Moussorgsky

Description

"Moussorgsky" by M. Montagu-Nathan is a biographical and critical study written in the early 20th century. It examines the life, aesthetic convictions, and music of the Russian composer Modeste Moussorgsky, situating him among “The Five” and emphasizing his nationalist, truth-seeking approach to art. Central attention is given to his operas, songs, choral and instrumental works, and to the tension between innovation and academic technique. The opening of the study sets out Moussorgsky’s credo—art as truth, freedom, and progress—his rejection of rigid formalism, and the later controversy over Rimsky-Korsakof’s editorial “corrections.” It then traces his early life from a music-filled rural childhood and prodigious piano training, through Guards service and pivotal friendships with Dargomijsky, Balakiref, Cui, and Borodin, to a “conversion” to nationalist realism, departure from the army, and first projects. The narrative follows the abandoned Salammbô and the speech-intonation experiment The Matchmaker, notable early songs and orchestral pieces, the creation, rejection, revision, and popular yet embattled premiere of Boris Godounof, and the inception of Khovanshchina. Brief portraits of satirical pieces (The Classicist, The Peepshow), the song cycles The Nursery, Without Sunlight, and Songs and Dances of Death, and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition punctuate his increasing hardship, touring, alcoholism, and death, after which Rimsky-Korsakof undertakes publication. The section then opens the critical survey of his operatic method—chorus as protagonist, uncompromising realism, and music mirroring speech—with concise accounts of Salammbô, The Matchmaker, Sorochinsk Fair, and the design and scenes of Boris Godounof, before framing the historical conflict that powers Khovanshchina. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Subjects

• Composers -- Russia -- Biography
• Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich, 1839-1881
• ML