Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 1, No. 6 (1927-03)

The Phonograph Monthly Review 271 vs» r ■ ' . ' " - ... - ■ — remarkable. At the age of seven he played many of Liszt’s lighter works. His musical education was evidently a great pleasure to the boy and at this very early period I will ask you to notice two things: First the innate inclination towards things musical, and second the background upon an impressionable mind on the Russian folk legend. In 1849 his father took him to Petrograd where he entered the preparatory school of Saints Peter and Paul. Although his father had planned for him a Military career he never- theless placed great emphasis upon the importance of a musical education and training as an accompaniment to the regular course in the cadet school. With this in mind a well known teacher was secured, one Herke, to help along young Modest in his studies. It appears that Moussorgski’s pro- gress with Herke was very rapid indeed, and it is in this early training that we find him laying the foundation for a technique that later caused him to be held in high esteem as a piano virtuoso. At this time we find another important influence in the person of a monk by the name of Kranpsky in whose company Modest used to spend many happy hours learning much about the old Greek liturgical chants. In 1852 he entered the school of the Ensign of the Guard. His musical studies were not interrupted and he was allowed to continue the piano lessons once a week with Herke. Altho’ totally ignorant of the very elements of musical grammar, he at this time attempted a composition in the form of an Essign Polka that was dedicated to his school fellows. The death of his father in 1853 apparently made very little difference in the natural course of his life and we find him at the end of his schooling a thorough student, especially interested in foreign languages, a hard worker, and, in a word, a charming fellow well liked by all. In 1856 he left the Cadet School and entered a Petrograd regiment. He was at once taken into the society of the time, not only because of his very charming manner, but more because of his musical amateurism. Being quite a dandy it was very easy for him to be the central figure at an officers party by sitting at the piano and playing and singing from the popular Italian operas. At one of these parties he met Borodin who has left us a most interesting account of this first meeting. (Quote M. N. Page 118. So far we cannot see anything in Moussorgski but the charming musical dilettante, but in the following winter came to him what was perhaps the most important single event in his whole life. It is interesting to speculate with “ifs” and “huts” and “ors” and it is inter- esting to conjecture what would have been the place of Moussorgski in modern music had he not met Dargomijsky. Contemplating such a genius from a considerable distance it is difficult to conceive of Moussorgski developing into anything except to what he did, but nevertheless, it is not inconceivable to imagine that had they not met we would have a very different Boris than the one we have today. I must digress for a moment to a point out the position of that man whose music is so rarely heard today, whose opera “The Stone Guest” is rarely, if ever given, but who was the one man, along with Glinka, that placed a stamp on Russidan music that never can be forgotten. Dargomijsky had the idea of a Russian National music fixed firmly in his mind when he turned away from the teutonic teachings and saw the emptiness of the existing Italian music. He and Glinka, although the results of their efforts are vastly different, I think I can safely say, were the real founders of the school that the famous “Five” developed to its fullest bloom and through its decadence. I can give best in a short sentence quoted from Montagu-Nathan the Gist of what Dargomijski stood for — “Legitimacy in the relation of the song to the speech and for a general sincerity in the realm of musical creation.” Upon his meeting with Cui and Balakireff in 1857, we find Moussorgski realizing for the first time that there already existed an effort and the product of a truly Russian music. Under the guidance and musical tutelage of Balakeriff, who had already assumed the leadership in what was later to develop into a real movement, we-see him devoting all his time and energy to the study of the masterpieces of all countries and devoting much energy to the works of Glinka. We see that latent creative power breaking to the surface in attempts at composition that do not prove to be of any great importance. Much against the advice of his friends, he de- cided to give up the army and devote himself to a life of 3IGV music, a step that he took in 1859. Borodin again gives us a picture of him shortly after his resignation. (M-G Page 122 ). From this time on Moussorgski was never without finan- cial difficulties, nor do we find him in a very happy state of mind. His family broke up, and his mother went to live on their small country estate. We find him, then, dividing his time between the country and the city. In none of the compositions so far do we find that marked personality and individuality that later is to point him out and give him the position that is generally accorded; and it is not until he again gets back to the people, once more among the peasants as he was in his childhood, that he realized, as he himself told Cui, it was only through the voice of Russian people that true artistic expression is found. He, therefore, de- cided to throw overboard all social custom and conventions and return to Petrograd to live with his five friends. While he was living under the same roof with these men, none of whom were professional musicians, yet all of whom were striving toward the same end, the establishing of a legiti- mate Russian music, he undertook the composition of an opera that had for its libretto Flaubert’s “Salammbo”; and, while this was destined never to be finished, it remains an important scource from which to draw for later works. Now, we can see him for the first time placing great import- ance upon the people as a real character and making great demands on the sincerity of the dramatic action. In 1864 we find him turning to the composition of songs, and upon the death of his mother a year later a flood of childhood memories are reflected in songs that for the first time indicate that faithfulness of the note to the word and to the sentiment. He was in constant contact with the band of friends that had been so very important to him and, while he was receiving constant instruction from Balakireff, he was continuely looking to Gargomijsky for his model. To- wards the end 1865 he suffered a nervous breakdown and was forced to leave his friends and retire to the country. In 1866 he again returns, and that already strong friendship with Rimski-Korsakoff is more closely cemented by an almost uninterrupted exchange of musical ideas. Moussorg- ski was trying to improve his orchestral technique and seems to be somewhat satisfied with a production of “The Dis- truction of Sennachrib”, a work for chorus and orchestra produced by Balakireff at a free school concert. At this time comes one of his most popular orchestral compositions, and openly programmatic piece “A Night on Bare Mountain.” The years 1866-7 gives us some of his finest songs on all subjects, from satire to sorded realism. Urged on by Cui and at the suggestion of Dargomijski he started an opera on the libretto of Gogol’s “Marriage,” and although only one act was finished we are told of all the compositions of the “five” this one approaches the closest to the ideal of Dagomijski. We now come to the active period of the creation of Boris and I must ask you to briefly review the sketch we have made of the composer so that we may see with what equip- ment he approaches the task. We have seen him brought up in the country with a back- ground of Russian folk tale for his A. B. C.’s; we have seen him demonstrating at a very early age a great interest in and a leaning towards music; while not intending to fit him- self for a musical career we have noted his family fostering this interest in the person of Herke; we have been able to see Moussorgski’s delettantism change upon his meeting with Dargomijski to a serious realization of the general emptiness of the existing and popular form of Italian opera and the desire to create on his principals a truly Russian work. His meeting and study with Balakireff and his friends forces him to give up the army and devote himself to musical creation. We see him again in the country where he finds his true expression in the voice of the people. In 1868 the suggestion is given him by a friend, Nikolski, to write an opera upon Pushkins “Boris Godounoff” and the idea so takes Moussorgski that he at once leaves the com- position of “Marriage” and with such feverish haste starts upon the new work that in two months he has finished the first act and whole first version was finished in a year. Be- fore his death in 1869 Dargomijski is able to hear snatches of the work at the house of the friends where it was given as it was written, all the five taking the various parts. In 1869-70 the orchestration was completed.