Musorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition

The piano cycle "Pictures at an Exhibition" is perhaps the most widely known of Musorgsky's compositions, especially as orchestrated by Ravel. This informative and wide-ranging guide places the original piano work in the context of Russian cultural life, considering in particular the work of the artist Victor Hartman, creator of the pictures which inspired Musorgsky's composition. A detailed synopsis takes the reader through each piece in turn, describing the forms and the external references, and drawing connections with Musorgsky's other musical works. Chapters on the music itself consider, for example, folk elements, key relations and motivic structures.

Dr. Russ also describes the fate of the work in the hands of editors and performers and closes by surveying the best of the orchestrations, particularly that by Ravel.

The book is illustrated with photographs of the existing pictures from Hartman's exhibition.

CONTENIDO:

illustrations
Preface

1. "Pictures at an Exhibition" and nineteenth-century music
-Genre
-Nineteenth-century Russian piano music
-Nationalism and Populism
-Realism
2. Musorgsky and Hartman
-Musorgsky in 1874
-Hartman's death and the composition of "Pictures"
-The work of Victor Hartman
3. Manuscript, publication and performance
-The manuscript
-Performances
4. Looking at Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition
-Pictures into music: the structure of the whole
5. Synopsis
6. The musical language of Pictures at an Exhibition
-Folk music
-Church music and bell sounds
-The variation process
-Rhythm and metre
7. Harmony, scales, tonality and voice-leading in "Pictures at an Exhibition"
-Sets and scales
-New linear structures
8. Orchestrations and transcriptions of "Pictures at an Exhibition"
-Ravel's orchestration
-Some remarks on the other transcriptions

Appendix: "Pictures at an Exhibition", principal transcriptions and orchestrations

Notes
Select bibliography
Index