"Try and fall sick..." - The composer, chemist, and Surgeon Aleksandr Borodin

Angewandte Chemie - International Edition

Volumn 49, Issue 37, 2010, Pages 6490-6495

  Podlech, Joachim ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ALDOL REACTIONS;

CONDENSATION REACTIONS;

EID: 77956519114     PISSN: 14337851     EISSN: 15213773     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201002023     Document Type: Article

References (59)

1. Essential literature on Alexander Borodin: a) K. Laux, Die Musik in Russland und in der Sowjetunion, Henschelverlag, Berlin, 1958;
2. V. I. Seroff, Das mächtige Häuflein, Atlantis, Zurich, 1963;
3. S. Dianin, Borodin, Oxford University Press, London, 1963;
4. A. Habets, Borodin and Liszt, Digby/Long, London, 1977;
5. D. Brown, G. Abraham, D. Lloyd-Jones, E. Garden, Russian Masters 1, W. W. Norton, New York, 1986;
6. N A. Figurovskiǐ, Y. I. Solov'ev, Aleksandr Porfirevich Borodin-A Chemist's Biography, Springer, Berlin, 1988;
7. Alexander Borodin-Sein Leben, seine Musik, seine Schriften (Ed.: E. Kuhn), Ernst Kuhn, Berlin, 1992;
8. S. Neef, Die Russischen Fünf: Balakirew-Borodin-Cui-Mussorgski- Rimski-Korsakow, Ernst Kuhn, Berlin, 1992;
9. W. Stassow, Meine Freunde Alexander Borodin und Modest Mussorgsky, Ernst Kuhn, Berlin, 1993;
10. T. Gorischek, Russische Nationalkomponisten, Kurt Pachla, Graz, 2005.
11. "Others have the composition of music [...] the goal of their lives. For me it is only rest, fun which takes time from my serious business as a professor." From a letter by Borodin; Ref. [1f], p. 89.
12. The oldest named reaction might be the Kolbe reaction: H. Kolbe, Justus Liebigs Ann. Chem. 1849, 69, 257-294.
13. According to the Gregorian calendar.
14. Serfdom was not abandoned in Russia until 1861.
15. Only noblemen were allowed to study.
16. Zinin's most important finding was the reduction of nitrobenzene with hydrogen sulfide to yield aniline.
17. An appreciation of Borodin as physician can be found in: I. Konstantinov, Surgery 1998, 123, 606-616.
18. Ref. [1i], p. 138.
19. J. Dumas,E. Péligot, Ann. Chim. Phys. 1836, 61, 193-201.
20. G. Böhme, Medizinische Porträits berühmter Komponisten, Vol. 2, Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart, 1987, pp. 143-157.
21. Liszt needed to urge him to play some of his compositions on the piano. When he played a wrong note or had to skip a part, Liszt commented: "Why did you not do that; it is so fine?" and "O my dear composer! So well composed and not willing to perform !", Ref. [1g], p. 153.
22. The group furthermore declined training at the conservatory since they thought that this would narrow a composer's freedom of musical expression. With this point of view they were in opposition to most influential composers and critics in their environment: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Ed.: F. Blume), Bärenreiter, Kassel, 1949-1986.
23. Borodin disclosed to his friends on the day of his death that his just completed finale of his 3rd symphony was the best piece of music he had ever composed. Regrettably he did not get round to writing it down or playing it for someone.
24. O. Krätz, Chem. Unserer Zeit 2004, 38, 89-99;
25. see also the nonpreserved compositions of Borodin (see the Supporting Information).
26. The dedication of the Paraphrases is: "Dedicated to all small pianists able to play the theme with one finger of both hands by Aleksandr Borodin, César Cui, Anatoly Lyadov, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. "
27. Borodin did not write down the overture, but played it occasionally to his friends on the piano. Glasunov seemed to have proven that he knew it note for note (Ref. [1c], p. 155). This perspective has been doubted by some authors-partly supported by a commentary of Glasunov himself: M. Bobeth, Borodin und seine Oper "Fürst Igor", Emil Katzbichler, München, 1982, p. 166.
28. For this, Borodin was posthumously awarded the 1954 Tony Award for the best musical.
29. M. Mönnich, Nachr. Chem. 2010, 58, 539-543.
30. Ref. [1f], p. 39.
31. In his thesis he advanced the view of the unitary theory by Laurent and Gerhardt and declined the dualistic theory of Berzelius and his successors. Ref. [1f], p. 25.
32. I. D. Rae, Ambix 1989, 36, 121-137;
33. see also F. H. Getman, J. Chem. Educ. 1931, 8, 1778-1780.
34. A. Borodine, Justus Liebigs Ann. Chem. 1859, 110, 78-85. [Borodin used different spellings for his name.].
35. A. Borodin, Z Chem. Pharm. 1860, 3, 533-536;
36. A. Borodin, Z Chem. Pharm. 1860, 3, 641-643.
37. A. Borodin, Z Chem. Pharm. 1861, 4, 5-7;
38. A. Borodine, Justus Liebigs Ann. Chem. 1861, 119, 121-123;
39. A. Borodine, J. Prakt. Chem. 1861, 84, 474-475.
40. H. Hunsdiecker, C. Hunsdiecker, Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1942, 75, 291-297.
41. A. Borodine, Justus Liebigs Ann. Chem. 1863, 126, 58-62.
42. A. Borodin, J. Prakt. Chem. 1864, 93, 413-425.
43. A. Kekulé, Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1869, 2, 365-368.
44. A. Kekulé, Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1870, 3, 135-137.
45. 2to acetaldehyde, which reacted further to an undefined compound of the same composition: A. Wurtz, Ann. Chem. Pharm. 1858, 108, 84-88.
46. Ref. [1f], p. 66.
47. A. Borodin, Zh. Khim. Fiz. Obshch. 1876, 8, 145.
48. A. J. Rocke, The Quiet Revolution: Hermann Kolbe and the Science of Organic Chemistry, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1993, p. 19.
49. Ref. [1c], p. 80.
50. J. M. Brunel, Chem. Rev. 2005, 105, 857-898.
51. V. von Richter, Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1873, 6, 1249-1260.
52. Ref. [1i], p. 21.
53. A dramatic description of Borodin's disastrous living conditions is given in Ref. [1b], p. 106.
54. a) F. H. Getman, J. Chem. Educ. 1931, 8, 1762-1780;
55. H. B. Friedman, J. Chem. Educ. 1941, 18, 521-525.
56. Ref. [1g], p. 33.
57. Musicologist Sir Henry Hadow noted about Borodin: "No musician has ever claimed immortality with so slender an offering", Ref. [1e], p. 58.
58. The reasoning of Gordin that Borodin's contribution to chemistry was insignificant seems not to be justified: M. D. Gordin, J. Chem. Educ. 2006, 83, 561-565;
59. a reply to this has already been published: E. J. Behrman, J. Chem. Educ. 2006, 83, 1138.