Modest Mussorgsky's Works

Modest Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881) was a Russian composer. His works, while strikingly novel, are stylistically Romantic and draw heavily on Russian musical themes. He has been an inspiration for many Russian composers, including Dmitri Shostakovich (in his late symphonies) and Sergei Prokofiev (in his operas).

Mussorgsky was a member of the famous group of Russian composers called The Five, dedicated to the production of Russian-style music: Mily Balakirev, César Cui, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Borodin, and Modest Mussorgsky.

Many of Mussorgsky's 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. Maurice Ravel's famous transcription of the latter piece is a standard of the orchestral-music repertoire.

Composed in 1880, Mussorgsky's Une Larme (A Tear) is a short piece for solo piano. The outstanding pianist Jeno Jando performed the piece for the episode "Live Bait" of the television series The Walking Dead (Season 4, Episode 5).

Tutorials

• Pictures at an Exhibition

• A Tear (Une Larme)