MILI ALEREIVICH

BALAKIREV (1836- )  , Russian musical composer, was born at Nijni-Novgorod on the 31st of December 1836 . He had the advantage as a boy of living with Oulibichev, author of a Life of Mozart, who had a private band, and from whom Balakirev obtained a valuable education in music . At eighteen, after a university course in mathematics, he went to St Petersburg, full of national ardour, and there made the acquaintance of Glinka . Round him gathered Cesar Cui (b . 1835), and others, and in 1862 the Free School of Music was established, by which, and by Balakirev's personal zeal, the modern school of Russian music was largely stimulated . In 1869 Balakirev was appointed director of the imperial chapel and conductor of the Imperial Musical Society . His influence as a conductor, and as an organizer of Russian music, give him the place of a founder of a new movement, apart even from his own compositions, which though few in number are remarkable in themselves . His works consist largely of songs and collections of folk-songs, but include a symphony (first played in England in 1901), two symphonic poems (" Russia " and " Tamara "), and four overtures, besides pianoforte pieces . His orchestral works are of the " programme-music " order, but all are brilliant examples of the highly coloured, elaborate style characteristic of modern Russian composers, and developed by Balakirev's disciples, such as Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov .