Russian Music / Русская музыка

Explore Russian music through its traditional folk instruments, famous composers, operas, Eurovision participation, and more!

Russia completed in the song contest annually since the contest began in 1994. In 2022, Russia was excluded from the competition following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia has won second place in the competition four times and placed third four times.

Second Place: 

Alsou, "Solo," 2000. 

Dima Bilan, "Never Let You Go," 2006.

Burnovskiye Babushki, "Party for Everybody," 2012.

Polina Gagarina, "A Million Voices," 2015.

Third Place:

t.A.T.u, "Не верь, не бойся," 2003

Serebro, "Song #1," 2007.

Sergey Lazarev, "You Are the Only One," 2016.

Sergey Lazerev, "Scream," 2019.

Russian Classical Music

Some of the world's most famous works of classical music come from Russian composers. However, it wasn't until the second half of Catherine the Great's reign (1762-1796) that the first Russian composers appeared. Since Russia had no conservatories and almost no books on music theory, Russian composers were self-taught or trained in the West (Lincoln, 198). Pianist Anton Rubinstein founded the first conservatory in Russia in St. Petersburg in 1862 and another in Moscow in 1866. However, the school was heavily steeped in the Western musical tradition, by design. Rubinstein deemed Russian national music "barbaric" (Lincoln, 199).

A group of musicians challenged Rubinstein's way of thinking, instead advocating for the rise of ancient Russian church music and folk songs to the level of fine art. They wanted to create music that would "instill in audiences everywhere a sense of Russia's meaning and Russian patriotism" (Lincoln, 199). They founded the Free Russian Music School in St. Peterburg in 1862. As its name suggests, the school was open to anyone.

A group assembled called "The Mighty Handful." The group of composers shared a passion for Russian music, traveling in rural Russia collecting folk melodies with the intention of composing music that expressed "the spirit and meaning of Russia" (Lincoln, 200). The group included Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

For the sake of space, there are only ten composers featured below. For each composer below you'll find a list of some of their most famous works including film scores, symphonic compositions, ballets, and operas. These lists are in no way exhaustive, and we encourage you to explore more of their music.

Check out the KU CREES Spotify playlists below:

Russian Opera

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (1833–1887)

Alexander Borodin was born in St. Petersburg in 1833. He was the illegitimate son of a Georgian Prince (Lincoln, 210). Borodin was registered as the son of one of his biological father's serfs, from whom he got his last name and patronymic. His biological father emancipated him at the age of 7 and provided for him and his mother (Konstantinov, 606).

Borodin studied from 1850 to 1856 at the Medico-Surgical Academy, specializing in chemistry. He then studied music and chemistry abroad (Paris and Pisa) from 1859 to 1862. He was drawn to Russian national music, influenced by the work and ideas of Mikhail Glinka (see below). 

Before joining the "Mighty Handful," Borodin worked as a professor of chemistry at the Imperial Academy of Medicine. Unlike other composers, Borodin never dedicated himself to music fulltime. He continued working as a chemist and professor, stating he could compose music "only when I am too unwell to give my lectures [in chemistry]" (Lincoln, 210). 

Due to his equally passionate involvement in the sciences, Borodin worked on his famous opera Prince Igor for nearly 20 years, which still remained unfinished when he died of an aneurysm in 1887. However, many of his great works came from the opera including "Polovtsian Dances." Following Borodin's death, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov completed the opera. As Lincoln notes, "Prince Igor became one of the greatest works of modern Russian music and the first of the great Russian national operas that would earn international acclaim" (Lincoln, 212).

Borodin's music is known for its reflection of Russian folk melodies, striking harmonies that were unconventional in Western music, use of "orchestral color," strong lyricism, and "unusually fine rhythmic sense" (Britannica). Though he composed relatively little due to his passionate involvement in the sciences and position as a renowned chemistry professor, Borodin's works "place him in the front rank of Russian composers" (Britannica).

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (1804–1857)

Glinka, considered the father of Russian classical music, was the first Russian composer to gain widespread notoriety. Glinka was born in the Novospasskoye Village to a wealthy family. As a young child, his only musical exposure was to church bells and peasant choirs. He later moved to his uncle's estate and was exposed to Western classical music. In addition to his regular education, he also studied piano and violin, taught by the musicians in his uncle's serf orchestra. 

As Lincoln notes, "raised by serf servants and nursemaids...Glinka grew up amidst the music of Russia's common folk, whose harmonies and melodies were destined to appear again and again in his work" (Lincoln, 122). Figes suggests that the invasion of his town by French soldiers in 1812 "must have stirred the patriotic feelings of the future composer" that would lead to writing Life for the Tsar (Figes, 115).

After finishing school, Glinka worked for the Ministry of Communications and began to compose music in his ample free time. Though he traveled abroad to Germany and Italy to study music, he felt his mission was to live in Russia and compose music in a Russian style.

He composed the successful opera Life for the Tsar in 1836, which gained him recognition and financial support from the Tsar. In 1837, Glinka became the director of the Imperial Chapel Choir. In 1842 he debuted another opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila, based on Alexander Pushkin's tale of the same name. It was not received well. Glinka then moved abroad, living in Paris and Berlin. He died in Berlin in 1857. 

Glinka's impact on Russian classical music was large and long-lasting. His composition "The Patriotic Song" became the Russian national anthem from 1991 until 2000. His opera Ruslan and Lyudmila had melodic and orchestral influences on composers like Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov, impacting the formation of their unique musical styles. Pyotr Tchaikovsky called Glinka's 1848 Kamarinskaya "the acorn from which the oak of later Russian symphonic music grew" (Britannica).

Figes states that Glinka invented the whole tone scale (C-D-E-F#-G#-A#-C), a scale that progresses in whole steps instead of half steps, using it for the first time in Ruslan and Lyudmila. The scale would become "the 'Russian' sound of spookiness and evil" (Figes, 180). Other composers, like Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov, also made plentiful use of the scale.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

Mussorgsky was born in Pskov to a wealthy family. He studied in St. Petersburg starting around age 10. During his education he learned to play piano and sing Italian opera. After school, he became a lieutenant in the Preobrazhenskii Imperial Guards. In 1858, he resigned from the Guards, joined the Mighty Handful, moved to Moscow, and dedicated himself to music fulltime.

Mussorgsky entered the civil service after his older brother decimated the family fortune. Mussorgsky began his battle with alcoholism following the death of his mother in the early 1860s. In 1868, he threw himself into composing and eventually wrote his famous opera Boris Godunov, which was performed at the Marinsky Theater in Petersburg. 

Lincoln notes that the peasant nanny who helped raise Mussorgsky instilled in him a love of "the spirit and music of Old Russia" (Lincoln, 202). Living in Moscow also connected Mussorgsky to the spirit of Old Russia. The interest in folk music and stories as well as medieval Russia was one of the defining features of the Russian Romantic era, of which Mussorgsky was a part.

Mussorgsky suffered from alcoholism for most of his life as well as depression. He was dismissed from government service in 1880, leading to financial hardship. He suffered a series of seizers and died in March 1881.

Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev (1891-1953)

Sergei Prokofiev was born on an estate in Sontsovka (now called Sontsvika), which is in the Donetsk Oblast of modern Ukraine. He studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908)

Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin (1872–1915)

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Petr Ilych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

Russian Music Activities

Russian Musical Instruments Word Search Puzzle (printable version here)

Russian Musical Instruments Crossword Puzzle (printable version here)

Russian Musical Instruments Brain Teaser Game

Sources

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Aleksandr Borodin." Encyclopedia Britannica, May 13, 2025.

            -- "Mikhail Glinka." Encyclopedia Britannica, May 28, 2025.

Figes, Orlando. Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia. Picador, 2002.

Konstantinov, Igor E. "The Life and Death of Professor Alexander P. Borodin: Surgeon, Chemist, and Great Musician."Surgery Vol. 123, Iss. 6, June 1998, Pp. 606-616.

Lincoln, Bruce W. Between Heaven and Hell: The Story of a Thousand Years of Artistic Life in Russia. Penguin Books, 1998.

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