Modest Musorgsky is Russia's greatest musical dramatist. When he died in 1881 in St Petersburg at the age of forty-two, in poverty and relative obscurity, he was known for a single opera, Boris Godunov and a handful of eccentric 'realistic' songs set to prosaic Russian texts. He had no institutional connections, no 'degree', no family of his own, not even a permanent address. Except for Franz Liszt, no composer of stature knew of him outside Russia. Through the loyal (if controversial) intervention of his friends, his works survived in various editings into the early twentieth century, when revivals and evolving musical tastes restored him to new life. This account of his life, first published in 1999, emphasizes the psychological and economic factors that contributed to the composer's remarkable rise and tragic, premature end and is the first brief biography in English to make use of materials published in the new, de-Sovietized Russian academic climate.
| ISBN: | 9780521485074 |
| Publication date: | 30th September 1999 |
| Author: | Caryl Princeton University, New Jersey Emerson |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 218 pages |
| Series: | Musical Lives |
| Genres: |
Musicians, singers, bands and groups Composers and songwriters Opera |
Modest Musorgsky is Russia's greatest musical dramatist. When he died in 1881 in St Petersburg at the age of forty-two, in poverty and relative obscurity, he was known for a single opera, Boris Godunov and a handful of eccentric 'realistic' songs set to prosaic Russian texts. He had no institutional connections, no 'degree', no family of his own, not even a permanent address. Except for Franz Liszt, no composer of stature knew of him outside Russia. Through the loyal (if controversial) intervention of his friends, his works survived in various editings into the early twentieth century, when revivals and evolving musical tastes restored him to new life. This account of his life, first published in 1999, emphasizes the psychological and economic factors that contributed to the composer's remarkable rise and tragic, premature end and is the first brief biography in English to make use of materials published in the new, de-Sovietized Russian academic climate.
The Life of Musorgsky features in the following genres: Musicians, singers, bands and groups, Composers and songwriters, Opera
The Life of Musorgsky is available in Paperback
The Life of Musorgsky was written by Caryl Princeton University, New Jersey Emerson and published by Cambridge University Press
The Life of Musorgsky has 218 pages
Yes it is part of Musical Lives series
£22.50