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.”

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