Unencumbered by formal education in composition,
Borodin was invited to join the Mighty Hand, a set of
five composers who set about to throw off the shackles
of Western European tradition, thereby founding a
uniquely Russian school of composition. This march
contains many stylized elements of that new school:
Orientalism, tonal mutability, running parallel thirds,
the Russian submedient, and modular rotation in
sequences of thirds
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five). Also
noteworthy in the o...(+)
Unencumbered by formal education in composition,
Borodin was invited to join the Mighty Hand, a set of
five composers who set about to throw off the shackles
of Western European tradition, thereby founding a
uniquely Russian school of composition. This march
contains many stylized elements of that new school:
Orientalism, tonal mutability, running parallel thirds,
the Russian submedient, and modular rotation in
sequences of thirds
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five). Also
noteworthy in the orchestration is the use of offbeats
and harmony notes in the lowest octaves; the major
2nds in the opening bars connote the approaching menace
of the Polovtsian Army and the ascending parallel
thirds in the climax to the first strain may be the
earliest example of barbarism in music. Borodin's own
harmony is superb, and is particularly well displayed
in the brass band, both in delicate nuance, and in raw
power. This arrangement humbly mirrors the brilliant
orchestration completed posthumously by Rimsky-Korsakov
and Glazunov which, incidentally, is augmented with a
brass band. The original metronome marking of 120 may
be inauthentic, if not breathtaking, though many fine
recordings (Reiner) approach it handily. A mark of 100
has a nice inexorable quality (Fennell) and would
absolutely lend itself to a fine performance. The mark
of 110 is offered as compromise.
