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Modest
Petrovich
Mussorgsky
 Born March 21, 1839 in
Saint Petersburg
 Wealthy family
 Played piano from a young
age and wrote his first
piano piece and age 12
 Graduated from “The
Cadet School” in 1856
 Suffered from alcoholism
 Moved toward writing
about realism
 Suffered an early death in
march 28, 1881
 Nationalistic composer
 Inspired by his home land
 Completed one opera titled
Boris Godunov
 The opera was not well
received at first due to the
fact it lacked a primma
donna
 Other operas, Khovanshchina
and Sorochintsï Fair, were left
unfinished upon his death
 Wrote many works for piano, as
well as instrumental works
 http://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=AneABJXRym8
 Perhaps Mussorgsky’s
best known piece
 Instrumental work
 Program music
 depicts witches and
demons gathering on
top of a mountain
 Full of dissonant sounds
 Nothing this bold had
been heard before
 Mostly in a minor key
 http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=iCEDfZgDPS8
 Mussorgsky’s only finished
opera
 Forced to make revisions to it
at first for it to be played
 Finished product was well
received
 One of his most popular
works
 Uniquely nationalistic
 Shows Russia’s decent into
anarchy in the early 17th
century
 Aria is not sung by a woman,
which was unusual
 Music tended to have a thick
texture to it, many voiced
Died young
Had a problem with
alcoholism
Didn’t have a lot of
money upon death
Best remembered for
Boris Godunov and his
instrumental works
Paved the way for
musicians to
experiment with
unusual sounds, such
as were found in Night
on Bald Mountain
 http://www.operafolio.com/comp
oser.asp?n=Mussorgsky
 http://www.classical.net/music/co
mp.lst/mussorgsky.php
 http://suite101.com/article/musso
rgskys-boris-godunov-a53852