A mighty group of Russian composers: Mussorgsky. Chamber and vocal creativity of Musorgsky The main themes of Musorgsky’s creativity

Hardly any of the Russian classics can be compared with M.P. Mussorgsky, a brilliant self-taught composer, in the originality, daring and originality of the ways of implementing ideas, which in many ways anticipated the musical art of the 20th century.

Even among like-minded people, he stood out for his courage, determination and consistency in upholding ideals

Vocal creativity of Mussorgsky

Vocal music occupies a decisive place in the composer's creative heritage. In the collection " Early years"(50-60s) he continues to develop the line of A. Dargomyzhsky with a tendency to strengthen. The collection marked the onset creative maturity the composer and determined the range of images and moods (with the exception of satirical ones, which will appear later); a large role belongs to the images of peasant life, the embodiment of the characters of the characters-representatives of the people. It is no coincidence that the culmination of the collection is considered to be romances to the words of N. Nekrasov (“Kalistrat”, “Lullaby to Eremushka”).

M.P. Mussorgsky

By the end of the 60s. The composer’s works are filled with satirical images (a whole gallery of satires is embodied in “Rike”). On the verge of the mature and late periods, the “Children’s” cycle appears based on its own text, which is a series of psychological sketches (the world through the eyes of a child).

Mussorgsky's later work is marked by the cycles “Songs and Dances of Death”, “Without the Sun”, and the ballad “Forgotten”.

Modest Petrovich's vocal works generally cover the following range of moods:

lyrics, present in the earliest works and subsequently painted in increasingly tragic tones. The lyrical-tragic culmination of this line is the vocal cycle “Without the Sun” (1874);

line " folk pictures", sketches, scenes of peasant life(“Kalistrat”, “Lullaby to Eremushka”, “Orphan”, “Tsvetik Savishna”), leading to such peaks as the ballad “Forgotten” and “Trepak” from the cycle “Songs and Dances of Death”;
line of social satire(romances of the 60-70s: “Seminarist”, “Classic”, “Goat” (“Secular Tale”), the climax - “Raek”).

A separate group of works that do not belong to any of the above are the vocal cycle “Children’s” (1872) and “Songs and Dances of Death” (except for “Trepak”).

Developing from lyrics through everyday life, satirical or social sketches, the vocal music of the composer Mussorgsky is increasingly filled with tragic moods, which become almost defining in his life. late creativity, fully embodied in the ballad “Forgotten” and “Songs and Dances of Death”. Sometimes more, sometimes less clearly, but the tragic theme has been heard before - already in “Kalistrata” and “Eremushka’s Lullaby” we can feel the acutely dramatic strain.

He rethinks the semantic essence of the lullaby, preserving only the external signs of the genre. So, both “Kalistrat” and “Lullaby to Eremushka”

(which Pisarev called a “vile lullaby”)

- not just lulling; this is a dream of happiness for a child. However, acute sounding theme the incomparability of reality and dreams turns the lullaby into a lament (the culmination of this theme will be represented by the cycle “Songs and Dances of Death”).

A kind of continuation tragic theme observed

V « Orphan" (tiny child begging),
« Svetik Savishna" (the grief and pain of the holy fool rejected by the merchant's wife - an image most fully embodied in the Holy Fool from the opera "Boris Godunov").

One of the tragic peaks of Mussorgsky’s music is the ballad “Forgotten” - a work that united the talents of Vereshchagin (in the anti-war series he wrote, crowned with “The Apotheosis of War”, there is the painting “Forgotten”, which formed the basis of the idea of the ballad), Golenishchev-Kutuzov (text) . The composer also introduces into the music the image of the soldier’s family, using the technique of contrasting comparison of images: the highest degree of tragedy is achieved by juxtaposing, against the backdrop of a lullaby, the promises of a mother cradling her son and talking about the father’s imminent return, and the final phrase:

“And he is forgotten - he lies alone.”

The vocal cycle “Songs and Dances of Death” (1875) is the culmination of Mussorgsky’s vocal creativity.

Historically in musical art image of death, which lies in wait and takes away life often at the most unexpected moments, was expressed in two main forms:

dead static, rigidity (in the Middle Ages, the sequence Dies irae became such a symbol);

the depiction of death in the Dance macabre (dance of death) is a tradition coming from the Spanish sarabands, where the funeral took place in movement, a solemn mourning dance; is reflected in the works of Berlioz, Liszt, Saint-Saens, etc.

Mussorgsky's innovation in connection with the embodiment of this theme lies in the fact that Death now not only “dances”, but also sings.

The large-scale vocal cycle consists of 4 romances, in each of which death awaits the victim:

1 hour “Lullaby”. Death sings a lullaby over the child's crib;

2 hours “Serenade”. Taking the form of a knight errant, Death sings a serenade under the window of a dying girl;
3 hours “Trepak”. The peasant freezes in the blizzard, frosty steppe, and Death sings his song to him, promising light, joy and wealth;
4 hours "Commander". The grand finale, where Death appears on the battlefield as a commander, addressing the fallen.

The ideological essence of the cycle is a protest and struggle against the omnipotence of death in order to expose its lies, which is emphasized by “falsity”, insincerity in the use of each of the everyday genres that underlie its parts.

The musical language of M.P. Mussorgsky

Recitative intonation base and masterfully developed piano part vocal works the composer is realized through forms, often marked by signs of the author’s individual style.

Opera creativity

Just like vocal music, Mussorgsky’s opera genre clearly reveals the originality and compositional power of his talent, as well as his progressive views, ideological and aesthetic aspirations.

3 operas are completed in the creative heritage

"Boris Godunov", "Khovanshchina", " Sorochinskaya fair»;

remained unrealized

"Salambo" (historical story),

“Marriage” (there is 1 action),

a number of plans that were not realized at all.

The unifying point for the operas (except for “Marriage”) is the presence folk images as fundamental and they are used:

in general terms, as a collective image of the people, the people as a single hero;

individualized representation of individual heroes-representatives of the people.

It was important for the composer to appeal to folk stories. If the concept of “Salambo” was the story of the clash between Carthage and Rome, then in other operas he is not concerned ancient history, but - Rus' at the moments of the highest upheavals, at the most time of troubles its history (“Boris Godunov”, “Khovanshchina”).

Mussorgsky's piano work

This composer’s piano work is represented by the only cycle “Pictures at an Exhibition” (1874), which, nevertheless, entered the history of music as a bright, outstanding work Russian pianism. The concept is based on the works of W. Hartmann, and a cycle consisting of 10 plays is dedicated to his memory ( « Gnome", "Old Castle", "Tuileries Park", "Cattle", "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks", "Two Jews", "Limoges Market", "Catacombs", "Baba Yaga", "Golden Gate" or "Bogatyrsky" gate"), periodically alternating with a special theme - “Walk”. On the one hand, it depicts the composer himself walking through a gallery of Hartmann's works; on the other hand, it personifies the Russian national origin.

The genre uniqueness of the cycle, on the one hand, refers to a typical program suite, on the other hand, to the rondal form, where “Walk” acts as a refrain. And taking into account the fact that the theme of “Walk” is never repeated exactly, features of variation appear.

Besides, « Pictures from an Exhibition” captures the expressive capabilities of the piano:

coloristic, due to which an “orchestral” sound is achieved;
virtuosity;
In the music of the cycle, the influence of the composer’s vocal style (both songfulness and recitativeness and declamation) is noticeable.

All these features make Pictures at an Exhibition a unique work in the history of music.

Symphonic music by M.P. Mussorgsky

An exemplary work in the field of symphonic creativity is Midsummer's Night on Bald Mountain (1867) - a witches' Sabbath, continuing the tradition of Berlioz. Historical significance work - that this is one of the first examples of evil fantasy in Russian music.

Orchestration

The innovation of M.P. Mussorgsky as a composer in his approach to the orchestral part was not immediately understood: the opening of new horizons was perceived by a number of contemporaries as helplessness.

The main principle for him was to achieve maximum expression in expression with minimal use of orchestral means, i.e. its orchestration takes on the nature of vocals.

The musician formulated the essence of the innovative approach to the use of musical expressive means something like this:

“...to create expressive forms of speech, and on their basis - new musical forms.”

If we compare Mussorgsky and the great Russian classics, in whose work one of the main things is the image of the people, then:

unlike Glinka, who is characterized by a portrait method of display, for Modest Petrovich the main thing is to show folk images in development, in the process of formation;
Mussorgsky, unlike Glinka, singles out individual characters representing the people from the masses. In addition, each of them acts as a bearer of a certain symbol (for example, Pimen from “Boris Godunov” is not just a sage, but the personification of history itself).

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Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky - outstanding composer Russian Empire, a most brilliant author and member of the famous organization " Mighty bunch". He influenced the development of not only domestic, but also foreign music, and not only classical. His creative heritage- operas, cycles of piano and vocal music, orchestral pieces, choral music, romances and songs.

Biography: the beginning

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born on March 21, 1839 in Karevo, a village in the Pskov province of the Russian Empire.

Until the age of 10, he and his brother were on homeschooling and only in 1849, having moved to St. Petersburg, they entered “Petrishule” - the first school of the cultural capital, founded in 1709.

Youth and maturity

The young man does not finish his studies and enters the School of Guards Ensigns, where he became deeply imbued with church music (Protestant, Greek, Catholic). Studying at school will leave a big imprint on Mussorgsky’s work.

In 1856, after graduating from school, he went to serve in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, where he met the famous Russian composer Alexander Sergeevich Dargomyzhsky. Then he changes his place of work to the Ministry of State Property.

Three years later, life introduces Modest to the head of the “Mighty Handful”. Under his watchful supervision, Mussorgsky devoted his free time to music studies: studying harmony, reading scores, analyzing works and developing his skills as a critic.

He was lucky by nature, he had in a beautiful voice(baritone) and loved to perform at musical evenings. Thanks to Anton Avgustovich Gerke (Russian teacher), I was able to sufficiently master the piano.

At the end of his life, he was very upset by the collapse of the “Mighty Handful”. Mussorgsky could not calmly endure the misunderstanding and criticism of his works by his close friends (members of the musical collection) and called his condition “nervous fever”, which later led to alcohol addiction. He is deprived of monetary income by resigning from the position of junior clerk, as well as any financial support close people.

The only enlightenment of that time was the opportunity to tour as an accompanist to the singer D. M. Leonova, since in addition to the compositions included in the program, he could also perform his own works.

In 1881, the composer's last major appearance took place. In St. Petersburg (at an evening in memory of Dostoevsky), Modest sat down at the instrument and composed on the fly an improvisation of a funeral bell chime. The impromptu, which amazed everyone present, became a kind of prototype of the author’s “forgive” for all the dead and living.

On February 13, 1881, placed in the Nikolaev hospital after an attack of delirium tremens, Mussorgsky died without having time to complete his latest works. He was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Creative path

Modest's musical talent manifested itself in early childhood. At the age of 7, under the supervision of his mother, he could play not very difficult piano works by Franz Liszt. But no one in the family took music seriously, so professional musical education it was not provided.

The compositional work began quite rapidly. With the writing of each work, new opportunities and sources of inspiration opened up for Modest, even if they were not complete.

Romances by Mussorgsky

Vocal music was his favorite direction. The composer wrote romances throughout life path, his collection includes about 70 works.

Mussorgsky was the successor of Dargomyzhsky’s work, whose motto was the statement “about life and truth.”

In the 50-60s of the 19th century, he wrote a number of romances, in which one can already recognize his individual style. As an author, he was interested not in the lyrical, but social side life.

Mussorgsky's work reflected, original and bright, national Russian features. For example, in the composition “Trepak” we see a freezing drunken peasant, and the song “Lullaby” is, in fact, a monologue of a mother standing at the bed of her dying child.

Sometimes the source of inspiration could be any simple event. Here are just a few of them famous works:

"Prayer" based on Lermontov's poems;
"Rejected";
"Forgotten" to famous picturesque plot artist Vereshchagin;
"Kalistrat" to the words of Nekrasov;
"Orphan";
"With a doll"

Mussorgsky had an excellent sense of humor. For example, the work “Seminarist” is filled with an accusatory meaning, the essence of which lies in the iron shackles that do not allow young life to break through the traditional orders of society.

However, the work was subsequently banned by censorship.

His other works of this genre:

"Arrogance";
"Raek";
"The Tale of the Goat"

Opera "Boris Godunov"

The works that made the composer famous throughout the world are operas. The pinnacle of his work was the opera "Boris Godunov". M. P. Mussorgsky is the author of all the librettos in it. The libretto was based on the drama by A. S. Pushkin. The work was a real breakthrough and went beyond the usual opera of that time.

In the first edition, the work was presented to the Directorate of Imperial Theaters in 1869, but only 5 years later it was staged. The second edition dates back to 1872.

"Boris Godunov" is an opera that for the first time depicted the Russian people as a great large-scale force, and previously they served only as a background for the main character. In the work the author demonstrates a doomed existence ordinary people and the inevitability of mass revolutions.

Opera "Khovanshchina"

Even while working on the previous opera, Modest already had sketches of a new masterpiece in his head.

The peculiarity of the opera “Khovanshchina” by M. P. Mussorgsky lies in the faceless generalized main character, whose face is the people.

The work on the essay was difficult and long due to unforeseen circumstances, so by the end of his life it was never completed. The author wrote the libretto based on his own script.

The events take place in Russia during the 17th century, when there was a split and rebellion of the Streltsy.

The collapse of the "Mighty Handful", the deterioration of relations with Cui and Rimsky-Korsakov, the resignation of the head of the Balakirev circle dealt a strong emotional blow to Mussorgsky, but despite this, the author and composer continued his work.

Piano piece

In the work of Mussorgsky, in addition to vocal genre widely represented piano music.

In 1874, the cycle “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Mussorgsky was born. The impetus for writing the work was an exhibition of the artist Hartmann on the initiative of Stasov ( music critic), which made a great impression on Modest.

The cycle consists of 10 paintings, alternating reality with fictitious fantasies and figures of the past.

Interesting fact: all numbers are connected by a leitmotif ( theme song), which is associated with the feeling of walking. Thus, Mussorgsky draws an analogy with a journey through a gallery. This comparison is unique in its kind. Each number is given individual name(in Latin and Russian), as in painting, artistic paintings.

Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" has dozens of orchestral arrangements and piano recordings, and is also present in some film adaptations, for example, by the Soyuzmultfilm studio.

To sum it up

In addition to the genres listed above, Modest Mussorgsky also contributed to symphonic creativity. "Night on Bald Mountain" - famous example fantasies for orchestral composition, composed in 1867.

Mussorgsky's work is a wealth of genius that influenced further Russian art. The composer forced us to rethink the canons in force at that time and left a masterpiece of musical heritage as a gift.

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………… 2

The main features of the compositional style of M. P. Mussorgsky.... 3 – 5
The history of creation and dramaturgy of the opera “Boris Godunov”……. 6 - 9
Differentiation of the image of the people in the opera “Boris Godunov” using the example of the choral scene from the 1st scene of the prologue…………. 10 – 12

Conclusion………………………………………………………........ 13

References…………………………………………………………………….. 14

Introduction

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky is one of the most bright composers IXX century. One of the composer’s main creative goals was to realistically convey the intonations of human speech in music. This focus determined the composer’s appeal to vocal - stage genres music, so opera is at the forefront of his work. IN musical dramas M. P. Mussorgsky's choral principle is one of the most important means of realizing the author's idea. Realistic descriptions masses, independence of intonation, monumentality of choral scenes - all this characterizes the composer’s operatic work as innovative. In the process of realizing the image of the people, such a technique as differentiation of group images and choral dialogue was born.

Object of study:choral scene “To whom are you leaving us” from the opera “Boris Godunov” by M. P. Mussorgsky 1 act, 1 scene of the prologue.

Purpose of the study:study of the method of group image differentiation in choral scenes using the example of a choral episode from Act 1 of the prologue in the opera “Boris Godunov”.

The purpose of the study involves solving the following problems:

Define historical stages development and transformation of the opera “Boris Godunov” by M. P. Mussorgsky
Study of the dramatic basis of the opera "Boris Godunov"
Analysis of the choral episode in the opera “Boris Godunov” (1 act, 1 scene of the prologue) in order to determine the method of differentiation of images in the choral episodes of the opera “Boris Godunov”.

The main features of the compositional style of M. P. Mussorgsky

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky is one of the original Russian artists. He is one of those great creators who, while vividly reflecting the life of their era, were able at the same time to look far into the future and tell truthfully about the past. Mussorgsky's innovation was of the type where a bold assertion of the new in art took place with a sharp rejection of everything traditional and routine.

The mastery of his art by his contemporaries and new generations is full of drama. Most major writers and public figures did not “hear” Mussorgsky. To this day, his works remain largely a mystery. Mussorgsky's work is represented in various genres. Mainly opera and vocal compositions, a little - piano music, 7 operas (not all finished), about 100 works of the vocal genre, also vocal cycles; several pieces and the suite “Pictures at an Exhibition” were written for piano; symphonic musical picture"Night on Bald Mountain." His work in opera genre, which became prevalent for the composer, became innovative. Mussorgsky reformistly works on the problems of nationality, realism and the historicity of art.

The essence of opera reform:

The main real basis of operatic dramaturgy was history actually created by the people. In all world literature, “Boris Godunov” remains an unsurpassed unique work in which history is not a background, but a reality created by the people.
Mussorgsky was deeply convinced that the artist is inextricably linked with the life of the people. It is the people for Mussorgsky that are the main object of art. In the people he sees the main driving force history.
Mussorgsky, like no one else, deepened and expanded the scope of the concept musical content. He called for overcoming personal lyrics - for observation and depiction of the real. Thus, the source of originality is life itself; it is in it that the composer finds a wealth of various types and characters.
Against this background, another trait of the composer emerges - truthfulness.Truthfulness appears in two qualities:

Psychologism, display inner world person. Mussorgsky was the first Russian composer to pay attention to the human psyche. IN literary genre At this time Dostoevsky turned to this. Mussorgsky was not only the greatest realist, a historian, a narrator about the life of the people, but also a bright psychologist and portrait painter.
External truthfulness (picturesqueness, display of external qualities).

He chooses folk dramas as subjects for operas: “Boris Godunov”, “Khovanshchina”, “Pugachevshchina” (remained unfulfilled). The content of both operas clearly demonstrated Mussorgsky's amazing gift as a visionary historian. It is characteristic that the composer chooses those turning points stories when the state is on the verge of collapse. The composer himself said that “my task is to show both the “wisdom” and “savagery” of the people. Mussorgsky in his work mainly acts primarily as a tragedian.
From total number heroes are chosen by those who are the most tragic and hopeless. Often these are rebel people. All the historical types he created are very plausible and reliable.

Style, musical language

1) Melody.

Mussorgsky freely mixes intonation patterns for the first time. He is a typical vocal composer, a musician who thinks vocally in music. The essence of Mussorgsky's vocalism is in the feeling itself. musical art not through an instrument, but through the voice, through breathing.
Mussorgsky strove for a meaningful melody, created by human speech. The composer said: “My music should be an artistic reproduction of human speech in all its subtlest bends, i.e. the sounds of human speech, as outward manifestations of thought and feeling, must, without exaggeration and violence, become music that is truthful, accurate, and therefore highly artistic.”
All his melodies are necessarily theatrical. The structure of Mussorgsky's melody speaks in the language of the character, as if helping him to gesticulate and move.
His melodies are characterized by the unity of various techniques. In it one can highlight the features of various musical elements: peasant song; urban romance; bel canto (in the early opera “Salambo”, in some romances). Also characteristic is the reliance on genres (march, waltz, lullaby, hopak).

2) Harmony. Musical material his characters are very individual. Each has its own sound and psychological tonality. Mussorgsky was not satisfied with the means of classical major-minor - he built his own harmonic basis. The composer often used folk modes, increased and decreased modes, and was well aware of the system of church modes - octagonism (used in romances of the 60s). The construction of the tonal plans of Mussorgsky's works was influenced not by functional logic, but by the situation.

The ideas and thoughts of M. P. Mussorgsky (1839-1881), a brilliant self-taught composer, were in many ways ahead of their time and paved the way for the musical art of the 20th century. In this article we will try to most fully characterize the list of Mussorgsky's works. Everything written by the composer, who considered himself a follower of A. S. Dargomyzhsky, but went further, is distinguished by deep penetration into the psychology of not only an individual person, but also the masses of the people. Like all members of the “Mighty Handful,” Modest Petrovich was inspired by the national direction in his activities.

Vocal music

The list of Mussorgsky's works in this genre covers three types of moods:

Lyrical in early works and turning into lyric-tragic in later works. The pinnacle is the cycle “Without the Sun,” created in 1874.
"Folk pictures". These are scenes and sketches from the life of peasants (“Lullaby to Eremushka”, “Svetik Savishna”, “Kalistrat”, “Orphan”). Their culmination will be “Trepak” and “Forgotten” (the “Dance of Death” cycle).
Social satire. These include the romances “Goat”, “Seminarist”, “Classic”, created during the 1860s of the next decade. The pinnacle is the “Paradise” suite, which embodies a gallery of satyrs.

Separately on the list are the vocal cycle “Children’s” created in his own words in 1872 and “Songs and Dances of Death”, in which everything is filled with tragic moods.

In the ballad “Forgotten,” created based on the impression of a painting by V.V. Vereshchagin, which was later destroyed by the artist, the composer and author of the text contrasted the image of a soldier lying on the battlefield and the gentle melody of a lullaby that a peasant woman sings to her son, promising a meeting with his father. But her child will never see him.

“The Flea” from Goethe was performed brilliantly and always as an encore by Fyodor Chaliapin.

Means of musical expression

M. Mussorgsky updated the entire musical language, taking recitative and peasant songs as a basis. His harmonies are completely unusual. They correspond to new feelings. They are dictated by the development of experience and mood.

Operas

It is impossible not to include his operatic work in the list of Mussorgsky's works. Over the 42 years of his life, he managed to write only three operas, but what ones! “Boris Godunov”, “Khovanshchina” and “Sorochinskaya Fair”. In them he boldly combines tragic and comic features, which is reminiscent of the works of Shakespeare. The image of the people is the fundamental principle. At the same time, each character is given personal traits. Most of all the composer is concerned home country during times of turmoil and upheaval.

In "Boris Godunov" the country is on the threshold of the Time of Troubles. It reflects the relationship between the king and the people as a single person, animated by one idea. folk drama The composer wrote “Khovanshchina” based on his own libretto. In it, the composer was interested in the Streltsy revolt and church schism. But he did not have time to orchestrate it and died. The orchestration was completed by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. The role of Dosifey at the Mariinsky Theater was performed by F. Chaliapin. It does not have the usual main characters. Society is not opposed to the individual. Power ends up in the hands of one or another character. It recreates episodes of the struggle of the old reactionary world against Peter's reforms.

"Pictures at an Exhibition"

The composer's work for piano is represented by one cycle, created in 1874. "Pictures at an Exhibition" is a unique work. This is a suite of ten different pieces. Being a virtuoso pianist, M. Mussorgsky took advantage of all the expressive capabilities of the instrument. These musical works by Mussorgsky are so bright and virtuosic that they amaze with their “orchestral” sound. Six pieces under common name“Walk” is written in the key of B flat major. The rest are in B minor. By the way, they were often arranged for orchestra. M. Ravel succeeded best of all. The composer's vocal motifs with their recitativeness, songfulness and declamatory quality were organically included in this work by M. Mussorgsky.

Symphonic creativity

Row musical works Modest Mussorgsky creates in this area. The most important is Midsummer's Night on Bald Mountain. Continuing the theme of G. Berlioz, the composer depicted a witches' Sabbath.

He was the first to show Russia the evil fantastic paintings. The main thing for him was maximum expressiveness with a minimum of means used. Contemporaries did not understand the novelty, but mistook it for the ineptitude of the author.

In conclusion, we must name the most famous works Mussorgsky. In principle, we have listed almost all of them. These are two great operas historical topic: “Boris Godunov” and “Khovanshchina” are staged on the world’s best stages. These also include the vocal cycles “Without the Sun” and “Songs and Dances of Death”, as well as “Pictures at an Exhibition”.

The brilliant author was buried in St. Petersburg. The Soviet government, doing redevelopment, destroyed his grave, filled the place with asphalt and made it a bus stop. This is how we treat recognized world geniuses.

Life, wherever it may affect; 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 breathed freshness, novelty and, most importantly, amazing the real truth and the 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 an atmosphere of patriarchal peasant life and subsequently wrote to 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 strong connections established with a wide circle of Russian scientists and writers, such as Vlad. Lamansky, Turgenev, Kostomarov, Grigorovich, Kavelin, Pisemsky, Shevchenko, etc., especially stimulated brain activity young composer and gave her 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 terrible, irresistible desire for 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, a number of symphonic works, including - Night on Bald Mountain(1867). But the most striking artistic discoveries were made in the 60s. V vocal music. Songs appeared where the gallery appeared for the first time in music folk types, 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 the 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 during critical periods. turning points 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: To the new musical work, wide 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's 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

The son of a landowner. Having started military career, continues to study music in St. Petersburg, the first lessons of which he received back in Karevo, and becomes an excellent pianist and a 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 Wanderers, asserted the priority of content over form in their realistic art, which embodied the poverty of the people, the drunkenness of the priests, and the brutality of the police. Vereshchagin created true pictures, dedicated to the Russian-Japanese War, and in “Apotheosis of War” he dedicated a pyramid of skulls to all the conquerors of the past, present and future; the 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 Mussorgsky’s mind, the national school appeared as something ancient, truly archaic, immovable, including eternal folk values, almost sacred things that could be found in the Orthodox religion, in folk choral singing, and finally, in the 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 only beauty, in its material meaning, crude childishness - the childhood age of 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. But for me, my relaxation becomes thinking about large creatures... that’s how everything goes upside down for me - sheer dissipation.”