Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (Russian: Модест Петрович Мусоргский, tr. Modést Petróvich Músorgskiy, IPA: ; 21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881) was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five". He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music.