Categories: History

A Musical Masterpiece Describing Mussorgsky’s Walk Through an Art Gallery

In my student days, I had a recording of “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky as arranged for orchestra by Maurice Ravel. Since it was a large 33 RPM record, it came with a jacket which offered copious information on its back side. The following article will undoubtedly be influenced by these notes.

Modest Mussorgsky was a nationalistic Russian composer who lived in the nineteenth century. He died in 1881 after enjoying a slightly longer life than Mozart and Schubert.

His friend, the painter Viktor Hartmann, died in 1873 at the age of 39 years. A year later, Mussorgsky attended an exhibition featuring the paintings of Hartmann. His walk through the gallery inspired him to write a musical masterpiece called “Pictures at an Exhibition.” He wrote the work as a suite for piano. Several other composers have arranged it for orchestra.

The music begins with a promenade that occurs again and again throughout the work. It depicts Mussorgsky walking through the gallery from one picture to another. Titles are given to the pictures that he inspects, but I do not think that the titles originated with Hartmann – at least not all of them.

Gnomus

The first picture viewed by Mussorgsky is entitled “Gnomus.” Gnomus is supposed to be a Latin word for “gnome,” but the ancient Romans would not have known what the word meant. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, Paracelsus invented the word in the sixteenth century.

According to the Kennedy Center and other sources, Hartmann’s lost picture was actually a design for a wooden nutcracker. If so, either Hartmann made the nutcracker look like a gnome, or else it suited Mussorgsky’s purposes to treat it as a gnome. In either case, Stassov, who was well acquainted with both Hartmann and Mussorgsky, described the music as “a sketch depicting a little gnome, clumsily running with crooked legs,” according to Wikipedia.

Il Vecchio Castello

After gazing at the ludicrous gnome with dreamy amusement, Mussorgsky looks for another picture. His lumbering footsteps are depicted by the same theme as before. He pauses to enjoy a picture of an old Italian castle. Accordingly, the title of this section of the music is “Il Vecchio Castello,” which is an Italian phrase meaning “The Old Castle.” Hartmann undoubtedly drew this sketch when he was in Italy.

The melody is enchanting. This is one of the two movements that I like best. According to Favorite Classical Composers, the music “evokes a medieval troubadour sadly singing in front of the castle.” Stassov also mentioned a troubadour in this connection, according to Wikipedia. Unfortunately, Hartmann’s sketch has not come down to us, so we cannot personally verify whether or not there was a troubadour in Hartmann’s picture.

In the Tuileries Garden

Another musical promenade takes Mussorgsky to a picture of the Tuileries in Paris. Most sources simply give “Tuileries” as the title of this section, but Music Web International calls it “In the Tuileries Garden,” and I think that this more accurately reflects the original French title.

This particular movement has a subtitle: “Dispute d’enfants après jeux,” which literally means “Dispute of children after games.” Evidently the picture had children playing and arguing in the vicinity of the Tuileries.” The music is a good imitation of such a scene. Unfortunately, we cannot view the picture first hand. If it still exists, no one knows where it is.

Bydlo

The next movement is entitled “Bydlo.” I do not know any Polish, but the sources say that it means “cattle.” Because of the description on my old record jacket, I associate the music with an ox-cart, and such sources as Music Web International are laboring under the same impression.

Perhaps “Bydlo” and the Tuileries picture were close together in the gallery. At least, there is no promenade between the two sections. However, the resurgence of the familiar theme shows that Mussorgsky has to walk again after he says goodbye to “Bydlo.”

Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks

We can personally examine the picture that inspired the next movement of Mussorgsky’s music. It was one of the sketches that Hartmann made for a ballet named “Trilby” when he designed costumes for the dancers. In this picture, the costumes look like a giant egg shells. The head, arms, and legs of the dancers are sticking out of the eggshells in the picture.

Appropriately, the music that imitates this picture bears a Russian title which means “The Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks.”

Two Jews, Rich and Poor

The title “Two Jews, Rich and Poor” probably did not originate with Mussorgsky. The Stmoroky website claims that the composer did not supply any name to this particular movement. Sometimes the two Jews are given Yiddish names, so that the movement bears the title “Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle.” I am fairly certain that this was the title of the movement on my old record jacket.

It is possible that the music is based on two different pictures instead of one. At least, Hartmenn made sketches of two Polish Jews have come down to us. One of them is rich, and the other is poor. However, Hartmann probably made many sketches while he was in Poland, and one of them may have featured a rich Jew and a poor Jew in the same picture.

Portentous music portrays the rich Jew. In contrast, Symphony Silicon Valley aptly describes the music applied to the indigent Israelite as “a stuttering trumpet solo.”

Marketplace at Limoges

Mussorgsky repeats the promenade once more at this point, but in many performances of this work, the tired Mussorgsky does not have to walk.

The section entitled “Marketplace at Limoges” is animated. The Kennedy Center describes the music as follows: “a lively sketch of a bustling market, with animated conversations flying among the female vendors.”

Limoges is a French city in central France. It is located a little west and south of the geometrical center of the country.

Catacombs

The next movement, entitled “Catacombs,” is based on a picture that has come down to us. Hartmann sketched the catacombs of Paris. He included three men in the picture. From a Stassov comment (quoted by Wikipedia), we know that one of the three figures was Hartmann himself.

Cum Mortuis in Lingua Mortua

The picture of the catacombs also serves as inspiration for music entitled “Cum mortuis in lingua mortua,” which is Latin for “With the dead in a dead language.” When meditating on this sepulchral picture, Mussorgsky is with the dead, and the dead language is evidently an allusion to the fact that the catacombs were Roman, even though located in Paris. The Romans, of course, spoke Latin, a language that had ceased to be spoken, except in academic circles..

Since the music is a transformation of the promenade theme, it either represents Mussorgsky continuing to walk through the gallery in somber meditation, or else it depicts Hartmann himself as he walks about the catacombs. I think the former is more probable. Since the theme has been associated with Mussorgsky, the work is more unified if its transformation also applies to Mussorgsky.