In the first half of the 19th century, Russian composers began to show an interest for the music of the Orient. Then, at the very beginning of the century, the Caucasus became open for visits. Not only composers, but also poets and painters were impressed with its exoticism, and the notion "Orient" included not just the Arab East, but the Caucasus as well. In terms of style, its nature, traditions, music and dances were literally overwhelming. The Caucasus inspired many of the works of the Russian culture of the 19th century.
The territorial proximity of the Caucasus to Russia, close associations with the culture and arts of the Caucasus, including the works by Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov, and, mainly, visits of Russian composers such as Mikhail Glinka and Mily Balakirev to the Caucasus – all that were reasons why orientality found its fullest development and expression in the Russian music as compared to the other European music cultures.
This is what César Cui wrote about Mily Balakirev's Tamara: "The symphonic poem Tamara based on the poem by Lermontov is Balakirev's most solid piece. All that an eminent artist can put into its favourite work – his deep thoughts, aspirations, dreams, best feelings, mighty ideas along with the completeness of form and perfection of technique – Balakirev was put it all into Tamara. It amazes you with the power and depth of passion, with its constant growth to the extreme limit; it amazes you with the clarity of oriental, surprisingly consistent flavour; it amazes you with its diversity, luster, novelty and originality of the music, and may be most of all – with its infinite beauty of a broad conclusion. It appears that in this conclusion Balakirev expressed everything that could be said, that he reached the final frontier of beauty and poetry with nowhere else to go, yet he still finds new ways, makes even deeper strings of human heart sound, fathoms deeper in a more ideal expanse…"
It took the composer fifteen years with lengthy intervals to write the poem (1867–1882). The initial concept was much simpler and unrelated to Lermontov's poem. The conceived orchestral piece was named Lezghinka. However, Balakirev gradually transformed a simple dance into a large-scale programme symphonic piece on the theme by his favourite poet. The musical platform of the poem fully corresponds to the form of its literature source. Three parts of the poem were combined in one – pictures of the Caucasian wilderness on the brinks of a fantastic sequence, an orgy in Queen Tamara's palace.
The intricate patterns of fanciful and sinuous melodies, diverse combinations of complicated rhythmic figures, an original character of the oriental orchestration – all that Balakirev was so impressed with and memorized during his trip to the Caucasus he realized in his masterpiece.
"Following Balakirev's and Mussorgsky's idea, I turned to a beautiful fairy tale," wrote the other great composer. It was penned by Osip Senkovsky, a well-known journalist and Arabist who wrote under the pseudonym Baron Brambeus. Being a connoisseur of the Arabic literature, he used in his romantic fairy tale some motifs of Arabic folk art and the style of Oriental narrations that he studied so well. That was how another marvelous piece came into existence.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov symphonic suite Antar (1868) was the composer's first composition based on an oriental story, and also one of his first experiments in the sphere of programme music. Antar was originally called a symphony (the second in succession), but later it was renamed a symphonic suite. Basing on a literature programme, the composer gave the suite an original pictorial and narrative form to convey all details of the chosen poetical source in music. Rimsky-Korsakov was carried away with the task of exposing the imagery of the fairy tale through, first of all, brilliance of orchestral sound. As to the substance of the fairy tale, it was realized by means of number of alternating bright musical pictures and the sequence of the literature plot.
Antar marked the beginning of Rimsky-Korsakov's recognition and repute as a master of symphonic music, and since then the subject of the Orient remained an important part all through his career.
Alexander Glazunov, Balakirev's and Rimsky-Korsakov's young student, also did not disregard oriental themes in his music. Songs, dances, processions and narrations – all artistic images of Glazunov's Oriental Rhapsody (1889) are characteristic for his early period.
The plot of the Rhapsody unfolds from an illustration of a city falling asleep at night, with singing of a "young improviser" and roll call of the watchmen, to a picture of greeting a triumphant army, general joy and the warriors' feast. Each of the Rhapsody's five movements has a programme of its own: 1. Evening. The City Falls Asleep. The Watchmen's Call. Song of a Young Improviser; 2. Dance of the Young Men and Girls; 3. An Old Man's Ballad; 4. Fanfares. Cries. Return of the Victorious Troops. General Triumph; 5. Celebration of the Warriors. The Young Improviser Appears in the Middle of the Dance. Unbridled Orgy.
The orchestra's sound is quite peculiar because of its original lineup – lots of percussion, a harp, and a variety of other characteristic instruments such as English horn, piccolo clarinet, and bass clarinet.
