Alexander Borodin was not only a composer, but also a medical doctor and chemistry professor.
Rimsky-Korsakov recalls in his memoirs [ref.1, p34] ‘...I would often find him at work in the chemistry lab next to his apartment… When he had finished… he would come back with me to his flat … and we would play music together… Right in the middle he would rush back to the lab … all the while making the corridor echo with successive ninths or sevenths… bellowed at the top of his voice...’
Borodin, born in 1833, was the illegitimate son of Prince Luka Gedianov and the beautiful Avdotya Kleineke, and was registered under the name of one of the prince’s serfs.
As a child he taught himself (with some assistance) how to play flute, cello and piano, and at 13 developed a passion for chemistry. To his mother’s consternation he built a chemistry lab in the rooms of their apartment.
At 17, after scoring high marks in his entrance exams he entered the St Petersburg Academy of Physicians.
In his first two years there he became even more interested in chemistry, as well as botany. His teacher of botany, Professor Zinin, saw his bright student as a future researcher. ‘Mr Borodin, it would be better if you gave less thought to writing songs… A man cannot hunt two hares at once.’ [ref 1 p.16]
Borodin graduated from the Academy of Physicians at 22, and became Assistant Professor of Pathology at the Academy of Medicine. Two years later he received his medical degree, with a dissertation on ‘The Like Action of Arsenic and Phosphoric Acids on the Human Organism.’
His first chemistry paper, ‘Researches on the chemical constitution of hydrobenzamide and amarine’ was published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. At 26, he was sent to a conference in Heidelberg, where he met his future wife, budding pianist Yekaterina Protopopova, and upon his return he was appointed professor in inorganic chemistry. He married Yekaterina and they lived the rest of his life in the Medical Academy flat.
His first symphony was performed when he was 36, edited by his early mentor, Balakirev. Borodin slept only about five hours a night, doing much of his composing between 5 and 7 a.m. before going to teach and attend meetings. His second symphony didn’t come out until he was 43, and his tone-poem In the steppes of Central Asia came out a few years later.
His amiable disposition became frayed under such work pressure, and after a serious illness at age 48 he wrote [ref.1, p136] ‘...I’m expected to be scientist and committee man, artist, doctor and invalid… it won’t be long before I’m (just)’ the last of these ...’
At 53, he collapsed from a burst aneurysm. The popular Polovtsian Dances were completed after his death by both Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov.
Finally, while Borodin had done his best to ‘hunt 2 hares,’ it’s his music rather than his chemistry that is remembered today.
References
1. “Borodin”, by Serge Dianin; Oxford Univerity Press, 1963.
2. “Alexander Borodin”; Encyclopedia of the Great Composers and their Music, by Cross and Ewen, Doubleday, 1962.
3. “Polovtsian Dances , Borodin, Prince Igor -YouTube”, March 5, 2012. This is a 10:48 minute YouTube piece, chunk (5:01 – 5:16, approx) – loud drums and voice.
4. “Alexander Borodin In the Steppes of Central Asia – YouTube”, published Aug 26 2010. 9:23 minutes, chunk (3:2 – 3:45, approx) – soft soothing horns.
David Nightinglale is an emeritus professor of physics at SUNY New Paltz where he taught for 31 years. His first novel, The Centauri Settlement, is produced by TheBookPatch.com .
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