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Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
1839-1881
One of five Russian composers known as the 'Mighty Handful' for their nationalist tendencies.
Life and Music
• Mussorgsky was one of music’s great originals. Everything he composed was conceived in terms of natural rhythms, melodies and harmonies of Slavonic folk music. He constantly railed against tradition, honing his music in order to make it, in his words, ‘an artistic reproduction of human speech in all its finest shades’.
• Like Janáček, his psychological insight into the dark side of human nature led him into regions of expression hitherto undreamed of. However his lack of solid technique and his increasing reliance on spirits ultimately proved insurmountable.
• Mussorgsky’s natural talent was obvious from the start. Initially taught by his mother he became a pianist prodigy, making his debut at nine years old. Four years later, in 1852, he enrolled at the Imperial Guard’s cadet school and composed the Porte-en-seigne polka, a surprisingly cheery piano miniature.
• In 1863, a shortage of funds forced Mussorgsky to take a job as a clerk in the civil service. Though brimful of startlingly original ideas, the pieces he composed in his spare time often lacked any musical logic and he abandoned many works out of sheer frustration. Indeed, if it hadn’t been for Rimsky-Korsakov’s later kindness and support, Mussorgsky, and his music, might have fallen by the wayside.
• According to Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky’s music was blighted by ‘absurd, disconnected harmony, ugly part-writing, sometimes strikingly illogical modulations, sometimes a depressing lack of them’.
• It was largely through Rimsky-Korsakov’s well-meaning, highly polished revisions that Mussorgsky’s music gained a wider audience.
• Throughout the 1870s, Mussorgsky became increasingly prone to epileptic seizures, and his predilection for alcohol quickly developed into full-blown dependency.
• Mussorgsky's most famous work is Pictures at an Exhibition. It departs from convention at almost every turn. By way of a series of interludes, the composer himself regularly appears in the form of a recurring ‘Promenade’ theme. As he strolls around the gallery, stopping at each new stage design or watercolour by his friend Viktor Hartmann, the ‘Promenade’ transforms; sometimes settling us down for the next picture, occasionally creating a startling change o atmosphere.
Did you know?
Mussorgsky began composing six operas, but completed only one, Boris Godunov.
