Alexander Borodin
Russian Chemist and Member of 'The Five' Nationalist Composers
Biography of Russian composer Alexander Borodin, member of 'The Mighty Handful' and a chemical scientist by profession.
Russian composer Alexander Borodin is famous for his opera Prince Igor which he left unfinished and completed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Aleksandr Glazunov. He is a member of Glinka-influenced 'The Five' or 'The Mighty Handful' group of nationalist Russian composers including Mily Balakirev (leader), Cesar Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov.
To this day, Borodin CDs and Songs are ever popular. Theatre audience and Borodin admirers recognize a lovely familiar theme from his ‘Polovtsian Dances’ as “Stranger in Paradise” from a popular Broadway musical hit Kismet for which Robert Wright and George Forrest converted some of his melodies. Kismet also contains the beuatiful love song “This is My Beloved” which was based on Borodin's String Quartet No. 2. The song earned him a Tony Award in 1954, posthumously, 67 years after his death.
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin, 19th-century Russian composer and chemist by profession, was born in St. Petersburg on November 12, 1833, the illegitimate son of a prince. Having been illegitimate, his father, Prince Gedeanov, registered Alexander (or Aleksandr) as the son of one his serfs. His mother later married a retired army doctor.
As a youth, Borodin developed parallel interests in music and chemistry, teaching himself cello at the same time qualifying in medical chemistry. His music life was apparently subordinated to his research and his activities as a lecturer at the Medico-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. At age 23, he received his doctorate in chemistry.
In 1862, while professor of chemistry at the Academy of Medicine, he began to take lessons from Mily Balakirev, his music mentor. The following year he married Ekaterina Protopopova, a pianist. He began working on his only opera Prince Igor in 1869. Prince Igor includes ‘Polovstian Dances’ and ‘Maidens’ Dance.’ He worked on it at irregular intervals.
From 1872, he lectured on chemistry at the School of Medicine for Women until his death and wrote important treatises on his subject.
Some of His works
- Symphony No. 1 (1867)
- Symphony No, 2 (1876)
- String Quartet No. 1 (1879)
- In the Steppes of Central Asia for orchestra (1880)
- String Quartet No. 2 (1881)
- Symphony No. 3 (1886) Completed by Glazunov
- Opera, Prince Igor, including 'Polovtsian Dances' and 'Maidens' Dance' (Completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov, first performed in St. petersburg in 1890)
- Little Suite for piano
- Songs
- Chamber music, all using traditional Russian themes
Such a remarkable man to become a famous composer, at the same time a chemistry scientist by profession. Overworked, Borodin died from a heart attack at St Petersburg 27 February, 1887. One wonders what he might have achieved had he devoted all his time to composition or to science.
Borodin's Recommended CDs:
Sources:
Classical Music, The Great Composers and their Masterworks by John Stanley (1994)
International Masters, Great Composers (1996)
The Grove concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie (1994)
