By the middle of the 19th century there were two schools of Russian composers. One, led by Anton Rubinstein, who wrote nineteen operas, used the same musical techniques as the French and German composers. The other group, the so-called "Russian Five" (Cui, Balakirev, Borodin, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov), believed in a style that would have its roots in the folk music of Russia.
The two outstanding Russian composers of the 20th century, Sergei Prokofiev and Dimitri Shostakovich, continued the tradition of adding dissonance and their own highly personal styles.
