Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich versions of Boris Godunov
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Although Boris Godunov is usually praised for its originality, for the dramatic power of its choruses, for its sharply delineated characters, and for the powerful psychological portrayal of Tsar Boris, it has received an inordinate amount of criticism for technical shortcomings: weak or faulty harmony, counterpoint, part-writing, and orchestration. The perception that Boris needed correction due to Mussorgsky's poverty of technique prompted his friend Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov to revise it after his death. His edition supplanted the composer's Revised Version of 1872 in Russia, and launched the work in the world's opera houses, remaining the preferred edition for some 75 years.
Dmitriy Shostakovich edited Boris Godunov in 1939–1940. He confined himself largely to reorchestrating the opera, and was more respectful of the composer's unique melodic and harmonic style. However, Shostakovich greatly increased the contributions of the woodwind and especially brass instruments to the score, a significant departure from the practice of Mussorgsky, who exercised great restraint in his instrumentation, preferring to utilize the individual qualities of these instruments for specific purposes. Shostakovich also aimed for a greater symphonic development, wanting the orchestra to do more than simply accompany the singers.[1]
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[edit] Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
On Modest Mussorgsky's death in 1881, all of his manuscripts and sketches were brought in one mass to his friend Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov so he could put them in order, complete and prepere them for publication.[2] Mussorgsky's musical executor, the folk singer T.I. Filippov, made an agreement with the publisher Bessel to publish Mussorgsky's works, which the firm promised to do within the shortest time possible.[2] Rimsky-Korsakov undertook to set in order and complete all of Mussorgsky's works, turning freely to Bessel those works that he found suitable for publication.[2] He completed Khovanshchina, reconstructed Night on Bald Mountain, and "corrected" some songs. Next, he turned to Boris Godunov.
"I worship Boris Godunov and hate it. I worship it for its originality, power, boldness, independence, and beauty. I hate it for its shortcomings, the roughness of its harmonies, the incoherences in the music."
—Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
"Although I know I shall be cursed for so doing, I will revise Boris. There are countless absurdities in its harmonies, and at times in its melodies."
—Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
He experimented first with the Polonaise, scoring it for a Wagner-sized orchestra in 1888. In 1892 he revised the Coronation Scene, and completed the remainder of the opera in the 1874 Vocal Score, although with significant cuts, by 1896. He later completed another revision in 1908, this time restoring the cuts, adding some music to the Coronation Scene (because Diaghilev wanted more stage spectacle for the Paris premiere), and replacing the ending of Act III. These revisions went beyond mere reorchestration. He made substantial modifications to harmony, melody, dynamics, etc., even changing the order of scenes.
The Rimsky-Korsakov version of the score was played at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1896.[3] The full opera was premiered on December 7, 1898 by Savva Mamontov's Privsate Opera Company in Moscow.[3] The performance was historic bcause Fyodor Shalyapin sang the title role for the first time.[3]
"Having arranged the new version of Boris Godunov I had not destroyed its original form, had not painted out the old frescoes forever. If ever the conclusion is arrived at that the original is better, worthier than my revision, then mine will be discarded and Boris Godunov will be performed according to the original score."
—Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
"Besides re-scoring Boris and correcting harmonies in it (which was quite justifiable), he [Rimsky-Korsakov] introduced in it many arbitrary alterations, which disfigured the music. He also spoilt the opera by changing the order of scenes."
—Mily Balakirev
César Cui had been the loudest denunciator amongst "The Five" when Mussorgsky wrote Boris.[3] Upon hearing what Rimsky-Korsakov had done to it, Cui showed his typical intolerance and unpredictability:[3]
"Maybe Rimsky-Korsakov's harmonies are softer and more natural, his part-writing better, his scoring more skillful; but the result is not Mussorgsky, nor what Mussorgsky aimed at. The genuine music, with all its shortcomings, was more appropriate. I regret the genuine Boris, and feel that should it ever be revived on the stage of the Mariinskiy Theatre, it is desirable that it should be in the original."
—César Cui
Cui's comments are more ironic considering his devastating of the original Boris in 1874.[3]
Rimsky-Korsakov has come under fire from some critics for altering Boris. The defense usually made by his supporters is that without his ministrations, Mussorgsky's opera would have faded from the repertory due to difficulty in appreciating his raw and uncompromising idiom. Therefore, as Rimsky-Korsakov claimed in his autobiography, My Musical Life, his justification in making improvements to keep the work alive and increase the public's awareness of Mussorgsky's melodic and dramatic genius. Besides, he may have foreseen his edition as only a temporary solution if interest in Mussorgsky's original versions arose:
"If Moussorgsky's compositions are destined to live unfaded for fifty years after their author's death (when all his works will became the property of any and every publisher), such an archeologically accurate edition will always be possible, as the manuscripts went to the Public Library on leaving me. For the present, though, there was need of an edition for performances, for practical artistic purposes, for making his colossal talent known, and not for the mere studying of his personality and artistic sins."
—Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
It must be admitted that some listeners simply find Rimsky-Korsakov's glossy version more aesthetically pleasing. His version of Boris Godunov remained the one usually performed in Russia, even after Mussorgsky's earthier original (1872) re-established itself in the West.
[edit] Dmitry Shostakovich
"Mussorgsky has marvelouisly orchestrated moments, but I see no sin in my work. I didn't touch the successful parts, but there are many unsuccessful parts because he lacked mastery of the craft, which comes only through time spent on your backside, no other way."
—Dmitry Shostakovich
Dmitriy Shostakovich remembered Alexander Glazunov telling him how Mussorgsky himself played scened from Boris at the piano. Mussorgsky's renditions, according to Glazunov, were brilliant and powerful—quaities Shostakovich felt did not come through in the orchestration of much of Boris.[4] Shostakovich, who had known the opera since his student days at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, assumed that Mussorgsky's orchestral intentions were correct but that Musssorgsky simply could not realize them:[5]
Shostakovich
"As far as I can tell, he imagined something like a singing line around the vocal parts, the way subvoices surround the main melodic line in Russian folk song. But Mussorgsky lacked the technique for that. What a shame! Obviously, he had a purely orchestral immagination, and purely orchestral imagery, as well. The music strives for "new shores," as they say—musical dramaturgy, musical dynamics, language, imagery. But his orchestral technique drags us back to the old shores."
—Dmitry Shostakovich
One of those "old shore" moments was the large momastery bell in the scene in the monk's cell. Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov both use the gong. To Shostakovich, this was too elemental and simplistic to be effective dramatically, since this bel showed the atmosphere of the monk's estragement. "When the bell tolls," Shostakovich told Solomon Volkov, "it's a reminder that there are powers mightier than man, that you can't escape the judgment of history."[6] Therefore, Shostakovich reorchestrated the bell's tolling by the simultaneous playing of seven instruments—bass clarinet, double bassoon, French horns, gong, harps, piano and double basses (at an octave). To Shostakovich, this combination of instruments sounded more like a real bell.[7]
"This is how I worked. I placed Mussorgsky's piano arrangement in front of me and then two scores—Mussorgsky's and Rimsky-Korsakov's. I didn't look at the scores, and I rarely looked at the piano arrangement either. I orchestrated by memory, act by act. Then I compared my orchestration with those of Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. If I saw that either had done it better, then I stayed with that. I didn't reinvent bicycles. I worked honestly, with ferocity, I might say."
—Dmitry Shostakovich
Shostakovich admitted Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestration was more colorful than his own and used brighter timbres. However, he also felt that Rimsky-Korsakov chopped up the melodic lines too much and, by blending melody and subvoices, may have subverted much of Mussorgsky's intent. Shostakovich also felt that Rimsky-Korsakov did not use the orchestra flexibly enough to follow the characters' mood changes, instead making the orchestra calmer, more balanced.[8]
[edit] Instrumentation
Mussorgsky Orchestration
- Strings: Violins, Violas, Cellos, Double Basses
- Woodwinds: 2 Flutes, 1 Flute/Piccolo, 1 Oboe, 1 Oboe/English Horn, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons
- Brass: 4 Horns, 2 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, 1 Tuba
- Percussion: Timpani, Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Tambourine, Cymbals, Tam-tam
- Other: Piano, Harp
- On/Offstage: 1 Trumpet, Bells
Rimsky-Korsakov Orchestration:
- Strings: Violins, Violas, Cellos, Double Basses
- Woodwinds: 2 Flutes, 1 Flute/Piccolo, 1 Oboe, 1 Oboe/English Horn, 2 Clarinets, 1 Clarinet/Bass Clarinet, 2 Bassoons
- Brass: 4 Horns, 3 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, 1 Tuba
- Percussion: Timpani, Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Tambourine, Cymbals
- Other: Piano, Harp
- On/Offstage: 1 Trumpet, Bells, Tam-tam
Shostakovich Orchestration:
- Strings: Violins, Violas, Cellos, Double Basses
- Woodwinds: 2 Flutes, 1 Flute/Piccolo, 2 Oboes, 1 English Horn, 2 Clarinets, 1 Clarinet/E-flat clarinet, 1 Bass Clarinet, 2 Bassoons, 1 Bassoon/Contrabassoon
- Brass: 4 Horns, 3 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, 1 Tuba
- Percussion: Timpani, Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Cymbals, Tam-tam, Triangle, Bells, Glockenspiel, Xylophone
- Other: Piano, Harp, Celesta
- On/Offstage: 4 Trumpets, 2 Cornets, 2 Horns, 2 Baritone Horns, 2 Euphoniums, 2 Tubas, Balalaika and Domra ad libitum
[edit] Sources
- Calvocoressi, M.D., Abraham, G., Mussorgsky, 'Master Musicians' Series, London: J.M.Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1946
- Calvocoressi, M.D., Modest Mussorgsky: His Life and Works, London: Rockliff, 1956
- Maes, Francis, tr. Pomerans, Arnold J. and Erica Pomerans, A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar (Brekeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2002). ISBN 0-520-21815-9.
- Rimsky-Korsakov, N., Chronicle of My Musical Life, New York: Knopf, 1923
- Volkov, Solomon, tr. Bouis, Antonina W., Testomony: The Memoirs of Dmitry Shostakovich (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1979).
