Download or read book The Life of Musorgsky written by Caryl Emerson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-09-30 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modest Musorgsky is Russia's greatest musical dramatist. When he died in 1881 in St Petersburg at the age of forty-two, in poverty and relative obscurity, he was known for a single opera, Boris Godunov and a handful of eccentric 'realistic' songs set to prosaic Russian texts. He had no institutional connections, no 'degree', no family of his own, not even a permanent address. Except for Franz Liszt, no composer of stature knew of him outside Russia. Through the loyal (if controversial) intervention of his friends, his works survived in various editings into the early twentieth century, when revivals and evolving musical tastes restored him to new life. This account of his life, first published in 1999, emphasizes the psychological and economic factors that contributed to the composer's remarkable rise and tragic, premature end and is the first brief biography in English to make use of materials published in the new, de-Sovietized Russian academic climate.
Download or read book Musorgsky written by David Brown and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-14 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modest Musorgsky was one of the towering figures of nineteenth-century Russian music. Now, in this new volume in the Master Musicians series, David Brown gives us the first life-and-works study of Musorgsky to appear in English for over a half century. Indeed, this is the largest such study of Musorgsky to have appeared outside Russia. Brown shows how Musorgsky, though essentially an amateur with no systematic training in composition, emerged in his first opera, Boris Godunov, as a supreme musical dramatist. Indeed, in this opera, and in certain of his piano pieces in Pictures at an Exhibition, Musorgsky produced some of the most startlingly novel music of the whole nineteenth century. He was also one of the most original of all song composers, with a prodigious gift for uncovering the emotional content of a text. As Brown illuminates Musorgsky's work, he also paints a detailed portrait of the composer's life. He describes how, unlike the systematic and disciplined Tchaikovsky, Musorgsky was a fitful composer. When the inspiration was upon him, he could apply himself with superhuman intensity, as he did when composing the initial version of Boris Godunov. Sadly, Musorgsky deteriorated in his final years, suffering periods of inner turmoil, when his alcoholism would be out of control. Finally, unemployed and all but destitute, he died at age forty-two. His failure to complete his two remaining operas, Khovanshchina and Sorochintsy Fair, Brown concludes, is one of music's greatest tragedies. Written by one of the leading authorities on nineteenth-century Russian composers, Musorgsky is the finest available biography of this giant of Russian music.
Download or read book Musorgsky written by Richard Taruskin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1997-07-27 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incorporating both new and now-classic essays, this book sets the vocal works of Modest Musorgsky in a fully detailed cultural, political, and historical context, elevating the composer's image over other biographers. Among the book's many offerings are the most complete explanation of the revision of the opera "Boris Godunov", and a revisionary characterization of "Khovanshchina" as an aristocratic tragedy resulting from a pessimistic view of history. Includes 102 music examples.
Download or read book Modest Mussorgsky His Life and Works written by Michel D. Calvocoressi and published by . This book was released on 1956 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Pictures at an Exhibition written by Anna Harwell Celenza and published by Charlesbridge Publishing. This book was released on 2003 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suggests how the death of a friend, Victor Hartmann, inspired the music of Modest Mussorgsky in St. Petersburg in the 1870s.
Download or read book Musorgsky written by Richard Taruskin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "It is [a] fully illuminated story that Richard Taruskin, in the path-breaking essays collected here, unfolds around Modest Musorgsky, Russia's greatest national composer. . . . [Taruskin's] tour de force comes with a frontal attack on all the Soviet-bred truisms that for a century have refashioned Musorgsky from what the evidence suggests he was—an aristocrat with an early clinical interest in true-to-life musical portraiture and a later penchant for drinking partners who were both folklore buffs and political reactionaries democrat."—from the foreword Incorporating both new and now-classic essays, this book for the first time sets the vocal works of Modest Musorgsky in a fully detailed cultural, political, and historical context. From this perspective, Richard Taruskin revises fundamentally the composer's historical and artistic image, in particular debunking the century-old dogmas of Vladimir Stasov, Musorgsky's first biographer. Here the author offers the most complete explanation of the revision of the opera Boris Godunov, compares it to contemporaneous operas by Chaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, advances a revisionary characterization of Khovanshchina as an aristocratic tragedy informed by a pessimistic view of history, discusses Musorgsky's use of folklore, and, focusing on Sorochintsi Fair, brings to a climax his refutation of Musorgsky as a protorevolutionary populist. The epilogue is a survey of revisionary productions of Musorgsky's works at home during the Gorbachev era.
Download or read book Musorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition written by Michael Russ and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1992-08-28 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher Description
Download or read book Boris Godunov written by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1968 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book MUSSORGSKY S PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION written by Timur Mustakimov and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a pianist, I had the opportunity to study Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at anExhibition, Op. 11 for many years. Performing it on stage remains the most insightful source for understanding the work and its complex beauty. Through playing it more and more, my perception of Pictures became more concrete and detailed. At the same time, it was clear how firmly it could withstand different interpretations. This work can be approached in infinite ways in order to solve the technical challenges and to accomplish the ultimate goal of holding the piece together on the stage. Mussorgsky's cycle stands alone in its grandeur and truly represents the enigmatic nature of Russian music. His "unpolished" style of writing - Mussorgsky was considered an amateur by his distinguished colleagues such as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - contributes to the dramatic effect of the composition. Vladimir Ashkenazy, in his preface to the Wiener Urtext edition of Pictures at an Exhibition, perfectly sums up the profundity and importance of the work: Perhaps the most important and crucial point in understanding this piece is that although it was conceived initially as a programmatic cycle, the result is music that not only goes far beyond mere descriptive qualities but in fact gives us a penetrating insight into the dark and brooding spirit of Mussorgsky - or for that matter of Russia itself. (x) The monograph consists of ten chapters. In Chapter 1, I describe the social and historic aspects of Mussorgsky's time, and his attempts to find an authentic Russian voice in his composition. iv Chapter 2 covers the motifs embedded in the cycle and a description of each visual picture seen by Mussorgky as he goes through the exhibition. Not all of Hartmann's original pictures survived. The "Promenades," which connect the pictures in the cycle are discussed in Chapter 3. I attempt to visualize and understand the composer based on how each "Promenade" reflects his reaction upon seeing the pictures at the gallery. Chapter 4 analyzes the meaning of the rhythm in the cycle, how it represents the images Mussorgsky creates, and how it serves compositionally as a binding mechanism of the form. Chapter 5 discusses the composer's revolutionary sense of harmony. Chapter 6 gives a few practical fingering solutions in the most technically demanding moments of the cycle. Additionally, I discuss the pedaling which is not indicated by the composer, leaving the door open for the personal choices of the performer. Chapter 7 compares motivic and textural connections with other works such as Songs and Dances of Death and Boris Godunov. Chapter 8 gives insight through visual artists in connection to Mussorgky. Repin, a close friend of Mussorgsky who painted his most famous portrait, describes Mussorgsky's deteriorating physical condition at the end of his life. Another great Russian modern painter Kandinsky was inspired by the music and created a visualization of his cycle in the twentieth century. The chapter 9 discusses a few differences in the musical editions. By now, there is no longer controversy about the manuscript of the work nor discrepancies between editions. However, Rimsky-Korsakov's alterations of the original manuscript in the first edition v are observed. Because the score is both authentic and objective, the editions providing editorial remarks are not included in this chapter. For the same reason, I found it unnecessary to mention arrangements, including the famous orchestration by Maurice Ravel and Vladimir Horowitz's piano arrangement. In chapter 10, I summarize the research on Pictures. Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi (1877 -1944) was a prominent writer on music and a distinguished advocate of Russian music. His particular interest was the life and music of Modest Mussorgsky. Known by the music community as a dedicatee of Maurice Ravel's Alborada Del Gracioso, Calvocoressi wrote three books on Mussorgsky, which was the starting point of my research. Calvocoressi devoted himself to understanding the complex nature of the composer. In Modest Mussorgsky: His Life and Works, Calvocoressi writes: To write, at thirty-one years interval, two books on the same composer is bound to be a strange experience... By that time, it seemed reasonable to hope that a fairly adequate biographical and critical study could be achieved, even though many important materials (neither I nor anybody else realized how many) were still undiscovered or inaccessible. (x) The undiscovered materials eventually were brought to light, especially with Pavel Lamm's complete critical edition of Mussorgsky's works. However, Calvocoressi's perception of the composer's music greatly influenced the western musical world. One of the most comprehensive works on Pictures at an Exhibition was completed by Michael Russ. It includes all of the updated data and available sources. Russ, very well aware of the legacy of Calvocoressi, shares his sentiment and begins his book with this introduction: v i In his study of Mussorgsky written in the years coming up to the Second World War, M. D. Calvocoressi says of Pictures at an Exhibition: 'the whole suite... is an attractive but not particularly significant work.' (ix) In contrast, Solomon Volkov in his book Romanov Riches introduces Mussorgsky in a different manner: Mussorgsky was undoubtedly the most talented member of the Mighty Bunch, but no one in the group understood it. They treated him the way a family might a gifted but wayward child, despairing of his eccentric behavior, intemperate drinking, excessive (in the opinion of others) selfregard, and inability to work in an organized and concentrated manner (attention deficit disorder, perhaps). (218) All the literature on Pictures represents a detailed analysis of the work from a theoretical perspective, which makes the understanding of the work rather one-sided. My personal and practical understanding of how the work can be perceived and performed might provide a fuller appreciation for one of the greatest Russian piano compositions. I hope that my approach can bring a different pianistic outlook on the work, which can have practical application for students and teachers. For this monograph the last name Mussorgsky is spelled with "ss", while the spelling with "s" is preserved if used in the cited source. Occasionally, for the sake of variety Mussorgsky is addressed by his patronymic name Modest Petrovich. Italics are used for the title Pictures at an Exhibition or simply Pictures. When addressing Hartmann's sketches themselves, the word picture/pictures is written without italics. For the score examples, Pavel Lamm's edition is used. vi.
Download or read book Mussorgsky written by Calvocoressi, M.D. and published by . This book was released on 1974 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Pictures at an Exhibition written by Modeste Mussorgsky and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Modest Mussorgsky His Life and Works written by Michel D. Calvocoressi and published by . This book was released on 1956 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Khovanshchina written by Modest Mussorgsky and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Title: Khovanshchina Composer: Modest Mussorgsky Original Publisher: Bessel Mussorgsky's complete Khovanshchina, as arranged for piano by Chernov and originally published by Bessel. Performer's Reprints are produced in conjunction with the International Music Score Library Project. These are out of print or historical editions, which we clean, straighten, touch up, and digitally reprint. Due to the age of original documents, you may find occasional blemishes, damage, or skewing of print. While we do extensive cleaning and editing to improve the image quality, some items are not able to be repaired. A portion of each book sold is donated to small performing arts organizations to create jobs for performers and to encourage audience growth.
Download or read book Mussorgsky s Boris Godunov written by Burton D. Fisher and published by Opera Journeys Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive opera-guide, featuring Principal Characters in the Opera, Brief Story Synopsis, Story Narrative with Music Highlight Examples, and Burton D. Fisher's insightful and in depth Commentary and Analysis.
Download or read book The Life and Artistry of Maria Olenina d Alheim written by Alexander Tumanov and published by University of Alberta. This book was released on 2000-03 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In 1908, Maria and her husband, music critic and writer Pierre d'Alheim, established the House of Song (Dom pesni in Russia, La Maison du Lied in France). Through her performances, his lectures, their publishing activities and by hosting international competitions, the House of Song influenced the musical climate of Europe.".
Download or read book Secret Lives of Great Composers written by Elizabeth Lunday and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discover little-known stories from music history—including murder, riots, and heartbreak—in this entertaining tour through the fascinating (and surprising) lives of classical music masters With outrageous anecdotes about everyone from Gioachino Rossini (draft-dodging womanizer) to Johann Sebastian Bach (jailbird) to Richard Wagner (alleged cross-dresser), Secret Lives of Great Composers recounts the seamy, steamy, and gritty history behind the great masters of international music. Here, you’ll learn that Edward Elgar dabbled with explosives; that John Cage was obsessed with fungus; that Berlioz plotted murder; and that Giacomo Puccini stole his church’s organ pipes and sold them as scrap metal so he could buy cigarettes. This is one music history lesson you’ll never forget!
Download or read book The Lives and Times of the Great Composers written by Michael Steen and published by Icon Books Ltd. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 1129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A glorious plum-pudding of a book, to be consulted, with pleasure and profit, over and over again' Sir Jeremy Isaacs Michael Steen's 'Great Composers' was originally published in 2003. A lifetime's work and almost 1000 pages long, it has since become 'the' reference point and key read on the biographical backgrounds to classical music's biggest names. Authoritative and hugely detailed - but nonetheless a joy to read - this new edition will expand its readership further and capitalise on a newfound popular interest in classical music. Steen's book helps you explore the story of Bach, the respectable burgher much of whose vast output was composed amidst petty turf disputes in Lutheran Leipzig; or the ugly, argumentative Beethoven in French-occupied Vienna, obsessed by his laundry; or Mozart, the over-exploited infant prodigy whose untimely death was shrouded in rumour. Read about Verdi, who composed against the background of the Italian Risorgimento; or about the family life of the Wagners; and, Brahms, who rose from the slums of Hamburg to become a devotee of beer and coffee in fin-de-siecle Vienna, a cultural capital bent on destroying Mahler ... and much, much more.
