Tchaikovsky and the Russian Five‘s Contemporary Relevance: How Selected Works of 19th Century Russian Composers Have Influenced Popular Culture of the West

As a culture, we often use music to accent events that would otherwise not need them. Many of these events utilize what is considered ‘classical’ music, and within the Classical Music world a select few works get copious amounts of play time, and thus get heavily imprinted in our minds’ ear. Certain correlations between these situations and musical phrases have become so ingrained in our culture that it is almost alien to not have them be together. Many of the works that are implanted in our culture come out of a specific location and time: the Romantic era in Russia. Of all the composers to come out of Russia during that time, six have left a mark on our culture as a whole. These six men are: Mily Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, Cӕsar Cui, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Pytor Ilich Tchaikovsky. The music of these men is very well implanted in our culture. They have roots in far-reaching corners of our culture, ranging from your favorite Saturday Morning Cartoons, to radio show intros, to the fundamental idea behind multimillion dollar motion pictures. This cross-examination of the connections between the works of the composers and the cultural aspects in which they take place shows some phenomenal connections