Modest Petrovich
Mussorgsky (1839-1881) was a Russian composer of the Romantic Era, considered
by many as one of the greatest Russian composers of all time - along with Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky. His
pieces show typical Nationalist features and the influence of Russian folklore.
Together
with composers Dargomïzhsky, Cesar Cui, Mily Barakirev, Borodin and Nicolai
Rimsky-Korsakoff , he formed a group called ‘The Five’ or ‘Moguchaya Kuchka’ (‘the
mighty bunch’). All of them wished to compose though all were, to one degree or
another, amateurs. Mussorgsky had no formal training as a composer, and
essencially taught himself by making piano arrangements for orchestral scores.
The
Kuchka had very definite ideas of what Russian music should be. This
self-conscious Russian styling had two elements:
1)
First, music should express Russian soul. This
means the music produced in the country should be based in village songs, the
tolling of church bells, church chants and Cossack and Caucasian dances. The
distinctive aspects of Russian folk music were: tonal mutability (songs show
shifts from one tonal centre to another, and end in a different key than the
one in which they started); heterophony;
and parallel fifths, fourths and thirds.
2)
Second, Russian music should be written in a
Russian way. The Five had their own conception of what should be the ‘Russian’
style of composing – i.e. ‘exotic’ and different from the Western pattern. For
this, they adopeted a series of harmonic devices, in order to create a
different ‘colour’: diminished or
octatonic scales; pentatonic scales; modular
rotations in sequences of thirds; whole
tone scales; and the use of the so-called ‘Russian
Sub-Mediant’.
This
second element was an opposition to the German classical forms of composing, in
favour of an organic form – meaning the musical materials should determine the
form, and not the contrary (a bottom-up approach rather than a top-down).
Given
his short life, Mussorgsky musical production progressed at a very fast pace.
He went at least through three changes of style. St. John's Night on Bald
Mountain (usually called Night on Bald Mountain) for instance, composed
in 1867, is an innovative piece for that time, full of radical dissonances. There
can also be found amongst his works dramatic monologues and pieces with expressionist
tinges and non-Wagnerian chromaticisms.
His
piano early works consist of small pieces, the morceaux. Later, he would compose the cycle Pictures at an Exhibition (1877) . Very unique in its unusual chord
progressions, bar-by-bar meter changes and original piano textures, it is also
very original in terms of form, featuring character-pieces linked by interludes
varying a basic theme.
The piece we shall listen to – the first part (‘Promenade’)
of the Pictures at an Exhibition
suite shows clear characteristics of the Romantic style in its theme, whilst
its interludes are clearly innovative and exotic – very much after The Five’s concept
of Russian styling. The latter feature, for instance, modular rotations in
sequences of thirds (which opposes the Western rigid modulation pattern found
in the sonata form). Finally, one notices the unusual, sudden closing of the
piece.
A
classic interpretation by Sviatoslav Richter. Enjoy!
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