Eek Witches Sabbath Crashers at Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain
The Backstory
Night on Bald Mountain
Yo yo yo, it's me, Mussorgsky, and I'm about to spill the whole backstory of Night on Bald Mountain, fam, no cap! Get ready for how a witchy opera plan from a Gogol tale mutated into this wild piece that I never got to catch live, bruh, and that twist is straight-up bonkers! Yo, give the Trainer a spin , 'cause my fellow composers and I coach ya on this site to recognize our pieces the second they blast, deadass!
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Gogol Gave Me The Spooky Itch
Ayo, listen up, 'cause this whole mess started way before any orchestra, with me scribblin' an opera plan on a sheet dated 25 December 1858, swear! It was called St. John's Night, and I borrowed the story from Gogol's tale St. John's Eve, 'cause that dude's creepy stories were straight fire, ngl! Late December, y'all, and while normal folks were stuffin' their faces with snacks, I was over here plottin' witches, that's lowkey unhinged! Spoiler alert, that witchy itch followed me around for years like gum stuck on a sneaker, sheesh!Another Witch Plan, Another Pal
Fast-forward to 1860, and yo, I'm writin' to Balakirev about an act on the Bald Mountain theme, 'cause I just couldn't quit the witch thing, bruh! That idea came from Baron Georgiy Mengden's drama The Witch, which is lost now, poof, gone, vanished like leftover pizza in a dorm fridge, dang! Did I actually write any music for it? Nobody knows, for real, so that's a cold case, fam! All we've got is a letter and a missin' play, which is basically the flimsiest treasure map ever drawn, highkey!Speed-Writin' On A Farm
Okay, so I dreamed up the tone poem in 1866, and then, bam, on 12 June 1867 I started orchestratin' it like a man possessed, no joke! I wrapped it up on 23 June 1867, the eve of St. John's Day, so I finished a witch-night banger right on witch-night eve, how's that for timin', legit! I did the whole thing at Minkino farm in the Luga district, so picture me out in the countryside scribblin' demons while the fields just chill, that's bananas! Doesn't that feel like destiny, or what? Mad cosmic vibes, fr fr!Baby Genre, Baby Me
I was 28, a young buck hangin' with the crew called The Five, and yo, I was cookin' up somethin' brand new! This piece is one of the first Russian tone poems, which is a fancy name for orchestra music that tells a whole story without a single word, dope, right? Same year, Rimsky-Korsakov dropped his Sadko, so 1867 was basically a Russian orchestra glow-up, mad crowded on the block! And my original title was St. John's Eve on Bald Mountain, which is a mouthful, but hey, it's got that spooky ring, ya feel me?My Mentor Roasted Me
So I'm hyped, I show the score to Balakirev, my mentor, and sheesh, he trashed it harsh, like a food critic at a gas station buffet! He flat-out refused to perform it, which stung like a papercut dipped in lemon juice, ouch! Meanwhile my drinkin' had been growin' by 1867, and yeah, that slowed me down big time, real talk, I'm not proud of that! So I shelved the thing, tucked it away like an embarrassing yearbook photo, and moved on, lowkey salty!Silence In The Concert Hall
Here's the gut punch, y'all: I never heard this piece performed, not once, not in any form, my whole life, brutal! Imagine bakin' the wildest cake on the planet and never gettin' a single bite, that's cold, dude! Every orchestra out there ghosted my witches, and I had to just imagine the sound in my head, can ya believe it? And now this thing's famous worldwide, so the joke's on the universe, haha, bet!I Recycled It Twice, Eco-Friendly
But I don't waste good witches, so in 1872 I recast the music with vocal soloists and chorus for the opera-ballet Mlada, yo! That score's lost, though, gone like socks in a dryer, tragic! Then I flipped it again as the choral "Dream Vision of the Peasant Lad" for the opera The Fair at Sorochyntsi, and the piano-vocal score is dated 10 May 1880, no cap! Three outfits for one spooky song, that's a whole wardrobe flex, ayo!Rimsky-Korsakov Cleans Up My Mess
I died in 1881, so Rimsky-Korsakov rolled up and in 1886 whipped up his "fantasy for orchestra" based on that Sorochyntsi version, clutch move, honestly! It premiered on 15 October 1886 at Kononov Hall in St. Petersburg, though one source says 27 October, so the calendar's kinda shady, yikes! Crowds went nuts, it was an instant hit and a concert favourite, and it runs about 12 minutes, shorter than a pizza delivery wait, easy! He also slapped on a calm ending usin' music from Gritsko's aria in Sorochintsy Fair, which is why some scholars call it mostly his piece, spicy debate, huh?My Original Finally Sees Daylight
My rough original stayed buried for ages, 'cause it did not hit print in the 19th century, not even close, crazy! It was first published in 1968, edited by Georgiy Kirkor, so I waited over a hundred years for my own book deal, savage! So the version everybody hums ain't exactly what I wrote, it's Rimsky-Korsakov's reworkin' with his own tweaks, and I'm kinda chill about it! Both versions deserve a spot on your playlist, fr, so pick a team or binge both, goated!Hollywood Hires My Witches
In 1940 Leopold Stokowski arranged the piece for Disney's Fantasia, and yo, my witches got silver-screen fame, bonkers! He followed Rimsky-Korsakov's form but used an orchestration closer to mine, so I'm lowkey flexin' about that, ayo! The star of that sequence is Chernobog, the black god, an infernal Slavic deity often shown as a goat, so basically a satanic billy goat runnin' the show, cooked! And it's paired with Schubert's Ave Maria as the sweet nightcap, like herbal tea after a monster-truck rally, legit!---
Yo yo yo, hold up, hold up, did ya enjoy diggin' into the backstory of Night on Bald Mountain with me, fam? Real talk, I'm hopin' it hit ya like a thunderclap, 'cause this wild witchy tale took forever to crawl outta my head and onto the stage, sheesh! And guess what, bruh, I'm not even close to done, 'cause there's still a whole mountain of stuff left to dig into, no cap! Think about it, y'all: there's the different versions, the sneaky twists and turns, and a ton of other spooky surprises just chillin' in the shadows, waitin' for ya to roll up, deadass! So go on, fam, smash those links below and keep explorin' Night on Bald Mountain, 'cause trust me, the party's still poppin' and ya don't wanna miss a single beat, yo! Catch ya on the flip side, and watch out for those witches, they're wild, swear!