<Dd> The Five made this device of Franz Liszt their own to base a loose symphonic - poem type of structure . This way, they could avoid the rigid Western laws of modulation in sonata form, allowing the form of a musical composition to be shaped entirely by the "content" of the music (its programmatic statements and visual descriptions) rather than by formal laws of symmetry . This loose structure became especially important for Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, a work that may have done more than any other to define the Russian style . </Dd> <Ul> <Li> Pentatonic scale </Li> </Ul> <Dl> <Dd> This stylistic aspect became used by every Russian nationalist composer . Its distinctive feature is to have only five notes in the octave, rather than the seven of the heptatonic scales (e.g., major and minor). The pentatonic scale is one of the ways of suggesting a "primitive" folk - melodic style as well as the "Eastern" element (Middle East, Asia). A melodic example of the "major - mode" pentatonic scale (C-D-E-G-A) can be heard at the entrance of the chorus at the beginning of Borodin's Prince Igor . </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> This stylistic aspect became used by every Russian nationalist composer . Its distinctive feature is to have only five notes in the octave, rather than the seven of the heptatonic scales (e.g., major and minor). The pentatonic scale is one of the ways of suggesting a "primitive" folk - melodic style as well as the "Eastern" element (Middle East, Asia). A melodic example of the "major - mode" pentatonic scale (C-D-E-G-A) can be heard at the entrance of the chorus at the beginning of Borodin's Prince Igor . </Dd>

Who is considered the most original composer of the russian five