Michael Ippolitov-Ivanov was born in Gatchina, Russia, on November 19,
1859. He was graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1882
where he was a pupil in composition of Rimsky-Korsakov. From 1882 to
1893 he was associated with the Tiflis Music School, first as teacher,
then as director. In 1893 he was appointed professor of composition at
the Moscow Conservatory on Tchaikovsky’s recommendation, and from 1906
to 1922 he served as its director. He also distinguished himself as a
conductor of opera in Moscow. He died in that city on January 28, 1935.
Ippolitov-Ivanov’s best music profited from his intensive researches
into Caucasian folk music. His principal works have assimilated many of
the Oriental melodic and rhythmic idioms of songs and dances from that
region. His most popular work of all is the _Caucasian Sketches_ for
orchestra, op. 10 (1895). The first movement, “In the Mountain Pass,”
brings up the picture of a mountain scene. Horn calls are here used
prominently. “In the Village” opens with a cadenza for English horn and
proceeds to a beautiful melody for viola set against a persistent ⅜
rhythm. “In the Mosque” dispenses with the strings while describing an
impressive religious ceremony. The suite ends with the stirring “March
of the Sirdar,” a “sirdar” being an Oriental potentate.