Modest Mussorgsky- Pictures at an Exhibition

MODEST MUSSORGSKY

Mussorgsky was a creative genius.  He was more original than any other Russian composer of his time.  He experimented with new melodies and harmonies. He was famous for his new kind of melody called “The melody of life”.  HE SAID, “IF I SUCCEED, I SHALL BE A CONQUEROR IN ART AND SUCCEED I MUST.”  HE WANTED HIS CHARACTERS TO “SPEAK ON STAGE AS THEY WOULD IN REAL LIFE, AND YET WRITE MUSIC THAT IS THOROUGHLY ARTISTIC.”  He was best known for his operas and songs, because he opened up new paths in terms of melodies, harmonies and rhythms, and yet he also took advantage of the rich Russian folk culture to which he had been exposed all his life.

He was born on March 21, 1839, to a rich land owning family, in Pskov.  He received music training from his mother and Anton Hernke, and though he published a piano piece at sixteen, he was supposed to go into the army.  He graduated from Cadet School and became a member of the Peobrazhensky regiment.  He met Balakirev and Parghomszksky which re-inspired his musical interests.  He studied with these men for a short time and wrote songs and two piano sonatas.  He finally resigned his army commission and devoted his time to composing music.  He wrote his Scherzo in B-flat for orchestra whose premiere was conducted in St. Petersburg on January 23, 1860.  

When the Russian slaves were freed in 1861 the Mussorgsky estate had to be sold, and the composer had to get a real job, as a clerk from 1863-1867 in the Ministry of Communications.  However, he continued to compose music.  In 1864 he completed the first act of his opera, “The Marriage” in which he experimented with speech-like melodies for the first time.  Between 1865-1866, he completed several remarkable songs, and between 1860- and 1866 he completed sketches for his first orchestral work “Night on Bald Mountain.” (This piece was in Fantasia, if you have ever watched that movie by Disney.)

In 1869 he went back to government service, and for the next eleven years worked for the department of forestry.  He was suffering from nervous disorders and he was an alcoholic and sought out the company of disreputable people.  Even with all these problems, he managed to produce a number of beautiful pieces of music that are well known to this day:  Boris Godunov, 1874, Sunless and Songs and Dances of Death, Pictures at an Exhibition for piano, two operas he never completed “Kovarinchina” and “The Fair at Sorochinsk”.  He died in St. Petersburg on March 28, 1881.  

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION:  This piece was originally written for the piano by Mussorgsky, but was orchestrated by Maurice Ravel, a French composer.  Mussorgsky wrote this piece after he visited an exhibit of paintings by a friend, Victor Hartmann, who had died.  The pictures inspired him..”The melodies come to me of their own accord..I can hardly manage to put them on paper fast enough.”  He chose nine of his friend’s pictures and sketches for musical ideas.

This is a suite, which is a group of pieces strung together but with separate sections and presented as one longer piece.  

1.) Promenade: This section shows the composer walking from picture to picture in the exhibition and it repeats several times throughout the piece of music.  

2.) The Gnomes: sprightly melody with offbeat rhythms, a design for a nutcracker.  

3) Old Castle: a sad sounding song that is inspired by a castle with a troubadour in front of it.

4) Tuileries: A picture of the famous garden in Paris.  This comes from the painting by Hartmann of his children playing with their nannies.  It has jolly confusing melodies and lively rhythms.  

5.) Bydlo: This is a Polish ox cart, and the music is slow and heavy like the slowness of the cart.  

6.) Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells: This is inspired by Hartmann’s designs for costumes and a setting for the ballet.  The music is fast and full of bird-like sounds with the use of many clarinets and flutes.

7.) Samuel Goldenburg and Schmuyle: a portrait of two Jewish men, one grand and rich, portrayed by a proud, stately melody, the other one poor, and humble and is introduced by a weak, indecisive subject.  

8.) Limoges Marketplace: a fluttering melody with leaping rhythms that suggest housewive’s gossip.  

9.) Catacombs: The somber melody here shows the darkness of the catacombs, where skulls and bones are left.  Mussorgsky wrote of this section, “ the creative spirit of the dead Hartmann leads me toward skulls”.  The skulls are lit up inside.  

10.) The Hut on Fowl’s Legs:  An oriental design of a clock in the shape of a hut, standing on chicken feet and showing off two rooster heads, gave the composer his next inspiration.  This picture made Mussorgsky think of Baba Yaga the witch, as she soars through the air looking for her victims.  It is based on a Russian folk song.  

11.) The Great Gate of Kiev: The suite comes to a close with a description of “The great gate of Kiev” in Russia.  This was a sketch by Hartmann for a projected monument in Kiev.  

The theme of the Promenade returns between several of the sections, to show the composer walking from picture to picture as if in a museum at an exhibition.