Alexander borodin stranger in paradise

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Alexander borodin stranger in paradise

He showed an interest in music, particularly band instruments, when he was 8. He could hear a piece and play it on the piano, so his mother hired a piano teacher for him. Borodin composed his first piece the following year and later learned cello. It sounds like the start of a successful musical career, but Borodin also had a great interest in science.

He started medical school in and upon graduation started to work in a military hospital. He earned a doctorate in chemistry in and, in , continued his studies in Heidelberg, Germany. All the while, he continued to enjoy music as a hobby, both playing and composing. While in Heidelberg, he met and fell in love with a Russian woman, Ekaterina Protopova, a brilliant pianist who was being treated for tuberculosis.

When they returned to Russia, they got married, and Borodin started his career as chemistry professor. At about the same time, he met Mily Balakirev and renewed his acquaintance with Modest Mussorgsky, whom he had met earlier. Borodin still regarded music as a hobby and only composed on weekends or when he was too sick to go to work. On top of his research and musical activities, Borodin founded a medical school for women, took care of an ailing wife, and otherwise took on more work than he could handle.

The stress took a toll on him. In when he was 53 , he went to a costume party dressed as a peasant. He enjoyed himself greatly until the moment he had a fatal aneurism. Like most composers of the time, however, he wanted to compose an opera. It recounts the story of a Russian prince and his war with invading tribes. Borodin started work on it in September Unfortunately, he did not prepare his libretto, or even sketch out a complete story line before he started composing music.

After about a year of writing words and music for individual pieces, he lay the project aside. In , Borodin again began to work on Prince Igor , but other projects always seemed more important. He did complete enough to have the closing chorus performed in He married Ekaterina Protopopova, a pianist, during , with whom he adopted several daughters.

He suffered poor health, having overcome cholera and several minor heart failures. He died suddenly during a ball [ 12 ] [ 13 ] at the academy, and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg. In his profession Borodin gained great respect, being particularly noted for his work on aldehydes. He worked in the laboratory of Emil Erlenmeyer working on benzene derivatives.

He also spent time in Pisa , working on halocarbons. One experiment published during described the first nucleophilic displacement of chlorine by fluorine in benzoyl chloride. Kirov Military Medical Academy , and accepted a professorship of chemistry. He worked on self- condensation of small aldehydes in a process now known as the aldol reaction , the discovery of which is jointly credited to Borodin and Charles Adolphe Wurtz.

He published his last full article during on reactions of amides and his last publication concerned a method for the identification of urea in animal urine. His successor as chemistry professor of the Medical-Surgical academy was his son-in-law and fellow chemist, Aleksandr Dianin. Borodin met Mily Balakirev during While under Balakirev's tutelage in composition he began his Symphony No.

During that same year Borodin started on his Symphony No. During he composed the popular symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia. Two years later he began composing a third symphony, but left it unfinished at his death; two movements of it were later completed and orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. During , Borodin became distracted from initial work on the second symphony by preoccupation with the opera Prince Igor , which is considered by some to be his most significant work and one of the most important historical Russian operas.

It contains the Polovtsian Dances , often performed as a stand-alone concert work forming what is probably Borodin's best-known composition. Borodin left the opera and a few other works incomplete at his death. It is set in the 12th century, when the Russians, commanded by Prince Igor of Seversk, determined to conquer the barbarous Polovtsians by travelling eastward across the Steppes.

The Polovtsians were apparently a nomadic tribe originally of Turkic origin who habitually attacked southern Russia. A full solar eclipse early during the first act foreshadows an ominous outcome to the invasion. Prince Igor's troops are defeated. The story tells of the capture of Prince Igor, and his son, Vladimir, of Russia by Polovtsian chief Khan Konchak, who entertains his prisoners lavishly and orders his slaves to perform the famous 'Polovtsian Dances', which provide a thrilling climax to the second act.

The second half of the opera finds Prince Igor returning to his homeland, but rather than finding himself in disgrace, he is welcomed home by the townspeople and by his wife, Yaroslavna. Although for a while rarely performed in its entirety outside of Russia, this opera has received two notable new productions recently, one at the Bolshoi State Opera and Ballet Company in Russia during , and one at the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York City during No other member of the Balakirev circle identified himself so much with absolute music as did Borodin in his two string quartets, in addition to his many earlier chamber compositions.

As a cellist, he was an enthusiastic chamber music player, an interest that increased during his chemical studies in Heidelberg between and This early period yielded, among other chamber works, a string sextet and a piano quintet. Borodin based the thematic structure and instrumental texture of his pieces on those of Felix Mendelssohn.

During Borodin started his First String Quartet, much to the displeasure of Mussorgsky and Vladimir Stasov ; the other members of The Five were known to be hostile to chamber music. The First Quartet demonstrates mastery of the string quartet form. Borodin's Second Quartet , written in , displays strong lyricism, as in the third movement's popular " Nocturne.

Borodin's fame outside the Russian Empire was made possible during his lifetime by Franz Liszt , who arranged a performance of the Symphony No. 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 is also characteristic of the Russian style.

In , Borodin was posthumously awarded a Tony Award for this show. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects.