Symphony No. 2 (Borodin)

Although he had a keen interest in music, Borodin's scientific research and teaching duties as an adjunct professor of Chemistry in the Medico-Surgical Academy at St. Petersburg since 1874 interrupted his composition of the Second Symphony.

Having finished his work, he would go without me to his apartment, where he began musical operations or conversations, in the midst of which he used to jump up, run back to the laboratory to see whether something had not burned out or boiled over; meanwhile he filled the corridor with incredible sequences from successions of ninths or sevenths.

Borodin suddenly decided to abandon Prince Igor in March 1870, criticizing his own inability to write a libretto that would satisfy both musical and scenic requirement.

[5] Borodin's work on the symphony was again interrupted when the Director of the Imperial Theatres, Stephan Gedenov, asked him to collaborate on an extravagant opera-ballet Mlada with other members of Vladimir Stasov's "mighty little heap," namely Cesar Cui, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

[5] A new interest took his attention away from the composition once again in the fall of 1872 as the Tsar Alexander II's government passed legislation allowing women to take advanced medical courses.

[7] The following academic year (1873–74), more and more irritated that he was not receiving support or recognition for his scientific work, he published his last paper on aldehydes and turned to teaching; it was at this time that he became director of the Medical-Surgical Academy's laboratory facilities.

[7] In the autumn of 1876, the Russian Musical Society showed an interest in performing the symphony; however, Borodin was disconcerted to find that he had lost the full score.

[7] This symphony fits in the debate over the merit of folklore elements and traditional western art music values, which was a central conflict of Romantic nationalism.

[7] According to the account of Borodin's friend Nikolay Kashkin, the symphony's striking and abrupt opening theme originated from the abandoned chorus of Polovtsians,[7] and the Soviet biographer Serge Dianin notes that there is a common thread present in all three pieces.

[7] Maes states that the second theme is a protyazhnaya stylization, which he defines as "a splendid form of melismatically decorated song set to poetry of great expressive power and lyrical intensity.

Though it has virtually no polyphony, Borodin has sustained this piece with attractive melodies motivically interrelated, a large-scale sense of rhythm, effective orchestration in the revised version, and idiosyncratic use of harmony and modulation, particularly in the recapitulation.

"[12] Despite this apparent conflict, music critic David Fanning argues that Borodin's use of melodic material, and the heroic themes that result, are "virtually unprecedented in the history of the symphony.

[7] After a four bar introduction, a majority of the Scherzo proper is a continuation of quarter note figures passed throughout the orchestra in a "kaleidoscope of color.

"[20] Dianin notes that the second subject in this passage ends in an unusual fashion, marked by descending leaps of a fourth;[21] while Maes points out the recollection of Glinka, particularly the oriental-sounding Trio (Allegretto).

Brown had the following thoughts of this portion of the second movement: Perhaps, this Allegretto is a Russian Barcarolle with its lilting rhythms in compound-duple meter, mild hemiolas, and a melody marked cantabile e dolce.

According to Borodin's friend and chief biographer Vladimir Stasov, the third movement of the symphony was intended to depict the Slavic minstrel Boyan accompanying himself on a gusli (a type of zither), represented by the harp.

Maes eloquently summarizes the mystique of the third movement by pointing out how powerfully it refers to the "mythical, imaginary world of both Ruslan and Prince Igor.

[23] This section begins with a pentatonic theme in the violin and viola, with the development consisting of a whole-tone passage which is also used in both Mlada and the prologue of Prince Igor.

[7] Stasov states that this movement is a scene of great celebration, which Borodin conveys by writing Slavic dances in mixed triple and duple meter, and syncopated downbeats.

These elements, combined with the addition of cymbals, triangle, tambourine, and bass drum, give the music not only a Slavic dance feel, but also makes it "Turkish" sounding to western ears.

[22] Each dance has its own bold rhythmic motion which is a result of the syncopation, as well as the resilient anacrustic formations;[25] Dianin describes the tone of the movement as being "bright and jubilant.