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1980-01-05
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People In Music History
Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich (1839-1881) Russian composer; at first army
officer, later a civil servant, but studied briefly as a young man with
Balakirev. (Both were members of The Mighty Handful, the group of 5
"nationalist" composers.) Expressed sympathy with "the people" and showed it in
various works, including his masterpiece, the opera Boris Godunov. Evolved,
partly from Russian speech inflection, a highly individual musical idiom
misunderstood by many contemporaries -- Rimsky-Korsakov "correcting"
(misleadingly) much of his work after his death and fathering on him a piece
called Night on the Bare Mountain. His other works include unfinished operas
The Kovanschina Affair, The Fair of Sorochinsk, and The Marriage: Pictures at
an Exhibition for piano (orchestrated by others); many songs including Songs
and Dances of Death. Died after alcoholic epileptic fits.