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Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian
language|Russian:
lang|ru|Никола
й
Андреев&
#1080;ч
Римский-
Корсако&
#1074;), also Nikolai, Nicolai, and
Rimsky-Korsakoff, (March 18, 1844 – June 21,
1908) was a Russian composer and teacher of
classical music particularly noted for his fine
orchestration, which may have been influenced by
his synaesthesia. His most famous compositions are
Flight of the Bumblebee and Scheherazade
(Rimsky-Korsakov)|Scheherazade.

Image:RimskyKorsakov.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Rimsky-
Korsakov

==Biography==

Born at Tikhvin, near Novgorod, into an
aristocratic family, Rimsky-Korsakov showed
musical ability from an early age, but studied at
the Russian Imperial Naval College in Saint
Petersburg and subsequently joined the Russian
Navy. It was only when he met Mily Balakirev that
he began to concentrate more seriously on music.
Balakirev encouraged him to compose and taught him
when he was not at sea. He also met the other
composers of the group that were to become known
as "The Five", or "The Mighty Handful", through
Balakirev.  (The Russian for "The Five",
Могучая
Кучка, means
literally "mighty pile" or "mighty mound";  and
actually does not sound any more attractive in
Russian than the translation does in English.) 
While in the Navy, Rimsky-Korsakov completed a
symphony, the first such piece to be composed by a
Russian. He also completed his well known
orchestral piece Sadko (1867) and the opera The
Maid of Pskov (1872), before resigning his
commission in 1873.

Rimsky-Korsakov and the other members of "The
Five" frequently collaborated on or edited each
other's compositions. In particular, after the
death of Modest Mussorgsky in 1881,
Rimsky-Korsakov took on the task of revising
several of Mussorgsky's pieces for publication and
performance. For example, Rimsky-Korsakov's
arrangement of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain
is the version generally performed today. However,
critical opinion of Mussorgsky has changed over
time so that his style, once considered
unpolished, is now valued for its originality.
This has caused some of Rimsky-Korsakov's other
revisions, such as that of Boris Godunov
(opera)|Boris Godunov, to fall out of favor and be
replaced by productions more faithful to
Mussorgsky's original manuscripts. 

Image:P3264413_rimsky_korsakov_lg.jpg|right|thumb|
200px|Rimsky-Korsakov's grave at Tikhvin Cemetery.

In 1871, despite being largely self-taught,
Rimsky-Korsakov became professor of composition
and orchestration at the Saint Petersburg
Conservatoire. There he taught many composers who
would later find fame, including Alexander
Glazunov, Sergei Prokofiev and Igor Stravinsky. He
continued to be a prolific composer, producing
many orchestral works, including the well known
Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)|Scheherazade and
Capriccio espagnol. He also wrote fifteen operas,
including The Immortal Koschei (opera)|Khashchei
the Immortal and The Tale of Tsar Saltan
(Rimsky-Korsakov)|The Tale of Tsar Saltan, the
latter of which includes the famous Flight of the
Bumblebee, since arrangement|arranged for all
kinds of different instrumental groups. Among his
Russian Orthodox liturgical music is the a
cappella Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.

In 1905 Rimsky-Korsakov was removed from his
professorship in Saint Petersburg owing to his
expressing some political views the authorities
disapproved of. This sparked a series of
resignations by his fellow faculty members, and he
was eventually reinstated. The political
controversy continued with his opera The Golden
Cockerel (Le Coq d'Or)  (1907) which was an attack
on Imperial Russia, and which was banned from
performance following its premiere.

Towards the end of his life, Rimsky-Korsakov
suffered from angina. He died in Lyubensk in 1908,
and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the
Alexander Nevsky Monastery|Aleksandr Nevsky Lavra
in St. Petersburg. His nephew Georgy Mikhaylovich
Rimsky-Korsakov was also a composer; son Andrey
Rimsky-Korsakov|Andrey Nikolayevich
Rimsky-Korsakov was a musicologist.

==Literature==
*Gerald Abraham: Rimsky-Korsakov (1949, ISBN
0781296234)
*Gerald Abraham: Rimsky-Korsakov: A Short
Biography (1975, ISBN 0404145000)
*Vasilii Vasilevich Yastrebtsev: Reminiscences of
Rimsky-Korsakov (1985, ISBN 023105260X)

==External links==
*http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/3606/start.html
The Rimsky-Korsakov Home Page