Wandering the Gallery with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition
IX. The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba Yaga)
Pictures at an Exhibition
I'm Modest Mussorgsky, and I'm happy to walk you through the IX. The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba Yaga) movement. You'll meet a stomping, ferocious chase in 2/4, where a witch flies off in her mortar and chiming notes recall the bells of a big clock. Teaching you to recognize our pieces when they play is something my fellow composers and I do here too, so let the Trainer test you .
---
One Pianist, Zero Backup Singers
Before you press play, remember that I wrote this piece for solo piano, so a single player has to be the whole witch, the whole hut and the whole chase. Listen first for the heavy, stamping chords, because that's where you can almost hear the hut taking its enormous steps. Then keep an ear out for the sharper, ringing notes that appear around them, since those are my clock bells chiming at the wrong moments. If you can follow the stamping and the chiming as two separate characters, you already know how to listen to the whole piece.A Cuckoo Clock With a Bad Reputation
I gave this piece its title because my friend Viktor Hartmann designed a clock shaped like the hut of the witch Baba Yaga, which in the old folk tales stands on hen's legs. That design is what I started from, and the bells of a large clock are part of what you'll hear. A hut on legs was not enough for me, so I added Baba Yaga herself flying through the air in her mortar. That's why the title has two halves: the strange house standing still and the witch tearing along on her way.Four Parts and a Broomstick Landing
Choosing a form for this piece was an adventure, because I didn't want a tidy sonata or a polite rondo for a witch. I settled on a ternary form with a coda, which means a first part, a contrasting middle, a return of the first part, and a closing rush at the end. You can think of it as four sections, and I'll take you through them one by one. Watch how the returning first part feels different once you've heard the middle, because the same music means something new the second time.Section 1: The Witch Opens the Door
I mark the opening Allegro con brio, feroce, in 2/4, so you get two hard beats in every bar and no chance to settle in. The mood is rough and threatening, with heavy chords that land like the thumping of a very large foot. There's no friendly melody to hold on to here, which is exactly why it sounds so dangerous. Notice how the energy never really lets up, because the witch has somewhere to be and you're in her way.Section 2: Tick, Tock, Hide
In the middle part the mood shifts, and the wild stamping gives way to something stranger and more mysterious. This is where I let the clock show itself, with bell-like sounds that make the hut feel like a creepy piece of machinery. The music gets more suspicious and less violent, as though the witch has stopped to listen for you. Enjoy the lull while it lasts, because it doesn't promise anything good.Section 3: She's Back, and She Noticed You
The first part returns, and the fierce stamping and the 2/4 push come back as if they had never left. After the quiet of the middle, the return hits harder, because now you know what you're being chased by. I wanted the whirlwind feeling to grow here, with the music tumbling forward in a way that feels hard to stop. If you feel your heartbeat picking up, then the piece is doing its job.Section 4: The Mortar Takes Off
The coda is where I let Baba Yaga fly, and the whole piece becomes one long, headlong rush. Everything I've shown you so far, the stamping, the bells and the chase, is thrown together and pushed to its limit. You'll hear the music climb and surge until it feels like the piano itself can't hold it any longer. When the last crash fades, the next piece waits for you, The Great Gate of Kiev, and it feels like stepping out of a dark forest into daylight.Your Turn to Meet the Witch
Now it's your turn, so go ahead and press play on The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba Yaga), and let the music carry you along. While you listen, try to remember the stamping, the clock bells and the flight in the mortar we've talked about. See if you can tell exactly where the middle begins and where the first part comes back. I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I enjoyed writing it.---
I hope you enjoyed this guide to The Hut on Fowl's Legs (Baba Yaga) as much as I enjoyed telling you about it. Now that the stamping hut and the ringing clock have faded away, the room feels a little quieter, doesn't it? I like to think that next time you hear this music, you'll pick out the heavy steps and the chiming bells before the pianist has played more than a few bars. There's still a lot more to discover in Pictures at an Exhibition. The suite has ten pieces in all, and each one has its own picture, its own mood and its own story. The piece that follows the witch's hut is The Great Gate of Kiev, and it opens up into something grand and calm after all that wild running. I wrote the whole suite for solo piano, but later musicians have dressed it in many other colours, and Maurice Ravel's orchestration from 1922 is the best known of them. If you'd like to keep wandering through the exhibition with me, please click on the links provided and see where they take you. I'll be glad to have you along for the next picture.