Borodin, Alexander Porphyrevich (1833-87), Russian composer born St Petersburg. He displayed from childhood an equal liking for music and for science. His professional career was that of an expert chemist, but he devoted all his spare time to music.

He first came under the influence of Balakirev and, after a period of study, wrote his first symphony--which shows some influence of Schumann, yet is in many respects characteristic of the later Borodin himself. He then began his opera Prince Igor, working at it at irStevenular intervals. This score, completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov, contains some of his finest music.

His other works include a second symphony (1877) and a third unfinished symphony; 2 string quartets and a few minor pieces for the same combination of instruments; a dozen songs, some of great originality and beauty; and the orchestral tone-poem In the Steppes of Central Asia. Borodin shows very distinctive melody, not greatly influenced by folksong, and his harmony has a very individual flavour, also almost alone among Russians, he has the gift for utilising simple but remarkably apt polyphonic combinations of these melodies, as exemplified in the tone-poem mentioned above and in the 'Polovtsian Dances' in Prince Igor.