The famous "Mighty Handful" (composition, main idea)

The so-called "Mighty Handful" (whose composition was very small) is an alliance of Russian composers, which took shape at the end of the 50s and the beginning of the 60s of the 19th century. It was also called the "New Russian Music School" or Balakirevsky Circle. The very name was planted with the light hand of the critic Stasov V.V. And instilled instantly, turning into the generally accepted name of the union. Abroad, he was called the "five".

Members of the "Mighty Handful"

Who was in the "Mighty Handful"? Balakirev MA, Borodin AP, Mussorgsky MP, Cui C.A. And Rimsky-Korsakov NA These talented composers sought to find new forms in which they could translate images from Russian modernity and history, as well as ways to make their music more intimate and understandable to the general public. The embodiment of this approach was Borodin's operas Prince Igor, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Pskovite, Mussorgsky Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov. It was folk tales, epic, national history and folk life that became sources of inspiration for symphonic and vocal works of composers.

Community History

So, the "Mighty Handful", its composition and the history of creation. In 1855 a young Mily Alekseevich Balakirev came from Kazan to the capital , he performed with great success as a pianist, loved by the public, met with Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov (a famous critic, historian, art critic and archaeologist, was bound by friendship with all major Russian artists and musicians, was Assistant, adviser and promoter of their works). A year later, Balakirev met with Caesar Antonovich Cui. He studied at the Military Engineering Academy, but was fond of music, and so was fascinated by the bold views and suggestions of a new acquaintance that he wrote the operas The Prisoner of the Caucasus, The Mandarin's Son and the piano scherzo.

A little later, the "Mighty Handful" (composition: Balakirev, Stasov, Cui) was replenished by the accession of Modest Petrovich Moussorgsky, a Guards officer of the Preobrazhensky regiment, who realized that his vocation was music. He retires, engages in music, literature, philosophy, history, is fond of the views of new friends. In the early sixties the "Mighty Handful" (composition at that time: Balakirev, Cui, Stasov, Mussorgsky), whom Dargomyzhsky sympathized with, was enriched with the arrival of Alexander Borodin and Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov. Borodin was in music self-taught, but self-taught versatile and very diligent. Even while studying at the Medico-Surgical Academy, he played in various amateur ensembles on the cello, wrote several chamber works. Balakirev understood and appreciated his erudition and brilliant talent very quickly. Well, Rimsky-Korsakov was already a well-established figure in music, a genius whose works the audience loved very much.

The main ideas of the "handful"

It was the life, aspirations and interests of the Russian people that became the main topic in the work of members of the circle of Balakirev. "Mighty handful" of composers (their composition was not limited to five, because many eminent writers of that time were familiar or friendly with "Kuchkists") recorded, studied samples of folk art and folklore, weaved folk songs and legends in "serious" symphonic music and operas . Examples of such masterpieces - "Snow Maiden", "Khovanshchina", "Tsar's Bride", "Boris Godunov". Important was the eastern element, melodies of other peoples - Ukrainians, Georgians, Tatars, Spaniards, Czechs and many others. These are "Islamey", "Tamara", "Prince Igor", "Golden Cockerel", "Scheherazade".