Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Modest Mussorgsky

My next post will be about one of the Russian Mighty Five: Modest Mussorgsky

The Russian Might Five is a group of composers that wanted to make Russian music a strong component in the Romantic Period. The Mighty Five consisted of: Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Cui, Balakirev, and Mussorgsky. Mussorgsky composed many brilliant pieces such as the opera, Boris Godunov and the symphonic works, Night on Bald Mountain and Pictures at an Exhibition. Mussorgsky was the most reckless and lazy out of all five of the composers, but he was by far the most talented. Some attribute his amazing talents to his continued abuse of alcohol. Here are 4 songs from his amazing set entitled, Songs and Dances of Death. Each song talks about Death in very vivid detail. My favorite is the Lullaby. A mother is cradling her sick son in her hands when she sees Death show up at her door. She screams and yells for him to leave, but he doesn't. He takes the child and the mother falls on the floor crying hysterically.


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