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The Mighty Handful were five prominent, 19th-century Russian composers who worked together to create a distinctly Russian classical music.

 

The Five, also called The Russian Five or The Mighty Five, Russian Moguchaya Kuchka (“The Mighty Little Heap”), group of five Russian composers—César Cui, Aleksandr Borodin, Mily Balakirev, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov—who in the 1860s banded together in an attempt to create a truly national school of Russian music, free of the stifling influence of Italian opera, German lieder, and other western European forms. The original name of the group, Moguchaya Kuchka, was coined in a newspaper article in 1867. Centred in St. Petersburg, the members of The Five are often considered to have been a rival faction to the more cosmopolitan, Moscow-centred composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, although Tchaikovsky often used actual folk songs in his music and Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov emphasized traditional European training in their work. Precursors of The Five were Mikhail Glinka and Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky. They were succeeded by a less energetic generation including Anatoly Lyadov, Sergey Taneyev, and Aleksandr Glazunov.

 

The group began in 1856, with the first meeting of Mily Balakirev and César Cui. Modest Mussorgsky joined them in 1857, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1861, and Alexander Borodin in 1862. They were all young members of the minor gentry and self-trained amateurs, in contrast to the elite status and court connections of Conservatory composers such as Tchaikovsky

The name for the group came from a critic who reviewed an 1867 concert given by Balakirev for a visiting Slav delegation to Moscow. "God grant that our Slav guests may never forget today's concert," wrote Stasov. "God grant that they may forever preserve the memory of how much poetry, feeling, talent, and intelligence are possessed by the small but already mighty handful of Russian musicians." The expression was mocked by Balakirev's detractors - so the group responded by defiantly adopting the name.

In their music, the Mighty Handful tried to incorporate what they heard in village songs, in Cossack and Caucasian dances, in church chants and the tolling of church bells. And their influence was far-reaching. Many of the great Russian composers who were to follow, including Glazunov, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich were either taught of influenced by them. They also inspired the music of Ravel and Debussy in France

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1 hour ago, flammaster said:

It doesn't sound like any of those examples. I can't describe it. 

Ok flammaster.. I guess soon we'll get a sneak, maybe? those composers have a ton of music to search up, it would hard to narrow down so blindly to know or TO get a sense of what BD using. I am sure it must be sounding EPIC.

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 The name sort of reminds me of the Univ Michigan's College Basketball's " FAB 5 " from back in the 1990's.(haha)

 If this clip above is what BD will draw upon as source material, its got lots of musical promise for BD this season, imo. These Russian " FAB 5 " Classical Composers composed some recognizable classics, imo.

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What I do know I can not say. I will not disrespect the org or embarrass my son. Trust me when I say this hornline is off the hook!  

Edited by flammaster
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How many trumpets did they use for the opening fanfare in filleniesque?

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2 hours ago, Corpfan said:

How many trumpets did they use for the opening fanfare in filleniesque?

I think 40. 24 Trumpet players and 16 Mellophone players.

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I disavow any knowledge of the aforementioned posts.  Yes I did see a lot of mellophones playing trumpets though.  It sounded that clean also!

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