 | Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich - "Serenade" from "Songs & Dances of Death" for Viola & Piano IMM 64 No. 2 Viola and Piano (or organ) |
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| Composer : | Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich (1839 - 1881) | ||||
| Instrumentation : | Viola and Piano (or organ) | ||||
| Style : | Romantic | ||||
| Arranger : Publisher : | MAGATAGAN, MICHAEL (1960 - ) | ||||
| Copyright : | Public Domain | ||||
| Added by magataganm, 14 Mar 2020 Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839 – 1881) was a Russian composer, one of the group known as "The Five". He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music. Many of his works were inspired by Russian history, Russian folklore, and other national themes. Such works include the opera Boris Godunov, the orchestral tone poem Night on Bald Mountain and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. Mussorgsky's last cycle Songs and Dances of Death was composed in 1877. The texts were by the amateur poet and dramatist Count Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov (1848-1913). The first setting, "Cradle Song," portrays a fearful mother's vigil over her dying child. Her dialogue with Death is poignant, but realized with utmost simplicity. We hear Death's insidious refrain "Hush-a-by, hush-a-by" four times, while the piano suggests the rocking of the cradle. Finally, Death announces "Calm your fear and despair! See, through the window peeps the pale morrow." False reassurance conceals his real intention -- Death's lullaby calls the child unto himself, with the words "See, there he slumbers...my song stilled his pain." The next song "Serenade" describes a sickly young woman before whom Death appears as a gallant suitor. As the critic Montagu-Nathan writes, "This sinister cavalier prosecutes a brief and horrible courtship...Flattering utterances are but a veil that will not long obscure the end." When at the close the melody fades into silence, Death casts aside his disguise with a triumphant cry of "Be still...you are mine!" In No. 3, "Trepak," the accompaniment derives from the ancient Dies irae plainchant, heard in Liszt's Totentanz and the Symphonie Fantastique of Berlioz, both of which Mussorgsky had heard in St. Petersburg. The accompaniment becomes the theme of the nationalistic "Trepak" danced by Death himself. In a snow-gripped forest, Death meets a drunken peasant, to whom he sings "a song fair and pleasant" before bidding him rest until daybreak. The last song "The Field-Marshal" was probably inspired by Glinka's setting Midnight Review. Written two years after the others, Death is portrayed here as a ghostly commander, now proud in victory, riding through scenes of death and devastation on the battlefield. He summons his loyal victims to form up in parade and pass before him in ghostly review. Death's inexorable march theme quotes the Polish patriotic song "Z dymen pozarow." The original version included a remarkable chord cluster four measures from the close, which does not appear in Rimsky-Korsakov's edition, issued after Mussorgsky's own death in 1881. Source: AllMusic (https://www.allmusic.com/composition/songs-dances-of-d eath-pesni-y-plyaski-smerti-4-song-cycle-for-voice-pian o-edited-by-rimsky-korsakov-mc0002365974). Although originally created for Accompanied Voice, I created this Arrangement of the "Serenade" from "Songs & Dances of Death" (IMM 64 No. 2) for Viola & Piano . Sheet central : | Songs and Dances of Death (2 sheet music) | | |||
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