Biography
Alexander Borodin is a famous scientist and a great composer who has become a unique phenomenon in Russian reality of the 19th century. Academician who made a number of fundamental discoveries in the field of organic chemistry, considered science and medicine the main profession, became famous as the creator of the opera "Prince Igor", "Bogatyr" symphony and other musical works known to the whole world.Childhood and youth
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin, born on November 12, 1833, was the extramarital son of a representative of the Georgian princely kind of Luke Gedevanishvili and a fortress girl. From infancy up to 8 years old, the boy remained a hob of his ancestor, and Porphyrian Borodin with his wife Tatiana was considered the parents of Little Sasha. Before the death, the prince gave free Alexander and his mother, who was given to the military doctor by the name of Kleinek, and arranged their future, giving a spacious house.
Not having the right to receive academic education in the walls of the gymnasium, Borodin studied at home, acquired knowledge on many school disciplines. The boy experienced interest in music and showed a tendency to the composition. When Sasha was 9 years old, he composed a miniature dance play and began to master the flute, cello and piano, and by 13 years old became the author of a full-fledged concert work inspired by the Opera "Robert Devil" Gacomo Meyerbera.
The fascination with art was not limited to music - the young composer was enthusiastically painted and engaged in applied creativity. In parallel, the boy became interested in chemistry, science, which helped to understand the composition and nature of interesting phenomena. The first experiments Borodin spent at home. Looking at it and worrying about the preservation of the dwelling, the mother decided that the son would need to graduate with the gymnasium and go to learn further.
With the help of the stationery of a state institution, the young man was determined in merchants and sent to the Medical and Surgery Academy of St. Petersburg, where he, mastering the profession of a doctor, was stiguously engaged in Chemistry under the start of Nikolai Nikolayevich Zinin.
Medicine and chemistry
At the end of the training course in 1857, Borodin worked in a military hospital. A year later, he defended his thesis, received a doctoral degree in medicine and took up research work. The first scientific work that glorified Alexander was a report on the effect of mineral waters on the human body, which became public in 1859.
In the same year, the Academic Council sent Borodin abroad to raise the qualifications and adopted foreign experience. For 2 years in Germany, conducted surrounded by brilliant scientists, Edward Jung, Ivan Sechenov, Sergey Botkin, Nikolai Zinin, Dmitry Mendeleev, a young researcher participated in the meetings of the Congress's scientist, where the concepts of "molecule" and "atom" were clearly defined.
During the foreign business trip, Borodin visited Italy, met by local professors, set chemical experiments with fluoride compounds at the Student Laboratory of the University of Pisa. Summer 1862 The young scientist spent again in Germany, and moved to the French capital for the winter.
Alexander returned to his homeland in early 1863. He passed a report on the scientific work and took the position of Assistant Professor of the Academy, which was combined with teaching. A year later, Borodin raised to the ordinary professor and instructed to lead the chemical laboratory, where he continued to engage in scientific research.
In 1868, together with his teacher, Nikolai Zinin, Alexander laid the foundation of the Russian Chemical Society, and then contributed to Dmitry Mendeleev in the organization of medical courses for the ladies, former university education.
In 1877, Borodin reached the upper step of the scientist community and received the title of academician, and in 1883 the Russian doctors society elected him with an honorary member. During the scientific career, a talented chemist wrote more than 40 works, it belongs to the discovery of benzene fluoride and the method of obtaining halogen-substituted carbon, which was called Borodin-Hunsdiker's reaction.
Music
Despite the fact that Borodin paid a lot of time scientific work, the music continued to be a significant part of his biography. As a student, Alexander Porfiryevich composed miniature plays for piano and romantics, the most popular of which were "Arab Melody", "Sleeping Princess" and "Dark Forest Song". Traveling abroad, he went to concerts, getting acquainted with the work of European composers of Ferenz Leaf, Felix Mendelssohn, Frederick Chopin, Richard Wagner, Robert Shuman and others.
In St. Petersburg, a young scientist met a prominent musical and public figure Mile Balakirev and became a member of the "mighty bunch", where, in addition to him, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Caesar Kyui. The association, headed by the literary critic, Vladimir Stasov, who became the second family of Borodin, influenced the musical taste and creative focus of the composer, who considered the tradition of the tradition of Mikhail Glinka.
Own essays Alexander Porfiryevich performed on the dick evenings in the mansion of Mitrofan Belyaeva, where the Russian creative elite was gathered. The main topics of the masterpieces of Borodina were freedom, love for the motherland and the national pride of the Russian people. Borodin became one of the heroic-epic tendencies in Russian music.
The first major product of the composer of the new genre, executed in 1869 by the orchestra under the control of his friend the conductor of Mia of Balakirev, brought the author to European glory and fame. The composer composed 16 romances, 3 symphonies, piano plays, instrumental miniatures, music poem "in Central Asia", as well as the Opera "Bogati" and "Prince Igor".
The true greatness of the Talent of Borodin was revealed in the 2nd "Bogatyr" Symphony, which inflaces the epic power of the Russian people. In this epic work, the dance motives were intertwined with sincere lyrical topics and, gradually tightening, transformed into the powerful sounds of the players of the epic.
With the "Bogatyr" symphony, the unfinished Opera "Prince Igor", over which the author worked for 18 years. She became a beehole of a heroic-epic style in music, amazing the scale of scenes in the execution of the folk chorus and the holistic embodiment of individual images. Interesting the fact that these great creations were created by the composer in parallel, and the materials intended for one essay sometimes became part of the other.
Personal life
During his stay abroad, Borodin cared for the young pianist Catherine Protopopova, held in Germany a course of treatment from chronic asthma. The girl who possessed absolute hearing often musicated in the company of a scientist, acquaintance with the writings of European composers. Young people spent a lot of time together, visited concerts in Baden-Baden, soon fell in love with each other and decided to get married.
The wedding took place in the spring of 1863. Couple settled in St. Petersburg, in a house-friendly house on a boar street.
Due to chronic problems with the lungs, Ekaterina Sergeyevna could not stay in the northern capital for a long time. Her departures to Moscow into the mother's house drank Borodin's personal life. Many facts of the biography of the scientist and the composer descendants have learned from the letters that the spouses exchanged during separation. The couple did not have children and precast the loneliness of concerns about the pupils taken to the care, which were considered native daughters.
Death
At the end of the life path, Borodin was actively engaged in public operation, was a member of various organizations, the head of the student choir and the Academy Symphony Orchestra, participated in the receptions and costume evenings, popular in the scientific environment.
In 1880, a friend and teacher of the composer Nikolay Zinin died, and in the year did not become a favorite colleague Modest Musorgsky. Stressful work, personal losses and care for the sick wife imposed a mark on the physical and psychological state of Borodin.
February 27, 1887, at the celebration of the Wide Carnival, the composer has fun in the society of friends and colleagues, a lot danced and joked. In the midst of the guys, Alexander Porfiryevich woved in the half-word and crawled to the floor. The cause of the death of a great scientist and the composer was the gap of the heart.
Borodin buried in necropolis masters of arts Alexander Nevsky Lavra. A monument with the portrait of the deceased, surrounded by the molecular formulas, was installed on the grave.
Having resigned with the loss, the Friends of Borodin did some of his unfinished creations. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and other representatives of the musical community completed the opera Prince Igor, which was submitted to the public in 1890, Alexander Glazunov made an orchestration of the 3rd symphony A-Moll.
Work
- 1849 - "Panthetic Adagio (AS-DUR)"
- 1850s - "Listen, girlfriends, my song"
- 1862 - "String Quintet (F-Moll)"
- 1866 - "Symphony No. 1 ES-DUR"
- 1867 - "Sleeping Princess"
- 1868-1872 - "Male vocal quartet without accompaniment" Serenade of four cavaliers of one lady "
- 1868 - "Bogatyry"
- 1869-1887 - "Prince Igor"
- 1875 - "Symphony No. 2 H-Moll" Bogatyr "
- 1887 - "Symphony No. 3 A-Moll"
- 1880 - "Symphonic picture" In Central Asia "