Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky "Children"
“Children's” - as the great Russian composer Musorgsky called the vocal cycle, which vividly displayed episodes from the life of the young generation. These lyrical pages of Modest Petrovich’s work are not written for beginning musicians, and they are not intended for educational purposes at all. Despite the fact that the narration in the compositions is conducted on behalf of the child, they are all designed for adult performers. In a cycle consisting of seven vocal miniatures, the maestro with great feeling and sincerity embodied wonderful memories from a distant childhood spent in the village, as well as impressions from observations of the lives of his little friends. In the songs of the collection Mussorgsky talentedly painted both funny and sad images with the sounds of music, but they are all filled with great love for children.
The history of the creation of the "Children's" Mussorgsky and many interesting facts about this work, read on our page.
History of creation
Personal life Mussorgsky it turned out that he was never married, led a bachelor life and, accordingly, had no children, although he loved them immensely. However, the composer had friends and relatives who were not deprived of family happiness. Meeting with their children gave Modest Petrovich a lot of fun and joyful moments. He gave his young friends a lot of attention, told interesting stories, but the most important thing was always talking to them as equals. The children, in turn, who immediately felt the sincerity and warmth towards them, eagerly awaited Uncle Modi’s next visit.
Such a pleasant conversation for the composer prompted him in the spring of 1868 to the idea of composing a vocal cycle dedicated to children. Mussorgsky's idea was not to write small children's songs - he wanted to create poetic vocal miniatures that would reveal the inner world of the child with his feelings, joys and sorrows. The composer immediately set himself the task that he would also compose the lyrics to his vocal scenes himself. Without hesitation, Mussorgsky set about implementing his plan and the first composition, opening the cycle, entitled “With the Nanny”, was soon written, on April 26, 1868. The first thing Modest Petrovich decided to show his new creation Dargomyzhskywho was called "the great teacher of musical truth" and whose authoritative opinion was very valuable to him. Alexander Sergeevich, having listened to the miniature, sincerely approved the undertaking of the young composer and recommended that he should continue it.
Six months later, Dargomyzhsky was gone, and Modest Petrovich, as a tribute to the memory of the great composer, dedicated the first miniature of his cycle to him. It should be noted that at that time Mussorgsky was busy with another important composition: it was in 1868 that he began working on opera "Boris Godunov". In this regard, the composer forgot about the vocal cycle for a while, and returned to it only after two years. In 1970, he wrote four more miniatures: "In the corner", "Beetle", "With a doll" and "On the next dream", and the compositions completing the collection: "Cat Sailor" and "On a Stick", were created only in 1872 year A year later, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky’s vocal cycle “Children’s” in beautiful artwork, to which Ilya Repin himself had a hand, was printed in the music publishing house of Vasily Bessel and was immediately recognized not only by music lovers, but also by critics.
Interesting Facts
- When the vocal cycle of the “Children's” Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was published, the head of the publishing house Vasily Bessel sent it to Ferenc Liszt. The great Hungarian maestro, having become acquainted with the miniatures of Mussorgsky, stated that he loved the composer who composed these works and will definitely devote his miniature to him.
- Of the seven songs in the collection, six are marked by dedication.
- "With the nurse" - the great Russian composer A. Dargomyzhsky.
- "In the corner" - a talented artist V. Gartman, whose paintings inspired Modest Petrovich to create "Pictures from the exhibition."
- "Beetle" - V. V. Stasov, who became the ideological inspirer of the "Mighty Handful".
- "With a doll" - close relatives of the composer Anastasia and George Mussorgsky.
- "A Dream to Come" - the godson Alexander Banner.
- "I went on a stick" - Polykene and Dmitry Stasov (relatives of V. Stasov).
- "Cat Sailor" is not dedicated to anyone.
- Mussorgsky assumed that the vocal compilation “The Children’s” would include not seven plays, but much more, but he managed to write only two more songs: “The child’s sleep” and “The quarrel of two children”.
- The vocal cycle "Children's" is very interested in the Slovak composer and conductor Peter Brainer. In 2012, together with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, he recorded the orchestral version of Mussorgsky.
Content
The vocal cycle of Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky includes seven diverse miniatures, in which the composer incredibly accurately and with great love depicts life and reveals the inner world of a child.
"With a nanny". In the first miniature, the composer reflected his childhood impressions of fairy tales once told to him by a nanny. The content of the play is this: at first the child wanted to listen to a terrible story about a terrible beech devouring naughty children, but then nevertheless decided that a merry tale about a lame king and a queen who sneezed all the time would be much more interesting. The music of the composition is very expressive, its melodic line, supported by colorful accompaniment, is very plastic and conveys the child's speech with charming realism.
"In the corner"The composition describes a scene in which an old nanny scolds Misha the boy, who has seduced and spoiled her knitting. The angry nanny puts the prankster into a corner and calms down a little. However, the nanny is relentless, and then Misha begins to be capricious: the old nanny scold and tease, and praise herself. The music of the play very expressively conveys all the intonation and the angry nurse and the offended child.
"beetle"In the play, the kid tells his nanny about the mysterious story of the beetle. The boy built a house of arches and suddenly a huge scary beetle appeared. The frightened child lurked, and the beetle took off and hit him in the head. The kid lurked and closed his eyes, but when he opened they saw that the beetle was lying on its back and even did not move its whiskers. What happened to it? The emotional music of the composition truly conveys the agitated tone of the child telling the story that struck his imagination.
"With a doll". This miniature has another name -" Lullaby. "The girl, imitating her nanny, sings a doll named Tyapas a lullaby song, telling about an amazing magical island. In this composition, as is customary in lullabies, the melodic line is monotonous and sleeping, but here it is sometimes interrupted by an unbeaten exclamation that it’s time for the doll to sleep.
"At bedtime". The girl before bedtime with diligence reads a prayer, at first diligently mentioning her close and distant relatives, but when she reaches the names of her many friends, she lists them in a hurry, forgetting that she needs to read the prayer slowly.
"Cat Sailor"In this composition, the girl tells her mother how she punished the treacherous cat who climbed up the cage to catch and eat the bullfinch sitting in it. The melodic line of the play is very expressive, but it sounds very agitated against the background of the pulsating rhythm.
"Went on a stick". The composer draws a funny scene: the kid on his imaginary horse famously gallops to the next village. On the way, he met his friend Vasya and invited him to visit. Suddenly the kid unexpectedly stumbled and bruised his leg. Mom comes to crying and soothes his beloved child.
The vocal cycle “Children's” is a truly unique piece created by a brilliant artist. Only a true master could so subtly feel the trepidation of a child’s soul and display it so sincerely and poetically. Thumbnail sincerely admired the famous French composer Claude Debussyand the outstanding Russian critic V.V. Stasov compared them with a string of pearls and diamonds.
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