Mussorgsky, Modest [Муссоргский, Модест; Mussorgskij], b 21 March 1839 in Karevo, Pskov gubernia, Russia, d 28 March 1881 in Saint Petersburg. Russian composer and pianist. Regarded as one of the leading Russian musicians of the 19th century, he used Ukrainian themes and melodies in a number of his works. His symphonic picture Night on Bald Mountain (1867) was conceived on Kyivan legends and displayed influences of the Ukrainian folk melos. Two of his art songs for solo voice with piano, ‘Hopak’ and ‘On the Dnipro’ (Song of Yarema), were faithful Russian remakes of texts in Taras Shevchenko’s poem Haidamaky that reflected some modal characteristics of Ukrainian folk music. His comic opera Sorochyntsi Fair (based on Nikolai Gogol’s tale) utilized several Ukrainian folk songs and Ukrainian vocabulary, including Shevchenko’s verse ‘Utoptala stezhechku cherez iar’ (I Trod a Path through the Gully). In this opera Mussorgsky used the jocose folk tune ‘Na berezhku u stavka’ (On the Pond’s Bank), originally titled ‘Hopak’ and scored for mixed chorus and orchestra. In time this number became transcribed extensively for concert use, eg by Fritz Kreisler for violin and orchestra and by Sergei Rachmaninoff for piano solo and for symphony orchestra. Mussorgsky traveled through Ukraine in 1879 as an accompanist to a touring soloist.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Iefremova, L. Mussorhs'kyi i Ukraïna (Kyiv 1958)

Roman Savytsky

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]