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In mid- to late-19th-century Russia, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and a group of composers known as The Five had differing opinions as to whether Russian classical music should be composed following Western or native practices. Tchaikovsky wanted to write professional compositions of such quality that they would stand up to Western scrutiny and thus transcend national barriers, yet remain distinctively Russian in melody, rhythm and other compositional characteristics. The Five, made up of composers Mily Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, sought to produce a specifically Russian kind of art music, rather than one that imitated older European music or relied on European-style conservatory training. While Tchaikovsky himself used folk songs in some of his works, for the most part he tried to follow Western practices of composition, especially in terms of tonality and tonal progression. Also, unlike Tchaikovsky, none of The Five was academically trained in composition; in fact, their leader, Balakirev, considered academicism a threat to musical imagination. Along with critic Vladimir Stasov, who supported The Five, Balakirev attacked relentlessly both the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from which Tchaikovsky had graduated, and its founder Anton Rubinstein, orally and in print.〔Maes, 39.〕 As Tchaikovsky had become Rubinstein's best-known student, he was initially considered by association as a natural target for attack, especially as fodder for Cui's printed critical reviews.〔Holden, 52.〕 This attitude changed slightly when Rubinstein left the Saint Petersburg musical scene in 1867. In 1869 Tchaikovsky entered into a working relationship with Balakirev; the result was Tchaikovsky's first recognized masterpiece, the fantasy-overture ''Romeo and Juliet'', a work which The Five wholeheartedly embraced.〔Brown, ''Man and Music'', 49.〕 When Tchaikovsky wrote a positive review of Rimsky-Korsakov's ''Fantasy on Serbian Themes'' he was welcomed into the circle, despite concerns about the academic nature of his musical background.〔Maes, 44.〕 The finale of his Second Symphony, nicknamed the ''Little Russian'', was also received enthusiastically by the group on its first performance in 1872.〔Brown, ''Early Years'', 255; Holden, 87; Warrack, 68–9.〕 Tchaikovsky remained friendly but never intimate with most of The Five, ambivalent about their music; their goals and aesthetics did not match his.〔Maes, 49.〕 He took pains to ensure his musical independence from them as well as from the conservative faction at the Conservatory—an outcome facilitated by his acceptance of a professorship at the Moscow Conservatory offered to him by Nikolai Rubinstein, Anton's brother.〔Holden, 64.〕 When Rimsky-Korsakov was offered a professorship at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, it was to Tchaikovsky that he turned for advice and guidance.〔Maes, 48.〕 Later, when Rimsky-Korsakov was under pressure from his fellow nationalists for his change in attitude on music education and his own intensive studies in music,〔Schonberg, 363.〕 Tchaikovsky continued to support him morally, told him that he fully applauded what he was doing and admired both his artistic modesty and his strength of character.〔Rimsky-Korsakov, 157 ft. 30.〕 In the 1880s, long after the members of The Five had gone their separate ways, another group called the Belyayev circle took up where they left off. Tchaikovsky enjoyed close relations with the leading members of this group—Alexander Glazunov, Anatoly Lyadov and, by then, Rimsky-Korsakov.〔Rimsky-Korsakov, 308.〕 == Prologue: growing debate == With the exception of Mikhail Glinka, who became the first "truly Russian" composer,〔Taruskin, ''Grove Opera'', 2:449.〕 the only music indigenous to Russia before Tchaikovsky's birthday in 1840 were folk and sacred music; the Russian Orthodox Church's proscription of secular music had effectively stifled its development.〔Holden, xxi; Maes, 14; Taruskin, ''Grove Opera'', 4:99.〕 Beginning in the 1830s, Russian intelligentsia debated the issue of whether artists negated their Russianness when they borrowed from European culture or took vital steps toward renewing and developing Russian culture.〔Bergamini, 318–19; Hosking, 277.〕 Two groups sought to answer this question. Slavophiles idealized Russian history before Peter the Great〔Bergamini, 319.〕 and claimed the country possessed a distinct culture, rooted in Byzantium and spread by the Russian Orthodox Church.〔Hosking, 275.〕 The ''Zapadniki'' ("Westernizers"), on the other hand, lauded Peter as a patriot who wanted to reform his country and bring it on a par with Europe.〔Bergamini, 319; Volkov, 7, 9.〕 Looking forward instead of backward, they saw Russia as a youthful and inexperienced but with the potential of becoming the most advanced European civilization by borrowing from Europe and turning its liabilities into assets.〔Hosking, 276–7.〕 In 1836, Glinka's opera ''A Life for the Tsar'' was premiered in Saint Petersburg. This was an event long-awaited by the intelligentsia. The opera was the first conceived by a Russian composer on a grand scale, set to a Russian text and patriotic in its appeal.〔 Its plot fit neatly into the doctrine of Official Nationality being promulgated by Nicholas I, thus assuring Imperial approval.〔Maes, 12–13, 20; Taruskin, ''Grove Opera'', 12:1621.〕 In formal and stylistic terms, ''A Life'' was very much an Italian opera but also showed a sophisticated thematic structure and a boldness in orchestral scoring.〔 It was the first tragic opera to enter the Russian repertoire, with Ivan Susanin's death at the end underlining and adding gravitas to the patriotism running through the whole opera. (In Cavos's version, Ivan is spared at the last minute.)〔Maes, 22.〕 It was also the first Russian opera where the music continued throughout, uninterrupted by spoken dialogue.〔Maes, 17; Taruskin, ''Grove Opera'', 2:447–448, 4:99–100.〕 Moreover—and this is what amazed contemporaries about the work—the music included folk songs and Russian national idioms, incorporating them into the drama. Glinka meant his use of folk songs to reflect the presence of popular characters in the opera, rather than an overt attempt at nationalism.〔Maes, 29.〕 Nor do they play a major part in the opera.〔Maes, 23.〕 Nevertheless, despite a few derogatory comments about Glinka's use of "coachman's music," ''A Life'' became popular enough to earn obtain permanent repertory status, the first Russian opera to do so in that country.〔Maes, 16; Taruskin, ''Grove Opera'', 2:1261.〕 Ironically, the success of Rossini's ''Semiramide'' earlier the same season was what allowed ''A Life'' to be staged at all, with virtually all the cast from ''Semiramide'' retained for ''A Life''. Despite ''A Life's'' success, the furor over ''Semiramide'' aroused an overwhelming demand for Italian opera. This proved a setback for Russian opera in general and particularly for Glinka's next opera, ''Ruslan and Lyudmila'' when it was produced in 1842. Its failure prompted Glinka to leave Russia; he died in exile.〔Taruskin, ''Grove Opera'', 2:448, 4:94.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and The Five」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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