Mussorgsky short biography and interesting facts. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky: biography, interesting facts, creativity The years of the life of the composer Modest Petrovich Musorgsky

Born March 21, 1839 on the estate of his father, a poor landowner, in the village of Karevo, Toropetsky district (now Kuninsky district) in the Pskov region, died March 28, 1881 in St. Petersburg), Russian composer, member of the Mighty Handful. He spent his childhood on the estate of his parents; Mussorgsky wrote in his autobiography: “... familiarization with the spirit folk life was the main impetus for musical improvisations until the beginning of acquaintance with the most elementary rules of playing the piano. At the age of six, Mussorgsky began to study music under the guidance of his mother. In 1849 he entered the Peter and Paul School in St. Petersburg, in 1852-56 he studied at the School of Guards Ensigns. At the same time, he took music lessons from the pianist A. A. Gerke. In 1852, Mussorgsky's first work, the Ensign for Piano, was published. In 1856-57 he met A. S. Dargomyzhsky, V. V. Stasov and M. A. Balakirev, who had a profound influence on his general and musical development. Under the direction of Balakirev, Mussorgsky began to seriously study composition; deciding to devote himself to music, in 1858 he left military service. In the late 50s - early 60s. Mussorgsky wrote a number of romances and instrumental works, in which the peculiar features of his creative individuality. In 1863-66 he worked on the opera "Salambo" (after novel of the same name G. Flaubert, not finished), which is distinguished by the drama of popular scenes. By the mid 60s. the worldview of Mussorgsky as a realist artist, close to the ideas revolutionary democrats. Turning to topical, socially pointed topics from folk life, he created songs and romances to the words of N. A. Nekrasov, T. G. Shevchenko, A. N. Ostrovsky and to his own texts (“Calistrat”, “Lullaby of Eremushka”, “ Sleep, sleep peasant son”, “The Orphan”, “Seminarian”, etc.), which manifested his gift of a writer of everyday life, the ability to create vividly characteristic human images. The richness and richness of sound colors differs symphonic picture"Night on Bald Mountain" (1867), based on folk tales and legends. A bold experiment was Mussorgsky's unfinished opera The Marriage (based on the unaltered text of N. V. Gogol's comedy, 1868), whose vocal parts are based on the direct implementation of intonations colloquial speech.

All these works prepared Mussorgsky for the creation of one of his greatest creations - the opera "Boris Godunov" (based on the tragedy of A. S. Pushkin). 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 70s. Mussorgsky worked on a grandiose "folk musical drama" from the era of the archery riots of the late 17th century. Khovanshchina (libretto by M., begun in 1872), the idea of ​​which was suggested to him by V. V. Stasov, and comic opera"Sorochinsky Fair" (based on the story of Gogol, 1874-80). Simultaneously created vocal cycles"Without the Sun" (1874), "Songs and Dances of Death" (1875-77), the suite for piano "Pictures at an Exhibition" (1874) and others. last years During his life, Mussorgsky experienced severe depression caused by the non-recognition of his work, loneliness, domestic and material difficulties. He died in poverty in the Nikolaev soldier's hospital. Khovanshchina, unfinished by the composer, was completed after his death by Rimsky-Korsakov; A. K. Lyadov, Ts. A. Kui, and others worked on the Sorochinskaya Fair. In 1896, Rimsky-Korsakov made a new version of Boris Godunov. AT Soviet time D. D. Shostakovich re-edited and orchestrated Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina (1959). An independent version of the completion of the "Sorochinsky Fair" belongs to V. Ya. Shebalin (1930).

A great humanist, democrat and truth lover, Mussorgsky strove to actively serve the people with his work. With great force, he repelled acute social conflicts, created powerful, dramatic images of the people who rebelled and fought for their rights. At the same time, Mussorgsky was a sensitive psychologist, a connoisseur of human soul. In the musical dramas "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina" unusually dynamic, colorful mass folk scenes are combined with a variety of individual characteristics, psychological depth and complexity of individual images. In plots from the domestic past, Mussorgsky was looking for an answer to the burning questions of our time. “The past in the present is my task,” he wrote to Stasov while working on Khovanshchina. How brilliant playwright Mussorgsky showed himself in works of small form. Some of his songs are like small dramatic scenes, in the center of which is a live and complete human image. Listening to the intonations of colloquial speech and the melody of Russian folk song, Mussorgsky created a deeply original, expressive musical language, which is distinguished by its sharp realistic character, subtlety and variety of psychological shades. His work had a great influence on many composers: S. S. Prokofiev, D. D. Shostakovich, L. Janachek, C. Debussy and others.

The main figure of this article will be Modest Mussorgsky. The composer's biography begins on March 16, 1839 in one of the small villages of the Pskov region. From an early age, his parents, who belonged to an old noble family, introduced the boy to music. His mother taught him to play the piano, and at the age of seven he was already performing plays. A few years later, the future genius already mastered entire concerts.

Biography of Mussorgsky in his early years

Few of Modest's ancestors could have imagined that he would become a great musician and composer. All Mussorgsky's relatives were devoted to the state, and the men served in the tsar's army. The exception was first the father - Peter Mussorgsky, who was distinguished by a great passion for music, and then his son, who inherited this gift. The first piano teacher was Modest's mother, Yulia Chirikova.

In 1849, Modest Mussorgsky went to St. Petersburg, and there he began his first professional music lessons with teacher A.A. Gerke. Under his leadership, he performs at chamber concerts, family reunions and other events. And already in 1852 he wrote and published his own polka called "Ensign".

The founding period of the "Mighty Handful"

Since 1856, Mussorgsky's biography has been unfolding in St. Petersburg, where he simultaneously meets the composer. They become very close friends, who are united not only by a common cause, but also by creativity - music. Some time later, he also met A. Dargomyzhsky, M. Balakirev, C. Cui, as well as the Stasov brothers. All these composers are familiar to us thanks to the group " mighty bunch which they founded.

The main figure in their "galaxy" was Balakirev - he became a teacher and spiritual mentor for every composer. Together with him, Mussorgsky taught new concertos and large-scale works such as Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss. Visiting the Philharmonic, opera performances and others musical events contributed to the fact that for Modest the goal of life was the knowledge of the beautiful and the creation of it.

Mussorgsky's biography during the period of the new work of The Mighty Handful

In the next decade, the composers of The Mighty Handful adopted the rule that they must follow all the musical canons of M. Glinka. During this period, Mussorgsky wrote music for Sophocles' story Oedipus Rex, and then took up the opera Salambo. Unfortunately, it remained unfinished, but many of the works written for it were included in the composer's masterpiece - the opera Boris Godunov.

The period of travel and the heyday of creativity

In the 60s, Mussorgsky's biography unfolds in new lands. He sets off on a journey in which the city of Moscow becomes the main point. It was this place that inspired him to write his opera “Boris Godunov”, since, in his opinion, “women and men” suitable for staging met him there.

In the future, the composer did not forget to give instrumental concerts, vocal performances. Among pianists, he had no equal, and his own works were praised by many connoisseurs of beauty. It was in this world that the composer Mussorgsky spent his young years.

His biography changes dramatically in the 80s. Then his health was broken, shaken financial situation. He no longer had so much time for creativity, so he started drinking. He died on his birthday, in 1881, in a military hospital.

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

vocal music

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

• Lyric in early writings and passing in later ones into lyrical-tragic ones. The cycle “Without the Sun”, created in 1874, becomes the peak.
• "People's Pictures". These are scenes and sketches from the life of peasants (“Lullaby to Eremushka”, “Svetik Savishna”, “Kalistrat”, “Orphan”). Their culmination will be "Trepak" and "Forgotten" (cycle "Dance of Death").
• social satire. These include the romances "Goat", "Seminarian", "Classic", created during the 1860s of the next decade. The suite "Rayok", which embodied a gallery of satyrs, becomes the pinnacle.

The list separately includes the vocal cycle "Children's" and "Songs and Dances of Death", created in his own words in 1872, in which everything is filled with tragic moods.

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

"Flea" from Goethe was performed brilliantly and always as an encore by Fyodor Chaliapin.

Means of musical expression

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

operas

It is impossible not to include in the list of works by Mussorgsky his operatic creativity. For 42 years of his life, he managed to write only three operas, but what! "Boris Godunov", "Khovanshchina" and "Sorochinsky Fair". In them, he boldly combines tragic and comic features, which is reminiscent of the works of Shakespeare. The image of the people is the fundamental principle. In addition, each character is given personal traits. The composer's greatest concern is home country during times of turmoil and upheaval.

In "Boris Godunov" the country is on the verge of Troubles. It reflects the relationship between the king and the people as a single person, who is animated by one idea. The composer wrote the folk drama "Khovanshchina" according to his own libretto. In it, the composer was interested in the Streltsy rebellion and church schism. But he did not have time to orchestrate it and died. Finished orchestrated by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. The role of Dositheus at the Mariinsky Theater was played by F. Chaliapin. It doesn't have the usual main characters. Society is not opposed to the individual. Power is in the hands of one or the other character. It recreates episodes of the struggle of the old reactionary world against the reforms of Peter the Great.

"Pictures at an Exhibition"

Creativity for pianoforte is presented by the composer in one cycle, created in 1874. "Pictures at an Exhibition" is a unique work. This is a suite of ten different pieces. Being a virtuoso pianist, M. Mussorgsky took advantage of all expressive possibilities tool. These musical works by Mussorgsky are so bright and virtuoso that they amaze with their "orchestral" sound. Six pieces under the general title "The Walk" are written in the key of B-flat major. The rest are in B minor. By the way, they were often arranged for the orchestra. M. Ravel did it best of all. The composer's vocal motifs with their recitativeness, songlikeness and declamatory nature organically entered this work of M. Mussorgsky.

Symphonic creativity

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

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

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

The brilliant author was buried in St. Petersburg on Soviet authority, making redevelopment, destroyed his grave, filled this place with asphalt and made bus stop. This is how we treat recognized world geniuses.

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Mussorgsky short biography and Interesting Facts from the life of the Russian composer and pianist are presented in this article.

Modest Mussorgsky short biography

Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich was born on March 21, 1839 in the village of Karevo into a family of Smolensk noblemen.

Also in young age he learned to play keyboard instruments. Having moved to St. Petersburg, Modest studies with the great pianist Gercke. The teacher encouraged his student to write music. First musical work Mussorgsky - Polka Porte-enseigne Polka, written in 1852.

In the footsteps of his family, in 1852 he entered the School of Cavalry Junkers and Guards Ensigns in St. Petersburg. In 1856-1858 he served as an officer of the Life Guards in the Preobrazhensky Regiment.

At the service, he meets with the composer Alexander Borodin, Caesar Cui, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Vladimir Stasov and Mily Balakirev. Modest joined the New Russian music school", which they created. Its broader name is "The Mighty Handful". Under the influence of Balakirev, Mussorgsky devoted all his time to composition, leaving the service in 1858.

During the period of 1850s-1860s he created many piano and orchestral compositions, romances and songs. But certain circumstances forced him again in 1863 to go to the service. Until 1868, Modest worked as an official in the Engineering Department. From 1868 to 1879 he moved to a new place of service - the Forest Department, and a year later - to the State Control.

In 1879, as an accompanist, he made a concert tour with the singer Leonova across Russia. In the period 1880-1881 he worked as an accompanist in her open music classes.

Mussorgsky's health deteriorated sharply in February 1881. He was placed in the Nikolaevsky military hospital. Once a visitor Ilya Repin came to him and drew him famous portrait. The composer died on March 28, 1881 in the same hospital.

Mussorgsky's works"Salambo", "Boris Godunov", "Marriage", "Khovanshchina", "Sorochinsky Fair", "Seminarist", "Goat", "Feast", "Sleep, sleep, peasant son", "Gopak", "Svetik Savishna ”,“ Flea ”,“ Kalistrat ”,“ For mushrooms ”,“ Lullaby of Eremushki ”,“ Mischievous ”,“ Night on Bald Mountain ”,“ Intermezzo ”.

Modest Mussorgsky interesting facts

From the age of 6 he studied music, under the guidance of his mother.

He had an excellent musical memory and could immediately memorize complex operas.

For my short life(aged 42), Mussorgsky created 5 operas(4 of which have not been completed), a number of symphonic works, cycles of vocal and piano music, many romances and choirs.

Since 1863, the composer began to add the letter “G” to his last name. Until this year, all documents were signed as Mussorgsky.

Ilya Repin created the only portrait painted during Modest's lifetime.

At the burial place of the great composer, there is now a bus stop.

In the last years of Mussorgsky's life experienced severe depression because of the non-recognition of his work, loneliness, everyday and material difficulties.

Mussorgsky suffered from drunkenness. After another drinking he started delirium tremens. Once in the hospital, he was strictly forbidden to drink alcohol. But Modest bribed the worker and he bought him a bottle of wine. And the next day the composer was gone.