The Styrous® Viewfinder: Alexander Porfirievich Borodin

November 12, 2020

Alexander Porfirievich Borodin

On this date, November 12, Alexander Porfirievich Borodin was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1833. He was a Russian Romantic musical composer of Georgian ancestry and one of the prominent 19th-century composers known as "The Mighty Handful". Borodin is known best for his symphonies, his two string quartets, the symphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asia and his opera Prince Igor. These works became the basis for the Broadway musical, Kismet, which was also made into a film (link below).

Alexander Porfirievich Borodin

date & photographer unknown

Borodin was the illegitimate son of a 62-year-old Georgian nobleman, Luka Stepanovich Gedevanishvili, and a married 25-year-old Russian woman, Evdokia Konstantinovna Antonova. Due to the circumstances of Alexander's birth, the nobleman had him registered as the son of one of his Russian serfs, Porfiry Borodin, hence the composer's Russian last name. As a result of this registration, both Alexander and his nominal Russian father Porfiry were officially serfs of Alexander's biological father Luka. The Georgian father emancipated Alexander from serfdom when he was 7 years old and provided housing and money for him and his mother. Despite this, Alexander was never publicly recognized by his mother, who was referred to by young Borodin as his "aunt".

Ekaterina Protopova Borodina - 1840

photo by Andrey Denyer

He was educated at home by his mother and excelled in many subjects, particularly science. He also enjoyed learning new languages, and learned to speak English, French, and German fluently. At age eight, Borodin showed an interest in music and instruments after attending an army band performance. To his mother's surprise, Borodin was able to replicate the music he heard at the army band performance on the piano! After this experience, Borodin began studying piano, and taught himself how to play the cello. At age nine, he wrote his first composition called Héléne, a piece dedicated to the love of his life (at 9?).

Borodin's brilliance was not limited to music; when he was a teenager, he spent most of his time studying chemistry, firework-making, and galvanism. In 1850, at 17, Borodin entered the Medico-Surgical Academy where he studied botany, zoology, crystallography, anatomy and chemistry. He graduated in 1856 with the highest honors in his class. After graduation, Borodin worked as a physician, chemistry professor, and science-book-translator. He married pianist Ekaterina Protopopova, received a Doctorate degree, and even spent a summer analyzing mineral waters and their medicinal properties.

Ekaterina Protopopova

date & photographer unknown

He was a doctor and chemist by profession and training, he made important early contributions to organic chemistry. Although he is presently known better as a composer, he regarded medicine and science as his primary occupations, only practicing music and composition in his spare time or when he was ill. As a chemist, Borodin is known best for his work concerning organic synthesis, including being among the first chemists to demonstrate nucleophilic substitution, as well as being the co-discoverer of the aldol reaction. Borodin was a promoter of education in Russia and founded the School of Medicine for Women in Saint Petersburg, where he taught until 1885.

Alexander Porfirievich Borodin - 1888

Portrait by Ilya Repin

In 1862, Borodin made friends with composers Mily Balakirev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, César Cui and Modest Mussorgsky. Under the guidance of Balakirev, Borodin began composing music while working as a full-time chemist and physician. That same year, Borodin joined his new composer friends to create a group we know today as "The Russian Five" (NOT the Russian ice hockey players). "The Five" dedicated themselves to composing music that was definably Russian and distinctly different than other music forms that were being composed and taught in European Conservatories. Borodin's music was highly influenced by Russian life, salon music, folk songs and dances, and was rich in lush, unusual harmonies.

Because Borodin was a part-time composer, a large majority of his compositions went unfinished or became lost. Prince Igor remained unfinished at the time of his death; parts of the opera were revised and completed by composers Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov.

Borodin suffered poor health, having overcome cholera and several minor heart failures. He died suddenly during a ball at the Medical–Surgical Academy on February 27, 1887, and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Saint Petersburg. The tomb of Borodin includes musical notation in the background with themes from Gliding Dance of the Maidens from Polovtsian Dances; Song of the Dark Forest; and the Scherzo theme from Symphony No. 3.

tomb of Borodin

date & photographer unknown

In 1954, Alexander Porfirievich Borodin was posthumously awarded a Tony Award for Kismet. The asteroid previously known by its provisional designation 1990 ES3 was assigned the permanent name (6780) Borodin, in honor of Alexander Borodin. (6780) Borodin is a main-belt asteroid with an estimated diameter of 4 km and an orbital period of 3.37 years.