Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

102 EIMSKY-KOESAKOV EIMSKY-KOESAKOV
delivered a series of lectures on the history of
music in England. In 1840 he took an active
part in the formation of the Musical Antiquarian
and Percy Societies, of both wliich he became
secretary, and for both which he edited several
works. In 1841 he was editor of the musical
publications of the Motet Society. In the
course of the next few years he edited a collection
of Cathedral Chants ; The Order of Daily
Service according to the use of Westminster
Abbey ; a reprint of Lowe's Short Direction for
the performance of GathedraX Service ; Tallis's
Responses ; Marbeok's Book of Common Prayer,
noted ; a volume of unpublished Cathedral
Services ; Arnold's Cathedral Music ; and the
oratorios of 'Messiah,' 'Samson,' and 'Saul,'
for the Handel Society. In 1842 he was elected
a F.S.A. and member of the Academy of Music
in Stockholm, and obtained the degree of Doctor
in Philosophy. He was offered, but declined,
the appointment of Professor of Music in Harvard
University, U.S.A. In 1848 he received
the honorary degree of LL.D., from the university
of Oxford. He lectured on music at the
Collegiate Institution, Liverpool ; the Philosophic
Institute, Edinburgh ; the Eoyal Institution
of Great Britain, and elsewhere. He published
The Organ, its History and Oomslrueticm
(1855) (in collaboration with Mr. E. J. Hopkins),
Notices of the Early English Organ Builders
(1865), Histmy of the PianofarU (1860), Bihliotheea
Maglrigaiiana^Xiil), Musicallllustraiions
of Percy's Meliques, The Ancient Vocal Music of
England, The Bounds, .Catches, and Canons of
England (in conjunction with Kev. J. P.
Metcalfe), two collections of Christmas Carols.
'A Little Book of Songs and Ballads,' etc etc.
He edited North's Memoirs of Musick (1846),
Sir Thomas Overbury's Works (1856), the Old
Cheque Book of the Chapel Boyal (1872), and
two Sermons by Boy Bishops. He arranged
many operas and other works, was author of
many elementary books, and an extensive
contributor to periodical literature. His compositions
were but few, the principal being an
operetta, The ' Fair Maid of Islington ' (1838),
music to 'The Castle Spectre' (1839), and a
posthumous cantata, 'Country Life.' His pretty
little song, Happy ' Land,' had an extensive
popularity. After his resignation of the organistship
of the Swiss Church, he was successively
organist of several churches and chapels, such
as St. Peter's, Vere Street. He died, after a
lingering illness, Sept. 26, 1876 (buried at
Highgate Cemetery), leaving a fine musical
library, which was sold by auction at Sotheby's
on July 3, 1877, and following days. See an
account of the library in the Musical World,
1877, p. 539. An obituary notice appeared in
the Musical Times, 1877, p. 427, and other
papers. The most complete list of his works
is in Brit. Mus. Biog. w. h. h.
EIMSKY-KOESAKOV, Nicholas Andreie-
VIOH, was born March 18 (O.S. March 6), 1844,
in the little town of Tikhvin, in the Government
of Novgorod. The child's earliest musical
impressions were derived from a small band,
consisting of four Jews employed upon the
family estate. These musicians mustered two
violins, cymbals, and a tambourine, and were
often summoned to the house to enliven the
evenings when there was company or dancing.
At six years old the boy began to be taught
the piano, and at nine he made his first attempts
at composition. His talent for niusic
was evident to his parents, but being of aristocratic
family he was destined for one of the
only two professions then considered suitable
for a young man of good birth. In 1856
Eimsky-Korsakov entered the Naval College
in St. Petersburg, where he remained until
1862. This period of his life was not very
favourable to his musical development, but he
managed on Sundays and holidays to receive
some instruction in the violoncello from Ulich,
and in the pianoforte from an excellent teacher,
Fedor Kanill^. His acquaintance with Balakirev,
dating frofli 1861, was the decisive
moment in his career. Intercourse with the
young but capable leader of the new Russian
school of music, and with his disciples, Cui,
Moussorgsky, and Borodin, awoke in the young
naval cadet an ambition to study the art to
more serious purpose. He had only just begun
to profit by Balakirev's teaching when he was
sent abroad ;
but, undaunted by the interruption,
during this cruise, which lasted three
years (1862-65), he completed a symphony,
op. 1. From the letters which he wrote at
this time to C^sar Cui it is evident that he
composed under great difficulties, but the work
was completed in spite of them, and, movement
by movement, the manuscript was sent to
Balakirev for advice and correction. The work
was performed for the first time in December
1865, when Balakirev conducted it at one of
the concerts of the Free School of Music, St.
Petersburg. It weis the first symphony from
the pen of a native composer, and the public,
who gave it a hearty reception, were surprised
when a youth in naval uniform appeared to
acknowledge their ovation. Rimsky-Korsakov
now remained in St. Petersburg, and was able
to renew his musical studies and his close
association with the circle of Balakirev.
The compositions which followed the First
Symphony— the symphonic poem 'Sadko'
(1867), and the opera ' Pskovitianka ' ('The
Maid of Pskov ')— called the attention of all
musical Russia to this promising composer.
In 1871 he was appointed professor of composition
and instrumentation in the St. Petersburg
Conservatoire. He retired from the navy,
which can never have been a congenial profession,
in 1873, and at the wish of the Grand
Duke Constantine Nicholaevich was appointed