Background

Alexandr Porfyrievich Borodin was born in St Petersburg, Russian Empire (now Russia) on the 12th of November 1834. He was the illegitimate son of the Georgian Prince Luka Gedevanishvili. His mother was Evdokia Konstantinova Antonova while Porfiry Borodin, the servant of the Georgian Prince, was Borodin’s registered father.

Education

Borodin was fluent in many languages such as Russian, French, English, Italian and German. He studied medicine from 1850 to 1856 at the St. Petersburg Medical-Surgical Academy and obtained his honors degree.

He obtained a doctorate in organic chemistry and the subject of his thesis was “On the analogy of arsenic acid with phosphoric acid in chemical and toxicological behavior”.

He carried on research work about benzene derivatives in the laboratory of Emil Erlenmeye, . Later, he conducted advanced research on aldehydes. The chemistry of mineral waters and their medicinal benefits were also the topics of his research.

During his stay in Western Europe from 1859 to 1863, he studied medicine and chemistry. In 1862, his experiment about the first nucleophilic displacement of chlorine by fluorine in benzoyl chloride was published.

Career

He worked as a surgeon in a military hospital for one year. He also pursued an advanced scientific study in Western Europe for three years. At the same time, he attended the concerts of Franz Liszt.

In 1862, he came back to St. Petersburg and taught Chemistry at the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy. There, he worked on self-condensation of small aldehydes. At the same time, he pursued music as a hobby and played the piano.

The first symphony he composed was in 1862, under the guidance of Mily Balakirev. In 1864, he published his papers of experimental work on self-condensation of small aldehydes.

Although his works are relatively few, Borodin ranks a close second to Mussorgsky as a creative artist among the Mighty Five. His gift is marked neither by the uncertainty nor the verbosity of some of his colleagues and most of his musical heirs. Moreover, his confidence is not marred by the self-righteous certainty that led the next generation of Russian composers into relatively insignificant utterance.

He started composing his “Symphony No. 2” in 1869. Simultaneously, he remained busy in scientific research and delivery of lectures.

Borodin's Second Symphony (the Bogatyr or Heroic) and his opera Prince Igor (finished posthumously by Rimsky-Korsakov and Aleksandr Glazunov) are his principal works of large proportions. In both he uses a developed folk style effectively, and in the opera he makes a major contribution to the subgenre of "Russian music about the East. " Borodin's happy gift for beguiling melody is attested to by the adaptation of his Prince Igor music for the American musical Kismet. Other than the symphony and the opera, his most-played works are, perhaps, the two String Quartets, some of whose themes are also heard in Kismet. A few other chamber works and some 18 art songs nearly round out Borodin's complete list of works.

His interest in the field of organic chemistry led him to discover the ‘Aldol-reaction/condensation’ in 1872. In the same year, he set up medical courses for women. The same year, he declared about the discovery of a new by-product in aldehyde reaction with alcohol-like properties to the Russian Chemical Society.

In his last article on reactions of amides that he published in 1875, he discussed about a method of the identification of urea in animal urine. In 1877, for the first time, he performed his “Symphony No. 1” outside of Russia.

Borodin did not teach. After suffering from cholera and several minor heart attacks, he passed away suddenly. He died in 1887, and his legacy was preserved by his friends and reappears in some of the work of Sergei Prokofiev. Borodin's few works, like those of Mussorgsky, are disproportionately important.

Achievements

• Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as The Mighty Handful, a group dedicated to producing a uniquely Russian kind of classical music, rather than imitating earlier Western European models.
  
  Borodin is best known for his symphonies, his two string quartets, the tone poem In the Steppes of Central Asia and his opera Prince Igor. Music from Prince Igor and his string quartets was later adapted for the US musical Kismet. A notable advocate of women's rights, Borodin was a promoter of education in Russia and founded the School of Medicine for Women in Saint Petersburg.
  
  As a chemist, he is best known for his work in organic synthesis, including being among the first chemists to demonstrate nucleophilic substitution, as well as co-discoverer of the aldol reaction.
  
  Borodin's fame outside the Russian Empire was made possible during his lifetime by Franz Liszt, who arranged a performance of the Symphony No. 1 in Germany in 1880, and by the Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau in Belgium and France. His music is noted for its strong lyricism and rich harmonies. Along with some influences from Western composers, as a member of The Five his music exudes also an undeniably Russian flavor. His passionate music and unusual harmonies proved to have a lasting influence on the younger French composers Debussy and Ravel (in homage, the latter composed in 1913 a piano piece entitled "À la manière de Borodine").
  
  The evocative characteristics of Borodin's music made possible the adaptation of his compositions in the 1953 musical Kismet, by Robert Wright and George Forrest, notably in the songs "Stranger in Paradise" and "And This Is My Beloved". In 1954, Borodin was posthumously awarded a Tony Award for this show.
  
  His work “Prince Igor” was completed posthumously by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. “The Borodin Quartet”, a string quartet, is named in his honor. The name "Alexander Borodin” was used as a fictional character by the chemist Alexander Shulgin in his books “PiHKAL” and “TiHKAL”.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Borodin: String Sextet; Glazunov: String Quintet

    (After a highly acclaimed series of Brahms chamber music r...)

  • Borodin Edition

    (Alexander Porfir'yevich Borodin inarguably best known for...)

  • Borodin: Chamber Music

    (Alexander Mndoiantz, piano - Alexanderr Polonski, violon ...)

  • Prince Igor

    (The Sofia National Opera Chorus has garnered acclaim the ...)

  • Borodin: In the Steppes of Central Asia (Digitally Remastered)

    (Alexander Borodin's In the Steppes of Central Asia perfor...)

  • Borodin: Symphony No. 2 / In the Steppes of Central Asia / Prince Igor - excerpts (including Polovtsian Dances)

    (No Description Available No Track Information Available M...)

  • Borodin: String Quartet No. 1 in A Major; String Quartet No. 2 in D Major

    (The Borodin Quartet plays the music of its namesake as to...)

  • Borodin: Symphonies 1-3
  • Borodin: The World of Borodin

Views

Quotations: "I am a composer in search of oblivion; and I'm always slightly ashamed to admit that I compose. "

"Music is a pastime, a relaxation from more serious occupations. "

"Respectable people do not write music or make love as a career. "

"As a composer seeking to remain anonymous I am shy of confessing my musical activity. This is intelligible enough. For others it is their chief business, the occupation and aim of life. For me it is a relaxation, a pastime which distracts me from my principal business, my professorship. I love my profession and my science. I love the Academy and my pupils, male and female, because to direct the work of young people, one must be close to them. "

Connections

He married Ekaterina Protopopova, a pianist, in 1863 and had at least one daughter, named Gania.

Father:

Luka Stepanovich Gedevanishvili

Mother:

Evdokia Konstantinovna Antonova

Wife:

Ekaterina Protopopova

Daughter:

Gania

References

• Early Russian Organic Chemists and Their Legacy (SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science)
• Borodin and Liszt: I. Life and works of a Russian Composer. II. Liszt, as sketched in the letters of Borodin
• A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar