The mighty heap

They were called "The Mighty Five." The detractors called them "The Mighty Heap", obviously citing them in the same manner as one would cite the always present heaps of horse manure on the streets of Moscow.
I refer to the group of composers who permanently etched into our consciousness the power of 19th century Russian music and forever forged Russia into co-existence with the German, English and French contributors to European music.
What is amazing is that only one of the Five was a trained musician from the outset.
The others dealt with music as an avocation at first - imagine! Moussorgsky was a clerk in the bureaucracy; Rimsky-Korsakov was a naval officer; Borodin was a chemist; Cui was an artillery officer; only Balakirev was a musician from the outset.
And yet what comes out of 19th century Russia by way of this group, especially from Moussorgsky establishes a new road for the musical world to be able to travel upon.