Specifics of working with choir music by Russian composer Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov

Brilliant Russian composer N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) began his creative work with orchestration of A.S. Dargomyzhsky's opera The Stone Guest (1869), and his last work was his own opera The Golden Cockerel (1907). Rimsky-Korsakov is the backbone of Russian classical music, and his creativity chronologically bridges the era of M.I. Glinka and A.S. Dargomyzhsky with music of the twentieth century, i.e., A.N. Scriabin, S.V. Rachmaninoff, I.F. Stravinsky, and others. Rimsky-Korsakov composed an extensive volume of works in a wide variety of genres, from symphony and opera to vocal miniatures, folk song arrangements and choirs (including a capella with religious texts). Folk song culture played a special role in the composer's work, and he interpreted and transformed it in accordance with his understanding and hearing of the nature of the oldest traditional ritual songs and tunes. Folk music is heard in many of his operas, symphonic works, choirs, etc. In this regard, it is extremely important to achieve appropriate interpretation of choir music created by the Russian composer, who knew folk songs and instrumental culture well, not only as a researcher, but also, to some extent, as a collector of songs.