THREE

Moussorgsky’s artistic creed might be summed up in one sentence—he was devoted absolutely to the principle of “art for life’s sake.” This is quite the opposite of “Art for art’s sake.” Moussorgsky looked on musical art not as an end in itself, but as a means of vital expression. He was a full-blooded realist, and his music throbs with life.

Modeste Petrovich Moussorgsky was born on the estate of his father at Karevo on March 28, 1839. His father was a man of moderate means, and the boy spent his first ten years in the country and in close touch with the peasants. This early environment inspired his later feelings of sympathy with the land and its people. Long before he could play the piano he tried to reproduce songs that he heard among the peasants. His mother was pleased at this, and began to give him lessons on the piano when he was still a young child. At the age of seven he was able to play some of the smaller pieces of Liszt. Sometimes he even improvised musical settings for the fairy tales that his nurse told him.

In 1849 Moussorgsky and his brother were taken to Petrograd, where they were entered in the military cadet school, for the boy was intended for the army. At the same time, however, his parents allowed him to pursue his musical education. Moussorgsky’s father died in 1853, and three years later the youth entered his regiment. It was in 1857 that he began to have a distaste for his military duties, and two years later he resigned from the army. During the summer following his resignation, however, he was unable to do any work with his music, as he was taken sick with nervous trouble. Also from the time he left the army he was never free from financial embarrassments.

Moussorgsky went to Petrograd, and he and five friends formed themselves into an intellectual circle. He soon, however, began to feel the pinch of poverty and was obliged to do some work of translation. Later he even took a small government position. His mother died in 1865, and he wrote a song at the time which is now regarded as one of his finest works. Toward the middle of this year he was once more attacked by his nervous trouble. It was necessary for him to give up his position and to go to live in the country. He improved gradually, and during the next two years he wrote some songs which later attracted some attention. Most of the year 1868 was spent in the country. In the fall of this year he returned to Petrograd. He secured another position, this one in the Ministry of the Interior. This left him with some leisure, which he employed with his music. About this time he began to work on the music of his opera, “Boris Godounov,” based on the work of the dramatist Pushkin. This was first produced in Petrograd on January 24, 1874. Shortly after he began to work on “Khovantchina,” another opera, which had its first complete public performance in 1885 at Petrograd.

Shortly after the production of “Boris Godounov,” Moussorgsky began to devote himself to the composition of songs, among which was the song, “Without Sunlight,” and the “Songs and Dances of Death.”

Then Moussorgsky began to enter into a mental and physical decline. He was low in funds, for the small salary derived from his government position was insufficient for his needs. He began to play accompaniments at concerts, but very little work of this kind was obtainable. In 1879 he made a long concert tour in South Russia with Madam Leonoff, a singer of repute. This was very successful. He did very little work during the following winter; his health grew worse, and he was forced to give up his government appointment. He lived for a time in the country. At last it was necessary for him to enter the military hospital at Petrograd, where he died on March 28, 1881. He was buried in the Alexander Nevsky cemetery. Some years later a few friends and admirers erected a monument over his grave.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 4, No. 18, SERIAL No. 118
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.