In my student days, I had a memory of “Exhibition Pictures” by Modest Mussorgsky for orchestra arranged by Maurice Ravel. Since it was a great 33 RPM recording, he shot it with a jacket that was very richly detailed on the back. The following article will undoubtedly be influenced by these characteristics.
Modest Mussorgsky was a Russian nationalist composer who lived in the 19th century. He died in 1881, a little longer than Mozart and Schubert.
His friend, the painter Viktor Hartmann, died in 1873 at the age of 39. A year later, Mussorgsky watched a performance of Hartmann’s paintings. His walk through the gallery inspired him to write a musical masterpiece called “Pictures at an Exhibition”. He wrote a suitable piano work. Several other composers composed the orchestra for it.
The music begins with a walk that turns again and again into a work. He depicts Mussorgsky walking through the gallery from one picture to the next. He gave titles to the paintings he was looking at, but I don’t think the titles came from Hartmann – certainly not all of them.
Gnome
The first painting viewed by Mussorgsky is entitled “The Gnome”. Gnomus is thought to be the Latin word for gnome; but what this term signified, the ancient Romans did not know. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, Paracelsus coined the term in the sixth century.
According to Kennedy Center and other sources, Hartmann’s lost painting actually represents a wooden nutcracker. If so, then either Hartmann made the nutcracker look like a gnome, or Mussorgsky’s intention was to treat it as a gnome. In both cases, Stassov, who was well acquainted with both Hartmann and Mussorgsky, described the music as “depicting a little gnome, deformed with crooked legs,” according to Wikipedia.
Il Vecchio Castello
After looking at the playful gnome with a dreamy mood, Mussorgsky looks for another picture. His traces are painted on the same subject as before. He ends up enjoying the image of an old Italian castle. So the title of this section of music is “Il Vecchio Castello”, which is an Italian phrase meaning “The Old Castle”. Hartmann undoubtedly drew this form when he was in Italy.
the melody is nice. This is one of two moves that I like. According to the Composers’ Library of Classical Music, the music “challenges the middle crowd to mourn before the castle sings.” Stassov also mentioned trouble in this connection, according to Wikipedia. Unfortunately, Hartmann’s sketch has not come down to us, so we cannot know personally whether or not Hartmann was bothered by the painting.
In the garden of the Tuileries
Another musical walk takes Mussorgsky to the painting of the Tuileries in Paris. Most sources simply say “Tuileries” as the title of the section, but Web Music International-vocat calls it “In the Tuileries Garden”. and I think that this more accurately refers to the original French title.
This movement has a special subtlety: “Disputa d’enfants après jeux”, which literally means “dispute about children after games Evidently the picture had children playing and arguing in the neighborhood of the Tuileries. Unfortunately, we cannot see the picture first hand. If it is still there, no one knows where it is. let it be.
Bydlo
The next movement is entitled “Bydlo.” I don’t know what the Poles, but sources mean “cattle”. Because of‘s description in the old record jacket, I associate music with the wagon, and such sources work under the same influence on the Internet music web.
Perhaps “Bydlo” and the painting of the Tuileries were close by in the gallery. At least there is no walking between the two sections. But a revival of the plot shows Mussorgsky walking again after saying goodbye to “Bydlo”.
Songs of excluded chicks
We can personally examine the image that inspired Mussorgsky’s next musical movement. It was one of the models that Hartmann made for a ballet called “Trilby” when he was designing the dancers’ costumes. In this painting, the costumes look like huge eggshells. The head, arms, and legs of the dancers are embedded in the egg board.
Appropriately, the music that mimics this image bears a Russian title that means “Table of Excluded Chickens.”
Two Jews, the Rich and the Poor
The title “Two Jews, Rich and Poor” probably did not originate with Mussorgsky. Stmoroky’s site claims that the composer did not give any name to this particular movement. Sometimes two Jews were given Yiddish names, so that the movement carried the title “Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle”. I’m pretty sure this was the name of the movement in the old record jacket.
It is possible that the music was based on two different images instead of one. At least two examples of Polish Jews have come down to us. One of these is rich, and the other is poor. Probably, however, Hartmann made many letters while he was in Poland, and one of them probably depicted a rich Jew and a poor Jew in the same image.
The prodigious music describes the rich Jew. On the other hand, the Silicon Valley Symphony aptly describes the music applied to Israelite need as “a stuttering trumpet solo.”
Market at Lemovica
Mussorgsky repeats his journey at this point, but in many performances of this work, Mussorgsky should not walk tired.
The section entitled “Marketplace at Lemovice” is animated. The Kennedy Center describes the music thusly: “We live a busy market schedule, with animated conversations between flying businesswomen.”
Lemovice is a French city in central France. It is located a little west and south of the geometric center of the region.
Catacombs
The next movement, entitled “The Catacombs,” is based on a picture that has come down to us. Hartmann’s sketches of the catacombs of Paris. He included three men on board. From Stassov’s comment (cited by Vexica) we know that one of the three figures was Hartmann himself.
With the Dead in a Dead Language
Also a picture of the catacombs for musical inspiration, which is written “With the dead in a dead language”, that is, in Latin for ” ” With the dead in a dead language.” When Mussorgsky contemplated this sepulchral picture with the dead and the dead language, it is clearly alluded to a Roman catacomb, although it is located in Paris. The Romans, of course, spoke Latin, a language that had ceased to be spoken, except in academic circles.
Since the music is a change of theme, Mussorgsky either represents the chicks walking through the gallery in meditation, or depicts Hartmann himself walking out of the catacombs. I think that is more likely. Since the theme is associated with Mussorgsky, the work is more unified if its transformation is also applied to Mussorgsky.
A tattoo on the leg of a chicken
The next painting that Mussorgsky paid attention to still exists. Stassov (quoted in Vexipalogia) aptly describes it as “a clock with the appearance of Baba Yaga in a hut with bird’s legs”, Stassov also noted that Mussorgsky’s musical treatment of the picture “added a witch’s flight in mortar”.
To understand Stassov’s comment, it is necessary to know something about Baba Yaga. The Silicon Valley Symphony describes her as a witch in Russian folklore who lives in a hut that rests on chicken legs and who uses a magic mortar to make a small boat sail through the air. the pistil serves as an oar. Baba Yaga also uses a mortar and pestle to pulverize the bones of her victims before eating them.
Hartmann’s image does not show Baba Yaga herself, but only her hut, to which Hartmann imparted the shape of a clock, as Stassov told us.
Great Gate of Kiovia
“The Great Gate of Kiev” is not an exact translation of Mussorgsky’s original Russian title of the last movement of the suite, but that title was used on the jacket of the old record, and it appears that its title was made in English.
music was inspired by Hartmann’s architectural design to build a gate in the city of Kyiv. Ukraine The architect proposed building a massive structure that featured a dome that looked like a Slavic helmet, according to the Pittsburgh Symphony site.
This is my favorite move. The music is as sublime as Hartmann’s design, perhaps even more so. In the end, however, walking appears as an integral part of movement. Perhaps Mussorgsky thought he was walking through the Kievan Gate or even, as Web Music International suggests, through the heavenly gates of Paradise.
References
Online Etymology Dictionary: Gnome
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gnome
Kennedy Center: Pictures at an Exhibition
http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/?fuseaction=composition&composition;_id=2481
Wikipedia: Pictures at an Exhibition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictures_at_an_Exhibition
Favorite Classical Composers: Mussorgsky’s Delightful Pictures at an Exhibition
http://www.favorite-classical-composers.com/mussorgsky-pictures-at-an-exhibition.html
Music Web International: Mussorgsky (1839-1881) / Ravel (1875-1937) – Pictures at an Exhibition
http://www.musicweb-international.com/Programme_Notes/mussorgsky_pictures.htm
Stmoroky: Images for Pictures at an Exhibition
http://www.stmoroky.com/reviews/gallery/pictures/hartmann.htm
Silicon Valley Symphony: Pictures at an Exhibition.
http://www.symphonysiliconvalley.org/concerts.php?pagecontID=56&showID;=51
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra: Modest Mussorgsky
http://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/pghsymph.nsf/0/2F7107FEC96E195B85257917007C4804
