Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839 – 1881) was a
Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five".
He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic
period. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical
identity, often in deliberate defiance of the
established conventions of Western music. Many of his
works were inspired by Russian history, Russian
folklore, and other national themes. Such works include
the opera Boris Godunov, the orchestral tone poem Night
on Bald Mountain and the ...(+)
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839 – 1881) was a
Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five".
He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic
period. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical
identity, often in deliberate defiance of the
established conventions of Western music. Many of his
works were inspired by Russian history, Russian
folklore, and other national themes. Such works include
the opera Boris Godunov, the orchestral tone poem Night
on Bald Mountain and the piano suite Pictures at an
Exhibition.
For many years Mussorgsky's works were mainly known in
versions revised or completed by other composers. Many
of his most important compositions have posthumously
come into their own in their original forms, and some
of the original scores are now also available.
The spelling and pronunciation of the composer's name
has caused some confusion. The family name derives from
a 15th- or 16th-century ancestor, Roman Vasilyevich
Monastyryov, who appears in the Velvet Book, the
17th-century genealogy of Russian boyars. Roman
Vasilyevich bore the nickname "Musorga", and was the
grandfather of the first Mussorgsky. The composer could
trace his lineage to Rurik, the legendary 9th-century
founder of the Russian state. In Mussorgsky family
documents the spelling of the name varies: "Musarskiy",
"Muserskiy", "Muserskoy", "Musirskoy", "Musorskiy", and
"Musurskiy". The baptismal record gives the composer's
name as "Muserskiy".
Mussorgsky's works, while strikingly novel, are
stylistically Romantic and draw heavily on Russian
musical themes. He has been the inspiration for many
Russian composers, including most notably Dmitri
Shostakovich (in his late symphonies) and Sergei
Prokofiev (in his operas). Mussorgsky's single-movement
orchestral work Night on Bald Mountain enjoyed broad
popular recognition in the 1940s when it was featured,
in tandem with Schubert's 'Ave Maria', in the 1940 Walt
Disney animated film Fantasia.
Among the composer's other works are a number of songs,
including three song cycles: The Nursery (1872),
Sunless (1874) and Songs and Dances of Death (1877);
plus Mephistopheles' Song of the Flea and many others.
Important early recordings of songs by Mussorgsky were
made by tenor Vladimir Rosing in the 1920s and 1930s.
Other recordings have been made by Boris Christoff
between 1951 and 1957 and by Sergei Leiferkus in 1993.
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