What was the profession of the Musorg man? Mussorgsky short biography and interesting facts

On March 21, 1839, a boy was born into the family of the poor landowner Pyotr Mussorgsky, who received the name Modest. His mother, Yulia Ivanovna, doted on her youngest child. Perhaps the reason for this was the death of her first two sons, and she gave all her tenderness to the two surviving boys. Modest spent his childhood on an estate in the Pskov region, among lakes and deep forests. Only the persistence of his mother and his innate talent helped him not to remain uneducated - the mother taught the children reading, foreign languages and music. Although there was only an old piano in the manor’s house, it was tuned well, and by the age of seven Modest was playing short works by Liszt on it. And at the age of nine he performed Field's concerto for the first time.

Peter Mussorgsky also loved music and was very happy about his son’s obvious talent. But could the parents have imagined that their boy would not only become a musician and composer, but would glorify Russia throughout the world with his music? A completely different fate was being prepared for Modest - after all, all the Mussorgskys came from ancient noble family and always served in military units. Only Modest's father escaped this by devoting himself to agriculture.

As soon as Modest turned ten years old, he and his older brother were taken to St. Petersburg, where the boys were to study at the School of Guards Ensigns, a very privileged military school. After graduating from this school, seventeen-year-old Modest Mussorgsky was assigned to serve in the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment. He had to brilliant career military, but quite unexpectedly the young man resigned and entered the main engineering department. He later worked in the investigation department of the Forest Department.

Shortly before making such a surprising decision, one of his regiment comrades introduced Modest to the composer Dargomyzhsky. The venerable musician only had a few minutes to appreciate the freedom with which Modest played the piano, and most importantly, his unique improvisations and extraordinary talent. Dargomyzhsky decided to reinforce his first impression and brought the young man together with Cui and Balakirev. This is how a completely new life began for Mussorgsky, full of music and friends in spirit - in Balakirev’s circle “The Mighty Handful”.

For Mussorgsky this was real happiness - after all, military art did not interest him at all. Another thing is literature, history and philosophy; he always devoted a lot of time to these subjects even in school. But the main thing for him was always music. And the character of the future composer was in no way suitable for a military career. Modest Petrovich was distinguished by tolerance towards others and democratic actions and views. When the peasant reform was announced in 1861, his kindness to people manifested itself especially clearly - in order to relieve his own serfs from the burden of redemption payments, Mussorgsky decided to renounce his part of the inheritance in favor of his brother.

The accumulation of new knowledge in the field of music could not but result in a period of powerful creative activity for the genius. Mussorgsky decided to write a classical opera, but with the obligatory inclusion in it of the embodiment of his passions for large folk scenes and a central personality - strong and strong-willed. He decided to take the plot for his opera from Flaubert’s novel “Salammbô,” which sends the reader to the history of ancient Carthage. In the head of the young composer, expressive and beautiful musical themes, and he even wrote down some of what he came up with. He was especially good at mass scenes. But at some point, Mussorgsky suddenly realized that the images already created by his imagination were extremely far from the real Carthage described by Flaubert. This discovery made him lose interest in his work and abandon it.

Another of his plans was an opera based on Gogol’s “Marriage.” The idea suggested by Dargomyzhsky was extremely consistent with the character of Mussorgsky - with his mockery, humor and ability simple methods show complex processes. But for that time, the task set - creating an opera based on a prose text - looked not only impossible, but simply too revolutionary. Work on “The Marriage” captivated Mussorgsky, and his comrades considered this work a striking manifestation of the composer’s talent in comedy. This talent was especially evident in creating interesting musical characteristics heroes. And yet, it soon became clear that the opera based on “Marriage” itself was only a bold experiment, and work on it was interrupted. Mussorgsky had to take a completely different path to create a serious, real opera.

Often visiting the house of Glinka’s sister, Lyudmila Ivanovna Shestakova, Mussorgsky met Vladimir Vasilyevich Nikolsky. A brilliant literary critic and philologist, a recognized expert in the field of Russian literature, Nikolsky advised the musician to pay attention to Pushkin’s tragedy “Boris Godunov”. The philologist was no stranger to music and believed that “Boris Godunov” could become excellent material for creating opera libretto. The grain thrown by Nikolsky fell on fertile soil - Mussorgsky thought and began to read the tragedy. Even while reading, whole fragments of magnificent solemn music began to sound in his head. The composer literally felt with his whole body that an opera based on this material would become an amazingly voluminous and multifaceted work.

The opera "Boris Godunov" was completely completed at the end of 1869. And in 1970, Mussorgsky received a response from Gedeonov, director of the imperial theaters. From the letter, the composer learned that a committee of seven people had categorically rejected “Boris Godunov.” Within a year, Mussorgsky created the second edition of the opera - its seven scenes turned into four acts with a prologue. In the dedication to this work, Mussorgsky wrote that only thanks to his comrades in the “Mighty Handful” he was able to complete this difficult work. But even in the second edition, the opera was rejected by the theater committee. The diva saved the day Mariinsky Theater Platonov - only at her request was the opera “Boris Godunov” accepted for production.

Mussorgsky could not find a place for himself while waiting for the premiere, fearing that his opera would not be accepted by society. But the composer's fears were in vain. The day of the premiere of “Boris Godunov” turned into a triumph and a true celebration of the composer. The news of the wonderful opera spread throughout the city with lightning speed, and every single subsequent performance was sold out. Mussorgsky could have been completely happy, but...

The composer did not at all expect the unexpected and extremely heavy blow that fell on him from critics. “St. Petersburg Vedomosti” in February 1974 published a devastating review of “Boris Godunov” signed by Cui, one of the composer’s closest friends. Mussorgsky perceived his friend’s act as a stab in the back.

But both the triumph of the opera and the disappointments gradually faded into the background - life went on. The public's interest in “Boris Godunov” did not fade, but critics still considered the opera “wrong” - Mussorgsky’s music did not correspond too much to the romantic stereotypes then accepted in opera. Mussorgsky's transfer to the investigative unit of the Forestry Department burdened him with a lot of boring work, and there was practically no time to make creative plans. He didn’t stop composing music, of course, but he didn’t find peace.

A particularly dark period in the life of the great composer began. The “Mighty Handful” broke up. And it was not only a matter of Cui’s vile blow, but also of brewing internal contradictions among the members of the circle. Mussorgsky himself considered this event a betrayal of the people he dearly loved - a betrayal not of him personally, but of the old ideals that united them. Soon one of his friends, the artist Hartmann, died. Following him, Mussorgsky’s passionately and secretly beloved woman passed away, whose name the composer did not tell anyone - the only memory of love was the “Tombstone Letter,” found only after Mussorgsky’s death, and numerous works dedicated to this mysterious stranger.

New friends appeared to replace old friends. Mussorgsky becomes close to Count A. A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov, a young poet, and becomes attached to him. Perhaps it was this friendship that kept the composer on the edge of despair and inspired him new life. The best of Mussorgsky's works of that period were written based on the poems of Count Arseny. However, here too the composer faced bitter disappointment - after one and a half years of such a bright friendship, Golenishchev-Kutuzov got married and moved away from his friends.

Another experience led the composer to drink, and he even changed in appearance - he became flabby, stopped taking care of himself, dressed haphazardly... In addition, troubles began at work. Mussorgsky was fired more than once, and he constantly experienced financial difficulties. The problems got to the point that one day the composer was kicked out of his rented apartment for non-payment. Health musical genius gradually collapsed.

Nevertheless, it was at that time that Mussorgsky’s genius was recognized abroad. Franz Liszt, as he was called then, “ great old man“, received from the publisher sheet music of works by Russian composers and was literally shocked by the talent and novelty of Mussorgsky’s works. Liszt's stormy delight especially affected Mussorgsky's song cycle under the general title “Children's”. In this cycle, the composer vividly and richly painted the complex and bright world of children's souls.

Mussorgsky himself, despite the terrible conditions of his life during these years, experienced a true creative takeoff. Unfortunately, many of the composer’s ideas remained unfinished or unrefined by his talent. However, everything created shows that the composer was able to reach a new level in his work. The first work that followed “Boris Godunov” was a suite called “Pictures at an Exhibition,” the most significant and largest work for the piano. Mussorgsky managed to discover new nuances in the sound of the instrument and reveal its new capabilities. He also thought about working with Pushkin’s multifaceted dramaturgy. He envisioned an opera whose content would include the life of an entire country with many episodes and scenes. But Mussorgsky did not find the basis for the libretto of such an opera in the literature and decided to write the plot himself.

According to music critics, the opera “Khovanshchina” by Mussorgsky turned into a new, highest stage in the development of the composer’s musical language. He still considered speech to be the main means of expressing the characters and feelings of people, but the musical design itself now received a new, broader and deep meaning. While working on the opera “Khovanshchina,” Mussorgsky also composed another opera, “Sorochinskaya Fair,” based on Gogol’s work. This opera clearly shows the composer's love for life and simple human joys, despite the blows of fate and mental suffering. The composer's plans also included working on a musical folk drama about Pugachev's uprising. Together with Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov, this opera could form a single trilogy of musical descriptions of Russian history.

In the last years of his life, Mussorgsky left the service, and in order to prevent him from starving, a group of admirers contributed a small pension to the composer. His performances as a pianist-accompanist brought him some money, and in 1879 Mussorgsky decided to go on a concert tour of Crimea and Ukraine. This journey became the last bright spot in a series of gray days for the composer.

On February 12, 1881, Mussorgsky suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. But before he died, he had to survive several more such blows. Only on March 28, 1881, his body stopped resisting, and the great composer died - at the age of forty-two.

Mussorgsky was interred at the Tikhvin cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Almost a hundred years later, in 1972, his museum was opened in the village of Naumovo, not far from the unpreserved family estate.

Like many great people, fame came to the Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky posthumously. Rimsky-Korsakov undertook to complete his “Khovanshchina” and put the late composer’s musical archive in order. It was in his edition that the opera “Khovanshchina” was staged, which, like other works of Mussorgsky, went around the whole world.

Mussorgsky short biography and interesting facts from the life of the Russian composer and pianist are presented in this article.

Modest Mussorgsky short biography

Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich was born on March 21, 1839 in the village of Karevo into a family of Smolensk nobles.

Also in at a young age he studied the game keyboards. Having moved to St. Petersburg, Modest studies with the great pianist Gerke. The teacher encouraged his student to write music. Mussorgsky's first musical work was the polka Porte-enseigne Polka, written in 1852.

Following in the footsteps of his family, in 1852 he entered the School of Cavalry Junkers and Guards Ensigns in St. Petersburg. From 1856 to 1858 he served with the rank of Life Guards officer in the Preobrazhensky Regiment.

At the service, he meets with composer Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Vladimir Stasov and Mily Balakirev. Modest joined the New Russian music school", which they created. Its broader name is “The Mighty Handful.” Under the influence of Balakirev, Mussorgsky devoted all his time to composition, leaving the service in 1858.

During the 1850s-1860s, he created many piano and orchestral works, romances and songs. But certain circumstances forced him to go into service again in 1863. Until 1868, Modest worked as an official in the Engineering Department. From 1868 to 1879 he moved to a new place of service - the Forestry Department, and a year later - to the State Control.

In 1879, as an accompanist, he made a concert tour with the singer Leonova across Russia. In the period 1880-1881 he worked as an accompanist in her open Music classes.

Mussorgsky's health deteriorated sharply in February 1881. He was placed in the Nikolaev military hospital. One day, a visitor, Ilya Repin, came to him and painted his famous portrait. The composer died on March 28, 1881 in the same hospital.

Works by Mussorgsky -“Salambo”, “Boris Godunov”, “Marriage”, “Khovanshchina”, “Sorochinskaya Fair”, “Seminarist”, “Goat”, “Feast”, “Sleep, Sleep” peasant son", "Gopak", "Svetik Savishna", "Flea", "Kalistrat", "Picking mushrooms", "Eremushka's Lullaby", "Mischief", "Night on Bald Mountain", "Intermezzo".

Modest Mussorgsky interesting facts

From the age of 6 he studied music, under the guidance of his mother.

He had an excellent musical memory and could immediately remember complex operas.

During his short life (42 years), Mussorgsky created 5 operas(4 of which are unfinished), a number of symphonic works, cycles of vocal and piano music, many romances and choruses.

Since 1863, the composer began adding the letter “G” to his surname. Until this year, all documents were signed as Mussorsky.

Ilya Repin created the only portrait painted during Modest’s lifetime.

At the burial site of the great composer there is now a bus stop.

In the last years of his life Mussorgsky experienced severe depression due to lack of recognition of his creativity, loneliness, everyday and material difficulties.

Mussorgsky suffered from binge drinking. After another drinking session, he developed delirium tremens. Once in the hospital, he was strictly forbidden to drink alcohol. But Modest bribed the worker and he bought him a bottle of wine. And the next day the composer was gone.

Outstanding Russian composer, member of the “Mighty Handful”.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born on March 9 (21), 1839 in the village of Toropetsk district of the Pskov province (now in) in the family of a retired collegiate secretary P. A. Mussorgsky, a representative of an old noble family.

The future composer spent his childhood on his parents' estate, the village. In 1845 he began to study music under the guidance of his mother.

In 1849-1852, M. P. Mussorgsky studied at the German Peter and Paul School in, in 1852-1856 - at the School of Guards Ensigns. At the same time, he took music lessons from pianist A. A. Gerke. In 1852, the composer's first work was published - the polka for piano "Ensign".

Upon completion of his studies in 1856, M. P. Mussorgsky was enlisted in the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment. In 1856-1857, he met composers A. S. Dargomyzhsky, M. A. Balakirev and critic V. V. Stasov, who had a profound influence on his general and musical development. M.P. Mussorgsky began to seriously study composition under the guidance of M.A. Balakirev, entered the “Mighty Handful” circle. Having decided to devote himself to music, he left military service in 1858.

The ruin of the family caused by the abolition of serfdom in 1861 forced M. P. Mussorgsky to enter the civil service. In 1863-1867 he was an official of the Main Engineering Directorate, from 1869 to 1880 he served in the Forestry Department of the Ministry of State Property and in the State Audit Office.

In the late 1850s and early 1860s, M. P. Mussorgsky wrote a number of romances and instrumental works, in which the peculiar features of his creative individuality were revealed. In 1863-1866 he worked on the opera “Salammbô” (based on G. Flaubert), which remained unfinished. In the mid-1860s, the composer turned to current, socially sensitive themes: he created songs and romances based on words by T. G. Shevchenko, and on his own texts (“Kalistrat”, “Eremushki’s Lullaby”, “Sleep, Sleep, Peasant son”, “Orphan”, “Seminarist”, etc.), in which his ability to create brightly characteristic human images. The symphonic painting “Night on Bald Mountain” (1867), based on folk tales and legends. A bold experiment was the unfinished opera by M. P. Mussorgsky “Marriage” (after, 1868), the vocal parts of which are based on the direct implementation of the intonations of live conversational speech.

The works of the 1850-1860s prepared M. P. Mussorgsky for the creation of one of his main works - the opera “Boris Godunov” (after). The first edition of the opera (1869) was not accepted for production by the directorate of the imperial theaters. After reworking, Boris Godunov was staged at the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theater (1874), but with large cuts.

In the 1870s, M. P. Mussorgsky worked on a grandiose “folk musical drama” from the era of the Streltsy riots of the late 17th century, “Khovanshchina” (libretto by M. P. Mussorgsky, begun in 1872) and a comic opera “Sorochinskaya Fair” ( by , 1874-1880). At the same time, the composer created the vocal cycles “Without the Sun” (1874), “Songs and Dances of Death” (1875-1877), and the piano suite “Pictures at an Exhibition” (1874).

In the last years of his life, M. P. Mussorgsky experienced severe depression caused by lack of recognition of his work, loneliness, and everyday and financial difficulties. He died on March 16 (28), 1881 in the Nikolaev Soldiers' Hospital and was buried in the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

The opera “Khovanshchina”, unfinished by M. P. Mussorgsky, was completed after his death; A. K. Lyadov, T. A. Cui and others worked on “Sorochinskaya Fair”. In 1896 it was made new edition"Boris Godunov". In 1959, D. D. Shostakovich prepared a new edition and orchestration of “Boris Godunov” and “Khovanshchina”. An independent version of the completion of the “Sorochinskaya Fair” belongs to the Soviet composer V. Ya. Shebalin (1930).

M. P. Mussorgsky managed to create a deeply original, expressive musical language, distinguished by its acute realistic character, subtlety and variety of psychological shades. His work had a great influence on many domestic and foreign composers: S. S. Prokofiev, D. D. Shostakovich, L. Janacek, K. Debussy and others.

Biography

Following this, M. wrote several romances and began to compose music for Sophocles’ tragedy “Oedipus”; last work was not completed, and only one chorus from the music to Oedipus, performed in a concert by K. N. Lyadov in 1861, was published among Mussorgsky’s posthumous works. For the operatic adaptation, M. first chose Flaubert’s novel “Salammbô,” but soon left this work unfinished, as well as his attempt to write music for the plot of Gogol’s “The Marriage.”

Mussorgsky's fame was brought to him by the opera Boris Godunov, staged at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. in the city and was immediately recognized as an outstanding work in some music clubs. This was already the second edition of the opera, significantly changed dramaturgically after the theater’s repertory committee rejected its first edition for being “unstageable.” Over the next 10 years, “Boris Godunov” was performed 15 times and then removed from the repertoire. Only at the end of November “Boris Godunov” saw the light again - but in an edition redone by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, who “corrected” and re-instrumented the entire “Boris Godunov” at his own discretion. This is how the opera was staged Great halls Musical Society(new building of the Conservatory) with the participation of members of the “Society of Musical Meetings”. Firm Bessel and Co. in St. Petersburg. by this time had released a new score of Boris Godunov, in the preface to which Rimsky-Korsakov explains that the reasons that prompted him to undertake this alteration were the allegedly “bad texture” and “bad orchestration” of the author’s version of Mussorgsky himself. In Moscow, “Boris Godunov” was staged for the first time Bolshoi Theater in Nowadays, interest in the author's editions of “Boris Godunov” is being revived.

In 1875, M. began the dramatic opera (“folk musical drama”) “Khovanshchina” (according to V.V. Stasov’s plan), while simultaneously working on a comic opera based on the plot of “Sorochinskaya Fair” by Gogol. M. almost managed to finish the music and text of “Khovanshchina” - but, with the exception of two fragments, the opera was not instrumented; the latter was done by N. Rimsky-Korsakov, who at the same time completed “Khovanshchina” (again, with his own alterations) and adapted it for the stage. The company Bessel and Co. published the opera score and clavier (). “Khovanshchina” was performed on the stage of St. Petersburg. musical and dramatic circle in the city, under the direction of S. Yu. Goldstein; on the stage of the Kononovsky Hall, in St. Petersburg, in the city, by a private operatic partnership; at Setov's, in Kyiv, in In 1960, the great Soviet composer Dmitry Dmitrievich Shostakovich made his version of the opera “Khovanshchina”, in which Mussorgsky’s opera is now staged all over the world.

For “Sorochinskaya Fair” M. managed to compose the first two acts, as well as for the third act: Parubka’s Dream (where he used a reworking of his symphonic fantasy “Night on Bald Mountain”, made for the unrealized teamwork- opera-ballet “Mlada”), Dumku Parasi and Gopak. The opera is staged in the edition of the outstanding musician Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin.

Portrait by Repin

Mussorgsky was an unusually impressionable, enthusiastic, kind-hearted and vulnerable person. For all his outward pliability and pliability, he was extremely firm in everything that related to his creative convictions. Addiction to alcohol, which has progressed greatly in last decade life, became destructive for M.’s health, his life and the intensity of his creativity. As a result, after a series of failures in the service and final dismissal from the ministry M. was forced to live on odd jobs and thanks to the support of friends.

Creation

Mussorgsky is a great original talent, and, moreover, a purely Russian talent; he belongs to a group of musical figures who strove, on the one hand, for formalized realism, and on the other hand, for a colorful and poetic revelation of words, text and moods through music that flexibly follows them. National thinking M., as a composer, also shows in his ability to handle folk song, and in the very structure of his music, in its melodic, harmonic and rhythmic features, and finally - in the choice of subjects, mainly from Russian. life. M. is a hater of routine; for him there are no authorities in music; he paid little attention to the rules of musical grammar, seeing in them not the principles of science, but only a collection of compositional techniques from previous eras. Everywhere M. gives himself over to his ardent fantasy, everywhere he strives for novelty. M. was generally successful in humorous music, and in this genre he is diverse, witty and resourceful; one has only to remember his tale about “The Goat,” the story of the Latin-bashing “Seminarian” who is in love with the priest’s daughter, “Picking Mushrooms” (text by Mei), “Feast.”

M. rarely dwells on “pure” lyrical themes, and they are not always given to him (his best lyrical romances are “Night,” to the words of Pushkin, and “Jewish Melody,” to the words of Mey); But M.’s creativity is widely manifested in those cases when he turns to Russian peasant life. M.’s songs are marked with rich color: “Kalistrat”, “Eryomushka’s Lullaby” (words by Nekrasov), “Sleep, sleep, peasant son” (from “The Voevoda” by Ostrovsky), “Gopak” (from “Haydamaky” by Shevchenko), “Svetik Savishna " and "Mischief" (both last - in the words of M. himself) and many more. etc.; Mussorgsky very successfully found here a truthful and deeply dramatic musical expression for that heavy, hopeless sorrow that is hidden under the external humor of the lyrics.

A strong impression is made by the expressive recitation of the songs “Orphan” and “Forgotten” (based on the plot famous painting V.V. Vereshchagina).

In such a seemingly narrow area of music as “romances and songs,” M. managed to find completely new, original problems, and at the same time apply new original techniques for their implementation, which was clearly expressed in his vocal paintings from children’s life, under the general title “Children’s” (text by M. himself), in 4 romances under the general title “Songs and Dances of Death "( - ; words by Count Golenishchev-Kutuzov; “Trepak” is a picture of a tipsy peasant freezing in the forest in a blizzard; “Lullaby” paints a mother at the bedside of a dying child; the other two: “Serenade” and “Commander”; all are very colorful and dramatic), in “King Saul” (for male voice with piano accompaniment; text by M. himself), in “The Defeat of Sennacherib” (for choir and orchestra; words by Byron), in “Joshua”, successfully built on the original. Jewish themes.

Mussorgsky's specialty is vocal music. He is an exemplary reciter, grasping the slightest bends of the word; in his works he often devotes a large place to the monological-recitative style of presentation. Related to Dargomyzhsky in terms of his talent, M. is also close to him in his views on musical drama, inspired by Dargomyzhsky’s opera “The Stone Guest.” However, unlike Dargomyzhsky, in his mature works Mussorgsky overcomes the pure “illustrativeness” of music passively following the text, characteristic of this opera.

“Boris Godunov” by Mussorgsky, written 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 best works world musical theater, whose musical language and dramaturgy already belong to a new genre that took shape in the 19th century in the most different countries- to the genre of musical stage drama, on the one hand, breaking with many of the routine conventions of the then traditional opera theater, on the other hand, striving to reveal dramatic action Firstly musical means. At the same time, both author's editions of "Boris Godunov" (1869 and 1874), significantly differing from each other in dramaturgy, are essentially two equivalent author's solutions to the same plot. The first edition (which was not staged until the mid-20th century) was especially innovative for its time, and was very different from the routine operatic canons that prevailed at that time. That is why during the years of Mussorgsky’s life the prevailing opinion was that his “Boris Godunov” was distinguished by an “unsuccessful libretto” and “many rough edges and mistakes.”

This kind of prejudice was largely characteristic primarily of Rimsky-Korsakov, who claimed that M. had little experience in instrumentation, although it was sometimes not without color and a successful variety of orchestral colors. This opinion was typical for Soviet textbooks of musical literature. In reality, Mussorgsky's orchestral writing simply did not fit into the outline that suited mainly Rimsky-Korsakov. This misunderstanding of orchestral thinking and Mussorgsky’s style (to which he, indeed, came almost self-taught) was explained by the fact that the latter was strikingly different from the lush and decorative aesthetics of orchestral presentation characteristic of the second half of the 19th century century - and, especially, Rimsky-Korsakov himself. Unfortunately, the belief that he (and his followers) cultivated about the alleged “shortcomings” musical style Mussorgsky on for a long time- almost a century ahead - began to dominate the academic tradition of Russian music.

Also in to a greater extent The skeptical attitude of colleagues and contemporaries affected Mussorgsky's next musical drama - the opera "Khovanshchina" on the theme historical events in Russia at the end of the 17th century (schism and Streltsy revolt), written by M. using his own script and text. He wrote this work with long interruptions, and by the time of his death it remained unfinished. (Among the currently existing editions of the opera performed by other composers, the closest to the original can be considered Shostakovich’s orchestration and the completion of the last act of the opera, made by Stravinsky.) Both the concept of this work and its scale are unusual. Compared to “Boris Godunov,” “Khovanshchina” is not just a drama of one historical figure (through which the philosophical themes of power, crime, conscience and retribution are revealed), but already a kind of “impersonal” historiosophical drama, in which, in the absence of a clearly expressed “ central" character (characteristic of the standard operatic dramaturgy of that time), whole layers are revealed folk life and the theme of the spiritual tragedy of the entire people is raised, taking place with the destruction of its traditional historical and way of life. To emphasize this genre feature opera “Khovanshchina”, Mussorgsky gave it the subtitle “folk musical drama”.

Both musical dramas by Mussorgsky won relatively quickly global recognition after the death of the composer, and to this day throughout the world they are among the most frequently performed works Russian music. (Their international success was greatly facilitated by the admiring attitude of such composers as Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky - as well as the entrepreneurial activity of Sergei Diaghilev, who staged them for the first time abroad already at the beginning of the 20th century in his “Russian Seasons” in Paris.) In our time, the majority opera houses around the world strive to stage both of Mussorgsky’s operas in urtext editions that are as close as possible to the author’s. At the same time, in different theaters There are different author’s editions of “Boris Godunov” (either the first or the second).

M. had little inclination towards music in “finished” forms (symphonic, chamber, etc.). Of M.’s orchestral works, in addition to those already mentioned, “Intermezzo” deserves attention (composed in the city, instrumented in the city), built on a theme reminiscent of the music of the 18th century, and published among M.’s posthumous works, with instrumentation by Rimsky- Korsakov. The orchestral fantasy “Night on Bald Mountain” (the material of which was later included in the opera “Sorochinskaya Fair”) was also completed and instrumented by N. Rimsky-Korsakov and with great success performed in St. Petersburg; this is a brightly colorful picture of the “Sabbath of the spirits of darkness” and the “greatness of Chernobog.”

Another outstanding work by Mussorgsky is “Pictures at an Exhibition,” written for piano in 1874, as musical illustrations-episodes for watercolors by V. A. Hartmann. The form of this work is a “end-to-end” suite-rondo with sections welded together, where the main theme-refrain (“Promenade”) expresses the change of mood when walking from one painting to another, and the episodes between this theme are the images of the paintings in question. This work has more than once inspired other composers to create its orchestral editions, the most famous of which belongs to Maurice Ravel (one of Mussorgsky's most staunch admirers).

In the 19th century, M.'s works were published by the company V. Bessel and Co. in St. Petersburg; a lot was published in Leipzig, by the company of M. P. Belyaev (see its catalog in the city). In the 20th century, urtext editions of M.’s works began to appear in original versions, based on a careful study of primary sources. The pioneer of such activity was the Russian musicologist P. Ya. Lamm, who for the first time published the urtext claviers “Boris Godunov”, “Khovanshchina”, and author’s editions of all vocal and piano works by M.

Mussorgsky's works, which in many ways anticipated the new era, had a tremendous influence on composers of the 20th century. The attitude towards musical fabric as an expressive extension of human speech and the coloristic nature of its harmonic language played an important role in the formation of the “impressionistic” style of C. Debussy and M. Ravel (by their own admission!), the style, dramaturgy and imagery of Mussorgsky greatly influenced the works of L. Janacek, I. Stravinsky, D. Shostakovich (it is characteristic that they are all composers of Slavic culture), A. Berg (the dramaturgy of his opera “Wozzeck” according to the “scene-fragment” principle is very close to “Boris Godunov”), O. Messiaen and many others.

Major works

"Boris Godunov" (1869, 2nd edition 1872)
“Khovanshchina” (1872-80, completed by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, 1883)
"Kalistrat"
"Orphan"
“Sorochinskaya Fair” (1874-80, completed by Ts. A. Cui, 1916),
piano cycle “Pictures at an Exhibition” (1874),
vocal cycle “Children’s” (1872),
vocal cycle “Without the Sun” (1874),
vocal cycle “Songs and Dances of Death” (1877)
symphonic poem "Night on Bald Mountain"

Memory

Streets named after Mussorgsky in cities

Monuments to Mussorgsky in cities

Karevo village

Other objects

Ural State Conservatory
Opera and Ballet Theater in St. Petersburg
Music College in St. Petersburg

Bibliography

Roerich N. K. Mussorgsky // Artists of Life. - Moscow: International Center of the Roerichs, 1993. - 88 p.
V.V. Stasov, article in “Bulletin of Europe” (May and June).
V. V. Stasov, “Perov and M.” (“Russian Antiquity”, 1883, vol. XXXVIII, pp. 433-458);
V.V. Stasov, "M.P. Mussorgsky. In memory of him (Historical Vestn., 1886, March); his same, "In memory of M." (SPb., 1885);
V. Baskin, “M. P. M. Biographical. essay" (Russian Thought, 1884, books 9 and 10; separately, M., 1887);
S. Kruglikov, "M. and his" Boris Godunov ("Artist", 1890, No. 5);
P. Trifonov, “Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky” (“Western of Europe”, 1893, December).
Tumanina N., M. P. Mussorgsky, M. - L., 1939;
Asafiev B.V., Izbr. works, vol. 3, M., 1954;
Orlova A., Works and days of M. P. Mussorgsky. Chronicle of Life and Creativity, M., 1963
Khubov G., Mussorgsky, M., 1969.
Shlifshtein S. Mussorgsky. Artist. Time. Fate. M., 1975
Rakhmanova M. Mussorgsky and his time. - Soviet music, 1980, № 9-10
M. P. Mussorgsky in the memoirs of his contemporaries. M., 1989

Links

About Modest Mussorgsky

Mussorgsky Modest Site about Mussorgsky.
Mussorgsky Modest Site about the life and work of the Russian composer.

Life, wherever it may affect; the truth, no matter how salty, bold, sincere speech to people... - this is my starter, this is what I want and this is what I would be afraid to miss.
From a letter from M. Mussorgsky to V. Stasov dated August 7, 1875

What a vast, rich world of art, if the target is a person!
From a letter from M. Mussorgsky to A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov dated August 17, 1875.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky is one of the most daring innovators of the 19th century, a brilliant composer who was far ahead of his time and had a huge influence on the development of Russian and European musical art. He lived in an era of the highest spiritual uplift and profound social changes; it was a time when Russian social life actively contributed to the awakening of national self-awareness among artists, when works appeared one after another, from which exuded freshness, novelty and, most importantly, amazing real truth and poetry of real Russian life(I. Repin).

Among his contemporaries, Mussorgsky was the most faithful to democratic ideals, uncompromising in serving the truth of life, no matter how salty it is, and was so obsessed with bold ideas that even like-minded friends were often puzzled by the radicalism of his artistic quests and did not always approve of them. Mussorgsky spent his childhood years on a landowner's estate in the atmosphere of patriarchal peasant life and subsequently wrote in Autobiographical note, What exactly acquaintance with the spirit of Russian folk life was the main impetus for musical improvisations... And not only improvisations. Brother Filaret later recalled: In adolescence and youth and already in adulthood(Mussorgsky. - O. A.) always treated everything folk and peasant with special love, considered the Russian peasant to be a real person.

The boy's musical talent was discovered early. In his seventh year, studying under the guidance of his mother, he was already playing simple works by F. Liszt on the piano. However, no one in the family seriously thought about his musical future. According to family tradition, in 1849 he was taken to St. Petersburg: first to the Peter and Paul School, then transferred to the School of Guards Ensigns. It was luxury casemate where they taught military ballet, and following the infamous circular must obey and keep opinions to oneself, knocked out in every possible way out of my head, secretly encouraging frivolous pastime. Mussorgsky's spiritual maturation in this environment was very contradictory. He excelled in military sciences, for which was honored with especially kind attention... by the emperor; was a welcome participant in parties, where he played polkas and quadrilles all night long. But at the same time, an internal craving for serious development encouraged him to study foreign languages, history, literature, art, take piano lessons from the famous teacher A. Gehrke, visit opera performances, despite the discontent of the military authorities.

In 1856, after graduating from the School, Mussorgsky was enrolled as an officer in the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment. The prospect of a brilliant military career opened before him. However, acquaintance in the winter of 1856/57 with A. Dargomyzhsky, Ts. Cui, M. Balakirev opened up other paths, and the spiritual turning point that was gradually brewing came. The composer himself wrote about this: Getting closer... with a talented circle of musicians, constant conversations and ensuing strong connections with a wide circle of Russian scientists and writers, such as Vlad. Lamansky, Turgenev, Kostomarov, Grigorovich, Kavelin, Pisemsky, Shevchenko and others, especially stimulated the brain activity of the young composer and gave it a serious, strictly scientific direction.

On May 1, 1858, Mussorgsky submitted his resignation. Despite the entreaties of friends and family, he broke up with military service so that nothing distracts him from music lessons. Mussorgsky is overwhelmed scary, irresistible desire omniscience. He studies the history of the development of musical art, plays 4 hands with Balakirev many works by L. Beethoven, R. Schumann, F. Schubert, F. Liszt, G. Berlioz, reads and reflects a lot. All this was accompanied by breakdowns and nervous crises, but in the painful overcoming of doubts, creative forces grew stronger, an original artistic individuality was forged, and a worldview position was formed. Mussorgsky is increasingly attracted to the life of the common people. How many fresh sides, untouched by art, teem in Russian nature, oh, so many! - he writes in one of the letters.

Mussorgsky's creative activity began vigorously. Work was in progress overflow, each work opened up new horizons, even if it was not completed. So the operas remained unfinished Oedipus the King And Salammbo, where for the first time the composer tried to embody the complex intertwining of the destinies of the people and a strong, powerful personality. The unfinished opera played an extremely important role for Mussorgsky's work. Marriage(1 act 1868), in which, under the influence of Dargomyzhsky’s opera Stone Guest he used the almost unchanged text of N. Gogol's play, setting himself the task of musical reproduction human speech in all its subtlest bends. Fascinated by the idea of software, Mussorgsky creates, like his fellow Mighty bunch, row symphonic works, among which - Night on Bald Mountain(1867). But the most striking artistic discoveries were made in the 60s. in vocal music. Songs appeared where the gallery appeared for the first time in music folk types, of people humiliated and insulted: Kalistrat, Gopak, Svetik Savishna, Lullaby for Eremushka, Orphan, Mushroom Picking. Mussorgsky’s ability to accurately and accurately recreate living nature in music is amazing ( I’ll notice some peoples, and then, on occasion, I’ll squeeze), reproduce a clearly characteristic speech, give the plot stage visibility. And most importantly, the songs are imbued with such a force of compassion for a disadvantaged person that in each of them an ordinary fact rises to the level of tragic generalization, to socially accusatory pathos. It's no coincidence that the song Seminarian was banned by censorship!

The pinnacle of Mussorgsky's creativity in the 60s. became an opera Boris Godunov(based on the drama by A. Pushkin). Mussorgsky began writing it in 1868 and presented it in the first edition (without the Polish act) in the summer of 1870 to the directorate of the imperial theaters, which rejected the opera, allegedly due to the lack of a female part and the complexity of the recitatives. After revision (one of the results of which was famous scene near Kromy) in 1873, with the assistance of the singer Y. Platonova, 3 scenes from the opera were staged, and on February 8, 1874, the entire opera (albeit with large bills). The democratically minded public greeted Mussorgsky's new work with true enthusiasm. However, the further fate of the opera was difficult, because this work most decisively destroyed the usual ideas about an opera performance. Everything here was new: the acute social idea of the irreconcilability of the interests of the people and the royal power, and the depth of revelation of passions and characters, and the psychological complexity of the image of the child-killer king. The musical language turned out to be unusual, about which Mussorgsky himself wrote: By working on human speech, I have reached the melody created by this speech, I have reached the embodiment of recitative in melody.

Opera Boris Godunov- the first example of folk musical drama, where the Russian people appeared as a force that decisively influences the course of history. At the same time, the people are shown in many faces: mass, animated by a single idea, and a gallery of colorful folk characters, striking in their life-like authenticity. The historical plot gave Mussorgsky the opportunity to trace development of folk spiritual life, comprehend past in present, pose many problems - ethical, psychological, social. The composer shows the tragic doom of popular movements and their historical necessity. He came up with a grandiose plan for an opera trilogy dedicated to the fate of the Russian people at critical, turning points in history. Even while working on Boris Godunov he has a plan Khovanshchiny and soon begins to collect materials for Pugachevshchina. All this was carried out with the active participation of V. Stasov, who in the 70s. became close to Mussorgsky and was one of the few who truly understood the seriousness of the composer’s creative intentions. I dedicate to you the entire period of my life when “Khovanshchina” will be created... you gave it its beginning, - Mussorgsky wrote to Stasov on July 15, 1872.

Work on Khovanshchina proceeded in a complex manner - Mussorgsky turned to material that went far beyond the scope of the opera performance. However, he wrote intensively ( Work is in full swing!), although with long interruptions caused by many reasons. At this time, Mussorgsky was having a hard time experiencing the collapse. Balakirevsky circle, cooling of relations with Cui and Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev’s withdrawal from musical and social activities. The bureaucratic service (from 1868 Mussorgsky was an official in the Forestry Department of the Ministry of State Property) left only evening and night hours for composing music, and this led to severe overwork and increasingly prolonged depression. However, despite everything, the creative power of the composer during this period amazes with the strength and richness of artistic ideas. In parallel with the tragic Khovanshchina Since 1875 Mussorgsky has been working on a comic opera Sorochinskaya fair(according to Gogol). This is good as it saves creative energy, wrote Mussorgsky. - Two pudoviki: “Boris” and “Khovanshchina” can crush you next to each other... In the summer of 1874 he created one of the outstanding works of piano literature - the cycle Pictures from the exhibition, dedicated to Stasov, to whom Mussorgsky was eternally grateful for his participation and support: No one warmed me up in all respects more warmly than you... no one showed me the path more clearly...

The idea to write a cycle Pictures from the exhibition arose under the impression of a posthumous exhibition of works by the artist W. Hartmann in February 1874. He was a close friend of Mussorgsky, and his sudden death deeply shocked the composer. The work proceeded rapidly and intensively: Sounds and thoughts hang in the air, I swallow and overeat, barely having time to scratch on the paper. And in parallel, 3 vocal cycles appear one after another: Children's(1872, based on his own poems), Without sun(1874) and Songs and dances of death(1875-77 - both at A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov station). They become the result of the composer’s entire chamber and vocal work.

Seriously ill, severely suffering from poverty, loneliness, lack of recognition, Mussorgsky stubbornly insists that will fight to the last drop of blood. Shortly before his death, in the summer of 1879, he, together with the singer D. Leonova, made a large concert tour around the south of Russia and Ukraine, performing Glinka’s music, Kuchkists, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, excerpts from his opera Sorochinskaya fair and writes significant words: Towards a new musical work, broad musical work life is calling... to new shores until boundless art!

Fate decreed otherwise. Mussorgsky's health deteriorated sharply. In February 1881 there was a shock. Mussorgsky was placed in the Nikolaev military land hospital, where he died without having time to complete Khovanshchina And Sorochinskaya fair.

After his death, the entire composer’s archive went to Rimsky-Korsakov. He finished Khovanshchina, carried out a new edition Boris Godunov and achieved their production on the imperial opera stage. It seems to me that my name is even Modest Petrovich, and not Nikolai Andreevich, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote to his friend. Sorochinskaya fair completed by A. Lyadov.

The fate of the composer is dramatic, the fate of his creative heritage is complex, but the glory of Mussorgsky is immortal, for music was for him both a feeling and a thought about the beloved Russian people - a song about them... (B. Asafiev).

O. Averyanova

Landowner's son. Having begun his military career, he continued to study music in St. Petersburg, the first lessons of which he received in Karevo, and became an excellent pianist and good singer. Communicates with Dargomyzhsky and Balakirev; resigns in 1858; the liberation of the peasants in 1861 affects his financial well-being. In 1863, while serving in the Forestry Department, he became a member of the “Mighty Handful”. In 1868 he entered service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, after spending three years on his brother’s estate in Minkino to improve his health. Between 1869 and 1874 he worked on various editions of Boris Godunov. Having undermined his already poor health due to a morbid addiction to alcohol, he composes intermittently. Lives with various friends, in 1874 - with Count Golenishchev-Kutuzov (author of poems set to music by Mussorgsky, for example, in the cycle “Songs and Dances of Death”). In 1879 he made a very successful tour together with singer Daria Leonova.

The years when the idea of “Boris Godunov” appeared and when this opera was created are fundamental for Russian culture. At this time, such writers as Dostoevsky and Tolstoy were working, and younger artists like Chekhov, the Itinerants, asserted the priority of content over form in their realistic art, which embodied the poverty of the people, the drunkenness of priests, and police brutality. Vereshchagin created truthful paintings dedicated to Russian-Japanese war, and in “The Apotheosis of War” he dedicated a pyramid of skulls to all conquerors of the past, present and future; great portrait painter Repin also turned to landscape and historical painting. As for music, the most characteristic phenomenon at this time was the “Mighty Handful”, which set as its goal to increase the importance of the national school, using folk legends to create a romanticized picture of the past. In the minds of Mussorgsky, the national school appeared as something ancient, truly archaic, immobile, including eternal folk values, almost shrines that could be found in Orthodox religion, in folk choral singing, finally, in that language that still retains the powerful sonority of distant origins. Here are some of his thoughts, expressed between 1872 and 1880 in letters to Stasov: “It’s not the first time to dig into black soil, but I want to dig into raw materials that are not fertilized, I don’t want to get to know the people, but I want to fraternize... Black soil power will manifest itself when you'll dig all the way to the bottom...”; " Artistic depiction one beauty, in its material meaning, rude childishness - childhood art. The finest features of nature person and human masses, annoyingly poking around in these little-explored countries and conquering them - this is the real calling of the artist.” The composer's vocation constantly encouraged his highly sensitive, rebellious soul to strive for something new, for discoveries, which led to a continuous alternation of creative ups and downs, which were associated with breaks in activity or its spreading in too many directions. “To such an extent I become strict with myself,” Mussorgsky writes to Stasov, “speculatively, and the stricter I become, the more dissolute I become.<...>There is no mood for small things; However, composing small plays is a relaxation while thinking about large creations. And for me, my relaxation becomes thinking about large creatures... that’s how everything goes upside down for me - sheer dissipation.”