RomanticModeste Moussorgski
Modest Mussorgsky was born in the Russian countryside.
Modeste Moussorgski’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
- 1839👶 Birth
Born in Karevo on 21 March into a landowning family
- 1840🌍 Meanwhile
Adolphe Sax invents the saxophone (c. 1840)
- 1846📚 Trainingage 7
Learns piano from his mother; loves his nanny’s folk tales
- 1856🎩 Careerage 17
Officer in the Preobrazhensky Regiment; meets Borodin
- 1857🎩 Careerage 18
Meets Balakirev and joins the future ‘Five’
- 1861🏛️ Landmarkage 22
Abolition of serfdom in Russia; his family is ruined
- 1867🎼 Workage 28
St John’s Night on the Bare Mountain
- 1869🎼 Workage 30
First version of Boris Godunov
- 1869🌍 Meanwhile
The Suez Canal opens
- 1874🎼 Workage 35
Premiere of Boris Godunov; Pictures at an Exhibition
- 1875🌍 Meanwhile
The Palais Garnier opera house opens in Paris
- 1877🌍 Meanwhile
Edison invents the phonograph: sound can be recorded!
- 1881🕯️ Deathage 42
Dies in St Petersburg on 28 March, aged 42
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Excerpts of up to 90 seconds, freely licensed recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
Once upon a time…
Modest Mussorgsky was born in the Russian countryside. His nurse told him Russian tales full of witches and heroes. He never forgot those stories!
He first became an army officer, then left everything for music. He wanted his music to be like real life and the way people talk.
After a painter friend died, he wrote Pictures at an Exhibition: you walk through a museum and each piece describes a painting. There is a gnome, chicks dancing in their shells and the hut of the witch Baba Yaga, which walks on chicken legs!
He also wrote Night on Bald Mountain, in which witches party until sunrise.
Modeste Moussorgski’s instruments
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