Prince Igor - Composition History

Composition History

Vladimir Stasov (1824–1906) Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) Anatoly Lyadov (1855–1914) Aleksandr Glazunov (1865–1936)

Original Composition: 1869–1887

After briefly considering Lev Mey's The Tsar's Bride as a subject (later taken up in 1898 by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, his 9th opera), Borodin began looking for a new project for his first opera. Vladimir Stasov, critic and advisor to The Mighty Handful, suggested The Lay of Igor's Host, a 12th century epic prose poem, and sent Borodin a scenario for a 3 Act opera on 30 April 1869. Initially, Borodin found the proposition intriguing, but daunting:

"Your outline is so complete that everything seems clear to me and suits me perfectly. But will I manage to carry out my own task to the end? Bah! As they say here, 'He who is afraid of the wolf doesn't go into the woods!' So I shall give it a try..." —Aleksandr Borodin, reply to Stasov's proposal

After collecting material from literary sources, Borodin began composition in September 1869 with initial versions of Yaroslavna's arioso and Konchakovna's cavatina, and sketched the Polovtsian Dances and March of the Polovtsy. He soon began to have doubts and ceased composing. He expressed his misgivings in a letter to his wife: "There is too little drama here, and no movement... To me, opera without drama, in the strict sense, is unnatural." This began a period of about four years in which he proceeded no further on Prince Igor, but began diverting materials for the opera into his other works, the Symphony No 2 in B minor (1869–76) and the collaborative opera-ballet Mlada (1872).

The Mlada project was soon aborted, and Borodin, like the other members of The Mighty Handful who were involved—César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov—thought about ways to recycle the music he contributed. Of the eight numbers he had composed for Act 4 of Mlada, those that eventually found their way into (or back into) Prince Igor included No.1 (Prologue: The opening C major chorus), No.2 (material for Yaroslavna's arioso and Igor's aria), No.3 (Prologue: The eclipse), No.4 (Act 3: The trio), and No.8 (Act 4: The closing chorus).

Borodin returned to Prince Igor in 1874, inspired by the success of his comrades Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky in the staging of their historical operas, The Maid of Pskov (1873) and Boris Godunov (1874). This period also marks the creation of two new characters, the deserters Skula and Yeroshka, who have much in common with the rogue monks Varlaam and Misail in Boris Godunov.

In his memoirs, Rimsky-Korsakov mentions an 1876 concert at which Borodin's "closing chorus" was performed, the first public performance of any music from Prince Igor identified by him:

"...Borodin's closing chorus ..., which, in the epilogue of the opera (subsequently done away with) extolled Igor's exploits, was shifted by the author himself to the prologue of the opera, of which it now forms a part. At present this chorus extolls Igor as he starts on his expedition against the Polovtsy. The episodes of the solar eclipse, of the parting from Yaroslavna, etc., divide it into halves which fringe the entire prologue. In those days this whole middle part was non-existent, and the chorus formed one unbroken number of rather considerable dimensions." —Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Chronicle of My Musical Life, 1909

The idea of a choral epilogue in the original scenario was no doubt inspired by the example of A Life for the Tsar by Glinka, to whose memory Prince Igor is dedicated.

Borodin's primary occupation was chemistry, including research and teaching. However, he also spent much time in support of women's causes, much to the consternation of his fellow composers, who felt he should devote his time and talent to music. In 1876, a frustrated Stasov gave up hope that Borodin would ever finish Prince Igor, and offered his scenario to Rimsky-Korsakov. Rimsky-Korsakov instead assisted Borodin in orchestrating important numbers in preparation for concert performance—for example, the Polovtsian Dances in 1879:

"There was no end of waiting for the orchestration of the Polovtsian Dances, and yet they had been announced and rehearsed by me with the chorus. It was high time to copy out the parts. In despair I heaped reproaches on Borodin. He, too, was none too happy. At last, giving up all hope, I offered to help him with the orchestration. Thereupon he came to my house in the evening, bringing with him the hardly touched score of the Polovtsian Dances; and the three of us — he, Anatoly Lyadov, and I — took it apart and began to score it in hot haste. To gain time, we wrote in pencil and not in ink. Thus we sat at work until late at night. The finished sheets of the score Borodin covered with liquid gelatine, to keep our pencil marks intact; and in order to have the sheets dry the sooner, he hung them out like washing on lines in my study. Thus the number was ready and passed on to the copyist. The orchestration of the closing chorus I did almost single-handed..." —Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Chronicle of My Musical Life, 1909

Borodin worked on Prince Igor, off and on, for almost 18 years.

Posthumous Completion and Orchestration: 1887 – 1888

Borodin died suddenly in 1887, leaving Prince Igor incomplete. Rimsky-Korsakov and Stasov went to Borodin's home, collected his scores, and brought them to Rimsky-Korsakov's house.

"Glazunov and I together sorted all the manuscripts ... In the first place there was the unfinished Prince Igor. Certain numbers of the opera, such as the first chorus, the dance of the Polovtsy, Yaroslavna's Lament, the recitative and song of Vladimir Galitsky, Konchak's aria, the arias of Konchakovna and Prince Vladimir Igorevich, as well as the closing chorus, had been finished and orchestrated by the composer. Much else existed in the form of finished piano sketches; all the rest was in fragmentary rough draft only, while a good deal simply did not exist. For Acts II and III (in the camp of the Polovtsy) there was no adequate libretto —no scenario, even — there were only scattered verses and musical sketches, or finished numbers that showed no connection between them. The synopsis of these acts I knew full well from talks and discussions with Borodin, although in his projects he had been changing a great deal, striking things out and putting them back again. The smallest bulk of composed music proved to be in Act III. Glazunov and I settled the matter as follows between us: he was to fill in all the gaps in Act III and write down from memory the Overture played so often by the composer, while I was to orchestrate, finish composing, and systematize all the rest that had been left unfinished and unorchestrated by Borodin." —Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Chronicle of My Musical Life, 1909

The often-repeated account that Glazunov reconstructed and orchestrated the overture from memory after hearing the composer play it at the piano is true only in part. The following statement by Glazunov himself clarifies the matter:

"The overture was composed by me roughly according to Borodin's plan. I took the themes from the corresponding numbers of the opera and was fortunate enough to find the canonic ending of the second subject among the composer's sketches. I slightly altered the fanfares for the overture ... The bass progression in the middle I found noted down on a scrap of paper, and the combination of the two themes (Igor's aria and a phrase from the trio) was also discovered among the composer's papers. A few bars at the very end were composed by me." —Aleksandr Glazunov, memoir, 1891, published in the Russkaya muzikalnaya gazeta, 1896