Student Name Adrian LydonStudent ID D00106648Lecturer Name Catriona McEniryProgramme Applied MusicYear 2Module Name Music and Western CivilisationAssignment Title Semester 4 Written Assignment

“The music of Modest Mussorgsky strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity.”

Discuss this statement with reference to the music of Modest Mussorgsky.

Introduction

Modest Mussorgsky is probably the best Russian composer to describe the movement made in the country of that time. He also became an avatar of modernism for the generation of Ravel and Debussy. His use of Russian folk tunes laid a benchmark in Russian classical music, especially his opera’s and solo songs. Because of this, this essay will focus mostly on his opera’s with some references to his other genres of music. In this essay I will examine modest Mussorgsky under the following headings:

Biography Opera – Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina Songs - Darling Savishna

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881)

Biography

Mussorgsky’s life was disjointed. Suffering from alcoholism, poverty and loneliness for most of his life his life ended with many of his compositions unfinished. He, as with many other Russian composers at the time was self-taught and of very great intelligence. Mussorgsky was born in the Russian countryside to into a family of wealth and property. Around the time went he was six he began taking piano lessons from his mother. His genius and musical ear showed quickly. He lived in these surroundings until the age of ten. His father then enlisted him in the Peterschule, an elite school of the area where he furthered his studies for two years in piano. Because of his social status Modest was required to train for a carrier in the military as an officer. He did so in 1852 attending the Cadet School of the Guards. Very soon after being in the school he published his first composition ‘Porte-enseigne Polka’ thanks to a donation from his wealthy father. In December of 1856 he began analysing all of Beethoven’s symphonies, Berlioz, Schumann, Schubert, Liszt and Handel to name a few. He did this work with Balkriev, because it was part of Balkrievs’ methods of

teaching. Other works he composed around this 1858-59 included ‘Vesyoliy chas’,’Otchego, skazhi’ and ‘ List’ya shumeli unlino’. Mussorgsky had a reputation of losing interest in pieces he was writing. An example of this would be an opera called ’Salammbo’ on which he worked on between 1863 and1866 before disposing of it altogether. In 1865 the first signs of his alcoholism appeared after the death of his mother. In 1867 he occupied himself in his brothers household. It was here that he (Einstein, 1975) (Norton Anthology Of Western Music Volume 2: Classic to Twentieth Century, Fifth Edition)completed his orchestral work ‘Night on a Bald Mountain’. (Sadie, Volume 17)

Balakirev criticised and refused to conduct it, with the result that it was never performed during Mussorgsky's lifetime It is believed that he began working on this piece at around 1858 but didn’t really get to work on it until in April of 1966 writing out the score during ‘11 days of intense work’ (Norton, pg 544). Close to the end of 1868 Mussorgsky was encourage to write an opera on the story of Boris Godunov. This opera wasn’t accepted until May of 1872, and was played at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1873. The period after the performances of ‘Boris Godunov’ saw a decline in the livelihood of Modest Mussorgsky. His most notable compositions from this period would be his piano suite ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ and ‘Songs and Dances of death’. By 1880 he was dismissed by the military. Shortly after his 42nd birthday his alcoholism finally caught up with him and he died on the 16th of March. (Sadie, Volume 17)

Opera

Boris Godunov

Mussorgsky took the idea for this opera from a play written by Alexander Pushkin, one of Russia’s most renowned play-right and poet. The story of Boris Godunov is about his life. He was declared emperor of Russia despite word that he devised the murder of the correct heir to the throne. A young monk pretends to be the correct heir and leads the country to rebellion. Boris is ignored by his supporters due to his own weakness and is finally sustained. The first version of the opera was completed in 1869 but was refused to be performed because there was no leading female role. So Mussorgsky went back and composed a female role into the opera, by adding a female love interest for the young pretender. The new draft of the opera was completed in January 1874 and was finally premiered in the Mariinsky Theatre. (Norton Anthology Of Western Music Volume 2: Classic to Twentieth Century, Fifth Edition)

Analysis:

The Coronation Scene is the second scene of both versions of the opera. Church bells are ringing and the people are saluting Boris’s Coronation. The praise is then repeated showing larger passion. Mussorgsky set most of the words of the opera syllabically and placed the normal accents of speech on the strong beats, frequently on the higher pitches.

“Here’s what I would like. That my characters speak on stage as living people speak, but so that the character and force of their intonation supported by the orchestra which is the musical background for their speech, hit the target head on; that is, my music must be an artistic reproduction of human speech in all its most subtle windings. (Mussorgsky to Lyudmila Shestakova, 30 July/11 August 1868; A. Rimsky-Korsakov, 1932)” (Norton Anthology Of Western Music Volume 2: Classic to Twentieth Century, Fifth Edition Pg.544)

The Coronation Scene opens with the brass section of the orchestra playing two seventh chords alternating, with the roots being a tritone, on D and Ab. These chords are then decorated with the wind and string sections gradually growing in speed to the climax. After this there is an abundance of many ideas starting at measure 40: Prince Shuisky’s cheer for the emperor, rapid upward moving scales, and slower downward moving chords. The bells stop, followed by the people singing their admiration for the emperor with a folk song, which was one of the few authentic folk tunes that Mussorgsky used in the opera (Measure 50). The folk tune is the taken by the orchestra and developed with contrasting suggestions, repeated with larger passion, finishing with crying like roars of “Slava!” Boris then speaks to his people. They answer with the same cries of “Slava!” (Norton Anthology Of Western Music Volume2: Classic to Twentieth Century, Fifth Edition)

His vocal lines often resembled liturgical recitation on one or even two notes (Ex.1) or operatic recitative (Ex.2). Most of the time though Mussorgsky incorporated flowing arioso lines that feature adaptations from Russian folk songs: usually of a narrow range; short rhythmic or melodic motifs repeated. The best example of these would be Boris’s Speeches (measures 114-131, 137-43).Mussorgsky arranged his music in a way so he could create dramatic effects through repetition and gathering of single thoughts, instead of using thematic development to a climax. (Norton Anthology Of Western Music Volume 2: Classic to Twentieth Century, Fifth Edition)

Mussorgsky’s treatment of harmonics is probably his most noteworthy contribution to the development of music, drawing from innovations by Liszt and influencing many composers after his death in France and Russia. His novel chord progression patterns stray far from ‘common practice’. In at the beginning of the second scene share the common tones C and Gb, it is without a doubt C, repeated persistently in the bass line, that eventually turns out to be the prime key to the full scene. The quickening scales and downward moving chords in measures 42 – 48 change between the notes of Db major and C major scales, contrasting different collections of pitch. (Norton Anthology Of Western Music Volume 2: Classic to Twentieth Century, Fifth Edition)

“Throughout, Mussorgsky uses harmony as an expressive device and as a way to characterise his varied blocks of material, establishing tonal centers as much by assertion or repetition as by harmonic motion” (pg. 667)

Another outstanding feature of Mussorgsky’s is the way the melody line always manages to represent the emotion of the text perfectly in the most fearsome way envisaged. The best representation of this would be in the last part of Act II (Ex.3) and the death of Boris in Act IV. The same sort of depressing power is present in the monastery scene at the beginning of Act I except with less dark violence. (Huebner, 2010)

For many years Boris Godunov was played in a revised version by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, who believed he ‘corrected’ all of Mussorgsky’s mistakes and perfected the opera, but by the 1920’s Mussorgsky’s versions proved more popular because of people’s views on him changing from a self-taught amateur to a groundbreaking person of new musical techniques.

Khovanshchina

Among all of Mussorgsky’s opera’s, Khovanshchina is probably the most principal one apart from Boris Godunov. He worked on this opera until his death, sadly not being able to finish it. Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov decided to finish the opera and orchestrate it. The story of the opera is about the divergence of the old feudal system and the party of the Old Believers with the new modernising tendencies in Russia during the first years after the appointment of Peter the Great in 1689. Both the libretto and the musical values are as deliberately nationalistic as in Boris Godunov, but this opera moves in a slower fashion and generally the musical style is less persistent. Saying that, the most memorable numbers: prelude; aria in Act III; the crowd scenes; Mussorgsky seems to have dissected the ‘very spirit of ancient Russian church style. (Huebner, 2010)

Songs

O Darling Savishna

O Darling Savishna (Love Song of the Idiot) is truthfully Mussorgsky's biggest step forward in the song writing style. Before its composition in1866, Mussorgsky had written songs that were either somewhat a predictable/unadventurous strophic setting of rather conservative Romantic texts e.g. What Are the Words of Love to You, and songs that attempted to imitate with greater or lesser levels of success what he perceived to be the Russian folk style e.g. Calistratus. With O Darling Savishna, Mussorgsky completely succeeds in a setting that is without a doubt in the folk style but also an art song. With a text that he himself composed, O Darling Savishna was based on an event that apparently occurred on the composer's brother's farm at Minkino. (Answers.com, 2011)

The song is in the time signature of 5/4 which was very unusual at that time period. More strange still, the melody line consists pretty much of a one bar long figure and the piano accompaniment is made up of the same motion repeated over and over again for the whole 47 bars of the song. Still, the song sounds repetitive or as simple minded as Mussorgsky's unhappy idiot, but instead symbolizes the idea of the love song of the idiot in an entirely new and completely logical structure based on the folk expression. (Answers.com, 2011)

Conclusion

Modest Mussorgsky was the best Russian composer to describe the movement made in the country of that time. His use of Russian folk tunes defiantly laid a benchmark in Russian classical music, especially his opera’s and solo songs.

BibliographyAnswers.com. (2011, febuary 26). Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/moussorgsky-complete-songsDavi, A. T. (1948). • Historical anthology of music Vol 1, Oriental, Medieval and Renaissance Music . Einstein, A. (1975). Music in the Romantic Era. London: W. W. Norton.Huebner, S. (2010). National Traditions in Nineteenth-Century Opera, Volume I. London: Ashgate .Norton Anthology Of Western Music Volume 2: Classic to Twentieth Century. (Fifth Edition). London: W. W. Norton & Company.Sadie, S. (Volume 17). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Grove.

EX.1

Ex2.

Ex.3