Modest Mussorgsky came from an old noble family. The future composer was born on March 9, 1839 in the village of Karevo, Toropetsky district, Pskov province.

In his autobiography, Mussorgsky wrote: "... familiarization with the spirit of folk life was the main impetus for musical improvisations before the beginning of acquaintance with the most elementary rules of playing the piano."

His first music teacher was his mother, Yulia Ivanovna Mussorgskaya. Already at the age of 9, he could quite easily play Field's big concerto.

From 1849, Modest studied at the Peter and Paul School in St. Petersburg, and then at the school of the Guards ensigns. He continues his music lessons with one of the best teachers of the city on the Neva - A.A. Gerke.

After graduating from school in 1856, Mussorgsky was enlisted in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. In June 1858, he retired and devoted himself entirely to creativity.

In 1863, while serving in the Forest Department, he became a member of the "Mighty Handful".

In 1879, he made a concert tour of the south, during which the famous "Song of the Flea" was written.

On February 12, 1881, Mussorgsky was paralyzed. The composer died in March of the same year on the way to the hospital.

On his death, V. Stasov wrote an obituary: “Mussorgsky died in the prime of his life and talent: How far from old age and how much more could be expected from him, looking at his mighty talent, his mighty nature!”

Musical legacy:

Operas:"Salambo"(based on the novel by G. Flaubert, 1863-1866, not completed), "Marriage"(on the text of the comedy by N.V. Gogol, 1st act, 1868), "Boris Godunov"(based on the tragedy by A.S. Pushkin, 1869), "Khovanshchina"(libretto M., 1872-1880, completed according to the author's materials and orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov, 1883), "Sorochinsky Fair"(based on the novel by Gogol, 1874-1880, completed by Ts. A. Cui, 1916)

Works for orchestra:scherzo B-dur(1858), intermezzo(1867), Night on Bald Mountain(1867), March Capture of Kars(1880)

Works for piano:Pictures from the exhibition(1874)

Works for choir and orchestra:chorus from Sophocles' tragedy "Oedipus Rex"(1860) Defeat of Sennacherib(words by J. Byron, 1867)

Works for choir, soloists and piano:"Jesus Nun"(1877)

A.A. Golenishchev-Kutuzova, 1874), Songs and dances of death(words by Golenishchev-Kutuzov, 1875-1877)

An outstanding Russian composer, a member of the Mighty Handful.

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born on March 9 (21), 1839 in the village of Toropetsky district of the Pskov province (now in) in the family of a retired collegiate secretary P. A. Mussorgsky, a representative of an old noble family.

Childhood years of the future composer passed in the parental estate - the village. In 1845, he began to study music under the guidance of his mother.

In 1849-1852, M.P. Mussorgsky studied at the German Peter and Paul School in, in 1852-1856 - at the School of Guards Ensigns. At the same time, he took music lessons from the pianist A. A. Gerke. In 1852, the first work of the composer was published - the polka for piano "Ensign".

Upon graduation in 1856, M. P. Mussorgsky was enlisted in the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. In 1856-1857 he met the composers A. S. Dargomyzhsky, M. A. Balakirev and the critic V. V. Stasov, who had a profound influence on his general and musical development. M.P. Mussorgsky began to seriously study composition under the guidance of M.A. Balakirev, entered the "Mighty Handful" circle. Deciding to devote himself to music, in 1858 he left the military service.

The ruin of the family, caused by the abolition of serfdom in 1861, forced MP Mussorgsky to enter the civil service. In 1863-1867 he was an official of the Main Engineering Directorate, from 1869 to 1880 he served in the Forest Department of the Ministry of State Property and in the State Control.

In the late 1850s and early 1860s, M. P. Mussorgsky wrote a number of romances and instrumental works, which revealed the peculiar features of his creative individuality. In 1863-1866 he worked on the opera "Salambo" (after G. Flaubert), which remained unfinished. In the mid-1860s, the composer turned to topical, socially pointed topics: he created songs and romances on words by T. G. Shevchenko, and on his own texts (“Calistrat”, “Lullaby of Eremushki”, “Sleep, sleep, peasant son”, “The Orphan”, “Seminarian”, etc.), which showed his ability to create vividly characteristic human images. The symphonic painting Night on Bald Mountain (1867), created based on folk tales and legends, is distinguished by the richness and richness of sound colors. A bold experiment was M. P. Mussorgsky's unfinished opera The Marriage (after 1868), whose vocal parts are based on the direct implementation of the intonations of live colloquial speech.

The works of the 1850-1860s prepared M. P. Mussorgsky for the creation of one of his main works - the opera Boris Godunov (based on). The first edition of the opera (1869) was not accepted for staging by the directorate of the imperial theaters. After the revision, Boris Godunov was staged at the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theater (1874), but with large cuts.

In the 1870s, M. P. Mussorgsky worked on a grandiose “folk musical drama” from the era of the archery riots of the late 17th century “Khovanshchina” (libretto by M. P. Mussorgsky, begun in 1872) and the comic opera “Sorochinsky Fair” ( by , 1874-1880). At the same time, the composer created the vocal cycles Without the Sun (1874), Songs and Dances of Death (1875-1877), and the suite for piano Pictures at an Exhibition (1874).

In the last years of his life, M. P. Mussorgsky experienced severe depression caused by the non-recognition of his work, loneliness, domestic and material difficulties. He died on March 16 (28), 1881 in the Nikolaev soldier's hospital and was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

The unfinished opera “Khovanshchina” by M. P. Mussorgsky was completed after his death, A. K. Lyadov, Ts. A. Kui and others worked on the “Sorochinsky Fair”. In 1896, a new edition of Boris Godunov was made. In 1959, D. D. Shostakovich prepared a new edition and orchestration of Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina. An independent version of the completion of the "Sorochinsky Fair" belongs to the Soviet composer V. Ya. Shebalin (1930).

M. P. Mussorgsky managed to create a deeply original, expressive musical language, distinguished by its sharp realistic character, subtlety and variety of psychological shades. His work had a great influence on many domestic and foreign composers: S. S. Prokofiev, D. D. Shostakovich, L. Janachek, C. Debussy and others.

1839 - 1881

Life story

Modest Mussorgsky was born on March 21, 1839 in the village of Karevo, Toropetsky district, on the estate of his father, a poor landowner Peter Alekseevich. He spent his childhood in the Pskov region, in the wilderness, among forests and lakes. He was the youngest, the fourth son in the family. The two elders died one after the other in infancy. All the tenderness of the mother, Yulia Ivanovna, was given to the two remaining, and especially to him, the favorite, the smaller, Modinka. It was she who first began to teach him to play the old piano that stood in the hall of their wooden manor house.

But Mussorgsky's future was sealed. At the age of ten, he and his older brother came to St. Petersburg. Here he was supposed to enter a privileged military school - the School of Guards Ensigns.

After graduating from the School, Mussorgsky was assigned to the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment. Modest was seventeen years old. His duties were not burdensome. But unexpectedly for everyone, Mussorgsky resigns and turns off the path that was so successfully begun.

Shortly before that, one of the fellow Transfigurators, who knew Dargomyzhsky, brought Mussorgsky to him. The young man immediately captivated the musician not only with his piano playing, but also with free improvisations. Dargomyzhsky highly appreciated his outstanding musical abilities and introduced him to Balakirev and Cui. Thus began a new life for the young musician, in which Balakirev and the Mighty Handful circle occupied the main place.

Creative activity

Mussorgsky's creative activity began stormily. Each work opened up new horizons, even if it was not brought to an end. So the operas Oedipus Rex and Salammbo remained unfinished, where for the first time the composer tried to embody the most complex interweaving of the destinies of the people and a strong imperious personality.

An exceptionally important role for Mussorgsky's work was played by the unfinished opera The Marriage (act 1, 1868), in which he used the almost unchanged text of N. Gogol's play, setting himself the task of musically reproducing human speech in all its subtlest bends. Fascinated by the idea of ​​programmability, Mussorgsky creates a number of symphonic works, among which is Night on Bald Mountain (1867).

But the most striking artistic discoveries were made in the 60s. in vocal music. Songs appeared, where for the first time in music a gallery of folk types appeared, people humiliated and insulted: Kalistrat, Gopak, Svetik Savishna, Lullaby to Eremushka, Orphan, Po mushrooms. Mussorgsky's ability to aptly and accurately recreate living nature in music, to reproduce vividly characteristic speech, to give the plot visibility on the stage is amazing. And most importantly, the songs are imbued with such a power of compassion for the destitute person that in each of them an ordinary fact rises to the level of a tragic generalization, to a socially accusatory pathos. It is no coincidence that the song Seminarist was banned by censors!

The pinnacle of Mussorgsky's work in the 60s. was the opera Boris Godunov. The democratically minded public greeted Mussorgsky's new work with true enthusiasm.

Work on Khovanshchina was difficult - Mussorgsky turned to material far beyond the scope of an opera performance. At this time, Mussorgsky was going through the disintegration of the Balakirev circle, the cooling of relations with Cui and Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev's departure from musical and social activities. However, in spite of everything, the composer's creative power during this period is striking in its strength and richness of artistic ideas. In parallel with the tragic Khovanshchina, since 1875 Mussorgsky has been working on the comic opera Sorochinskaya Fair (after Gogol). In the summer of 1874, he created one of the outstanding works of piano literature - the cycle Pictures at an Exhibition, dedicated to Stasov, to whom Mussorgsky was infinitely grateful for his participation and support.

The idea to write a cycle of Pictures from an Exhibition was inspired by the posthumous exhibition of works by the artist V. Hartmann in February 1874. He was a close friend of Mussorgsky, and his sudden death deeply shocked the composer. The work proceeded rapidly, intensely: Sounds and thought hung in the air, I swallow and overeat, barely managing to scratch on paper. And in parallel, one after another, 3 vocal cycles appear: Children's (1872, on own poems), Without the Sun (1874) and Songs and Dances of Death (1875-77 - both on the station of A. Golenishchev-Kutuzov). They become the result of the whole chamber-vocal creativity of the composer.

Seriously ill, severely suffering from want, loneliness, and non-recognition, Mussorgsky stubbornly insists that he will fight to the last drop of blood. Shortly before his death, in the summer of 1879, together with the singer D. Leonova, he makes a big concert trip to the south of Russia and Ukraine, performs the music of Glinka, the Kuchkists, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, excerpts from his opera Sorochinskaya Fair and writes significant words: Life is calling to a new musical work, to a broad musical work... to new shores of yet boundless art!

Fate decreed otherwise. Mussorgsky's health deteriorated sharply. In February 1881 there was a stroke. Mussorgsky was placed in the Nikolaevsky military land hospital, where he died before he could complete the Khovanshchina and the Sorochinskaya fair.

The entire archive of the composer after his death came to Rimsky-Korsakov. He finished the Khovanshchina, carried out a new version of Boris Godunov and achieved their staging on the imperial opera stage. The Sorochinskaya fair was completed by A. Lyadov.

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Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky

One of the special members of the "Mighty Handful" was Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky. The ideological embodiment of reflections, he became the brightest composer from the whole company. And, in general, justified.

His father came from an old noble family of the Mussorgskys, and until the age of ten, Modest and his older brother Filaret received a very worthy education. The Mussorgskys had their own history. They, in turn, came from the princes of Smolensk, the Monastyrev family. Just one of the Monastyrevs, Roman Vasilievich Monastyrev, bore the nickname Mussorg. It was he who became the ancestor of the Mussorgskys. In turn, the noble family of the Sapogovs is also an offshoot of the Mussorgskys.

But it was a long time ago. And Modest himself was born on the estate of a not-so-rich landowner. It happened on March 21, 1839, in the Pskov region.

So, back to his biography. Starting at the age of six, his mother took charge of her son's musical education. And then, in 1849, he entered the Peter and Paul School, which is located in St. Petersburg. Three years later, he moved to the School of Guards Ensigns. At that time, Modest combined his studies at the School with his studies with the pianist Gercke. Around the same time, Mussorgsky's first work was published. It was a piano polka called "Ensign".

Approximately in the years of his studies, that is, 1856-57. he met Stasov and all the ensuing consequences for Russian classical music as well. It was under the guidance of Balakirev that Mussorgsky began serious studies in composition. Then he decided to devote himself to music.

For this reason, in 1858, he retired from military service. At that time, Mussorgsky wrote many romances, as well as instrumental works, in which even then his individualism began to manifest itself. For example, his unfinished opera Salammbô, inspired by Flaubert's novel of the same name, abounded in the drama of popular scenes.

For the time being described, he was a brilliantly educated young officer. He had a beautiful baritone voice and played the piano beautifully.

True, in the mid-sixties he became more of a realist artist. In addition, some of his works became especially close to the spirit of the revolutionaries of those times. And in such works of his as “Calistrat”, “Eryomushka's Lullaby”, “Sleep, sleep, peasant son”, “Orphan”, “Seminarian”, he began to show himself especially clearly as a talented writer of everyday life. And what is it worth, staged based on folk tales, “Night on Bald Mountain” ?!

Mussorgsky did not shy away from experimental genres. For example, in 1868, he completed work on an opera based on Gogol's The Marriage. There he diligently translated live conversational intonation into music.

During these years, Modest Petrovich seemed to develop. The fact is that one of his greatest works was the opera Boris Godunov. He wrote this opera based on the works of Pushkin, and after some revision it was presented at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. What changes have been made? It was simply reduced, and quite significantly.

Then the composer also worked on an impressive "folk musical drama", in which he spoke about the archery riots of the late seventeenth century. His inspirations remain the same. For example, the idea of ​​"Khovanshchina" was suggested to him by Stasov.

At the same time, he writes the cycles “Without the Sun”, “Songs and Dances of Death” and other works, according to which it becomes clear: the composer is not in the mood for jokes now. Indeed, in the last years of his life, Mussorgsky suffered greatly from depression. However, this depression had its own, very real reasons: his work remained unrecognized, in everyday life and in material terms, he did not cease to experience difficulties. And besides, he was lonely. In the end, he died a poor man in the Nikolaev soldier's hospital, and other composers from "", such as, for example, completed his unfinished works for him.

How did it happen that he wrote so slowly, unproductively, and in general, what the hell broke his life?!

The answer is simple: alcohol. He treated his nervous tension with them, as a result, he slipped into alcoholism, and somehow recognition did not come. He thought too much, composed, and then erased everything and wrote down the finished music from scratch. He did not like all kinds of sketches, sketches and drafts. That's why it worked so slowly.

When he retired from the forestry department, he could only rely on the financial assistance of his friends, and on his own some, very random, earnings. And he drank. Yes, and he ended up in the hospital after an attack of delirium tremens.

And time heals all wounds. Now a bus stop towers over the grave of one of the greatest Russian composers. And what we know as the place of his burial is in fact only a transferred monument. Lived alone and died alone. This is the lot of true talent in our country.

Famous Works:

• Opera "Boris Godunov" (1869, 2nd edition 1874)
• Opera "Khovanshchina" (1872-1880, not completed; editions: N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, 1883; D. D. Shostakovich, 1958)
• Opera "Marriage" (1868, not completed; editions: M. M. Ippolitova-Ivanova, 1931; G. N. Rozhdestvensky, 1985)
• Opera "Sorochinsky Fair" (1874-1880, not completed; editions: Ts. A. Cui, 1917; V. Ya. Shebalina, 1931)
• Opera "Salambo" (not finished; edited by Zoltan Peshko, 1979)
• "Pictures at an Exhibition", a cycle of pieces for piano (1874); orchestrated by various composers, including Maurice Ravel, Sergei Gorchakov (1955), Lawrence Leonard, Keith Emerson, etc.
• Songs and Dances of Death, vocal cycle (1877); orchestrations: E. V. Denisova, N. S. Korndorf
• "Night on Bald Mountain" (1867), symphonic picture
• "Nursery", vocal cycle (1872)
• "Without the Sun", vocal cycle (1874)
• Romances and songs, including "Where are you, little star?", "Kalistrat", "Eryomushka's Lullaby", "Orphan", "Seminarist", "Svetik Savishna", Song of Mephistopheles in Auerbach's cellar ("Flea"), "Rayok »
• Intermezzo (originally for piano, later orchestrated by the author under the title "Intermezzo in modo classico").