Modest Mussorgsky

"Mussorgsky" redirects here. For other uses, seeMussorgsky (disambiguation).

In this name that followsEastern Slavic naming customs,thepatronymicisPetrovichand thefamily nameisMussorgsky.

Mussorgsky,c. 1870

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky(Russian:Модест Петрович Мусоргский,romanized:Modest Petrovich Musorgsky,IPA:[mɐˈdɛstpʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕˈmusərkskʲɪj];21 March [O.S.9 March] 1839 – 28 March [O.S.16 March] 1881) was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five".He was an innovator ofRussian musicin theRomantic period.He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music.

Many ofhis workswere inspired by Russian history,Russian folklore,and other national themes. Such works include the operaBoris Godunov,the orchestral tone poemNight on Bald Mountainand the piano suitePictures at an Exhibition.

For many years, Mussorgsky's works were mainly known in versions revised or completed by other composers. Many of his most important compositions have posthumously come into their own in their original forms, and some of the original scores are now also available.

Name

The aristocratic Mussorgsky brothers—Filaret (also known as "Yevgeniy", left), and Modest (right), 1858

Monument on the site of the Mussorgky family house inKarevo, Pskov Oblast

The spelling and pronunciation of the composer's name have caused some confusion.

The family name derives from a 15th- or 16th-century ancestor, Roman Vasilyevich Monastyryov, who appears in theVelvet Book,the 17th-century genealogy of Russianboyars.Roman Vasilyevich bore the nickname "Musorga" (from Greek:μουσουργός,romanized:musurgos,meaning 'music maker'), and was the grandfather of the first Mussorgsky. The composer could trace his lineage toRurik,the legendary 9th-century founder of the Rus state.

In Mussorgsky family documents, the spelling of the name varies: "Musarskiy", "Muserskiy", "Muserskoy", "Musirskoy", "Musorskiy", and "Musurskiy". The baptismal record gives the composer's name as "Muserskiy".

In early (up to 1858) letters toMily Balakirev,the composer signed his name "Musorskiy" (Мусoрский).The "g" made its first appearance in a letter to Balakirev in 1863.Mussorgsky used this new spelling (Мусoргскій,Musorgskiy) to the end of his life, but occasionally reverted to the earlier "Musorskiy".The addition of the "g" to the name was likely initiated by the composer's elder brother Filaret to obscure the resemblance of the name's root to an unsavory Russian word:

мусoр(músor) —n. m.debris, rubbish, refuse

Mussorgsky apparently did not take the new spelling seriously, and played on the "rubbish" connection in letters toVladimir Stasovand to Stasov's family, routinely signing his nameMusoryanin,roughly "garbage-dweller" (comparedvoryanin:"nobleman" ).

The first syllable of the name originally received thestress(i.e., MÚS-ər-skiy), and does so to this day in Russia, including the composer's home district. Themutability of the second-syllable vowelin the versions of the name mentioned above gives evidence that this syllable did not receive the stress.

The addition of the "g" and the accompanying shift in stress to the second syllable (i.e., Mu-SÓRK-skiy), sometimes described as a Polish variant, was supported by Filaret Mussorgsky's descendants until his line ended in the 20th century. Their example was followed by many influential Russians, such asFyodor Shalyapin,Nikolay Golovanov,andTikhon Khrennikov,who, perhaps dismayed that the great composer's name was "reminiscent of garbage", supported the erroneous second-syllable stress that has also become entrenched in the West.

The Western convention of doubling the first "s", which is not observed in scholarly literature (e.g.,The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians), likely arose because in many Western European languages a singleintervocalic/s/ often becomesvoicedto /z/ (as in "music" ), unlike inSlavic languageswhere the intervocalic /s/ is always unvoiced. Doubling the consonant thus reinforces its voicelesssibilant/s/ sound.

'Modest' is the Russian form of the name 'Modestus' which means 'moderate' or 'restrained' inLate Latin.He was called "Modinka" (Модинька), diminutive form with the stressed O, by his close friends and relatives.

Life

Early years

Young Mussorgsky as a cadet in thePreobrazhensky Regimentof the Imperial Guard, 1856

Mussorgsky was born inKarevo,Toropets Uyezd,Pskov Governorate,Russian Empire, 400 km (250 mi) south ofSaint Petersburg.His wealthy and land-owning family, the noble family ofMussorgsky,is reputedly descended from the firstRuthenianruler,Rurik,through the sovereign princes ofSmolensk.His mother Julia Chirikova (1813–1865) was the daughter of a comparatively non-rich nobleman. Modest's paternal grandmother Irina used to be aserfthat could be sold without land in his grandfather's estate.At age six, Mussorgsky began receiving piano lessons from his mother, herself a trained pianist. His progress was sufficiently rapid that three years later he was able to perform aJohn Fieldconcerto and works byFranz Lisztfor family and friends. At 10, he and his brother were taken to Saint Petersburg to study at the elite German languagePetrischule(St. Peter's School). While there, Modest studied the piano withAnton Gerke.In 1852, the 12-year-old Mussorgsky published a piano piece titled "Porte-enseigne Polka" at his father's expense.

Mussorgsky's parents planned the move to Saint Petersburg so that both their sons would renew the family tradition of military service.To this end, Mussorgsky entered the Cadet School of the Guards at age 13. Sharp controversy had arisen over the educational attitudes at the time of both this institute and its director, a General Sutgof.All agreed the Cadet School could be a brutal place, especially for new recruits.More tellingly for Mussorgsky, it was likely where he began his eventual path to alcoholism.According to a former student, singer and composer Nikolai Kompaneisky, Sutgof "was proud when a cadet returned from leave drunk with champagne."

Music remained important to him, however. Sutgof's daughter was also a pupil of Gerke, and Mussorgsky was allowed to attend lessons with her.His skills as a pianist made him much in demand by fellow-cadets; for them he would play dances interspersed with his ownimprovisations.In 1856 Mussorgsky – who had developed a strong interest in history and studied German philosophy – graduated from the Cadet School. Following family tradition he received a commission with thePreobrazhensky Regiment,the foremost regiment of the Russian Imperial Guard.

Maturity

In October 1856 the 17-year-old Mussorgsky met the 22-year-oldAlexander Borodinwhile both men served at a military hospital in Saint Petersburg. The two were soon on good terms.Borodin later remembered,

His little uniform was spic and span, close-fitting, his feet turned outwards, his hair smoothed down and greased, his nails perfectly cut, his hands well groomed like a lord's. His manners were elegant, aristocratic: his speech likewise, delivered through somewhat clenched teeth, interspersed with French phrases, was rather precious. There was a touch—though very moderate—offoppishness.His politeness and good manners were exceptional. The ladies made a fuss of him. He sat at the piano and, throwing up his hands coquettishly, played with extreme sweetness and grace (etc) extracts fromTrovatore,Traviata,and so on, and around him buzzed in chorus: "Charmant, délicieux!" and suchlike. I met Modest Petrovich three or four times at Popov's in this way, both on duty and at the hospital. "

Alexander Dargomyzhsky

More portentous was Mussorgsky's introduction that winter toAlexander Dargomyzhsky,at that time the most important Russian composer afterMikhail Glinka.Dargomyzhsky was impressed with Mussorgsky's pianism. As a result, Mussorgsky became a fixture at Dargomyzhsky's soirées. There, as criticVladimir Stasovlater recalled, he began "his true musical life."

Over the next two years at Dargomyzhsky's, Mussorgsky met several figures of importance in Russia's cultural life, among them Stasov,César Cui(a fellow officer), andMily Balakirev.Balakirev had an especially strong impact. Within days he took it upon himself to help shape Mussorgsky's fate as a composer. He recalled to Stasov, "Because I am not a theorist, I could not teach him harmony (as, for instanceRimsky-Korsakovnow teaches it)... [but] I explained to him the form of compositions, and to do this we played through bothBeethovensymphonies [as piano duets] and much else (Schumann,Schubert,Glinka,and others), analyzing the form. "Up to this point Mussorgsky had known nothing but piano music; his knowledge of more radical recent music was virtually non-existent. Balakirev started filling these gaps in Mussorgsky's knowledge.

In 1858, within a few months of beginning his studies with Balakirev, Mussorgsky resigned his commission to devote himself entirely to music.He also suffered a painful crisis at this time. This may have had a spiritual component (in a letter to Balakirev the young man referred to "mysticism and cynical thoughts about the Deity" ), but its exact nature will probably never be known. In 1859, the 20-year-old gained valuable theatrical experience by assisting in a production of Glinka's operaA Life for the Tsaron the Glebovo estate of a former singer and her wealthy husband; he also metKonstantin Lyadov(father ofAnatoly Lyadov) and enjoyed a formative visit to Moscow – after which he professed love of "everything Russian". Mussorgsky and his brother were also inspired by thegothic script,they were using an "M" personal sign instead offamily coat of arms,very similar tothe symbols of the early Rurikids.

Gustave Flaubert. Mussorgsky started an opera based on hisSalammbôbut did not finish it.

Despite this epiphany, Mussorgsky's music leaned more toward foreign models; a four-hand piano sonata that he produced in 1860 contains his only movement insonata form.Nor is any 'nationalistic' impulse easily discernible in the incidental music forVladislav Ozerov's playOedipus in Athens,on which he worked between the ages of 19 and 22 (and then abandoned unfinished), or in theIntermezzo in Modo Classicofor piano solo (revised and orchestrated in 1867). The latter was the only important piece he composed between December 1860 and August 1863: the reasons for this probably lie in the painful re-emergence of his subjective crisis in 1860 and the purely objective difficulties which resulted from theemancipation of the serfsthe following year – as a result of which the family was deprived of half its estate, and Mussorgsky had to spend a good deal of time in Karevo unsuccessfully attempting to stave off their looming impoverishment.

By this time, Mussorgsky had freed himself from the influence of Balakirev and was largely teaching himself. In 1863 he began an opera –Salammbô– on which he worked between 1863 and 1866 before losing interest in the project. During this period, he returned to Saint Petersburg and supported himself as a low-grade civil servant while living in a six-man "commune". In a heady artistic and intellectual atmosphere, he read and discussed a wide range of modern artistic and scientific ideas – including those of the provocative writerChernyshevsky,known for the bold assertion that, in art, "form and content are opposites". Under such influences he came more and more to embrace the idea of artistic realism and all that it entailed, whether this concerned the responsibility to depict life "as it is truly lived"; the preoccupation with the lower strata of society; or the rejection of repeating, symmetrical musical forms as insufficiently true to the unrepeating, unpredictable course of "real life".

"Real life" affected Mussorgsky painfully in 1865, when his mother died; at this point, the composer had his first serious bout of alcoholism, which forced him to leave the commune to stay with his brother. The 26-year-old was, however, on the point of writing his first realistic songs (including "Hopak" and "Darling Savishna", both of them composed in 1866 and among his first "real" publications the following year). The year 1867 was also the one in which he finished the original orchestral version of hisNight on Bald Mountain(which, however, Balakirev criticised and refused to conduct,with the result that it was never performed during Mussorgsky's lifetime).

Peak

Modest Mussorgsky in 1876

Mussorgsky's career as a civil servant was by no means stable or secure: though he was assigned to various posts and even received a promotion in these early years, in 1867 he was declared 'supernumerary' – remaining 'in service', but receiving no wages. Decisive developments were occurring in his artistic life, however. Although it was in 1867 that Stasov first referred to the 'kuchka' (Russian:кучка,lit.bunch,English: 'The Five') of Russian composers loosely grouped around Balakirev, Mussorgsky was by then ceasing to seek Balakirev's approval and was moving closer to the olderAlexander Dargomyzhsky.InsideThe Fiveand its close companions, Mussorgsky was nicknamed as 'Humour', Balakirev was 'Power', and Rimsky-Korsakov was 'Sincerity'.

Since 1866 Dargomyzhsky had been working on his operaThe Stone Guest,a version of theDon Juanstory with aPushkintext that he declared would be set "just as it stands, so that the inner truth of the text should not be distorted", and in a manner that abolished the 'unrealistic' division betweenariaandrecitativein favour of a continuous mode of syllabic but lyrically heightened declamation somewhere between the two.

Fyodor Komissarzhevsky as The Pretender inBoris Godunov

Under the influence of this work (and the ideas ofGeorg Gottfried Gervinus,according to whom "the highest natural object of musical imitation is emotion, and the method of imitating emotion is to mimic speech" ), Mussorgsky in 1868 rapidly set the first eleven scenes ofNikolai Gogol's playMarriage(Zhenitba), with his priority being to render into music the natural accents and patterns of the play's naturalistic and deliberately humdrum dialogue. This work marked an extreme position in Mussorgsky's pursuit of naturalistic word-setting: he abandoned it unorchestrated after reaching the end of his 'Act 1', and though its characteristically 'Mussorgskyian' declamation is to be heard in all his later vocal music, the naturalistic mode of vocal writing more and more became merely one expressive element among many.

A few months after abandoningZhenitba,the 29-year-old Mussorgsky was encouraged to write an opera on the story ofBoris Godunov.This he did, assembling and shaping a text from Pushkin's play andKaramzin's history. He completed the large-scale score the following year while living with friends and working for the Forestry Department. In 1871, however, the finished opera was rejected for theatrical performance, apparently because of its lack of any 'prima donna' role. Mussorgsky set to work producing a revised and enlarged 'second version'. During the next year, which he spent sharing rooms with Rimsky-Korsakov, he made changes that went beyond those requested by the theatre. In this version the opera was accepted, probably in May 1872, and three excerpts were staged at theMariinsky Theatrein 1873. It is often asserted that in 1872 the opera was rejected a second time, but no specific evidence for this exists.

By the time of the first production ofBoris Godunovin February 1874, Mussorgsky had taken part in the ill-fatedMladaproject (in the course of which he had made a choral version of hisNight on Bald Mountain) and had begunKhovanshchina.Though far from being a critical success – and in spite of receiving only a dozen or so performances – the popular reaction in favour ofBorismade this the peak of Mussorgsky's career.

Decline

From this peak, a pattern of decline became increasingly apparent. At this point, the Balakirev circle was disintegrating, something Mussorgsky was especially bitter about. He wrote toVladimir Stasov,"[T]he Mighty Handful has degenerated into soulless traitors."In drifting away from his old friends, Mussorgsky had been seen to fall victim to 'fits of madness' that could well have been alcoholism-related. His friendViktor Hartmannhad died, and his relative and recent roommateArseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov(who furnished the poems for the song-cycleSunlessand would go on to provide those for theSongs and Dances of Death) had moved away to get married. Mussorgsky engaged a new and prominent personal private physician about 1870, Dr. George Leon Carrick, sometime Secretary and later President of the St. Petersburg Physicians' Societyand a cousin ofSir Harry Lauder.

Ilya Repin's celebrated portrait of Mussorgsky, painted 2–5 March 1881, only a few days before the composer's death

While Mussorgsky suffered personally from alcoholism, it was also a behavior pattern considered typical for those of Mussorgsky's generation who wanted to oppose the establishment and protest through extreme forms of behavior.One contemporary notes, "an intense worship ofBacchuswas considered to be almost obligatory for a writer of that period. It was a showing off, a 'pose,' for the best people of the [eighteen-]sixties. "Another writes," Talented people in Russia who love the simple folk cannot but drink. "Mussorgsky spent day and night in a Saint Petersburg tavern of low repute, the Maly Yaroslavets, accompanied by other bohemian dropouts. He and his fellow drinkers idealized their alcoholism, perhaps seeing it as ethical and aesthetic opposition.

For a time Mussorgsky was able to maintain his creative output: his compositions from 1874 includeSunless,theKhovanshchinaPrelude, and the piano suitePictures at an Exhibition(in memory of Hartmann); he also began work on another opera based on Gogol,The Fair at Sorochyntsi(for which he produced another choral version ofNight on Bald Mountain).

Grave of Modest Mussorgsky in theTikhvin Cemeteryof theAlexander Nevsky Monasteryin Saint Petersburg

In the years that followed, Mussorgsky's decline became increasingly steep. Although now part of a new circle of eminent personages that included singers, medical men and actors, he was increasingly unable to resist drinking, and a succession of deaths among his closest associates caused him great pain. At times, however, his alcoholism would seem to be in check, and among the most powerful works composed during his last six years are the fourSongs and Dances of Death.His civil service career was made more precarious by his frequent 'illnesses' and absences, and he was fortunate to obtain a transfer to a post (in the Office of Government Control) where his music-loving superior treated him with great leniency – even allowing him to spend three months touring twelve cities as a singer's accompanist in 1879.

The decline could not be halted, however. In 1880 he was finally dismissed from government service. Aware of his destitution, one group of friends organised a stipend designed to support the completion ofKhovanshchina;another group organised a similar fund to pay him to completeThe Fair at Sorochyntsi.However, neither work was completed (althoughKhovanshchina,in piano score with only two numbers uncomposed, came close to being finished).

In early 1881 a desperate Mussorgsky declared to a friend that there was 'nothing left but begging', and suffered fourseizuresin rapid succession. Mussorgsky also suffered fromdelirium tremensduring this period.Though he found a comfortable room in a good hospital – and for several weeks even appeared to be rallying – the situation was hopeless.Repinpainted the famous red-nosed portrait in what were to be the last days of the composer's life: a week after his 42nd birthday, he was dead. He was interred at theTikhvin Cemeteryof theAlexander Nevsky MonasteryinSaint Petersburg.

Mussorgsky, like others of 'The Five', was perceived as an extremist by the Emperor and much of his court.This may have been the reasonTsarAlexander IIIpersonally crossed offBoris Godunovfrom the list of proposed pieces for the Imperial Opera in 1888.

Works

Main article:List of compositions by Modest Mussorgsky

Mussorgsky's works, while strikingly novel, are stylisticallyRomanticand draw heavily on Russian musical themes. He has been the inspiration for many Russian composers, including most notablyDmitri Shostakovich(in his late symphonies) andSergei Prokofiev(in his operas).

In 1868/1869 he composed the operaBoris Godunov,about the life of the Russiantsar,but it was rejected by theMariinsky Opera.Mussorgsky thus edited the work, making a final version in 1874. The early version is considered darker and more concise than the later version, but also more crude.Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakovre-orchestrated the opera in 1896 and revised it in 1908. The opera has also been revised by other composers, notably Shostakovich, who made two versions, one for film and one for stage.

The operaKhovanshchinawas unfinished and unperformed when Mussorgsky died, but it was completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and received its premiere in 1886 inSaint Petersburg.This opera, too, was revised by Shostakovich.The Fair at Sorochyntsi,another opera, was left incomplete at his death but a dance excerpt, theGopak,is frequently performed.

Mussorgsky's most imaginative and frequently performed work is the cycle of piano pieces describing paintings in sound calledPictures at an Exhibition.This composition, best known through an orchestral arrangement byMaurice Ravel,was written in commemoration of his friend, the architectViktor Hartmann.

Mussorgsky's single-movement orchestral workNight on Bald Mountainenjoyed broad popular recognition in the 1940s when it was featured, in tandem withSchubert's 'Ave Maria', in the 1940Walt Disneyanimated filmFantasia.

Among the composer's other works are a number of songs, including threesong cycles:The Nursery(1872),Sunless(1874) andSongs and Dances of Death(1877); plusMephistopheles' Song of the Fleaand many others. Important early recordings of songs by Mussorgsky were made by tenorVladimir Rosingin the 1920s and 1930s.Other recordings have been made byBoris Christoffbetween 1951 and 1957 and bySergei Leiferkusin 1993.

Reputation

Contemporary opinions of Mussorgsky as a composer and person varied from positive to ambiguous to negative. Mussorgsky's eventual supporters,Vladimir StasovandMily Balakirev,initially registered strongly negative impressions of the composer. Stasov wrote to Balakirev, in an 1863 letter, "I have no use for Mussorgsky. His views may tally with mine, but I have never heard him express an intelligent idea. All in him is flabby, dull. He is, it seems to me, a thorough idiot", and Balakirev agreed: "Yes, Mussorgsky is little short of an idiot."

Mixed impressions are recorded byRimsky-KorsakovandTchaikovsky,colleagues of Mussorgsky who, unlike him, made their living as composers. Both praised his talent while expressing disappointment with his technique. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that Mussorgsky's scores included:

absurd, disconnected harmony, uglypart-writing,sometimes strikingly illogicalmodulation,sometimes a depressing lack of it, unsuccessfulscoringof orchestral things... what was needed at the moment was an edition for performance, for practical artistic aims, for familiarization with his enormous talent, not for the study of his personality and artistic transgressions.

While preparing an edition ofSorochintsï Fair,Anatoly Lyadovremarked: "It is easy enough to correct Mussorgsky's irregularities. The only trouble is that when this is done, the character and originality of the music are done away with, and the composer's individuality vanishes."

Tchaikovsky, in a letter to his patronessNadezhda von Meck,was also critical of Mussorgsky:

Mussorgsky you very rightly call a hopeless case. In talent he is perhaps superior to all the [other members ofThe Five], but his nature is narrow-minded, devoid of any urge towards self-perfection, blindly believing in the ridiculous theories of his circle and in his own genius. In addition, he has a certain base side to his nature which likes coarseness, uncouthness, roughness. He flaunts his illiteracy, takes pride in his ignorance, mucks along anyhow, blindly believing in the infallibility of his genius. Yet he has flashes of talent which are, moreover, not devoid of originality.

Western perceptions of Mussorgsky changed with the European premiere ofBoris Godunovin 1908. Before the premiere, he was regarded as an eccentric in the West. CriticEdward Dannreuther,wrote, in the 1905 edition ofThe Oxford History of Music,"Mussorgsky, in his vocal efforts, appears wilfully eccentric. His style impresses the Western ear as barbarously ugly."However, after the premiere, views on Mussorgsky's music changed drastically.Gerald Abraham,a musicologist, and an authority on Mussorgsky: "As a musical translator of words and all that can be expressed in words, of psychological states, and even physical movement, he is unsurpassed; as an absolute musician he was hopelessly limited, with remarkably little ability to construct pure music or even a purely musical texture."

In popular culture

Mussorgsky's tone poemNight on Bald Mountainwas used in the 1940 animated filmFantasia,accompanied by an animation ofChernobogsummoning evil spirits on a mountain. It segues intoAve MariabyFranz Schubert.

Theprogressive rockbandEmerson, Lake & Palmerperformed and recorded an arrangement of Mussorgsky'sPictures at an Exhibitionon 1971, featuring lyrics byGreg Lake,and released it asa live album of the same name.

The first 20 seconds ofMichael Jackson's 1995 song "HIStory"relies on an orchestrated version of" The Bogatyr Gates (In the Capital in Kiev) "fragment ofThe Pictures at an Exhibition.

The 2020 filmEurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire SagastarringDan Stevensas Alexander Lemtov, a flamboyant singer representing Russia, had anon-typical Russian characterdevelopment as an obvious cultural reference to Modest Mussorgsky, also known domestically for encouraging a female opera singerDaria Leonovato compose a classical song "Letter After the Ball".

References

Sources

• Brown, David.Mussorgsky: His Life and Works.Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.ISBN978-0-19-816587-3.
• Brown, David.Tchaikovsky: The Man and His Music.London and Boston: Faber & Faber, 2010.ISBN978-0-571-26093-5(accessed 29 June 2015).
• Brown, David, and Gerald E. Abraham.Russian Masters 1: Glinka, Borodin, Balakirev, Musorgsky, Tchaikovsky.New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.ISBN978-0-393-31585-1.
• Calvocoressi, M. D.,Modest Mussorgsky: His Life and Works,London: Rockliff, 1956
• Calvocoressi, M.D. "Mussorgsky's Youth: In the Light of the Latest Information".The Musical Quarterly20, no. 1 (January 1934): 1–14.JSTOR738707ISSN0027-4631(accessed 29 June 2015).(subscription required)
• Juynboll, Floris. "Vladimir Rosing".The Record Collector36, no. 3 (July, August, September 1991). pp. 194–96.
• Kozinn, Allan."The New York Times Essential Library: Classical Music: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings".New York: Times Books, 2004.ISBN978-0-8050-7070-5.
• Musorgskiy, M.,M. P. Musorgskiy: Letters,Gordeyeva, Ye. (editor), 2nd edition, Moscow: Music (publisher), 1984 [Мусоргский, М.П.,М.П. Мусоргский: Письма,Гордеева, Е., Москва: Музыка, 1984]
• Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay.My Musical Life,edited by Nadezhda Nikolaevna Rimskaia-Korsakova, translated from the second Russian edition by Judah A. Joffe and edited with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923.
• Smirnitsky, A.,Russian-English Dictionary,Moscow: The Russian Language (publisher), 1985 [Смирницкий, А.И.,Русско-английский словарь,Москва: Русский язык, 1985].
• Taruskin, R.,Musorgsky: Eight Essays and an Epilogue,New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1993.
• Volkov, Solomon,tr.Bouis, Antonina W.,Saint Petersburg: A Cultural History.New York: The Free Press, 1995.

Further reading

• Gordeyeva, E. (ed.).M.P. Musorgsky v vospominaniyakh sovremennikov[Mussorgsky in the recollections of contemporaries] Moscow: s.n., 1989.

External links

• Free scores by Mussorgskyat theInternational Music Score Library Project(IMSLP)
• TheMutopia Projecthas compositions byModest Mussorgsky
• Turgenev and Mussorgsky(with music samples)