Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky  ( March 9  [21] ,  1839 , Karevo village , Pskov province  - March 16  [28] ,  1881 , St. Petersburg ) - Russian composer , member of the Mighty Handful . He worked in various genres: his creative heritage includes operas, orchestral pieces, cycles of vocal and piano music, romances and songs, choirs.

In Mussorgsky's work, Russian national traits found an original and vivid expression, but his originality during his lifetime was not fully appreciated. From the beginning of the 20th century to the present, his operas " Boris Godunov " and " Khovanshchina ", the cycle of piano miniatures " Pictures at an Exhibition ", the vocal cycles " Songs and Dances of Death ", " Children's " are recognized as masterpieces of world musical art.

Mussorgsky's father, collegiate secretary Pyotr Alekseevich Mussorgsky, came from an old noble family of Mussorgsky, who came from the Smolensk branch of the Rurikovich . Mother, Yulia Ivanovna Chirikova - daughter of the provincial secretary Ivan Ivanovich Chirikov . Until the age of 10, Modest and his older brother Filaret were educated at home. In 1849 , having moved to St. Petersburg, the brothers entered the Petrishule school (gymnasium) . In 1852, without graduating from college, Modest entered the School of Guards ensigns., where, thanks to the teacher of the law, Father Krupsky, he “deeply penetrated into the very essence” of Greek, Catholic and Protestant church music  . After graduating from school in 1856 , Mussorgsky briefly served in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment (during these years he met A. S. Dargomyzhsky ), then in the main engineering department, in the Ministry of State Property and in state control.

 

Modest Mussorgsky - officer of the Preobrazhensky Regiment

By the time he joined Balakirev's musical circle, Mussorgsky was a superbly educated and erudite Russian officer (he was fluent in French and German, understood Latin and Greek) and aspired to become, as he himself put it, a "musician". Balakirev forced Mussorgsky to pay attention to musical studies. Under his guidance, Mussorgsky read orchestral scores, analyzed harmony, counterpoint and form in the works of recognized Russian and European composers, and developed the skill of their critical evaluation.

Mussorgsky studied piano (since 1849) with A. A. Gercke and became a good pianist . By nature, possessing a beautiful chamber baritone , he willingly sang at evenings in private music collections. In 1852  , the first publication of the composer was published in St. Petersburg - the piano polka "Ensign". In 1858  , Mussorgsky wrote two scherzos  - B-dur and cis-moll, one of which (B-dur) was orchestrated by him and in 1860  performed at a concert of the Russian Musical Society .

Mussorgsky began work on a large form with music for Sophocles' tragedy Oedipus, but did not finish it (one choir was performed in a concert by K. N. Lyadov in 1861, and was also published posthumously among other works of the composer). The next big plans - operas based on Flaubert's novel " Salambo " (another name is "The Libyan") and on the plot of " The Marriage " by Gogol  - were also not realized to the end. Music from these sketches Mussorgsky used in his later compositions.

The next major idea - the opera " Boris Godunov " based on the tragedy of the same name by A. S. Pushkin - Mussorgsky brought to the end. In October 1870, the final materials were presented by the composer to the directorate of the Imperial Theatres. On February 10, 1871, the repertoire committee, which consisted mainly of foreigners, rejected the opera without explanation  ; according to E. Napravnik (who was a member of the committee), the reason for the refusal of the production was the lack of a “female element” in the opera  . The premiere of "Boris" took place on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg only in 1874  on the material of the secondedition of the opera, in the dramaturgy of which the composer was forced to make significant changes. Even before the premiere, in January of the same year (1874), the St. Petersburg music publisher V. V. Bessel published the opera (in clavier).

In 1872, Mussorgsky conceived the dramatic opera ("folk musical drama") " Khovanshchina " (according to the plan of V.V. Stasov ), while simultaneously working on a comic opera based on the plot of Gogol's " Sorochinsky Fair " . "Khovanshchina" was almost completely finished in the clavier, but (with the exception of two fragments) it was not instrumented. During Mussorgsky's lifetime, Khovanshchina was neither published nor staged.

For the Sorochinsky Fair, Mussorgsky composed the first two acts, as well as several scenes for the third act: Parubka's Dream (where he used the music of the symphonic fantasy Night on Bald Mountain, made earlier for an unrealized collective work - the opera-ballet Mlada), Dumka Parasi and Gopak.

Recent years

In the 1870s, Mussorgsky painfully experienced the gradual collapse of the Mighty Handful, a trend that he perceived as a concession to musical conformism, cowardice, even betrayal of the Russian idea:

Without a banner, without desires, not seeing and not wanting to see into the distance, they pore over what has been done a long time ago, to which no one calls them <…> A mighty bunch has degenerated into soulless traitors; "scourge" turned out to be a child's whip.

- Letter to V.V. Stasov, 19-20.10.1875

It was agonizing that his work was not understood in the official academic environment, as, for example, at the Mariinsky Theater , which was then directed by foreigners and compatriots who sympathized with Western opera fashion. But a hundred times more painful was the rejection of his innovation on the part of people whom he considered close friends - Balakirev, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov:

At the first showing of the 2nd act of the Sorochinskaya Fair, I was convinced of a fundamental misunderstanding of the music by themselves of the collapsed "bunch" of Little Russian comedy: such a cold blew from their views and demands that "the heart was frozen," as Archpriest Avvakum says. Nevertheless, I paused, pondered, and checked myself more than once. It can't be that I'm wrong in my aspirations, it can't be. But it's a shame that the musicians of the collapsed "bunch" have to be interpreted through the "barrier" behind which they remained.

- Letter to A. A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov 11/10/1877

 

I. E. Repin. Portrait of the composer M. P. Mussorgsky

These experiences of non-recognition and "incomprehension" were expressed in "nervous fever" ^[14] , which intensified in the second half of the 1870s, and as a result, in addiction to alcohol. Mussorgsky was not in the habit of making preliminary sketches, sketches, and drafts. He thought about everything for a long time, composed and recorded completely finished music. This feature of his creative method, multiplied by nervous illness and alcoholism, was the reason for the slowdown in the process of creating music in the last years of his life. Having retired from the "Forest Department" (where from 1872 he served as junior clerk), he lost a constant (albeit small) source of income and was content with odd jobs and little financial support from friends. The last bright event was arranged by his friend, the singer D. M. Leonova , a trip in July-September 1879 to the south of Russia. During Leonova's tour, Mussorgsky acted as her accompanist, including (and often) performing his own innovative compositions. A characteristic feature of his late pianism was free and harmonically bold improvisation. Concerts of Russian musicians that were given in Poltava, Elisavetgrad, Nikolaev, Kherson, Odessa, Sevastopol, Rostov-on-Don, Voronezh and other cities, were held with constant success, which assured the composer (albeit not for long) that his path "to new shores" was chosen correctly.

One of Mussorgsky's last public performances took place at an evening in memory of F. M. Dostoevsky in St. Petersburg on February 4, 1881. When a mournful portrait of the great writer was brought before the public, Mussorgsky sat down at the piano and improvised the funeral bell ringing. This improvisation, which amazed those present, was (according to the recollections of an eyewitness) his “last“ forgive ”not only to the deceased singer“ humiliated and offended ”, but also to all living things” .

 

Tombstone of Mussorgsky in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (Petersburg)

Mussorgsky died in the Nikolaevsky military hospital in St. Petersburg , where he was placed on February 13 after an attack of delirium tremens . In the same place, a few days before his death, Ilya Repin painted the only lifetime portrait of the composer. Mussorgsky was buried at the Tikhvin Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra .

In 1972 , the M.P. Mussorgsky . The Mussorgsky estate in the village of Karevo (located nearby) has not been preserved.

Creativity

In the work of Mussorgsky, Russian national traits found an original and vivid expression. This defining feature of his style manifested itself in many ways: in the ability to handle folk songs and church music (including Old Russian monody ), in melody, harmony ( modalisms , linearity , non-standard chords , including quarter chords), rhythm (complex, "non-square" meters , original rhythmic formulas), form; finally, in the development of plots, mainly from Russian life. Mussorgsky is a hater of routine; for him, there were no authorities in music. He paid little attention to the rules of musical "grammar", seeing in them not the provisions of science, but only a collection of composing techniques of previous eras that he did not want to use (for example, he almost completely lacks the imitation-polyphonic development of musical material, which was inherent in many to his Western counterparts, especially in Germany). Hence the constant desire of Mussorgsky as a composer for novelty in everything.

Mussorgsky's specialty is vocal music. On the one hand, he strove for realism, on the other hand, for a colorful and expressive disclosure of the word. In an effort to follow the word, musicologists see continuity with the creative method of A. S. Dargomyzhsky . Love lyrics as such attracted him little  . The specific style of Mussorgsky is widely manifested in those cases when he refers to Russian peasant life. Mussorgsky's songs "Kalistrat", "Lullaby of Eremushka" (words by N. A. Nekrasov ), "Sleep, sleep, peasant son" (from "Voevoda" by A. N. Ostrovsky ), "Gopak" (from "Gaydamakov" T. Shevchenko), "Svetik Savishna" (to the verses of Mussorgsky himself, who skillfully stylized the folk pentasyllable ) and many others. etc. In such songs and romances, Mussorgsky finds a truthful and dramatic musical expression for hopelessness and sorrow, which is hidden under the external humor of the lyrics. Humor, irony and satire were generally good for Mussorgsky (in the fairy tale about the "Goat", in the Latin-clawing "Seminarian", in love with the priest's daughter, in the musical pamphlet "Rayok", in the song "Haughtiness" , etc. ⁾ . Expressive recitation distinguishes the song "Orphan" and the ballad "Forgotten" (based on the plot of the famous painting by V.V. Vereshchagin). Mussorgsky managed to find completely new, original tasks, to apply new peculiar techniques for their implementation, which was vividly expressed in his vocal pictures from childhood life, in a small cycle called "Children's" (the text belongs to the composer)  . The vocal cycle “Songs and Dances of Death” (1875-1877; to verses by A. A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov ; “Trepak” is a picture of a tipsy peasant freezing in the forest; “Lullaby” sounds from the mother’s face at the bedside of her dying child is distinguished by exceptional dramatic power. etc.).

Mussorgsky's most ambitious creative achievements are concentrated in the field of opera, his own variety of which he called (including so that his creations in this genre would not evoke association with the concert-romantic opera aesthetics that dominated Russia) "musical drama". Boris Godunov, based on Pushkin's drama of the same name (and also under the great influence of Karamzin's interpretation of this plot), is one of the best works of world musical theater. The musical language and dramaturgy of "Boris" meant a complete break with the routine of the then opera house, the action of the "musical drama" was now carried out by specifically musical means. Both author's editions of "Boris Godunov" (1869 and 1872), differing significantly from each other in dramaturgy, are, in fact, two equivalentauthor's solutions to the same tragic collision .

Mussorgsky's innovative opera was very different from the romantic stereotypes of operatic performance that prevailed in his time. This explains the sharp criticism of "Boris", who saw in the innovations of dramaturgy "an unsuccessful libretto", and in music - "many rough edges and blunders". For Mussorgsky, the negative reaction of his “Kuchkist” friends, all with the exception of A.P. Borodin, was especially painful.

Balakirev spoke sharply and tactlessly about "Boris", and he did it publicly . Rimsky-Korsakov argued that Mussorgsky was inexperienced in instrumentation , although it is sometimes not devoid of color and a successful variety of orchestral colors ^[23] . Most of the "friends" distinguished Cui, who published a devastating review shortly after the premiere of "Boris". In his opinion, the libretto of the opera

...does not stand up to scrutiny. There is no plot in it, no character development due to the course of events, no integral dramatic interest. This is a series of scenes, which, it is true, have some touch of a well-known fact, but a series of scenes embroidered, scattered, organically not connected in any way.

- St. Petersburg Gazette, 6.2.1874

Similar statements migrated to Soviet textbooks of musical literature. In fact, not only the instrumentation, dramaturgy, composition technique, but Mussorgsky's entire style did not fit into the Procrustean bed of romantic musical aesthetics that dominated during the years of his life.

 

Modest Mussorgsky in 1876

Even more skeptically, contemporaries reacted to Mussorgsky's next opera (its genre is designated by the author as "folk musical drama") "Khovanshchina" - on the theme of historical events in Russia at the end of the 17th century (the split and the Streltsy revolt). Khovanshchina, based on Mussorgsky's own script and text, was written with long interruptions, and by the time of his death it was almost entirely finished in clavier  . Unusual and the idea of ??this work, and its scale. Compared to "Boris Godunov", "Khovanshchina" is not just a drama of one historical person (through which the theme of power, crime, conscience and retribution is revealed), but already a kind of "impersonal" historiosophicala drama in which, in the absence of a pronounced central character (characteristic of the operatic dramaturgy of that time), whole layers of folk life are revealed and the theme of the spiritual tragedy of the whole people, which takes place when the Russian traditional way of life is broken, is raised.

Mussorgsky left only a few works for orchestra, of which the symphonic painting " Night on Bald Mountain " stands out. This is a colorful picture of the “coven of the spirits of darkness” and “the magnificence of Chernobog”. Less well known are the Scherzo B-dur (with an “eastern” middle, on a continuous organ point ; 1858), Intermezzo (composed for piano in 1862, instrumented in 1867), built on a theme reminiscent of music of the 18th century. , and the solemn march "The Capture of Kars" (1880), timed to coincide with the victory of the Russians over the Turks in 1877 

Mussorgsky's outstanding work for piano is the cycle of plays Pictures at an Exhibition , written in 1874 as musical illustrations-episodes for watercolors by V. A. Hartmann . Contrasting impression pieces are permeated with a specifically Russian theme (the archaic is stylized using variable meter and dominant pentatonic scale ), reflecting the change of moods when moving from one picture to another. The Russian theme opens the composition and it also ends it (“The Bogatyr Gates”), now transforming into the anthem of Russia and its Orthodox faith.

Recognition

For 10 years, Boris Godunov was given at the Mariinsky Theater 15 times and in 1882, shortly after the death of the author, was removed from the repertoire . Mussorgsky's music won recognition in Russia and all over the world after the composer's death (on his tombstone there is a musical fragment from the choir "The Defeat of Sennacherib", known to this day only to connoisseurs).

Mussorgsky's music was brought to the big stage/concert stage by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, who gave several years of his life to put in order the legacy of his late friend. Modern musicians often evaluate Rimsky-Korsakov's editions as "inauthentic", since the editor resolutely intervened not only in instrumentation, but often ruled "with the best of intentions" and harmony , and rhythm , and form of the original. Rimsky-Korsakov's typical "editing method" is documented by him in the preface to the edition of The Marriage:

Frequent changes in time signature from two-part to three-part, not felt by ear and rhythmic sense, <...> in some cases <...> are destroyed by inserting or removing intermediate pauses. <...> Some chords and combinations that have no musical justification have been replaced by others that suit the mood, but are more justified.

— N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov

 

Boris Godunov (detail). Rimsky-Korsakov interpreted the last consonance (quartoctave) on the word “silently” as Mussorgsky’s “illiteracy” (since a quart in bass without subsequent permission in academic counterpoint is impossible, “wrong”) and changed it to a “more reasonable ” quintoctave .

 

Poster for the first production of Khovanshchina in Moscow (1897). F. I. Chaliapin was engaged in the part of Dositheus (indicated on the poster as Vasily Koren)

Despite the obvious shortcomings of Rimsky-Korsakov's editorial voluntarism, historians admit that it was thanks to his grandiose work that Mussorgsky's operatic and orchestral compositions were perceived as complete and well-formed music and entered into regular performing practice. Their international recognition was facilitated by the admiring attitude of Debussy , Ravel , Stravinsky , members of the so-called " Six ", as well as the entrepreneurial activity of Sergei Diaghilev , who staged operas abroad for the first time at the beginning of the 20th century as part of his " Russian Seasons " (in Paris ).

In the 19th century, full-scale productions of Mussorgsky's operas were extremely rare. The opera Boris Godunov was staged in 1888  at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. At the end of November 1896  , it was also staged in St. Petersburg on the stage of the Great Hall of the Musical Society (the new building of the Conservatory) with the participation of members of the Society for Musical Meetings. The first performance of "Khovanshchina" took place in 1886 in St. Petersburg, in the Kononov Hall ^[28] , by the amateur Music and Drama Circle. On the professional opera stage, Khovanshchina was staged for the first time in 1897 at the Mamontov Russian Private Opera (on the stage of the Solodovnikov Theater, with the participation of F. I. Chaliapin ).

Of Mussorgsky's orchestral works, the symphonic painting "Night on Bald Mountain" gained worldwide fame. Now practiced is the performance of this work in the edition of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, less often in the author's edition. The programmatic and coloring of the piano "Pictures at an Exhibition" inspired composers to create orchestral (later also "electronic") arrangements of them; the most famous and most widely represented orchestration of "Pictures" on the concert stage belongs to M. Ravel .

In the 20th century, composers continued to process Mussorgsky's music, introducing elements of their own style, their "individual reading" into it to a greater or lesser extent. Some of the composer's editions of theatrical, piano, vocal music (by D. D. Shostakovich, M. Ravel, V. Ya. Shebalin, I. Markevich, E. V. Denisov and many others) have become quite repertoire. At the same time, interest in the “original” Mussorgsky was revived, publications appeared based on a thorough study of primary sources . The pioneer of such activity was the Russian source specialist P. A. Lamm , who in the 1930s published the claviers of Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina, as well as vocal and piano works by the composer - all in the author's edition.

Mussorgsky's music had a huge impact on all subsequent generations of composers. In his innovative interpretation of melody, and especially in harmony , musicologists now see an anticipation of some specific features of the music of the 20th century . The dramaturgy of Mussorgsky's musical and theatrical compositions influenced the work of L. Janacek , I. F. Stravinsky , D. D. Shostakovich, A. Berg (the dramaturgy of his opera " Wozzeck " on the principle of "scene-fragment" is very close to "Boris Godunov") , O. Messiaen . F. Poulenc experienced a great influence of Mussorgsky's vocal and declamatory style . Mussorgsky's works orchestratedE. V. Denisov , N. S. Korndorf , D. D. Shostakovich , R. K. Shchedrin and other famous composers.