In the Steppes of Central Asia

Or, the Land of No Trees

In 1880, the great composer Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin wrote a tone poem dedicated to his friend and fellow composer Franz Liszt. The piece had been formally commissioned by Russian Emperor Alexander II to celebrate his Silver Jubilee.

At that time, there was a small, dedicated group of composers determined to write music that wasn’t some rework of existing Western European material. That music, of course, was magnificent in its own right. But Borodin, a chemist by training, instead looked to inspiration from his own country.

Which at that time was vast, unpeopled, lonely and windswept. Much like it is today, although borders and rulers have changed many times over.

Emperors may come and go, wars fought, list, won, languages change, adapt, merge. Races melt into one another. Religions rise, fall, disappear.

The steppes remain.

Borodin’s tone poem, which was nearly lost to history because of an aborted assassination attempt against the Emperor, was later resurrected by fellow composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Those of us lucky enough to have been brought up in a classical music- loving household (and I am one of them, despite having been raised on a chicken farm in Central Florida) might have…