The Russian composer Aleksandr Porfirevich Borodin was also a physician and research chemist. He epitomized the group of composers known as the "Mighty Five" and used folk music in conscious pursuit of a "national style."

Aleksandr Borodin was born in St. Petersburg. The name Borodin was that of a retainer to Prince Gedeanov; the prince acknowledged paternity and provided the mother and the boy with a name. Borodin was raised with many of the privileges of the nobility, and his education was broad in the tradition of the European gentleman. This included musical training and preparation for a profession: medicine.

While still a young medical intern, Borodin gained entry to the Mighty Five, partly on the strength of his keyboard ability--a defining factor of the nineteenth-century romantic Russian composer. His training had been that of the gifted dilettante; he now came under the influence of the taskmaster of...