A Year with Alexander Borodin — A 52-Week Guided Music Journal

A Year with Alexander Borodin: A Weekly Journal Inspired by Music, Science, Friendship & the Search for Beauty in All Things

Spend a year exploring Alexander Borodin through 52 moments of music, science, friendship, service, love and interrupted ambition. From his unusual childhood and medical training to Prince Igor, the Second Symphony, In the Steppes of Central Asia and the Second String Quartet, the journey follows a composer and chemist whose life was shaped by several genuine callings competing for the same limited hours.

Across 52 weekly experiences, the journey unfolds through four distinct sections:

Section I — Childhood, Science & Two Callings
Explore Borodin’s concealed parentage, cultivated upbringing, fascination with chemistry and music, medical education, European study, meeting Ekaterina, return to St Petersburg, Balakirev and the difficult emergence of a composer working alongside a serious scientific career.

Section II — Marriage, The Five & Epic Ambition
Follow Borodin through marriage, scientific authority, friendship with Stasov and The Five, the First and Second Symphonies, Prince Igor, teaching, educational reform, songs and the growing tension between artistic ambition and a life increasingly crowded by responsibility.

Section III — Prince Igor, Chamber Music & the Divided Life
Enter the world of the Polovtsian Dances, the unfinished opera, chamber music, In the Steppes of Central Asia, the Second String Quartet and its celebrated Nocturne as friendship, domestic life, science and composition continue to compete for Borodin’s attention.

Section IV — Fame, Service & the Unfinished Legacy
Reflect on Borodin’s growing reputation, work as a teacher and reformer, sudden death, the unfinished Prince Igor and Third Symphony, the role of Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov in preserving his music, and the unexpected popular afterlife of melodies that travelled far beyond his own world.

Each week combines a full-page visual opening, a substantial listening and reflection essay, recommended listening, focused observation prompts and a dedicated Journal Notes page.

Inside the experience:

• 52 structured weekly experiences
• Four thematic sections
• Recommended listening each week
• Substantial contextual and reflective essays
• Listening, looking and noticing prompts
• Reflection questions
• Dedicated Journal Notes pages
• Return to Contents navigation
• Instant digital PDF format

A year-long invitation to encounter Borodin not simply as a composer who happened to be a chemist, but as a man whose music, science, friendship and public service all competed for the same finite life.