Stylistic Turbulence: The Experience of the Rimsky-Korsakov School

Abstract

This chapter explores the legacy of Rimsky-Korsakov's pedagogical work, a legacy that bore greatest fruit in the Soviet Union of the 1920s and 1930s, well after his death, when musical life was rebuilt, and pre-revolutionary ideas reassessed. During those years, a major reform of the Conservatory system was undertaken, and new pedagogical strategies emerged. The Rimsky-Korsakov school and the composer's own oeuvre continued to influence musical tastes and teaching in this period, generating lively polemics. The chapter then provides an understanding of how far-reaching Rimsky-Korsakov's principles of composition proved to be, forming a solid foundation that was built on by loyal members of his compositional school over the next two generations, through favorable and unfavorable ideological swings.