Modest Mussorgsky and His Sunless Song Cycle

lower-ranking Mussorgsky and his Sunless Song bike Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was one of the biggest innovators in Russian medication during the Romantic Period. always striving to achieve a distinctive Russian melodious identity, he never once hesitated to defy the orthodox qualities and trends of western music. Born knock against 21, 1839, into a wealthy family living in Karevo, Russia, it was non colossal to begin with Mussorgsky discovered his love for music. He began playing piano at the board of 6 and showed promising development. However, he was obliged to take on the family impost of serving in the military, and was sent to cadet school when he was 13. later on 4 eld, he successfully graduated and was sent to serve at a military hospital in Saint Peterburg. Here, he became obstruct with some(prenominal) early(a) composers including Mily Balakirev, who heavily influenced Mussorgsky to learn to a greater extent about music. The two worked unitedly over the next few years developing his musical intelligence. After merely several months, in 1858, Mussorgsky suffered from an emotional crisis, forcing him to resign from his commission, and devote his cadence entirely to music composition. He began to develop as a composer entirely was unfortunately preoccupied as his familys fortune began to dwindle.He was forced to buy out a low-level civil service position in regularize to help manage his familys estate. In 1863, Mussorgsky returned to Saint Petersburg and began composing his first opera. During this time, he was exposed to a heavily creative and intellectual glory w present a assortment of fraudistic and scientific ideas were brought to his attention. He soon came to dramatize the ideal known as musical realness. With this mind set, Mussorgsky sought to image life through music as it was truly lived. He jilted the repetition of symmetrical musical forms just as life itself is both unpredictable.His style came to be known as erratic and exhibited a naked comprehend of individuality. Unfortunately, this concept of real life hit him especi all in ally substantial when his mother passed away in 1865. This was a profound moment in Mussorgskys life, one that may have pushed him into the downward spiral sodding(a) with alcohol, depression, and hopelessness that would eventually follow. By the late 1860s, his music had circulated well abundant to earn him the right of being grouped with Balakirev, Cui, Rimsky-Korsavok, and Borodin as a classify of Russias Mighty smattering.However, he had yet to compose a successful opera. In Autumn of 1868, after abandoning his two previous attempts at Salammbo and Marriage, Vladimir Nikosky suggested that he compose an opera for Alexander Pushkins drama, Boris Godunov. Mussorgsky gladly veritable the challenged and began almost immediately. Despite the opera being rejected by the conjure up Censor (arguably not once merely twice), close to 6 years later, his maste rpiece was ready to be shared with the world. The premier took place January 27, 1874, but to his dismay, it received a number of hostile and negative reactions.Even his good adorer and fellow Mighty Hand member, Cesar Cui, was unimpressed and proceeded to minimize his accomplishment with a scathing review describing it as an immature work, and that it trespassed against the conventional musical grammar of the time. Mussorgsky was deeply impacted by the humans reaction. It nearly sunk his self-confidence, and summoned what I believe to be the dark and pessimistic force that shake his strain cycle authorise Bez Solnsta.Literally meaning sunless, or without sun, Bez Soinsta was a series of 6 songs Mussorgsky composed to accompany a mannequin of poems written by his close friend and part-time roommate, Arseni Golenishchev-Kutuzov. As the shape implies, the overall mood of Sunless is rather bleak. Its music and lyrics especially chevy a continuous feeling of loneliness, hopele ssness, insomnia, and boredom. From a psychological standpoint, one could feel out that this entire song cycle is a direct representation of the cordial state associated with depression and its symptomatic effects.I believe Mussorgsky chose to compose these songs when he did to speculate his degrading mental state of mind, which ultimately led to his demise. The first song of the cycle, consisting of only 17 bars, is entitled Within Four Walls. With its sparing accompaniment, this musically subtle piece tends to center around pedal D (first in the bass, later in the mid range, and then returning back to the bass). The rail line blends a combination of recitative and aria with arching lines of infinite yearning and at time bumpy dissonances.These unexpected harmonies are inevitably brought back to the unyielding D, all the while saturated with irregular phrase length and fermatas to possibly imply to the unpredictability of life. Deceptive cadences of endless misery, feature with somber poetic lyrics much(prenominal) as an impenetrable darkness, irresponsive darkness, this song sees to radiate a sense of profound pessimism that can only be explained by the mental consideration of Mussorgsky at the time. Though only lasting a mere 11 bars, Mussorgskys second song of the cycle, Thouh Didst Not Know Me In The bunch, goes further harmonically than any other composer would be capable of.Frequently polish in foreign, unresolved chords, this perfect blend of heightened recitatives and fervent melodies do legal expert to the associated lyrics provided by Kutuzof. The poetry seems to express and bewail the indifference of the world as personified in the disinterest of a former lover. The brief poetic choice of words is as follows You have not recognized me in the force. Your glance did not say anything, but I felt wonder and fright when I caught it. It was only a moment, but believe me, within it I re-lived again, all the delights of past love, all the acerbity of oblivion and tearsDetails regarding Mussorgskys love life are sparse, but one can only assume that such words drenched in hopeless bitterness and overwhelming sorrow pertained some relevance to his current love affairs at the time. Mussorgskys third song in the cycle is entitled The Noisy Festival Day Is Ended. At the time, he was operative in the forestry department of The Russian Government as a clerk. Earning unforesightful income, and being constantly preoccupied with pointless tasks, his frustration grew, as he was increasingly distracted from his real life as a composer.One of the more expansive Sunless songs, this 40 bar piece exhibits a variety of textures and gestures. Opening with a recitative, Mussorgsky continues to a lyrical middle section, where falling average sixths are introduced. Finishing with an aria like finale, the song seems to convey no other emotions than hopeless longing and passionate despair. He expresses yet another day wasted, over is the idle and idle and clamorous day and another shadow sleep deprived, but sleep escapes from my eyes. But what has brought about this dissatisfaction? Could it be his unfulfilling job that distracts him from his true passion of music composition?Or perhaps it is a woman who disturbs him so, I am bored with this dead crowd Only one shadow, the only one of all, appeared to me, breathing with love. tedium is the fourth song in Mussorgskys Sunless song cycle. As the name suggests, throughout the 29 bars, he repeats the opening statement a total of three times (making it a strophic song). However, it would not be really stylistic of Mussorgsky to restate this initial melody without some sort of falsify or variation. For each repetition, he modifies the music slightly to appropriately resile the changes in the text.During the third repetition, the music seems to take a more fierce and tragic approach than that of the first and second phrases. The lyrics here also seem to indicate a pow erful sense hopelessness and despair as Kutuzov writes, Be bored. From birth to the grave your path is written beforehand overlook by drop youll waste your powers. Then youll die. Talk about depressing. At this point in time, Mussorgsky was drinking heavily, and seemed to idealize his alcoholism, perhaps viewing it as an ethical or aesthetic habbit. This of course led to increased isolation and depression, which is undeniably presented through songs such as this one.His fifth song, Elegy appears to be related in some way to the negative reaction of the public in answer to the recent premier of his opera, Boris Godunov. As discussed earlier, even his close friend and respected fellow member of Russias Mighty Handful betrayed Mussorgsky with a brutal review of the piece. Elegy begins nicely as the flap piano gently compliments and symbolizes the Silent star flickering, lonely, through the entomb of clouds. Arguably, this represents Mussorgskys opera at the time of its approval, waiting for the veil of clouds to be lifted in order to shine for all of the world to see.Later, the music changes drastically as a series of angry, dissonant and chromatic octaves unrelentingly pound away as the poetry describes what I believe to be the publics reaction to his take on Boris Godunov. And I break in the distance lifes discordant noise, laughter of the insensitive crowd, the muttering of treacherous feuding. Mussorgskys anger and frustration in response to the premier of his opera are clearly and effectively depicted here through his music. The last song of his Sunless cycle is entitled By The River. end-to-end the piece, a stationary bass line with its insistent half step supports a eries of extreme chromatic harmonies. There is a antic contradictive sense of stability and illusion to the piece, something which becomes even more prominent when compared to its poetry. Throughout the text, the line between sanity and madness and crossed, and you find yourself at the doorstep of death. The poetry seems to essentially be a suicide note. The river acts as a means to an end, possessing magical secrets in them (what happens after you die). When it calls into the depths, I want to throttle without hesitation (suicide).The hopeless yearning and disheartening lyrics correspond with music nearly as dark and mysterious as the river portrays. In the years that followed, Mussorgskys mental and physical decline only worsened. The inability to resist drinking, combined with a series of deaths among his closes friends caused him great pain and sorrow. In 1880, he was ended from the governmental service, and in 1881 he declared to a friend that at that place was, nothing left but begging. It seemed as though Mussorgsky had given up on music, on himself, on life. Sure enough, not long after the fact, he suffered from a series of seizures and was hospitalized.An impoverished son of nobility, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky died on March 28, 1881, just a wee k after his forty-second birthday. His unfortunate struggle with alcohol, and criticisms from the public eye, inspired a dark and despairing approach to music during his final years. Additionally, his interest and devotion to musical realism led to an unorthodox and controversial style, the critical reaction to which, he was futile to cope with. Sunless, with the help from Kutuzov, remains one of the bleakest works in the art song repertoire. Bibliography Articles http//www. recmusic. org/lieder/assemble_texts. tml? LanguageId=7&SongCycleId=60 http//www. allmusic. com http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Boris_Godunov_(opera) http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Modest_Mussorgsky http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Sunless_(song_cycle) Songs http//www. youtube. com/ take hold of? v=CKZwPYhXbbA http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=8KOvp0ienUI http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=tUXZ59hs2l8 http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=YU481pqyo54 http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=ym367Z_XJ-k http//www. youtube. com/watch? v=Raqo8RQL9i0 Scores http//www. musicaneo. com/sheetmusic/sm-4310_sunless_without_sun. html (yes, I bought it)