cosmopolitan Moscow School. His outlook was decidedly conservative. He often adopted classical forms and styles such as that of the sonata – symphony. He openly acknowledged appreciation of foreign masters such as Chopin, Corelli, and Paganini, by composing works based on their famous tunes. Further, the ‘Dies Irae’ ( Day of Wrath ) theme from the Gregorian chant of the Roman Catholic Church is present in his music, especially in the symphonic poem ‘ The Isle of the Dead’ , which was inspired by a painting of the Swiss artist Arnold Boeklin. Nonetheless, his music is distinctly Russian in character. The abundance of extreme emotions, rustic spirit, the fairy- tale like supernatural ambience, martial spirit, and the sombre nature suggestive of the vast expanses of the Russia, found in his music, account for this. Broadly speaking, his music belongs to the late Romantic tradition of western art music.

Musical Compositions

Rachmaninov wrote a large number of works in addition to compositions already alluded to. These include numerous pieces for piano including two piano sonatas – No. 1 in D minor (1907) and No . 2 in B flat minor (1931), Variations on a theme of Corelli (La Folia) (1931), and the Variation on a theme of Chopin , Op 22 (1902 -3). His piano compositions, most of which are technically difficult, are immensely popular with virtuoso pianists. Some of his late masterpieces include the Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Op 43, (1934), the Third Symphony in A minor , Op 44 (1935-6) and the Symphonic Dances, Op 45 (1940). Regarding the third symphony, a contemporary critic made the following insightful observation : “This symphony… is a most excellent work in musical conception, composition and orchestration… Mr. Rachmaninov, as always, has been conservative in his harmonisations, and he has given us another example in this work that it is not necessary to write dissonance music in order to get the originality which is the greatest – and usually the single – demand of the ultramoderns” (Rachmaninov : Nikolai Bazhanov ; translated by Andrew Bromfield). Rachmaninov also composed many songs, some of which count amongst the best Russian art songs. Apart from secular music, he also composed some remarkable church music for the Russian Orthodox Church.

Quest for euphony in an age of despondency

Sergei Rachmaninov grew up at a time when western bourgeois civilization was reaching its zenith. Tsarist Russia, along with other western powers, was very much an integral part of that civilization. Capitalism, which was establishing its global domination, provided the material foundation of the bourgeois civilization. Leveraging its strengths, the European powers were able to subjugate the entire world and build vast, lucrative colonial empires in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Thanks to the enormous commercial profits amassed by western nations, there was unprecedented peace and prosperity in Europe for a prolonged period. Bourgeois culture flourished. The impressive development of western art music within the framework of tonality is a shining example. However, bourgeois civilization had already begun to rot from within. Inter-imperialist rivalries for greater world domination came to a head. Further, the imperialist – capitalist system was seriously challenged by the dispossessed masses – the urban proletariat. Bourgeois civilization was soon to face its moment of truth. The first rumbling was the Russian Revolution of 1905. This was followed by the First World War (1914–1918) amongst imperialist powers, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Great Depression (1929–1933), and finally the Second World War and the Nazi Holocaust. No wonder, Bourgeois Civilization was devastated to the core by this string of cataclysmic events. An age of despondency dawned in Europe. The horrendous impact of those events was bound to be felt in the world of western art music. The rejection of age-old tonality and the abandonment of the quest for euphony were the ultimate outcomes. Only a few creative musicians were able to swim against the tide and create beautiful music. Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov was certainly one of the greatest amongst them.