Modest MussorgskyModest MussorgskyModest MussorgskyModest MussorgskyModest MussorgskyBorn: March 21, 1839Born: March 21, 1839Born: March 21, 1839Born: March 21, 1839Born: March 21, 1839Died: March 28, 1881Died: March 28, 1881Died: March 28, 1881Died: March 28, 1881Died: March 28, 1881

Modest Mussorgsky was born inthe Russian village of Karevo.His mother gave him his firstpiano lessons, and it was clearearly on that Mussorgsky was avery good pianist.

Modest went to militaryboarding school, and when hegraduated, he joined the army asan officer. Then, Mussorgskystarted studying music withRussian composer MilyBalakirev, and left the army tobecome a composer. He waspart of a group of five Russiancomposers known as “The Five,”or the “Mighty Handful.”

Mussorgsky had a hard timemaking a living as a composer,especially after his family lost allits money; so he found agovernment job, and continuedto spend all his spare time

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“Gnomes” from Pictures at an Exhibition

composing.

In addition to his instrumentalmusic, Mussorgsky wrote songs,and several operas. His operaticmasterpiece is Boris Godunov,about a Russian Tsar who livedin the 1500’s.

Mussorgsky wrote Pictures at anExhibition to honor his friendVictor Hartman, an artist andarchitect who died at the age of39. After viewing a memorialexhibition of Hartman’s work,Mussorgsky decided to create hisown tribute - music depicting tenpieces of art in the show.Pictures at an Exhibition wasoriginally written for piano, butthere have been many orchestra-tions of the piece. The mostfamous is by Maurice Ravel.

The first picture in Mussorgsky’smusical exhbition is a sketch fora nutcracker shaped like agnome.

“Gnomes”

The gnome scurries

into the music

The instruments

try to play another

tune.

He crashes down and

shatters the rhythms.

The instruments try again to take

back the music. You can hear them

struggle with the gnome.

The gnome

finally crashes

down on the

music and it

ends!

Picture ThisWe can not see the painting of the “Gnomes” Mussorsky saw. We have the picture he

painted with his music. Which gnome do YOU think matches the music he created.

Follow the listening

map below as you

listen to the music.

Modest Mussorgsky

WGUC sincerely thanksThe Charles H. Dater FoundationThe Charles H. Dater FoundationThe Charles H. Dater FoundationThe Charles H. Dater FoundationThe Charles H. Dater Foundation

for its sustaining support since theinception of

Classics for Kids®.Time for Halloween

What are you going to be for Halloween?

Mussorgsky was great at creating pictures with

his music. He did this by chosing the right

instruments to create his scenes. What instruments

would you choose to describe the Halloween

costumes above? Write down your answer and

why you chose the instrument for each character.

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Match Up

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