Monday, December 10, 2012

The Five (4th/final portfolio)



Caroline Brazelton
Final Blog Entry
Elementary Russian 
The Five.

    
              In Russian Musical history, there are five men who had an influential mark on what came to be the cultural acceptance in Russian history.  These five men,  Mily Balakirev (the leader), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin, were known as The Five.  Other common names included The Mighty Handful, or The Mighty Coterie.  These composers met annually in St. Petersburg from 1856-1870.  Each of these men aimed to revise and reshape the identity of Russian music.  They did in their own ways, but all had a common purpose of starting the Romantic Nationalist movement in Russia. They composed through art song, opera, orchestration, dances, and many other forms of music.  Certain rhythms and chords began to be associated with the Russian culture. Most importantly, these men essentially put Russia ‘on the map’ for great compositions, paving the way for other phenomenal composers to follow.

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