Wandering the Gallery with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition
The Best Moments
Pictures at an Exhibition
I'm Modest Mussorgsky, and I'm glad to share the best moments of my Pictures at an Exhibition with you. You'll hear how I turned a friend's memorial exhibition of paintings into ten piano pieces, from a lurching gnome to the grand, bell-filled Great Gate of Kiev. My fellow composers and I also teach you, here on the site, to recognize our pieces the moment they begin, so give the Trainer a go whenever you feel ready.
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A Walk With Two Left Feet
I open the whole suite with the Promenade, a proud little tune for solo piano that has me strolling into the gallery, and I wrote it in 5/4 and then 6/4, so the steps never quite settle into a regular pattern, like a man who can't decide which foot to start on. Stasov said it was really me roving through the exhibition, and I can't argue, because the tune sounds like someone who is very sure he knows where he's going and is about to be distracted by the first picture on the wall.
A Clock With Chicken Legs
When I reach the hut of Baba Yaga, I mark the music Allegro con brio, feroce, which is a polite way of telling the pianist to forget good manners. Hartmann designed a clock shaped like the witch's hut on hen's legs, so the opening crashes along like the bells of a large clock, and then I added the witch herself, flying off in a mortar, so the chase is under way before you've found your seat.
A Gate That Never Got Built
I save the best for last, and I open The Great Gate of Kiev in E♭ major with a broad, slow, stately tune marked Maestoso, as if the piano had put on its finest coat for the occasion. Hartmann's design for the gate won a competition but the gate was never built, so I gave it the sturdiest foundation I could, which is music, with scale figures that ring like carillon bells over a solemn hymn-like melody.
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I hope you enjoyed learning about the best moments of Pictures at an Exhibition as much as I enjoyed telling you about them. Looking back, it still amazes me that I wrote the whole suite so quickly, in just a few weeks in June 1874, with my friend Hartmann so much in my thoughts. Those pictures were never meant to stay on a wall, and I like to think the music lets him keep walking beside us. There is a great deal more to explore in Pictures at an Exhibition. You could follow the story of how the suite travelled from my solo piano to Ravel's orchestra in 1922, or find out why so many of Hartmann's pictures are lost and what that leaves us to imagine. There are also the other versions that came later, from full orchestras to rock bands, and each one lets you hear the old tunes in a new light. If you'd like to keep wandering through the exhibition, please click on the links provided and carry on exploring Pictures at an Exhibition. I'll be glad to have you with me for the next room.
Recording: Musopen (performer not named), Public domain