Five, The

Five, The, name of a group of late 19th-century Russian composers. They were Balakirev, the leader, Cui, Moussorgsky, Borodin, and Rimsky-Korsakov. These men, united by a nationalistic fervor, tried to write music of distinctively Russian character, drawing on the history, literature, and folklore of their country.

Bibliography

See V. I. Seroff, The Mighty Five (1948); M. O. Zetlin, The Five (tr. 1959).

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Five, The

 or The Mighty Five

Group of Russian composers who, in the 1860s, banded together in an attempt to create a truly national school of Russian music. The Five were César Cui (1835–1918), Aleksandr Borodin, Mily Balakirev, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. A somewhat larger group around this core was referred to as “the Mighty Handful.”