Night on Bald Mountain Musical Analysis
Nazari Tuyo
3.21.17
Historical Background Composer & Arrangers Career
Night on Bald Mountain is a scary but yet peaceful song. It was composed by Modeste Mussorgsky in 1867. The version that will be played by the CRLS orchestra was arranged by Eric Segnitz. Who was Mussorgsky? He was born in the winter of 1839, and grew up in Russia. Modest was a composer, and he was well known for his opera Boris Godunov. He also wrote many other pieces of music such as Pictures from an Exhibition, and Night on Bald Mountain. Before he became a composer, Modest was always interested in music. As a child, his nanny taught him about russian folk tales. This drew him to story writing. His mother was an excellent pianist, and gave him lessons at age seven. When he was 10, his music career was disturbed when his father sent him and his brother to the Peter-Paul school in st. Petersburg to pursue a life in the military. During this time, his father entrusted his music career at the hands of Prof. Anton Gurke at St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1852, he entered the School for Cadets of the Guard, where he composed his first piece, Pod Praporshchik. His father paid for it. Once he became a lieutenant, he joined the …show more content…
He was inspired to write this melody from a short story by Nikolai Gogol called St. John's Eve. The plot of the story refers to the witches' sabbath, which occurs on a bald mountaintop each year near the summer solstice. This was a hard piece for Mussorgsky to write because he often had ideas that he couldn't get out on paper. He took two old opera ideas, incorporated the story of St. John's Eve, and created an orchestral tone poem called "Night on Bald Mountain". He was quite impressed with his work but other people were not satisfied. Not one person would premere his work. It wasn't until the 1930's that his masterpiece was played
Nazari Tuyo
3.21.17
Historical Background Composer & Arrangers Career
Night on Bald Mountain is a scary but yet peaceful song. It was composed by Modeste Mussorgsky in 1867. The version that will be played by the CRLS orchestra was arranged by Eric Segnitz. Who was Mussorgsky? He was born in the winter of 1839, and grew up in Russia. Modest was a composer, and he was well known for his opera Boris Godunov. He also wrote many other pieces of music such as Pictures from an Exhibition, and Night on Bald Mountain. Before he became a composer, Modest was always interested in music. As a child, his nanny taught him about russian folk tales. This drew him to story writing. His mother was an excellent pianist, and gave him lessons at age seven. When he was 10, his music career was disturbed when his father sent him and his brother to the Peter-Paul school in st. Petersburg to pursue a life in the military. During this time, his father entrusted his music career at the hands of Prof. Anton Gurke at St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1852, he entered the School for Cadets of the Guard, where he composed his first piece, Pod Praporshchik. His father paid for it. Once he became a lieutenant, he joined the …show more content…
He was inspired to write this melody from a short story by Nikolai Gogol called St. John's Eve. The plot of the story refers to the witches' sabbath, which occurs on a bald mountaintop each year near the summer solstice. This was a hard piece for Mussorgsky to write because he often had ideas that he couldn't get out on paper. He took two old opera ideas, incorporated the story of St. John's Eve, and created an orchestral tone poem called "Night on Bald Mountain". He was quite impressed with his work but other people were not satisfied. Not one person would premere his work. It wasn't until the 1930's that his masterpiece was played