Modest Mussorgsky | Russian composer | Britannica.com Modest Mussorgsky Alternative Titles: Modest Petrovich Moussorgsky, Modest Petrovich Musorgsky, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky Modest Mussorgsky Mily Balakirev Modest Mussorgsky, in full Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Mussorgsky also spelled Musorgsky or Moussorgsky (born March 9 [March 21, New Style], 1839, Karevo, Russia—died March 16 [March 28], 1881, St. Petersburg ), Russian composer noted particularly for his opera Boris Godunov (final version first performed 1874), his songs, and his piano piece Pictures from an Exhibition (1874). Mussorgsky, along with Aleksandr Borodin, Mily Balakirev, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, and César Cui , was a member of The Five , a group of Russian composers bound together in the common goal of creating a nationalist school of Russian music .

Modest Mussorgsky, portrait by Ilya Repin, 1881; in the Gosudarstvennaya Tretyakovskaya Galereya, … The Bettmann Archive Life and career Mussorgsky was the son of a landowner but had peasant blood, his father’s grandmother having been a serf. According to his autobiographical sketch, written in 1881, Mussorgsky learned about Russian fairy tales from his nurse. “This early familiarity with the spirit of the people, with the way they lived, lent the first and greatest impetus to my musical improvisations.” His mother, herself an excellent pianist, gave Modest his first piano lessons, and at seven he could play some of Franz Liszt’s simpler pieces. In August 1849 his father took Modest and his other son, Filaret, to St. Petersburg, where Modest attended the Peter-Paul School in preparation for a military career. At the same time, mindful of Modest’s musical bent, their father entrusted the boys to Anton Gerke, future professor of music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

In 1852 Mussorgsky entered the School for Cadets of the Guard. There, in his first year he composed his Podpraporshchik ( Porte-Enseigne Polka), published at his father’s expense. Although not the most industrious of students, he gave proof of tremendous curiosity and wide-ranging intellectual interests. In 1856, by now a lieutenant, Mussorgsky joined the Preobrazhensky Guards , one of Russia’s most aristocratic regiments, where he made the acquaintance of several music-loving officers who were habitués of the Italian theatre. During this same period he came to know Aleksandr Borodin , a fellow officer who was to become another important Russian composer. Borodin has provided a very vivid picture of the musician: There was something absolutely boyish about Mussorgsky; he looked like a real second-lieutenant of the picture books … a touch of foppery, unmistakable but kept well within bounds. His courtesy and good breeding were exemplary . All the women fell in love with him. … That same evening we were invited to dine with the head surgeon of the hospital.

… Mussorgsky sat down to the piano and played … very gently and graciously, with occasional affected movements of the hands, while his listeners murmured, “charming! delicious!” Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent During the winter of 1856 a regimental comrade introduced Mussorgsky into the home of the Russian composer Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky . At one of the musicales there, Mussorgsky discovered the music of the seminal Russian composer Mikhail Glinka , and this quickened his own Russophile inclinations. Three years later, in June 1859, he saw the Moscow Kremlin for the first time, an important experience that represented his first “physical” communion with Russian history. Through Dargomyzhsky, Mussorgsky met another composer, Mily Balakirev , who became his teacher. Since the death of their father (in 1853), the Mussorgsky brothers had seen their poorly administered patrimony decrease substantially. With the freeing of the serfs in 1861, it vanished.

Having decided to devote himself to music, Modest Mussorgsky had quit the army three years earlier and since 1863 had been working as a civil servant in the Ministry of Communications. His distressing financial troubles date from that time, and he had to seek the help of moneylenders. Mussorgsky achieved artistic maturity in 1866 with a series of remarkable songs about ordinary people such as “Darling Savishna,” “Hopak,” and “The Seminarist,” and an even larger series appeared the following year. Another work dating from this time is the symphonic poem Ivanova noch na Lysoy gore (1867; Night on Bald Mountain). In 1868 he reached the height of his conceptual powers in composition with the first song of his incomparable cycle Detskaya ( The Nursery) and a setting of the first few scenes of Nikolay Gogol’s Zhenitba ( The Marriage). Music: Fact or Fiction? In 1869 he began his great work Boris Godunov to his own libretto based on the drama by Aleksandr Pushkin .

The first version, completed in December 1869, was rejected by the advisory committee of the imperial theatres because it lacked a prima donna role. In response, the composer subjected the opera to a thorough revision and in 1872 put the finishing touches to the second version, adding the roles of Marina and Rangoni as well as several new episodes. The first production of Boris took place on February 8, 1874, at St. Petersburg and was a success. Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies In 1865, after the death of his mother, he lived with his brother, then shared a small flat with the Russian composer Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov until 1872, when his colleague married. Left very much alone, Mussorgsky began to drink to excess, although the composition of the opera Khovanshchina perhaps offered some distraction (left unfinished at his death, this opera was completed by Rimsky-Korsakov). Mussorgsky then found a companion in the person of a distant relative, Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov.

This impoverished 25-year-old poet inspired Mussorgsky’s two cycles of melancholy melodies, Bez solntsa ( Sunless) and Pesni i plyaski smerti ( Songs and Dances of Death). At that time Mussorgsky was haunted by the spectre of death—he himself had only seven more years to live. The death of another friend, the painter Victor Hartmann, inspired Mussorgsky to write the piano suite Kartinki s vystavki ( Pictures from an Exhibition ; orchestrated in 1922 by the French composer Maurice Ravel ). The last few years of Mussorgsky’s life were dominated by his alcoholism and by a solitude made all the more painful by Golenishchev-Kutuzov’s marriage. Nonetheless, the composer began his opera Sorochinskaya yarmarka (unfinished; Sorochintsy Fair), inspired by Gogol’s tale. As the accompanist of an aging singer, Darya Leonova, Mussorgsky departed on a lengthy concert tour of southern Russia and the Crimean Peninsula . On his return he tried teaching at a small school of music in St. Petersburg.

On February 24, 1881, three successive attacks of alcoholic epilepsy laid him low. His friends took him to a hospital where for a time his health improved sufficiently for one of the leading Russian artists of the day, Ilya Repin , to paint a famous portrait of him. Mussorgsky’s health was irreparably damaged, however, and he died within a month, shortly after his 42nd birthday. Music Mussorgsky’s importance to and influence on later composers are quite out of proportion to his relatively small output. Few composers were less derivative, or evolved so original and bold a style. The 65 songs he composed, many to his own texts, describe scenes of Russian life with great vividness and insight and realistically reproduce the inflections of the spoken Russian language . Mussorgsky’s operas Boris Godunov and to a lesser extent Khovanshchina display his dramatic technique of setting sharply characterized individuals against the background of country and people. His power of musical portrayal, his strong characterizations, and the importance he assigned to the role of the chorus establish Boris Godunov as a masterpiece.

From a technical standpoint, Mussorgsky’s unorthodox use of tonality and harmony and his method of fusing arioso and recitative provide Boris Godunov with great dramatic intensity. Connect with Britannica Classical Net - Basic Repertoire List - Mussorgsky Modest Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881) Along with Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky , the greatest Russian composer of the Nineteenth Century, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (March 9, 1839 - March 16, 1881) was born into a wealthy rural, landowning family. He began by picking out on the piano the tunes he heard from the serfs on his family's estate. At the age of six, he began to study piano with his mother. His parents initially set him out on the career of military officer. He became a cadet and finally commissioned in an elite imperial regiment. Two years later, in 1858, he resigned his commission. During this time, he met a musically-inclined army doctor: Alexander Borodin . The two became friends.

In 1861, with Russia's emancipation of the serfs, his family lost significant income, and he was forced to earn a living. In 1863, he began a spotty career in the civil service, which dismissed him at least twice. In 1856, he met the composer Dargomïzhsky, who in turn introduced him to Cesar Cui, Mily Balakirev, and a critic named Victor Stasov. Gradually, Borodin and Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakoff joined to form a loose group known as the "Moguchaya Kuchka" ("the mighty handful" or "the mighty bunch"). All but Stasov nursed ambitions to compose, and all had very definite ideas about what Russian music should be. None of them had formal training in composition. Balakirev and Mussorgsky essentially taught themselves by playing through piano-duet arrangements of orchestral scores. For Russian composers of the time, this was not unusual. Neither Mikhail Glinka , the founder of the nationalist school, nor Dargomïzhsky had formally studied. After all, the first Russian music conservatory had been founded only relatively recently.

All were, to one degree or another, amateurs. Rimsky, for example, was a naval officer, Borodin a doctor and chemist. Most writers consider Tchaikovsky the first great Russian composer to have had thorough academic training along German lines. Mussorgsky absorbed these main ideas of the Kuchka: Russian music should express the Russian soul. Russian music should be written in a Russian way. The latter idea meant mainly a rejection of German classical forms in favor of one-off, "organic" forms. Instead of a form determining the nature of the musical materials, the materials shaped the forms – bottom-up, rather than top-down. The Kuchka got these ideas from German Romantic aestheticians and revered those artists who wrote accordingly, like Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz . Mussorgsky learned composition mainly by doing. His early efforts are in the expected short forms: songs, piano morceaux, and so on. His "apprentice" instrumental works, with the exception of his remarkable Intermezzo in modo classico (1862, describing Russian peasants stepping on and sinking into snowdrifts), are things you could get from just about anybody at the time.

However, most of his early songs owe little to any predecessor. Practically from the get-go, Mussorgsky found something original, even among Russian composers, which may arise from the fact that he alone of all the Kuchka grew up in the country, away from the city. He actually heard serfs sing daily as part of his normal environment, and the "crudities" that others tended to soften attracted him in the first place. He also had larger ambitions, encouraged by Balakirev and Stasov. He began several opera projects: an Oedipus (1858-61), a Salammbô (1863-66); and most notably The Marriage (1868), based on Gogol. He completed none of them, for one reason or another, but all of them bore fruit in later works, either by providing numbers Mussorgsky re-used or, in the case of The Marriage, clarifying his ideas of word-setting. He first thought that music should set the patterns of speech "realistically," as Dargomïzhsky had first theorized.

While this was fine for songs, The Marriage convinced Mussorgsky that it would not work over a longer span, and he abandoned the opera after composing one act. Much of the rest of is career is spent finding new expressive ways to create a melody, especially for the stage. Nevertheless, The Marriage counts as the most radical experiment in musical realism among the Russian nationalists. In 1867, Mussorgsky also composed St. John's Night on Bald Mountain (usually called Night on Bald Mountain), depicting a gathering of witches and demons for a black sabbath. While one can cite predecessors like Berlioz and Liszt for such an idea, nobody had come up with such crazy sounds before – shattering dissonance and wild cries as savage as anything in Igor Stravinsky 's Rite of Spring, more than four decades in the future. Mussorgsky revised it at least twice to fit it into later, unrealized projects – Mlada (1872, a group opera by the Kuchka never completed) and the composer's own unfinished opera Sorochintsï Fair. After his abandonment of The Marriage, Mussorgsky began working on a Stasov suggestion, the opera Boris Godunov.

The composer completed a version in 1869 and submitted it to the Mariinsky Theater, who rejected it, mainly due to the fact that Mussorgsky had provided no role for a prima donna. Mussorgsky took back the score and at once began to revise it, altering the work far beyond what the theater had asked for. In general, he moved from the musical realism of the first version to a folk-based arioso, extremely subtle and flexible dramatically. He resubmitted his new version in 1872. The theater accepted it, and after some wrangling with the censor, Boris premiered in 1874. This was to provide Mussorgsky his greatest public triumph. He was considered the young man to watch. However, all did not go smoothly. In 1865, following his mother's death, Mussorgsky began to go on drinking binges. He would disappear for days, even weeks at a time and turn up on friends' doorsteps physically ill. He had to borrow money to drink. In 1880, he lost his government sinecure. Even the lax imperial bureaucracy could no longer tolerate his unreliability.

Nevertheless, he continued to compose, almost up to the end. However, he completed very little and left two operas, Khovanshchina and Sorochintsï Fair incomplete. He never was a steady worker. Throughout his career, he composed in a white-hot rush and then seemed to fall into lassitude, during which time he mainly drank. His behavior, always a bit eccentric, degenerated into the erratic. His landlord kicked him out in the street for failure to pay rent. He showed up at the door of a friend, who took him in. However, after suffering seizures, he was moved to a hospital, where he seemed to rally, but it turned out he had bribed an orderly to bring him cognac. He died after roughly a month, at the age of 42. Because he began late and died young, almost all of Mussorgsky's music can be considered early work. Yet he progressed at a frankly incredible rate, went through at least three major changes of style, and even conducted successful "one-off" experiments. His songs lie at the center of his achievement and form the basis of much of his dramatic work.

There's an astonishing variety, from "realistic" portraits, to evocation of peasant song, dramatic monologues (from a child) in The Nursery (1870), psychological expressionism and a non-Wagnerian chromaticism in Sunless (1874), and a new pre- Mahler poetry in Songs and Dances of Death (1877). Instrumental works play less of a role, although even here he wrote masterpieces: the aforementioned Night on Bald Mountain and the piano cycle Pictures at an Exhibition (1874). If he had composed only the last, he would be considered an eminence in Russian music. The piece is new not only in its details (bar-by-bar meter changes, startlingly original chord progressions and piano textures) but in its form – Romantic character-pieces linked by interludes varying a basic theme, with the final variation absorbed into the last character-piece. Mussorgsky was recognized by both the Kuchka and Tchaikovsky (who came to oppose the Kuchka) as a powerful musical force. However, none of them knew quite what to make of him.

Rimsky-Korsakoff, for example, regarded some of his friend's boldest strokes as mistakes, particularly in his harmonies. As a labor of love and at considerable cost to his own career, he went about revising Mussorgsky's major works including Boris, Khovanshchina, Night on Bald Mountain, and part of Pictures. For many years, the only performances of these works were in Rimsky's editions, and to a great extent Rimsky kept Mussorgsky's name alive in the concert halls and on the opera stages. However, the myth grew of Mussorgsky the naïve genius, a pure heart who found his way to artistic truth despite his lack of skill. Scholars have pretty much shot down this myth. Mussorgsky was, if anything, too intellectual, too knowledgeable about contemporary aesthetic philosophy, too self-conscious, to the extent that his mental wrestling with himself cut down even further on his composing. However, he knew what he wanted and felt it his job to flesh out his artistic intuitions. "To new shores" became his motto. As new editions of scores have appeared, what Mussorgsky actually wrote is supplanting what his nineteenth-century editors thought he should have written.

Yet the editions by Rimsky-Korsakoff are beautiful in their own way, and I would think it a shame if they disappeared forever in an excess of scruple. After all, these versions – so "scholarly incorrect" – all by themselves exerted tremendous influence, turning Mussorgsky into an avatar of Modernism, particularly in France with Claude Debussy , Maurice Ravel , Ernest Bloch , and even Stravinsky. Mussorgsky's music challenged the hegemony of German and Italian music in the Nineteenth Century and lay outside the standard Brahms -vs.- Wagner fight. He opened up a new musical path and a new aesthetic attitude. However, it's not his innovations alone that make him so important. Boris Godunov is arguably one of the three greatest operas of its time, the work of a musical dramatist of genius. Mussorgsky's songs, so little known in the West mainly due to language difficulties, put the composer in the exalted company of Schubert, Brahms, and Mahler, and show a greater variety of expression than all three. Patronized by the Nineteenth Century, the composer became a hero to the Twentieth.

~ Steve Schwartz Recommended Recordings Modest Mussorgsky - Biography - IMDb Modest Mussorgsky Jump to: Overview (3) | Mini Bio (2) | Trivia (1) Overview (3) Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky Mini Bio (2) In 1856 Moussorgsky joined the Russian army where he met the piano player and composer 'Balakirev' who taught him composition. As he could not finish his studies in music, Moussorgsky did not know all stylistic means of composition perfectly and thus had to follow his instinct in his works becoming the pathmaker of the musical impressionism as well as expressionism: He was the first to compose realistic pictures, e.g. "Pictures at an Exhibition". Having no success during his lifetime Moussorgsky spent all of his fortune ending up a poor man addicted to alcohol. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Volker Boehm Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born on March 21, 1839, in his ancestral estate of Karevo, Pskov province, Russia. He was the 30th generation from Rurik the Great, the first King of ancient Kiev Rus.

Mussorgsky's family were wealthy landowners and belonged to Russian landed gentry. Young Mussorgsky studied piano from the age of six under the tutelage of his mother, who herself was a trained pianist. At the age of nine he was able to perform pieces by Franz Liszt and a piano concerto by John Field in public. At ten he began his studies in St. Petersburg's elite Peterschule (St. Peter's School), where his piano teacher was virtuoso Anton Herke. In 1852, at the age of 12, Mussorgsky published a piano piece titled "Porte-enseigne Polka". Around that time he was described by Alexandr Borodin as an "elegant piano-playing dilettante" at a private party. Mussorgsky continued his music studies while attending the Cadet School of the Imperial Guards. He graduated from the school in 1856 and was posted to the Imperial Guards Regiment in St. Petersburg. In 1857, through his fellow officer Ceasar Cui, Mussorgsky met composers Alexander Dargomyzsky and Mili Balakirew .

He studied composition under Balakirev, including the piano sonatas and symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven . At that time Mussorgsky's own compositions were leaning more towards the foreign models: his four-hand piano sonata (1860) and "Intermezzo in modo classico" for piano solo were composed as European-sounding pieces. Soon Mussorgsky had freed himself from the influences of Balkirev and became involved in a production of "A Life for the Tsar", an opera by Mikhail Glinka . He also worked on two original operas: from 1858-61 he was writing "Oedipus in Athens" and from 1863-66 he composed "Salammbo", based on the eponymous novel by Gustave Flaubert . He suffered a major emotional trauma, caused by the loss of the family estate after the emancipation of serfs in 1861, forcing Mussorgsky to move and take a clerical job in St. Petersburg. In 1865 his beloved mother died; Mussorgsky suffered from anxiety and depression, and had his first serious bout of alcoholism.

At that time he lived in a commune with six other men in St. Petersburg. He was influenced by the writings of provocative revolutionary Nikolay Chernyshevskiy , known for the assertion that, in art, "form and content are opposites," and who also coined the phrase "the worse the better" to indicate that the worse the social conditions became for the poor, the more inclined they would be to revolt. Being torn between his service and his passion for music, Mussorgsky quit his job and focused on his new composition, a symphonic poem "A Night on Bald Mountain". After it was rejected by Balakirev in 1867, Moussorgsky fell into a deeper depression. He suffered from a bout of dipsomania and was called "almost an idiot" by nationalists Balakirev and Stasov. However, he managed to overcome his problem and re-entered government service. From 1870-72 he worked on "Boris Godunov", an opera based on a poem by Alexander Pushkin . The first version was rejected by the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre because of its lack of any "prima donna" role.

At that time Mussorgsky was a roommate of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov , who helped to make changes that even exceeded those requested by the Mariinsky Theatre. "Boris Godunov" premiered in 1874, but after official criticism of Mussorgsky's music, it received only a dozen performances. He split from the nationalistic circle of Balakirev and suffered another bout of depression after the death of his friend, artist Viktor Hartmann. In memory of Hartmann he wrote the piano suite "Pictures at an Exhibition", a musical interpretation of Hartmann's pictures, which inspired Mussorgsky to break some old rules of piano playing. Mussorgsky's later works, "Songs and Dances of Death" and the opera "Khovanshchina", were sparks of a genius in an ailing body. The music impressed his frie+nds and his superiors at the government office, where he was allowed to take longer vacations to go on concert tours. He toured and concertized with singer Darya Leonova. However, the decline in his health was neglected and led to complications and frequent epileptic seizures. He started drinking again and was dismissed from government service in January of 1880.

Loyal Leonova helped provide him with concert gigs and a home. They made successful performances during December of 1880. In February of 1881 Mussorgsky suffered from epileptic seizures. He caught pneumonia and was hospitalized in the Imperial Military Hospital in St. Petersburg. At that time Ilya Repin painted the famous portrait of Mussorgsky in a hospital robe, in what were to be the last days of the composer's life. Modest Mussorgsky died on March 28, 1881, in St. Petersburg, and was laid to rest in the Necropolis of Masters of Art in St. Aleksandr Nevsky Convent in St. Petersburg, Russia. Name Modest - The Meaning Of The Name The Meaning Of The Name Toggle navigation Name: Modest Gender: Female Usage: Modest is not a popular first name. It is more often used as a girl (female) name. People having the name Modest are in general originating from Russia, United States of America. To test the compatibility of this name with another, enter a name and click The Growth number corresponding to this first name is 22.

Interpretation: Learn more with our free Numerology Tool Popularity of the Name The name Modest is ranked on the 50,216th position of the most used names. It means that this name is rarely used. We estimate that there are at least 3100 persons in the world having this name which is around 0.001% of the population. The name Modest has six characters. It means that it is relatively medium-length, compared to the other names in our database. We do not have enough data to display the number of people who were given the name Modest for each year. We do not have a name day for Modest.

For other names check our Name Day Calendar a number of Saints, see under Saint Modest (disambiguation) Michael Modest (born 1971), semi-retired American professional wrestler Modest (e-mail client), a free, open source, e-mail client modest (adjective) People with the given name Modest: Modest of Carinthia, Saint, 8th century Modest (bishop of Trier) (died 489), German saint Modest Altschuler (1873–1963), cellist, orchestral conductor, and composer Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1850–1916), Russian dramatist, opera librettist and translator Modest Morariu (1929–1988), poet, essayist, prose writer and translator Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881), Russian composer Modest Romiszewski (1861–1930), military theorist Modest Schoepen (Bobbejaan Schoepen) (1925–2010), Belgian singer-songwriter, entertainer and founder of

 the Bobbejaanland amusement park.

Modest Urgell (1839–1919), Spanish painter, illustrator, and playwright Modesty Blaise Fictional comic book character. Russian: from the Late Latin personal name Modestus, originally a byname from a vocabulary word meaning ‘moderate, restrained, obedient, modest’ (a derivative of modus (due) measure, moderation). The name was borne by half a dozen early saints, including a child martyred at Alexandria in Egypt together with his brother Ammonius, and an 8th-century evangelist of Carinthia. Cognates: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian: Modesto. See also Szerény . Pet form: Russian: Desya. The section "History and Origin" of this page contains content from the copyrighted Wikipedia article " Modest "; that content is used under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) . You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL. Profile of Modest Mussorgsky Profile of Modest Mussorgsky March 21, 1839; his father was a landowner. Birthplace: March 28, 1881 in St.

Petersburg Also Known As: His full name was Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky; a Russian composer who was a member of "The Five" also known as "The Russian Five" or "The Mighty Five." This group, which was founded in the 1860s, was composed of 5 Russian composers who wanted to establish a nationalist school of Russian music. Type of Compositions: Mussorgsky wrote operas , songs , piano pieces and melodies. He is especially known for his vivid portrayal of Russian life through his works. Influence: His mother taught him how to play the piano. As a child Mussorgsky also had a nurse who told him stories of Russian fairy tales; this had a huge impact on him. He was taught by Anton Gerke who later became a professor at St. Petersburg Conservatory. Later on, Russian composer Mily Balakirev became his teacher.

Notable Works: His notable works include "Podpraporshchik" (1852, his first composition), songs such as “Darling Savishna," “Hopak” and “The Seminarist," his symphonic poem "Ivanova noch na Lysoy gore" (1867) and his famous opera "Boris Godunov" (premiered in 1874, St. continue reading below our video 4 Tips for Improving Test Performance Petersburg). Mussorgsky died before he could finish his opera "Khovanshchina" but it was completed by his friend and former flatmate Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov . Interesting Facts: Originally, Mussorgsky's father wanted him to pursue a military career. In 1849, Mussorgsky was enrolled at the Peter-Paul School and later on the Cadets of the Guard in 1852. By 1856 Mussorgsky was already a lieutenant and he joined the Preobrazhensky Guards. It was during that time when he met fellow officer, Aleksandr Borodin , who would later on become a respected composer himself.

That same year he was invited to Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky's home, another Russian composer. Mussorgsky eventually quit the army and worked as a civil servant at the Ministry of Communications. Other Facts: Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov, a distant relative, inspired Mussorgksy to write two cycles of melodies - "Bez solntsa" and "Pesni i plyaski smerti." His "Kartinki s vystavki" (Pictures from an Exhibition) was inspired by the death of his friend Victor Hartmann. This was orchestrated by Maurice Ravel in 1922. Although he was a brilliant composer, Mussorgsky had bouts of loneliness which drove him to alcohol. This greatly affected his health, landed him in hospital and caused his eventual death. Music Sample: Music History 102 Music History 102: Nationalist Composers The nineteenth century was a time in which passionate nationalism was prevalent and which saw many political upheavals. Influenced by such "nationalistic" works as the Hungarian Rhapsodies of Franz Liszt , composers from many European countries became determined to develop a "national style" of music for their homeland.

To do this they turned to the dances, folk songs, history, and national legends of their countries as a basis for their musical compositions. Of the countries that fostered a growth of such a movement, Russia , Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic), Finland , Spain , England , and the young United States of America produced several outstanding nationalist composers. Modest Mussorgsky Born: Karevo, Pskov district, March 21, 1839 Died: St. Petersburg, March 28, 1881 In Russia, a group of composers emerged that was dubbed "The Mighty Five" by music critics of the day because of their attempts to endow Russia with music of a national flavor. Of these five, the most influential were undoubtedly Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) and Modest Mussorgsky. Lacking a true musical training, Mussorgsky relied on his own unique sense of harmony and orchestration, and composed works of rare, unusual, and stark emotion.

He completed only a few of his works, among them the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition, (later brilliantly transcribed for orchestra by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)), the song cycle Songs and Dances of Death, and what is considered the supreme masterpiece of Russian opera, Boris Godunov. The opera is based on a tragedy by the Russian poet, Alexander Pushkin, and concerns the rise to power of Czar Boris and his tragic reign and downfall. The Coronation scene from "Boris Godunov" is an example of Mussorgsky's use of orchestral color to imitate the ringing bells of the Kremlin during the crowning of Boris. Many of Mussorgsky's works were "touched up" and re-scored after his death by such composers as Rimsky-Korsakov. In their original scoring, however, one can fully appreciate the crude power and emotionalism Mussorgsky sought to bring to them, as in this performance of A Night on Bald Mountain , a symphonic poem representing a Witches' Sabbath on a haunted mountaintop.

Antonín Dvorák Born: Mühlhausen, September 8, 1841 Died: Prague, May 1, 1904 Certainly the greatest composer that Bohemia produced, Dvorák's fame as a musician spread during his lifetime throughout Europe and to America, where he served as artistic director of the National Conservatory in New York City from 1892 to1895. Composing music in almost every conceivable genre during his career, many of his chamber works, symphonies, and concertos have entered the general repertory. The use of Bohemian folk dances in many of his works is typical, and among Dvorák's most successful works are two sets of Slavonic Dances, originally composed for piano, four-hands, and which he later orchestrated. One of the most exciting of these is the Slavonic Dance, op. 46 no. 8. His nine symphonies are infused with the flavor of the Bohemian countryside, even his most famous, the Symphony No. 9 in E minor, nicknamed "From the New World".

It is in the third movements of many of these symphonies where Dvorák gives free rein to the music of his homeland, as he does in the Symphony no. 7 in D minor. Jean Sibelius Born: Hämeenlinna, December 8, 1865 Died: Järvenpää, September 20, 1957 Undoubtedly Finland's greatest composer, Sibelius made his name principally as the composer of seven symphonies, a violin concerto, and a number of symphonic poems. He also wrote a great many songs and pieces for piano, but today these are known mainly in Finland only. Although he never actually quoted folk songs in his music and used traditional harmonies, by concentrating on Finnish legends and fiercely allying himself with Finnish nationalism, Sibelius became something of a national hero during his lifetime. He achieved renown in his own country with the composition of his tone poem Finlandia, a work of patriotic fervor not unlike the 1812 Overture of Tchaikovsky .

But Sibelius' true art is found among the symphonies, in which he developed a personal style of creating structures from fragments and bits of melody, synthesizing them during the course of a movement, such as in the final movement of the Symphony no. 5, op. 82. Born: Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, October 12, 1872 Died: London, August 26, 1958 Since the death of Henry Purcell (1649-1694), England had been called "the land without music." Throughout the eighteenth- and for much of the nineteenth centuries, England produced no composers of any real consequence and made due by importing some of Europe's finest and making them their own. Such composers as Handel , Haydn , and Mendelssohn had been extremely popular in England and wrote a great deal of excellent music for the British public. But it was not until the middle to late 1800s that a school of British composers began to emerge to rescue English music from a native slumber of over a hundred years.

Studying music mostly in his native England (although he did work for a time with Maurice Ravel in Paris), Vaughan Williams became extremely interested in British folk song, and incorporated several folk melodies into some of his orchestral compositions. The composer of nine symphonies, of which the "London" Symphony No. 2 is probably the most famous, Vaughan Williams also composed music for film and radio, choral works, and chamber music. His interest in the music of Great Britain's cultural heritage extended to music of the Tudor and Elizabethan ages, and one of his greatest compositions is also one of his earliest, the Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis. The work is scored for strings only, itself a curiously English phenomenon, while the melody of the fantasia is in one of the ancient Greek modes. Vaughan Williams' scoring allows for some very effective echo effects, as though the work were being heard in a great cathedral.

The turn of the century saw a number of emerging musical talents in Great Britain, including Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934), Frederic Delius (1862-1934), Gustav Holst (1874-1934), and later Benjamin Britten . Manuel de Falla Born: 1876 Died: 1946 Spain awoke from years of musical slumber with the advent of Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909), who wrote much music with a Spanish flavor for piano solo. Following in Albéniz' footsteps were Enrique Granados (1867-1916), Joaquin Rodrigo (b. 1901), and Manuel de Falla. The final dance from the latter's ballet The Three-Cornered Hat is of unmistakably Spanish origin, as is the music of each of these composers. Perhaps not surprisingly, much of the music of these composers has been very successfully transcribed for the guitar by such masters of the instrument as Julian Bream, Andres Segovia, and John Williams.

Charles Ives Born: Danbury, Conn., October 20, 1874 Died: New York, May 19, 1954 Music in early America had a distinctly British heritage, as much of the music of the American colonists consisted of English hymns and anthems. Later many American-born musicians went to Europe for their musical training, where they learned and absorbed the Old World traditions. Upon returning to the United States, American composers began infusing these traditional musical forms with styles that were inherent to America, among them African-American spirituals, blues, jazz, and ragtime, in an attempt to create a truly "American classical music." Although the United States produced several popular composers throughout the nineteenth century (including song-writer Stephen Foster (1826-1864), pianist-composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), band leader John Philip Sousa (1854-1932), and jazz and ragtime composer Scott Joplin (1868-1917)) the first true great American composer would undoubtedly have to be Charles Ives.

An American original who composed music using experimental techniques and ideas, Ives made his living as a prosperous insurance salesman. He studied music formally at Yale, but much of this music was never performed until after 1930, by which time Ives had ceased composing. Much of his music, including four symphonies, many orchestral pieces, piano and chamber works, incorporate traditional American hymns, songs and dance tunes. Ives sets these, however, using polyrhythms and polytonality, making much use of dissonant harmonies and tone clusters. One such work is "Putnam's Camp" from Three Places in New England, in which one hears a brass band, a march tune, and an out-of-tune piano occurring at the same time within the first minute of the piece. Ives was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for his Symphony No. 3, which he had composed in 1904. With the late "discovery" of Ives' music, the path was cleared for a new breed of twentieth century American composers .

Music History 102: a Guide to Western Composers and their music Designed, compiled and created by Robert Sherrane Famous Russian Composers of Classical Music Contact Famous Russian Composers Russian composers have created some of the most beautiful and powerful classical music. They hold a special place in my heart, and they're also separated geographically and historically form the rest of Europe. Since there are so many of them, and they're a tight-knit bunch, I've put several of them here on one page. Of course there's Peter Tchaikovsky as well, but he's famous enough to have his own section. In the 19th century, a group called The Five (Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Borodin and Cesar Cui) banded together and made their goal the promotion of purely Russian music. Their compositions were inspired by Russian history and folk stories, and used traditional tunes and harmonies. It's the perfect example of nationalist music, which had a huge rise all over Europe towards the end of the 1800s. This was a golden age for Russian classical music.

It was only really at this point that the Russian's efforts began to be appreciated by their European peers, who previously thought it was crude and unsophisticated. Here are some of the big names... One of the most skilled and inventive orchestrators of all-time, Rimsky-Korsakov had the ability to create astonishingly rich and creative orchestral sound worlds. His talent wasn't the product of extensive practice, but some innate, maybe even divine, gift. He started out not as a musician, but as a naval officer. During his 3-year long round-the-world cruise as a cadet, he wrote his first symphony. He hadn't had any musical training before so it took him a while! On his return he was mentored by Mily Balakirev, and then became Professor of Composition at the Saint Petersburg conservatory. He is world-famous for such pieces as the Flight of the Bumblebee (from the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan), Capriccio Espagnol , and Sheherezade . He wrote 13 operas, three symphonies, and several other orchestral and chamber pieces.

Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936) A later Russian composer, Glazunov was introduced to the already famous and established Balakirev and Rimksy-Korsakov at an early age. His talent was huge and he progressed exceptionally quickly. He became the director of the Saint Petersburg conservatory, and later the Leiningrad conservatory after the Russian revolution. But the Soviet government didn't like his methods and his drinking habits, so he eventually fled the country in 1928. His music is a kind of mix of the styles of other Russian composers, with a graceful confidence and wonderfully joyous melodies. Even during his own lifetime the public thought of him as slightly old-fashioned! Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) Mussorgsky's story is one of the most tragic stories of all the Russian composers. His music is also slightly different, with a rawer, harsher sound. Still, the beauty and genius of his music is impossible to deny.

His work wasn't recognized enough until after his death, when other composers like Rimsky-Korsakov polished the pieces up to 'performance standard' (although loads of people, including me, now prefer Mussorgsky's dark originals!) He was a hugely talented pianist as a child, but joined a military academy and had an uneventful life in the civil service. His life went on a downward spiral of poverty, depression, and alcoholism , until he died at age 42. He is most remembered for the masterful opera Boris Godunov, the chilling orchestral thunderbolt Night on Bald Mountain , and the Pictures at an Exhibition suite. Alexander Borodin (1833-1887) Ah, the polymath! Known for his achievements in chemistry as much as music, Borodin was a both scientist and composer. Born into an aristocratic family, he became a member of The Five later in life, even though music was hardly more than a serious hobby for him. Borodin created expansive, floating harmonies in some of his songs for voice and piano, which directly inspired French composer Claude Debussy 's luxuriously free-form harmonies.

His most famous works are the two beautiful string quartets, and the opera Prince Igor (from which the popular series of Polovtsian Dances come). Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1843) Rachmaninoff has the reputation of writing dark, sultry, impossibly difficult piano music - at least that's how I see him! This huge-handed Russian gained fame as a concert pianist before becoming even more renowned as a composer. He moved from Russia to the USA. Inspired by Tchaikovsky, his music goes even further and has a richly deep and complex quality, as well as some exceptionally beautiful melodies. His output includes piano concertos, huge amounts of solo piano music, dozens upon dozens of beautiful songs, the hugely popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, grand orchestral tone poems like The Crag, and the deeply spiritual Vespers . Mily Balakirev (1837-1906) The oldest of the Five, and their leader. Balakirev brought them together and led them to create and promote their uniquely Russian music.

His influence on the younger Russian composers in his circle is huge - lots of ideas that Rimsky-Korsakov or Mussorgsky used actually originated in Balakirev's head! His music was actually highly original and exciting, but he had a habit of laziness and didn't finish music until sometimes decades after he started writing it. Because of this, he's not as famous as a composer which I think he deserves to be. You can explore more about the lives of these Russian composers and their music by clicking on the links scattered above. Happy reading! Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881) - Genealogy Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky Share your family tree and photos with the people you know and love Build your family tree online Share photos and videos Karevo, Toropets, Pskov region, Russia Death: Mar 9 1839 - Karevo, Pskovskaya Oblast', Russia Death: Petr Alekseevich Mussorgskii, Iulia Ivanovna Mussorgskii (born Chirikova) Siblings: ...etrovich Mussorgskii, Mr.

Mussorgsky, Aleksei Petrovich Mussorgskii, Modest Mussorgsky, Mussorgsky, Mussorgsky, and name of one more sib ... Boris Godunov - Coronation Scene Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky ( Моде́ст Петро́вич Мýсoргский; 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 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 nationalist themes. Such works include the opera Boris Godunov, the orchestral tone poem Night on Bald Mountain, and the piano suite Pictures 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 recently come into their own in their original forms, and some of the original scores are now also available.

Life Early years Mussorgsky was born in Karevo, Toropets, Pskov region, Imperial Russia, 400 km (250 mi) south of Saint Petersburg. His wealthy and land-owning family, the noble family of Mussorgsky, is reputedly descended from the first Ruthenian ruler, Rurik, through the sovereign princes of Smolensk. 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 a John Field concerto and works by Franz Liszt for family and friends. At 10, he and his brother were taken to Saint Petersburg to study at the elite Peterschule (St. Peter's School). While there, Modest studied the piano with the noted Anton 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 Herke, 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 own improvisations.[5] In 1856 Mussorgsky – who had developed a strong interest in history and studied German philosophy – successfully graduated from the Cadet School. Following family tradition he received a commission with the Preobrazhensky Regiment, the foremost regiment of the Russian Imperial Guard.

Maturity In October 1856 the 17-year-old Mussorgsky met the 22-year-old Alexander Borodin while 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, rather precious. There was a touch—though very moderate—of foppishness. 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 from Trovatore, 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." More portentous was Mussorgsky's introduction that winter to Alexander Dargomyzhsky, at that time the most important Russian composer after Mikhail Glinka. Dargomyzhsky was impressed with Mussorgsky's pianism. As a result, Mussorgsky became a fixture at Dargomyzhsky's soirées. There, critic Vladimir Stasov later 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), and Mily 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 instance Rimsky-Korsakov now teaches it) ...

[but] I explained to him the form of compositions, and to do this we played through both Beethoven symphonies [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 opera A Life for the Tsar on the Glebovo estate of a former singer and her wealthy husband; he also met Anatoly Lyadov and enjoyed a formative visit to Moscow – after which he professed a love of "everything Russian". In spite of this epiphany, Mussorgsky's music still leaned more toward foreign models; a four-hand piano sonata which he produced in 1860 contains his only movement in sonata form. Nor is any 'nationalistic' impulse easily discernible in the incidental music for Serov's play Oedipus in Athens, on which he worked between the ages of 19 and 22 (and then abandoned unfinished), or in the Intermezzo in modo classico for 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 the emancipation of the serfs the 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 had returned to Saint Petersburg and was supporting 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 writer Chernyshevsky, known for the bold assertion that, in art, "form and content are opposites".

Under such influences he came more and more to embrace the ideal 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; it was at this point that the composer had his first serious bout of either alcoholism or dipsomania. 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). 1867 was also the year in which he finished the original orchestral version of his Night on Bald Mountain (which, however, Balakirev criticised and refused to conduct, with the result that it was never performed during Mussorgsky's lifetime).

Modest Mussorgsky Biography - Profile, Childhood, Life, Timeline Musicians Modest Mussorgsky Biography Read on to know all about the childhood, life and timeline of the brilliant Russian composer, Modest Mussorgsky. Quick Facts Saint Petersburg Modest Mussorgsky was born in a well reputed family, Mussorgsky, who were considered the descendants of the first Ruthenian ruler, Ryurik. He started receiving piano lessons from his mother since the age of 6. Later, in his youth he also served at a military hospital in Saint Petersburg after he completed his studies at School for Cadets of the Guard. His compositions were largely Romantic and had a lot of Russian musical themes. One of his most renowned pieces is the single-movement orchestral work, âNight on Bald Mountainâ. His talents as a song writer are evident from his melodious songs like the three song cycles; The Nursery (1872), Sunless (1874) and Songs and Dances of Death (1877). His musical talents soon got eclipsed by his raging alcoholism. He spent his last days in a Saint Petersburg tavern.

Later, in 1881 he suffered attacks of alcoholic epilepsy and died soon after his 42nd birthday. Early life Born in a noble landowner family, Modest Mussorgsky learned his first lessons in piano from his mother. When he turned nine, Mussorgsky already started performing John Field concerto and also works by Franz Liszt for family and friends. The very next year, he was enrolled to the elite Peterschule or St. Peter's School. The musical prodigy then went ahead to publish a piano piece called ‘Porte-enseigne Polka’, which was funded by his father. The family tradition of military service was carried on by Mussorgsky, as he joined the Cadet School of the Guards at age of 13. There he continued to take piano lessons with the General’s daughter. He graduated from the school in 1856 receiving commission with the Preobrazhensky Regiment. While in service, he developed friendship with Alexander Borodin and Alexander Dargomyzhsky, the famous Russian composers who had profound impact on his musical career.

During this time, at Dargomyzhsky's soirées, Mussorgsky also made acquaintance with Mily Balakirev, under whom he learned advanced music lessons. Musical Career Mussorgsky decided to dedicate his life to music and resigned his commission in 1858. The next year he joined Mikhail Glinka’s opera ‘A Life for the Tsar’ on the Glebovo estate. He produced a four-hand piano sonata in 1860 which is his only movement in sonata form. He then composed Intermezzo in modo classico for piano solo which took three years to complete. By this time, he had finished his studies with Balakirev and started to self-tutor himself in piano. In the same year, he began to work on an opera called ‘Salammbô’ for which he spent three years of his life. But, his musical career came to a standstill after his mother died in 1865. This led him into alcoholism or dipsomania. In 1867, he finished the original orchestral version of his ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ which is his most famous composition.

In 1868, Mussorgsky worked to arrange the first eleven scenes of Nikolai Gogol's ‘The Marriage’. During 1868-1869, he composed an opera depicting the life of the Tsars which was rejected by Mariinsky Opera. Later, he made a few changes to the opera and the new version was accepted in May, 1872. But his alcoholism made him drift away from his circle of friends. Last days His alcoholism worsened his situation in later phases of his life. His later year’s compositions include Sunless, the Khovanschina Prelude, and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition, and an opera based on Gogol, The Fair at Sorochyntsi. In 1881 he suffered four seizures. Though, his physical condition improved for some weeks, but, he soon relapsed and passed away on March 28, 1881, a week after his 42nd birthday. He was interred at the Tikhvin Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg. Important compositions Most of his compositions were romantic in style and drew inspiration from Russian history and folklore.

His symphonies bear influence of artists like Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev. Here is a list of some of his famous works. Souvenir of Childhood, 1857 Intermezzo in the Classic Style, 1860 St. John's Night on the Bare Mountain, 1867 Boris Godunov, 1868 Pictures from an Exhibition, 1874 Transcaucasian Suite, 1880 Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born in Karevo, Russia. 1845: His mother started to give him his first musical lesson in piano. 1948: He performed a John Field concerto for family and relatives. 1949: Started attending the elite Peterschule (St. Peter's School) with his brother. 1852: Published his first piano piece called ‘Porte-enseigne Polka’. 1853: Mussorgsky Joined the Cadet School of the Guards. 1856: Graduated from Cadet School and received a commission with the Preobrazhensky Regiment. 1858: Resigned commission to dedicate his life solely to music.

1859: Mussorgsky joined Glinka's opera ‘A Life for the Tsar’. 1860: Produced his first a four-hand piano sonata. 1860: Composed ‘Intermezzo in modo classico’ for piano solo. 1863: Started working on an opera called ‘Salammbô’. 1865: His mother died. 1868: Mussorgsky started to work on of Nikolai Gogol's ‘The Marriage (Zhenitba)’ but left it in the mid-way. 1868: Started working on his greatest production, ‘Boris Godunov’, which got completed in February, 1874. 1881:

Question: Which composer had the first name Modest?
Answer: Mussorgsky