Paintings from the exhibition of the Musorg message. Piano Suite M

Topic of the quarter: In the concert hall.

Type of lesson: lesson-generalization.

Type of lesson: lesson-analysis.

The objectives of the lesson: the development of emotions, fantasy, imagination of students in the comparative perception of musical, artistic, literary works.

Tasks: to teach children to feel the poetry, musicality and picturesqueness of artistic images; consolidation of the concepts of character, intonation, tempo, dynamics, image.

Methods: conversation, dialogue, verbal drawing, graphic modulation, comparison.

Equipment: audio recording, synthesizer, album sheets, colored pencils, illustrations for plays based on paintings by V. Hartmann, portrait of M. Mussorgsky.

Material: textbook "Music" grade 4.

Form of work: group, individual.

Technology: integration of music, painting, literature.

During the classes.

A portrait of the composer M. Mussorgsky (Figure 1) and illustrations for paintings by V. Hartmann (with the titles of the plays on the reverse side, Figure 2) are hung on the board.

Picture 1

Figure 2

1. Organizational moment.

2. Musical greeting (in the key of C major).

3. Introductory conversation of the teacher.

Teacher: Before you, guys, is a portrait of the great Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, who created many wonderful works. We will talk about his piano suite “Pictures at an Exhibition”. Can any of you explain what a piano suite is?

Children: Piano - written for the piano. A suite is a series of pieces united by a common theme.

Teacher: What piano suites do you still know?

Children: "Children's Album", "Seasons" P.I. Tchaikovsky.

Teacher: Good... And how did Mussorgsky get the idea to create this suite, what prompted him?

Children: talk about the artist V. Hartmann.

Teacher: How did the composer decide to write the suite, how did he connect all the pieces?

Children: The play "Walk". It is a recurring theme.

Teacher: Why did he do that?

Children: talk about the art gallery, exhibition (exposition-show).

4. Generalization and analysis of plays.

(Listening to the play “Walk”).

Teacher (reading a poem):

Once he sat sad on a stump under the tree
And he patched up his cap with a long needle.

(Listening to the play "Gnome").

Children: verbal drawing of the image of a gnome. musical characterization of the play.

Teacher: Please open your textbook to page 79 and read the verses that were written for the next play.

The old song of happiness resounds
And a sad voice is heard over the river.
A sad song, an eternal song, a sad voice...

(Listening to the play “The Old Castle”).

(Listening to the play “Ballet of Unhatched Chicks”).

Children: verbal image drawing. musical characteristic.

There on unknown paths
Traces of unseen beasts
Hut there on chicken legs
It stands without windows and doors.

(Listening to the play “The Hut on Chicken Legs”).

Children: verbal image drawing. musical characteristic.

Teacher: And now we will get acquainted with another piece from the suite - “Bogatyr Gates”.

Whether from that city from Murom,
From that from the heroic farmstead
From that village and Karacharova
A burly good fellow left ...

(Listening to the play “Bogatyr Gates”).

Children: verbal image drawing. musical characteristic.

Teacher: Guys, I suggest you make a drawing for one of your favorite plays. Try to express the musical image, character, mood in the drawing.

5. Creative work of students.

Children: draw to musical fragments from plays.

Teacher: The gallery opens (unfolds the illustrations on the board with the outside, Figure 3).

Figure 3

Children: stick their drawings on the board under Hartmann's illustrations. Several students explain why they chose this particular play and depicted it in this specific color scheme, Figure 4.

Figure 4

Conclusion:

Teacher: Did you feel like creators today?

Teacher: So you managed to express your feelings, emotions, fantasy in your drawings. What helped you with this?

Children: Music, poetry, paintings.

Teacher: How else can you express your feelings in a music lesson?

Children: Song.

Teacher: Then let's all sing together...

(Performance of “Music Lesson” from the musical “The Sound of Music” by Rogers. The song “If there were no schools”).

6. Summary and analysis of the lesson.

Teacher: Today we have created our own art gallery, in which everyone expressed what he felt and saw in the music of M. Mussorgsky. Well done! They did a very good job. Thank you. The lesson is over.

Piano cycle M.P. Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" is an original, unparalleled piece of music, which is included in the repertoire of the most famous pianists around the world.

The history of the creation of the cycle

In 1873, the artist W. Hartmann died suddenly. He was only 39 years old, death caught him in the prime of life and talent, and for Mussorgsky, who was a friend and like-minded artist, she was a real shock. “What horror, what grief! - he wrote to V. Stasov. “This incompetent fool mows down death without reasoning ...”

Let's say a few words about the artist V.A. Hartmann, because without a story about him, the story of M. Mussorgsky's piano cycle cannot be complete.

Viktor Aleksandrovich Hartman (1834-1873)

V.A. Hartmann

V.A. Hartmann was born in St. Petersburg in the family of a French staff doctor. Orphaned early and brought up in the family of an aunt, whose husband was a famous architect - A.P. Gemilian.

Hartman successfully graduated from the Academy of Arts and worked in various types and genres of art: he was an architect, stage designer (he was engaged in the design of performances), an artist and ornamentalist, one of the founders of the pseudo-Russian style in architecture. The pseudo-Russian style is a trend in Russian architecture of the 19th - early 20th centuries, based on the traditions of ancient Russian architecture and folk art, as well as elements of Byzantine architecture.

Increased interest in folk culture, in particular, in the peasant architecture of the XVI-XVII centuries. Among the most famous buildings of the pseudo-Russian style was the Mamontov printing house in Moscow, created by V. Hartmann.

The building of the former printing house of Mamontov. contemporary photography

It was precisely the desire in his work for Russian originality that brought Hartmann closer to the participants in the Mighty Handful, which included Mussorgsky. Hartmann sought to introduce Russian folk motifs into his projects, which was supported by V. V. Stasov. Mussorgsky and Hartmann met in his house in 1870, becoming friends and like-minded people.

Returning from a creative trip to Europe, Hartmann began the design of the All-Russian Manufactory Exhibition in St. Petersburg and in 1870 received the title of academician for this work.

Exhibition

A posthumous exhibition of works by V. Hartmann was organized in 1874 on the initiative of Stasov. It featured the artist's oil paintings, sketches, watercolors, sketches of theatrical scenery and costumes, and architectural projects. There were also some products that Hartmann made with his own hands at the exhibition: a clock in the form of a hut, tongs for cracking nuts, etc.

Lithograph based on a sketch by Hartmann

Mussorgsky visited the exhibition, it made a huge impression on him. There was an idea to write a software piano suite, the content of which would be the works of the artist.

Of course, such a powerful talent as Mussorgsky interprets the exhibits in his own way. For example, the sketch for the ballet "Trilby" depicts Hartmann's tiny chicks in their shells. Mussorgsky turns this sketch into the Ballet of Unhatched Chicks. The clock-hut inspired the composer to create a musical drawing of Baba Yaga's flight, etc.

Piano cycle by M. Mussorgsky “Pictures at an Exhibition”

The cycle was created very quickly: in three weeks in the summer of 1874. The work is dedicated to V. Stasov.

In the same year, "Pictures" received the author's subtitle "Memories of Viktor Hartmann" and were prepared for publication, but published only in 1876, after Mussorgsky's death. But several more years passed before this original work entered the repertoire of pianists.

It is characteristic that in the play "The Walk", which connects the individual pieces of the cycle, the composer meant himself walking around the exhibition and moving from picture to picture. Mussorgsky in this cycle created a psychological portrait, penetrated into the depths of his characters, which, of course, was not in Hartmann's simple sketches.

So, Walk. But this play constantly varies, showing a change in the mood of the author, and its tone also changes, which is a kind of preparation for the next play. Sometimes the melody of "Walks" sounds ponderous, which indicates the author's gait.

"Dwarf"

This piece is written in the key of E-flat minor. Its basis is Hartmann's sketch depicting nutcrackers ("nutcracker") in the form of a gnome on crooked legs. First, the gnome sneaks, and then runs from place to place and freezes. The middle part of the play shows the character's thoughts (or his rest), and then he, as if frightened of something, starts his run again with stops. The climax is the chromatic line and departure.

"Old lock"

The key is G-sharp minor. The play was created based on a watercolor by Hartmann, created by him while studying architecture in Italy. The drawing depicted an ancient castle, against which a troubadour with a lute was drawn. Mussorgsky created a beautiful drawn-out melody.

« Tuileries garden. Children quarrel after playing»

Key in B major. The intonations, the tempo of the music, its major scale depict an everyday scene of children's games and quarrels.

"Bydło" (translated from Polish - "cattle")

The play depicts a Polish cart on large wheels, drawn by oxen. The heavy step of these animals is conveyed by a monotonous rhythm and rough strokes of the lower register keys. At the same time, a sad peasant tune sounds.

"Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks"

This is one of the most popular pieces in the cycle. It was created in the key of F major according to Hartmann's sketches for the costumes for Y. Gerber's ballet Trilby staged by Petipa at the Bolshoi Theater (1871). In an episode of the ballet, as V. Stasov wrote, “a group of little pupils and pupils of the theater school, dressed up as canaries and running around the stage. Others were inserted into the eggs, as if into armor. In total, Hartmann created 17 costume designs for the ballet, 4 of them have survived to this day.

V. Hartman. Costume design for the ballet "Trilby"

The theme of the play is not serious, the melody is playful, but, created in a classical form, it receives an additional comic effect.

"Samuel Goldenberg and Shmuyle", in the Russian version "Two Jews, rich and poor"

The play was created on the basis of two drawings presented to Mussorgsky by Hartmann: “A Jew in a fur hat. Sandomierz” and “Sandomierz [Jew]”, created in 1868 in Poland. According to Stasov, "Mussorgsky greatly admired the expressiveness of these pictures." These drawings served as prototypes for the play. The composer not only combined two portraits into one, but also forced these characters to speak among themselves, revealing their characters. The speech of the first one sounds confident, with imperative and moralizing intonations. The speech of the poor Jew is in contrast to the first one: on the top notes with a rattling tint (flamboyant notes), with mournful and pleading intonations. Then both themes sound simultaneously in two different keys (D-flat minor and B-flat minor). The play ends with a few loud notes in an octave, it can be assumed that the rich have the last word.

"Limoges. Market . Big news »

Hartmann's drawing has not survived, but the piece's melody in E-flat major conveys the noisy bustle of the market, where you can find all the latest news and discuss them.

« Catacombs. Roman tomb»

Hartmann depicted himself, V. A. Kenel (a Russian architect) and a guide with a lantern in his hand in the Roman catacombs in Paris. Faintly lit skulls are visible on the right side of the picture.

V. Hartmann "Paris Catacombs"

The dungeon with the tomb is depicted in the music with unisons of two octaves corresponding to the theme and quiet "echoes". The melody appears among these chords like shadows of the past.

"Hut on chicken legs (Baba Yaga)"

Hartmann has a sketch of an elegant bronze clock. Mussorgsky has a vivid, memorable image of Baba Yaga. It is drawn with dissonances. At first, several chords sound, then they become more frequent, imitating a "run-up" - and a flight in a mortar. Sound "painting" very clearly depicts the image of Baba Yaga, her lame walk (after all, a "bone leg").

"Bogatyr Gates"

The play is based on Hartmann's sketch for the architectural design of the Kyiv city gates. On April 4 (according to the old style) April 1866, an unsuccessful attempt was made on the life of Alexander II, which later became officially called the “April 4 event”. In honor of the emperor's salvation, a gate project competition was organized in Kyiv. Hartmann's project was created in the old Russian style: a dome with a belfry in the form of a heroic helmet and a decoration above the gate in the form of a kokoshnik. But later the competition was canceled, and the projects were not implemented.

V. Hartman. Sketch for the gate project in Kyiv

Mussorgsky's play paints a picture of the people's triumph. The slow rhythm gives the piece grandeur and solemnity. The broad Russian melody is replaced by a quiet theme, reminiscent of church singing. Then the first theme enters with renewed vigor, another voice is added to it, and in the second part a real bell ringing is heard, created by the sounds of the piano. First, the ringing is heard in a minor, and then goes into a major. Smaller and smaller bells join the big bell, and at the end small bells sound.

Orchestrations of M. Mussorgsky's cycle

Bright and picturesque "Pictures at an Exhibition", written for the piano, were repeatedly arranged for the symphony orchestra. The first orchestration was done by Rimsky-Korsakov's student M. Tushmalov. Rimsky-Korsakov himself also orchestrated one play in the cycle, The Old Castle. But the most famous orchestral embodiment of "Pictures" was the work of Maurice Ravel, a passionate admirer of Mussorgsky's work. Created in 1922, Ravel's orchestration became as popular as the author's piano version.

The orchestra in the orchestral arrangement of Ravel includes 3 flutes, a piccolo flute, 3 oboes, an English horn, 2 clarinets, a bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, a contrabassoon, an alto saxophone, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, a tuba, timpani, triangle, snare drum, whip, rattle, cymbals, bass drum, tom-tom, bells, bell, xylophone, celesta, 2 harps, strings.

For a long time I was going to collect material for Alice and Nikita based on Pictures at an Exhibition. Now, probably, it was Igor Romanovsky's exhibition that prompted me to do this, although for the first time I heard "Pictures" in the rock version of the legendary band Emerson, Lake and Palmer somewhere in 1972.
The original, i.e. one of the greatest works of classical music, Modest Mussorgsky's piano suite-cycle was written based on vivid impressions of the exhibition of Victor Hartmann, his friend, architect and artist (Mussorgsky on the left, Hartmann on the right). Hartmann died suddenly at the age of 39, and at the suggestion of the great Russian critic and art critic Vladimir Stasov, in 1874 a posthumous exhibition of about 400 of his works was held - drawings, watercolors, architectural projects, sketches of theater scenery and costumes, sketches of art products. Most of them were created during a four-year trip to Europe. And the fact that with the help of the Internet it was possible to find the catalog of that exhibition is fantastic!

The famous artist Ivan Kramskoy wrote about him this way: “Hartmann was an outstanding person ... When you need to build ordinary things, Hartmann is bad, he needs fabulous buildings, magical castles, give him palaces, structures for which there are no and could not be samples, here he creates amazing things."Here are some more fragments of that exhibition.

Mussorgsky's visit to the exhibition was the impetus for the creation of a kind of musical "walk" through an imaginary exhibition gallery. The result was a series of musical pictures that only partly resemble the works seen; in the main, the plays were the result of the free flight of the composer's imagination. These musical "pictures" Mussorgsky connected with his "walk", sedately and slowly moving from one hall to another, from one "picture" to the next. Mussorgsky took Hartmann's "foreign" drawings as the basis of the "exhibition", as well as two of his sketches on Russian themes. Mussorgsky was so captivated by the work that the entire cycle was written in just three weeks.

However, during the life of Mussorgsky, Pictures were not published and were not performed by anyone, and only five years after his death did the first publication appear, edited by Rimsky-Korsakov. Later there were others, but "Pictures" still did not receive wide popularity, although there were even orchestral transcriptions, and some fragments were performed as separate works.

And only when in 1922 Maurice Ravel created the most famous orchestration of Pictures at an Exhibition today, and in 1930 a recording of the entire suite was made, did it become an integral part of the repertoire of many pianists and orchestras.

Some researchers saw an architecturally symmetrical (one more nod to Hartmann!) construction of the plots of the cycle: “at the edges” are the main themes (“Walk” and “Bogatyr Gates”), followed by fairy-tale images closer to the center (Dwarf and Baba Yaga) , further - "French" plots ("The Limoges market", ""). Behind them are everyday sketches from Poland "Cattle" (by the way, Mussorgsky himself called it "Sandomierz cattle" (that is, "cattle" in Polish) and "Two Jews", and in the center there is a joke - "Ballet of unhatched chicks" .

Well, how can one not remember from Kyiv about the final cycle of the "Bogatyr Gates (In the Capital City in Kyiv)". This part is based on Hartmann's sketch for his architectural design of the Kyiv city gates. In honor of the salvation of Emperor Alexander II from an unsuccessful assassination attempt, a gate project competition was organized in Kyiv. Hartmann's project, submitted for the competition, was made in the old Russian style - a dome with a belfry in the form of a hero's helmet, a decoration above the gate in the form of a kokoshnik. Hartmann's version created the image of Kyiv as an ancient Russian capital. However, the competition was subsequently canceled, and the successful project was never implemented.

Since then, there have been many readings of this symphonic masterpiece. In 1971, keyboardist Keith Emerson and his trio comrades Emerson, Lake and Palmer performed a live rock adaptation of Pictures, interspersed with his own compositions and even songs. For many years it has become a visiting
group card.

The Japanese Isao Tomita (1975) has a synthesizer version of "Pictures", despite the unusual, titanic sound, nevertheless very close to the original.

Everything seems clear with the piano and rock composition (where keyboards still prevailed), but in 1981 another Japanese Kazuhito Yamashita made an arrangement of "Pictures" for classical guitar. Absolutely amazing and incredible. It is to his interpretation that many guitarists turn today. I think that even the poor VHS quality of Kazuhito's performance gives an idea of how "Pictures" sounds on the guitar (a unique recording from 1984!).

"Pictures" has repeatedly served as inspiration for other genres of art. Themes from the cycle are regularly inserted into movies and TV shows. And back in 1966, for the Japanese experimental cartoon, the same Isao Tomita orchestrated part of the music from Pictures at an Exhibition, and in 1984 Soyuzmultfilm (to the performance of Svyatoslav Richter) also turned to this immortal music.

Genre: suite for piano.

Year of creation: June 1874.

First edition: 1886, edited by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov.

Dedicated to: V. V. Stasov.

History of creation and publication

The reason for the creation of "Pictures at an Exhibition" was an exhibition of paintings and drawings by the famous Russian artist and architect Viktor Hartman (1834 - 1873), which was organized at the Academy of Arts on the initiative of V.V. Stasov in connection with the sudden death of the artist. Hartmann's paintings were sold at this exhibition. Of those works by the artist, on which Mussorgsky's Pictures were written, only six have survived in our time.

Viktor Aleksandrovich Hartman (1834 - 1873) was an outstanding Russian architect and artist. He graduated from the course at the Academy of Arts, after studying the practical construction business, mainly under the guidance of his uncle P. Gemillen, spent several years abroad, making sketches of architectural monuments everywhere, fixing folk types and scenes of street life with a pencil and watercolor. Invited then to participate in the organization of the All-Russian Manufactory Exhibition of 1870 in St. Petersburg, he made about 600 drawings, according to which various pavilions of the exhibition were built. These drawings demonstrate the inexhaustible imagination, delicate taste, great originality of the artist. It was for this work that he was worthy of the title of academician in 1872. After that, he created several architectural projects (the gate, which was supposed to be built in Kiev, in memory of the events of April 4, 1866, the People's Theater in St. Petersburg and others), made drawings of scenery and costumes for M. Glinka's opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila", participated in organization of the Moscow Polytechnic Exhibition in 1872. According to his designs, a house was built for the printing house of Mamontov and Co., a country cottage for Mamontov and several private houses.

Mussorgsky, who knew the artist well, was shocked by his death. He wrote to V. Stasov (August 2, 1873): “We, fools, are usually consoled in such cases by the wise: “he” does not exist, but what he managed to do exists and will exist; and they say, how many people have such a happy share - not to be forgotten. Again the cue ball (with horseradish for tears) from a human vanity. To hell with your wisdom! If "he" did not live in vain, but created, so what a scoundrel one must be in order to reconcile with the pleasure of "consolation" with the fact that "he" stopped creating. There is not and cannot be peace, there is not and should not be consolation - this is flabby.

A few years later, in 1887, when an attempt was made to second edition of "Pictures at an Exhibition" (the first, edited by N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, was reproached for departing from the author's intention; we will note some of these deviations in our comments), V. Stasov in the preface wrote: ... brisk, elegant sketches of a genre painter, many scenes, types, figures from everyday life, captured from the sphere of what rushed and circled around him - in the streets and in churches, in Parisian catacombs and Polish monasteries, in Roman alleys and Limoges villages, types of carnival à la Gavarni, workers in a blouse and pateri riding a donkey with an umbrella under their arm, French old women praying, Jews smiling from under a yarmulke, Parisian rag-pickers, cute donkeys rubbing against a tree, landscapes with a picturesque ruin, wonderful distances overlooking the city…”

On "Pictures" Mussorgsky worked with extraordinary enthusiasm. In one of the letters (to the same to V. Stasov), he wrote: “Hartmann boils, as Boris boiled,” sounds and thoughts hung in the air, I swallow and overeat, I barely have time to scratch on paper (...). I want to do it faster and more reliably. My physiognomy is visible in the interludes ... How well it works. While Mussorgsky was working on this cycle, the work was referred to as "Hartmann"; the name "Pictures at an Exhibition" appeared later.

Many contemporaries found the author's - piano - version of "Pictures" to be a non-piano work, not convenient for performance. There is some truth in this. In the "Encyclopedic Dictionary" of Brockhaus and Efron we read: "Let's point out another series musical sketches entitled "Pictures at an Exhibition", written for piano in 1874, in the form of musical illustrations for watercolors by V. A. Hartmann. It is no coincidence that there are many orchestrations of this work. The orchestration by M. Ravel, made in 1922, is the most famous, besides, it was in this orchestration that Pictures at an Exhibition gained recognition in the West. Moreover, even among pianists there is no unity of opinion: some perform the work in the author's version, others, in particular, V. Horowitz, make its transcription. In our collection “Pictures at an Exhibition” are presented in two versions - the original pianoforte (S. Richter) and orchestrated by M. Ravel, which makes it possible to compare them.

Plots and music

Pictures at an Exhibition is a suite of ten plays, each inspired by one of Hartmann's stories. Mussorgsky "invented" an absolutely wonderful way to combine these musical pictures of his into a single artistic whole: for this purpose he used the musical material of the introduction, and since people usually walk around the exhibition, he called this introduction "The Walk".

So, we are invited to the exhibition ...

Walk

This introduction does not make up the main - meaningful - part of the exhibition, but is an essential element of the entire musical composition. For the first time, the musical material of this introduction is presented in full; later on, the motif of "Walk" in different versions - sometimes calm, sometimes more excited - is used as interludes between plays, which perfectly expresses the psychological state of the viewer at the exhibition, when he moves from one picture to another. At the same time, Mussorgsky achieves the creation of a sense of unity of the entire work with maximum contrast. musical- and we clearly feel that visual also (paintings by W. Hartmann) - the content of the plays. Regarding his discovery of how to connect the plays, Mussorgsky spoke out (in the letter to V. Stasov quoted above): walk]) (...) My physiognomy is visible in the interludes.”

The coloring of "Walks" immediately attracts attention - its distinctly tangible Russian character. The composer in his remark gives an indication: nelmodoRussian[ital. - in Russian style]. But this remark alone would not be enough to create such a feeling. Mussorgsky achieves this in several ways: firstly, through a musical mode: "Walk", at least initially, was written in the so-called pentatonic mode, that is, using only five sounds (hence the term, which is based on the word "penta", then there are "five") - the sounds that form with the neighboring so-called semitone. Remaining and used in the topic, they will be separated from each other by whole tone. The sounds excluded in this case are la And E-flat Further, when the character is outlined, the composer already uses all the sounds of the scale. The pentatonic scale in itself gives the music a distinctly folk character (here it is not possible to go into an explanation of the reasons for such a feeling, but they exist and are well known). Secondly, the rhythmic structure: at first, odd (5 / 4) and even (6 / 4) time struggle (or alternate?); the second half of the piece is already all in this, even, time signature. This seeming indeterminacy of the rhythmic structure, or rather, the lack of squareness in it, is also one of the features of the warehouse of Russian folk music.

Mussorgsky supplied this work of his with rather detailed remarks concerning the nature of the performance - tempos, moods, etc. For this, they used, as is customary in music, the Italian language. The remark for the first "Walk" is as follows: Allegrogiusto,nelmodorussico,senzaallergezza,mapocosostenuto. In publications that provide translations of such Italian remarks, one can see such a translation of it: “Soon, in the Russian style, without haste, somewhat restrained.” There is little sense in such a set of words. How to play: "soon", "without haste" or "somewhat restrained"? The fact is that, firstly, in such a translation, an important word was left without attention giusto, which literally means “correctly”, “proportionately”, “exactly”; in relation to the interpretation - “tempo corresponding to the nature of the play”. The character of this play is determined by the first word of the remark - Allegro, and in this case it is necessary to understand it in the sense of "briskly" (and not "quickly"). Then everything falls into place, and the whole remark is translated: to play "cheerfully at a pace appropriate to this, in the Russian spirit, leisurely, somewhat restrained." Probably everyone will agree that it is this state of mind that usually possesses us when we first enter the exhibition. Another thing is our sensations from new impressions from what we saw ...

In some cases, the motive of "Walking" turns out to be binder for neighboring pieces (this happens when moving from No. 1 "Gnome" to No. 2 "Old Castle" or from No. 2 to No. 3 "Tuileries Garden"; this series is easy to continue - in the course of the work these transitions, in the literal and figurative sense, unmistakably recognizable), in others - on the contrary - sharply separating(in such cases, "The Walk" is designated as a more or less independent section, as, for example, between No. 6 "Two Jews, rich and poor" and No. 7 "Limoges. Market"). Each time, depending on the context in which the “Walk” motif appears, Mussorgsky finds special means of expression for it: sometimes the motif is close to its original version, as we hear after No. 1 (we have not yet gone far in our walk through the exhibition ), then it does not sound so moderate and even heavy (after "Starogozamok"; note in notes: pesante[in Mussorgsky - pesamento- a kind of hybrid of French and Italian] -Ital. hard).

M. Mussorgsky builds the whole cycle in such a way that he completely avoids any tone of symmetry and predictability. This also characterizes the interpretation of the musical material of the “Walk”: the listener (aka the viewer) either remains under the impression of what he heard (= seen), then, on the contrary, shakes off his thoughts and sensations from the picture he sees. And nowhere is the same mood repeated exactly. And all this with the unity of the thematic material "Walks"! Mussorgsky in this cycle appears as an unusually subtle psychologist.

Hartmann's drawing depicted a Christmas toy: nutcrackers in the form of a small gnome. For Mussorgsky, this play gives the impression of something more sinister than just a Christmas tree toy: the analogy with the Nibelungs (a breed of dwarfs living deep in mountain caves - the characters of R. Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung) does not seem so ridiculous. In any case, Mussorgsky's gnome is more bitter than the gnomes of Liszt or Grieg. In music, there are sharp contrasts: fortissimo[ital. – very loudly] is replaced by piano [ital. - quietly], lively (performed by S. Richter - impetuous) phrases alternate with stops in movement, melodies in unison are opposed to episodes set out in chords. If you do not know the author's title of this piece, then in the extremely inventive orchestration by M. Ravel, it appears more like a portrait of a fairy-tale giant (and not a dwarf) and, in any case, not a musical embodiment of the image of a Christmas tree decoration (as it is with Hartmann).

Hartmann, as you know, traveled around Europe, and one of his drawings depicted an ancient castle. To convey its scale, the artist depicted a singer, a troubadour with a lute, against its background. This is how V. Stasov explains this drawing (there is no such drawing in the catalog of the artist's posthumous exhibition). It does not follow from the picture that the troubadour sings a song full of sadness and hopelessness. But it is precisely this mood that Mussorgsky's music conveys.

The composition of the piece is striking: all its 107 measures are built on one unchanging bass sound - sol-sharp! This technique in music is called the organ point, and is used quite often; as a rule, it precedes the onset of a reprise, that is, that section of the work in which, after a certain development, the original musical material returns. But it is difficult to find another work of the classical musical repertoire in which All work from start to finish would have been built on an organ station. And this is not just Mussorgsky's technical experiment - the composer created a true masterpiece. This technique is highly appropriate in a play with this plot, that is, for the musical embodiment of the image of a medieval troubadour: the instruments on which the musicians of that time accompanied themselves had a bass string (if we are talking about a stringed instrument, for example, a fidel) or a pipe (if about wind - for example, bagpipes), which made only one sound - a thick deep bass. Its sound for a long time created a mood of some kind of stiffness. It is this hopelessness - the hopelessness of the troubadour's plea - that Mussorgsky painted with sounds.

The laws of psychology require contrast in order for the artistic and emotional impression to be vivid. And this play brings this contrast. The Tuileries Garden, or rather the Tuileries Garden (by the way, that's how it is in the French version of the name) is a place in the center of Paris. It extends approximately one kilometer from Place Carousel to Place de la Concorde. This garden (now it should rather be called a square) is a favorite place for walks of Parisians with children. Hartmann's painting depicted this garden with many children and nannies. The Tuileries Garden, captured by Hartmann-Mussorgsky, is about the same as Nevsky Prospekt, captured by Gogol: “At twelve o’clock, tutors of all nations raid Nevsky Prospekt with their pets in cambric collars. The English Joneses and the French Koks go hand in hand with the pets entrusted to their parental care and with decent solidity explain to them that the signboards above the shops are made in order to be able to find out through them what is in the shops themselves. Governesses, pale misses and rosy Slavs, walk majestically behind their light, fidgety girls, ordering them to raise their shoulders a little higher and keep straighter; in short, at this time Nevsky Prospekt is the pedagogical Nevsky Prospekt.

This play very accurately conveys the mood of that time of the day when this garden was occupied by children, and it is curious that the "fidgetiness" (of girls) noticed by Gogol was reflected in Mussorgsky's remark: capriccioso (Italian - capriciously).

It is noteworthy that this play is written in a three-part form, and, as it should be in such a form, the middle part forms a certain contrast with the extreme ones. The realization of this generally simple fact is important not in itself, but according to the conclusions that flow from this: a comparison of the piano version (performed by S. Richter) with the orchestral version (instrumentation by M. Ravel) suggests that Richter, who this the contrast smoothes rather than emphasizes, the participants in the scene are only children, perhaps boys (their collective portrait is drawn in the extreme parts) and girls (the middle part, more graceful in rhythm and melodic pattern). As for the orchestral version, in the middle part of the piece, the image of nannies appears in the mind, that is, someone of an adult who is trying to gently settle the quarrel of the children (admonishing intonations of the strings).

V. Stasov, presenting the "Pictures" to the public and giving explanations to the plays of this suite, specified that the redneck is a Polish cart on huge wheels, drawn by oxen. The dull monotony of the work of the oxen is conveyed by the ostinato, that is, invariably repeating, elementary rhythm - four even beats per beat. And so it goes throughout the play. The chords themselves are placed in the lower register, they sound fortissimo(Italian - very loud). So in Mussorgsky's original manuscript; in the edition of Rimsky-Korsakov - piano. Against the background of chords, a mournful melody depicting a driver sounds. The movement is quite slow and heavy. Author's note: sempermoderato,pesante(Italian - all the time moderate, hard). The invariably monotonous sound conveys hopelessness. And the oxen is just an “allegorical figure” - we, the listeners, clearly feel the devastating effect on the soul of any dull, exhausting, meaningless (Sisyphean) labor.

The driver leaves on his oxen: the sound subsides (until ppp), the chords are thinned, "drying out" to intervals (that is, two simultaneously sounding sounds) and, in the end, to one - the same as at the beginning of the piece - sound; the movement also slows down - two (instead of four) hitting the bar. Author's note here - perdendosi(Italian - freezing).

NB! Three plays - "The Old Castle", "The Tuileries Garden", "Cattle" - are a small triptych inside the entire suite. In its extreme parts, the general key is G sharp minor; in the middle part - parallel major (B major). At the same time, these keys, being by nature related, express, thanks to the composer's imagination and talent, polar emotional states: despair and hopelessness in the extreme parts (in the sphere of quiet and in the sphere of loud sounding) and elevated excitement - in the middle piece.

We move on to another picture ... (The theme of "Walks" sounds calm).

The title is inscribed with an autograph in pencil by M. Mussorgsky.

Contrast again: oxen are replaced by chicks. Everything else: instead of moderato,pesante – vivoleggiero(Italian - lively and easily), instead of massive chords fortissimo in the lower register - playful grace notes (small notes, as if clicking along with the main chords) in the upper register on piano(quiet). All this is intended to give an idea of small nimble creatures, moreover, not yet hatched. We must pay tribute to the ingenuity of Hartmann, who managed to find a form for unhatched chicks; this is his drawing, representing a sketch of costumes for the characters in G. Gerber's ballet "Trilby" staged by Petipa at the Bolshoi Theater in 1871.)

And again, the maximum contrast with the previous play.

It is known that during his lifetime, Hartmann presented the composer with two of his drawings, made when the artist was in Poland - “A Jew in a fur hat” and “Poor Jew. Sandomierz. Stasov recalled: "Mussorgsky greatly admired the expressiveness of these pictures." So, this play, strictly speaking, is not a picture "from the exhibition" (but rather from Mussorgsky's personal collection). But, of course, this circumstance does not affect our perception of the musical content of Pictures. In this play, Mussorgsky almost teeters on the brink of caricature. And here this ability of his - to convey the very essence of character - manifested itself unusually brightly, almost more visible than in the best works of major artists (Wanderers). The statements of contemporaries are known that he had the ability to depict anything with sounds.

Mussorgsky contributed to the development of one of the oldest themes in art and literature, as, indeed, in life, which received a different design: either in the form of a plot of "fortunate and unlucky", or "fat and thin", or "prince and beggar ", or" the kitchen of the fat and the kitchen of the skinny.

For the sound characterization of a wealthy Jew, Mussorgsky uses the baritone register, and the melody sounds in octave doubling. The national flavor was achieved using a special scale. Notes for this image: Andante.Graveenergico(Italian - leisurely; important, energetic). The speech of the character is conveyed by indications of various articulations (these indications are extremely important for the performer). The sound is loud. Everything gives the impression of imposingness: maxims rich do not tolerate objections.

The poor Jew is depicted in the second part of the play. He behaves literally like Porfiry (Chekhov's thin) with his “hee-hee-s” (how wonderfully this fawning is conveyed by a rapidly repeating note with grace notes “fastened” to it), when he suddenly realizes what “heights”, it turns out, his friend from the gymnasium reached in the past. In the third part of the play, both musical images are combined - the monologues of the characters here turn into a dialogue, or, perhaps, more precisely, these are the same monologues uttered simultaneously: each asserts his own. Suddenly, both fall silent, suddenly realizing that they are not listening to each other (general pause). And here is the last sentence. poor: a motive full of longing and hopelessness (remark: condolore[ital. - with longing; sadly]) - and the answer rich: loud ( fortissimo), resolutely and categorically.

The play produces a poignant, perhaps even depressing impression, as it always does when confronted with flagrant social injustice.

We have reached the middle of the cycle - not so much in arithmetic terms (in terms of the number of numbers already sounded and still remaining), but in terms of the artistic impression that this work gives us as a whole. And Mussorgsky, clearly realizing this, allows the listener a longer rest: here the “Walk” sounds almost exactly in the version in which it sounded at the beginning of the work (the last sound is extended by one “extra” measure: a kind of theatrical gesture - a raised index finger: “Something else will happen!...”).

The autograph contains a note (in French, later crossed out by Mussorgsky): “Big news: Mr. Pimpan from Ponta-Pontaleon has just found his cow: Runaway. “Yes, madame, that was yesterday. - No, ma'am, it was the third day. Well, yes, ma'am, a cow roamed the neighborhood. “Well, no, madam, the cow didn’t roam at all. Etc."".

The plot of the play is comically simple. A glance at the music pages involuntarily suggests that the "French" in this cycle - the Tuileries Garden market in Limoges - Hartmann-Mussorgsky saw in the same emotional key. Readings by the performers highlight these plays in different ways. This play, depicting "bazaar women" and their dispute, sounds more energetic than a children's quarrel. At the same time, it should be noted that the performers, wishing to enhance the effect and sharpen the contrasts, in a certain sense ignore the composer's instructions: both in S. Richter and in the performance of the State Orchestra conducted by E. Svetlanov, the pace is very fast, in essence, this Presto. There is a feeling of rapid movement somewhere. Mussorgsky is prescribed allegretto. He paints with sounds a lively scene taking place on one place surrounded by "Brownian motion" tolyp, as can be observed in any crowded and busy market. We hear a stream of colloquial speech, a sharp increase in sonority ( crescendi), acute accents ( sforzandi). At the end, in the performance of this piece, the movement accelerates even more, and on the crest of this whirlwind we “fall” into ...

... How not to remember the lines of A. Maykov!

ex tenebris lux

Your soul is grieving. From the day - From a sunny day - fell You're right into the night and, cursing everything, A phial has already taken up a mortal ...

Before this number in the autograph there is Mussorgsky's note in Russian: “NB: Latin text: with the dead in a dead language. It would be nice to have a Latin text: the creative spirit of the deceased Hartmann leads me to the skulls, calls to them, the skulls quietly boasted.

Hartmann's drawing is one of the few surviving ones on which Mussorgsky wrote his "Pictures". It depicts the artist himself with his companion and another person who accompanies them, lighting the way with a lantern. Around racks with skulls.

V. Stasov described this play in a letter to N. Rimsky-Korsakov: “In the same second part [“ Pictures at an Exhibition ”. - A. M.] there are several lines of unusually poetic. This is the music for Hartmann's picture "Catacombs of Paris", all consisting of skulls. At the Musoryanin (as Stasov affectionately called Mussorgsky. - A. M.) a gloomy dungeon is first depicted (in long, drawn chords, often orchestral, with large fermatas). Then the theme of the first promenade goes on the tremolando in a minor key - the lights in the turtles lit up, and then suddenly Hartmann's magical, poetic call to Mussorgsky is heard.

Hartmann's drawing depicted a clock in the form of Baba Yaga's hut on chicken legs, Mussorgsky added Baba Yaga's train in a mortar.

If we consider “Pictures at an Exhibition” not only as a separate work, but in the context of Mussorgsky’s entire work, then we can see that the destructive and creative forces in his music exist in continuity, although one of them prevails at every moment. So in this play we will find a combination of sinister, mystical black colors on the one hand and light colors on the other. And the intonations here are of two types: on the one hand, viciously daring, frightening, piercingly sharp, on the other, peppy, cheerfully inviting. One group of intonations, as it were, depresses, the second, on the contrary, inspires, activates. The image of Baba Yaga, according to popular beliefs, is the focus of everything cruel, destroying good motives, interfering with the implementation of good, good deeds. However, the composer, showing Baba Yaga from this side (remark at the beginning of the play: feroce[ital. - ferociously]), led the story to a different plane, opposing the idea of destruction to the idea of growth and victory of good principles. By the end of the piece, the music becomes more and more impulsive, the joyful ringing grows, and, in the end, a huge sound wave is born from the depths of the dark registers of the piano, finally dissolving all sorts of gloomy impulses and selflessly preparing the coming of the most victorious, most jubilant image of the cycle - the hymn "The Bogatyr Gates".

This play opens up a series of images and works depicting all sorts of devilry, evil spirits and obsession - "Night on Bald Mountain" by M. Mussorgsky himself, "Baba Yaga" and "Kikimora" by A. Lyadov, Leshy in "The Snow Maiden" by N. Rimsky -Korsakov, "Delusion" by S. Prokofiev ...

The reason for writing this play was Hartmann's sketch for the city gate in Kiev, which was to be installed in commemoration of the fact that Emperor Alexander II managed to escape death during the assassination attempt on him on April 4, 1866.

In the music of M. Mussorgsky, the tradition of such final celebratory scenes in Russian operas found a vivid expression. The play is perceived precisely as such an opera finale. You can even point to a specific prototype - the choir "Glory", which ends "Life for the Tsar" ("Ivan Susanin") by M. Glinka. The final play of Mussorgsky's cycle is the intonational, dynamic, textural culmination of the entire work. The composer himself outlined the nature of the music with the words: Maestoso.Congrandezza(Italian - solemnly, majestically). The theme of the play is nothing more than a jubilant version of the melody "Walks". The whole work ends with a festive and joyful, powerful chime of bells. Mussorgsky laid the foundation for the tradition of such bell-ringing, recreated by non-bell means - the First Piano Concerto in B flat minor by P. Tchaikovsky, the Second Piano Concerto, in C minor by S. Rachmaninov, his first Prelude in C-small for piano ...

“Pictures at an Exhibition” by M. Mussorgsky is a completely innovative work. Everything is new in it - musical language, form, sound recording techniques. Wonderful as a work piano repertoire (although for a long time it was considered “non-pianistic” by pianists - again, due to the novelty of many techniques, for example, tremolo in the 2nd half of the piece “With the Dead in a Dead Language”), it appears in all its splendor in orchestral arrangements. There are quite a few of them, in addition to the one made by M. Ravel, and among them the most frequently performed is S. P. Gorchakova (1954). Transcriptions of "Pictures" were made for different instruments and for different compositions of performers. One of the most brilliant is the organ transcription by the eminent French organist Jean Guillou. Individual pieces from this suite are widely known even outside the context of this creation by M. Mussorgsky. So, the theme from the "Bogatyr Gates" serves as the call sign of the radio station "Voice of Russia".

"Pictures at an Exhibition" is a well-known suite of 10 pieces by Modest Mussorgsky with interludes, created in 1874 in memory of Mussorgsky's friend, the artist and architect Victor Hartmann. Originally written for piano, it has been repeatedly arranged for orchestra by various composers and processed in a variety of musical styles. Suite by Modest Mussorgsky 1874 Victor Hartmann piano

The architect and, in modern terms, designer Viktor Alexandrovich Hartman () entered the history of art of the 19th century as one of the founders of the "Russian style" in architecture. He was distinguished by a desire for Russian originality and a wealth of imagination. Kramskoy wrote about him: “Hartmann was an outstanding person ... When you need to build ordinary things, Hartmann is bad, he needs fabulous buildings, magical castles, give him palaces, buildings for which there are no and could not be samples, here he creates amazing things” he received the title of academician. architecture Kramskoy

At the end of 1870, in Stasov's house, Mussorgsky first met the 36-year-old artist. Hartmann possessed a liveliness of character and ease in friendly communication, and a warm friendship and mutual respect were established between him and Mussorgsky. Therefore, the sudden death of Hartmann in the summer of 1873 at the age of 39 shocked Mussorgsky to the core.

In February March 1874, a posthumous exhibition of about 400 works by Hartmann, created over 15 years, drawings, watercolors, architectural projects, sketches of theatrical scenery and costumes, sketches of art products, was held at the Imperial Academy of Arts. There were many sketches brought from foreign travels at the exhibition. of the Imperial Academy of Arts ... brisk, graceful sketches of a genre painter, many scenes, figures from everyday life, captured from the sphere of what rushed and circled around him in the streets and churches, in Parisian catacombs and Polish monasteries, in Roman lanes and Limoges villages , French old women praying, Jews smiling from under a yarmulke, Parisian rag-pickers, cute donkeys rubbing against a tree, landscapes with a picturesque ruin, wonderful distances with a panorama of the city ... (V.V. Stasov) Parisian Limoges

Mussorgsky's visit to the exhibition served as the impetus for the creation of a musical "walk" through an imaginary exhibition gallery. The result was a series of musical pictures that only partly resemble the works seen; in the main, the plays were the result of the free flight of the awakened imagination of the composer. Mussorgsky took Hartmann's "foreign" drawings as the basis of the "exhibition", as well as two of his sketches on Russian themes.

The idea to create a piano suite arose during the days of the exhibition, and already in the spring of 1874 some of the "pictures" from the future cycle were improvised by the author. But the idea finally took shape in the summer, and Mussorgsky, breaking away from writing the songs "Without the Sun", set to work on a new composition. The whole cycle was written on a creative upsurge in just three weeks from June 2 to June 22, 1874. The suite's working title was Hartmann. June 222

1. Walk 2. Dwarf 3. Old Castle 4. Tuileries Garden (Quarrel of children after the game) 5. Cattle 6. Ballet of unhatched chicks 7. Limoges market (Big news) 8. Catacombs. Roman tomb 9. Hut on chicken legs (Baba Yaga) 10. Bogatyr gates (In the capital city in Kyiv)

Hartmann's sketch, which has not survived, depicts a Christmas toy depicting a nutcracker ("nutcracker") in the form of a dwarf on crooked legs. Mussorgsky's initially motionless figure of a dwarf comes to life. The dynamic piece conveys the melodies of the antics of a crouching dwarf with broken rhythm and turns, the listener “watches” how he runs from place to place and freezes.

In the middle part, the dwarf seems to stop and begin to think, or just tries to rest, from time to time, as if frightened, suspecting danger. Each attempt at a calm stop ends with a frighteningly disturbing passage. Finally, the dwarf never found peace - suffering and despair.

The play is based on Hartmann's watercolor painting while he was studying architecture in Italy. The drawing depicted an ancient castle, against which a troubadour with a lute was drawn (possibly to show the size of the castle). Mussorgsky has a beautiful drawn-out melancholy melody, the note reads “very melodious, mournful”, conveying melancholy and quiet sadness. trumpet-lute

The drawing depicted an alley of the garden of the Tuileries Palace in Paris “with many children and nannies. This short play is quite different in character from the previous one. A sunny melody sounds in a high register, the major mode is even more “clarified.” The rhythm resembles children's counting rhymes and teasers and nannies. Tuileries

The prototype of the play was Hartmann's sketches for costumes for Julius Gerber's ballet Trilby staged at the Bolshoi Theater in 1871. There was an episode in Trilby in which “a group of little pupils and pupils of the theater school, dressed up as canaries and running around the stage, performed. Others were inserted into the eggs, as if in armor.” By Yulia Gerbera at the Bolshoi Theater Light and cheerful schercino, a comical and slightly disorderly dance of chicks, built according to the classical rules of a three-part form.

In the manuscript, Mussorgsky first made funny notes in French about what kind of gossip could be heard in the market. Hartmann's drawing, if there was one, has not been preserved. It is known that Hartmann lived in Limoges and studied the architecture of the local cathedral, but a painting with a similar plot does not appear in the exhibition catalog.

In the painting, Hartmann depicted himself, V. A. Kenel and a guide with a lantern in his hand in the Roman catacombs in Paris. On the right side of the picture, faintly lit skulls are visible. A. Kenel The gloomy dungeon with the tomb is depicted in music by lifeless unisons - sometimes sharp, sometimes quiet (“echo”). Among these chords, like shadows of the past, a slow melody emerges. "Catacombs" hang on an unsteady chord as they move on to the next scene in unison.

Hartmann had a sketch of an elegant bronze clock in the form of a hut on chicken legs. However, Mussorgsky's fantasy depicted a completely different powerful dynamic image of Baba Yaga, a picture of "evil spirits." Baba Yaga At first, several rare chords-jolts sound, then they become more frequent, imitating the “run-up”, from which the “flight in the mortar” begins. Sound "blots" depict negligence and "dirt" in the image of Baba Yaga. Unevenly spaced accents imitate the lame gait of the "bone leg".

This part of the suite is based on Hartmann's sketch for his architectural design of the Kyiv city gates. The head with a belfry in the form of a heroic helmet, decoration above the gate in the form of a kokoshnik. The gate created the image of Kyiv as an ancient Russian capital. The play, created by Mussorgsky's imagination, paints a detailed picture of the people's triumph and is perceived as a powerful operatic finale. The slow rhythm gives the piece grandeur and solemnity. At first, a broad Russian song melody sounds, then it contrasts with a quiet and distant second theme, reminiscent of church singing.

In 1984, the Soyuzmultfilm film studio released the cartoon Pictures at an Exhibition, which included Hut on Chicken Legs, Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks, and fragments of The Walk performed by Richter. Written and directed by Inessa Kovalevskaya. Soyuzmultfilm Inessa Kovalevskaya

Issue 1 came out in 2009. The face of the issue: Alex Rostotsky and his new album "Pictures at an Exhibition or a Walk with Mussorgsky" The new musical project of Alex Rostotsky is a kind of musical gift for both lovers of classical music and fans of jazz improvisation. One of the best jazz musicians of modern Russia, A. Rostotsky recorded the album "Walks with Mussorgsky", where the famous themes of "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Modest Mussorgsky are performed by a jazz trio.