In the article "Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition" the friendship between artist Victor Hartmann and composer Modest Mussorgsky was explored. Both men wished to take the rich Russian history and culture and bring them together with the visual, performing and compositional arts. This was manifested in the great piano work "Pictures at an Exhibition."
Mussorgsky's works
This Russian composer is well known for several other works, including the opera "Boris Godunov," and the orchestral piece "Night on the Bare Mountain," (often referred to as "Night on Bald Mountain"). He also composed "Khovanschina," "Songs and Dances of Death," solos songs and song cycles and other works.
"Song of The Flea," is a humorous and well-crafted tune which was very popular in the 20th century and was heard on many concert programs, sung by a baritone or bass.
Victor Hartmann
Hartmann was an artist who produced many works in his short lifetime. Several of his paintings and sketches make up the visual end of the "Pictures," one of which, "Two Polish Jews, One Rich, and the Other Poor," was owned by Mussorgsky himself. The artist died in July of 1873 at the age of thirty-nine and in February of 1874, in the exhibition gallery of the St.Petersburg Architectural Association, there was a showing of Hartmann's works.
Pictures at an Exhibition
In the article "Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exibition," the first several parts of this work were spoken of, leaving the last three to be included in this article. They are "Catacombs", "The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba Yaga)" and "The Great Gate of Kiev".
Catacombs
This was inspired by a Hartmann painting of himself with a fellow architect exploring the ancient catacombs of Paris. Mussorgsky's music for this section is a poignant restatement of the "Promenade," using the subtitle' Con Mortuis in Lingua Mortua.' Mussorgsky added the following in Russian: "A Latin text: 'with the dead in a dead language'. Well may it be in Latin! The creative spirit of the departed Hartmann leads me to the skulls, calls me close to them, and the skulls glow softly from within."
Baba Yaga
Russian folklore speaks of a witch who lives in a hut which stand on chicken feet. She eats human bones and flies through the air, a rather terrifying character for little Russian children to read about. Mussorgsky makes the most of the frightening aspects of the story, with music that depicts the witch flying through the air on her 'broomstick.'
The Great Gate of Kiev
Last, but most certainly not least, is the great gate...a stunning and fitting closure to the work. Hartmann's sketch depicted an arch resting on two columns that seem to have sunk deeply into the ground from age and wear. The arch was topped by an Old Slavonic inscription: "Blessed be he that comes in the name of the Lord."
This sketch gave Mussorgsky the inspiration to set to music a ceremonial procession featuring priests chanting, bells clanging,and the return of the "Promenade" theme, which ties everything together. A pianistic tour de force, it is a favorite with concert pianists everywhere.
Source
The foreword to the piano score of "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Alfred V.Frankenstein.
For further reading see Mussorgsky; Pictures at an Exhibition
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