The Mighty Handful, or Moguchaya Kuchka in Russian, was the nickname of a group of five mid-19th century Russian composers who worked collectively to bring modern Russian compositions to the forefront of the Russian music scene.
They became known as the kuchka, variously translated as The Five, The Russian Five and The Mighty Handful after a review written by Stasov about their music.
Mighty Bunch), also known as the Mighty Handful or The Mighty Five, were five prominent 19th-century Russian composers who worked together to create a distinct national style of classical music: Mily Balakirev (the leader), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin.
The group used musical elements such as unusual scales, modal harmonizations, and different textures to create the Russian sound. They also incorporated a more faithful declamation style in the Russian language, the literary movement towards realism, and changes to the perception of time in their music.
1. : possessing might : powerful. 2. : accomplished or characterized by might.
Informal. very; extremely: I'm mighty pleased.
Some characteristics of the group's music are:
Tonal mutability. They also succeeded at artfully preserving “Tonal mutability,” a distinctive aspect of Russian folk.
Heterophony.
Parallel thirds, fourths, and fifths.
Whole tone scale.
The Russian submediant.
“Octatonic” or diminished scale.
Modular rotation.
Pentatonic scale.
A theme in music is the primary melodic idea of a composition. Most often, the theme will occur at the beginning of a piece in order to establish melodic material for the rest of the piece. An example of a theme is the first four notes of Beethoven's Symphony No.
Key Musical Terms
Element
Definition
Rhythm
The pattern or placement of sounds in time and beats in music
Tempo
The speed at which a piece of music is played
Texture
The number and types of layers used in a composition
Timbre
The quality of the sound that distinguishes one voice or instrument from another
Characteristics of music include: sound, melody, harmony, rhythm or the driving beats in a measure or section of music, structure or form, texture, and expression.
1. : possessing might : powerful. 2. : accomplished or characterized by might.
Colloquially, you can also use mighty to emphasize something, or to mean "extremely." This informal use is especially common in the U.S. South, where a host might say, "We're mighty glad to have you!" Mighty comes from the Old English root mæht, "strength or power."
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