Biography of Musorgsky for children - interesting information. Modest Mussorgsky short biography. Modest Mussorgsky interesting facts

To introduce educators to the biography and most famous works of composers. They can use the information received to reinforce music lesson material with children or when using musical works in their classes.

(03/21/1839, Karevo estate (Pskov region) - 03/28/1881, St. Petersburg)

Russian composer, one of the most daring innovators XIX century, who had a huge influence on the development of Russian and European musical art.

My childhood was spent in the atmosphere of a Russian landowner's estate.

First musical knowledge Mussorgsky received it from his mother (he learned to play the piano).

The composer M. P. Mussorgsky wrote about himself that he was “the son of an old Russian family.” In those years, nobles sent their sons to cadet and guards schools. Thirteen-year-old Modest was also sent to such a school. One day a concert was organized at school. The students listened with admiration to how brilliantly the newcomer improvised on the piano. And after some time, he surprised his comrades with another surprise, bringing to school a thin notebook of the notes he had just published. The thirteen-year-old author dedicated this work - the polka "Lieutenant Ensign" - to his "comrades in the cadet school." Mussorgsky successfully completed the school of guards ensigns and cavalry cadets.

The service has begun. And, probably, it would have gone on for a long time if it had not been for the meeting with the composer A. S. Dargomyzhsky. In his house, Mussorgsky first heard the works of M. I. Glinka and felt that he wanted to study, work and devote himself to art. Soon he met the wonderful musician M. A. Balakirev and other future members of the " Mighty bunch" - the creative community of leading Russian composers - A. P. Borodin, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, T. A. Cui. These acquaintances played a decisive role in future fate Mussorgsky. Now music becomes the main thing in his life. And he decides to leave the brilliant start military service. Hard work and self-education become his life. The composer's talent is growing rapidly.

Then he studied at the guards school in St. Petersburg, achieving significant success. At the same time, he took piano lessons from the famous teacher A. Gerke.

In 1858, Mussorgsky resigned, despite the entreaties of his family and friends.

From that time on, Mussorgsky devoted himself entirely to music, working non-stop.

A difficult life and constant lack of money undermined the composer’s already disturbed health. He died at the age of forty-two, without having time to finish many of the works he began. But what he created puts him in the ranks greatest composers peace. Friends who highly valued Mussorgsky's talent collected his unfinished materials, processed them, added some notes, and orchestrated them.

In the last years of his life, Mussorgsky was seriously ill and after a concert trip with the singer D. Leonova (in the summer of 1879) he no longer wrote anything. Died in 1881.

Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" is not one of the composer's major works: the world knows him rather as the author of Russian opera frescoes, "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina". In comparison, “Pictures at an Exhibition,” written for the piano based on paintings by the artist Hartmann, is a very modest work. Moreover, these paintings are almost childish: they depict colorful scenes from fairy tales or everyday sketches (“Tuileries Garden”, “Old Castle”, “Ballet of Unhatched Chicks”, “Cattle”)... However, it is in “Pictures at an Exhibition” that creative Mussorgsky's manner appeared in full brilliance.

"Baba Yaga" depicts a well-known evil witch flying on a broom, with which nannies scare children. In this play, the composer very naturally, almost visibly paints this scene: throws, jolts, blows are heard, Baba Yaga accelerates and flies whistling and whooping as expected evil spirits. The main theme is similar to an accidentally snatched fragment from a Russian dance; to such music you can jump and squat with your hands on your hips, or you can ride a broom. In the middle part an enchanted forest is shown: sounds tremble, rustle, a mysterious knock is heard - a few strokes show the nature of the night.

And after a brief repetition of the theme of flight, Baba Yaga almost lands on the very

"Bogatyr Gate" Music begins that could well become the Russian anthem, there is so much strength and power in it, so strong is the connection with the Russian folk spirit - this melody resembles a broad song of praise. To make the picture of the sparkling heroic gates in the city of Kyiv even more impressive.

MODEST PETROVICH MUSORGSKY

(1839 - 1881)

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born in the village of Karevo, now the Kuninsky district of the Pskov region. He began studying music at the age of six under the guidance of his mother. The first experiments in musical improvisation, inspired by the fairy tales of a nanny - a serf peasant woman, date back to this time. Paintings village life left a deep imprint on Mussorgsky's consciousness. According to the testimony of his brother Filaret, from his adolescence he “treated everything folk and peasant with special love.”

In 1849, Modest entered the Peter and Paul School in St. Petersburg, and in 1852-56 he studied at the school of guards ensigns and was enrolled in the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment. At the same time, he studied piano with pianist Ant. A. Gehrke. After graduating from school, he was promoted to officer, but two years later he voluntarily retired to devote himself entirely to music. Mussorgsky understood that he had not received a systematic musical education and tried with all his might to make up for lost time; he wanted to study music “as I needed.” But the lack of means of living and the inability to obtain them through musical activity forced him to serve as an official, first in the Main Engineering Directorate, then in the Forestry Department of the Ministry of State Property and State Control.

A decisive influence on his overall musical development was his acquaintance with A.S. Dargomyzhsky, and later with M.A. Balakirev and other members of his circle (“Mighty Handful”). Mussorgsky began to study musical literature and study composition under the guidance of M.A. Balakireva.

At the turn of the 60s, Mussorgsky experienced a profound ideological change, as a result of which he became a staunch supporter of anti-serfdom ideology. He even renounced his part of the inheritance in favor of his brother, so as not to be the owner of serf souls. He shared many of the views of Russian revolutionary educators - N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov. At this time, the composer created several realistic vocal scenes from peasant life, in which acute everyday character is combined with a socially accusatory orientation: “Kalistrat”, “Eryomushka’s Lullaby”, “Forgotten”, “Commander”, "Seminarian", "Rayok", "On the Dnieper", "Classic", "Flea" etc. All of them are miniature predecessors of future opera paintings. In total, Mussorgsky's legacy includes 67 romances and songs.

Along with a truthful reproduction of the spiritual world human personality Mussorgsky sought to comprehend and convey the collective psychology of the masses. “...In the human masses,” he wrote, “as in an individual person, there are always the subtlest features that elude the grasp, features untouched by anyone...”

For Mussorgsky, living intonation was the main means of characterizing the image. human speech. He developed the creative principles of Dargomyzhsky, whom he called “the great teacher of truth.” The synthesis of songfulness and recitativeness is characteristic of Mussorgsky's mature works. Folk song in " pure form” is often used by the composer as an independent complete whole, as a means of “generalization through genre.” With the help of various song genres, he managed to create unusually bright, relief, vitally convincing images of individual people from the people or the masses, seized by a single impulse.

The opera genre occupies a central place in the composer's work. After the unfinished operas “Salammbô” (based on the novel by G. Flaubert) and “Marriage” (based on the unchanged text by N.V. Gogol), in 1868-69 he created one of his greatest works in scale and concept "Boris Godunov"(based on Pushkin’s tragedy) - a historical opera in which the people act as active acting force. Turning to Pushkin's tragedy, Mussorgsky rethought it in many ways and brought it closer to the era of the brewing peasant revolution.

Initially, the opera was rejected by the management of the imperial theaters, but at the insistence of the singer Yu. F. Platonova, the opera was staged with significant cuts in 1874 at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.

The public's reaction to the performance was mixed. Opinions were divided not only among the conservative public, but even among professional musicians. In particular, the review by Ts. A. Cui, one of the members of the Balakirev circle, was ambiguous in tone and content. Misunderstanding and unshared views caused deep moral trauma to Mussorgsky. But despite this, in 71-72, together with N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, he made the second edition of the opera.

In the 70s, a period of intense work, the peak of creative quests was the opera “Khovanshchina” (the author’s libretto on a historical plot proposed by V.V. Stasov). The composer called it a “folk musical drama,” emphasizing the leading role of the people. At the same time, he worked on the lyric-comedy opera “ Sorochinskaya fair"(based on Gogol's story). The opera remained unfinished, but the composer's humorous talent was clearly demonstrated in it.

Chamber vocal cycles were also created at this time: "Children's"(1868-72), "Without Sun" (1874), "Songs and Dances of Death"(1875-77). Regarding the “Children's Room,” C. Debussy noted that “no one has addressed the best that is in us with greater tenderness and depth.” In Songs and Dances of Death the theme of human suffering is expressed in musical images, reaching the tragic power of sound.

Mussorgsky's instrumental creativity is relatively small in volume, but even in this area he created bright, deeply original works. The orchestral picture belongs to the outstanding examples of program symphonism "Night on Bald Mountain", the plot of which was based on ancient folk beliefs. The character of her musical images is also connected with folk origins. “The form and character of my composition are Russian and original,” the composer wrote, pointing, in particular, to the typically Russian technique of free “scattered variations” he used. During the author's lifetime, the picture was not appreciated by his contemporaries, and perhaps that is why Mussorgsky did not realize his talent in instrumental genres. After the death of the author, it was completed and instrumented by N. Rimsky-Korsakov and performed with great success in 1886 in St. Petersburg.

The piano suite is distinguished by the same originality "Pictures at an Exhibition", which contains a gallery of diverse genre, fairy-tale, fantasy and epic images, combined into one multi-colored sound canvas. The timbre richness of the piano sound inspired other musicians to think about an orchestral arrangement of this work. Gained the most popularity “Pictures from an Exhibition, orchestrated by M. Ravel” (1922).

Mussorgsky's last years were very difficult. Failing health and financial insecurity prevented him from concentrating on his composition. He worked as an accompanist in vocal classes organized by singer D.M. Leonova. In 1879, they made a concert tour around the south, which brought many new and vivid impressions, which were reflected in the piano pieces composed on the Crimean Peninsula.

In 1881, Mussorgsky's health deteriorated sharply and his illness, accompanied by severe damage to internal organs and mental disorders, progressed rapidly. The illness required him to be moved from furnished rooms on Ofitserskaya, as a former military man, to the Nikolaev military hospital. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky died in one of the oldest military medical institutions in St. Petersburg. He was buried in the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

In 1968, the Mussorgsky Estate Museum was opened in the composer’s homeland in the village of Naumovo (now Kunyinsky district, Pskov region).

In his music, the composer sought to achieve maximum life-like verisimilitude, everyday and psychological concreteness of images. His work, distinguished by its democratic orientation, was imbued with a passionate protest against feudal oppression, love and sympathy for the people and for the desecrated, dispossessed human person. He openly declared his artistic views and goals in his “Autobiographical Note” and letters to Stasov, Golenishchev-Kutuzov and other friends and contemporaries. “To create a living person in live music” - this is how he defined the goal of his work.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born on March 9, 1839 in the village of Karevo, Toropetsk district, Pskov province, into an old Russian family. Also in early childhood the nanny constantly told Modest Russian fairy tales. This acquaintance with the spirit of folk life became the main impetus for musical improvisations before learning the most basic rules of playing the piano. Modest was taught the basics of playing this instrument by his mother. Things went so well that at the age of 7 the boy was playing short works by Liszt. When he was 9 years old, in front of a large crowd at his parents’ house, Modest played in full Big concert Filda. Since Modest's father also loved music, it was decided to develop musical abilities son and beyond. Music lessons were continued in St. Petersburg with teacher Gerke.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky

In 1856, Modest's parents enrolled him in the School of Guards Ensigns. All cadets had with them a footman made of serfs, whom the authorities flogged if they could not please their master.

Not only did the cornets consider preparing for lessons to be something that degraded their dignity, but also the school director, General Sutgof, constantly supported them in this. When the pupils were not busy with drills, they organized drinking parties with dancing and flirting. The school director, in his extravagance, went so far as to severely punish those cadets who, after drinking, walked back to school and drank plain vodka. He was proud of those who arrived in a cab and were drunk on champagne.

This is the kind of establishment Modest Mussorgsky ended up in. He was practically the only student who enthusiastically studied German philosophy, translations of foreign books and history. General Sutgof quite often reprimanded Mussorgsky: “What kind of an officer, mon cher, will you make if you read so much!”

Outwardly, Modest fully adopted all the habits of the Preobrazhensky officer, that is, he had elegant manners, walked on tiptoe like a cock, dressed in the latest fashion, spoke excellent French, danced wonderfully, sang excellently, accompanying himself on the piano.

But, although he had the appearance of a high-society veil, there was much in him that set him apart from the vulgar environment in which he moved. Many people who were closely acquainted with him at that time were amazed at his phenomenal musical memory. Once, at a musical evening in some salon, Mussorgsky sang several numbers from Wagner's opera Siegfried. After he was asked to sing and play Wotan's scene a second time, he did it from memory from beginning to end.

A young man named Vonlyarsky served in the regiment together with Modest, who introduced the future composer to Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky. While visiting Dargomyzhsky's house, Mussorgsky met and became friends with Ts. Cui and M. Balakirev, very famous figures in musical art throughout Russia at that time. The latter became a mentor for the 19-year-old boy in studying the history of the development of musical art, which Balakirev explained to Mussorgsky using examples of the creations of musicians European art in their historical sequence, carried out a rigorous analysis of musical works. These lessons took place while performing works together on two pianos.

Balakirev introduced Modest to Stasov, who was a well-known art connoisseur and critic in Russia, as well as to the sister of the brilliant Russian composer M. I. Glinka, L. I. Shestakova. A little later, the future composer met and became close friends with the talented composer, professor of the St. Petersburg Conservatory N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov.

In 1856, Mussorgsky met A.P. Borodin, who at that time had just graduated from the Medical-Surgical Academy. According to Borodin, Modest at that time was “just a boy, a very elegant, accurately drawn officer; a brand new, tight uniform; the legs are turned out, the hair is smoothed, pomaded; nails precisely chiseled... Graceful, aristocratic manners; the conversation is the same, a little through clenched teeth, interspersed with French phrases..."

In 1859, Borodin and Mussorgsky met for the second time. If at the first meeting Modest did not make a positive impression on Alexander Porfiryevich, then the second time it completely changed. Mussorgsky has changed a lot, lost his officer's air and foppishness, although he still retained his grace in clothes and manners. Modest told Borodin that he retired because combining military service and art was an unthinkable thing. Before this, Stasov very diligently tried to dissuade Mussorgsky from his decision to resign. He gave him the example of Lermontov, who served and was engaged in literature, and was a great poet. Modest said that he was far from Lermontov and therefore would not study music and serve at the same time.

During the second meeting, Borodin listened to Mussorgsky play the piano, who played excerpts from Schumann's symphonies. Since Alexander Porfiryevich knew that Modest wrote music himself, he asked him to play something of his own. Mussorgsky began to play a scherzo. According to Borodin, he was amazed and surprised by completely unprecedented, new elements of music for him.

Their third meeting took place in 1862. At a musical evening, Borodin witnessed Mussorgsky and Balakirev playing the piano together. He later recalled: “Mussorgsky had already grown a lot musically. I was amazed by the brilliance, meaningfulness, energy of execution and beauty of the thing.”

Mussorgsky spent the summer of 1863 in the village. In the fall, returning to St. Petersburg, he settled with several young people in one large apartment. Each of them had his own room, the threshold of which no one had the right to cross without obtaining permission from the owner of the room. In the evenings they gathered in the common room, where they listened to music (Mussorgsky played the piano and sang excerpts from arias and operas), read, argued, and talked.

There were many such small communes throughout St. Petersburg at that time. As a rule, they gathered smart and educated people, each of whom was engaged in some favorite scientific or artistic activity, despite the fact that many served in the Senate or ministry.

Mussorgsky's commune comrades had until then stayed with their families, but now they decided to radically change their lives. For everyone, the family life, semi-patriarchal, with the old hospitality, remained in the past, but an intellectual, active life began, with real interests, with the desire to work and use oneself for business.

Thus Mussorgsky lived for three years. He believed that they were best years in his life. During this period, thanks to the exchange of thoughts, knowledge, impressions with his friends in the commune, he accumulated the material from which he lived for the rest of the years, and also understood the difference between fair and unfair, good and bad, black and white. He did not change these principles for the rest of his life.

During these years, Modest read Flaubert's novel "Salammbô", which made such a huge impression on him that he decided to write an opera. But, despite the large amount of time and effort spent on this work, the opera remained unfinished, with the last passage written by Mussorgsky in December 1864.

Concern about the fate of the oppressed Russian people was always present in the thoughts and conversations of the composer. That is why the desire to show in music the life and struggle of the masses, his desire to depict the tragic fate of the defenders of people from the oppressors is so clearly visible in his works.

One day one of his friends turned to Mussorgsky with a question about why he did not finish the opera “Salambo”. The composer first thought, and then laughed and replied: “It would be fruitless, Carthage would be interesting.”

In the fall of 1865, Modest Petrovich became seriously ill. His brother forced the composer to move into his house so that his wife could take care of him. At first Mussorgsky did not want to do this, because he hated becoming a burden, but then he changed his mind.

The end of 1865, all of 1866, 1867 and part of 1868 are considered the period of the creation of a number of romances, which are among Mussorgsky’s most accomplished works. His romances were mainly monologues, which the composer himself emphasized. For example, the romance “The leaves rustled sadly” also has the subtitle “A Musical Story.”

Mussorgsky's favorite genre was the lullaby. He used it almost everywhere: from the “Lullaby to the Doll” of the “Children’s” cycle to the tragic lullaby in “Songs and Dances of Death.” These songs contained affection and tenderness, humor and tragedy, sorrowful forebodings and hopelessness.

In May 1864, the composer created a vocal piece from folk life - “Kalistrat” to the words of Nekrasov. According to Modest Petrovich, this was the first attempt to introduce comedy into his work. In the tone of the entire narrative of “Kalistrat” one can trace a grin, tart folk humor, but in to a greater extent The meaning of the work is tragic, because it is a song-parable about the sad and hopeless lot of a poor man, which he talks about with humor that causes a bitter smile.

In 1866 - 1868 Modest Petrovich created several vocal folk pictures: “Gopak”, “Orphan”, “Seminarist”, “Mushroom picking” and “Mischievous”. They are a mirror image of Nekrasov’s poems and the paintings of the Itinerant artists.

At the same time, the composer tried his hand at the satirical genre. He created two songs - “Goat” and “Classic”, which go beyond the usual themes of musical works. Mussorgsky described the first song as a “secular fairy tale”, which touches on the theme of unequal marriage. In "Classics" the satire is directed against music critic Famintsyn, who was an ardent opponent of the new Russian school.

In his famous romance"Raek" Mussorgsky tried to develop the same principles as in the "Classics", only sharpening them even more. This romance is an imitation of folk puppet theater with a barker. In this piece of music a whole group of opponents of the “Mighty Handful” association is shown.

In the vocal sketch “Seminarist,” a healthy, simple guy is presented who is cramming boring Latin words that are completely unnecessary to him, while memories of the adventure he just experienced creep into his head. During the church service, he started looking at the priest, for which he was soundly beaten by her father, the priest. The comedy of the vocal composition lies in the alternation of inexpressive mumbling on one note, a patter of meaningless Latin words, with a broad, rude, but not devoid of daring and power, song of a seminarian about the beauty of priest Stesha and his offender - the priest. The most expressive part was the end of the song, in which the seminarian, realizing that he cannot learn Latin words, blurts them all out in one breath.

In The Seminarian, Mussorgsky created a parody of church singing in accordance with the social status of his hero. The drawn-out, mournful singing combined with completely inappropriate lyrics produces a comical impression.

The manuscript of “The Seminarist” was printed abroad, but Russian censorship prohibited its sale, citing the fact that this sketch depicts sacred objects and sacred relationships in a funny way. This ban terribly outraged Mussorgsky. In a letter to Stasov, he wrote: “Until now, censorship has allowed musicians through; The ban on “The Seminarist” serves as an argument that from the nightingales of the “tabernacles of the forest and moon lovers” musicians become members of human societies, and if I were completely banned, I would not stop chiseling the stone until I was exhausted.”

From a completely different perspective, Modest Petrovich’s talent is revealed in the “Children’s” series. The songs from this collection are not so much songs for children, but songs about children. In them, the composer showed himself to be a psychologist who is able to reveal all the features of a child’s perception of the world, the so-called rosy naive. Musicologist Asafiev defined the content and meaning of this cycle as “the formation of a reflective personality in a child.”

Mussorgsky, in his “Children’s” cycle, raised such layers and chose forms that no one had touched before. There's a child talking to his nanny about a beech tree. fairy tale, and a child who was put in a corner, and he tries to blame the kitten, and a boy talking about his twig hut in the garden, about a beetle that flew into him, and a girl putting a doll to bed.

Franz Liszt was so delighted with these songs that he immediately wanted to put them on the piano. Mussorgsky wrote to his friend Stasov about this event: “I never thought that Liszt, who chose colossal subjects, could seriously understand and appreciate the “Children’s Room”, and most importantly, admire it: after all, the children in it are Russians with a strong local flavor.” . I. E. Repin developed and drew a charming title page for Mussorgsky’s “Children’s” cycle, on which the text was composed of toys and notes, and five small genre scenes were located around it.

After writing a number of romances, it became clear that Mussorgsky was an opera composer. Dargomyzhsky and Cui strongly recommended that he start writing operas, and he himself wanted this most of all, without any advice.

In 1868, Modest Petrovich decided to write an opera on the theme of Gogol’s “Marriage”. Both Nikolai Vasilyevich himself and his brilliant work were very close in spirit to the composer, which is why he chose “Marriage”. But the difficulty was that Mussorgsky decided to set the entire work to music, in its entirety, without a single omission, just as Dargomyzhsky set Pushkin’s “The Stone Guest” to music. And yet Mussorgsky’s attempt was even bolder, because he translated not poetry, but prose, and no one had done this before him.

In July 1868, the composer completed Act I of the opera and began composing Act II. But he did not do this work for long, and for this reason. The first act of "The Marriage" was performed several times in concerts by different musicians. After listening to the music he wrote, Modest Petrovich postponed writing the opera, although he already had a wealth of material prepared. He became interested in the theme of Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov,” which one of his friends suggested to him during a musical evening at L. I. Shestakova’s. Having read Pushkin's work, Mussorgsky was so captivated by the plot that he simply could not think of anything else.

He began work on the opera “Boris Godunov” in September 1868, and on November 14, Act I was already completely written. At the end of November 1869, the entire opera was ready. The speed is incredible, considering that the composer composed not only music, but also text. Only in a few places did he come close to the text of Pushkin’s drama, but the musician composed most of the text himself.

In the summer of 1870, Mussorgsky handed over the completed opera to the directorate of the imperial theaters. The committee reviewed this work at its meeting and rejected it. The fact is that the novelty and unusualness of Modest Petrovich’s music baffled the venerable representatives of the music and art committee. In addition, they reproached the author for the absence of a female role in the opera.

Upon learning of the committee's decision, Mussorgsky was shocked. Only the persistent persuasion of friends and passionate desire Seeing an opera on stage forced him to take up the opera score. He expanded the overall composition quite significantly by adding individual scenes. For example, he composed the scene “Under Kromi”, i.e. the entire Polish act. Some previously written scenes have received minor changes.

In February 1873, Kondratiev’s benefit performance took place at the Mariinsky Theater. At the concert, three excerpts from the opera were given, the success of which was simply stunning. Petrov, who sang Varlaam, performed his part best of all.

After long ordeals, on January 24, 1874, the entire opera “Boris Godunov” was given. This performance became a true triumph for Mussorgsky. Old representatives musical culture, fans of routine and vulgar opera music pouted and got angry; pedants from the conservatory and critics began to protest with foam at the mouth. And this was also a kind of celebration, which means that no one remained indifferent to the opera.

But the younger generation rejoiced and received the opera with a bang. Young people cared absolutely nothing about the fact that critics began to persecute the composer, calling his music rude and tasteless, hasty and immature, talking about violation of traditions classical music. Many understood that great things had been created folk piece and handed over to the people.

Mussorgsky was prepared for such sharp attacks from his ill-wishers. However, he never expected a blow from his closest comrade in the “Mighty Handful”, from the one whom they in the circle were accustomed to consider as a faithful fighter for common ideals - from Cui. The composer was offended, shocked, one might even say enraged by Cui's article. In a letter to Stasov, he wrote: “The brainless are not satisfied with the modesty and lack of swagger that have never left me and will not leave while the brains in my head are not completely burned out. Behind this insane attack, behind this deliberate lie, I see nothing, as if soapy water has spilled into the air and is covering objects. Complacency!!! Hasty writing! Immaturity!... whose?... whose?... I would like to know.”

The opera began to be staged less and less often, and corrections and cuts from it were made more and more often. In 1874, “Boris Godunov” was shown for the tenth time (at full box office). Two years later, the entire brilliant scene “Under Kromami” was cut from the opera. During Mussorgsky's lifetime, the last performance of the utterly truncated and mutilated opera was given on February 9, 1879.

The seventies became the period of the highest development of Mussorgsky's creativity. But they were also the darkest period of his life. This is a time of great creative achievements and irreversible losses, a time of courageous impulses and devastating emotional storms.

During these years, Modest Petrovich wrote the operas “Khovanshchina” and “Sorochinskaya Fair”, vocal cycles “Without the Sun”, “Songs and Dances of Death”, “Pictures from an Exhibition” and so on. In Mussorgsky's personal life, circumstances were not going well - the discord with his friends gradually deepened.

In June 1874, Modest Petrovich suffered a severe attack of nervous illness - the first result of mental and physical strength. In the same year he died suddenly talented artist and the architect W. Hartmann, who was a close friend of the composer. This death took away almost all his spiritual strength.

On Hartmann’s death, Mussorgsky wrote the piano suite “Pictures at an Exhibition,” which became a typical work for the development of all Russian musical art. The prototype for the suite was not only Hartmann’s diverse watercolors, but also architectural projects: “The Heroic Gate”, costume sketches for theatrical productions (“Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks”, “Trilby”), sketches of toys, individual genre sketches (“Limoges Market”, “ Tuileries Garden"), portrait characteristics(“Two Jews – rich and poor”).

According to musicologists, Hartmann's drawings were only an excuse for creative imagination Mussorgsky. On their basis a chain of independent, unusually bright in their own way was born. artistic power musical creations. Therefore, “Pictures at an Exhibition” is not an illustration for an exhibition of Hartmann’s works. This is a suite whose genre is unique and unique, just as its design and creation history are unique.

Among all the losses and adversities, another one fell on Modest Petrovich terrible grief– On June 29, 1874, N. Opochinina died. She was for him a bright ray in the gloomy sky of life, a very congenial person and simply a beloved woman. This loss was the hardest for him. The composer hid his grief from everyone and never mentioned it anywhere. Only the sketch of the unfinished “Tombstone Letter” speaks about the torment experienced.

In 1874, Mussorgsky composed the ballad “Forgotten” to the words of Golenishchev-Kutuzov. The impetus for creation of this work served as a painting by V.V. Vereshchagin “The Forgotten,” depicting a Russian soldier remaining on the battlefield. The social meaning of the picture was that it was necessary to protest against the unjust wars of the tsarist government, against the senseless death of Russian people. Modest Petrovich, together with Golenishchev-Kutuzov, further deepened the social meaning through the language of music, telling the biography of the soldier depicted in the picture. He showed that he was a peasant whose wife and children were waiting at home. The essence of the musical solution lies in the contrast of two images - a gloomy march depicting the battlefield, and a sad lullaby that the wife hums while waiting for her husband to return.

But the theme of death is shown most fully and comprehensively in the piano cycle “Songs and Dances of Death.” This plot was suggested to Mussorgsky by Stasov.

In “Songs and Dances of Death,” the composer recreates Russian reality, which turns out to be disastrous for many people. In social and accusatory terms, the theme of death is far from in last place in Russian art of that time: in the paintings of Perov, Vereshchagin, Kramskoy, in Nekrasov’s poems “Frost, Red Nose”, “Orina, Mother of a Soldier”, etc. Mussorgsky’s piano cycle should stand precisely in this row of works of realistic art.

In this composition, Modest Petrovich used the genres of march, dance, lullaby and serenade. By and large, this is a paradox. But it is caused by the desire to emphasize the surprise and absurdity of the invasion of hated death. After all, in fact, is there anything further from the idea of ​​death than images of childhood, youth, merry dances, triumphal processions? But Mussorgsky, by bringing these infinitely distant concepts closer together, achieved such a poignancy in revealing the theme that he could not achieve in the most mournful and tragic funeral march or requiem.

The cycle consists of four songs, which are arranged according to the principle of increasing dynamics of the plot: “Lullaby”, “Serenade”, “Trepak”, “Commander”. The action is constantly expanding, that is, from the cozy and secluded room setting in “Lullaby” the listener is transported to the night street of “Serenade”, then to the deserted fields of “Trepak” and, finally, to the battlefield in “Commander”. The opposition between life and death, their eternal struggle among themselves is the dramatic basis of the entire cycle.

“Lullaby” depicts a scene of deep grief and despair of a mother sitting at the cradle of her dying child. Using all musical means, the composer tries to emphasize the living anxiety of the mother and the dead calm of death. The phrases of death sound insinuatingly, ominously, affectionately, and the music emphasizes rigidity and deadness. At the end of the song, the mother’s phrases begin to sound more and more desperate, and death simply repeats its monotonous “Bayushki, bay, bay.”

This song was most often performed by A. Ya. Petrova. She sang with such inimitable perfection, with such passion and drama, that one day one listener, a young mother, could not stand it and fainted.

In the second song, “Serenade,” love is contrasted with death. The introduction not only shows the landscape, but also conveys the emotionally charged atmosphere of youth and love. Mussorgsky interpreted the image of death in this song in the same way as in “Lullaby,” that is, the same plot motif of the caresses of death and the same ominously affectionate intonations. At that time, there was an assumption that the composer showed in the song the death of a revolutionary girl in prison. But, most likely, Mussorgsky captured not only the fate of female revolutionaries, but also many Russian women and girls who died fruitlessly and uselessly, not finding application for their strength in the everyday life of that time, which stifled many young lives.

In “Trepak”, it is no longer a song written, but a dance of death, performed together with a drunk man. The theme of the dance gradually unfolds into a large musical and quite diverse picture. The dance theme throughout the song sounds differently: sometimes simple-minded, sometimes ominously and gloomily. The contrast is based on the opposition between a dance monologue and a lullaby.

The song “Commander” was written by the composer much later than the others, around 1877. The main theme of this song is the tragedy of a people who are forced to send their sons to the battlefields. This is almost the same theme as in "The Forgotten", but shown more fully. While composing the song, tragic military events were unfolding in the Balkans, which attracted everyone's attention.

The intro to the song is written as independent part. First, the mournful melody “Rest With the Saints” sounds, and then the music leads the listener to the culmination of the song and the entire piano cycle - the victorious march of death. Mussorgsky took the solemn and tragic melody for this part from the Polish revolutionary anthem “With the Smoke of Fires,” which was performed during the 1863 uprising.

In the last 5–6 years of his life, Mussorgsky was passionate about composing two operas at the same time: “Khovanshchina” and “Sorochinskaya Fair”. The plot of the first of them was suggested to him by Stasov at a time when the opera “Boris Godunov” was not staged in the theater. The idea for the second opera came to Modest Petrovich in 1875. He wanted to write a role specifically for O. A. Petrov, whose extraordinary talent he simply adored.

The action of the opera "Khovanshchina" takes place in an era of intense struggle social forces in Rus' in late XVII century, which was an era of popular unrest, streltsy riots, palace strife and religious strife just before the beginning of the activities of Peter I. At that time, the centuries-old foundations of the feudal-boyar antiquity were crumbling, the paths of a new one were being determined Russian state. The historical material was so extensive that it did not fit into the framework of the operatic composition. Rethinking and selecting the main thing, the composer reworked the script plan and music of the opera several times. Modest Petrovich had to give up a lot of things he had previously planned.

"Khovanshchina" was conceived as an opera based on Russian song classics. While working on this work, Mussorgsky read a lot of books that provided detailed information about the course of events and the uniqueness of life at that time. He carefully studied all the materials that helped create an idea of ​​the character of historical characters.

Since Mussorgsky always had a special craving for character, he very often transferred entire pieces of genuine historical documents into the text of the opera in the form of quotations: from an anonymous letter with a denunciation of the Khovanskys, from an inscription on a pillar erected by the archers in honor of their victory, from a royal charter , granting mercy to repentant archers. All this as a whole determines the figurative and slightly archaic nature of the musical work.

In “Khovanshchina,” the composer anticipated the themes of two outstanding paintings by the Russian painter V. I. Surikov. This refers to “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution” and “Boyaryna Morozova”. Mussorgsky and Surikov worked independently of each other, which makes it all the more surprising that the interpretation of the theme coincides.

The most fully depicted in the opera are the Streltsy, whose originality clearly emerges if we compare the two types of marching (the second type in “Khovanshchina” is the Petrovsky). The Sagittarius are all about songfulness, prowess, the Petrovtsy are about the purely instrumental sonority of a brass band.

For all the breadth of display of folk life and folk psychology, the Petrine people are outlined in the opera only from the outside. The listener sees them through the eyes of the people, for whom the Petrine people are representatives of everything cruel, faceless, mercilessly invading their lives.

One more folk group Opera is a Moscow newcomer. The appearance of this collective image is explained by the composer’s desire to show the events taking place not only from the position of those who played the main role in them, but also through the eyes of that part of the people who judge this struggle from the outside, although they experience its impact.

Back in the summer of 1873, Modest Petrovich played excerpts from Act V of the opera to his friends. But he was in no hurry to write them down on music paper. He believed that it was too early, that the idea was not ripe. Nevertheless, everything that he had conceived and found then was kept in his memory for 5 whole years. And only in 1878 Mussorgsky composed the scene “Martha with Andrei Khovansky before self-immolation.” He began to finally formulate the opera in 1880.

On August 22, 1880, in a letter to Stasov, Mussorgsky wrote: “Our Khovanshchina is over, except for a small piece in final scene self-immolation: we will have to sing about him together, because this “rogue” is completely dependent on stage technology.” But this small piece remained unfinished. Rimsky-Korsakov and Shostakovich completed Mussorgsky's plan in the score in their own way.

The last years of Modest Petrovich's life were not very eventful. He no longer served, and a group of friends, having formed, paid him an allowance, something like a pension. But he performed a lot as a pianist-accompanist. Most often he worked with D. M. Leonova, once an outstanding artist of the imperial stage, a student of Glinka. In 1879, Mussorgsky and Leonova went on a concert tour around Ukraine and Crimea. The composer accompanied the singer and also performed as a soloist, performing excerpts from his operas. They were a resounding success, but it was the last live event in Mussorgsky's life.

After returning from Ukraine, Modest Petrovich was forced to look for work. He had neither money nor an apartment. Leonova suggested that he open private courses for vocal training, i.e. something like a private music school. She needed an accompanist who would help her students study musical literature. The composer took this position.

In February 1881, Mussorgsky was in Leonova’s apartment, where he was struck by the first blow. Others followed him, but there was no one to care for the sick man. Modest Petrovich's closest friends - V.V. Stasov, Ts.A. Cui, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov and A.P. Borodin - turned to the doctor L. Bertenson with a request to place Mussorgsky in some hospital. Chief physician The Nikolaev Hospital for Officers and Lower Military Ranks initially refused Bertenson’s request, but then came up with an original solution. Mussorgsky was admitted to the hospital as a civilian orderly for resident Bertenson.

At this time, I came from Moscow to St. Petersburg close friend Modest Petrovich - artist I. E. Repin. Stasov asked him to paint a portrait of Mussorgsky, which Repin did. He painted the portrait of Mussorgsky, which later became so famous, in a gray robe with crimson lapels, in which the composer is depicted from the front with his head slightly bowed. Traces of a serious illness are visible on his face, his feverishly shining eyes convey all his internal tension and all his experiences and suffering, reflect his creative power and talent.

MUSORGSKY The Mussorgsky family, which was glorified by the famous Russian composer, was started by Prince Roman Vasilyevich Monastyrev Mussorg. Then the nickname was used on an equal basis with the name, later it turned into a surname, but they wrote it Mussorgskaya, Muserskaya. It was believed that she had