The Five
circle of five prominent 19th-century Russian composers / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Five, often known as The Mighty Handful, are a group of five Russian composers who met regularly in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the mid-19th century. The Russian name for the group: Moguchaya kuchka (The Mighty Handful) was given to them by Vladimir Stasov, the famous music critic. The five composers were: Mily Balakirev, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin. The group all wanted to write music in a Russian style, rather than imitating European composers. They were part of the movement known in music as Nationalism. They were five of the most important composers of the time. Note that Tchaikovsky was not one of the group. His music is more European-based, but he, too, often wrote very Russian music based on folk tunes.