MUSSORGSKY’S PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION:

low-pitched Petrovich Mussorgsky was born in K bevo, Pskov province, on March 21st, 1839. His family could be traced covering by dint of thirty-two generations to the Rurik, which is the prototypical Russian dynasty (862). He wasnt descended from any prestigious or royal family beca mapping by the fifteenth century, his family lost their title (Seroff, 3). His m an opposite(prenominal), who was an excellent pianist, gave him his first forte-piano lessons. At sequence nine he played a empyrean concerto forrader an audience in his parents house. In 1852 he entered the Guards cadet school in St Petersburg. Although he had not studied unity or composition, he tried to write an opera in 1856, which was the same division he entered the Guards. In 1857 he met Dargomïzhsky and Cui, and through and through them Balakirev and Stasov. He persuaded Balakirev to give him lessons and thereupon composed songs and piano sonatas (M.R.Ho., 753).

        Around the year 1856, a group called The Mighty Handful was formed. This group contrary the European-trained harmonyians. The leader of this nationalist group was Mili Balakiref (1837 - 1910). Cesar Cui (1835 - 1918) is also sometimes considered jointly with Balakiref to be their leader. Other members of the group were Alexander Borodin (1833 - 1887), Modest Mussorgsky, and Rimsky Korsakov. Mussorgsky was genius that s excessivelyd out in the group. Mussorgskys commitment emerged primarily in opera. chafe for euphonyal realism and sensitivity to broad social and moralistic issues appeared vividly in his songs of the 1860s, including The Seminarian, The Outcast, and The Orphan Girl. These elements, however, gained cumulative precedent in his operas. In 1863-66 he set about adapting Gustave Flauberts Salammbo, whence turned to Nikolai Gogols The Marriage, entirely completed neither. He started Boris Godunov in 1868. A first version was completed in 1869, but it was spurned by the Imperial Theaters because of its major neglect with operatic convention. Mussorgsky remodeled the course in 1871-72. This classic version was published in birdsong score equitable before the operas premiere in 1874. Mussorgsky was already writing Khovanshchina, another historical opera, and soon started the lighthearted unclouded at Sorochinsk. (Rimsky-Korsakov completed Khovanshchina, along with editing and revising other works, including Boris Godunov; Cesar Cui.) The 1870s also produced the song cycles Sunless and Songs and Dances of Death, the t unity poem A Night on Bald Mountain, and the piano cycle Pictures from an demonstrate (Brown).

One of Modest Mussorgskys closest companions was Victor Hartmann, an room decorator and occasional painter. Mussorgsky became friends with Hartman in 1870. Around 1873, Hartman passed away at age 39 of an aneurysm, which left(p) Mussorgsky devastated. Hartmans death left Mussorgsky touching guilty for not recognizing and acting on Hartmans mordant condition. Mussorgsky then began work on a composition in memory of him. The following year, an exhibition was organized in whi exess of Hartmann, and Mussorgskys visit to that show became the most famous art gallery stroll of all time, Pictures at an Exhibition. The piano suite portrays ten of Hartmanns images, with a recurring process theme to show the viewers doing to each painting (Russ, 15).

                          (Russ, p. 60) The first number in the authorship is Gnomus.         This heading sop ups an old untrusting nanus. Based on Hartmanns design for a Christmas tree nutcracker, the music depicts a grotesque little rascal creeping through a dark background, pausing, lunging suddenly from the shadows, and performing a mad, tempestuous dance. In this faeces, Mussorgsky turns the toy into a powerful, grotesque character. The music portrays the gnomes tongue-tied leaps and strange expressions, which are cries of suffering, moans and pleas. Gnomus is a unbroken structure whose material is make up of variations and extensions of the arising give voice, and of the descend idea against a rising augmented fourth. At the concentrate on of the piece there is a graceful chromatic origin that takes the augmented fourth as its starting point. The opening style makes persistent returns throughout the piece as the gnome stumbles. This is considered unrivaled of the most harmonically interesting pieces in this work (Russ, p. 36).

(Russ, p. 60) The blurb piece is called Il vecchio castello (The Old Castle). While studying computer architecture in Italy, Hartmann painted a watercolor of an unidentified chivalrous tower. A minstrel with a lute was surveyed in before the gates, maybe to indicate the scale. The theme here has a meditative, cast down beauty. The performer must guard against monotony in this piece, because it post be the result from the continuous G# pedal, the continuous soda ash cadences and the unremarkable harmony. The sweet line must sing and the pulsation must be present in the background. If there were a neglect of contrast amidst sections in this piece, then it would skilful weak.

(Russ, p. 60) Following this movement is another Promenade, which leads into the third movement. This movement is called Tuileries and it illustrates children compete and arguing in a Parisian park. Subtitled Children Quarreling at renovate, the music depicts a walk in the Tuileries Gardens of Paris, where nurses bring the children in their charge to play. Mussorgsky had a personality that had certain childish features to it because of his use of silly nicknames, his obsession with food and his fascination with fairy tales. Mussorgsky did excite a tender regard for children, which is reflected in the music. The cries of the children are comprehend in the reiterated falling third figure. This movement is described as a rounded binary form (e.g. AB with a brief but clear return to the opening phrase at the end). In the middle section where the children take on a ridiculing attitude, it is not a strongly contrasted section so it smoothly recapitulates, but to a reworked theme of the beginning. (Russ, p. 39) (Russ, p. 60) The fourth movement is Bydlo and the painting is of a Polish oxcart driver and his team of oxen. Bydlo is a Polish word for cattle. This movement is characterized by thick, heavy left hand chords, representing the rumbling of the wheels and the stepping of the hooves. It is set against a folk-like melody call by the cart drivers. The form is without a strong melodic or tonal contrast because the same accompaniment bod continues throughout the central section and the coda breaks up the theme. The boilers suit continuance of the piece is basically determined by the length of time it takes for the sound of the cart to die away into the distance. (Russ, p. 40) (Russ, p.60) The Promenade then reoccurs and following it is the Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells. This movement is base on sketches Hartman drew out for a ballet with legs and heads of chickens extending from their shells. This is a costume design for the ballet Trilby, choreographed by Marius Petipa, with music by Julius Gerber. The ballet contains a scene in which children dance as chicks in their shells. Mussorgsky uses effective percussion-like high piano sounds to imitate the chicks tapping to break out of their shells and the little shriek as they burst out. therefore there are difficult trills in ppp that depict their tiny, fluffy feathers as they stumble around. (Russ, p. 41-42) The sixth movement is Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle, which is ground on the bickering and arguing between the pompous, fatty Goldenberg and the lightheaded beggar Schmuyle. Hartmanns sketches depict a pair of Jews from Sandomir, in Poland; one richly dressed and the other in rags. Mussorgsky sets up a musical dialogue between the two. The rich mans theme is imperious and arrogant, with grim overtones, oblivious of the poor mans wheedling entreaties. In this movement, Mussorgsky portrays vocabulary rhythm between the two Jews. For example, Goldenberg speaks first in cocky way with a bit of an oriental style in the rhythmically detailed ornamentation and augmented intervals. He speaks easily and clearly with a deep and powerful voice, pausing for breaths. Then, the poor Jew whines in a high voice with a triplet tremolo representing his teeth chattering or his body shaking. Gradually both themes merge, the rich mans theme drowning out the poor mans.

The last Promenade leaving into the Limoges is now played with a restatement of the beginning promenade but now with extra doubling adding to its ceremonial quality. The seventh movement is Limoges: The Market. This movement captures the hustle and bustle of the market place.



The music recreates the action at law portrayed by Hartmanns drawing of French women haggling and gossip in a market. The most important features in this piece are the calls and shouts in which some of them are made up of the whole-tone material. (Russ, p. 45) Catacombs is a slow series of deep, mournful chords that expresses this self-portrait of Hartmann and two other men exploring the old Roman catacombs in Paris. This movement has dissonant, pale chords and uncertain tonality. The music modulates into a variation of the Promenade, over which the composer engraved in the original manuscript Con mortuis in natural language mortua (With the dead in a dead language). There are even traces of Dies Irae echoing in the beginning. This painting comes from Hartmans explorations of the tunnels low Paris. The portrait in the painting is actually a self-portrait (Russ, p. 46).

The ordinal movement is called The Hut on Fowls Legs (Baba Yaga). This movement is about a witch from Russian folklore that lived in a hut that could move around on chicken legs. However, Mussorgskys music begins with the wild flight of the witchs gun, the witch peering over the rim. She disappears into the forest, where the music changes momentarily to a slow, passage. The witchs hut is stalking through the dim wood on fowls legs. Suddenly the witch flies forth again, careening through the air and into the final sketch. Mussorgskys setting, unlike Hartmans drawing, is made up of ornamentations. The central section, mixes diminished and augmented harmonies creating tonal disbelief and atmosphere.

The last movement of this piece is The Great Gate at Kiev. This piece captures the majesty and immensity of Hartmans proposed design for a colossal new set of gates and the citys entrance. This sketch was Hartmanns entry in a competition to design a great gate to commemorate Tsar Alexander IIs surprise escape from an assassination attempt. The project was never carried through for lack of funds. The music, a variation on the Promenade, follows a grand and horrible procession through the gate. This piece matches the grand scale of Hartmans concept. The opening is played with power but not too much because that should be saved for the final ending of this movement. The opening processional tune is presented in three forms, which are just plainly played at first, then decorated with doorbells, and finally it is given a climatic triplet rhythm. In between there is one huge interlude of Russian bell sounds, which incorporates the opening Promenade theme.

Finally, we now come to Maurice Ravel, who is the master orchestrator. Mussorgskys piano writing in the suite is as striking as can be, achieving mystery, emotion, humor, and majesty. It is a work that cries out for orchestral color, and several(prenominal) subsequent composers bring forth been unable to resist the challenge. The first appears to have been the Russian Toushmalov, but the greatest arrangement is unquestionably Ravels. A man who would spend hours interviewing instrumentalists to discover new possibilities, yet who had a talent for absorbing different styles, he was the perfect medical prognosis to turn the piano suite into a concert-hall showpiece. In all(prenominal) movement, he selected accurately the right combination of instruments needed to facsimile Mussorgskys original atmosphere, rising to a grand finale that leaves the meeter feeling as if he had traveled to Kiev specifically to stand in front of that majestic, tragically nonexistent gate. (Kuenning) BIBLIOGRAPHY Brown, Malcolm. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. 17 Oct. 2003 .

David, Brown. Musorgsky: His Life and Works. rude(a) York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Emerson, Caryl. The Life of Mussorgsky. Cambrige, United country: Cambrige, University Press, 1999.

Ho., M R. Modest Musorgsky. Encyclopedia Britannica. Chicago, IL: William Benton,         1983.

Kuenning, Geoff. Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition. 1999. 25 Nov. 2003 .

Mussorgsky/Ravel-Pictures at an Exhibition. Brighouse, West Yorkshire. 17 Oct. 2003 .

Russ, Michael. Musorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition. New York, NY: Cambrige, University Press, 1992.

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