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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/77855-0.txt b/77855-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eca1990 --- /dev/null +++ b/77855-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3020 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77855 *** + + [Illustration: MOUSSORGSKY + From a portrait by Repin] + + + + + MASTERS OF RUSSIAN MUSIC + + MOUSSORGSKY + + BY + + M. MONTAGU-NATHAN + AUTHOR OF “A HISTORY OF RUSSIAN MUSIC” + + LONDON + CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED + 1916 + + + + + To + F. H. S. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + INTRODUCTION 5 + + + PART I + + CAREER 13 + + + PART II + + MOUSSORGSKY AS OPERATIC COMPOSER 45 + + + PART III + + CHORAL AND INSTRUMENTAL WORKS 76 + + + PART IV + + SONGS 83 + + LIST OF PRINCIPAL WORKS 97 + + INDEX 98 + + + + + MOUSSORGSKY + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + +It would be idle to enter upon a consideration of the life and work +of Moussorgsky without first making some attempt to expound his +æsthetic outlook. Fortunately this does not involve reference to a +library of volumes such as that left by Wagner. The German composer +was at considerable pains that the public should know something of +his artistic aims, and also, be it said, of his social and political +views, and those who approach his music knowing nothing either of its +import or of the personality of its composer have only themselves to +blame. + +With Moussorgsky it is a different matter, especially as regards +the British public, who until two or three years ago had no means +of obtaining any detailed information about either the man or his +work. He leaves nothing behind him in the shape of an artistic +confession of faith beyond the few scattered utterances that were +delivered in letters to his friends, and even these are for the most +part inaccessible to all who have no acquaintance with the Russian +tongue. This is the more unfortunate since in England the great +Russian composer first became known through one or two entirely +uncharacteristic works, examples which either had no artistic +significance whatever, or which represented his views only by their +text and not through its musical setting. + +In the first category is the “Song of the Flea,” which was accorded +the quite unmerited honour of being among the first of his works +to be brought to England; in the second is “The Peepshow,” which +consists of a commentary upon, and an exposure of, the prejudices of +lesser composers, but which tells us nothing of Moussorgsky’s genius, +his musical style, or his manner of applying his æsthetic principles +in his own compositions. + +There must still be a considerable number of British music-lovers to +whom Moussorgsky is known as the composer of one or two operas which +they have not yet had an opportunity of hearing, of a few songs, and +of some examples of symphonic music, such as the popular “Gopak.” + +It is this section of the public that one addresses when pronouncing +Moussorgsky to be one of the very greatest figures in the annals of +Music--apart altogether from his creative output. In the world of Art +it does not very often happen that a man who formulates principles +has a sufficiently commanding creative power to provide his own +convincing examples of the application of those principles. As a rule +the artist who talks of reforms has not himself been highly endowed +with the gift of artistic creation. + +In Moussorgsky’s art we have the reflection of his own convictions +and, what is more, their vindication. But since his works have an +appeal which does not depend upon a knowledge of the principles +they embody, there seems sufficient reason for supposing that the +creative qualities of the composer are at least equal in value to his +æsthetic preconceptions. + +The art of Moussorgsky is based upon three fundamental principles: +(1) That Art is an expression of humanity, and, like humanity, is in +a constant state of evolution; (2) that Art, as such, can therefore +have no arbitrary formalistic boundaries; (3) that as the expression +of humanity is an office which ought to be carried out with a full +sense of the responsibility attaching to those entrusted with it, the +artist is called upon to be sincere in any art-work he may undertake. + +Anyone who had lived in an artistic environment of his own making, +who had never been in touch with an outside world that looks upon +Art as a means of whiling away a superfluous hour, who had never +known of that problem with which the public artist is continuously +being confronted--the problem of how suitably to compromise with the +dull-witted section of humanity--would wonder why it should have +seemed necessary to Moussorgsky, or anyone else, to propound as his +confession of faith a series of such platitudinous axioms. Moreover, +in perusing the bare narrative of Moussorgsky’s life, one would not +discover on the surface anything entitling one to suppose that he in +particular should have been able to recognize the need for dwelling +upon matters that are to be clearly understood only by those who have +never been contaminated by close contact with the World. + +It is only between the lines of that narrative that one can discover +the key to this mystery. In other walks of life than Art one hears +of the “conversion” of individuals who have hitherto followed the +moral line of least resistance. At a certain moment in their lives +there has come a sudden awakening, a realization that honesty and +decent behaviour as a whole should not be reckoned a policy, but an +obligation towards oneself. + +A thief may arrive at such a psychological crisis through being +brought face to face with a circumstance revealing to him for the +first time that it is pleasant to be able to look his neighbour in +the eyes. A drunkard, surveying in a sober interval the ruin brought +upon his family, may resolve that there must surely be a happy medium +of temperance between the states of drunkenness with wine and what +Baudelaire called drunkenness with virtue. A great national crisis +may open the eyes of a politician so that he will henceforth consider +the party principle and his acquiescence in it as the betrayal of a +trust. + +Such specimens of erring humanity, when awakened to a sense of duty +towards themselves and their fellows, are reckoned “converted.” + +Moussorgsky, in his early days a musical “rake,” became a converted +musician. + +He saw that Music was the sick man of Art, and that his past attitude +towards it was not likely to improve its condition. He saw that music +is given to man that he may give utterance to emotions inexpressible +by words. From this starting-point he was not slow in reaching the +conclusion that a nation which is satisfied to depend upon foreign +art-products has not yet become worthy to be reckoned in the full +sense a nation; that in conveying ideas which are too subtle for +verbal expression, music is ministering not to the mind but to the +temperament; and consequently that it would be absurd arbitrarily to +confine the expression of the subconscious emotions of one generation +within the forms employed by a previous generation. Finally he +perceived that, if Art was to be taken seriously as an expression of +humanity, it must no longer remain in a condition in which no earnest +human being could look upon it other than as a frivolous pastime. + +Moussorgsky, once “converted,” began to urge the necessity of +expressing national aspirations by means of Art, of abolishing +the laws that were a mental product of a previous generation and +could therefore have no bearing upon the temperamental needs of the +present, of emancipating Music from a condition in which its relation +towards the other arts was that either of a brutal master, or a +lying, though nicely-mannered servant. + +There are conventional terms which contain the essence of the +qualities considered by Moussorgsky to be indispensable conditions to +the welfare of his art. They are Truth, Freedom, and Progress. + +The presence of the word Truth upon his banner did not cause a great +deal of concern among his contemporaries. They did not recognize that +artistic truth was a rarity. But the remainder of the legend seemed +to them to aim at the very foundations of the art of Music. + +The attitude of musicians towards music in Moussorgsky’s day was +not strikingly dissimilar from that observable in the twentieth +century. There was a reverence for tradition that was little short of +a mania. The older a masterpiece became, the more they venerated it. +The best music of the immediately previous generation was tolerated +apparently on the ground that it might one day become a classic. +Music of the present generation was by common consent ignored. To +such as these, therefore, the word Progress seemed to contain a very +impertinent challenge. But what of Freedom? Moussorgsky refused to +observe the laws that, according to him, had been formulated for +the benefit of those who wished merely to imitate the composers +of the past. It is generally assumed that he was too impatient +of technique to trouble himself about acquiring any considerable +knowledge of it. His complaint that, while he could discuss art with +painters and sculptors, he found that musicians never got as far as +Art, but confined themselves to questions of technique, explains in +some measure his attitude. “Is it,” he asks, “because it is my weak +point that I hate it?” This inquiry is not directly answered, but +is followed by a justification couched in metaphor. He likens the +exploitation of technique to the behaviour of your host who persists +in making known to you the ingredients of the delicious pudding he +offers you. + +It would seem as though Moussorgsky found, in the technical training +prescribed for musicians, something which caused the student +to contract an ineradicable habit of looking backward. This he +considered inimical to the progress of the art. Naturally, it is +urged against him that, as a great deal of his work had to be revised +by Rimsky-Korsakof, he himself would have profited had he attained +a greater technical proficiency. As to this it is impossible to +judge fairly without comparing the originals with Rimsky-Korsakof’s +versions. When that is done one begins to perceive that a great +deal of the so-called “incorrect” or “crude” is music that did not +receive the sanction of his contemporaries, or of the immediately +succeeding generation, for the simple reason that he was at least +three generations ahead of his contemporaries. The advanced musician +of the present day is, therefore, protesting against the emendations, +because he finds in the original version something that he would +himself be proud of having invented.[1] + +But apart altogether from this aspect of the question, if we compare +the creative work of the emendator and the emendated, we discover +that while Rimsky-Korsakof’s most recent music is beginning to sound +old-fashioned, Moussorgsky’s music of forty years ago is not. From +which we are entitled to infer that the music of a composer who +happens to be a great genius, though technically deficient, has a +greater vitality than the music of one who is a great artist and +technically proficient. + +If that be a correct inference, it would seem to be in the interests +of musical progress that a few partnerships should be arranged +between geniuses who are hampered by a want of technique, and +artists whose training has destroyed or marred their prophetic vision. + +This would perhaps prove a fruitful means of bringing into the +world a store of living music, of music that would not remind us at +intervals of some dead and gone composer. + +The consideration of Moussorgsky’s opinions cannot in any case lessen +one’s appreciation of his music. + +It will be found that whereas many will vehemently contest the +validity of Moussorgsky’s artistic principles, exceedingly few will +hear his music without supreme enjoyment. The acceptation of these +principles has been forced upon the musical world on every occasion +on which a genius has arisen. But the musical world has apparently +never become conscious of having accepted them. It prefers to go on +denying the existence of the mountain range in which the stream of +great music has its source. + +The study of Moussorgsky’s life and work affords a rare opportunity +of observing that a composer who is frankly a futurist is not +necessarily either a fool, a wag, or a knave. For in listening to his +music, we of the present generation cannot imagine for the life of us +what all the pother was about. It is all quite acceptable. But the +principles--which are new to us, and, unlike the music, will always +be new to a wicked world--those we cannot ever bring ourselves to +uphold! + +“When our efforts to put the actual living man in our music are +appreciated, ...” wrote Moussorgsky to his friend Stassof, “then +shall we have begun to make progress....” + + + FOOTNOTES: + + [1] In Yastrebtsef’s “Recollections of Rimsky-Korsakof” (now + in course of serial publication by the _Russian Musical + Gazette_), many of the latter’s utterances on this subject + are recorded. + + + + + PART I + + CAREER + + + I. + +Modeste Petrovich Moussorgsky was born on March 16th (O.S.), 1839, at +Karevo, a village situated in that district (Toropets) of the Pskof +Government nearest to the Muscovite boundary. The household at that +moment consisted of his father, Pyotr Alexeyevich, a small landowner; +his mother, whose maiden name was Shirikof; a brother, Filaret; and +the all-important nurse. + +The child’s surroundings from the very first were such as to +contribute most happily to the development of his particular form +of genius. His father appears to have enjoyed music, although not +displaying any executive ability; his mother was a very fair pianist. +For her influence he was never tired of expressing his indebtedness +in terms such as leave no room for doubt as to his filial affection. +But it was to his nurse, as was the case with Pushkin, that he owed +the very seeds of his art. “My nurse,” wrote the composer in after +years, “made me intimately acquainted with Russian folk-lore.” Her +stories of the terrible Kashchei, the fearful Baba Yaga, the heroic +Ivan Tsarevich, and the inexhaustibly beautiful Tsarevna, played +so vividly upon the child’s imagination as to keep him awake at +night for hours together. As soon as he realized the functions of +the piano, he set about making childish musical pictures of these +personages. For the first ten years of his life he enjoyed a rural +environment, and at an early age he displayed that affection for the +land and its denizens that characterized his later outlook upon the +world. + +Naturally it fell to his mother to give him his first lessons in +music. Seeing that the only region in which Moussorgsky ever reached +technical excellence was in that of piano-playing, it may be supposed +that her instruction was not wanting in method. But perceiving, no +doubt, that his studies would be of greater value if carried on under +the guidance of someone trained in the art of teaching, she lost no +time, once the boy’s gift was evident, in engaging a governess--a +German, whose qualifications were unexceptionable. In her hands +little Modeste made quite rapid strides. At the age of seven he could +already give a fair account of some light pieces of Liszt, and when +only nine he astonished the guests at an evening party by his mastery +over a concerto by John Field. + +A few years later the two brothers were taken to Petrograd and +placed in a school. Modeste was eventually to enter the army, but +the parents, rejoicing at his evident gift for music, determined +to do everything in their power to develop it. Necessary inquiries +having been made, their choice fell upon Herke, a teacher with a +considerable following, whom they engaged to direct the youngster’s +studies. The master was able at once to endorse the opinion of +Modeste’s parents, and undertook his training with great enthusiasm. +The little fellow soon showed that his teacher’s confidence was not +misplaced. He made such progress that after a year’s tuition he was +allowed to take part in a small concert; he acquitted himself so +well, and attracted so much attention, that his delighted master +bestowed on him a copy of a Beethoven sonata as a mark of his esteem. + +In 1852, Moussorgsky entered a private preparatory institution, +from whence he passed into the school for Ensigns of the Guard. His +first composition was an “Ensigns’ Polka,” which he dedicated to his +comrades. Herke, with whom he was still taking lessons, insisted on +publishing the piece. During the last two years of his course at the +school, which ended in 1855, he was obliged to devote rather less +attention to music; his military studies were taking up a good deal +of his time. He went to Herke once a week, and was allowed also to +attend when the daughter of the school director took her lessons. + +Moussorgsky appears to have been a particularly diligent scholar. His +biographers record that at this time, in addition to his military +and musical studies, he displayed a decided liking for history and +philosophy; he is said to have begun a translation of Lavater while +still in the early ’teens, surely a remarkable taste in a youth. +Hardly less odd, perhaps, was the desire to acquaint himself with the +basic principles of the music of the Greek Church, for which purpose +he studied privately with one of the school staff. A little later in +life he had every reason to congratulate himself on having made these +researches. Moussorgsky wrote no music which could be called, in the +strict sense of the term, sacred, but in the two music-dramas, “Boris +Godounof” and “Khovanshchina,” as well as in a satirical song, he has +proved that the hours passed with the priest Kroupsky were well spent. + +Already during his school-days he had made one or two musical +friends; among them was Azanchevsky, who eventually became Director +of the Petrograd Conservatoire; and on entering the Preobajensky +regiment of Guards (in 1856), he found himself among quite a number +of young amateurs of music. Sub-lieutenant Orfano had a weakness, for +which his name seems to account, for Italian opera; Orlof’s taste +ran in the direction of the military march; Demidof, afterwards a +friend of Dargomijsky and class inspector at the Conservatoire, +was a popular song-writer; while Prince Obolensky, the nature of +whose proclivities is not defined, was deemed worthy to receive the +dedication of a little piano piece written by Moussorgsky at this +time. + +It is clear that the young composer had no intention of limiting his +efforts to the region of salon music, for not long after his entrance +into the Preobajensky he began his first attempt at opera. Here, +however, desire outran performance, and neither the libretto which he +tried to adapt from Hugo’s “Han d’Islande,” nor its abortive musical +setting, resulted in anything more tangible than the respectful +admiration of his comrades. + +It is likely that, had his musical environment not been enlarged, +he might not have been encouraged to widen his outlook upon the art. +Hitherto his social circle had consisted of young men who regarded +music purely as a diversion, and the possession of a pleasant +baritone voice and a marked talent for piano-playing was sufficient +to secure a considerable popularity among them. + + + II. + +Towards the early autumn of 1856, however, he fell in with someone +whose aims were a little more elevated, someone serious enough to +realize the futility of Moussorgsky’s musical life at that moment. +This was A. P. Borodin, now known to the world as the composer of +“Prince Igor,” but then a young man of some twenty-two years who +divided his time between scientific research and the pursuit of +music. Borodin has left us a pen-picture which describes in graphic +fashion the young guardsman himself and the musical society he was +then wont to affect. + +“My first meeting with Moussorgsky took place in September or +October, 1856. I had just been made an army surgeon. Moussorgsky was +then seventeen years of age. We met in the hospital common-room. We +were both rather bored by our duties and were glad of an opportunity +for conversation. In a few moments we had discovered our common +interest. That evening we had been invited to the quarters of +the chief medical officer Popof. The latter had a marriageable +daughter.... Moussorgsky was at this time a real dandy ... with +the airs of a great personage.... He had a rather affected way +of talking, and his conversation was interlarded with French +expressions.... He would seat himself at the piano and play snatches +of ‘Trovatore’ or ‘Traviata,’ to the delight of the assembled company +of ladies.... I only saw Moussorgsky three or four times, and then +lost sight of him....” + +More important in its effect upon Moussorgsky’s musical development +was his meeting, a month or so later, with Dargomijsky, to whom +he was introduced by one of his comrades, Vanliarsky by name. The +composer of “Russalka,” which had just been produced, took a great +liking for the young officer, and under this influence the latter’s +taste rapidly underwent a change. He began to feel a need for a more +serious type of music and a more discriminating audience. As time +went on he became conscious that beneath his superficial respect +for the vanities of life and of art lay a desire to come to grips +with their realities. There was thus a good deal in common between +Dargomijsky and his young disciple. + +Just about a year after the chance meeting described by Borodin, +Moussorgsky became acquainted with two others, whose names are now +invariably associated not only with his own and Borodin’s, but +with that of Rimsky-Korsakof, who afterwards joined and completed +the little côterie subsequently famous as the “Five.” These two, +Mili Alexeyevich Balakiref and Cesar Antonovich Cui, were frequent +visitors at Dargomijsky’s. In the previous year Balakiref had come +to Petrograd to complete the musical studies he had until then +been prosecuting under the guidance of Oulibishef, the biographer +of Mozart. Oulibishef had given his young _protégé_ a letter to +Glinka, and the composer of “A Life for the Tsar” had been mightily +pleased to meet with one who was so obviously suited to conduct a +propaganda on behalf of his cherished nationalistic ideal. Balakiref +was not long in the capital before he met Cui. Both were young men +under twenty, and their common dissatisfaction with the condition of +musical taste in Petrograd served as a bond of friendship. Cui had +known Dargomijsky for some little time, and was thus well versed in +the principles of the Glinkist ideal. Balakiref and Cui resolved that +the prevailing taste for all things foreign must be discouraged, and +that, in music at any rate, a national style should be founded which +should oust the German, French, and Italian traditions that had so +long been objects of worship in Russia. + +Moussorgsky’s association with Dargomijsky and his two disciples was +the means of leading him to the study of a work of which, in one +sense, “Boris Godounof” is to be considered the prototype. Glinka’s +“A Life for the Tsar,” of which he appears hitherto to have known +little or nothing, contains at least two of the elements that are +characteristics of Moussorgsky’s music-drama. It has a purely Russian +subject, and it glorifies the Russian people. Here, then, was a work +which could hardly fail to inspire a man who had but lately turned +away from the facile successes of the drawing-room. + +Besides these, there are other components to be discovered in +Moussorgsky’s operatic and vocal works which are to be traced, not +to the influence of Glinka, but to that of Dargomijsky. Discussion +of this influence must, however, be deferred; for the moment we +are concerned only with drawing attention to the circumstances +responsible for Moussorgsky’s remarkable emancipation. The young +guardsman had found himself; he had seen, as it were, a reflection of +his own latent creative powers and tendencies in the works of Glinka +and Dargomijsky; the patriotism of the first and the sincerity of +the second drove him to realize that this type of music must for the +future monopolize his attention and interest. He would, in his own +words, devote himself to “real” music. + + + III. + +As up to this time Moussorgsky’s musical activities had been largely +of a social kind, he felt that in order to take his place, as he +desired, beside his new associates, he must render himself conversant +with the form and structure of music; to this end he resolved to +take lessons from Balakiref, whose knowledge was sufficiently wide +to enable him to take the place of leader in the newly established +côterie.[2] + +Balakiref’s account of his method of instruction is a little +astonishing. Master and pupil played through, in four-handed +arrangements, the works of the classic masters, and those of such +moderns as Schumann, Berlioz, and Liszt. “So well did I explain to +him their musical form,” says a communication to Stassof, “that he +was soon able to compose a symphonic Allegro which was not altogether +wanting in merit.” + +Balakiref was plainly cognizant that these lessons were not to be +regarded as comprehensive. He avows that his own knowledge did not +permit of anything more than the analysis of forms, that he was +unable to undertake instruction in harmony; but he appears to have +been satisfied that for Moussorgsky such knowledge was negligible. +He was at all events sufficiently pleased with his pupil’s early +essays in composition to recommend them for performance, with +the result that one of two orchestral scherzos (that in B minor) +was played in 1860 at a concert of the Russian Musical Society, +under the conductorship of Anton Rubinstein. The choral setting of +Sophocles’ “Œdipus,” also written at this time, was performed in the +following year--Constantin Lyadof, the father of the famous composer, +conducting. + +With the development of his creative capacity, Moussorgsky began to +conceive an aversion from his military duties, and his transference +to a station at some little distance from Petrograd served to +increase his desire to be freed from them. Arguing to himself that +absence from the capital would involve a cessation of his musical +activities, he resolved to send in his papers. + +Stassof’s reminder that the great Lermontof had contrived to +reconcile the two occupations of poet and soldier met with the +laconic reply: “Lermontof and I are two different people.” He had +also to argue with his other friends. Despite all remonstrance, he +carried his determination into effect and, forsaking Mars, devoted +himself henceforth to St. Cecilia. + +The cause of Moussorgsky’s subsequent physical degeneration is now +known to have been intemperance, but there can be little doubt +that his nervous system was far from normal. More than once in the +chronicle of his short life one finds a record of nervous breakdown. +The first of these occurred shortly after the severance of his +connection with the army, and in consequence he was obliged to betake +himself from Petrograd for a time. The medicinal waters at Tikhvin, +the birthplace of Rimsky-Korsakof, brought about an improvement in +his health which enabled him to resume his activities as a composer. +During the summer he wrote a “Children’s Scherzo” and an “Impromptu +Passionné,” both for piano; the latter, which is said to have been +inspired by a perusal of a then popular “problem” novel, was not +published until after his death. + +The change in Moussorgsky has been referred to as a physical +degeneration; it should be understood that the later intellectual +decay did not manifest itself during the period now under review. +On the contrary, he has left indisputable evidence of a spiritual +awakening which seems to have begun soon after his resignation +from the army. In a letter to Cui, written from his mother’s +house at Toropets, he records his exasperation at the behaviour of +the reactionaries who had set themselves energetically to oppose +the emancipation of serfs, which had just then been effected. The +composer of the “Ensigns’ Polka” was becoming aware that the real +greatness of Russia lay in the temper of its people. The triumphs +of the smart guardsman were forgotten; he had now an altogether +different social ideal. + +Borodin, who again met Moussorgsky in the autumn of 1859, was +apparently struck rather by the physical than the mental change, +although the former tells us that the latter’s views on music had +undergone a remarkable transformation. “He looked much older, had +grown stouter, and had lost his military bearing. As might be +supposed, we talked a good deal about music. I was at that time a +devotee of Mendelssohn; of Schumann I knew nothing.... Ivanovsky +(assistant professor at the Medical Academy), seeing that we had a +common ground of sympathy, asked us to play a four-handed arrangement +of Mendelssohn’s A minor symphony. Moussorgsky demurred at first, +but consented on condition that the Andante, which he submitted was +not symphonic and savoured of the ‘Songs without words,’ should be +omitted.... Later Moussorgsky spoke enthusiastically of Schumann’s +symphonies.... He began to play excerpts from the one in E flat. +Arrived at the development section, he stopped for a moment, saying: +‘Now for the musical mathematics!’” + +Further light upon Moussorgsky’s changing outlook on life is shed +by his choice of a mode of living on his return from Toropets to +Petrograd. He now joined a party of young progressives, whose views +on the prevailing topic are revealed in the name given to their +côterie, “La Commune.” + +Some half-dozen of them shared a flat, each having a private +room; their evenings were spent in a common-room, in which took +place lively discussions on music, art, and sociological matters. +This arrangement was of a kind very popular at that time among +students, single officers, and State employees. Their “gospel” was +Chernishevsky’s socialistic volume, “Shto dyelat?” (What is to be +done?), in which the problems of the newly freed peasantry had been +dealt with. + +In this circle Moussorgsky was the only member not employed by the +State. But after a time he discovered that to live by music alone +was impossible, and he began to undertake translation work. This +occupation, while solving the one problem, raised another. His health +began once more to give way. His brother Filaret tried to induce him +to give up the “Commune.” Moussorgsky at first refused, but when a +little later his constitution gave signs of a breakup, he gave way, +left Petrograd, and established himself at Minkino. This sojourn in +the country, which lasted until 1868, was altogether beneficial to +his health. + + + IV. + +Although Moussorgsky was worried both by a decline in health and +by money matters, the period spent with the “Commune” was not +entirely unfruitful. Considering, indeed, the ultimate fate of the +composition which represents that period, it may be regarded as +singularly important. + +One of the literary topics discussed by the little côterie had been a +newly issued Russian version of Flaubert’s “Salammbô.” + +Moussorgsky’s work as a whole shows far less of a predilection for +Orientalism than that of his colleagues of the “Five.” Yet this +subject appealed to him sufficiently to suggest itself as the plot of +an opera, and having contrived to adapt the original for its dramatic +purpose, entered upon his first serious operatic undertaking. On +his departure from Petrograd he put this on one side. It was never +resumed, but various fragments of the three completed scenes were +afterwards drawn upon, and are now to be heard in the mature works +with which the world is familiar. Thus “Salammbô,” although itself +an abortive work, may be considered as foreshadowing the composer’s +maturity. The songs composed contemporaneously, “Night” and +“Kallistrate,” are also to be classed with his later vocal works in +point of quality and style. + +In the meantime Moussorgsky had fallen more and more under the +influence of Dargomijsky. The latter’s epoch-making opera “The Stone +Guest” was attracting the attention of the Circle as a whole, and +performances of the completed portions were a prominent feature +of the gatherings which now took place at Dargomijsky’s house. +Moussorgsky’s share in the proceedings was the doubling of the parts +of Leporello and Don Carlos, but his attention to the work did +not end with this; he had arrived at a complete agreement with its +composer as to the method of operatic construction employed therein. + +“When Moussorgsky left St. Petersburg for the country in 1866,” says +M. Olenin d’Alheim, “his friends in parting with him expressed the +hope that he would return with an opera. No sooner had he settled +down to country life than he hastened to comply.”[3] + +Of the Circle two other members had begun to write operas, of which +the method of construction was to be in conformity with that of “The +Stone Guest.” Balakiref had taken the subject of “The Golden Bird,” +in a version resembling Grimm’s story, whilst Borodin was occupied +with a setting of Mey’s “The Tsar’s Bride,” a dramatized record of +an episode in the life of Ivan the Terrible. Both these attempts +were abandoned. Balakiref discovered that he had no gift for Opera, +and Borodin soon realized that his vocation lay in following Glinka +rather than Dargomijsky. Lyricism and not dramatic realism was the +medium natural to him. As to Cui, he was not precisely disenchanted +with the Dargomijskian method; it may be said that he persevered with +the decreed principles, but in putting them into practice he was but +partially successful. + +Moussorgsky’s choice of a libretto fell on Gogol’s well-known play +“The Matchmaker.” The task of providing this with a musical setting +would hardly have attracted anyone who had not been in complete +sympathy with the propaganda on foot in the Circle. Viewed even as +a demonstration of the principle that “the word must be reflected +in the sound,” which was Dargomijsky’s watchword, Gogol’s “utterly +incredible comedy” might well have been considered as presenting +certain insuperable difficulties. “The Matchmaker” is throughout +in colloquial prose; no one who had been brought up to respect the +settled traditions of Opera could for one moment have dreamed of +such a libretto. With Moussorgsky it was different. He knew “The +Stone Guest”; it never occurred to him to regard it as a “recitative +in three acts” (it was thus described on its first performance by +a cynical critic); he saw in it an attempt to give dignity to the +name of Opera, and as this had become his own particular desire he +resolved to make a similar attempt. + +When Moussorgsky returned for a short time to Petrograd, he did not +bring an opera with him. But, far from showing any disappointment, +his friends displayed the greatest interest in the plan of the +projected work. On leaving the capital once again he addressed +himself immediately to the composition of the music for “The +Matchmaker.” Writing on July 3rd, 1868, to Cui, from the village +of Chilof, he reports progress: “... No sooner had I got away from +St. Petersburg than I finished the first scene.... The first act is +divided into three scenes.... I am trying to work out the various +inflections of intonation which will be heard from the performers in +the course of the dialogue, and this, moreover, is to be observed +in the minutest particular. In this, in my opinion, is to be found +the secret of the greatness of Gogol’s humour....” To this letter +Moussorgsky adds a postscript, dated July 10th: “I have finished the +first act.... There will be four instead of three scenes: it had to +be.” The composer’s enthusiasm for the subject is shown in a further +communication to his friend, written a month or so later: “What a +subtle imagination Gogol has! He has studied the peasant class and +has discovered some most captivating types among them.... His old +women are priceless.” + +In addition to his actual creative work Moussorgsky had for some +time been striving to improve his very deficient technique. “In +Balakiref’s community,” writes Rimsky-Korsakof in his Memoirs, +“it was the custom to regard such studies as those of harmony and +counterpoint as negligible....” If Moussorgsky at that time (1866-67) +was capable of “making a virtue of his ignorance,” it is certain that +he very soon realized the futility of so doing, even if he did not +reveal his altered attitude to his friends. + +It is unfortunately impossible to determine his progress. “The +Destruction of Sennacherib” (after Byron’s poem), a work for chorus +and orchestra, is supposed to have been an “exercise” prompted by the +consciousness of an improvement in the art of instrumentation, but +this, like the “Night on the Bare Mountain,” composed in 1867, has +been published in the later version, in which the instrumentation is +that of Rimsky-Korsakof; the version of the latter now used is so +different from the symphonic tableau of 1867 that it throws no more +light upon the composer’s technical capabilities at the date at which +it was written than does the choral work. + +Some interesting specimens of vocal writing are also to be associated +with this period. Among them are the popular “Gopak” (to a text by +the Ukrainian Shevchenko); “The Seminarist,” a song in the satirical +vein, which portrays a theological student “whose efforts to grapple +with some Latin substantives are sadly disturbed by the intruding +mental vision of his teacher’s fair daughter”;[4] “The Orphan,” a +wonderful example of the musical reflection of the spoken accent; and +“Yeremoushka’s Cradle Song.” + +Such specimens as “The Seminarist” and “The Orphan” are obviously +by-products of “The Matchmaker” period. In the one we are able to +recognize the spiritual affinity between Moussorgsky and Gogol; in +the other we may observe the realization of the Dargomijskian ideal +in a small form. + +The period above referred to was destined to reach an abrupt +termination. “The Matchmaker” was never finished. On the resumption +of the meetings of the Circle in the autumn of 1868, the first act +was given a drawing-room performance at Dargomijsky’s house, the +parts being played by the composer, Dargomijsky, Velyaminof--an +amateur vocalist--and the two sisters Pourgold--Alexandra in the +title-rôle, and Nadejda, who afterwards married Rimsky-Korsakof, at +the piano. The last-named composer records in his Memoirs that the +fragment made a profound impression, especially upon Stassof, to whom +the work was afterwards dedicated. The composer of “The Stone Guest,” +we are told, considered that Moussorgsky had a little over-reached +himself, in what respect does not transpire; one imagines that +exception was taken to the meticulousness with which in “The +Matchmaker” Moussorgsky sought a co-ordination of text and music. + +The cause of Moussorgsky’s sudden resolve to abandon his “_opera +dialogué_” was that the subject of “Boris Godounof” had been +suggested to him. In that section of the musical world in which +this great national music-drama is well known, there must surely be +something approaching unanimity of opinion that of the two the latter +work could less be spared. “Boris” is of course a much more genial +score. And without approaching at all closely the conventional opera, +it is at all events more in conformity with that type than the quite +revolutionary “Matchmaker.” But if, as one hopes may be, the reform +of Opera is ever carried to the same lengths as have already been +reached in the domain of the drama pure and simple, Moussorgsky’s +fragment must then be estimated at a higher value. It is a work that +makes no concessions whatever. It is a musical comedy in which the +effect of the humour of the original is heightened by its musical +setting. “The Matchmaker” demonstrates that music may be married to +drama without danger of its becoming a mere handmaiden of the other +art. Moussorgsky has been himself a matchmaker; the marriage he +brought about must surely have received the sanction of St. Cecilia; +it is a great misfortune that the union should have been shortlived. + + + V. + +On Moussorgsky’s return to urban life he sought the hospitable +shelter offered by some friends of his mother, Opochinin by name. +Here he continued to live for two years, during half of which period +he held a post in the Department of Woods and Forests. The composer +has left tributes to the kindness shown him by these friends in +the shape of various dedications. The unfinished song entitled +“Death--an Epitaph” is inscribed “To N.P.O...chi...n,” and is said +to have been inspired by his grief at the lady’s death. It was under +the Opochinins’ roof that much of “Boris Godounof” was written. +Its subject was suggested to the composer by Vladimir Vassilievich +Nikolsky, a professor at the University of Petrograd, whom +Moussorgsky had met at the house of Mme Shestakof, Glinka’s sister. +For the libretto he went to the famous work of Pushkin, interpolating +certain interesting historical episodes from Karamzin’s chronicles +of the period. This initial version was subsequently modified to no +small extent, not without some reluctance, however, on Moussorgsky’s +part. + +Aware that a successful treatment of the subject would entitle him +to wear the mantle of no less a man than Glinka, he threw himself +into his work with immense enthusiasm, and “Boris” progressed with +wonderful rapidity. Begun on September 6th, 1868, it was completed +within a year. Its first act was finished in a little over two +months, and won the warm approval of Dargomijsky, who, despite his +failing health, still took part in the meetings of the Circle. There +was, however, a complete unanimity of opinion as to certain defects +in the general plan of “Boris,” one of them being an absence of +feminine interest. To this the composer demurred. + +But when in the autumn of 1870 he submitted the work to the operatic +authorities, he was forced to see that even if the criticism was +uncalled for, the hiatus complained of would militate against his +chances of seeing the opera accepted. + +The Imperial Operatic Committee consisted of Napravnik, Manjean, +and Betz, the respective conductors of Russian, French, and German +Opera, and Ferrero, a double-bass player who was apparently watching +over the interests of Italian music. The novelty of the composer’s +music was not viewed with the sympathy it commanded in his own +immediate circle, and the absence of a prominent female character +was pronounced by the Committee to be a vital defect. There were +some other quite frivolous objections, among them the point raised +by Ferrero, who took exception to certain “impossible” passages for +his own instrument. Moussorgsky was of course deeply offended, but he +seems to have realized that his scenario left much to be desired. At +any rate he set about making some radical alterations. He inserted +the Polish Act, which brought in a love interest; and the scene in +the Kromy forest, hitherto the penultimate, was now placed at the end +of the opera. The episodes of the striking clock and the parakeet, +which occur in the second act (the Tsar’s apartments), were also +added. + +The whole of the year 1871 was devoted to the reconstruction of +“Boris.” Moussorgsky was guided in this labour by several of +his friends, Stassof the critic, Hartmann the architect, whose +name he has immortalized in “The Picture-Show,” Nikolsky, and +Rimsky-Korsakof, with whom he had now begun to share rooms. + +One imagines the latter to be right in supposing this to be the +single instance of two composers thus joining forces. He gives +us an assurance that each of the pair was able to carry on his +work (Moussorgsky was occupied with the revision of “Boris,” and +Rimsky-Korsakof was composing his first opera, “The Maid of Pskof”) +without any sort of clash. The latter spent two mornings a week at +the Conservatoire (he was already a professor in that institution); +the former left the house at about noon to attend to his official +duties at the Ministry of Woods and Forests, and often dined at the +Opochinins’. “Nothing,” records Rimsky-Korsakof, “could have turned +out better.... In that autumn and the following winter there was a +constant exchange of ideas and plans.” + +This arrangement became really opportune when Gedeonof approached +the Circle with his historic proposal. The then Director of the +Imperial Opera brought forward his “Mlada” project, soliciting the +co-operation of Borodin, Cui, Moussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakof. The +scheme of “Mlada” was to be a combination of ballet, opera, and +fairy-tale, on a subject taken from the chronicles of the Polabian +Slavs. The ballet dances were entrusted to Minkus, and the rest of +the music to the four composers named. The second and third sections +of “Mlada” fell to Moussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakof; and as the pagan +deity Chernobog figured prominently in the libretto, the former +proposed to make use of the unpublished “Night on the Bare Mountain,” +in the programme of which the Black god is a protagonist. + +For reasons not unconnected with finance, Gedeonof was obliged to +renounce his ambitious project, and the four composers were left with +their musical material on their hands. Long afterwards, when editing +Borodin’s compositions, Rimsky-Korsakof, at the suggestion of Lyadof, +went to this subject for the literary foundation of his opera-ballet +“Mlada.” + + + VI. + +Moussorgsky returned at once to his work on “Boris.” While yet thus +occupied Stassof, whose judgment had so often been sought in the +choice of a libretto (it is supposed that he had been consulted +in the matter of “Mlada”), recommended to Moussorgsky the subject +of “Khovanshchina.” In Stassof’s opinion “the antagonism between +the old Russia and the new, and the triumph of the latter, would +provide excellent material.... Moussorgsky,” continues the critic, +“was of the same mind.... He set to work with ardour. To study the +history of the Raskolniks (Old Believers) and the chronicles of +seventeenth-century Russia involved immense labour. The many long +letters he wrote me at this time were full of information as to his +researches and his views in regard to the music, characters, and +scenes of the opera. The best sections were written between 1872 and +1875.” + +It so happened that, during the earliest days of his occupation with +this subject, it was proposed to stage a fragment of “Boris Godounof” +at the Maryinsky Theatre on the occasion of a “benefit” given to the +_régisseur_ Kondratief. The portions chosen were the Inn scene--the +famous Petrof undertaking the rôle of Varlaam--and the scene at the +fountain, from the Polish Act. The performance, which took place in +February, 1873, was so successful that it was decided to stage the +whole opera forthwith. From Rimsky-Korsakof one learns that, at a +supper held after this preliminary performance, the composer and his +opera were toasted in champagne. + +The circumstance of this somewhat belated acceptance of “Boris +Godounof” called forth the caustic communication (in a birthday +letter) addressed to Stassof on January 2nd, 1873: “... When we are +crucified by the musical Pharisees, then shall we have begun to +make progress.... It is highly gratifying to think that whilst they +are reproaching us for ‘Boris’ we are absorbed in ‘Khovanshchina.’ +Our gaze is fixed upon the future, and we are not to be deterred by +criticism. They will accuse us of having violated all the divine and +human canons. We shall just say ‘Yes,’ adding to ourselves that there +will be ere long many such violations. ‘You will soon be forgotten,’ +they will croak, ‘for ever and aye,’ and our answer will be: ‘_Non, +non, et non, Madame._’” In a postscript he explains to Stassof that +the final French denial is a quotation from a certain Princess +Volkonsky. + +The first complete representation of “Boris Godounof” took place on +January 24th, 1874, at the Maryinsky Theatre. With the result of +this performance Moussorgsky and his friends had every reason to +be satisfied. “We were all triumphant,” says Rimsky-Korsakof. The +reception of the work by the public was in no respect lacking in +warmth. Bands of enthusiasts left the theatre singing passages from +the familiar folk-tunes it contains. “Four wreaths, appropriately +inscribed, were brought to the theatre on one of the evenings, +but through the machinations of an infuriated opposition, their +presentation, intended to take place during the performance, was +obstructed, and they had to be sent to Moussorgsky’s private +dwelling.”[5] + +The “infuriated opposition” appears to have been organized by the +reactionary critics. These accused the composer of “technical +ignorance, vulgarity, want of taste....” It would appear that the +critical faction wielded a power so great as to defeat popular +enthusiasm. After running for twenty performances, “Boris Godounof” +disappeared from the placards of the Imperial Opera, and was kept +quite in the background for many years. + + + VII. + +The period in which the preparation of “Boris Godounof” bulks so +largely is also notable for some other important compositions. + +The first among these is the satirical song known as “The +Classicist.” The arrogance of “The Invincible Band” as a whole, and +particularly that displayed by Cui in his criticisms, was a constant +source of vexation to the orthodox party. Balakiref, as conductor +of the Russian Musical Society’s concerts, came in for a good share +of the opprobrium heaped upon the Circle; and the constitution of +a programme, given in 1869, in which the compositions of the “New +Russian School” figured somewhat prominently, was warmly criticized +by such writers as Serof, Theophilus Tolstoi, and Famintsin, on the +score of its neglect of the classics. The chief object of the attack +was Borodin’s E flat major symphony, the leading assailant being +Famintsin. A short time after this, Rimsky-Korsakof’s symphonic +tableau “Sadko” was performed. Its theme had been suggested by +Moussorgsky, who at one time had intended making use of it himself, +and his ire was thoroughly aroused when Famintsin greeted the work +with a particularly spiteful article. It needed no more than a +mere suggestion from Stassof to provoke the composition of “The +Classicist,” a satire on the reactionary critic with a special +allusion to the disapproval of certain manifestations of modernism in +“Sadko,” from which work “The Classicist” contains a quotation. + +A few months later Moussorgsky applied himself to a general +castigation of the opposing party by means of the thongs of satire. +“In ‘The Peepshow’ he did not confine himself as before to the +lampooning of one critic, but committed himself to a characteristic +reproduction of the particular musical foible of each.... It invites +inspection of a series of puppets in a showman’s booth.”[6] Zaremba, +director of the Conservatoire, the pietist for whom the minor mode +signified original sin, the major, redemption; Theophilus Tolstoi, +an unqualified critic whose ignorance and whose admiration of Patti +have been suitably dealt with by Cui in a “fable” which is really a +masterpiece of satire; Famintsin, whose appearance is accompanied +by a reference to some law proceedings instituted against Stassof; +and lastly Serof the Wagnerian, referred to by means of a quotation +from his “Rogneda”--these were the subjects of Moussorgsky’s musical +caricature. When a further attack was suggested--Stassof proposed a +song to be called “The Crab”--Moussorgsky must surely have considered +that this would be tantamount to thrashing a dead horse; at any rate +he did not act upon the hint. + +Another work belonging to this period, one which possesses a far +greater significance as a work of art, is the set of seven songs +called “The Nursery.” The first of these, “Nurse, Tell Me a Tale,” is +dedicated to Dargomijsky, whose encouragement is responsible for the +subsequent completion of the series. In “The Nursery” is to be found +the most remarkable of the composer’s manifestations of genius. +In two respects these little sketches of child-life are absolutely +unconventional. In the first place, as the composer not only loved +children, but possessed the rare faculty of understanding them, he +does not portray them from the view-point of those “grown-ups” who +are so confident of the advantages of experience that they forget to +give credit for intuitive insight. Moussorgsky looked upon children +not as miniature and inexperienced men and women, but as beings +peopling a world of their own. Secondly, he repudiated the tradition +that when writing for the voice a lyrical method must invariably be +employed. The method of “The Nursery” is not the mere expression in +music of emotions aroused by the text. The music fulfils the function +of description concurrently with the text; it speaks with the +words; it describes, moreover, the very gestures and actions of the +_dramatis personæ_. + +The circumstances under which the “Picture-Show” was composed should +here be related, since it was in 1874 that Moussorgsky undertook +this novel kind of musical memorial. It was proposed by Stassof, +in the spring of that year, to hold an exhibition of drawings and +water-colours by the architect Victor Hartmann--one of the designers +of the Nijni Novgorod monument in commemoration of the thousandth +anniversary of the foundation of the Russian State--who had recently +died. Moussorgsky had been on very friendly terms with the artist, +and wished to pay a tribute of his own devising. He determined, +therefore, to attempt the reproduction of some of the pictures in +terms of descriptive music. Aiming at something more than a mere +reproduction, he gives, in the “Promenade” which connects the little +pieces, a clue to his own emotions when contemplating Hartmann’s work. + + + VIII. + +We have already recorded the enthusiasm with which Moussorgsky began +his preparation of the material for the libretto of “Khovanshchina,” +the subject recommended to him by Stassof in 1872. His researches +kept him busy until late in the autumn of the following year, when he +began work on the music. In course of its construction the libretto +underwent several changes of plan, some of them dictated by the +Censor. The music progressed but slowly, for the composer’s powers +had already begun to suffer from the excesses in which for some +time he had been indulging. He was unable to apply himself for any +length of time to one particular task, and had contracted a habit of +dividing his attention among a number of projects simultaneously. + +Thus with “Khovanshchina” little more than begun, he was deep in +plans for a comic opera on the subject of Gogol’s “Sorochinsk Fair.” +Like the former, “Sorochinsk Fair” was never finished; under stress +of poverty, however, the composer was prevailed upon by a publisher +to issue one or two numbers arranged for piano solo. These pieces +gave no indication whatever as to their dramatic import. + +Moussorgsky’s dissipated habits were by this time beginning to +estrange him from his boon companions. A certain eccentricity of +manner had also begun to show itself. What annoyed his friends +most was an affectation of superiority, which seems to have been +prompted partly by the success of “Boris,” by the unreserved praise +of Stassof, and by the admiration of people unworthy to express an +opinion on Moussorgsky’s work. In spite of these changes, however, +his connection with the Circle was not entirely severed, and the +composer of “Khovanshchina” occasionally brought to their evenings +the fruit of his intermittent labours upon that score. + +In 1879, Rimsky-Korsakof introduced into the programme of a concert +at the Free School of Music the chorus of Streltsy, Martha’s song, +and the Persian Dances. At another he gave a scene from “Boris.” +The conductor’s account of Moussorgsky’s behaviour at the rehearsal +of this concert shows pretty plainly the degree to which his mental +decay had already proceeded. + +The excerpt from “Khovanshchina,” given at the first-mentioned +Free School Concert, was performed by the then well-known singer +Mlle Leonof, who had recently opened a small academy of music in +Petrograd. This lady’s education had been somewhat scanty, but +she possessed sufficient acumen to perceive that while her name +would undoubtedly attract pupils, her capacity for instruction was +too slender to enable her to retain them. Moussorgsky’s financial +position was just then an extremely unfortunate one, and in order to +improve matters he engaged himself to Mlle Leonof as supervisor of +studies in her school. + +In the summer of 1880 he went with her on a concert tour of Southern +Russia, as accompanist and soloist. As, since his youth, he had +neglected the pianist’s repertoire, the choice of programme was not +by any means a simple matter. To cope with the situation he played +selections from operas with which he happened to be familiar, among +them the introduction to Glinka’s “Russlan and Ludmilla,” and the +bell music from the Coronation scene of “Boris.” + +In a letter dated January 16th, 1880, he communicates to the faithful +Stassof the glad tidings that at Nikolayef and Kherson the “Nursery” +songs have been performed with the most gratifying results before +an audience of children. During this tour, inspired by the Crimean +scenery, Moussorgsky composed three descriptive piano pieces; one of +them, described by Rimsky-Korsakof as a somewhat lengthy and quite +ridiculous Storm-fantasia--a reminiscence of the Black Sea--was not +committed to paper. + +It has been related that Moussorgsky’s work on “Khovanshchina” +was not continuous, and that other absorbing tasks occupied his +mind during its composition. Following Rimsky-Korsakof’s marriage, +Moussorgsky took up his abode in rooms which he shared with the poet +Count Golenishchef-Kutuzof. Two groups of poems by the latter were +set to music by Moussorgsky in 1874 and 1875. + +The first, “Without Sunlight,” contains six exquisite numbers. In +these the composer has ceased to be objective, and has for once +become introspective. It is perhaps in these songs that Moussorgsky +approaches most closely to the ideal of melo-declamation set up by +his precursor Dargomijsky. The vocal line is to some extent melodic +in character, but is rarely cast in continuous melody. On the other +hand they preserve a musical quality which is absent from the +quasi-conversational manner of “The Nursery.” + +The second cycle, “Songs and Dances of Death,” was composed at +different periods, the first three in 1875 and the last number +two years later. Their textual idea originated with Stassof, who +suggested to Count Golenishchef-Kutuzof the creation of poems dealing +with Holbein’s well-known work.[7] The “Trepak,” “Cradle Song,” and +“Serenade,” present the dread figure in rather more convincing a +manner than the fourth, “The Commander-in-Chief”--a picture of Death +surveying a battlefield. The somewhat inferior conception of the +music of the last has been attributed, no doubt correctly, to the +state of the composer’s health at the time at which it was written. + +Moussorgsky’s last years were spent in poverty and physical decay. +Already in 1876 his financial resources were reduced to the bare +pittance he received from the State department in which he was +employed. Writing to Stassof at this time, he spoke of supplementing +this beggarly income by taking engagements as a pianist. This led to +the arrangement with Mlle Leonof, and the Crimean tour. + +In 1878 he lost a dear friend through the death of Petrof, for whom +he had intended to write an important part in “Sorochinsk Fair.” +This event so affected him that he was unable to do work of any +description for a considerable time. Following the tour, he began +to model an orchestral suite with a Crimean programme, but got no +further than the preliminary sketch. + +The summer of 1880 was spent in the country, but his health showed +no signs of improvement. In the following February he journeyed to +Petrograd to attend a Free School concert, at which Rimsky-Korsakof +conducted “The Destruction of Sennacherib.” His work was acclaimed, +and he made his last public appearance in acknowledging the tributes +of this audience. A month later he became seriously ill as the result +of an attack of delirium tremens. His friends Balakiref, Borodin, +Stassof, and Rimsky-Korsakof were summoned, and they visited him +in turn at the Military Hospital up to the moment of death. This +occurred on his birthday, March 16th, 1881. + +Arrangements had already been made with a view to preserving as many +of his works as could be found for publication. Balakiref’s friend, +T. I. Filippof, was appointed executor, and he speedily found a +publisher willing to undertake their issue. The responsibility of +revising them was assumed by Rimsky-Korsakof, who devoted many years +to this labour. + +Moussorgsky was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, and a +monument--the work of Bogomolof and Gunsburg--was erected to his +memory. + + + FOOTNOTES: + + [2] The associated reformers, Balakiref, Cui, Borodin, + Moussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakof, have been collectively + designated in a variety of appellations, some of them + disrespectful. They are referred to elsewhere in this + volume as “The Circle,” the “Five,” and “The Invincible + Band.” + + [3] “Moussorgski.” Paris, 1896. + + [4] M. Montagu-Nathan, “A History of Russian Music.” (W. Reeves.) + + [5] M. Montagu-Nathan, _op. cit._ + + [6] M. Montagu-Nathan, _op. cit._ + + [7] “Death’s Doings,” by Richard Dagley, London, 1827, is a + work of a similar kind. + + + + + PART II + + MOUSSORGSKY AS OPERATIC COMPOSER + + + I. + +There is no ground for supposing that Moussorgsky’s lively +humanitarian instincts had been completely quiescent before they were +aroused by the spread of socialistic propaganda, consequent on the +great reformative act of Alexander (the emancipation of serfs) and +the appearance of Chernishevsky’s thought-provoking “What is to be +done?” + +In his biography, Stassof is able to dispel such an illusion. Therein +he quotes a letter, written him by Moussorgsky’s brother Filaret, +to the effect that the composer, long before reaching manhood, had +manifested feelings of complete sympathy with the humble serf, +considering the Russian peasant as the “real man” (_nastoyarshchy +chelovek_). + +When the moment came for Russian society as a whole so to regard the +peasantry, Moussorgsky did not hold himself aloof, but joined in the +movement of “simplification,” so enthusiastically set on foot by +young Russia. Thus in 1863 we find him associated with the “Commune,” +of which he remained for three years a member. + +Moussorgsky plainly belonged, then, to the “progressives” of his own +generation, in so far as concerns ethics. His music proclaims that as +a creative artist he was far in advance of that generation. + + + II. + +The choice of literary material as subject-matter for music-drama was +for such a man no vexed problem. He wished to glorify the Russian +people. + +Glinka had already made a beginning in this respect with his national +opera “A Life for the Tsar,” in which his hero was not the monarch, +but the loyal peasant who died for him. Before Wagner had made +his suggestion that the operatic art should have no dealings with +history, because history concerned itself mainly with the movements +of monarchs and rulers, Glinka had already given an effective reply. +What Moussorgsky did was not merely to adopt the Glinkist tradition, +but to improve on it. + +Already in his early operatic essay, based on Flaubert’s “Salammbô,” +he had given the chorus precedence of the _prima donna_. + +In “Boris Godounof” and in “Khovanshchina” he boldly confers upon the +chorus a protagonistic responsibility. At one stroke he dismisses +the Wagnerian objection to historical material, and repudiates the +proposed alternative, the legendary subject. He has no use for +symbolism, and declines to resort to the allegorical puppet as a +mouthpiece. He was a realist who knew that the People had something +to say, and he let them speak for themselves. While as a man he had +strong sympathies with the nationalistic ideal of Glinka, he had as +a composer very little, if anything, in common with the “father of +Russian Opera;” it is from Dargomijsky that Moussorgsky the artist +has derived. The “New Russian School,” inaugurated towards the end +of the fifties by Balakiref and Cui, had all but pledged itself to +an observance of the principles of operatic and vocal art drawn up +under Dargomijsky’s guidance, and afterwards had every reason to be +thankful that the pledge had never been signed and sealed. Among them +Moussorgsky alone was a life-long apostle of the composer of “The +Stone Guest.” Borodin, Cui, and Rimsky-Korsakof felt that they could +do no less than make experimental essays in Dargomijskian opera, and +if they were not all three obliged, as was Borodin, to confess that +the rigid abstention from all the old operatic practices was foreign +to their nature, they did not at any rate adhere very faithfully to +the Dargomijskian decree. + +With Moussorgsky it was quite otherwise. His attitude towards music +as an art was one of an almost transcendent seriousness. Art was to +be the means of throwing a high light upon the dignity of Life; Art +itself must therefore be dignified. “Life in all its aspects, ... the +truth whether palatable or no,” is the burden of his refrain in a +passionate letter to Stassof, written in August, 1875. + +With such a man concessions to a prevailing taste were not to be +thought of. Inspired by the precept of Dargomijsky, with whom he had +been on intimate terms, he set himself to build up a musico-dramatic +structure that could never become old-fashioned. Opera was no longer +to be an entertainment devised for the public of one particular +generation; it was to be an art, to have a purpose. + + + “SALAMMBÔ” + + III. + +Moussorgsky’s first serious attempt at Opera was the setting of +Flaubert’s “Salammbô,” already referred to. This was begun in 1863. +As has been said, the work appears to have been designed to give to +the collective human interest that prominence usually accorded the +individual. But this was not the only feature of the work testifying +to Moussorgsky’s respect for the operatic form. From Stassof we learn +that the composer paid very close attention to the question of scenic +detail, and that he made a diligent study of Flaubert’s novel with a +view to reproducing in his libretto everything likely to contribute +to a faithful dramatic rendering of the original. The design and +colour of costumes, lighting effects, and even the gestures and +demeanour of the characters were carefully studied by the composer. + +“Salammbô” was abandoned when still quite incomplete. Its music +has not, however, been lost to the world. Most of the fragments +composed were afterwards embodied with necessary modifications +in later works; the rest has been revised and edited by V. G. +Karatigin. “For the most part,” says Stassof, “this material has +gained by its translation,” and only once, according to this critic, +has the adaptation been disadvantageous. The theme of the arioso +in the third act of “Boris Godounof” is less appropriate in its +ultimate environment than in the original conception. The libretto +of “Salammbô” was written by Moussorgsky, but he interpolated some +verses borrowed from the unfortunate poet Polejaef, and from Heine. + + + “THE MATCHMAKER” + + IV. + +By the time that Moussorgsky entered upon his second dramatic essay +he had fallen completely under the influence of Dargomijsky, hence +his resolve to take a bold step towards a legitimate union of text +and music. + +“The Matchmaker” is directly inspired by Dargomijsky’s “The Stone +Guest.” The composer of the last-named work had achieved what had +never hitherto been attempted. He had taken the text of Pushkin’s +dramatic version of “Don Juan,” and had set it from beginning to +end without making a single alteration, ignoring, at the same time, +every operatic convention. There are no separate vocal numbers beyond +Laura’s Song, an interpolation sanctioned, or rather invited, by the +poet’s stage-direction: “She sings.” There is no chorus, for the +equally good reason that Pushkin’s work contains no “crowd.” With the +exception of this one lapse into pure melody, the score of “The Stone +Guest” is written in the recitative, which Dargomijsky considered to +be the only legitimate musical accompaniment of a dramatic text. + +In his setting of Gogol’s “The Matchmaker,” Moussorgsky takes a still +more daring step, for this comedy of middle-class Russian society is +written in colloquial prose. Far from being daunted, the composer has +actually reflected the intonation, demeanour, and the gestures of +each character in his music with a thoroughness that, while complete, +has no appearance of meticulousness. + +The scheme of Gogol’s work has been outlined by a writer who was +both a brilliant musical critic, and an authority on Russian matters +when authorities were few. In “The Russians at Home,” the late Mr. +Sutherland Edwards gave the following synopsis of “The Matchmaker”: +“In Gogol’s ‘Matchmaker’ we have a fine study of the bachelor as +character.... The main idea of the plot--and a highly philosophical +one it is--is this: that a bachelor of a certain age must necessarily +dread to alter his mode of life to suit that of another person. The +chief character of the comedy, who is considered a good match, after +considering the qualifications of a number of marriageable young +ladies who are all anxious to secure him, selects one; but no sooner +has he given his word than he repents. He is afraid of the total +change that must take place in his habits after he is married. It is +not a love match, for he is a middle-aged man and something more. He +reflects, but the bride is coming downstairs in her wedding costume +and there is no time for consideration. The handle of the door moves, +and it appears impossible to escape; but the window is open. He +leaps into the street and is saved. You hear him calling out to a +droshky driver, ‘Isvostchik! Isvostchik!’ He has disappeared for +ever, and the curtain falls.” + +This is a somewhat over-brief summary of the action, since it makes +no reference to the exceedingly funny scene in which the bachelor +finds himself in competition with three other characters who, as +typical suitors of the class and period under caricature, are the +victims of Gogol’s satire. But as Moussorgsky’s work goes no further +than the first scene, the rest may well on the present occasion be +neglected. In this one scene there appear but four of the eleven +characters: Podkolyossin, the bachelor; Kochkaryof, his friend; +Stepan, his servant; and Thyokla, the marriage-broker. + + + V. + +The score of “The Matchmaker” reveals that Moussorgsky was fully +qualified to accomplish with success the extraordinary task he had +set himself. “What is not the notation of the spoken word,” says Mr. +Calvocoressi in his monograph, “is the notation of pantomime.”[8] +There are, besides, examples of descriptive music in other directions +than these; such, for instance, as the quick sweep which describes +the silk dress of the chosen lady as “rustling as though a Princess +were passing”; and when the friend Kochkaryof, in reciting to the +reluctant Podkolyossin the advantages of married life, predicts +a family of “not merely two or three, but six at least,” there +is a group of two semiquavers, followed by another of three, and, +immediately after, a group of six for the definite number, and a +scale of 6|4 chords for the problematic brood. It should be borne in +mind that there is nothing in the least gauche about such apparently +ingenuous specimens of descriptive music. They may not be quite in +tune with our notion of humour to-day, but until some living master +can be persuaded to try his hand at the continuously descriptive, +we may congratulate ourselves on the preservation of Moussorgsky’s +example. + +Not less remarkable are the places in which changes of emotion and +mood are noted. After the breaking of a mirror, when Kochkaryof, +the cause of the mishap, consoles Podkolyossin with the promise of +a new one, the accompanying music is so perfectly appropriate to +the emotional situation that the bar prior to the spoken sentence +veritably anticipates for the listener its sense. Again, when at +the moment already described, in which occurs the friend’s detailed +picture of what married life may bring, Moussorgsky resolves a +high-pitched dissonance by dropping suddenly into a low, common +chord, minus its third, he shows us Podkolyossin’s general state of +collapse and his frozen stare as plainly as if we were watching the +action instead of merely listening to the music. + +The score, in fact, reveals how determined Moussorgsky was to observe +the letter as well as the spirit of the Dargomijskian method, a +method he made his very own. + +What the composer thought of this work may be gathered from the +letter he wrote to his friend Stassof, in 1873, after the completion +of “Boris.” “How can I best thank you?” he asks. “I have found an +answer at once. By making a gift of my very self.... Pray accept +my recent work on Gogol’s ‘Matchmaker’; examine these attempts at +musical discourse, compare them with ‘Boris.’... You will see that +what I now give you is without question myself.... You know how dear +to me is my ‘Matchmaker.’ And to tell the truth it was suggested to +me (in fun) by Dargomijsky, and (in earnest) by Cui.” In the printed +score is the formal dedication, which included the gift of all rights +in the work to Stassof. This was written, says Moussorgsky, “with a +quill pen in Stassof’s flat ... in the presence of a considerable +gathering.”[9] + +In Stassof’s own opinion there was a future for this type of opera. +It is many years since that view was expressed. It almost seems now +as though there were no future for any other kind. + + + “SOROCHINSK FAIR” + + VI. + +It is impossible to treat Moussorgsky’s other unfinished opera, +“Sorochinsk Fair,” as a serious dramatic work, since he himself did +not. There is not surviving a sufficiency of connected material for +it ever to assume companionship with Rimsky-Korsakof’s “A Night +in May,” in company with which story the original appears in +Gogol’s collection of “Tales of a Farm Near Dikanka.” The preserved +fragments, one of them being the justly popular “Gopak,” have been +edited by Lyadof and Karatigin. In the performance of these given +at the Moscow Free Art Theatre in the winter of 1913, they were +strung together by a spoken dialogue. The vocal music, which is only +in part declamatory, can hardly be considered as representing the +composer’s musico-dramatic manner, but it includes some very charming +melody, some of it being quite in the folk-style. A certain part of +the original music has had a curious history. Written in the first +instance for “Salammbô,” it served temporarily as a section of the +work now familiar as “A Night on the Bare Mountain,” was also used +in the composer’s contribution to the joint “Mlada” (Gedeonof’s +project), and was again made use of as an Intermezzo in this +unfinished opera. + +Musically considered, “Sorochinsk Fair,” while far from fully +representing its composer, bears undoubted evidences of his advanced +thought. Certain rhythmic and harmonic touches, plainly intended to +reflect a nice shade of meaning in the text, recall Dargomijsky’s +maxim, “The sound must represent the word,” and are an assurance that +Moussorgsky always had this in mind. + + + “BORIS GODOUNOF” + + VII. + +By means of his music-drama “Boris Godounof,” Moussorgsky first +became known to the world as a creative artist who, though hitherto +neglected, would have to be reckoned among the great innovators. For +the student of Russian music the work possesses several independent +points of interest. In the first place, it is clearly the offspring +of Glinka’s initial dramatic venture, “A Life for the Tsar.” It is +at the same time far in advance of its forerunner in its dramatic +as well as in its musical conception. It referred, as did Glinka’s +opera, to one of the most remarkable epochs in the history of +Russia. But while Glinka puts before his spectators a plot with a +heroic action as its salient, Moussorgsky occupies himself with +the revelation of the consequences of a dastardly act. Yet the +latter, despite his preoccupation with mental movement and +his neglect of physical, does not adopt the procedure of the +psychologist-musician. We do not find him indulging in a lengthy +exegesis of his own soul-states in presence of the stage tragedy he +depicts. He tells a simple though rather horrible tale. His narrative +does not bear the impress of the narrator’s temperament. “Boris +Godounof” is neither the cold compilation of the detached historian, +nor the revelation of the mental agony of a greatly interested and +concerned onlooker. A spectator of Moussorgsky’s version of the +tragedy is not first concerned with what he himself is thinking about +the dramatic occurrences, nor does he speculate upon the attitude +of the composer towards all this murder, strife, and intrigue. His +mind is chiefly occupied in observing their effect upon the people +participating in the drama. He finds himself glancing at the crowd, +and wondering what will be their demeanour in the face of the next +development. And Moussorgsky’s crowd never fails to respond. + +Operatic nationalism had begun with a Russian text; Glinka had +endowed it with a native musical manner. Moussorgsky made it an +absolute expression of nationalism. + + + VIII. + +The chapter of Russian history chosen by Moussorgsky as the material +of his drama is one which is to be considered as a turning-point in +the history of the Russian Empire. It refers to the interim between +two great dynasties. + +Looking into the future, Ivan the Terrible had perceived that his +weak-minded son Feodor, whom he regarded as “more like a sacristan +than the son of a Tsar,” was quite unfit to control the destinies +of a nation. Not long after his father’s death Feodor himself +became conscious of his incapacity. Accordingly he appointed Boris +Godounof, whose marriage into the royal family had been a step +prompted by ambition, as Regent. Godounof was not slow to discern +the potentialities of his new position. He saw that Feodor’s younger +brother Dmitri might one day stand between himself and the throne. +This youth lived on a property at Ouglich, willed to him by his +father. Godounof saw to it that his interests were not neglected in +this quarter, and among Dmitri’s entourage there were several tools +of the Regent. Their observations led Boris to assume that if this +boy lived there would be an end to all his ambitions. Godounof laid +his plans accordingly. On a May afternoon in 1591 young Dmitri was +playing in the courtyard of his palace. He was suddenly missed. The +stories of his assassination vary, but the one usually accepted +relates that Dmitri’s corpse was discovered in the church. Seven +years later Feodor breathed his last, supported in the arms of his +wife and his Regent, Boris, who had long since attained to something +like absolute power, now saw that the throne could easily be his. +“The Russian annalists,” says Prosper Mérimée,[10] “who were no doubt +ignorant of the Scottish legends, represent Boris as a new Macbeth +driven to the crime by the prophecies of his soothsayers.” Having +told him that he would one day reign, they paused in terror at what +they read in his future. He would reign, they added timorously, but +only for seven years. “What matter if it be but seven days,” cried +Boris, “so long as I reign.” + +As occupant of the throne, the consequences of his crime never +ceased to pursue him. A Pretender arose who claimed to be Ivan’s son +Dmitri. He had a large following, and was seized upon by the Poles +as a convenient instrument in the promotion of their revolt against +Muscovy. With the trouble at its height, Boris found himself on the +horns of a ghastly dilemma. He wished his son to reign after him. +If Dmitri was really alive his own son would never be Tsar. If his +terrible design of years ago had been properly carried out, as he had +always supposed, he must himself be a murderer, and with a conscience +grown livelier that thought was unbearable. + + + IX. + +Moussorgsky’s music-drama does not show us the assassination. We do +not see Dmitri’s bloodstained corpse. But we get more than a glimpse +of Boris’s remorse-stricken soul, and we are allowed to obtain a +fairly broad survey of the national mind. + +That this was intended to be the main business of Moussorgsky’s +“National Music-Drama” is plainly shown by the arrangement of his +dramatic material. Before the “plot” is entered upon there are two +scenes constituting a prologue. By this means the ostensible as well +as the real position as between monarch and people is revealed. +Boris, invited to place himself on the throne, guilefully dissembles +and demurs. His subjects, coerced at the instigation of Boris’s own +minions, simulate an anxiety lest the chosen Tsar’s reluctance be +maintained. A significant episode is the entrance of the mendicant +pilgrims (_Kalieki perekhojie_), whose sacred hymn is received with +an enthusiasm that is real. The people have been allowed to express +themselves. In the second scene news of Boris’s acquiescence arrives. +It is followed at a short interval by the Tsar himself, who, passing +across the Red Square to the Kremlin, is greeted by the crowd +assembled for his coronation. So far the text is of Moussorgsky’s +making. When proceeding to the discussion of the main plot, he is +able to draw upon Pushkin’s original literary substance. + +The first scene of Act I is laid in the cell of the monk Pimen, who +is engaged upon the concluding pages of a chronicle of Russian +history. From him the young novice Grigory Otrepief learns the +details of Dmitri’s assassination. His discovery that the murdered +Tsarevich would have been his own age makes him at once the victim +and the hero of his imagination. He becomes the self-appointed +avenger of the murdered Dmitri. + +Scene II shows him a fugitive defying ecclesiastical authority. He +has renounced the cloister and has taken his first step towards the +throne. He is resting at an inn situated on the Lithuanian frontier. +At the moment of his betrayal by two bibulous monks, he escapes +through the window and continues his journey towards Poland. + +The royal palace is the scene of the second act, which is the joint +work of Pushkin and Moussorgsky. The presence of the Tsar’s son +Feodor and his daughter Xenia is made a vehicle for the interpolation +of appropriate material of an episodic kind. The actual drama is +carried a step further by the Tsar’s reference to a map of Russia, +which is being examined by his heir. “All this territory,” explains +Boris to his son, “will one day be yours.” The atmosphere of +domesticity is dispelled by the entrance of the boyard Shouisky, +who brings news of serious trouble on the Polish frontier. It has +been declared that the corpse found at Ouglich was not that of +Dmitri Ivanovich; and that he, on the contrary, is a living and +energetic claimant of the crown. Boris, uneasy, orders an immediate +inquiry into the conduct of the assassination. Shouisky, as though +to reassure him, describes the appearance of the child’s corpse, +which he claims to have seen. On his withdrawal Boris is seized with +terror. The rack upon which his mind has for years been tortured +has been given a sharp turn by Shouisky’s recital, and the strain +produces a nerve-crisis. Boris, through a hallucination, has a vision +of the blood-stained corpse. An awful terror seizes him. + + + X. + +The next act is one which might well have been omitted from the +scheme, and in performance often is. It was inserted, it will be +remembered, to make good the deficiency of feminine interest. +Dramatically it has a sort of relation to the whole, since it is +complementary to the information brought by Shouisky and shows what +is happening in Poland. Musically it is not uninteresting, but, +considered as a part of the whole music-drama, it is as much a +blemish as is Glinka’s Polish Act in “A Life for the Tsar.” Glinka’s +weakness of invention is shared by Moussorgsky. Both of them failed +in the musical portrayal of Poland, because neither was able to +describe the Polish character in musical terms other than those of +the popular national rhythms. + +The act has as definite a foundation in history as any other section +of the drama, but it is negligible to the working out of this +particular plot. Otrepief has arrived in Poland and has found a +supporter. He has also found a maiden whose attachment to him is not +altogether dictated by her heart. Her aim is to share the throne +of Russia, and she is striving to strengthen his ambitious hopes, +knowing that upon them depends her chance of realizing her own. Both +Marina Mnichek and her religious director, Rangoni, the Jesuit, are +well known to history. As witnesses of their scheming, we feel that +this act is at least a little helpful to our understanding of the +drama. But the music, in its attempts to procure local colour, is far +from convincing. + +The fourth act is in two scenes. In the first the arrival of the +Pretender at the forest of Kromy, _en route_ for Moscow, is the only +feature of dramatic value. But Moussorgsky’s musical treatment of the +behaviour of the utterly irresponsible crowd of peasants, who welcome +the Pretender’s passage rather as a pretext for revolt than as any +real blessing, is a page which in itself creates an epoch in the +history of Opera. The “pure fool” left behind on the stage to wring +his hands in anguish at the darkness that is falling upon Russia is +the creation of Pushkin. It is a national type which lives again in +Dostoievsky’s “Idiot.” + +The final scene is apparently a continuation of that in which we left +Boris vainly trying to shut out the awful vision of the murdered +Prince. The Tsar’s Council, confident that the revolt of which +Shouisky has apprised them will be quickly suppressed, are discussing +the form of punishment to be meted out to the Pretender. Suddenly +the terror-stricken figure of the Tsar bursts into the hall. With +difficulty they calm him. Shouisky enters, and announces that he has +found one who can give a faithful account of the Ouglich crime, and +thus dispose of the Pretender’s claim. Pimen is ushered in. He tells +of an old shepherd, blind from birth, who heard in a dream a command +that he should pray at the tomb of Dmitri, now an angel, and whose +faith was duly rewarded with the gift of sight. Boris hearing that +his guilt is established, falls into a worse frenzy. He feels that +his end is near. Young Feodor is sent for, and with his last breath +the Tsar proclaims him his heir and successor. + + + XI. + +The choice of “Boris Godounof” as subject would appear, as has +been observed, to have been directly inspired by Glinka’s use of +historical material in “A Life for the Tsar.” The music, however, is +that of a composer who, after earnestly conferring with Dargomijsky, +found little difficulty in seeing eye to eye with him in regard to +the main principles of the “New Russian School.” + +The setting of “Boris Godounof,” considered in comparison with all +other operatic music, stands right apart from it. It is the artistic +product of a great national crisis. One can easily imagine that a man +so passionately in earnest as Moussorgsky would be immensely inspired +by the so-called “nihilist” movement, and that nothing would please +him more than to write an opera that would reflect the spirit of that +movement. + +It was the endeavour of the young intellectual of that time to +be natural. There was a crusade against “pose,” and not merely +deliberate but unconscious pose. One could dismiss the score of +“Boris” with a compliment well worth the paying by declaring it an +opera in which every bar of music is natural. Listening to the work, +one could imagine Moussorgsky never to have heard an opera, to be +entirely ignorant of the traditions of this form of art. With the +exception of the Polish Act, in which he seems to betray that for +him, as for Glinka, the vocabulary of musical terms in which the +Polish character could be rendered stopped short at the Polacca and +Mazurka rhythms, the composer has given us music that is appropriate, +sincere, and dignified, never departing from beauty and never +approaching anything in the nature of conventional pattern. + +When it has been said that the music is consistently natural, +it seems hardly necessary to mention that there are none of the +traditional operatic subdivisions or self-contained numbers, that +there are no formal overtures or _entr’actes_. The Prelude is of +sufficient length to establish the requisite atmosphere. That done, +the curtain rises. When it falls, the music, being there for a purely +dramatic purpose, ceases. When, as in the case of Grigory’s escape +from the Inn, there is a likelihood that the scene will continue in +the imagination of the spectator for a moment or two after the action +is shut out from view, the music comes to his assistance, but it has +a curtain of its own, and this too is quickly drawn. + + + XII. + +By Moussorgsky the leading-motive device is very happily used. His +leading-motives are flashes of thought, mere reminiscences. There +are the usual labels for characters and sentiments, but they are +used in moderation. There is nothing resembling the Wagnerian +philosophical disquisitions upon the attributes of a character on +its every appearance, or upon the ethics of an emotion whenever +suggested. Moussorgsky’s themes are used chiefly as links connecting +the series of tableaux of which the drama is made up, and not as +labels inseparable from the persons to whom they have been attached. +The most prominent motive--that associated with the idea of the +royal succession, heard in the dialogue between Pimen and Grigory +when the latter asks what age the murdered Prince would have been; +in the Introduction to the Inn scene heralding the presence of the +novice-Pretender; in Shouisky’s account of the Ouglich crime and +other places--does not at all times accompany reference to the +subject it represents. Although it appears occasionally in the Polish +scenes, there are places in which it might have been used quite +effectively but in which it is neglected. Other themes recurring with +more or less frequency and subtlety are the People’s motive, which +is heard in an altered shape in the Forest scene when the crowd is +baiting a captured noble; the short phrase which seems to refer to +Russia’s past and which appears at intervals during the scene in the +old monk’s cell, returning with Pimen’s narrative in the last act; +and those which apparently represent the sentiments and attributes of +the Tsar, his paternal solicitude and his insatiable ambition. That +the full power of the leading-motive device was recognized by the +composer is plain from the use of one of the Polish themes, when in +the Forest scene the Pretender speaks of his destination. Here the +main motive occurring under the words: “To our holy land of Russia +... let us seek the Kremlin” is heard in conjunction with a fragment +of the Polacca. These two are heard together also in the Polish act. + +The avoidance of formalism that characterizes the use of the +leading-motive is in accord with the note of the whole work, +simplicity. The moments of mental stress, the dramatic crises, are +not with Moussorgsky the signal for a marshalling of “every modern +luxury,” as Glinka styled the instrumental array. In this respect +we find economy where extravagance usually prevails. Even in the +scene of the hallucination, the composer depends mainly upon his +“strings” for the description of Boris’s anguish. With him the +repeated reference to an emotion does not involve an ever-increasing +volume of tone for the description of the growing complexity in +the psychological situation. Thus Boris’s final fit of terror is +accompanied by music infinitely simpler than that heard when first +allusion is made to the murdered heir. + +The vocal line of the opera partakes for the most part of the nature +of melodic recitative, but its purely lyrical moments are by no means +sparse. As they occur in places where reference to folk-lore and song +is made, they constitute no exception to the general appropriateness. +There are times when Moussorgsky feels called upon to bring the +sound into very close accord with the general sense; it is then that +the composer resorts, as in the story of the parakeet, told by the +excited young Tsarevich Feodor, to a method used in some of his +songs. This consists of a faithful yet musical reflection of the rise +and fall of the speaking voice. Set up as an ideal by Dargomijsky, it +was attained by his disciple. + +Moussorgsky was not deliberately unconventional as an operatic +composer. National music-drama, if it is to exert the powerful +influence without which it is not national, must be natural. +Moussorgsky adopted the means best suited for the maintenance of +that naturalness which alone could achieve what he has achieved. +The music follows the drift of the text, serving it faithfully and +never seeking to assert its claim to beauty as music. The sound, +as M. Marnold so happily expresses it, is never allowed to become +egotistical.[11] But, in accordance with the canons of the “New +Russian School” it never ceases to be music. + + + “KHOVANSHCHINA” + + XIII. + +It was a Russian who said that religion was given by Providence as +a stick which, in default of intellectual qualities, might be used +as a moral support, and that with this stick Russians had chosen +to belabour each other. The human interference which brought about +the misuse of the stick was that of Nikon the Patriarch, who in +1655 undertook a revision of the Bible. Some of the corrections +gave offence to the people, who preferred to adhere to traditional +methods of worship. In consequence of this the nation was split +into two main religious bodies: the Old Believers and the Orthodox, +or followers of the authoritative dispensation. The dissenting body +subsequently became subdivided into a great number of “jarring sects.” + +It is with this schism that Moussorgsky’s second historical opera +concerns itself. The figure-heads of the opposing factions, for the +purposes of the opera, are Prince Ivan Khovansky, an adherent of +the old régime, and Prince Galitsin, whose sympathies and interests +are served by the introduction of Western enlightenment. It is +understood that Dositheus, who in the opera is the spiritual leader +of the Old Believers, is a portrait of another Prince. Stassof, who +was responsible for the suggestion that this “antagonism between +old and young Russia” would be good material for an opera, may well +have feared, as in a letter to Moussorgsky he confesses he did, that +instead of being a “People’s Music-Drama” it would be a Princes’. + +The love-interest in “Khovanshchina” was not, as it had been in +“Boris Godounof,” an afterthought. There are three prominent feminine +characters: the Old Believer, Martha, described by Stassof as in some +ways resembling Potiphar’s wife; Susan, a rigid fanatic, priding +herself overmuch on her virtue; and Emma, a young Lutheran by whom +Khovansky’s son Andrew has been attracted. In the original plan there +were to have been included the figure of the Empress-Regent Sophia, +of whom Galitsin is supposed to have been the lover, together with +her young charge, afterwards to become Peter the Great. Owing to +Moussorgsky’s decline in health, and the consequent fear that his +opera might never be finished, he was obliged to reduce its scheme, +and the royal personages disappeared. + +The historical events underlying the dramatic material of +“Khovanshchina” are as follows: Feodor Alexeyevich, eldest grandson +of the first Romanof, had died without issue and was succeeded by +Peter, the third brother, Ivan, being of weak intellect. As Peter was +only ten years old Sophia, their half-sister, was appointed Regent. +Anticipating the unwelcome reforms for which Peter afterwards became +famous, Sophia did her best to place Ivan on the throne, and to this +end instigated a revolt of the Streltsy--a regiment of Guards most +of whom were Old Believers. Their leader, Prince Khovansky, and his +son Andrew were the moving spirits in the rebellion, and Peter, who +subsequently succeeded in quelling it, gave to the series of risings +the appellation of “Khovanshchina.” The culminating event was the +collective suicide of a large body of Old Believers who refused to +submit to the heretical innovations of one whom they believed to be +anti-Christ. + + + XIV. + +Moussorgsky’s libretto is a fairly faithful rendering of the +historical records, but its hurried abridgement naturally caused a +sacrifice of many interesting details. The opera, in its published +form, begins with a scene in the Red Square at Moscow. It is early +morning. A public letter-writer enters the Square and sets up his +booth, and a number of Streltsy who have been bivouacking in the +Square after a riot on the previous evening betake themselves to +their duties. Presently the boyard Shaklovity enters, and calls upon +the scrivener to write down an impeachment of the Khovanskys, father +and son. Immediately on his departure the pompous Prince Khovansky +arrives with his following of Streltsy and Old Believers. Making +the most of his position as head of the Streltsy, he encourages the +people to rise against the authority of Peter. The crowd, impressed +by his arrogance, sing a hymn in his honour. As the procession is +moving off a young woman rushes upon the scene, closely followed by +Khovansky’s son. It is Emma the Lutheran, who is being importuned, +to her evident distress, by Prince Andrew. The altercation is +interrupted by the arrival of Martha, whom Andrew has discarded. +Andrew, furious at her intervention, attempts to stab her, but the +Old Believer, gaining possession of his knife, delivers a mystical +oration in which she foretells the young Prince’s approaching doom. +The elder Khovansky now returns and, perceiving that the object of +his son’s attentions is a young woman whom he himself admires, gives +orders for her arrest. Andrew vows that she shall not be taken alive. +She is saved by the timely entrance of the venerable Dositheus. He +upbraids Andrew, orders Martha to protect Emma under her own roof, +and kneels in prayer. The crowd proceeds to the Kremlin for worship, +and the curtain falls on the solitary figure of Dositheus. + +The second act takes place in the palace of the Galitsins. The rising +curtain discloses the Prince disdainfully perusing a love-letter +from the Empress-Regent. To him enters Martha, whom he has summoned, +believing in her powers of clairvoyance, to read his future. She +calls for a basin of water, cloaks herself in a long black garment, +and proceeds to divine his early ruin. Beside himself with rage, +Galitsin calls for his servants and orders them to waylay the woman +on her way home, and to drown her in the marshes. + +Galitsin, pondering over Martha’s terrifying prediction, is now +visited by his enemy Khovansky. Between them there are personal +and political recriminations, which terminate on the entrance of +Dositheus, who pacifies them. The calm is but temporary. Martha +returns to announce that an attempt has been made on her life, and +is followed by Shaklovity, who presents himself as the envoy of the +Regent and warns Khovansky that the Tsar has discovered his plot. + +The Streltsian quarter of Moscow is the scene of the third act. +Martha, withdrawing herself from a procession of Old Believers, seats +herself on a mound near the Khovansky palace, and sings reminiscently +of the days when young Andrew’s heart was hers. She refers once more +to the mysterious fate awaiting him. + +Susan now discloses herself. She is scandalized by the passionate +references to Andrew she has overheard, and reviles Martha for her +shamelessness. Dositheus enters and brings peace once more on the +scene. He rebukes the old fanatic for her harshness, and comforts +Martha. Night falls, and Shaklovity arrives and puts up a prayer for +his harassed country. + +There follows a sudden rush of Streltsy, followed by their plainly +discontented wives. During the turmoil the letter-writer enters +breathless, bringing news of the defeat of a Streltsian force at the +hands of Peter’s men. A call is made for their leader, and Prince +Khovansky counsels them from the steps of his palace to submit for +the nonce to Peter’s rule. + +The fourth act has two scenes. The first shows the interior of +Khovansky’s country mansion. The old Prince is seeking distraction +in the songs of his attendant maidens. A messenger from Galitsin, +conveying news of a plot against Khovansky’s life, is scornfully +dismissed, and the master of the house calls for his Persian dancers. +At the conclusion of the entertainment Shaklovity brings a command +that Khovansky shall appear at the Regent’s council. Imagining +this to be a sign of returning favour, the Prince makes ready for +the journey, but as he approaches the door he is stabbed. His +terrified servants flee from the sight of their prostrate master, and +Shaklovity, surveying the corpse, breaks out into derisive laughter. + +Scene II represents a public square in Moscow. Through the crowd is +seen the figure of Galitsin, who is being hurried under close escort +into exile. Dositheus joins the throng, and hears from Martha that +Peter has ordered the wholesale execution of the Old Believers. Their +leader resolves that death shall be self-inflicted. Andrew Khovansky, +ignorant of his father’s assassination and of the general turn of +events, now appears on the scene, and entreats Martha to deliver up +the young Lutheran. He is told that Emma is honourably united to the +man she loves, and in his consternation Andrew threatens Martha with +death at the hands of his Streltsy. She bids him proceed with his +threat. His repeated horn-blasts are answered in unexpected fashion +by a body of his men, who, guarded by Peter’s soldiers, are bringing +axes and faggots to the place chosen for their execution. It does not +take place. Peter’s merciful decree of pardon is delivered to them by +a herald. + +The Old Believers’ hermitage in a wood near Moscow is the scene of +the fifth and final act. There, under the leadership of Dositheus, +preparations are being made for a self-administered martyrdom. +Andrew, still hoping to find Emma, is prevailed upon by Martha +to mount the pyre, to which she then applies the brand. The Old +Believers sing their hymn until the flames overpower them. The +trumpets of Peter’s soldiery are heard, and the curtain falls to the +music which symbolizes the rising of the new Russia from the ashes of +the old. + + + XV. + +As drama, “Khovanshchina” is better planned than “Boris Godounof,” +despite the summary curtailment to which Moussorgsky was obliged +to subject the work. On the dramatic side it possesses perhaps in +a greater degree the quality of nationalism; the consequences of +the Nikonian revision have a greater significance for the larger +public than the misdemeanours of Boris and Otrepief. In the matter of +construction, the difference between the two works is principally in +respect of detail. Moussorgsky has abandoned, in “Khovanshchina,” his +rigid adherence to the method of “throughout-composition”; there are +repetitions which reveal an intention of seeking a compromise between +an allegiance to the principles of his School and the desire to use +a beautiful melody more than once. “Khovanshchina” is, in a word, +slightly more “operatic” than “Boris Godounof.” + +The principal characters are again represented by themes, and here +one observes that in their repetition there is just a shade more +deliberateness. The motive most frequently used is that of the +massive figure of Khovansky, than which it would have been impossible +to conceive anything more appropriate. + +A remarkable feature of the score is the wealth of music of an +ecclesiastical kind. Already in “Boris” Moussorgsky had shown +a complete mastery of the ancient modal method of writing. In +“Khovanshchina” he achieves some of his most successful pages when +composing chants for the Old Believer chorus. + +A cardinal point of difference between the music of “Boris Godounof” +and that of the later work is that, whereas in the former the lyrical +pages are, as it were, mostly ornamental, in “Khovanshchina” they are +part and parcel of the vocal line. The inclusion in “Boris” of the +Clapping Game, the Nurse’s Song of the Gnat, and the Inn-keeper’s +Song, is perfectly legitimate, as they are relevant to the dramatic +action. But they are decorative; they are part of the folk-colour. +In “Khovanshchina” there are a few identifiable specimens of +folk-song, such as Martha’s song in Act III, the hymn to Khovansky in +the country-house scene, and a fragment sung by the sleepy strelets +immediately following the curtain’s first rise; but their folk-origin +is not betrayed, as are those of the earlier work, by their text. +They are used where original music would have served as well, and the +allegory of the folk-text fits into the dramatic situation. + + + XVI. + +There are several numbers of great beauty in “Khovanshchina” which +might easily be given a separate performance. First among these +should be mentioned the Persian Dances. Among some of the composer’s +friends they were looked upon as an unwarrantable interpolation. The +assumption that old Prince Khovansky had among his household some +Persian captives was too slender an excuse for this music. Hearing +it, one is quite prepared to give Moussorgsky the benefit of the +doubt. The dances are introduced by a few anticipatory phrases; by +this means the composer avoids the break which would have given them +more the appearance of a ballet included as a sop to the orthodox +opera-goer. The Song of the Haiduk (Hungarian mercenary), sung by +Khovansky’s serving-maids immediately before the Persian Dances, +is also exceedingly charming; it is obviously traditional. The +choral song in honour of Khovansky, in the first act, is highly +appropriate music, and could hardly have been improved upon as a +means of suggesting the attitude of his followers towards the Prince. +In singling out one from the many fine specimens of music of a +devotional kind, it is upon the chorus of Old Believers in the last +act, written in the Phrygian mode, that the choice must fall. The +wonderful Song of Divination ought not to need mention as one of the +numbers detachable from the score, since that is often given on the +concert-platform. + +“Khovanshchina” seems to merit a place apart in the field of Russian +Opera. It is a fusion of the Glinkist and Dargomijskian traditions +in that it deals with national subjects, incorporates the folk-idea, +both literary and musical, and is designed and constructed on lines +which are favourable to the development of a rational type of opera; +in such an opera the severity of declamation is relieved on suitable +occasions by melody, and a compromise is thus reached, admitting +of the treatment of any literary subject at all suitable for the +purposes of opera. + +“Khovanshchina” is a work in which such a compromise becomes +imperative. But for its acceptance the store of Russian national +music-drama would have been robbed of an example that makes a direct +appeal to the religious as well as to the patriotic sensibilities of +the Russian nation. + + + FOOTNOTES: + + [8] “Moussorgsky,” Félix Alcan, Paris, 1911. + + [9] A Russian musical essayist, wrongly supposing this to have + referred to the whole operatic fragment, has cited these + words as evidence of the composer’s power of detachment. + + [10] “Les Faux Démétrius,” Paris, 1853. + + [11] “Musique d’autrefois et d’aujourd’hui,” Dorbon-Ainé, Paris. + + + + + + PART III + + CHORAL AND INSTRUMENTAL WORKS + + + I. + +A survey of Moussorgsky’s dramatic work reveals so many evidences +of genius in writing for chorus that one might have expected to +find among his compositions a greater number of independent choral +examples. Of the four surviving specimens, only one was designed as +a separate work--“The Destruction of Sennacherib,” after Byron’s +short poem, for the usual vocal quartet. This was written in the +winter of 1866-67, and first performed at a Free School Concert under +Balakiref’s direction. One cannot say more than that its music, while +making no strong effort at description, is entirely suitable to the +text. Of the others, the chorus for mixed voices and orchestra (the +sole remaining number of the setting of Sophocles’ “Œdipus”), and +a women’s chorus from the unfinished “Salammbô,” are not of great +importance. “Joshua,” also originally from that source is, on the +other hand, a work of particular interest. It is founded on themes +that the composer heard sung by some Jews, for some time neighbours +of his, during the Feast of Tabernacles. In this Moussorgsky +has imitated a style altogether new to him, showing a wonderful +sensibility to new impressions. The melodic line is remarkably +characteristic; its only blemish is an instrumental reproduction of +an ornamental flourish, introducing an effect of clearness foreign +to the traditional Hebraic vocal style. A comparison of some of the +melodic figures with those employed in the sketch of the two Jews in +“The Picture-Show,” suggests that Moussorgsky based his character +drawing therein upon the material from which the “Joshua” music had +been derived. + + + “THE PICTURE-SHOW” + + II. + +With one exception Moussorgsky’s compositions for the piano can have +little interest other than that arising for the historian. With +this very notable exception none of them would for a moment arrest +the attention of a musician if published under an unknown name.[12] +The extraordinary novelty and originality of the famous series of +sketches called “The Picture-Show” is attributable to its having been +created under the influence of a deep inspiration. + +Unfortunately it is impossible at this date to obtain any notion as +to the degree of success attained by the composer in reproducing in +music what he saw in Hartmann’s sketches. While it has been possible, +with a little contriving, to see the original pictures of Goya, and +to hear their musical reflection according to Granados, or to witness +the ridiculous miming of “General Lavine,” and to listen to Debussy’s +account of his mannerisms on one and the same day, the chance of +comparing Moussorgsky’s pieces with the water-colours and sketches +that inspired them is apparently lost for ever. But the listener +whose imagination enables him to connect the music with Hartmann’s +titles is not likely to care whether or no a sight of the originals +would diminish his pleasure. + +Hartmann, an architect, was a great friend both of Stassof and +Moussorgsky. The son of a doctor, he was born in 1834, and despite +his short life managed to visit practically all the art centres +of Europe in search of ideas. On his death in the summer of 1873, +Stassof wrote an extremely eulogistic notice, following this up with +a sketch of his acquaintanceship and transactions with the lamented +artist. In the spring of 1874, an exhibition of water-colours and +designs was arranged, and it was Moussorgsky’s visit to the gallery +that led him to attempt what must have been then regarded as a +particularly daring experiment. + +Writing to Stassof in June, 1874, Moussorgsky states that “Hartmann” +is progressing at the same furious rate as did “Boris” a year or so +before. The first four numbers of the suite had then already taken +shape. + +The following is a slightly abbreviated translation of Moussorgsky’s +description of the pictures, printed in the original edition of his +suite. Only a few of them are mentioned in Stassof’s notice of the +exhibition: + + 1. “Gnomus.” Picture representing a little goblin, hobbling + clumsily along on his misshapen legs. + + 2. “Il Vecchio Castello.” A medieval castle, before which sings a + troubadour. + + 3. “Tuileries.” Children wrangling over their games in the + Tuileries Gardens. + + 4. “Bydlo.” A Polish cart on huge wheels, drawn by oxen. + + 5. “Ballet of Chickens in their Shells.” A sketch for the staging + of the ballet “Trilby.” + + 6. “Samuel Goldenburg and Schmuyle.” Two Polish Jews, the one + prosperous, the other needy. + + 7. “Limoges.” Bickering market-women. + + 8. “The Catacombs.” Hartmann is seen visiting the Paris Catacombs + by lantern-light. + + 9. “The Hut on Fowls’ Legs.” A design for a clock in the shape of + Baba-Yaga’s hut. Moussorgsky added the trail of the witch, + journeying to and fro in her traditional mortar. + + 10. “The Bogatyr’s Gate at Kief.” Hartmann’s plan for the proposed + Gate in the ancient massive Russian style, with a cupola in the + form of a Slavonic helmet. + +There is a Prelude under the title “Promenade,” the theme of which is +used to suggest from time to time the gait of the visitor, and also +the impression made upon him by the pictures. + +The most graphic numbers in the series are undoubtedly “Gnomus,” in +which the grotesque little goblin’s awkward movements are wonderfully +suggested, “Bydlo,” a scene in the street of Sandomir (recalling that +it was Hartmann who advised including the Polish Act in “Boris,” of +which the castle at Sandomir is the scene), the “Trilby” movement, +daintiness itself, the Polish Jews, whose contrasted condition is +marvellously depicted, the Baba-Yaga scene, and the splendidly heroic +final number--a little masterpiece that is in itself an excellent +memorial of the co-designer of the Russian Millennary monument at +Nijni Novgorod. + +The Spanish picture, the Tuileries scene, and “Limoges,” are somewhat +too formal for their purpose, and come strangely from the composer of +“The Nursery.” “The Catacombs” is a curiously fantastic number, part +of which is based on the “Promenade” theme. + +Now that these pieces have become popular, one regrets all the more +that the pictures of Hartmann were not reproduced in the original +edition--their inclusion could not greatly have lessened the value of +Moussorgsky’s work, and would have provided, in conjunction with the +music, a fitting souvenir of an exceptionally versatile artist. + + + “NIGHT ON THE BARE MOUNTAIN” + + III. + +The surviving orchestral version of Moussorgsky’s famous “Night on +the Bare Mountain” is the work of Rimsky-Korsakof, and thus cannot +be considered, apart from its thematic and programmatic interest, as +representative. + +Its history is a little complicated. Composed in the rough in 1867, +as a fantasia for piano and orchestra, supposedly under the influence +of Liszt’s “Dance Macabre” and Berlioz’ “Witches’ Sabbath,” and +given the title of “St. John’s Eve,” it was thrown aside until some +three years later, when on Gedeonof’s “Mlada” project being put +before Moussorgsky and his friends Cui, Borodin, and Rimsky-Korsakof, +it was considerably altered and was given a vocal part. It had now +become the music for the revels of Chernobog (the Black god) on Mount +Triglaf. On the abandonment of Gedeonof’s scheme it was once more +laid aside, to serve again for “Sorochinsk Fair” as the “fantastic +dream”--an Intermezzo in which the witches are seen disporting +themselves on the Bare Mountain. The ringing of the bell which +disperses the nocturnal spirits at dawn was inserted at this time. +Finally it was revised and orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakof, who, +after considerable trouble in arranging the material satisfactorily, +eventually conducted it at the first of Belayef’s Russian Symphony +Concerts, about five years after the composer’s death. Its immediate +popularity is easy to understand, since the fantastic programme is +carried out with a wealth of rhythmic and harmonic suggestion that +compels a mental reconstruction of the supernatural occurrences +described. The verbal description of the scene, attached to the +score, is as follows: “Subterranean sounds of unearthly voices. +Appearance of the spirits of darkness followed by that of the God +Chernobog. Chernobog’s glorification and the Black Mass. The Revels. +At the height of the orgies is heard from afar the bell of a little +church, which causes the spirits to disperse. Dawn.” + +The fantasia possesses a special significance for the student of +Russian musical history. It recalls that Glinka had mooted, somewhere +about the time of Moussorgsky’s birth, the notion of composing a +number of orchestral works in which he proposed removing the accepted +formal restrictions in order to offer to the public a kind of music +that could be appreciated by its (musically) uneducated section. The +fantasias in question were to preserve such a level of seriousness +as would render them acceptable to the critical, but by means of +a “programme” were to make a popular appeal. “A Night in Madrid” +may thus be looked upon as a forerunner of “A Night on the Bare +Mountain,” and the latter as the first of a series of symphonic +pictures of which Rimsky-Korsakof’s “Sheherazade” and “Antar,” +Borodin’s “In the Steppes of Central Asia,” Balakiref’s “Tamara,” +and Glazounof’s “Stenka Razin” are the most meritorious examples. “A +Night on the Bare Mountain” must therefore be attributed as much to +Glinkist as to foreign influence. + + + FOOTNOTES: + + [12] A further exception may perhaps be made in favour of the + “Intermezzo,” composed in 1861, and afterwards arranged + for orchestra. It was partly inspired by a rustic scene, + but was written in a classical style not at all suggesting + a “programme.” + + + + + PART IV + + SONGS + + + I. + +Before proceeding to make detailed reference to Moussorgsky’s +songs, it should be mentioned that the composer did not look upon a +song as a vocal solo with instrumental accompaniment. He was just +as unwilling to do so as he would have been to regard an opera as +a “concert in costume.” For him, the song was a vehicle for the +description of something not to be described by any other means. +His songs are best considered as musical scenes with a vocal part, +the voice naturally becoming prominent where description gives +place to narration or dialogue. In order to facilitate reference +to the style of Moussorgsky’s forty-odd examples, their stylistic +attributes may be roughly specified under the following heads: (1) +National or Popular: Where the text possesses a national character +or appeals to nationalistic sensibilities, or where the music is in +the style of folk-song. (2) Poetical or Idealistic: Where the text is +based upon a poetical idea and the music is “absolute” rather than +suggestive, reflecting the general sentiment of the whole rather +than the particular meaning of a phrase. (3) Realistic: Where the +text possesses the attributes of a _genre_ production and the music +occupies itself for the most part with description. (4) Declamatory: +Where the text is in the nature of a narration and the vocal music +is mostly recitatival. (In this class of song Moussorgsky has not +hesitated to alter the bar-design or measure wherever the syllabic +structure of the text has demanded such variation.) Even this +generous allowance of categories takes no account of the satirical +pieces in which there is the purpose of ridiculing certain persons, +types, or ideas, and which in two cases have been conveniently and +appropriately described as “musical pamphlets.” + + + II. + +In the first, or national, category comes one of Moussorgsky’s +best-known vocal works, the “Gopak.” The stirring words of the +martyr-poet Taras Shevchenko are set melodically, with a fitness that +could not have been surpassed had this sublime Ruthenian patriot +himself, and not a Muscovite, been responsible for the music. The +invocation to the Dnieper, also the work of this poet (he is buried +on its banks), while national in character, is musically of quite +a different order from the first. Beginning with a recitatival +introduction in freely varied rhythms (7/4, 6/4, 3/4), a folk-song +character prevails throughout the sombre Allegro. The final section, +a return to the introductory theme, is a magnificently eloquent +appeal to the Ruthenian river, the two bars in which the name is +pronounced being lengthened to 7/4 to admit of due emphasis. + +“To the Mushrooms” is another song which may well be cited in this +category, for the folk-song element is here also very conspicuous. +It is national in text as well as music--mushroom-picking being in +Russia made the occasion of a special ceremonial. The refrain has a +strong melodic resemblance to the song of the Innkeeper in “Boris +Godounof.” The “coda,” which is at greater length than Moussorgsky +usually allows himself, is a masterly piece of harmonic variation. + +The “Peasant’s Cradle Song” is in an entirely different mood. The +mother sings in turn of the oppression that will be her child’s lot, +and of the Divine solicitude that may lighten the burden. The music +suits itself wonderfully to the change of sense; only the rocking is +constant. + +The most characteristic examples among Moussorgsky’s realistic songs +are “The Orphan” and “Savishna.” Both of them are sheer strokes of +genius, not merely as to their general conception but in respect of +their composer’s happy disregard of tradition at a moment when the +consideration of form would have prevented a fitting illustration of +their textual idea. The first represents a street beggar imploring +charity of a passer by. “Oh, kind gentleman, take pity on a poor, +miserable, homeless orphan....” The child describes the conditions +of his existence; he has no strength left. “... To die of hunger +is terrible ... my blood is frozen ... have pity on a miserable +orphan....” The music has simply spoken and moaned with the child; +the misery described for us by its harmony might have softened the +heart of the passer by; yet it fails.... The child is left standing, +as an incomplete cadence tells us. Charity, like its resolution, is +missing. + +The orphan’s appeal, while hardly more than a monologue, has a +suggestion of melody. In “Savishna” Moussorgsky approaches more +closely the declamatory style. It is a monotonous supplication, the +melodic element being restricted to three notes in a rhythm of five. + +The composer, occupied in writing the “Labourer’s Cradle Song” +during the period spent on his brother’s estate at Minkino, in 1865, +happened to overhear the addresses of a half-witted suitor paid +to the village beauty. It is the love-declaration of Vanya, the +“yourodivy” or spiritual fool--the prototype of the pathetic creature +who utters the closing words of the Kromy scene in “Boris”--that +Moussorgsky has noted down in “Savishna.” Its harmony strikes but two +notes. The fool asks for love and for pity. The empty fourths and +fifths in the closing three bars proclaim the hopelessness of his +suit. + +For the gibes of “The Urchin” Moussorgsky has used the same rhythmic +arrangement, but in this case he varies his rhythm, using as occasion +demands 6/4, 5/4, 3/2 and 3/1 to emphasize the variety of epithets +flung by the ragamuffin at the old woman he is mocking. The 5/4 +rhythm is retained for her remonstrance, but the strength of her arm +is made manifest in a couple of strenuous bars--for the chastisement. + + + “SONGS AND DANCES OF DEATH” + + III. + +We have passed from the category of realism into that of declamation +without referring to the _genre_ type. To this heading belongs +undoubtedly the song-cycle entitled “Songs and Dances of Death.” +The “Trepak” (“Still is the Forest”) contains the elements of +nationalism, realism, and melody. To the dance rhythm, to which Death +conducts the starved peasant into eternity, is given a considerable +prominence as a suggestion of Death’s mood. Its measure is only +blotted out by the howling of the tempest. Becoming audible once more +at the promise of eternal peace, it mingles with the cradle-song that +lulls the peasant into a last sleep. Death surveys the corpse with a +smile at the recollection of his artifice. + +There is little vocal melody in Moussorgsky’s portrayal of the +heart-rending scene that follows. A mother’s tired voice has crooned +through a sorrowful all-night vigil over her sick child. There is +no conventional cradle-song. The movement is suggested by the rise +and fall of a figure which appears to represent the weary woman’s +anxiety. The swaying becomes feebler. The mother turns her head. +Someone is stealthily approaching the hut. There is a knock. Through +the doorway the trembling mother sees, silhouetted by the light of +dawn, the terrible intruder whose presence betokens that she can +hardly dare hope. The gentleness of Death’s accents fails to hide his +intention. He will rock the child and afford the mother a well-earned +respite. His voice will soothe the sufferer. In vain she refuses, +protests, implores. Death gains possession of the little sufferer. +“See! I have sung him to sleep....” + +The third picture is that of a frail young woman to whom Death +appears in the guise of a gallant. Its refrain is a serenade. The +sinister cavalier prosecutes a brief and horrible courtship. For +him there can be but one reply. A pedal note proclaims that his +flattering utterances are but a veil that will not long obscure the +end. It comes in the rhythm of the serenade ... with it for a moment +is heard the counsel of submission. A horrible silence follows. +Death casts away his disguise. “Thou’rt Mine!” The means by which +Moussorgsky attains to positive descriptiveness at no sacrifice of +the lyrical quality are so absolutely simple that, were this song +divorced from its text, one might seek in vain for anything in the +nature of poetic suggestion. Yet as a complement of the words of +Kutuzof, the music becomes a masterpiece that is second to none of +its kind. + +The method of the last number is somewhat different. The poet has +given a more generous description of the _mise en scène_. Death +has found a worthy vicar and is not yet here. The scene is a +corpse-strewn battlefield. The conflict is recalled by its human +remnants. Presently the rising moon reveals the hideous figure of +a skeleton whose bones reflect its light. He is mounted. It is +Field-Marshal Death. His subtle strategy has brought him an easy +and an overwhelming victory. He sings the restrained song of a +warrior who has never doubted his strength. To the dead he dispenses +sophistries. “In life you were always in conflict. Death will unite +you....” To a military music he bids his victims rise and pass before +him in review. Surveying the ghostly army, he promises that he will +awaken them daily to entertain them at a midnight revel. + + + “WITHOUT SUNLIGHT” + + IV. + +“Apart from Pushkin and Lermontof,” wrote Moussorgsky to Stassof, “I +have not discovered elsewhere what I find in Kutuzof.” In the “Songs +and Dances of Death” there is sufficient evidence that the composer +had found someone capable of inspiring the very best he could create. +In the second cycle, which may be classified as Idealistic, there is +so clear a representation of the composer’s own personality that one +could almost credit him with the text. + +“Without Sunlight” is a collection of six poems by the poet of the +“Dances of Death”; their musical setting shows that Moussorgsky was +capable, on occasion, of being subjective, that the capacity for +introspection and self-revelation was not altogether foreign to his +nature. In all his other creations he is seen looking around him +and depicting objects worthy of admiration or pity, or deserving +ridicule. In “Without Sunlight” he has given us music that represents +himself as surely as the text represents the psychology of the type +to which he conforms. + +In all six numbers the vocal part approaches nearer to definite +melody than to melo-declamation. But in connection with the last one +only can the term lyrical be mentioned. + +The first, “Within Four Walls,” is a glimpse through the door of a +hospital. The soliloquy of a patient is overheard. His mental eye +fixes momentarily upon some past happiness. Its gaze shifts to the +present, and the sick one realizes that this is solitude and night. +There is little movement in Moussorgsky’s harmonies; it is as though +all sound were, like the room, in shadow. + +“In the crowd thou didst not know me,” is the complaint of the +second song, which is the record of a passion starved by neglect. +The recollection brings a sharp reminder of the first pangs of +disappointment. Here, as in “The Orphan,” the return to the +prevailing tonality is neglected. + +“The Festal Days are Over” is also in reminiscent vein. The sufferer +is wakeful, and in the dead of night turns over the pages of a +distant past, rendered more vivid by solitude. The accompaniment is +of a much more pictorial kind than that of the foregoing numbers. +The passage in which the poet speaks of “vernal passions of the past +returning as phantoms in dreams” is accompanied by a figure which has +since served Debussy in depicting his nocturnal “_Nuages_.”[13] + +“Tedium” is unrelievedly pessimistic. Cynical self-damnation is its +note. It catalogues all life’s joys and decrees that they are to +befall one insensible: “Tedium until the very tomb, and God be with +you there.” At the opening of the song the harmony seems to fail in +reflecting the full weariness of spirit described by the text, but +once the exordium is done with there is no further doubt as to its +fitness. Poignant bitterness permeates the music until the final +words, which evoke a major chord. + +There is a harmonic wealth in the “Elegie” that is not forthcoming +from any of the previous numbers. It is also of much more generous +dimensions, and is at times quite rhapsodical. The text once more +concerns past emotions to which the music seeks to attune itself. At +one moment there is positive description. At “the sound of the bells +of death,” the accompaniment is suspended and the knell introduced. + +“On the Stream,” the last of the series, does not merely suggest the +abstract sentiment, but is definitely pictorial, so far, that is, +as concerns the water alone. This is depicted in a constant triplet +figure. The text tells us that death will soon put an end to these +solitary communings, and the voice of the sufferer answering the call +with a cheerfulness that strikes a new note is heard in an ascending +phrase borne on the bosom of the still rustling stream into the +unknown.[14] + +A closer relation with the import of these vocal poems would have +been established by the use of such a title as “Songs Before Death.” + + + “THE NURSERY” + + V. + +“The Russian child,” says M. d’Alheim, “whether belonging to the +peasant or the middle class, only differs from the child of another +nationality in the matter of racial traits.”[15] This difference, +however, as revealed in the child-scenes of Moussorgsky, assumes a +not inconsiderable importance. The Russian child resembles other +children in that he is father to the man; but both child and man +live in a world singularly different, in one particular, from their +Western prototypes. They spend their lives in a world from which the +supernatural element has not been banished. It is introduced by the +nurse through the medium of the folk-stories in which the Russian, +whether child or man, delights. By their own confession Pushkin, +Moussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakof have made us aware that their +oft-displayed affection for legendary lore was instilled into them by +the trusted peasant-woman under whose care their childhood was passed. + +To this influence the world owes several of the national poet’s +immortal works, and the operas and symphonic pieces founded upon them +by such as Glinka, Dargomijsky, Rimsky-Korsakof, and Moussorgsky. The +child’s request, in the first number of “The Nursery,” for a tale +concerning certain legendary personages whose behaviour is, to say +the least of it, a little uncommon, needs no further explanation. +A Russian, hearing the words, would in imagination be immediately +transported, as though by the good offices of some benevolent +_genie_, to his native heath. This little vocal scene has a special +claim to be quoted as a specimen of art-nationalism, showing as it +does the extent to which a popular affection for folk-lore will +contribute to a form of art which may be wooed but cannot be won by +the less imaginative peoples. + +The misdemeanours of Mishenka, left for a moment to himself, are not +perhaps distinctively national. A nursery “strewn with a fearful mess +of cotton, wrecked stitching, and all the contents of the nursery +work-basket, to which a bottle of ink has contributed even greater +devastation,”[16] is a scene which must surely be common to the +nurseries of the civilized world. In contradistinction the third and +sixth numbers reflect the very special interest that the zoological +creation has for the Russian child. The one describes Mishenka in +conflict with a too venturesome cockchafer, and the youngster’s +mystification in the presence of Death; the other relates how the +caged robin escaped, through the timely interference of Mishenka, +from the teeth and claws of Matros the cat. + +The fourth, fifth, and seventh concern respectively a doll, the +child’s evening prayer, and a gallop round the nursery astride a +stick. The doll is exhorted to remember the dreams of its slumber +in order that they may beguile the waking hour; the prayer is +rendered characteristic by an episode--the child’s lapse of memory on +approaching the passage in which Divine grace is solicited on its own +behalf; the furious gallop during which the nursery is “transformed +into a veritable battlefield”[17]--the furniture sustaining heavy +casualties--is a marvellous example of “the notation of pantomime.” + +In “The Nursery” the declamatory method prevails. In the vocal +part there is even less suggestion of melody than in “The Orphan” +or “Savishna.” Moussorgsky never turns aside from his intention +of giving us the child’s speech. The nearest approach to melody +is in “The Child’s Prayer,” in which there are to be found some +repeated phrases. But these are nothing more than a suggestion of the +mechanical way in which the prayer is uttered. The words come not +from his mind but his lips. + +With the accompaniment it is otherwise. In such numbers as “The +Cockchafer,” “The Doll” (a cradle-song), and “The Hobby-Horse,” there +is a clearly defined rhythmic pattern and a sufficiently formal +structure to allow of music that could be divorced from its text. It +must surely have been these numbers that caused Liszt to consider +an arrangement for piano alone. One cannot imagine that any sort of +coherency could have been infused into “Nurse, Tell Me a Tale,” with +its twenty-seven changes of time-signature! + +“The Nursery” is a work of art in which the principles formulated by +Dargomijsky have been carried to their logical conclusion. It is the +equivalent in its special sphere of “The Matchmaker.” The setting +of that comedy was held by the composer to represent his “very +self.” But as the text of “The Nursery” is Moussorgsky’s own, we +may consider it for that reason alone as still more representative. +Besides revealing the genius it shows us the man. + +As a series of child-pictures it stands alone. It is doubtful whether +in the whole world of art its equal as an exposition of the child +could be found. “Moussorgsky,” says M. Combarieu, “is no onlooker; in +depicting the children he himself returns to childhood; one might say +that he plays with them and sulks with them....”[18] + + + SATIRICAL SONGS + + VI. + +The category of “Satirical,” like the classification of “Pamphlet,” +is one which takes no heed of the musical qualities of the example +thus placed. “The Seminarist” is satirical, but in contradistinction +to “The Peepshow” must be called non-political. Musically speaking +it is declamatory, but has a certain rhythmic pattern. So long as +the divinity student attends to his Latin lesson he sings in an +appropriate monotone; when his mind wanders towards the thought of +his instructor’s daughter the vocal contour is softened. As this +happens quite often, “The Seminarist” possesses a musical interest +that would have been absent had the student been of saintly character. + +“The Classicist” is both satire and musical politics. Its victim, +Famintsin, a contemporary critic, was a lover of Handel and a stern +opponent of all “modernist tricks.” “The Classicist,” in ridiculing +these prejudices, takes on the appearance of a _pastiche_. In +one line we are listening to innocuous Handelian music; in the +next to the detested “modernist tricks.” After the quotation from +Rimsky-Korsakof’s “Sadko,” which does not strike us as appalling +cacophony, “The Classicist” becomes itself again, establishing an +atmosphere of repose suitable to a _milieu_ in which music reflecting +the contemporary spirit is taboo. + +“The Musicians’ Peepshow” belongs obviously to the same category. +Its satire is more biting, its political sphere somewhat wider, +and quotations abound. But neither “The Classicist,” nor “The +Peep-show,” nor the Mephistophelean “Flea-song” is in the least +representative of Moussorgsky’s art, however much they may tell us +about that of other folk. Still, they are documents that help to +increase our knowledge of the man, and they have the one great merit +of being exceedingly entertaining. + +The present description of the text, method, and general treatment +of the songs dealt with cannot possibly convey any definite idea of +their musical quality. From the preceding notes it will have been +gathered that the range of material employed by Moussorgsky was +exceedingly wide, and the method of treatment extraordinarily varied. +It will have been realized, moreover, that the composer set before +himself an ideal which made immense demands upon both the imagination +and the inventive faculty. + +For many famous composers a song need claim nothing more than to be +a poem set to music. The accompaniment is a complement of the vocal +line and has little bearing on the text. In Moussorgsky’s songs we +have a new type--they constitute a form of art in which all three +constituents, the text, the vocal line, and the piano part, have +a truly vital function, contributing directly and equally to the +artistic whole. + + + FOOTNOTES: + + [13] A similar coincidence of musical invention, relating to + the same composers, may be observed by comparing passages + in “La Chevelure” (Trois Chansons de Bilitis) and the + “Galitsin” Act of “Khovanshchina.” + + [14] The text of this song was also set to music by Balakiref. + + [15] _Op. cit._ + + [16] M. Montagu-Nathan, _op. cit._ + + [17] From a notice by M. Debussy. + + [18] _Revue Musicale_, January, 1911. + + + + + LIST OF PRINCIPAL PUBLISHED WORKS + + + MUSIC-DRAMA. + + Boris Godounof. + Khovanshchina. + The Matchmaker (First Act). + The Fair at Sorochinsk (fragments). + + + ORCHESTRA. + + A Night on the Bare Mountain. + + + CHORAL. + + The Destruction of Sennacherib. + Joshua. + Œdipus. + Women’s Chorus from abandoned opera Salammbô. + + + PIANO. + + The Picture-Show (Tableaux d’une Exposition). + A number of small pieces. + + + SONGS. + + The Orphan. + Yeremoushka’s Cradle Song. + Labourer’s Lullaby. + Night. + The Classicist. + The Peepshow. + The Dnieper. + The Seminarist. + Savishna. + Gopak. + + + SONG CYCLES. + + Without Sunlight (six numbers). + The Nursery (seven numbers). + Songs and Dances of Death (four numbers). + + + + + INDEX + + + Alexander II., 45 + + Alheim, d’, 26, 91 + + _Antar_, 82 + + Azanchevsky, 16 + + + Balakiref, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26, 28, 37, 44, 47, 76, 82, 91 + + Beethoven, 15 + + Belayef, 81 + + Berlioz, 21, 81 + + Betz, 32 + + Bogomolof, 44 + + _Boris Godounof_, 16, 19, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 41, 42, + 46, 49, 53, 54-66, 67, 72, 73, 78, 79, 85, 86 + + Borodin, 17, 18, 20, 23, 26, 34, 37, 44, 47, 81, 82 + + Byron, 28, 76 + + + Calvocoressi, 51 + + _Central Asia, In the Steppes of_, 82 + + _Chansons de Bilitis_, 90 + + Chernishevsky, 24 + + _Children’s Scherzo_, 22 + + _Classicist, The_, 37, 45, 95, 96 + + Combarieu, 94 + + Cui, 18, 19, 20, 22, 26, 27, 34, 37, 38, 47, 53, 81 + + + Dargomijsky, 16, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 29, 32, 38, 43, 47, 49, + 50, 52, 53, 54, 62, 75, 92, 94 + + _Death_, 31 + + Debussy, 77, 90, 93 + + Demidof, 16 + + _Dnieper_, 84 + + _Don Juan_, 49 + + Dostoievsky, 61 + + + Edwards, Sutherland, 50 + + _Ensigns’ Polka_, 15, 23 + + + Famintsin, 37, 38, 95 + + Ferrero, 32 + + Field, 14 + + Filippof, 44 + + Flaubert, 25, 46, 48 + + _Flea-song_, 6, 96 + + Free School of Music, 41, 44, 76 + + + Gedeonof, 33, 54, 81 + + General Lavine, 77 + + Glinka, 19, 20, 26, 31, 32, 46, 47, 55, 56, 60, 62, 63, 65, 75, 82 + + Gogol, 26, 27, 28, 29, 40, 50, 51, 53 + + _Golden Bird_, 26 + + Golenishchef-Kutuzof, 42, 43, 88, 89 + + _Gopak_, 6, 54 + + _Gopak_ (Song), 29, 84 + + Granados, 77 + + Gunsburg, 44 + + + _Han d’Islande_, 16 + + Handel, 95 + + Hartmann, 33, 39, 77, 78, 79, 80 + + Heine, 49 + + Herke, 14, 15 + + Holbein, 43 + + Hugo, V., 16 + + + _Impromptu passionné_, 22 + + Ivanovsky, 23 + + Ivan the Terrible, 56 + + + _Joshua_, 76 + + + _Kallistrate_, 25 + + Karamzin, 31 + + Karatigin, 48, 54 + + _Khovanshchina_, 16, 34, 35, 40, 41, 42, 46, 66-75, 90 + + Kondratief, 35 + + Kroupsky, 16 + + + Leonof, 41, 42, 43 + + Lermontof, 22, 89 + + _Life for the Tsar, A_, 19, 46, 55, 60, 62 + + Liszt, 14, 21, 80 + + Lyadof, 21, 34, 54 + + + _Maid of Pskof_, 33 + + Manjean, 32 + + Marnold, 66 + + _Matchmaker, The_, 26, 27, 29, 30, 49-53, 94 + + Mendelssohn, 23 + + Mérimée, 57 + + Minkus, 34 + + _Mlada_, 34, 54, 81 + + Moussorgsky, Filaret, 13, 24, 45 + + Mozart, 19 + + _Mushrooms_, 84 + + + Napravnik, 32 + + _Night_, 25 + + _Night in Madrid_, 82 + + _Night in May, A_, 53 + + _Night on the Bare Mountain_, 28, 34, 54, 80-82 + + Nikolsky, 31, 33 + + _Nursery, The_, 38, 42, 43 + + + Obolensky, 16 + + _Œdipus_, 21, 76 + + Opochinin, 31, 33 + + Orfano, 16 + + Orlof, 16 + + _Orphan, The_, 29, 85, 90, 93 + + Oulibishef, 19 + + + Patti, 38 + + _Peasant’s Cradle Song_, 85 + + _Peepshow_, 6, 38, 95, 96 + + Peter the Great, 68 + + Petrof, 35 + + _Picture-Show, The_, 39, 77-80 + + Polejaef, 49 + + Popof, 17 + + Pourgold, Alexandra, 29 + + Pourgold, Nadejda, 29 + + _Prince Igor_, 17 + + Pushkin, 13, 31, 49, 58, 61, 89, 92 + + + Rimsky-Korsakoff, 11, 18, 20, 22, 28, 29, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 41, + 42, 44, 47, 53, 80, 81, 82, 92, 95 + + _Rogneda_, 38 + + Rubinstein, A, 21 + + _Russalka_, 18 + + Russian Musical Society, 21, 37 + + _Russlan and Ludmilla_, 42 + + + _Sadko_, 37, 95 + + _Salammbô_, 25, 46, 48, 49, 54, 76 + + _Savishna_, 85, 86, 93 + + Schumann, 21, 23 + + _Seminarist, The_, 29, 95 + + _Sennacherib, Destruction of_, 28, 44, 76 + + Serof, 37 + + _Sheherazade_, 82 + + Shestakof, 31 + + Shevchenko, 29, 84 + + _Songs and Dances of Death_, 43, 86-88, 89 + + Sophocles, 21, 76 + + _Sorochinsk Fair_, 40, 44, 53, 54, 81 + + Stassof, V. V., 12, 21, 22, 30, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, + 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 53, 67, 78 + + _Stenka Razin_, 82 + + _Stone Guest_, 25, 26, 27, 30, 47, 49 + + + _Tableaux d’une Exposition._ See _Picture-Show_ + + _Tamara_, 82 + + Tolstoi, 37, 38 + + _Traviata_, 18 + + _Trovatore_, 18 + + _Tsar’s Bride, The_, 26 + + + _Urchin_, 86 + + + Vanliarsky, 18 + + Velyaminof, 29 + + Volkonsky, 36 + + + Wagner, 46 + + _Without Sunlight_, 42, 89-91 + + + Yastrebtsef, 11 + + _Yeremoushka’s Cradle Song_, 29 + + + Zaremba, 38 + + + BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND + + + + +Transcriber’s Note: + +Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like +this_. Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the +end of each chapter. Musical chords and meters are presented +with numbers separated by a slash, e.g. 6/4. + +In the index, extraneous commas were deleted from the ends of page +numbers, and page number 38 was corrected under the entry for +Dargomijsky; “an” was changed to “a” before the word “dastardly.” + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77855 *** diff --git a/77855-h/77855-h.htm b/77855-h/77855-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e14a127 --- /dev/null +++ b/77855-h/77855-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3833 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <title> + Moussorgsky | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +/* Heading Styles */ + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + clear: both; + font-weight: bold; + page-break-before: avoid;} + +h1 { /* use for book title */ + margin: 1em 5% 1em; 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+ text-indent: 0; /* needed if using indented paragraphs by default */ + color: #444;} + +/* Footnotes and Anchors */ +.footnotes {border: 1px dashed;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em; text-decoration: none;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none; + white-space: nowrap; +} + +/* Unordered Lists */ +ul { list-style-type: none; } +li.ifrst { + margin-top: 1.5em; + text-indent: -2em; + padding-left: 1em; +} +li.indx { + margin-top: .5em; + text-indent: -2em; + padding-left: 1em; +} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + +/* Illustration classes */ + +.illowp60 {width: 60%;} +.x-ebookmaker .illowp60 {width: 100%;} + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77855 ***</div> + +<figure class="figcenter illowp60" id="portrait" style="max-width: 63.375em;"> + <img class="w100" src="images/portrait.jpg" alt=""> + <figcaption> + <p>MOUSSORGSKY<br> + From a portrait by Repin</p> + </figcaption> +</figure> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p> + +<p class="h2head">MASTERS OF RUSSIAN MUSIC</p> +<hr class="r15"> +<h1>MOUSSORGSKY</h1> + +<p class="p4 center small">BY</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="larger">M. MONTAGU-NATHAN</span><br> +<span class="allsmcap">AUTHOR OF “A HISTORY OF RUSSIAN MUSIC”</span></p> + +<p class="p4 center tall">LONDON<br> +CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED<br> +1916</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</span></p> +<p class="center tall"> +To<br> +F. H. S. +</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> + <h2 class="no-break" id="CONTENTS"> + CONTENTS + </h2> +</div> + +<table> +<tr><td class="tdr muchsmaller pad1" colspan="2">PAGE</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdl">INTRODUCTION</td> + <td class="tdr vlb"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdc pad1" colspan="2">PART <abbr title="One">I</abbr></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdl pad2">CAREER</td> + <td class="tdr vlb"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdc pad1" colspan="2">PART <abbr title="Two">II</abbr></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdl pad2">MOUSSORGSKY AS OPERATIC COMPOSER</td> + <td class="tdr vlb pad3"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdc pad1" colspan="2">PART <abbr title="Three">III</abbr></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdl pad2">CHORAL AND INSTRUMENTAL WORKS</td> + <td class="tdr vlb"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdc pad1" colspan="2">PART <abbr title="Four">IV</abbr></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdl pad2">SONGS</td> + <td class="tdr vlb"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdl pad2">LIST OF PRINCIPAL WORKS</td> + <td class="tdr vlb"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tdl pad2">INDEX</td> + <td class="tdr vlb"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_4"></a><a id="Page_5"></a>[Pg 5]</span></p> + <p class="h1head" id="MOUSSORGSKY"> + MOUSSORGSKY + </p> +</div> + <h2 class="no-break" id="INTRODUCTION"> + INTRODUCTION + </h2> + +<p>It would be idle to enter upon a consideration of the +life and work of Moussorgsky without first making +some attempt to expound his æsthetic outlook. Fortunately +this does not involve reference to a library +of volumes such as that left by Wagner. The German +composer was at considerable pains that the public +should know something of his artistic aims, and also, +be it said, of his social and political views, and those +who approach his music knowing nothing either of +its import or of the personality of its composer have +only themselves to blame.</p> + +<p>With Moussorgsky it is a different matter, especially +as regards the British public, who until two or three +years ago had no means of obtaining any detailed +information about either the man or his work. He +leaves nothing behind him in the shape of an artistic +confession of faith beyond the few scattered utterances +that were delivered in letters to his friends, and even +these are for the most part inaccessible to all who have +no acquaintance with the Russian tongue. This is the +more unfortunate since in England the great Russian +composer first became known through one or two entirely +uncharacteristic works, examples which either +had no artistic significance whatever, or which represented +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span>his views only by their text and not through +its musical setting.</p> + +<p>In the first category is the “Song of the Flea,” +which was accorded the quite unmerited honour of +being among the first of his works to be brought to +England; in the second is “The Peepshow,” which +consists of a commentary upon, and an exposure of, +the prejudices of lesser composers, but which tells us +nothing of Moussorgsky’s genius, his musical style, or +his manner of applying his æsthetic principles in his +own compositions.</p> + +<p>There must still be a considerable number of British +music-lovers to whom Moussorgsky is known as the +composer of one or two operas which they have not +yet had an opportunity of hearing, of a few songs, and +of some examples of symphonic music, such as the +popular “Gopak.”</p> + +<p>It is this section of the public that one addresses +when pronouncing Moussorgsky to be one of the very +greatest figures in the annals of Music⁠—apart altogether +from his creative output. In the world of Art +it does not very often happen that a man who formulates +principles has a sufficiently commanding creative +power to provide his own convincing examples of the +application of those principles. As a rule the artist +who talks of reforms has not himself been highly +endowed with the gift of artistic creation.</p> + +<p>In Moussorgsky’s art we have the reflection of his +own convictions and, what is more, their vindication. +But since his works have an appeal which does not +depend upon a knowledge of the principles they +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span>embody, there seems sufficient reason for supposing +that the creative qualities of the composer are at least +equal in value to his æsthetic preconceptions.</p> + +<p>The art of Moussorgsky is based upon three fundamental +principles: (1) That Art is an expression of +humanity, and, like humanity, is in a constant +state of evolution; (2) that Art, as such, can therefore +have no arbitrary formalistic boundaries; (3) that as the +expression of humanity is an office which ought to be +carried out with a full sense of the responsibility attaching +to those entrusted with it, the artist is called upon +to be sincere in any art-work he may undertake.</p> + +<p>Anyone who had lived in an artistic environment of +his own making, who had never been in touch with an +outside world that looks upon Art as a means of +whiling away a superfluous hour, who had never known +of that problem with which the public artist is continuously +being confronted⁠—the problem of how +suitably to compromise with the dull-witted section of +humanity⁠—would wonder why it should have seemed +necessary to Moussorgsky, or anyone else, to propound +as his confession of faith a series of such platitudinous +axioms. Moreover, in perusing the bare narrative of +Moussorgsky’s life, one would not discover on the +surface anything entitling one to suppose that he in +particular should have been able to recognize the need +for dwelling upon matters that are to be clearly understood +only by those who have never been contaminated +by close contact with the World.</p> + +<p>It is only between the lines of that narrative that +one can discover the key to this mystery. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span>In other walks of life than Art one hears of the +“conversion” of individuals who have hitherto +followed the moral line of least resistance. At a +certain moment in their lives there has come a sudden +awakening, a realization that honesty and decent +behaviour as a whole should not be reckoned a policy, +but an obligation towards oneself.</p> + +<p>A thief may arrive at such a psychological crisis +through being brought face to face with a circumstance +revealing to him for the first time that it is pleasant +to be able to look his neighbour in the eyes. A +drunkard, surveying in a sober interval the ruin +brought upon his family, may resolve that there must +surely be a happy medium of temperance between the +states of drunkenness with wine and what Baudelaire +called drunkenness with virtue. A great national +crisis may open the eyes of a politician so that he will +henceforth consider the party principle and his acquiescence +in it as the betrayal of a trust.</p> + +<p>Such specimens of erring humanity, when awakened +to a sense of duty towards themselves and their +fellows, are reckoned “converted.”</p> + +<p>Moussorgsky, in his early days a musical “rake,” +became a converted musician.</p> + +<p>He saw that Music was the sick man of Art, and that +his past attitude towards it was not likely to improve +its condition. He saw that music is given to man +that he may give utterance to emotions inexpressible +by words. From this starting-point he was not slow in +reaching the conclusion that a nation which is satisfied +to depend upon foreign art-products has not yet become +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span>worthy to be reckoned in the full sense a nation; that +in conveying ideas which are too subtle for verbal +expression, music is ministering not to the mind but +to the temperament; and consequently that it would +be absurd arbitrarily to confine the expression of the +subconscious emotions of one generation within the +forms employed by a previous generation. Finally he +perceived that, if Art was to be taken seriously as an +expression of humanity, it must no longer remain in +a condition in which no earnest human being could +look upon it other than as a frivolous pastime.</p> + +<p>Moussorgsky, once “converted,” began to urge the +necessity of expressing national aspirations by means +of Art, of abolishing the laws that were a mental +product of a previous generation and could therefore +have no bearing upon the temperamental needs of the +present, of emancipating Music from a condition in +which its relation towards the other arts was that +either of a brutal master, or a lying, though nicely-mannered +servant.</p> + +<p>There are conventional terms which contain the +essence of the qualities considered by Moussorgsky to +be indispensable conditions to the welfare of his art. +They are Truth, Freedom, and Progress.</p> + +<p>The presence of the word Truth upon his banner did +not cause a great deal of concern among his contemporaries. +They did not recognize that artistic truth +was a rarity. But the remainder of the legend seemed to +them to aim at the very foundations of the art of Music.</p> + +<p>The attitude of musicians towards music in Moussorgsky’s +day was not strikingly dissimilar from that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>observable in the twentieth century. There was a +reverence for tradition that was little short of a mania. +The older a masterpiece became, the more they +venerated it. The best music of the immediately +previous generation was tolerated apparently on the +ground that it might one day become a classic. Music +of the present generation was by common consent +ignored. To such as these, therefore, the word +Progress seemed to contain a very impertinent challenge. +But what of Freedom? Moussorgsky refused +to observe the laws that, according to him, had been +formulated for the benefit of those who wished merely +to imitate the composers of the past. It is generally +assumed that he was too impatient of technique to +trouble himself about acquiring any considerable +knowledge of it. His complaint that, while he could +discuss art with painters and sculptors, he found that +musicians never got as far as Art, but confined themselves +to questions of technique, explains in some +measure his attitude. “Is it,” he asks, “because it +is my weak point that I hate it?” This inquiry is +not directly answered, but is followed by a justification +couched in metaphor. He likens the exploitation of +technique to the behaviour of your host who persists +in making known to you the ingredients of the +delicious pudding he offers you.</p> + +<p>It would seem as though Moussorgsky found, in the +technical training prescribed for musicians, something +which caused the student to contract an ineradicable +habit of looking backward. This he considered +inimical to the progress of the art. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>Naturally, it is urged against him that, as a great +deal of his work had to be revised by Rimsky-Korsakof, +he himself would have profited had he attained a +greater technical proficiency. As to this it is impossible +to judge fairly without comparing the originals +with Rimsky-Korsakof’s versions. When that is done +one begins to perceive that a great deal of the so-called +“incorrect” or “crude” is music that did not receive +the sanction of his contemporaries, or of the immediately +succeeding generation, for the simple reason that +he was at least three generations ahead of his contemporaries. +The advanced musician of the present day +is, therefore, protesting against the emendations, +because he finds in the original version something that +he would himself be proud of having invented.⁠<a id="FNanchor_1_1" href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>But apart altogether from this aspect of the question, +if we compare the creative work of the emendator and +the emendated, we discover that while Rimsky-Korsakof’s +most recent music is beginning to sound +old-fashioned, Moussorgsky’s music of forty years ago +is not. From which we are entitled to infer that the +music of a composer who happens to be a great genius, +though technically deficient, has a greater vitality +than the music of one who is a great artist and technically +proficient.</p> + +<p>If that be a correct inference, it would seem to be +in the interests of musical progress that a few partnerships +should be arranged between geniuses who are +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span>hampered by a want of technique, and artists whose +training has destroyed or marred their prophetic vision.</p> + +<p>This would perhaps prove a fruitful means of bringing +into the world a store of living music, of music +that would not remind us at intervals of some dead +and gone composer.</p> + +<p>The consideration of Moussorgsky’s opinions cannot +in any case lessen one’s appreciation of his music.</p> + +<p>It will be found that whereas many will vehemently +contest the validity of Moussorgsky’s artistic principles, +exceedingly few will hear his music without +supreme enjoyment. The acceptation of these principles +has been forced upon the musical world on +every occasion on which a genius has arisen. But the +musical world has apparently never become conscious +of having accepted them. It prefers to go on denying +the existence of the mountain range in which the +stream of great music has its source.</p> + +<p>The study of Moussorgsky’s life and work affords +a rare opportunity of observing that a composer who +is frankly a futurist is not necessarily either a fool, a +wag, or a knave. For in listening to his music, we +of the present generation cannot imagine for the life +of us what all the pother was about. It is all quite +acceptable. But the principles⁠—which are new to us, +and, unlike the music, will always be new to a wicked +world⁠—those we cannot ever bring ourselves to uphold!</p> + +<p>“When our efforts to put the actual living man in +our music are appreciated, ...” wrote Moussorgsky +to his friend Stassof, “then shall we have begun to +make progress....”</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="unindent"><a id="Footnote_1_1" href="#FNanchor_1_1" class="label">[1]</a> In Yastrebtsef’s “Recollections of Rimsky-Korsakof” +(now in course of serial publication by the <cite>(Russian Musical Gazette)</cite>), many of the latter’s utterances on this subject are +recorded.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="PART_I"> + PART <abbr title="One">I</abbr> + </h2> + <h3>CAREER </h3> + <h4><abbr title="One">I.</abbr></h4> +</div> + +<p>Modeste Petrovich Moussorgsky was born on +March 16th (O.S.), 1839, at Karevo, a village situated +in that district (Toropets) of the Pskof Government +nearest to the Muscovite boundary. The household +at that moment consisted of his father, Pyotr Alexeyevich, +a small landowner; his mother, whose maiden +name was Shirikof; a brother, Filaret; and the all-important +nurse.</p> + +<p>The child’s surroundings from the very first were +such as to contribute most happily to the development +of his particular form of genius. His father appears +to have enjoyed music, although not displaying any +executive ability; his mother was a very fair pianist. +For her influence he was never tired of expressing his +indebtedness in terms such as leave no room for doubt +as to his filial affection. But it was to his nurse, as +was the case with Pushkin, that he owed the very seeds +of his art. “My nurse,” wrote the composer in after +years, “made me intimately acquainted with Russian +folk-lore.” Her stories of the terrible Kashchei, the +fearful Baba Yaga, the heroic Ivan Tsarevich, and the +inexhaustibly beautiful Tsarevna, played so vividly +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>upon the child’s imagination as to keep him awake at +night for hours together. As soon as he realized the +functions of the piano, he set about making childish +musical pictures of these personages. For the first +ten years of his life he enjoyed a rural environment, +and at an early age he displayed that affection for the +land and its denizens that characterized his later +outlook upon the world.</p> + +<p>Naturally it fell to his mother to give him his first +lessons in music. Seeing that the only region in which +Moussorgsky ever reached technical excellence was in +that of piano-playing, it may be supposed that her +instruction was not wanting in method. But perceiving, +no doubt, that his studies would be of greater +value if carried on under the guidance of someone +trained in the art of teaching, she lost no time, once +the boy’s gift was evident, in engaging a governess⁠—a +German, whose qualifications were unexceptionable. +In her hands little Modeste made quite rapid strides. +At the age of seven he could already give a fair +account of some light pieces of Liszt, and when only +nine he astonished the guests at an evening party by +his mastery over a concerto by John Field.</p> + +<p>A few years later the two brothers were taken +to Petrograd and placed in a school. Modeste was +eventually to enter the army, but the parents, rejoicing +at his evident gift for music, determined to do everything +in their power to develop it. Necessary inquiries +having been made, their choice fell upon +Herke, a teacher with a considerable following, whom +they engaged to direct the youngster’s studies. The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>master was able at once to endorse the opinion of +Modeste’s parents, and undertook his training with +great enthusiasm. The little fellow soon showed that +his teacher’s confidence was not misplaced. He made +such progress that after a year’s tuition he was allowed +to take part in a small concert; he acquitted himself +so well, and attracted so much attention, that his +delighted master bestowed on him a copy of a +Beethoven sonata as a mark of his esteem.</p> + +<p>In 1852, Moussorgsky entered a private preparatory +institution, from whence he passed into the school +for Ensigns of the Guard. His first composition was +an “Ensigns’ Polka,” which he dedicated to his comrades. +Herke, with whom he was still taking lessons, +insisted on publishing the piece. During the last two +years of his course at the school, which ended in 1855, +he was obliged to devote rather less attention to music; +his military studies were taking up a good deal of his +time. He went to Herke once a week, and was allowed +also to attend when the daughter of the school director +took her lessons.</p> + +<p>Moussorgsky appears to have been a particularly +diligent scholar. His biographers record that at this +time, in addition to his military and musical studies, +he displayed a decided liking for history and philosophy; +he is said to have begun a translation of Lavater +while still in the early ’teens, surely a remarkable +taste in a youth. Hardly less odd, perhaps, was the +desire to acquaint himself with the basic principles of +the music of the Greek Church, for which purpose he +studied privately with one of the school staff. A little +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>later in life he had every reason to congratulate himself +on having made these researches. Moussorgsky +wrote no music which could be called, in the strict +sense of the term, sacred, but in the two music-dramas, +“Boris Godounof” and “Khovanshchina,” as well +as in a satirical song, he has proved that the hours +passed with the priest Kroupsky were well spent.</p> + +<p>Already during his school-days he had made one +or two musical friends; among them was Azanchevsky, +who eventually became Director of the Petrograd +Conservatoire; and on entering the Preobajensky +regiment of Guards (in 1856), he found himself among +quite a number of young amateurs of music. Sub-lieutenant +Orfano had a weakness, for which his name +seems to account, for Italian opera; Orlof’s taste ran +in the direction of the military march; Demidof, +afterwards a friend of Dargomijsky and class inspector +at the Conservatoire, was a popular song-writer; +while Prince Obolensky, the nature of whose proclivities +is not defined, was deemed worthy to receive +the dedication of a little piano piece written by +Moussorgsky at this time.</p> + +<p>It is clear that the young composer had no intention +of limiting his efforts to the region of salon music, for +not long after his entrance into the Preobajensky he +began his first attempt at opera. Here, however, +desire outran performance, and neither the libretto +which he tried to adapt from Hugo’s “Han d’Islande,” +nor its abortive musical setting, resulted in anything +more tangible than the respectful admiration of his +comrades.</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span></p> +<p>It is likely that, had his musical environment not +been enlarged, he might not have been encouraged to +widen his outlook upon the art. Hitherto his social +circle had consisted of young men who regarded music +purely as a diversion, and the possession of a pleasant +baritone voice and a marked talent for piano-playing +was sufficient to secure a considerable popularity among +them.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Two">II.</abbr></h4> + +<p>Towards the early autumn of 1856, however, he +fell in with someone whose aims were a little more +elevated, someone serious enough to realize the futility +of Moussorgsky’s musical life at that moment. This +was A. P. Borodin, now known to the world as the +composer of “Prince Igor,” but then a young man of +some twenty-two years who divided his time between +scientific research and the pursuit of music. Borodin +has left us a pen-picture which describes in graphic +fashion the young guardsman himself and the musical +society he was then wont to affect.</p> + +<p>“My first meeting with Moussorgsky took place in +September or October, 1856. I had just been made +an army surgeon. Moussorgsky was then seventeen +years of age. We met in the hospital common-room. +We were both rather bored by our duties and were +glad of an opportunity for conversation. In a few +moments we had discovered our common interest. +That evening we had been invited to the quarters of +the chief medical officer Popof. The latter had a +marriageable daughter.... Moussorgsky was at this +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>time a real dandy ... with the airs of a great personage.... +He had a rather affected way of talking, +and his conversation was interlarded with French +expressions.... He would seat himself at the piano +and play snatches of ‘Trovatore’ or ‘Traviata,’ to +the delight of the assembled company of ladies.... +I only saw Moussorgsky three or four times, and then +lost sight of him....”</p> + +<p>More important in its effect upon Moussorgsky’s +musical development was his meeting, a month or so +later, with Dargomijsky, to whom he was introduced +by one of his comrades, Vanliarsky by name. The +composer of “Russalka,” which had just been produced, +took a great liking for the young officer, and +under this influence the latter’s taste rapidly underwent +a change. He began to feel a need for a more +serious type of music and a more discriminating +audience. As time went on he became conscious that +beneath his superficial respect for the vanities of life +and of art lay a desire to come to grips with their +realities. There was thus a good deal in common +between Dargomijsky and his young disciple.</p> + +<p>Just about a year after the chance meeting described +by Borodin, Moussorgsky became acquainted with two +others, whose names are now invariably associated not +only with his own and Borodin’s, but with that of +Rimsky-Korsakof, who afterwards joined and completed +the little côterie subsequently famous as the “Five.” +These two, Mili Alexeyevich Balakiref and Cesar +Antonovich Cui, were frequent visitors at Dargomijsky’s. +In the previous year Balakiref had come to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>Petrograd to complete the musical studies he had +until then been prosecuting under the guidance of +Oulibishef, the biographer of Mozart. Oulibishef had +given his young <i lang="fr">protégé</i> a letter to Glinka, and the +composer of “A Life for the Tsar” had been mightily +pleased to meet with one who was so obviously suited +to conduct a propaganda on behalf of his cherished +nationalistic ideal. Balakiref was not long in the +capital before he met Cui. Both were young men +under twenty, and their common dissatisfaction with +the condition of musical taste in Petrograd served +as a bond of friendship. Cui had known Dargomijsky +for some little time, and was thus well versed in the +principles of the Glinkist ideal. Balakiref and Cui +resolved that the prevailing taste for all things foreign +must be discouraged, and that, in music at any rate, +a national style should be founded which should oust +the German, French, and Italian traditions that had +so long been objects of worship in Russia.</p> + +<p>Moussorgsky’s association with Dargomijsky and +his two disciples was the means of leading him to the +study of a work of which, in one sense, “Boris +Godounof” is to be considered the prototype. Glinka’s +“A Life for the Tsar,” of which he appears hitherto +to have known little or nothing, contains at least two +of the elements that are characteristics of Moussorgsky’s +music-drama. It has a purely Russian subject, and +it glorifies the Russian people. Here, then, was a work +which could hardly fail to inspire a man who had but +lately turned away from the facile successes of the +drawing-room.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span></p> +<p>Besides these, there are other components to be +discovered in Moussorgsky’s operatic and vocal works +which are to be traced, not to the influence of Glinka, +but to that of Dargomijsky. Discussion of this influence +must, however, be deferred; for the moment we +are concerned only with drawing attention to the circumstances +responsible for Moussorgsky’s remarkable +emancipation. The young guardsman had found himself; +he had seen, as it were, a reflection of his own +latent creative powers and tendencies in the works of +Glinka and Dargomijsky; the patriotism of the first +and the sincerity of the second drove him to realize +that this type of music must for the future monopolize +his attention and interest. He would, in his own +words, devote himself to “real” music.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Three">III.</abbr></h4> + +<p>As up to this time Moussorgsky’s musical activities +had been largely of a social kind, he felt that in order +to take his place, as he desired, beside his new associates, +he must render himself conversant with the form and +structure of music; to this end he resolved to take +lessons from Balakiref, whose knowledge was sufficiently +wide to enable him to take the place of leader +in the newly established côterie.⁠<a id="FNanchor_2_2" href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>Balakiref’s account of his method of instruction is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>a little astonishing. Master and pupil played through, +in four-handed arrangements, the works of the classic +masters, and those of such moderns as Schumann, +Berlioz, and Liszt. “So well did I explain to him +their musical form,” says a communication to Stassof, +“that he was soon able to compose a symphonic +Allegro which was not altogether wanting in merit.”</p> + +<p>Balakiref was plainly cognizant that these lessons +were not to be regarded as comprehensive. He avows +that his own knowledge did not permit of anything +more than the analysis of forms, that he was unable +to undertake instruction in harmony; but he appears +to have been satisfied that for Moussorgsky such +knowledge was negligible. He was at all events +sufficiently pleased with his pupil’s early essays in +composition to recommend them for performance, with +the result that one of two orchestral scherzos (that in +B minor) was played in 1860 at a concert of the Russian +Musical Society, under the conductorship of Anton +Rubinstein. The choral setting of Sophocles’ “Œdipus,” +also written at this time, was performed in the +following year⁠—Constantin Lyadof, the father of the +famous composer, conducting.</p> + +<p>With the development of his creative capacity, +Moussorgsky began to conceive an aversion from his +military duties, and his transference to a station at +some little distance from Petrograd served to increase +his desire to be freed from them. Arguing +to himself that absence from the capital would involve +a cessation of his musical activities, he resolved to +send in his papers.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span></p> +<p>Stassof’s reminder that the great Lermontof had +contrived to reconcile the two occupations of poet and +soldier met with the laconic reply: “Lermontof and I +are two different people.” He had also to argue with +his other friends. Despite all remonstrance, he carried +his determination into effect and, forsaking Mars, +devoted himself henceforth to St. Cecilia.</p> + +<p>The cause of Moussorgsky’s subsequent physical +degeneration is now known to have been intemperance, +but there can be little doubt that his nervous system +was far from normal. More than once in the chronicle +of his short life one finds a record of nervous breakdown. +The first of these occurred shortly after the +severance of his connection with the army, and +in consequence he was obliged to betake himself +from Petrograd for a time. The medicinal waters at +Tikhvin, the birthplace of Rimsky-Korsakof, brought +about an improvement in his health which enabled +him to resume his activities as a composer. During +the summer he wrote a “Children’s Scherzo” and an +“Impromptu Passionné,” both for piano; the latter, +which is said to have been inspired by a perusal of +a then popular “problem” novel, was not published +until after his death.</p> + +<p>The change in Moussorgsky has been referred to as +a physical degeneration; it should be understood that +the later intellectual decay did not manifest itself +during the period now under review. On the contrary, +he has left indisputable evidence of a spiritual awakening +which seems to have begun soon after his resignation +from the army. In a letter to Cui, written from +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>his mother’s house at Toropets, he records his exasperation +at the behaviour of the reactionaries who had +set themselves energetically to oppose the emancipation +of serfs, which had just then been effected. The composer +of the “Ensigns’ Polka” was becoming aware +that the real greatness of Russia lay in the temper of +its people. The triumphs of the smart guardsman +were forgotten; he had now an altogether different +social ideal.</p> + +<p>Borodin, who again met Moussorgsky in the autumn +of 1859, was apparently struck rather by the physical +than the mental change, although the former tells us +that the latter’s views on music had undergone a +remarkable transformation. “He looked much older, +had grown stouter, and had lost his military bearing. +As might be supposed, we talked a good deal about +music. I was at that time a devotee of Mendelssohn; +of Schumann I knew nothing.... Ivanovsky (assistant +professor at the Medical Academy), seeing that +we had a common ground of sympathy, asked us to +play a four-handed arrangement of Mendelssohn’s +A minor symphony. Moussorgsky demurred at first, +but consented on condition that the Andante, which +he submitted was not symphonic and savoured of +the ‘Songs without words,’ should be omitted.... +Later Moussorgsky spoke enthusiastically of Schumann’s +symphonies.... He began to play excerpts +from the one in E flat. Arrived at the development +section, he stopped for a moment, saying: ‘Now for +the musical mathematics!’”</p> + +<p>Further light upon Moussorgsky’s changing outlook +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span>on life is shed by his choice of a mode of living on +his return from Toropets to Petrograd. He now +joined a party of young progressives, whose views on +the prevailing topic are revealed in the name given to +their côterie, “La Commune.”</p> + +<p>Some half-dozen of them shared a flat, each having a +private room; their evenings were spent in a common-room, +in which took place lively discussions on music, +art, and sociological matters. This arrangement was +of a kind very popular at that time among students, +single officers, and State employees. Their “gospel” +was Chernishevsky’s socialistic volume, “Shto +dyelat?” (What is to be done?), in which the problems +of the newly freed peasantry had been dealt with.</p> + +<p>In this circle Moussorgsky was the only member +not employed by the State. But after a time he discovered +that to live by music alone was impossible, +and he began to undertake translation work. This +occupation, while solving the one problem, raised +another. His health began once more to give way. +His brother Filaret tried to induce him to give up the +“Commune.” Moussorgsky at first refused, but when +a little later his constitution gave signs of a breakup, +he gave way, left Petrograd, and established himself +at Minkino. This sojourn in the country, which +lasted until 1868, was altogether beneficial to his health.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Four">IV.</abbr></h4> + +<p>Although Moussorgsky was worried both by a +decline in health and by money matters, the period +spent with the “Commune” was not entirely +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>unfruitful. Considering, indeed, the ultimate fate of +the composition which represents that period, it may +be regarded as singularly important.</p> + +<p>One of the literary topics discussed by the little +côterie had been a newly issued Russian version of +Flaubert’s “Salammbô.”</p> + +<p>Moussorgsky’s work as a whole shows far less of a +predilection for Orientalism than that of his colleagues +of the “Five.” Yet this subject appealed to him +sufficiently to suggest itself as the plot of an opera, +and having contrived to adapt the original for its +dramatic purpose, entered upon his first serious operatic +undertaking. On his departure from Petrograd he +put this on one side. It was never resumed, but +various fragments of the three completed scenes were +afterwards drawn upon, and are now to be heard in +the mature works with which the world is familiar. +Thus “Salammbô,” although itself an abortive work, +may be considered as foreshadowing the composer’s +maturity. The songs composed contemporaneously, +“Night” and “Kallistrate,” are also to be classed +with his later vocal works in point of quality and +style.</p> + +<p>In the meantime Moussorgsky had fallen more and +more under the influence of Dargomijsky. The +latter’s epoch-making opera “The Stone Guest” was +attracting the attention of the Circle as a whole, and +performances of the completed portions were a prominent +feature of the gatherings which now took place +at Dargomijsky’s house. Moussorgsky’s share in the +proceedings was the doubling of the parts of Leporello +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span>and Don Carlos, but his attention to the work +did not end with this; he had arrived at a complete +agreement with its composer as to the method +of operatic construction employed therein.</p> + +<p>“When Moussorgsky left St. Petersburg for the +country in 1866,” says M. Olenin d’Alheim, “his +friends in parting with him expressed the hope that he +would return with an opera. No sooner had he settled +down to country life than he hastened to comply.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_3_3" href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>Of the Circle two other members had begun to write +operas, of which the method of construction was to be +in conformity with that of “The Stone Guest.” +Balakiref had taken the subject of “The Golden Bird,” +in a version resembling Grimm’s story, whilst Borodin +was occupied with a setting of Mey’s “The Tsar’s +Bride,” a dramatized record of an episode in the life +of Ivan the Terrible. Both these attempts were +abandoned. Balakiref discovered that he had no gift +for Opera, and Borodin soon realized that his vocation +lay in following Glinka rather than Dargomijsky. Lyricism +and not dramatic realism was the medium natural +to him. As to Cui, he was not precisely disenchanted +with the Dargomijskian method; it may be said that +he persevered with the decreed principles, but in +putting them into practice he was but partially +successful.</p> + +<p>Moussorgsky’s choice of a libretto fell on +Gogol’s well-known play “The Matchmaker.” The +task of providing this with a musical setting would +hardly have attracted anyone who had not been in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>complete sympathy with the propaganda on foot in +the Circle. Viewed even as a demonstration of the +principle that “the word must be reflected in the +sound,” which was Dargomijsky’s watchword, Gogol’s +“utterly incredible comedy” might well have been +considered as presenting certain insuperable difficulties. +“The Matchmaker” is throughout in colloquial +prose; no one who had been brought up to +respect the settled traditions of Opera could for one +moment have dreamed of such a libretto. With +Moussorgsky it was different. He knew “The Stone +Guest”; it never occurred to him to regard it as a +“recitative in three acts” (it was thus described on +its first performance by a cynical critic); he saw in it +an attempt to give dignity to the name of Opera, and +as this had become his own particular desire he resolved +to make a similar attempt.</p> + +<p>When Moussorgsky returned for a short time to +Petrograd, he did not bring an opera with him. But, +far from showing any disappointment, his friends +displayed the greatest interest in the plan of the +projected work. On leaving the capital once again +he addressed himself immediately to the composition +of the music for “The Matchmaker.” Writing on +July 3rd, 1868, to Cui, from the village of Chilof, he +reports progress: “... No sooner had I got away +from St. Petersburg than I finished the first scene.... +The first act is divided into three scenes.... I am +trying to work out the various inflections of intonation +which will be heard from the performers in the course +of the dialogue, and this, moreover, is to be observed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>in the minutest particular. In this, in my opinion, +is to be found the secret of the greatness of Gogol’s +humour....” To this letter Moussorgsky adds a +postscript, dated July 10th: “I have finished the first +act.... There will be four instead of three scenes: +it had to be.” The composer’s enthusiasm for the +subject is shown in a further communication to his +friend, written a month or so later: “What a subtle +imagination Gogol has! He has studied the peasant +class and has discovered some most captivating types +among them.... His old women are priceless.”</p> + +<p>In addition to his actual creative work Moussorgsky +had for some time been striving to improve his very +deficient technique. “In Balakiref’s community,” +writes Rimsky-Korsakof in his Memoirs, “it was the +custom to regard such studies as those of harmony +and counterpoint as negligible....” If Moussorgsky +at that time (1866–67) was capable of “making a +virtue of his ignorance,” it is certain that he very soon +realized the futility of so doing, even if he did not +reveal his altered attitude to his friends.</p> + +<p>It is unfortunately impossible to determine his +progress. “The Destruction of Sennacherib” (after +Byron’s poem), a work for chorus and orchestra, is +supposed to have been an “exercise” prompted by +the consciousness of an improvement in the art of +instrumentation, but this, like the “Night on the +Bare Mountain,” composed in 1867, has been published +in the later version, in which the instrumentation +is that of Rimsky-Korsakof; the version of the +latter now used is so different from the symphonic +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span>tableau of 1867 that it throws no more light upon the +composer’s technical capabilities at the date at which +it was written than does the choral work.</p> + +<p>Some interesting specimens of vocal writing are also +to be associated with this period. Among them are +the popular “Gopak” (to a text by the Ukrainian +Shevchenko); “The Seminarist,” a song in the satirical +vein, which portrays a theological student “whose +efforts to grapple with some Latin substantives are +sadly disturbed by the intruding mental vision of his +teacher’s fair daughter”;⁠<a id="FNanchor_4_4" href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> “The Orphan,” a wonderful +example of the musical reflection of the spoken +accent; and “Yeremoushka’s Cradle Song.”</p> + +<p>Such specimens as “The Seminarist” and “The +Orphan” are obviously by-products of “The Matchmaker” +period. In the one we are able to recognize +the spiritual affinity between Moussorgsky and Gogol; +in the other we may observe the realization of the +Dargomijskian ideal in a small form.</p> + +<p>The period above referred to was destined to reach +an abrupt termination. “The Matchmaker” was +never finished. On the resumption of the meetings +of the Circle in the autumn of 1868, the first act was +given a drawing-room performance at Dargomijsky’s +house, the parts being played by the composer, Dargomijsky, +Velyaminof⁠—an amateur vocalist⁠—and the +two sisters Pourgold⁠—Alexandra in the title-rôle, and +Nadejda, who afterwards married Rimsky-Korsakof, +at the piano. The last-named composer records in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>his Memoirs that the fragment made a profound +impression, especially upon Stassof, to whom the +work was afterwards dedicated. The composer of +“The Stone Guest,” we are told, considered that +Moussorgsky had a little over-reached himself, in what +respect does not transpire; one imagines that exception +was taken to the meticulousness with which in +“The Matchmaker” Moussorgsky sought a co-ordination +of text and music.</p> + +<p>The cause of Moussorgsky’s sudden resolve to +abandon his “<i lang="fr">opera dialogué</i>” was that the subject +of “Boris Godounof” had been suggested to him. In +that section of the musical world in which this great +national music-drama is well known, there must surely +be something approaching unanimity of opinion that +of the two the latter work could less be spared. “Boris” +is of course a much more genial score. And without +approaching at all closely the conventional opera, it +is at all events more in conformity with that type +than the quite revolutionary “Matchmaker.” But if, +as one hopes may be, the reform of Opera is ever +carried to the same lengths as have already been +reached in the domain of the drama pure and simple, +Moussorgsky’s fragment must then be estimated at a +higher value. It is a work that makes no concessions +whatever. It is a musical comedy in which the effect +of the humour of the original is heightened by its +musical setting. “The Matchmaker” demonstrates +that music may be married to drama without danger +of its becoming a mere handmaiden of the other art. +Moussorgsky has been himself a matchmaker; the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>marriage he brought about must surely have received +the sanction of St. Cecilia; it is a great misfortune that +the union should have been shortlived.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Five">V.</abbr></h4> + +<p>On Moussorgsky’s return to urban life he sought +the hospitable shelter offered by some friends of his +mother, Opochinin by name. Here he continued to +live for two years, during half of which period he held +a post in the Department of Woods and Forests. +The composer has left tributes to the kindness shown +him by these friends in the shape of various dedications. +The unfinished song entitled “Death⁠—an +Epitaph” is inscribed “To N.P.O...chi...n,” and +is said to have been inspired by his grief at the lady’s +death. It was under the Opochinins’ roof that much of +“Boris Godounof” was written. Its subject was +suggested to the composer by Vladimir Vassilievich +Nikolsky, a professor at the University of Petrograd, +whom Moussorgsky had met at the house of Mme +Shestakof, Glinka’s sister. For the libretto he went +to the famous work of Pushkin, interpolating +certain interesting historical episodes from Karamzin’s +chronicles of the period. This initial version was +subsequently modified to no small extent, not +without some reluctance, however, on Moussorgsky’s +part.</p> + +<p>Aware that a successful treatment of the subject +would entitle him to wear the mantle of no less a man +than Glinka, he threw himself into his work with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span>immense enthusiasm, and “Boris” progressed with +wonderful rapidity. Begun on September 6th, 1868, +it was completed within a year. Its first act was +finished in a little over two months, and won the +warm approval of Dargomijsky, who, despite his +failing health, still took part in the meetings of the +Circle. There was, however, a complete unanimity of +opinion as to certain defects in the general plan of +“Boris,” one of them being an absence of feminine +interest. To this the composer demurred.</p> + +<p>But when in the autumn of 1870 he submitted the +work to the operatic authorities, he was forced to see +that even if the criticism was uncalled for, the hiatus +complained of would militate against his chances of +seeing the opera accepted.</p> + +<p>The Imperial Operatic Committee consisted of +Napravnik, Manjean, and Betz, the respective conductors +of Russian, French, and German Opera, and +Ferrero, a double-bass player who was apparently +watching over the interests of Italian music. The +novelty of the composer’s music was not viewed with +the sympathy it commanded in his own immediate +circle, and the absence of a prominent female character +was pronounced by the Committee to be a vital defect. +There were some other quite frivolous objections, +among them the point raised by Ferrero, who took +exception to certain “impossible” passages for his +own instrument. Moussorgsky was of course deeply +offended, but he seems to have realized that his scenario +left much to be desired. At any rate he set about +making some radical alterations. He inserted the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span>Polish Act, which brought in a love interest; and the +scene in the Kromy forest, hitherto the penultimate, +was now placed at the end of the opera. The episodes +of the striking clock and the parakeet, which occur in +the second act (the Tsar’s apartments), were also +added.</p> + +<p>The whole of the year 1871 was devoted to the reconstruction +of “Boris.” Moussorgsky was guided +in this labour by several of his friends, Stassof the +critic, Hartmann the architect, whose name he has +immortalized in “The Picture-Show,” Nikolsky, and +Rimsky-Korsakof, with whom he had now begun to +share rooms.</p> + +<p>One imagines the latter to be right in supposing this +to be the single instance of two composers thus joining +forces. He gives us an assurance that each of the +pair was able to carry on his work (Moussorgsky was +occupied with the revision of “Boris,” and Rimsky-Korsakof +was composing his first opera, “The Maid +of Pskof”) without any sort of clash. The latter +spent two mornings a week at the Conservatoire (he +was already a professor in that institution); the former +left the house at about noon to attend to his official +duties at the Ministry of Woods and Forests, and +often dined at the Opochinins’. “Nothing,” records +Rimsky-Korsakof, “could have turned out better.... +In that autumn and the following winter there was a +constant exchange of ideas and plans.”</p> + +<p>This arrangement became really opportune when +Gedeonof approached the Circle with his historic +proposal. The then Director of the Imperial Opera +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>brought forward his “Mlada” project, soliciting the +co-operation of Borodin, Cui, Moussorgsky, and +Rimsky-Korsakof. The scheme of “Mlada” was to +be a combination of ballet, opera, and fairy-tale, on +a subject taken from the chronicles of the Polabian +Slavs. The ballet dances were entrusted to Minkus, +and the rest of the music to the four composers named. +The second and third sections of “Mlada” fell to +Moussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakof; and as the pagan +deity Chernobog figured prominently in the libretto, +the former proposed to make use of the unpublished +“Night on the Bare Mountain,” in the programme of +which the Black god is a protagonist.</p> + +<p>For reasons not unconnected with finance, Gedeonof +was obliged to renounce his ambitious project, and +the four composers were left with their musical material +on their hands. Long afterwards, when editing +Borodin’s compositions, Rimsky-Korsakof, at the +suggestion of Lyadof, went to this subject for the +literary foundation of his opera-ballet “Mlada.”</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Six">VI.</abbr></h4> + +<p>Moussorgsky returned at once to his work on +“Boris.” While yet thus occupied Stassof, whose +judgment had so often been sought in the choice of +a libretto (it is supposed that he had been consulted +in the matter of “Mlada”), recommended to Moussorgsky +the subject of “Khovanshchina.” In Stassof’s +opinion “the antagonism between the old Russia and +the new, and the triumph of the latter, would provide +excellent material.... Moussorgsky,” continues the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span>critic, “was of the same mind.... He set to work +with ardour. To study the history of the Raskolniks +(Old Believers) and the chronicles of seventeenth-century +Russia involved immense labour. The many +long letters he wrote me at this time were full of information +as to his researches and his views in regard +to the music, characters, and scenes of the opera. The +best sections were written between 1872 and 1875.”</p> + +<p>It so happened that, during the earliest days of his +occupation with this subject, it was proposed to stage +a fragment of “Boris Godounof” at the Maryinsky +Theatre on the occasion of a “benefit” given to the +<i lang="fr">régisseur</i> Kondratief. The portions chosen were the +Inn scene⁠—the famous Petrof undertaking the rôle +of Varlaam⁠—and the scene at the fountain, from the +Polish Act. The performance, which took place in +February, 1873, was so successful that it was decided +to stage the whole opera forthwith. From Rimsky-Korsakof +one learns that, at a supper held after this +preliminary performance, the composer and his opera +were toasted in champagne.</p> + +<p>The circumstance of this somewhat belated acceptance +of “Boris Godounof” called forth the caustic +communication (in a birthday letter) addressed to +Stassof on January 2nd, 1873: “... When we are +crucified by the musical Pharisees, then shall we have +begun to make progress.... It is highly gratifying +to think that whilst they are reproaching us for ‘Boris’ +we are absorbed in ‘Khovanshchina.’ Our gaze is +fixed upon the future, and we are not to be deterred +by criticism. They will accuse us of having violated +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>all the divine and human canons. We shall just say +‘Yes,’ adding to ourselves that there will be ere long +many such violations. ‘You will soon be forgotten,’ +they will croak, ‘for ever and aye,’ and our answer +will be: ‘<i lang="fr">Non, non, et non, Madame.</i>’” In a postscript +he explains to Stassof that the final French +denial is a quotation from a certain Princess Volkonsky.</p> + +<p>The first complete representation of “Boris +Godounof” took place on January 24th, 1874, at the +Maryinsky Theatre. With the result of this performance +Moussorgsky and his friends had every reason to +be satisfied. “We were all triumphant,” says Rimsky-Korsakof. +The reception of the work by the public +was in no respect lacking in warmth. Bands of +enthusiasts left the theatre singing passages from the +familiar folk-tunes it contains. “Four wreaths, appropriately +inscribed, were brought to the theatre on one +of the evenings, but through the machinations of an infuriated +opposition, their presentation, intended to take +place during the performance, was obstructed, and they +had to be sent to Moussorgsky’s private dwelling.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_5_5" href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<p>The “infuriated opposition” appears to have been +organized by the reactionary critics. These accused +the composer of “technical ignorance, vulgarity, want +of taste....” It would appear that the critical +faction wielded a power so great as to defeat popular +enthusiasm. After running for twenty performances, +“Boris Godounof” disappeared from the placards of the +Imperial Opera, and was kept quite in the background +for many years.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span></p> +<h4><abbr title="Seven">VII.</abbr></h4> + +<p>The period in which the preparation of “Boris +Godounof” bulks so largely is also notable for some +other important compositions.</p> + +<p>The first among these is the satirical song known as +“The Classicist.” The arrogance of “The Invincible +Band” as a whole, and particularly that displayed +by Cui in his criticisms, was a constant source of vexation +to the orthodox party. Balakiref, as conductor +of the Russian Musical Society’s concerts, came in for +a good share of the opprobrium heaped upon the +Circle; and the constitution of a programme, given in +1869, in which the compositions of the “New Russian +School” figured somewhat prominently, was warmly +criticized by such writers as Serof, Theophilus Tolstoi, +and Famintsin, on the score of its neglect of the +classics. The chief object of the attack was Borodin’s +E flat major symphony, the leading assailant being +Famintsin. A short time after this, Rimsky-Korsakof’s +symphonic tableau “Sadko” was performed. +Its theme had been suggested by Moussorgsky, who at +one time had intended making use of it himself, and +his ire was thoroughly aroused when Famintsin greeted +the work with a particularly spiteful article. It +needed no more than a mere suggestion from Stassof +to provoke the composition of “The Classicist,” a +satire on the reactionary critic with a special allusion +to the disapproval of certain manifestations of modernism +in “Sadko,” from which work “The Classicist” +contains a quotation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p> +<p>A few months later Moussorgsky applied himself +to a general castigation of the opposing party by +means of the thongs of satire. “In ‘The Peepshow’ +he did not confine himself as before to the lampooning +of one critic, but committed himself to a characteristic +reproduction of the particular musical foible of each.... +It invites inspection of a series of puppets in +a showman’s booth.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_6_6" href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Zaremba, director of the +Conservatoire, the pietist for whom the minor mode +signified original sin, the major, redemption; Theophilus +Tolstoi, an unqualified critic whose ignorance and +whose admiration of Patti have been suitably dealt +with by Cui in a “fable” which is really a masterpiece +of satire; Famintsin, whose appearance is accompanied +by a reference to some law proceedings instituted +against Stassof; and lastly Serof the Wagnerian, +referred to by means of a quotation from his “Rogneda”⁠—these +were the subjects of Moussorgsky’s +musical caricature. When a further attack was suggested⁠—Stassof +proposed a song to be called “The +Crab”⁠—Moussorgsky must surely have considered +that this would be tantamount to thrashing a dead +horse; at any rate he did not act upon the hint.</p> + +<p>Another work belonging to this period, one which +possesses a far greater significance as a work of art, +is the set of seven songs called “The Nursery.” The +first of these, “Nurse, Tell Me a Tale,” is dedicated +to Dargomijsky, whose encouragement is responsible +for the subsequent completion of the series. In “The +Nursery” is to be found the most remarkable of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>composer’s manifestations of genius. In two respects +these little sketches of child-life are absolutely unconventional. +In the first place, as the composer not only +loved children, but possessed the rare faculty of understanding +them, he does not portray them from the +view-point of those “grown-ups” who are so confident +of the advantages of experience that they forget to +give credit for intuitive insight. Moussorgsky looked +upon children not as miniature and inexperienced men +and women, but as beings peopling a world of their own. +Secondly, he repudiated the tradition that when writing +for the voice a lyrical method must invariably be +employed. The method of “The Nursery” is not +the mere expression in music of emotions aroused by +the text. The music fulfils the function of description +concurrently with the text; it speaks with the words; +it describes, moreover, the very gestures and actions +of the <i lang="la">dramatis personæ</i>.</p> + +<p>The circumstances under which the “Picture-Show” +was composed should here be related, since +it was in 1874 that Moussorgsky undertook this novel +kind of musical memorial. It was proposed by +Stassof, in the spring of that year, to hold an exhibition +of drawings and water-colours by the architect +Victor Hartmann⁠—one of the designers of the Nijni +Novgorod monument in commemoration of the thousandth +anniversary of the foundation of the Russian +State⁠—who had recently died. Moussorgsky had been +on very friendly terms with the artist, and wished to +pay a tribute of his own devising. He determined, +therefore, to attempt the reproduction of some of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span>pictures in terms of descriptive music. Aiming at +something more than a mere reproduction, he gives, +in the “Promenade” which connects the little pieces, +a clue to his own emotions when contemplating +Hartmann’s work.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Eight">VIII.</abbr></h4> + +<p>We have already recorded the enthusiasm with +which Moussorgsky began his preparation of the +material for the libretto of “Khovanshchina,” the +subject recommended to him by Stassof in 1872. His +researches kept him busy until late in the autumn of +the following year, when he began work on the music. +In course of its construction the libretto underwent +several changes of plan, some of them dictated by the +Censor. The music progressed but slowly, for the +composer’s powers had already begun to suffer from +the excesses in which for some time he had been indulging. +He was unable to apply himself for any +length of time to one particular task, and had contracted +a habit of dividing his attention among a +number of projects simultaneously.</p> + +<p>Thus with “Khovanshchina” little more than begun, +he was deep in plans for a comic opera on the subject +of Gogol’s “Sorochinsk Fair.” Like the former, +“Sorochinsk Fair” was never finished; under stress +of poverty, however, the composer was prevailed upon +by a publisher to issue one or two numbers arranged +for piano solo. These pieces gave no indication +whatever as to their dramatic import.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span></p> +<p>Moussorgsky’s dissipated habits were by this time +beginning to estrange him from his boon companions. +A certain eccentricity of manner had also begun to +show itself. What annoyed his friends most was +an affectation of superiority, which seems to have +been prompted partly by the success of “Boris,” by +the unreserved praise of Stassof, and by the admiration +of people unworthy to express an opinion on Moussorgsky’s +work. In spite of these changes, however, +his connection with the Circle was not entirely severed, +and the composer of “Khovanshchina” occasionally +brought to their evenings the fruit of his intermittent +labours upon that score.</p> + +<p>In 1879, Rimsky-Korsakof introduced into the +programme of a concert at the Free School of Music +the chorus of Streltsy, Martha’s song, and the Persian +Dances. At another he gave a scene from “Boris.” +The conductor’s account of Moussorgsky’s behaviour +at the rehearsal of this concert shows pretty plainly +the degree to which his mental decay had already +proceeded.</p> + +<p>The excerpt from “Khovanshchina,” given at the +first-mentioned Free School Concert, was performed +by the then well-known singer Mlle Leonof, who +had recently opened a small academy of music in +Petrograd. This lady’s education had been somewhat +scanty, but she possessed sufficient acumen to +perceive that while her name would undoubtedly +attract pupils, her capacity for instruction was too +slender to enable her to retain them. Moussorgsky’s +financial position was just then an extremely unfortunate +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span>one, and in order to improve matters he engaged +himself to Mlle Leonof as supervisor of studies in her +school.</p> + +<p>In the summer of 1880 he went with her on a concert +tour of Southern Russia, as accompanist and soloist. +As, since his youth, he had neglected the pianist’s +repertoire, the choice of programme was not by any +means a simple matter. To cope with the situation +he played selections from operas with which he happened +to be familiar, among them the introduction to +Glinka’s “Russlan and Ludmilla,” and the bell music +from the Coronation scene of “Boris.”</p> + +<p>In a letter dated January 16th, 1880, he communicates +to the faithful Stassof the glad tidings that at +Nikolayef and Kherson the “Nursery” songs have +been performed with the most gratifying results before +an audience of children. During this tour, inspired +by the Crimean scenery, Moussorgsky composed three +descriptive piano pieces; one of them, described by +Rimsky-Korsakof as a somewhat lengthy and quite +ridiculous Storm-fantasia⁠—a reminiscence of the Black +Sea⁠—was not committed to paper.</p> + +<p>It has been related that Moussorgsky’s work on +“Khovanshchina” was not continuous, and that other +absorbing tasks occupied his mind during its composition. +Following Rimsky-Korsakof’s marriage, +Moussorgsky took up his abode in rooms which he +shared with the poet Count Golenishchef-Kutuzof. +Two groups of poems by the latter were set to music +by Moussorgsky in 1874 and 1875.</p> + +<p>The first, “Without Sunlight,” contains six exquisite +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>numbers. In these the composer has ceased +to be objective, and has for once become introspective. +It is perhaps in these songs that Moussorgsky approaches +most closely to the ideal of melo-declamation +set up by his precursor Dargomijsky. The vocal line +is to some extent melodic in character, but is rarely +cast in continuous melody. On the other hand they +preserve a musical quality which is absent from the +quasi-conversational manner of “The Nursery.”</p> + +<p>The second cycle, “Songs and Dances of Death,” +was composed at different periods, the first three in +1875 and the last number two years later. Their +textual idea originated with Stassof, who suggested +to Count Golenishchef-Kutuzof the creation of poems +dealing with Holbein’s well-known work.⁠<a id="FNanchor_7_7" href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> The +“Trepak,” “Cradle Song,” and “Serenade,” present +the dread figure in rather more convincing a manner +than the fourth, “The Commander-in-Chief”⁠—a +picture of Death surveying a battlefield. The somewhat +inferior conception of the music of the last has +been attributed, no doubt correctly, to the state of the +composer’s health at the time at which it was written.</p> + +<p>Moussorgsky’s last years were spent in poverty and +physical decay. Already in 1876 his financial resources +were reduced to the bare pittance he received from +the State department in which he was employed. +Writing to Stassof at this time, he spoke of supplementing +this beggarly income by taking engagements +as a pianist. This led to the arrangement with Mlle +Leonof, and the Crimean tour.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span></p> +<p>In 1878 he lost a dear friend through the death of +Petrof, for whom he had intended to write an important +part in “Sorochinsk Fair.” This event so affected +him that he was unable to do work of any description +for a considerable time. Following the tour, he began +to model an orchestral suite with a Crimean programme, +but got no further than the preliminary sketch.</p> + +<p>The summer of 1880 was spent in the country, but +his health showed no signs of improvement. In the +following February he journeyed to Petrograd to +attend a Free School concert, at which Rimsky-Korsakof +conducted “The Destruction of Sennacherib.” +His work was acclaimed, and he made his +last public appearance in acknowledging the tributes +of this audience. A month later he became seriously +ill as the result of an attack of delirium tremens. His +friends Balakiref, Borodin, Stassof, and Rimsky-Korsakof +were summoned, and they visited him in +turn at the Military Hospital up to the moment of +death. This occurred on his birthday, March 16th, +1881.</p> + +<p>Arrangements had already been made with a view +to preserving as many of his works as could be found +for publication. Balakiref’s friend, T. I. Filippof, was +appointed executor, and he speedily found a publisher +willing to undertake their issue. The responsibility of +revising them was assumed by Rimsky-Korsakof, who +devoted many years to this labour.</p> + +<p>Moussorgsky was buried in the Alexander Nevsky +Monastery, and a monument⁠—the work of Bogomolof +and Gunsburg⁠—was erected to his memory.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_2_2" href="#FNanchor_2_2" class="label">[2]</a> The associated reformers, Balakiref, Cui, Borodin, +Moussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakof, have been collectively +designated in a variety of appellations, some of them disrespectful. +They are referred to elsewhere in this volume as +“The Circle,” the “Five,” and “The Invincible Band.”</p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_3_3" href="#FNanchor_3_3" class="label">[3]</a> “Moussorgski.” Paris, 1896.</p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_4_4" href="#FNanchor_4_4" class="label">[4]</a> M. Montagu-Nathan, “A History of Russian Music.” +(W. Reeves.)</p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_5_5" href="#FNanchor_5_5" class="label">[5]</a> M. Montagu-Nathan, <i>op. cit.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_6_6" href="#FNanchor_6_6" class="label">[6]</a> M. Montagu-Nathan, <i>op. cit.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_7_7" href="#FNanchor_7_7" class="label">[7]</a> “Death’s Doings,” by Richard Dagley, London, 1827, is +a work of a similar kind.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="PART_II"> + PART <abbr title="Two">II</abbr> + </h2> + <h3>MOUSSORGSKY AS OPERATIC COMPOSER</h3> +</div> + +<h4><abbr title="One">I.</abbr></h4> + +<p>There is no ground for supposing that Moussorgsky’s +lively humanitarian instincts had been completely +quiescent before they were aroused by the spread of +socialistic propaganda, consequent on the great reformative +act of Alexander (the emancipation of serfs) +and the appearance of Chernishevsky’s thought-provoking +“What is to be done?”</p> + +<p>In his biography, Stassof is able to dispel such an +illusion. Therein he quotes a letter, written him by +Moussorgsky’s brother Filaret, to the effect that the +composer, long before reaching manhood, had manifested +feelings of complete sympathy with the humble +serf, considering the Russian peasant as the “real +man” (<i>nastoyarshchy chelovek</i>).</p> + +<p>When the moment came for Russian society as a +whole so to regard the peasantry, Moussorgsky did +not hold himself aloof, but joined in the movement of +“simplification,” so enthusiastically set on foot by +young Russia. Thus in 1863 we find him associated +with the “Commune,” of which he remained for three +years a member.</p> + +<p>Moussorgsky plainly belonged, then, to the “progressives” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span>of his own generation, in so far as concerns +ethics. His music proclaims that as a creative artist +he was far in advance of that generation.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Two">II.</abbr></h4> + +<p>The choice of literary material as subject-matter +for music-drama was for such a man no vexed problem. +He wished to glorify the Russian people.</p> + +<p>Glinka had already made a beginning in this respect +with his national opera “A Life for the Tsar,” in which +his hero was not the monarch, but the loyal peasant +who died for him. Before Wagner had made his +suggestion that the operatic art should have no dealings +with history, because history concerned itself +mainly with the movements of monarchs and rulers, +Glinka had already given an effective reply. What +Moussorgsky did was not merely to adopt the Glinkist +tradition, but to improve on it.</p> + +<p>Already in his early operatic essay, based on Flaubert’s +“Salammbô,” he had given the chorus precedence +of the <i lang="it">prima donna</i>.</p> + +<p>In “Boris Godounof” and in “Khovanshchina” he +boldly confers upon the chorus a protagonistic responsibility. +At one stroke he dismisses the Wagnerian +objection to historical material, and repudiates the +proposed alternative, the legendary subject. He +has no use for symbolism, and declines to resort +to the allegorical puppet as a mouthpiece. He was +a realist who knew that the People had something to +say, and he let them speak for themselves. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span>While as a man he had strong sympathies with the +nationalistic ideal of Glinka, he had as a composer +very little, if anything, in common with the “father +of Russian Opera;” it is from Dargomijsky that +Moussorgsky the artist has derived. The “New +Russian School,” inaugurated towards the end of the +fifties by Balakiref and Cui, had all but pledged itself +to an observance of the principles of operatic and +vocal art drawn up under Dargomijsky’s guidance, +and afterwards had every reason to be thankful that +the pledge had never been signed and sealed. Among +them Moussorgsky alone was a life-long apostle of +the composer of “The Stone Guest.” Borodin, Cui, +and Rimsky-Korsakof felt that they could do no less +than make experimental essays in Dargomijskian +opera, and if they were not all three obliged, as was +Borodin, to confess that the rigid abstention from all +the old operatic practices was foreign to their nature, +they did not at any rate adhere very faithfully to the +Dargomijskian decree.</p> + +<p>With Moussorgsky it was quite otherwise. His +attitude towards music as an art was one of an almost +transcendent seriousness. Art was to be the means +of throwing a high light upon the dignity of Life; +Art itself must therefore be dignified. “Life in all its +aspects, ... the truth whether palatable or no,” is +the burden of his refrain in a passionate letter to +Stassof, written in August, 1875.</p> + +<p>With such a man concessions to a prevailing taste +were not to be thought of. Inspired by the precept +of Dargomijsky, with whom he had been on intimate +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span>terms, he set himself to build up a musico-dramatic +structure that could never become old-fashioned. +Opera was no longer to be an entertainment devised +for the public of one particular generation; it was to +be an art, to have a purpose.</p> + +<h3>“<span class="allsmcap">SALAMMBÔ</span>”</h3> +<h4><abbr title="Three">III.</abbr></h4> + +<p>Moussorgsky’s first serious attempt at Opera was +the setting of Flaubert’s “Salammbô,” already referred +to. This was begun in 1863. As has been said, the +work appears to have been designed to give to the +collective human interest that prominence usually +accorded the individual. But this was not the only +feature of the work testifying to Moussorgsky’s respect +for the operatic form. From Stassof we learn that +the composer paid very close attention to the question +of scenic detail, and that he made a diligent study +of Flaubert’s novel with a view to reproducing in his +libretto everything likely to contribute to a faithful +dramatic rendering of the original. The design and +colour of costumes, lighting effects, and even the +gestures and demeanour of the characters were carefully +studied by the composer.</p> + +<p>“Salammbô” was abandoned when still quite +incomplete. Its music has not, however, been lost +to the world. Most of the fragments composed were +afterwards embodied with necessary modifications in +later works; the rest has been revised and edited by +V. G. Karatigin. “For the most part,” says Stassof, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span>“this material has gained by its translation,” and only +once, according to this critic, has the adaptation been +disadvantageous. The theme of the arioso in the +third act of “Boris Godounof” is less appropriate in +its ultimate environment than in the original conception. +The libretto of “Salammbô” was written by +Moussorgsky, but he interpolated some verses borrowed +from the unfortunate poet Polejaef, and from Heine.</p> + + +<h3>“<span class="allsmcap">THE MATCHMAKER</span>”</h3> +<h4><abbr title="Four">IV.</abbr></h4> + +<p>By the time that Moussorgsky entered upon his +second dramatic essay he had fallen completely under +the influence of Dargomijsky, hence his resolve to +take a bold step towards a legitimate union of text +and music.</p> + +<p>“The Matchmaker” is directly inspired by Dargomijsky’s +“The Stone Guest.” The composer of the +last-named work had achieved what had never hitherto +been attempted. He had taken the text of Pushkin’s +dramatic version of “Don Juan,” and had set it from +beginning to end without making a single alteration, +ignoring, at the same time, every operatic convention. +There are no separate vocal numbers beyond Laura’s +Song, an interpolation sanctioned, or rather invited, by +the poet’s stage-direction: “She sings.” There is no +chorus, for the equally good reason that Pushkin’s +work contains no “crowd.” With the exception of +this one lapse into pure melody, the score of “The +Stone Guest” is written in the recitative, which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span>Dargomijsky considered to be the only legitimate +musical accompaniment of a dramatic text.</p> + +<p>In his setting of Gogol’s “The Matchmaker,” +Moussorgsky takes a still more daring step, for this +comedy of middle-class Russian society is written in +colloquial prose. Far from being daunted, the composer +has actually reflected the intonation, demeanour, +and the gestures of each character in his music with a +thoroughness that, while complete, has no appearance +of meticulousness.</p> + +<p>The scheme of Gogol’s work has been outlined by +a writer who was both a brilliant musical critic, and +an authority on Russian matters when authorities +were few. In “The Russians at Home,” the late Mr. +Sutherland Edwards gave the following synopsis of +“The Matchmaker”: “In Gogol’s ‘Matchmaker’ we +have a fine study of the bachelor as character.... +The main idea of the plot⁠—and a highly philosophical +one it is⁠—is this: that a bachelor of a certain age +must necessarily dread to alter his mode of life to suit +that of another person. The chief character of the +comedy, who is considered a good match, after considering +the qualifications of a number of marriageable +young ladies who are all anxious to secure him, selects +one; but no sooner has he given his word than he +repents. He is afraid of the total change that must +take place in his habits after he is married. It is not +a love match, for he is a middle-aged man and something +more. He reflects, but the bride is coming +downstairs in her wedding costume and there is no +time for consideration. The handle of the door moves, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span>and it appears impossible to escape; but the window +is open. He leaps into the street and is saved. You +hear him calling out to a droshky driver, ‘Isvostchik! +Isvostchik!’ He has disappeared for ever, and the +curtain falls.”</p> + +<p>This is a somewhat over-brief summary of the action, +since it makes no reference to the exceedingly funny +scene in which the bachelor finds himself in competition +with three other characters who, as typical suitors of +the class and period under caricature, are the victims +of Gogol’s satire. But as Moussorgsky’s work goes no +further than the first scene, the rest may well on the +present occasion be neglected. In this one scene there +appear but four of the eleven characters: Podkolyossin, +the bachelor; Kochkaryof, his friend; Stepan, his +servant; and Thyokla, the marriage-broker.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Five">V.</abbr></h4> + +<p>The score of “The Matchmaker” reveals that +Moussorgsky was fully qualified to accomplish with +success the extraordinary task he had set himself. +“What is not the notation of the spoken word,” says +Mr. Calvocoressi in his monograph, “is the notation +of pantomime.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_8_8" href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> There are, besides, examples of +descriptive music in other directions than these; such, +for instance, as the quick sweep which describes the +silk dress of the chosen lady as “rustling as though +a Princess were passing”; and when the friend Kochkaryof, +in reciting to the reluctant Podkolyossin the +advantages of married life, predicts a family of “not +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span>merely two or three, but six at least,” there is a group +of two semiquavers, followed by another of three, +and, immediately after, a group of six for the definite +number, and a scale of 6/4 chords for the problematic +brood. It should be borne in mind that there is +nothing in the least gauche about such apparently +ingenuous specimens of descriptive music. They may +not be quite in tune with our notion of humour to-day, +but until some living master can be persuaded to try +his hand at the continuously descriptive, we may +congratulate ourselves on the preservation of Moussorgsky’s +example.</p> + +<p>Not less remarkable are the places in which changes +of emotion and mood are noted. After the breaking +of a mirror, when Kochkaryof, the cause of the mishap, +consoles Podkolyossin with the promise of a new one, +the accompanying music is so perfectly appropriate to +the emotional situation that the bar prior to the spoken +sentence veritably anticipates for the listener its sense. +Again, when at the moment already described, in +which occurs the friend’s detailed picture of what +married life may bring, Moussorgsky resolves a high-pitched +dissonance by dropping suddenly into a low, +common chord, minus its third, he shows us Podkolyossin’s +general state of collapse and his frozen +stare as plainly as if we were watching the action +instead of merely listening to the music.</p> + +<p>The score, in fact, reveals how determined Moussorgsky +was to observe the letter as well as the spirit of the +Dargomijskian method, a method he made his very own.</p> + +<p>What the composer thought of this work may be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span>gathered from the letter he wrote to his friend Stassof, +in 1873, after the completion of “Boris.” “How can +I best thank you?” he asks. “I have found an +answer at once. By making a gift of my very self.... +Pray accept my recent work on Gogol’s ‘Matchmaker’; +examine these attempts at musical discourse, +compare them with ‘Boris.’... You will see that +what I now give you is without question myself.... +You know how dear to me is my ‘Matchmaker.’ And +to tell the truth it was suggested to me (in fun) by +Dargomijsky, and (in earnest) by Cui.” In the printed +score is the formal dedication, which included the gift +of all rights in the work to Stassof. This was written, +says Moussorgsky, “with a quill pen in Stassof’s flat ... +in the presence of a considerable gathering.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_9_9" href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>In Stassof’s own opinion there was a future for this +type of opera. It is many years since that view was +expressed. It almost seems now as though there were +no future for any other kind.</p> + +<h3>“<span class="allsmcap">SOROCHINSK FAIR</span>”</h3> +<h4><abbr title="Six">VI.</abbr></h4> + +<p>It is impossible to treat Moussorgsky’s other unfinished +opera, “Sorochinsk Fair,” as a serious +dramatic work, since he himself did not. There is +not surviving a sufficiency of connected material for +it ever to assume companionship with Rimsky-Korsakof’s +“A Night in May,” in company with which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span>story the original appears in Gogol’s collection of +“Tales of a Farm Near Dikanka.” The preserved +fragments, one of them being the justly popular +“Gopak,” have been edited by Lyadof and Karatigin. +In the performance of these given at the Moscow Free +Art Theatre in the winter of 1913, they were strung +together by a spoken dialogue. The vocal music, which +is only in part declamatory, can hardly be considered +as representing the composer’s musico-dramatic +manner, but it includes some very charming melody, +some of it being quite in the folk-style. A certain +part of the original music has had a curious history. +Written in the first instance for “Salammbô,” it +served temporarily as a section of the work now +familiar as “A Night on the Bare Mountain,” was +also used in the composer’s contribution to the joint +“Mlada” (Gedeonof’s project), and was again made +use of as an Intermezzo in this unfinished opera.</p> + +<p>Musically considered, “Sorochinsk Fair,” while far +from fully representing its composer, bears undoubted +evidences of his advanced thought. Certain rhythmic +and harmonic touches, plainly intended to reflect a +nice shade of meaning in the text, recall Dargomijsky’s +maxim, “The sound must represent the word,” and +are an assurance that Moussorgsky always had this in +mind.</p> + +<h3>“<span class="allsmcap">BORIS GODOUNOF</span>”</h3> +<h4><abbr title="Seven">VII.</abbr></h4> + +<p>By means of his music-drama “Boris Godounof,” +Moussorgsky first became known to the world as a +creative artist who, though hitherto neglected, would +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span>have to be reckoned among the great innovators. For +the student of Russian music the work possesses +several independent points of interest. In the first +place, it is clearly the offspring of Glinka’s initial +dramatic venture, “A Life for the Tsar.” It is at the +same time far in advance of its forerunner in its +dramatic as well as in its musical conception. It +referred, as did Glinka’s opera, to one of the most +remarkable epochs in the history of Russia. But +while Glinka puts before his spectators a plot with a +heroic action as its salient, Moussorgsky occupies +himself with the revelation of the consequences of <a id="chg1"></a>a +dastardly act. Yet the latter, despite his preoccupation +with mental movement and his neglect of physical, +does not adopt the procedure of the psychologist-musician. +We do not find him indulging in a lengthy +exegesis of his own soul-states in presence of the stage +tragedy he depicts. He tells a simple though rather +horrible tale. His narrative does not bear the impress +of the narrator’s temperament. “Boris Godounof” +is neither the cold compilation of the detached historian, +nor the revelation of the mental agony of a +greatly interested and concerned onlooker. A spectator +of Moussorgsky’s version of the tragedy is not +first concerned with what he himself is thinking about +the dramatic occurrences, nor does he speculate upon +the attitude of the composer towards all this murder, +strife, and intrigue. His mind is chiefly occupied in +observing their effect upon the people participating +in the drama. He finds himself glancing at the crowd, +and wondering what will be their demeanour in the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span>face of the next development. And Moussorgsky’s +crowd never fails to respond.</p> + +<p>Operatic nationalism had begun with a Russian text; +Glinka had endowed it with a native musical manner. +Moussorgsky made it an absolute expression of +nationalism.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Eight">VIII.</abbr></h4> + +<p>The chapter of Russian history chosen by Moussorgsky +as the material of his drama is one which is +to be considered as a turning-point in the history of +the Russian Empire. It refers to the interim between +two great dynasties.</p> + +<p>Looking into the future, Ivan the Terrible had +perceived that his weak-minded son Feodor, whom he +regarded as “more like a sacristan than the son of a +Tsar,” was quite unfit to control the destinies of a +nation. Not long after his father’s death Feodor +himself became conscious of his incapacity. Accordingly +he appointed Boris Godounof, whose marriage +into the royal family had been a step prompted by +ambition, as Regent. Godounof was not slow to +discern the potentialities of his new position. He saw +that Feodor’s younger brother Dmitri might one day +stand between himself and the throne. This youth +lived on a property at Ouglich, willed to him by his +father. Godounof saw to it that his interests were not +neglected in this quarter, and among Dmitri’s entourage +there were several tools of the Regent. Their observations +led Boris to assume that if this boy lived there +would be an end to all his ambitions. Godounof laid +his plans accordingly. On a May afternoon in 1591 +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span>young Dmitri was playing in the courtyard of his +palace. He was suddenly missed. The stories of his +assassination vary, but the one usually accepted +relates that Dmitri’s corpse was discovered in the +church. Seven years later Feodor breathed his last, +supported in the arms of his wife and his Regent, +Boris, who had long since attained to something like +absolute power, now saw that the throne could easily +be his. “The Russian annalists,” says Prosper +Mérimée,⁠<a id="FNanchor_10_10" href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> “who were no doubt ignorant of the +Scottish legends, represent Boris as a new Macbeth +driven to the crime by the prophecies of his soothsayers.” +Having told him that he would one day +reign, they paused in terror at what they read in his +future. He would reign, they added timorously, but +only for seven years. “What matter if it be but +seven days,” cried Boris, “so long as I reign.”</p> + +<p>As occupant of the throne, the consequences of his +crime never ceased to pursue him. A Pretender arose +who claimed to be Ivan’s son Dmitri. He had a large +following, and was seized upon by the Poles as a convenient +instrument in the promotion of their revolt +against Muscovy. With the trouble at its height, +Boris found himself on the horns of a ghastly dilemma. +He wished his son to reign after him. If Dmitri was +really alive his own son would never be Tsar. If his +terrible design of years ago had been properly carried +out, as he had always supposed, he must himself be +a murderer, and with a conscience grown livelier that +thought was unbearable.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span></p> +<h4><abbr title="Nine">IX.</abbr></h4> + +<p>Moussorgsky’s music-drama does not show us the +assassination. We do not see Dmitri’s bloodstained +corpse. But we get more than a glimpse of Boris’s +remorse-stricken soul, and we are allowed to obtain a +fairly broad survey of the national mind.</p> + +<p>That this was intended to be the main business of +Moussorgsky’s “National Music-Drama” is plainly +shown by the arrangement of his dramatic material. +Before the “plot” is entered upon there are two +scenes constituting a prologue. By this means the +ostensible as well as the real position as between +monarch and people is revealed. Boris, invited to +place himself on the throne, guilefully dissembles and +demurs. His subjects, coerced at the instigation of +Boris’s own minions, simulate an anxiety lest the +chosen Tsar’s reluctance be maintained. A significant +episode is the entrance of the mendicant pilgrims +(<i>Kalieki perekhojie</i>), whose sacred hymn is received +with an enthusiasm that is real. The people have +been allowed to express themselves. In the second +scene news of Boris’s acquiescence arrives. It is +followed at a short interval by the Tsar himself, who, +passing across the Red Square to the Kremlin, is +greeted by the crowd assembled for his coronation. +So far the text is of Moussorgsky’s making. When +proceeding to the discussion of the main plot, he is +able to draw upon Pushkin’s original literary substance.</p> + +<p>The first scene of Act I is laid in the cell of the +monk Pimen, who is engaged upon the concluding +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span>pages of a chronicle of Russian history. From him +the young novice Grigory Otrepief learns the details +of Dmitri’s assassination. His discovery that the +murdered Tsarevich would have been his own age +makes him at once the victim and the hero of his +imagination. He becomes the self-appointed avenger +of the murdered Dmitri.</p> + +<p>Scene <abbr title="Two">II</abbr> shows him a fugitive defying ecclesiastical +authority. He has renounced the cloister and has +taken his first step towards the throne. He is resting +at an inn situated on the Lithuanian frontier. At +the moment of his betrayal by two bibulous monks, +he escapes through the window and continues his +journey towards Poland.</p> + +<p>The royal palace is the scene of the second act, which +is the joint work of Pushkin and Moussorgsky. The +presence of the Tsar’s son Feodor and his daughter +Xenia is made a vehicle for the interpolation of +appropriate material of an episodic kind. The actual +drama is carried a step further by the Tsar’s reference +to a map of Russia, which is being examined by his +heir. “All this territory,” explains Boris to his son, +“will one day be yours.” The atmosphere of domesticity +is dispelled by the entrance of the boyard +Shouisky, who brings news of serious trouble on the +Polish frontier. It has been declared that the corpse +found at Ouglich was not that of Dmitri Ivanovich; +and that he, on the contrary, is a living and energetic +claimant of the crown. Boris, uneasy, orders an +immediate inquiry into the conduct of the assassination. +Shouisky, as though to reassure him, describes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span>the appearance of the child’s corpse, which he claims +to have seen. On his withdrawal Boris is seized with +terror. The rack upon which his mind has for years +been tortured has been given a sharp turn by Shouisky’s +recital, and the strain produces a nerve-crisis. Boris, +through a hallucination, has a vision of the blood-stained +corpse. An awful terror seizes him.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Ten">X.</abbr></h4> + +<p>The next act is one which might well have been +omitted from the scheme, and in performance often is. +It was inserted, it will be remembered, to make good +the deficiency of feminine interest. Dramatically it +has a sort of relation to the whole, since it is complementary +to the information brought by Shouisky and +shows what is happening in Poland. Musically it is +not uninteresting, but, considered as a part of the +whole music-drama, it is as much a blemish as is +Glinka’s Polish Act in “A Life for the Tsar.” Glinka’s +weakness of invention is shared by Moussorgsky. +Both of them failed in the musical portrayal of Poland, +because neither was able to describe the Polish character +in musical terms other than those of the popular +national rhythms.</p> + +<p>The act has as definite a foundation in history as +any other section of the drama, but it is negligible to +the working out of this particular plot. Otrepief has +arrived in Poland and has found a supporter. He has +also found a maiden whose attachment to him is not +altogether dictated by her heart. Her aim is to share +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span>the throne of Russia, and she is striving to strengthen +his ambitious hopes, knowing that upon them depends +her chance of realizing her own. Both Marina Mnichek +and her religious director, Rangoni, the Jesuit, are well +known to history. As witnesses of their scheming, we +feel that this act is at least a little helpful to our understanding +of the drama. But the music, in its attempts +to procure local colour, is far from convincing.</p> + +<p>The fourth act is in two scenes. In the first the +arrival of the Pretender at the forest of Kromy, <i lang="fr">en +route</i> for Moscow, is the only feature of dramatic +value. But Moussorgsky’s musical treatment of the +behaviour of the utterly irresponsible crowd of peasants, +who welcome the Pretender’s passage rather as a +pretext for revolt than as any real blessing, is a page +which in itself creates an epoch in the history of Opera. +The “pure fool” left behind on the stage to wring +his hands in anguish at the darkness that is falling +upon Russia is the creation of Pushkin. It is a national +type which lives again in Dostoievsky’s “Idiot.”</p> + +<p>The final scene is apparently a continuation of that +in which we left Boris vainly trying to shut out the +awful vision of the murdered Prince. The Tsar’s +Council, confident that the revolt of which Shouisky +has apprised them will be quickly suppressed, are +discussing the form of punishment to be meted out +to the Pretender. Suddenly the terror-stricken figure +of the Tsar bursts into the hall. With difficulty they +calm him. Shouisky enters, and announces that he +has found one who can give a faithful account of the +Ouglich crime, and thus dispose of the Pretender’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span>claim. Pimen is ushered in. He tells of an old +shepherd, blind from birth, who heard in a dream +a command that he should pray at the tomb of Dmitri, +now an angel, and whose faith was duly rewarded with +the gift of sight. Boris hearing that his guilt is established, +falls into a worse frenzy. He feels that his end +is near. Young Feodor is sent for, and with his last +breath the Tsar proclaims him his heir and successor.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Eleven">XI.</abbr></h4> + +<p>The choice of “Boris Godounof” as subject would +appear, as has been observed, to have been directly +inspired by Glinka’s use of historical material in “A +Life for the Tsar.” The music, however, is that of a composer +who, after earnestly conferring with Dargomijsky, +found little difficulty in seeing eye to eye with him +in regard to the main principles of the “New Russian +School.”</p> + +<p>The setting of “Boris Godounof,” considered in +comparison with all other operatic music, stands right +apart from it. It is the artistic product of a great +national crisis. One can easily imagine that a man +so passionately in earnest as Moussorgsky would be immensely +inspired by the so-called “nihilist” movement, +and that nothing would please him more than to write +an opera that would reflect the spirit of that movement.</p> + +<p>It was the endeavour of the young intellectual of +that time to be natural. There was a crusade against +“pose,” and not merely deliberate but unconscious +pose. One could dismiss the score of “Boris” with +a compliment well worth the paying by declaring it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span>an opera in which every bar of music is natural. +Listening to the work, one could imagine Moussorgsky +never to have heard an opera, to be entirely ignorant +of the traditions of this form of art. With the exception +of the Polish Act, in which he seems to betray that +for him, as for Glinka, the vocabulary of musical +terms in which the Polish character could be rendered +stopped short at the Polacca and Mazurka rhythms, +the composer has given us music that is appropriate, +sincere, and dignified, never departing from beauty +and never approaching anything in the nature of +conventional pattern.</p> + +<p>When it has been said that the music is consistently +natural, it seems hardly necessary to mention that +there are none of the traditional operatic subdivisions +or self-contained numbers, that there are no formal +overtures or <i lang="fr">entr’actes</i>. The Prelude is of sufficient +length to establish the requisite atmosphere. That +done, the curtain rises. When it falls, the music, +being there for a purely dramatic purpose, ceases. +When, as in the case of Grigory’s escape from the Inn, +there is a likelihood that the scene will continue in +the imagination of the spectator for a moment or two +after the action is shut out from view, the music comes +to his assistance, but it has a curtain of its own, and +this too is quickly drawn.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Twelve">XII.</abbr></h4> + +<p>By Moussorgsky the leading-motive device is very +happily used. His leading-motives are flashes of +thought, mere reminiscences. There are the usual +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span>labels for characters and sentiments, but they are used +in moderation. There is nothing resembling the +Wagnerian philosophical disquisitions upon the attributes +of a character on its every appearance, or upon +the ethics of an emotion whenever suggested. Moussorgsky’s +themes are used chiefly as links connecting +the series of tableaux of which the drama is made up, +and not as labels inseparable from the persons +to whom they have been attached. The most +prominent motive⁠—that associated with the idea of +the royal succession, heard in the dialogue between +Pimen and Grigory when the latter asks what age the +murdered Prince would have been; in the Introduction +to the Inn scene heralding the presence of the novice-Pretender; +in Shouisky’s account of the Ouglich crime +and other places⁠—does not at all times accompany +reference to the subject it represents. Although it +appears occasionally in the Polish scenes, there are +places in which it might have been used quite effectively +but in which it is neglected. Other themes +recurring with more or less frequency and subtlety are +the People’s motive, which is heard in an altered shape +in the Forest scene when the crowd is baiting a captured +noble; the short phrase which seems to refer to +Russia’s past and which appears at intervals during +the scene in the old monk’s cell, returning with Pimen’s +narrative in the last act; and those which apparently +represent the sentiments and attributes of the Tsar, +his paternal solicitude and his insatiable ambition. +That the full power of the leading-motive device was +recognized by the composer is plain from the use of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span>one of the Polish themes, when in the Forest scene +the Pretender speaks of his destination. Here the +main motive occurring under the words: “To our +holy land of Russia ... let us seek the Kremlin” is +heard in conjunction with a fragment of the Polacca. +These two are heard together also in the Polish act.</p> + +<p>The avoidance of formalism that characterizes the +use of the leading-motive is in accord with the note +of the whole work, simplicity. The moments of +mental stress, the dramatic crises, are not with Moussorgsky +the signal for a marshalling of “every modern +luxury,” as Glinka styled the instrumental array. In +this respect we find economy where extravagance +usually prevails. Even in the scene of the hallucination, +the composer depends mainly upon his “strings” +for the description of Boris’s anguish. With him the +repeated reference to an emotion does not involve an +ever-increasing volume of tone for the description of +the growing complexity in the psychological situation. +Thus Boris’s final fit of terror is accompanied by music +infinitely simpler than that heard when first allusion +is made to the murdered heir.</p> + +<p>The vocal line of the opera partakes for the most +part of the nature of melodic recitative, but its purely +lyrical moments are by no means sparse. As they +occur in places where reference to folk-lore and song +is made, they constitute no exception to the general +appropriateness. There are times when Moussorgsky +feels called upon to bring the sound into very close +accord with the general sense; it is then that the composer +resorts, as in the story of the parakeet, told by +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span>the excited young Tsarevich Feodor, to a method +used in some of his songs. This consists of a faithful +yet musical reflection of the rise and fall of the speaking +voice. Set up as an ideal by Dargomijsky, it was +attained by his disciple.</p> + +<p>Moussorgsky was not deliberately unconventional +as an operatic composer. National music-drama, if it +is to exert the powerful influence without which it is +not national, must be natural. Moussorgsky adopted +the means best suited for the maintenance of that +naturalness which alone could achieve what he has +achieved. The music follows the drift of the text, +serving it faithfully and never seeking to assert its +claim to beauty as music. The sound, as M. Marnold +so happily expresses it, is never allowed to become +egotistical.⁠<a id="FNanchor_11_11" href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> But, in accordance with the canons of the +“New Russian School” it never ceases to be music.</p> + +<h3>“<span class="allsmcap">KHOVANSHCHINA</span>”</h3> +<h4><abbr title="Thirteen">XIII.</abbr></h4> + +<p>It was a Russian who said that religion was given +by Providence as a stick which, in default of intellectual +qualities, might be used as a moral support, +and that with this stick Russians had chosen to belabour +each other. The human interference which +brought about the misuse of the stick was that of +Nikon the Patriarch, who in 1655 undertook a revision +of the Bible. Some of the corrections gave offence to +the people, who preferred to adhere to traditional +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span>methods of worship. In consequence of this the nation +was split into two main religious bodies: the Old +Believers and the Orthodox, or followers of the authoritative +dispensation. The dissenting body subsequently +became subdivided into a great number of +“jarring sects.”</p> + +<p>It is with this schism that Moussorgsky’s second +historical opera concerns itself. The figure-heads of +the opposing factions, for the purposes of the opera, +are Prince Ivan Khovansky, an adherent of the old +régime, and Prince Galitsin, whose sympathies and +interests are served by the introduction of Western +enlightenment. It is understood that Dositheus, who +in the opera is the spiritual leader of the Old Believers, +is a portrait of another Prince. Stassof, who was responsible +for the suggestion that this “antagonism between +old and young Russia” would be good material +for an opera, may well have feared, as in a letter to +Moussorgsky he confesses he did, that instead of being +a “People’s Music-Drama” it would be a Princes’.</p> + +<p>The love-interest in “Khovanshchina” was not, as +it had been in “Boris Godounof,” an afterthought. +There are three prominent feminine characters: the +Old Believer, Martha, described by Stassof as in some +ways resembling Potiphar’s wife; Susan, a rigid fanatic, +priding herself overmuch on her virtue; and Emma, +a young Lutheran by whom Khovansky’s son Andrew +has been attracted. In the original plan there were +to have been included the figure of the Empress-Regent +Sophia, of whom Galitsin is supposed to have +been the lover, together with her young charge, afterwards +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span>to become Peter the Great. Owing to Moussorgsky’s +decline in health, and the consequent fear +that his opera might never be finished, he was obliged +to reduce its scheme, and the royal personages disappeared.</p> + +<p>The historical events underlying the dramatic +material of “Khovanshchina” are as follows: Feodor +Alexeyevich, eldest grandson of the first Romanof, +had died without issue and was succeeded by Peter, +the third brother, Ivan, being of weak intellect. As +Peter was only ten years old Sophia, their half-sister, +was appointed Regent. Anticipating the unwelcome +reforms for which Peter afterwards became famous, +Sophia did her best to place Ivan on the throne, and +to this end instigated a revolt of the Streltsy⁠—a +regiment of Guards most of whom were Old Believers. +Their leader, Prince Khovansky, and his son Andrew +were the moving spirits in the rebellion, and Peter, +who subsequently succeeded in quelling it, gave to +the series of risings the appellation of “Khovanshchina.” +The culminating event was the collective +suicide of a large body of Old Believers who refused to +submit to the heretical innovations of one whom they +believed to be anti-Christ.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Fourteen">XIV.</abbr></h4> + +<p>Moussorgsky’s libretto is a fairly faithful rendering +of the historical records, but its hurried abridgement +naturally caused a sacrifice of many interesting details. +The opera, in its published form, begins with a scene +in the Red Square at Moscow. It is early morning. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span>A public letter-writer enters the Square and sets up +his booth, and a number of Streltsy who have been +bivouacking in the Square after a riot on the previous +evening betake themselves to their duties. Presently +the boyard Shaklovity enters, and calls upon the +scrivener to write down an impeachment of the Khovanskys, +father and son. Immediately on his departure +the pompous Prince Khovansky arrives with his following +of Streltsy and Old Believers. Making the +most of his position as head of the Streltsy, he encourages +the people to rise against the authority of +Peter. The crowd, impressed by his arrogance, sing +a hymn in his honour. As the procession is moving off +a young woman rushes upon the scene, closely followed +by Khovansky’s son. It is Emma the Lutheran, who +is being importuned, to her evident distress, by Prince +Andrew. The altercation is interrupted by the arrival +of Martha, whom Andrew has discarded. Andrew, +furious at her intervention, attempts to stab her, but +the Old Believer, gaining possession of his knife, +delivers a mystical oration in which she foretells +the young Prince’s approaching doom. The elder +Khovansky now returns and, perceiving that the object +of his son’s attentions is a young woman whom he +himself admires, gives orders for her arrest. Andrew +vows that she shall not be taken alive. She is saved +by the timely entrance of the venerable Dositheus. +He upbraids Andrew, orders Martha to protect Emma +under her own roof, and kneels in prayer. The crowd +proceeds to the Kremlin for worship, and the curtain +falls on the solitary figure of Dositheus.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span></p> +<p>The second act takes place in the palace of the +Galitsins. The rising curtain discloses the Prince disdainfully +perusing a love-letter from the Empress-Regent. +To him enters Martha, whom he has summoned, +believing in her powers of clairvoyance, to +read his future. She calls for a basin of water, cloaks +herself in a long black garment, and proceeds to divine +his early ruin. Beside himself with rage, Galitsin +calls for his servants and orders them to waylay the +woman on her way home, and to drown her in the +marshes.</p> + +<p>Galitsin, pondering over Martha’s terrifying prediction, +is now visited by his enemy Khovansky. +Between them there are personal and political recriminations, +which terminate on the entrance of +Dositheus, who pacifies them. The calm is but temporary. +Martha returns to announce that an attempt +has been made on her life, and is followed by Shaklovity, +who presents himself as the envoy of the +Regent and warns Khovansky that the Tsar has discovered +his plot.</p> + +<p>The Streltsian quarter of Moscow is the scene of the +third act. Martha, withdrawing herself from a procession +of Old Believers, seats herself on a mound near +the Khovansky palace, and sings reminiscently of the +days when young Andrew’s heart was hers. She refers +once more to the mysterious fate awaiting him.</p> + +<p>Susan now discloses herself. She is scandalized by +the passionate references to Andrew she has overheard, +and reviles Martha for her shamelessness. Dositheus +enters and brings peace once more on the scene. He +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span>rebukes the old fanatic for her harshness, and comforts +Martha. Night falls, and Shaklovity arrives and +puts up a prayer for his harassed country.</p> + +<p>There follows a sudden rush of Streltsy, followed +by their plainly discontented wives. During the +turmoil the letter-writer enters breathless, bringing +news of the defeat of a Streltsian force at the hands of +Peter’s men. A call is made for their leader, and +Prince Khovansky counsels them from the steps of his +palace to submit for the nonce to Peter’s rule.</p> + +<p>The fourth act has two scenes. The first shows the +interior of Khovansky’s country mansion. The old +Prince is seeking distraction in the songs of his attendant +maidens. A messenger from Galitsin, conveying +news of a plot against Khovansky’s life, is scornfully +dismissed, and the master of the house calls for his +Persian dancers. At the conclusion of the entertainment +Shaklovity brings a command that Khovansky +shall appear at the Regent’s council. Imagining this +to be a sign of returning favour, the Prince makes +ready for the journey, but as he approaches the door +he is stabbed. His terrified servants flee from the +sight of their prostrate master, and Shaklovity, surveying +the corpse, breaks out into derisive laughter.</p> + +<p>Scene II represents a public square in Moscow. +Through the crowd is seen the figure of Galitsin, who +is being hurried under close escort into exile. Dositheus +joins the throng, and hears from Martha that Peter +has ordered the wholesale execution of the Old +Believers. Their leader resolves that death shall be +self-inflicted. Andrew Khovansky, ignorant of his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span>father’s assassination and of the general turn of events, +now appears on the scene, and entreats Martha to +deliver up the young Lutheran. He is told that Emma +is honourably united to the man she loves, and in his +consternation Andrew threatens Martha with death at +the hands of his Streltsy. She bids him proceed with +his threat. His repeated horn-blasts are answered in +unexpected fashion by a body of his men, who, guarded +by Peter’s soldiers, are bringing axes and faggots to +the place chosen for their execution. It does not take +place. Peter’s merciful decree of pardon is delivered +to them by a herald.</p> + +<p>The Old Believers’ hermitage in a wood near Moscow +is the scene of the fifth and final act. There, under +the leadership of Dositheus, preparations are being +made for a self-administered martyrdom. Andrew, +still hoping to find Emma, is prevailed upon by Martha +to mount the pyre, to which she then applies the brand. +The Old Believers sing their hymn until the flames +overpower them. The trumpets of Peter’s soldiery are +heard, and the curtain falls to the music which symbolizes +the rising of the new Russia from the ashes of +the old.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Fifteen">XV.</abbr></h4> + +<p>As drama, “Khovanshchina” is better planned +than “Boris Godounof,” despite the summary curtailment +to which Moussorgsky was obliged to subject +the work. On the dramatic side it possesses perhaps +in a greater degree the quality of nationalism; the +consequences of the Nikonian revision have a greater +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span>significance for the larger public than the misdemeanours +of Boris and Otrepief. In the matter of +construction, the difference between the two works is +principally in respect of detail. Moussorgsky has +abandoned, in “Khovanshchina,” his rigid adherence +to the method of “throughout-composition”; there +are repetitions which reveal an intention of seeking +a compromise between an allegiance to the principles +of his School and the desire to use a beautiful melody +more than once. “Khovanshchina” is, in a word, +slightly more “operatic” than “Boris Godounof.”</p> + +<p>The principal characters are again represented by +themes, and here one observes that in their repetition +there is just a shade more deliberateness. The motive +most frequently used is that of the massive figure of +Khovansky, than which it would have been impossible +to conceive anything more appropriate.</p> + +<p>A remarkable feature of the score is the wealth of +music of an ecclesiastical kind. Already in “Boris” +Moussorgsky had shown a complete mastery of the +ancient modal method of writing. In “Khovanshchina” +he achieves some of his most successful pages +when composing chants for the Old Believer chorus.</p> + +<p>A cardinal point of difference between the music of +“Boris Godounof” and that of the later work is that, +whereas in the former the lyrical pages are, as it were, +mostly ornamental, in “Khovanshchina” they are +part and parcel of the vocal line. The inclusion in +“Boris” of the Clapping Game, the Nurse’s Song of +the Gnat, and the Inn-keeper’s Song, is perfectly +legitimate, as they are relevant to the dramatic action. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span>But they are decorative; they are part of the folk-colour. +In “Khovanshchina” there are a few identifiable +specimens of folk-song, such as Martha’s song in +Act <abbr title="Three">III</abbr>, the hymn to Khovansky in the country-house +scene, and a fragment sung by the sleepy strelets +immediately following the curtain’s first rise; but their +folk-origin is not betrayed, as are those of the earlier +work, by their text. They are used where original +music would have served as well, and the allegory of the +folk-text fits into the dramatic situation.</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Sixteen">XVI.</abbr></h4> + +<p>There are several numbers of great beauty in +“Khovanshchina” which might easily be given a +separate performance. First among these should be +mentioned the Persian Dances. Among some of the +composer’s friends they were looked upon as an unwarrantable +interpolation. The assumption that old +Prince Khovansky had among his household some +Persian captives was too slender an excuse for this +music. Hearing it, one is quite prepared to give +Moussorgsky the benefit of the doubt. The dances +are introduced by a few anticipatory phrases; by this +means the composer avoids the break which would +have given them more the appearance of a ballet +included as a sop to the orthodox opera-goer. The +Song of the Haiduk (Hungarian mercenary), sung +by Khovansky’s serving-maids immediately before +the Persian Dances, is also exceedingly charming; it +is obviously traditional. The choral song in honour +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span>of Khovansky, in the first act, is highly appropriate +music, and could hardly have been improved upon as +a means of suggesting the attitude of his followers +towards the Prince. In singling out one from the +many fine specimens of music of a devotional kind, it +is upon the chorus of Old Believers in the last act, +written in the Phrygian mode, that the choice must +fall. The wonderful Song of Divination ought not to +need mention as one of the numbers detachable from +the score, since that is often given on the concert-platform.</p> + +<p>“Khovanshchina” seems to merit a place apart in +the field of Russian Opera. It is a fusion of the +Glinkist and Dargomijskian traditions in that it deals +with national subjects, incorporates the folk-idea, both +literary and musical, and is designed and constructed +on lines which are favourable to the development of +a rational type of opera; in such an opera the severity +of declamation is relieved on suitable occasions by +melody, and a compromise is thus reached, admitting +of the treatment of any literary subject at all suitable +for the purposes of opera.</p> + +<p>“Khovanshchina” is a work in which such a compromise +becomes imperative. But for its acceptance +the store of Russian national music-drama would have +been robbed of an example that makes a direct appeal +to the religious as well as to the patriotic sensibilities +of the Russian nation.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_8_8" href="#FNanchor_8_8" class="label">[8]</a> “Moussorgsky,” Félix Alcan, Paris, 1911.</p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_9_9" href="#FNanchor_9_9" class="label">[9]</a> A Russian musical essayist, wrongly supposing this to +have referred to the whole operatic fragment, has cited these +words as evidence of the composer’s power of detachment.</p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_10_10" href="#FNanchor_10_10" class="label">[10]</a> “Les Faux Démétrius,” Paris, 1853.</p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_11_11" href="#FNanchor_11_11" class="label">[11]</a> “Musique d’autrefois et d’aujourd’hui,” Dorbon-Ainé, +Paris.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="PART_III"> + PART III + </h2> + <h3>CHORAL AND INSTRUMENTAL WORKS</h3> +</div> + + +<h4><abbr title="One">I.</abbr></h4> + +<p>A survey of Moussorgsky’s dramatic work reveals so +many evidences of genius in writing for chorus that +one might have expected to find among his compositions +a greater number of independent choral examples. +Of the four surviving specimens, only one was designed +as a separate work⁠—“The Destruction of Sennacherib,” +after Byron’s short poem, for the usual vocal quartet. +This was written in the winter of 1866–67, and first +performed at a Free School Concert under Balakiref’s +direction. One cannot say more than that its music, +while making no strong effort at description, is entirely +suitable to the text. Of the others, the chorus for +mixed voices and orchestra (the sole remaining number +of the setting of Sophocles’ “Œdipus”), and a women’s +chorus from the unfinished “Salammbô,” are not of +great importance. “Joshua,” also originally from that +source is, on the other hand, a work of particular +interest. It is founded on themes that the composer +heard sung by some Jews, for some time neighbours +of his, during the Feast of Tabernacles. In this +Moussorgsky has imitated a style altogether new to +him, showing a wonderful sensibility to new impressions. +The melodic line is remarkably characteristic; +its only blemish is an instrumental reproduction of an +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span>ornamental flourish, introducing an effect of clearness +foreign to the traditional Hebraic vocal style. A +comparison of some of the melodic figures with those +employed in the sketch of the two Jews in “The +Picture-Show,” suggests that Moussorgsky based his +character drawing therein upon the material from +which the “Joshua” music had been derived.</p> + +<h3>“<span class="allsmcap">THE PICTURE-SHOW</span>”</h3> +<h4><abbr title="Two">II.</abbr></h4> + +<p>With one exception Moussorgsky’s compositions for +the piano can have little interest other than that arising +for the historian. With this very notable exception +none of them would for a moment arrest the attention +of a musician if published under an unknown name.⁠<a id="FNanchor_12_12" href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> +The extraordinary novelty and originality of the famous +series of sketches called “The Picture-Show” is +attributable to its having been created under the +influence of a deep inspiration.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately it is impossible at this date to obtain +any notion as to the degree of success attained by the +composer in reproducing in music what he saw in +Hartmann’s sketches. While it has been possible, +with a little contriving, to see the original pictures of +Goya, and to hear their musical reflection according to +Granados, or to witness the ridiculous miming of +“General Lavine,” and to listen to Debussy’s account +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span>of his mannerisms on one and the same day, the chance +of comparing Moussorgsky’s pieces with the water-colours +and sketches that inspired them is apparently +lost for ever. But the listener whose imagination +enables him to connect the music with Hartmann’s +titles is not likely to care whether or no a sight of the +originals would diminish his pleasure.</p> + +<p>Hartmann, an architect, was a great friend both of +Stassof and Moussorgsky. The son of a doctor, he +was born in 1834, and despite his short life managed to +visit practically all the art centres of Europe in search +of ideas. On his death in the summer of 1873, Stassof +wrote an extremely eulogistic notice, following this up +with a sketch of his acquaintanceship and transactions +with the lamented artist. In the spring of 1874, an +exhibition of water-colours and designs was arranged, +and it was Moussorgsky’s visit to the gallery that led +him to attempt what must have been then regarded +as a particularly daring experiment.</p> + +<p>Writing to Stassof in June, 1874, Moussorgsky states +that “Hartmann” is progressing at the same furious +rate as did “Boris” a year or so before. The first four +numbers of the suite had then already taken shape.</p> + +<p>The following is a slightly abbreviated translation +of Moussorgsky’s description of the pictures, printed in +the original edition of his suite. Only a few of them +are mentioned in Stassof’s notice of the exhibition:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="hanging">1. “Gnomus.” Picture representing a little goblin, +hobbling clumsily along on his misshapen legs.</p> + +<p class="hanging">2. “Il Vecchio Castello.” A medieval castle, before +which sings a troubadour.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span></p> + +<p class="hanging">3. “Tuileries.” Children wrangling over their games +in the Tuileries Gardens.</p> + +<p class="hanging">4. “Bydlo.” A Polish cart on huge wheels, drawn +by oxen.</p> + +<p class="hanging">5. “Ballet of Chickens in their Shells.” A sketch +for the staging of the ballet “Trilby.”</p> + +<p class="hanging">6. “Samuel Goldenburg and Schmuyle.” Two Polish +Jews, the one prosperous, the other needy.</p> + +<p class="hanging">7. “Limoges.” Bickering market-women.</p> + +<p class="hanging">8. “The Catacombs.” Hartmann is seen visiting the +Paris Catacombs by lantern-light.</p> + +<p class="hanging">9. “The Hut on Fowls’ Legs.” A design for a clock +in the shape of Baba-Yaga’s hut. Moussorgsky +added the trail of the witch, journeying to and +fro in her traditional mortar.</p> + +<p class="hanging2">10. “The Bogatyr’s Gate at Kief.” Hartmann’s plan +for the proposed Gate in the ancient massive +Russian style, with a cupola in the form of a +Slavonic helmet.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="unindent">There is a Prelude under the title “Promenade,” +the theme of which is used to suggest from time to +time the gait of the visitor, and also the impression +made upon him by the pictures.</p> + +<p>The most graphic numbers in the series are undoubtedly +“Gnomus,” in which the grotesque little +goblin’s awkward movements are wonderfully suggested, +“Bydlo,” a scene in the street of Sandomir +(recalling that it was Hartmann who advised including +the Polish Act in “Boris,” of which the castle at +Sandomir is the scene), the “Trilby” movement, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span>daintiness itself, the Polish Jews, whose contrasted +condition is marvellously depicted, the Baba-Yaga +scene, and the splendidly heroic final number⁠—a little +masterpiece that is in itself an excellent memorial of +the co-designer of the Russian Millennary monument at +Nijni Novgorod.</p> + +<p>The Spanish picture, the Tuileries scene, and +“Limoges,” are somewhat too formal for their purpose, +and come strangely from the composer of “The +Nursery.” “The Catacombs” is a curiously fantastic +number, part of which is based on the “Promenade” +theme.</p> + +<p>Now that these pieces have become popular, one +regrets all the more that the pictures of Hartmann +were not reproduced in the original edition⁠—their +inclusion could not greatly have lessened the value of +Moussorgsky’s work, and would have provided, in +conjunction with the music, a fitting souvenir of an +exceptionally versatile artist.</p> + +<h3>“<span class="allsmcap">NIGHT ON THE BARE MOUNTAIN</span>”</h3> +<h4><abbr title="Three">III.</abbr></h4> + +<p>The surviving orchestral version of Moussorgsky’s +famous “Night on the Bare Mountain” is the work +of Rimsky-Korsakof, and thus cannot be considered, +apart from its thematic and programmatic interest, +as representative.</p> + +<p>Its history is a little complicated. Composed in +the rough in 1867, as a fantasia for piano and orchestra, +supposedly under the influence of Liszt’s “Dance +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span>Macabre” and Berlioz’ “Witches’ Sabbath,” and +given the title of “St. John’s Eve,” it was thrown +aside until some three years later, when on Gedeonof’s +“Mlada” project being put before Moussorgsky and +his friends Cui, Borodin, and Rimsky-Korsakof, it was +considerably altered and was given a vocal part. It +had now become the music for the revels of Chernobog +(the Black god) on Mount Triglaf. On the abandonment +of Gedeonof’s scheme it was once more laid +aside, to serve again for “Sorochinsk Fair” as the +“fantastic dream”⁠—an Intermezzo in which the +witches are seen disporting themselves on the Bare +Mountain. The ringing of the bell which disperses the +nocturnal spirits at dawn was inserted at this time. +Finally it was revised and orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakof, +who, after considerable trouble in arranging +the material satisfactorily, eventually conducted it at +the first of Belayef’s Russian Symphony Concerts, +about five years after the composer’s death. Its +immediate popularity is easy to understand, since the +fantastic programme is carried out with a wealth of +rhythmic and harmonic suggestion that compels a +mental reconstruction of the supernatural occurrences +described. The verbal description of the scene, +attached to the score, is as follows: “Subterranean +sounds of unearthly voices. Appearance of the spirits +of darkness followed by that of the God Chernobog. +Chernobog’s glorification and the Black Mass. The +Revels. At the height of the orgies is heard from afar +the bell of a little church, which causes the spirits to +disperse. Dawn.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span></p> +<p>The fantasia possesses a special significance for the +student of Russian musical history. It recalls that +Glinka had mooted, somewhere about the time of +Moussorgsky’s birth, the notion of composing a number +of orchestral works in which he proposed removing +the accepted formal restrictions in order to offer to +the public a kind of music that could be appreciated +by its (musically) uneducated section. The fantasias +in question were to preserve such a level of seriousness +as would render them acceptable to the critical, but +by means of a “programme” were to make a popular +appeal. “A Night in Madrid” may thus be looked +upon as a forerunner of “A Night on the Bare Mountain,” +and the latter as the first of a series of symphonic +pictures of which Rimsky-Korsakof’s “Sheherazade” +and “Antar,” Borodin’s “In the Steppes of Central +Asia,” Balakiref’s “Tamara,” and Glazounof’s “Stenka +Razin” are the most meritorious examples. “A +Night on the Bare Mountain” must therefore be +attributed as much to Glinkist as to foreign influence.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_12_12" href="#FNanchor_12_12" class="label">[12]</a> A further exception may perhaps be made in favour of the +“Intermezzo,” composed in 1861, and afterwards arranged for +orchestra. It was partly inspired by a rustic scene, but was +written in a classical style not at all suggesting a “programme.”</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span></p> + + + <h2 class="nobreak" id="PART_IV"> + PART IV + </h2> + <h3>SONGS</h3> +</div> + +<h4><abbr title="One">I.</abbr></h4> + +<p>Before proceeding to make detailed reference to +Moussorgsky’s songs, it should be mentioned that the +composer did not look upon a song as a vocal solo with +instrumental accompaniment. He was just as unwilling +to do so as he would have been to regard an +opera as a “concert in costume.” For him, the song +was a vehicle for the description of something not to +be described by any other means. His songs are best +considered as musical scenes with a vocal part, the +voice naturally becoming prominent where description +gives place to narration or dialogue. In order to +facilitate reference to the style of Moussorgsky’s forty-odd +examples, their stylistic attributes may be roughly +specified under the following heads: (1) National or +Popular: Where the text possesses a national character +or appeals to nationalistic sensibilities, or where the +music is in the style of folk-song. (2) Poetical or +Idealistic: Where the text is based upon a poetical idea +and the music is “absolute” rather than suggestive, +reflecting the general sentiment of the whole rather +than the particular meaning of a phrase. (3) Realistic: +Where the text possesses the attributes of a <i lang="fr">genre</i> production +and the music occupies itself for the most part +with description. (4) Declamatory: Where the text is +in the nature of a narration and the vocal music is +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span>mostly recitatival. (In this class of song Moussorgsky +has not hesitated to alter the bar-design or measure +wherever the syllabic structure of the text has demanded +such variation.) Even this generous allowance +of categories takes no account of the satirical pieces in +which there is the purpose of ridiculing certain persons, +types, or ideas, and which in two cases have been conveniently +and appropriately described as “musical +pamphlets.”</p> + +<h4><abbr title="Two">II.</abbr></h4> + +<p>In the first, or national, category comes one of +Moussorgsky’s best-known vocal works, the “Gopak.” +The stirring words of the martyr-poet Taras Shevchenko +are set melodically, with a fitness that could +not have been surpassed had this sublime Ruthenian +patriot himself, and not a Muscovite, been responsible +for the music. The invocation to the Dnieper, also the +work of this poet (he is buried on its banks), while +national in character, is musically of quite a different +order from the first. Beginning with a recitatival introduction +in freely varied rhythms (7/4, 6/4, 3/4), a folk-song +character prevails throughout the sombre Allegro. The +final section, a return to the introductory theme, is a +magnificently eloquent appeal to the Ruthenian river, +the two bars in which the name is pronounced being +lengthened to 7/4 to admit of due emphasis.</p> + +<p>“To the Mushrooms” is another song which may +well be cited in this category, for the folk-song element +is here also very conspicuous. It is national in text as +well as music⁠—mushroom-picking being in Russia made +the occasion of a special ceremonial. The refrain has +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span>a strong melodic resemblance to the song of the +Innkeeper in “Boris Godounof.” The “coda,” which +is at greater length than Moussorgsky usually allows +himself, is a masterly piece of harmonic variation.</p> + +<p>The “Peasant’s Cradle Song” is in an entirely +different mood. The mother sings in turn of the +oppression that will be her child’s lot, and of the +Divine solicitude that may lighten the burden. The +music suits itself wonderfully to the change of sense; +only the rocking is constant.</p> + +<p>The most characteristic examples among Moussorgsky’s +realistic songs are “The Orphan” and “Savishna.” +Both of them are sheer strokes of genius, not +merely as to their general conception but in respect of +their composer’s happy disregard of tradition at a +moment when the consideration of form would have +prevented a fitting illustration of their textual idea. +The first represents a street beggar imploring charity +of a passer by. “Oh, kind gentleman, take pity on +a poor, miserable, homeless orphan....” The child +describes the conditions of his existence; he has no +strength left. “... To die of hunger is terrible ... +my blood is frozen ... have pity on a miserable +orphan....” The music has simply spoken and +moaned with the child; the misery described for us +by its harmony might have softened the heart of the +passer by; yet it fails.... The child is left standing, +as an incomplete cadence tells us. Charity, like its +resolution, is missing.</p> + +<p>The orphan’s appeal, while hardly more than a +monologue, has a suggestion of melody. In +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span>“Savishna” Moussorgsky approaches more closely +the declamatory style. It is a monotonous supplication, +the melodic element being restricted to three +notes in a rhythm of five.</p> + +<p>The composer, occupied in writing the “Labourer’s +Cradle Song” during the period spent on his brother’s +estate at Minkino, in 1865, happened to overhear the +addresses of a half-witted suitor paid to the village +beauty. It is the love-declaration of Vanya, the +“yourodivy” or spiritual fool⁠—the prototype of the +pathetic creature who utters the closing words of the +Kromy scene in “Boris”⁠—that Moussorgsky has noted +down in “Savishna.” Its harmony strikes but two +notes. The fool asks for love and for pity. The empty +fourths and fifths in the closing three bars proclaim +the hopelessness of his suit.</p> + +<p>For the gibes of “The Urchin” Moussorgsky has +used the same rhythmic arrangement, but in this case +he varies his rhythm, using as occasion demands +6/4, 5/4, 3/2 and 3/1 to emphasize the variety of epithets +flung by the ragamuffin at the old woman he is mocking. +The 5/4 rhythm is retained for her remonstrance, +but the strength of her arm is made manifest in a couple +of strenuous bars⁠—for the chastisement.</p> + +<h3>“<span class="allsmcap">SONGS AND DANCES OF DEATH</span>”</h3> +<h4><abbr title="Three">III.</abbr></h4> + +<p>We have passed from the category of realism into +that of declamation without referring to the <i lang="fr">genre</i> +type. To this heading belongs undoubtedly the song-cycle +entitled “Songs and Dances of Death.” The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span>“Trepak” (“Still is the Forest”) contains the elements +of nationalism, realism, and melody. To the +dance rhythm, to which Death conducts the starved +peasant into eternity, is given a considerable prominence +as a suggestion of Death’s mood. Its measure +is only blotted out by the howling of the tempest. +Becoming audible once more at the promise of eternal +peace, it mingles with the cradle-song that lulls the +peasant into a last sleep. Death surveys the corpse +with a smile at the recollection of his artifice.</p> + +<p>There is little vocal melody in Moussorgsky’s portrayal +of the heart-rending scene that follows. A +mother’s tired voice has crooned through a sorrowful +all-night vigil over her sick child. There is no conventional +cradle-song. The movement is suggested +by the rise and fall of a figure which appears to represent +the weary woman’s anxiety. The swaying +becomes feebler. The mother turns her head. Someone +is stealthily approaching the hut. There is a +knock. Through the doorway the trembling mother +sees, silhouetted by the light of dawn, the terrible +intruder whose presence betokens that she can hardly +dare hope. The gentleness of Death’s accents fails +to hide his intention. He will rock the child and +afford the mother a well-earned respite. His voice +will soothe the sufferer. In vain she refuses, protests, +implores. Death gains possession of the little sufferer. +“See! I have sung him to sleep....”</p> + +<p>The third picture is that of a frail young woman to +whom Death appears in the guise of a gallant. Its +refrain is a serenade. The sinister cavalier prosecutes +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span>a brief and horrible courtship. For him there can be +but one reply. A pedal note proclaims that his +flattering utterances are but a veil that will not long +obscure the end. It comes in the rhythm of the +serenade ... with it for a moment is heard the +counsel of submission. A horrible silence follows. +Death casts away his disguise. “Thou’rt Mine!” +The means by which Moussorgsky attains to positive +descriptiveness at no sacrifice of the lyrical quality are +so absolutely simple that, were this song divorced from +its text, one might seek in vain for anything in the +nature of poetic suggestion. Yet as a complement of +the words of Kutuzof, the music becomes a masterpiece +that is second to none of its kind.</p> + +<p>The method of the last number is somewhat different. +The poet has given a more generous description of the +<i lang="fr">mise en scène</i>. Death has found a worthy vicar and +is not yet here. The scene is a corpse-strewn battlefield. +The conflict is recalled by its human remnants. +Presently the rising moon reveals the hideous figure +of a skeleton whose bones reflect its light. He is +mounted. It is Field-Marshal Death. His subtle +strategy has brought him an easy and an overwhelming +victory. He sings the restrained song of a warrior +who has never doubted his strength. To the dead +he dispenses sophistries. “In life you were always +in conflict. Death will unite you....” To a military +music he bids his victims rise and pass before him +in review. Surveying the ghostly army, he promises +that he will awaken them daily to entertain them at +a midnight revel.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span></p> +<h3>“<span class="smcap">Without Sunlight</span>”</h3> +<h4><abbr title="Four">IV.</abbr></h4> + +<p>“Apart from Pushkin and Lermontof,” wrote +Moussorgsky to Stassof, “I have not discovered elsewhere +what I find in Kutuzof.” In the “Songs and +Dances of Death” there is sufficient evidence that the +composer had found someone capable of inspiring the +very best he could create. In the second cycle, which +may be classified as Idealistic, there is so clear a +representation of the composer’s own personality that +one could almost credit him with the text.</p> + +<p>“Without Sunlight” is a collection of six poems +by the poet of the “Dances of Death”; their musical +setting shows that Moussorgsky was capable, on +occasion, of being subjective, that the capacity for +introspection and self-revelation was not altogether +foreign to his nature. In all his other creations he is +seen looking around him and depicting objects worthy +of admiration or pity, or deserving ridicule. In +“Without Sunlight” he has given us music that +represents himself as surely as the text represents the +psychology of the type to which he conforms.</p> + +<p>In all six numbers the vocal part approaches nearer +to definite melody than to melo-declamation. But in +connection with the last one only can the term lyrical +be mentioned.</p> + +<p>The first, “Within Four Walls,” is a glimpse through +the door of a hospital. The soliloquy of a patient is +overheard. His mental eye fixes momentarily upon +some past happiness. Its gaze shifts to the present, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span>and the sick one realizes that this is solitude and night. +There is little movement in Moussorgsky’s harmonies; +it is as though all sound were, like the room, in shadow.</p> + +<p>“In the crowd thou didst not know me,” is the +complaint of the second song, which is the record of +a passion starved by neglect. The recollection brings +a sharp reminder of the first pangs of disappointment. +Here, as in “The Orphan,” the return to the prevailing +tonality is neglected.</p> + +<p>“The Festal Days are Over” is also in reminiscent +vein. The sufferer is wakeful, and in the dead of night +turns over the pages of a distant past, rendered more +vivid by solitude. The accompaniment is of a much +more pictorial kind than that of the foregoing numbers. +The passage in which the poet speaks of “vernal +passions of the past returning as phantoms in dreams” +is accompanied by a figure which has since served +Debussy in depicting his nocturnal “<i lang="fr">Nuages</i>.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_13_13" href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>“Tedium” is unrelievedly pessimistic. Cynical +self-damnation is its note. It catalogues all life’s joys +and decrees that they are to befall one insensible: +“Tedium until the very tomb, and God be with you +there.” At the opening of the song the harmony +seems to fail in reflecting the full weariness of spirit +described by the text, but once the exordium is done +with there is no further doubt as to its fitness. +Poignant bitterness permeates the music until the final +words, which evoke a major chord.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span></p> + +<p>There is a harmonic wealth in the “Elegie” that +is not forthcoming from any of the previous numbers. +It is also of much more generous dimensions, and is at +times quite rhapsodical. The text once more concerns +past emotions to which the music seeks to attune itself. +At one moment there is positive description. At “the +sound of the bells of death,” the accompaniment is +suspended and the knell introduced.</p> + +<p>“On the Stream,” the last of the series, does not +merely suggest the abstract sentiment, but is definitely +pictorial, so far, that is, as concerns the water alone. +This is depicted in a constant triplet figure. The text +tells us that death will soon put an end to these solitary +communings, and the voice of the sufferer answering +the call with a cheerfulness that strikes a new note is +heard in an ascending phrase borne on the bosom of +the still rustling stream into the unknown.⁠<a id="FNanchor_14_14" href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<p>A closer relation with the import of these vocal poems +would have been established by the use of such a title +as “Songs Before Death.”</p> + +<h3>“<span class="allsmcap">THE NURSERY</span>”</h3> +<h4><abbr title="Five">V.</abbr></h4> + +<p>“The Russian child,” says M. d’Alheim, “whether +belonging to the peasant or the middle class, only +differs from the child of another nationality in the +matter of racial traits.”⁠<a id="FNanchor_15_15" href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> This difference, however, as +revealed in the child-scenes of Moussorgsky, assumes +a not inconsiderable importance. The Russian child +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span>resembles other children in that he is father to the +man; but both child and man live in a world singularly +different, in one particular, from their Western prototypes. +They spend their lives in a world from which +the supernatural element has not been banished. It +is introduced by the nurse through the medium of the +folk-stories in which the Russian, whether child or +man, delights. By their own confession Pushkin, +Moussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakof have made us +aware that their oft-displayed affection for legendary +lore was instilled into them by the trusted peasant-woman +under whose care their childhood was passed.</p> + +<p>To this influence the world owes several of the +national poet’s immortal works, and the operas and +symphonic pieces founded upon them by such as Glinka, +Dargomijsky, Rimsky-Korsakof, and Moussorgsky. +The child’s request, in the first number of “The +Nursery,” for a tale concerning certain legendary +personages whose behaviour is, to say the least of it, +a little uncommon, needs no further explanation. A +Russian, hearing the words, would in imagination be +immediately transported, as though by the good offices +of some benevolent <i lang="fr">genie</i>, to his native heath. This +little vocal scene has a special claim to be quoted as +a specimen of art-nationalism, showing as it does the +extent to which a popular affection for folk-lore will +contribute to a form of art which may be wooed but +cannot be won by the less imaginative peoples.</p> + +<p>The misdemeanours of Mishenka, left for a moment +to himself, are not perhaps distinctively national. +A nursery “strewn with a fearful mess of cotton, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span>wrecked stitching, and all the contents of the nursery +work-basket, to which a bottle of ink has contributed +even greater devastation,”⁠<a id="FNanchor_16_16" href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> is a scene which must +surely be common to the nurseries of the civilized +world. In contradistinction the third and sixth +numbers reflect the very special interest that the +zoological creation has for the Russian child. The one +describes Mishenka in conflict with a too venturesome +cockchafer, and the youngster’s mystification in the +presence of Death; the other relates how the caged +robin escaped, through the timely interference of +Mishenka, from the teeth and claws of Matros the cat.</p> + +<p>The fourth, fifth, and seventh concern respectively +a doll, the child’s evening prayer, and a gallop round +the nursery astride a stick. The doll is exhorted to +remember the dreams of its slumber in order that +they may beguile the waking hour; the prayer is +rendered characteristic by an episode⁠—the child’s +lapse of memory on approaching the passage in which +Divine grace is solicited on its own behalf; the furious +gallop during which the nursery is “transformed into +a veritable battlefield”⁠<a id="FNanchor_17_17" href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>⁠—the furniture sustaining +heavy casualties⁠—is a marvellous example of “the +notation of pantomime.”</p> + +<p>In “The Nursery” the declamatory method prevails. +In the vocal part there is even less suggestion +of melody than in “The Orphan” or “Savishna.” +Moussorgsky never turns aside from his intention of +giving us the child’s speech. The nearest approach to +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span>melody is in “The Child’s Prayer,” in which there are +to be found some repeated phrases. But these are +nothing more than a suggestion of the mechanical way +in which the prayer is uttered. The words come not +from his mind but his lips.</p> + +<p>With the accompaniment it is otherwise. In such +numbers as “The Cockchafer,” “The Doll” (a cradle-song), +and “The Hobby-Horse,” there is a clearly +defined rhythmic pattern and a sufficiently formal +structure to allow of music that could be divorced from +its text. It must surely have been these numbers that +caused Liszt to consider an arrangement for piano +alone. One cannot imagine that any sort of coherency +could have been infused into “Nurse, Tell Me a Tale,” +with its twenty-seven changes of time-signature!</p> + +<p>“The Nursery” is a work of art in which the principles +formulated by Dargomijsky have been carried +to their logical conclusion. It is the equivalent in its +special sphere of “The Matchmaker.” The setting of +that comedy was held by the composer to represent +his “very self.” But as the text of “The Nursery” +is Moussorgsky’s own, we may consider it for that +reason alone as still more representative. Besides +revealing the genius it shows us the man.</p> + +<p>As a series of child-pictures it stands alone. It is +doubtful whether in the whole world of art its equal +as an exposition of the child could be found. “Moussorgsky,” +says M. Combarieu, “is no onlooker; in +depicting the children he himself returns to childhood; +one might say that he plays with them and sulks with +them....”⁠<a id="FNanchor_18_18" href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span></p> +<h3>SATIRICAL SONGS</h3> +<h4><abbr title="Six">VI.</abbr></h4> + +<p>The category of “Satirical,” like the classification +of “Pamphlet,” is one which takes no heed of the +musical qualities of the example thus placed. “The +Seminarist” is satirical, but in contradistinction to +“The Peepshow” must be called non-political. Musically +speaking it is declamatory, but has a certain +rhythmic pattern. So long as the divinity student +attends to his Latin lesson he sings in an appropriate +monotone; when his mind wanders towards the thought +of his instructor’s daughter the vocal contour is +softened. As this happens quite often, “The Seminarist” +possesses a musical interest that would have +been absent had the student been of saintly character.</p> + +<p>“The Classicist” is both satire and musical politics. +Its victim, Famintsin, a contemporary critic, was a +lover of Handel and a stern opponent of all “modernist +tricks.” “The Classicist,” in ridiculing these prejudices, +takes on the appearance of a <i lang="fr">pastiche</i>. In one line we +are listening to innocuous Handelian music; in the +next to the detested “modernist tricks.” After the +quotation from Rimsky-Korsakof’s “Sadko,” which +does not strike us as appalling cacophony, “The +Classicist” becomes itself again, establishing an atmosphere +of repose suitable to a <i lang="fr">milieu</i> in which music +reflecting the contemporary spirit is taboo.</p> + +<p>“The Musicians’ Peepshow” belongs obviously to +the same category. Its satire is more biting, its +political sphere somewhat wider, and quotations +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span>abound. But neither “The Classicist,” nor “The Peep-show,” +nor the Mephistophelean “Flea-song” is in +the least representative of Moussorgsky’s art, however +much they may tell us about that of other folk. Still, +they are documents that help to increase our knowledge +of the man, and they have the one great merit of being +exceedingly entertaining.</p> + +<p>The present description of the text, method, and +general treatment of the songs dealt with cannot +possibly convey any definite idea of their musical +quality. From the preceding notes it will have been +gathered that the range of material employed by +Moussorgsky was exceedingly wide, and the method +of treatment extraordinarily varied. It will have been +realized, moreover, that the composer set before +himself an ideal which made immense demands upon +both the imagination and the inventive faculty.</p> + +<p>For many famous composers a song need claim +nothing more than to be a poem set to music. The +accompaniment is a complement of the vocal line and +has little bearing on the text. In Moussorgsky’s songs +we have a new type⁠—they constitute a form of art in +which all three constituents, the text, the vocal line, +and the piano part, have a truly vital function, contributing +directly and equally to the artistic whole.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> +<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_13_13" href="#FNanchor_13_13" class="label">[13]</a> A similar coincidence of musical invention, relating to +the same composers, may be observed by comparing passages +in “La Chevelure” (Trois Chansons de Bilitis) and the +“Galitsin” Act of “Khovanshchina.”</p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_14_14" href="#FNanchor_14_14" class="label">[14]</a> The text of this song was also set to music by Balakiref.</p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_15_15" href="#FNanchor_15_15" class="label">[15]</a> <i>Op. cit.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_16_16" href="#FNanchor_16_16" class="label">[16]</a> M. Montagu-Nathan, <i>op. cit.</i></p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_17_17" href="#FNanchor_17_17" class="label">[17]</a> From a notice by M. Debussy.</p> + +<p class="footnote unindent"><a id="Footnote_18_18" href="#FNanchor_18_18" class="label">[18]</a> <cite>Revue Musicale</cite>, January, 1911.</p> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="LIST_OF_PRINCIPAL_PUBLISHED_WORKS"> + LIST OF PRINCIPAL PUBLISHED WORKS + </h2> +</div> +<p class="center">MUSIC-DRAMA.</p> +<ul> + <li>Boris Godounof.</li> + <li>Khovanshchina.</li> + <li>The Matchmaker (First Act).</li> + <li>The Fair at Sorochinsk (fragments).</li> +</ul> + +<p class="center">ORCHESTRA.</p> +<ul> + <li>A Night on the Bare Mountain.</li> +</ul> + +<p class="center">CHORAL.</p> +<ul> + <li>The Destruction of Sennacherib.</li> + <li>Joshua.</li> + <li>Œdipus.</li> + <li>Women’s Chorus from abandoned opera Salammbô.</li> +</ul> + +<p class="center">PIANO.</p> +<ul> + <li>The Picture-Show (Tableaux d’une Exposition).</li> + <li>A number of small pieces.</li> +</ul> + +<p class="center">SONGS.</p> +<ul> + <li>The Orphan.</li> + <li>Yeremoushka’s Cradle Song.</li> + <li>Labourer’s Lullaby.</li> + <li>Night.</li> + <li>The Classicist.</li> + <li>The Peepshow.</li> + <li>The Dnieper.</li> + <li>The Seminarist.</li> + <li>Savishna.</li> + <li>Gopak.</li> +</ul> + +<p class="center">SONG CYCLES.</p> +<ul> + <li>Without Sunlight (six numbers).</li> + <li>The Nursery (seven numbers).</li> + <li>Songs and Dances of Death (four numbers).</li> +</ul> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX"> + INDEX + </h2> +</div> + +<ul> + <li class="ifrst">Alexander II., <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Alheim, d’, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Antar</i>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Azanchevsky, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Balakiref, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, + <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Beethoven, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Belayef, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Berlioz, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Betz, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Bogomolof, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Boris Godounof</i>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, + <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, + <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54–66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, + <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Borodin, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, + <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Byron, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Calvocoressi, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Central Asia, In the Steppes of</i>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Chansons de Bilitis</i>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Chernishevsky, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Children’s Scherzo</i>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Classicist, The</i>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Combarieu, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Cui, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, + <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Dargomijsky, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, + <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, + <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, + <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Death</i>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Debussy, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Demidof, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Dnieper</i>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Don Juan</i>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Dostoievsky, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Edwards, Sutherland, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Ensigns’ Polka</i>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Famintsin, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Ferrero, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Field, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Filippof, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Flaubert, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Flea-song</i>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Free School of Music, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Gedeonof, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li> + + <li class="indx">General Lavine, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Glinka, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, + <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, + <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Gogol, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, + <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Golden Bird</i>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Golenishchef-Kutuzof, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Gopak</i>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Gopak</i> (Song), <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Granados, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Gunsburg, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst"><i>Han d’Islande</i>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Handel, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span>Hartmann, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, + <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Heine, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Herke, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Holbein, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Hugo, V., <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst"><i>Impromptu passionné</i>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Ivanovsky, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Ivan the Terrible, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst"><i>Joshua</i>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst"><i>Kallistrate</i>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Karamzin, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Karatigin, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Khovanshchina</i>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, + <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66–75</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Kondratief, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Kroupsky, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Leonof, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Lermontof, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Life for the Tsar, A</i>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Liszt, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Lyadof, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst"><i>Maid of Pskof</i>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Manjean, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Marnold, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Matchmaker, The</i>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49–53</a>, + <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Mendelssohn, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Mérimée, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Minkus, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Mlada</i>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Moussorgsky, Filaret, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Mozart, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Mushrooms</i>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Napravnik, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Night</i>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Night in Madrid</i>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Night in May, A</i>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Night on the Bare Mountain</i>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80–82</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Nikolsky, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Nursery, The</i>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Obolensky, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Œdipus</i>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Opochinin, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Orfano, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Orlof, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Orphan, The</i>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Oulibishef, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Patti, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Peasant’s Cradle Song</i>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Peepshow</i>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Peter the Great, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Petrof, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Picture-Show, The</i>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77–80</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Polejaef, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Popof, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Pourgold, Alexandra, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Pourgold, Nadejda, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Prince Igor</i>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Pushkin, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, + <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Rimsky-Korsakoff, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, + <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, + <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, + <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Rogneda</i>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Rubinstein, A, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Russalka</i>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Russian Musical Society, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Russlan and Ludmilla</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst"><i>Sadko</i>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Salammbô</i>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, + <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Savishna</i>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Schumann, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Seminarist, The</i>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span><i>Sennacherib, Destruction of</i>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Serof, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Sheherazade</i>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Shestakof, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Shevchenko, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Songs and Dances of Death</i>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86–88</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Sophocles, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Sorochinsk Fair</i>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Stassof, V. V., <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, + <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, + <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, + <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Stenka Razin</i>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Stone Guest</i>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, + <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst"><i>Tableaux d’une Exposition.</i> See <i>Picture-Show</i></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Tamara</i>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Tolstoi, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Traviata</i>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Trovatore</i>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Tsar’s Bride, The</i>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst"><i>Urchin</i>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Vanliarsky, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Velyaminof, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + + <li class="indx">Volkonsky, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Wagner, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Without Sunlight</i>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89–91</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Yastrebtsef, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li> + + <li class="indx"><i>Yeremoushka’s Cradle Song</i>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li> + + + <li class="ifrst">Zaremba, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li> +</ul> + + +<p class="p4 center smaller o"> +BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND +</p> +<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter transnote"> +<h3>Transcriber’s Note:</h3> + +<p>Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved +to the end of the chapter. Musical chords and meters are presented +with numbers separated by a slash, e.g. 6/4.</p> + +<p>In the index, extraneous commas were deleted from the ends of page +numbers, and page number 38 was corrected under the entry for +Dargomijsky; “an” was changed to <a href="#chg1">“a”</a> before the word “dastardly.” +</p> +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77855 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/77855-h/images/cover.jpg b/77855-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b1930f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/77855-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/77855-h/images/portrait.jpg b/77855-h/images/portrait.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f3d851 --- /dev/null +++ b/77855-h/images/portrait.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44eb045 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #77855 +(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77855) |
