 The characteristics of this song exhibit extreme rhythmic flexibility, an asymmetrical phrase structure and tonal ambiguity.After composing "May Night", Rimsky-Korsakov was increasingly drawn to "calendar songs", which were written for specific ritual occasions.The ties to folk culture was what interested him most in folk music, even in his days with The Five; these songs formed a part of rural customs, echoed old Slavic paganism and the pantheistic world of folk rites.