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'Pictures at an Exhibition' (, ''Kartínki s výstavki – Vospominániye o Víktore Gártmane'', ''Pictures from an Exhibition – a Remembrance of Viktor Hartmann'') is a famous suite of ten piano pieces composed by Modest Mussorgsky in 1874. It is generally acknowledged to be Mussorgsky’s greatest solo piano composition, and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists. It has also become known through various orchestrations and arrangements produced by other musicians and composers (see: ''Arrangements by other composers'', below, for further discussion), with Ravel's arrangement being the most recorded and performed.

Contents

Composition history

Publication history

Gallery of Hartmann’s pictures

Movements of the suite

Arrangements by others

Orchestral arrangements

Non-orchestral arrangements

Usage and Tributes

Recordings

See also

Notes

References

External links

Composition history

Mussorgsky composed the work in commemoration of his friend, the artist and architect Viktor Hartmann, who was only 39 when he suffered an aneurism and died in 1873. The working title for the suite was ''Hartmann'':
It was probably in 1870, and through the highly influential critic Vladimir Stasov, that Mussorgsky had met Hartmann, whose devotion to the cause of an intrinsically Russian art must have made him a congenial spirit. It was at Stasov’s instigation that a posthumous exhibition of over 400 of the artist’s works was mounted in the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg, in February and March 1874. ''Pictures at an Exhibition'' takes the form of an imaginary musical tour around such a collection. Despite his alcoholism, Mussorgsky finished this masterpiece a month and a half after having viewed the tribute to Hartmann. A sufferer of ''delirium tremens'' in his forties, Mussorgsky would die just seven years after composing ''Pictures'', at age forty-two.^[1]
As the pictorial basis for his musical exhibition, Mussorgsky mostly selected drawings and watercolours that Hartmann had produced during his travels abroad. Sadly, we cannot in all cases be certain which Hartmann work Mussorgsky was alluding to, because not all the paintings and drawings have survived. In an article in The Musical Quarterly in 1939, Alfred Frankenstein claimed to have identified seven pictures by catalogue number of the eleven (two separate drawings supposedly became the source of ''Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuyle'') that inspired the suite: ''Gnomus'' (now lost), ''Tuileries'' (now lost), ''Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks'', ''Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuyle'', ''Catacombae'', ''The Hut on Hen’s Legs'' (''Baba Yaga''), and ''The Bogatyr Gates''.
Remarkably, Mussorgsky structures the suite in a manner that actually allows him to represent his own progress through the exhibition. This he does by means of the opening ''Promenade'' and the four interludes (only the last of which is also labelled "Promenade") that are clear variations of its material: "My physiognomy can be seen in the interludes," he wrote in a letter to Stasov. More remarkable still, however, is the fact that by the end of the work the ''Promenade'' theme has stopped functioning as a merely linking device and instead started to appear within the actual "pictures" themselves: The theme features prominently in the movements ''Cum mortuis in lingua mortua'' and ''The Bogatyr Gates'', mysterious in one, celebratory in the other.

Publication history

As with most of Mussorgsky’s works, ''Pictures at an Exhibition'' has a complicated publication history. Although composed very rapidly (during June 2-22, 1874), the work did not appear in print until 1886 (five years after the composer’s death), when an edition by the composer’s great friend Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was published. This publication, moreover, was not a completely accurate representation of Mussorgsky’s score, but presented an edited and revised text that had been reworked to a certain amount, as well as containing a substantial number of errors and misreadings.
Only in 1931, more than half a century after the work’s composition, was ''Pictures at an Exhibition'' published in a scholarly edition in agreement with the composer’s manuscript. In 1940, the Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola published an important critical edition of Mussorgsky’s work with extensive commentary. Mussorgsky’s hand-written manuscript was published in facsimile in 1975.

Gallery of Hartmann’s pictures

The works by Hartmann that can be shown with any certainty to have been used by Mussorgsky in assembling his suite are as follows:

Movements of the suite

The ten pieces comprising the suite correspond to ten pictures by Hartmann. The five ‘Promenade’ movements, consisting of an introduction and four links, are not numbered among the ten pictures. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ‘Promenade’ movements are untitled in the composer's manuscript. Vladimir Stasov provided an early 'program' for the ten pictures, identified below:

★ '''Promenade''' (French): Key of B flat major, alternating 5/4 and 6/4 time. Stasov: In this piece Mussorgsky depicts himself "roving through the exhibition, now leisurely, now briskly in order to come close to a picture that had attracted his attention, and at times sadly, thinking of his departed friend." The melody and rhythm resemble Russian folk songs. The piece has simple, strong rhythms, but a changing meter:


★ '''No. 1 "Gnomus"''' (): Key of E flat minor, in 3/4 time. Stasov: "A sketch depicting a little gnome, clumsily running with crooked legs." Hartmann’s sketch is believed to represent a toy nutcracker.

★ '''[Untitled]''': Key of A flat major. The promenade theme, illustrating the composer walking from work to work.

★ '''No. 2 "Il vecchio castello"''' (): Key of G sharp minor, in 6/8 time. Stasov: "A medieval castle before which a troubador sings a song." This piece is probably based on an architectural watercolor by Hartman of an Italian castle. ^[2]

★ '''[Untitled]''': Key of B major. The promenade theme, extremely short (8 measures).

★ '''No. 3 "Tuileries" (Dispute d'enfants après jeux)''' (): Key of B major, in 4/4 time. Stasov: "An avenue in the garden of the Tuileries, with a swarm of children and nurses." Hartmann originally pictured an empty garden, presumably the Jardin des Tuileries, near the Louvre in Paris, France. Mussorgsky musically added children chattering and playing in the garden.

★ '''No. 4 "Bydło"''' (): Key of G sharp minor, in 2/4 time. Stasov: "A Polish cart on enormous wheels, drawn by oxen."

★ '''[Untitled]''': Key of D minor. The promenade theme.

★ '''No. 5 "Балет невылупившихся птенцов"''' [Balet nevylupivshikhsya ptentsov] (): Key of F major, in 2/4 time. Stasov: "Hartmann’s design for the décor of a picturesque scene in the ballet ''Trilby''." Gerald Abraham provides the following details: "''Trilby'' or ''The Demon of the Heath'', a ballet with choreography by Petipa, music by Julius Gerber, and décor by Hartmann... produced in 1870. The fledglings were canary chicks." This movement is in ternary form (ABA):
::#Scherzino
::#Trio
::#Scherzino (repeat of No.1)
::#Coda

★ '''No. 6 "Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle"''' (Yiddish): Key of B flat minor, in 4/4 time. Stasov: "Two Jews: Rich and Poor" () Some have incorrectly perceived this description to be part of the original title. Some arrangements have retitled this piece as "Two Polish Jews, Rich and Poor (Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle)". The title given here is the one used in Mussorgsky’s original manuscript. These are two separate drawings, presented by Hartmann to Mussorgsky. The use of augmented second intervals approximate Jewish modes such as the Phrygian dominant scale.

★ '''Promenade''': Key of B flat major. Many arrangements including Ravel’s omit it.

★ '''No. 7 "Limoges, le marché" (La grande nouvelle)''' (): Key of E flat major, in 4/4 time. Stasov: "French women quarreling violently in the market." Limoges is a city in central France. Mussorgsky originally provided two paragraphs, in French, describing the marketplace discussion (the 'great news') represented in this movement, but crossed them out. The coda leads without a break into the next movement.

★ '''No. 8 "Catacombae" (Sepulcrum romanum)''' (). This movement consists of two parts – a ''Largo'' in b minor, 3/4 time, and an ''Andante'' in b minor, 6/4 time. Stasov: "Hartmann represented himself examining the Paris catacombs by the light of a lantern." In the first part, alternating loud and soft chords mysteriously evoke the cavernous acoustics of the catacombs. The second part features a ghostly variation of the promenade theme. The composer's manuscript for this portion of the movement is accompanied by the following penciled notes in Russian: "NB – Latin text: With the dead in a dead language", and "A Latin text would be appropriate: The creative spirit of the dead Hartmann leads me towards the skulls, calls to them; the skulls begin to glow softly." This portion of Catacombs is accordingly called "'''Cum mortuis in lingua mortua'''" (), often incorrectly 'Con mortuis'.

★ '''No. 9 "Избушка на курьих ножках" (Баба-Яга)''' [Izbushka na kur'ikh nozhkakh (Baba-Yaga)] (): Key of C minor, in 2/4 time. Stasov: "Hartmann's drawing depicted a clock in the form of Baba-Yaga's hut on fowl's legs. Mussorgsky added Baba-Yaga's flight in a mortar." This movement is in ternary form (ABA):
::#Allegro
::#Andante
::#Allegro (similar to No.1)
::#Coda
:The central andante is one of the more demanding portions of the suite, featuring a 16th note triplet tremolo throughout. The coda leads without a break to the next and final movement.

★ '''No. 10 "Богатырские ворота" (В стольном городе во Киеве)''' [Bogatïrskie vorota (v stol'nom gorode vo Kieve)] (): Key of E flat major, in 4/4 time. Bogatyrs are heroes that appear in Russian epics called bylinas. This movement is commonly translated as "The Great Gate of Kiev." The title is also sometimes rendered "The Heroes' Gate at Kiev." Stasov: "Hartmann's sketch was his design for city gates at Kiev in the ancient Russian massive style with a cupola shaped like a slavonic helmet." Hartmann made a sketch for a planned (but never built) monumental gate for Tsar Alexander II. This gate was to have commemorated the Tsar’s narrow escape from an assassination attempt on 1866 April 4. Hartmann felt that his design for the gate was the finest work he had yet done, and it won the competition for the gate’s design. The movement has the following form (roughly ABABCA):
::#Majestic
::#Solemn (''piano'')
::#Majestic (with descending and ascending 8th note scales)
::#Solemn (''fortissimo'')
::#Bells (with a final variation of the 'promenade' theme)
::#Majestic (half note triplets)
::#Coda

Arrangements by others

The first musician to arrange Mussorgsky’s ''Pictures at an Exhibition'' for orchestra was the little-known Russian composer and conductor Mikhail Tushmalov (1861-1896). However, his version (first performed in 1891 and possibly produced as early as 1886 when he was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov) does not include the entire suite: Only seven of the ten “pictures” are present, leaving out ''Gnomus'', ''Tuileries'', and ''Bydło'', and all the ''Promenades'' are omitted except for the last one, which is used in place of the first.
The next orchestration was that undertaken by the British conductor Henry Wood in 1915. This too eliminated some of the appearances of the ''Promenade'' theme.
The first person to orchestrate the piece in its entirety was the Slovenian-born conductor and violinist Leo Funtek, who finished his version in 1922 while living and working in Finland.
The version by Maurice Ravel (also produced in 1922, to a commission by Serge Koussevitzky) is a virtuoso effort by a master colourist, and has proved the most popular in the concert hall and on record. Ravel does, however, omit the ''Promenade'' between ''“Samuel” Goldenberg und “Schmuÿle”'' and ''Limoges''.
The conductor Leopold Stokowski introduced Ravel’s version to Philadelphia audiences in November 1929; he produced his own very free orchestration (incorporating much re-composition) ten years later. Stokowski revised his version over the years, and made three gramophone recordings of it (1939, 1941 and 1965). The score was not printed until 1971.
Many other orchestrations and arrangements have been created, and the original piano composition is also frequently performed and recorded. A brass ensemble arrangement was made by Elgar Howarth for the ''Philip Jones Brass Ensemble'' in the 1970s. There is even an adaptation for solo classical guitar by Kazuhito Yamashita.
There have also been several very different non-classical interpretations: one incorporating progressive rock, jazz and folk music elements by the British trio ''Emerson, Lake & Palmer'' in their 1971 album ''Pictures at an Exhibition'', and an electronic music adaptation by Isao Tomita in 1975. A heavy metal arrangement of the entire suite was released by German band ''Mekong Delta''. Another metal band, Armored Saint, use the "Great Gate of Kiev"'s main theme as the introduction to the track "March of the Saint". In 2002, electronic musician-composer Amon Tobin paraphrased Gnomus for the track ''Back From Space'' on his album ''Out from Out Where''. In 2003, guitarist-composer Trevor Rabin released his electric guitar adaptation of "Promenade," once intended for the Yes album ''Big Generator'', later included in his demo album ''90124''.
The theme is used in the computer game Spelunker by Tim Martin.

Orchestral arrangements

A listing of orchestral arrangements of ''Pictures at an Exhibition'':

★ Mikhail Tushmalov (ca. 1886; three “pictures” and four ''Promenades'' omitted)

★ Henry Wood (1915; four ''Promenades'' omitted)

★ Leo Funtek (1922)

★ Maurice Ravel (1922; the fifth ''Promenade'' omitted)

★ Giuseppe Becce (1922; for “salon-orchestra”)

★ Leonidas Leonardi (1924)

★ Lucien Cailliet (1937)

★ Leopold Stokowski (1938; ''Tuileries'', fifth ''Promenade'' and ''Limoges'' omitted)

★ Walter Goehr (1942; includes a subsidiary part for piano)

★ Sergei Gorchakov (1954)

★ Daniel Walter (1959)

★ Helmut Brandenburg (ca. 1970)

★ Emile Naoumoff (ca. 1974, for piano and orchestra)

★ Zdenek Macal (ca. 1977)

★ Lawrence Leonard (1977; for piano and orchestra)

★ Vladimir Ashkenazy (1982)

★ Pung Siu-Wen (ca. 1983; for orchestra of Chinese instruments)

★ Thomas Wilbrandt (1992)

★ Byrwec Ellison (1995)

★ Mekong Delta (1997; for group and orchestra)

★ Carl Simpson (1997)

★ Julian Yu (2002; for chamber orchestra)

★ Hanspeter Gmur (date unknown)

Non-orchestral arrangements

A listing of non-orchestral arrangements of ''Pictures at an Exhibition'':

★ Vladimir Horowitz (1946; revised version for solo piano. His performance of this arrangement at a 1951 concert in Carnegie Hall has been described as one of the greatest piano performances of all time; it was recorded for posterity)

★ Giuseppe Becce (1930; for piano trio)

★ Duke Ellington(date unknown; for big band)

★ Rudolf Wurthner (ca. 1954; for accordion orchestra; abridged version)

★ Ralph Burns (1957; for jazz orchestra)

★ Erik Leidzen (ca. 1960; for band)

★ Allyn Ferguson (ca. 1963; for jazz orchestra)

★ Mark Hindsley (ca. 1963; for band)

★ Dale Eymann (ca. 1965; for band; ''The Bogatyr Gates'' only)

★ B. Futerman (ca. 1968; Russian folk instruments orchestra, ''The Bogatyr Gates'' only)

★ Roger Boutry (ca. 1970; for band)

★ Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1971; rock group)

★ Harry van Hoof (ca. 1972; brass ensemble; ''The Bogatyr Gates'' only)

★ Isao Tomita (1975; for synthesizer)

★ Oskar Gottlieb Blarr (1976; for organ)

★ Elgar Howarth (ca. 1977; for brass ensemble)

★ Arthur Willis (1970s; for organ)

★ Dr. Keith Chapman (1970s; for the Wanamaker organ)

★ Günther Kaunzinger (1980; for organ)

★ Elgar Howarth (1981; for brass band)

★ Kazuhito Yamashita (1981; for classical guitar)

★ Reginald Haché (1982; for two pianos)

★ Henk de Vlieger (1984; for 14 percussion players, celesta and harp)

★ Arie Abbenes & Herman Jeurissen (ca. 1984; for carillon & band; ''The Bogatyr Gates'' only)

★ James Curnow (1985; for concert band; abridged version)

★ Jan Hala (ca. 1988; for guitar and pop orchestra; ''Baba-Yaga'' only)

★ Jean Guillou (ca. 1988; for organ)

★ Heinz Wallisch (ca. 1989; for two guitars)

★ Yuri Chernov (ca. 1991; for Russian folk instrument orchestra; ''The Bogatyr Gates'' only)

★ Gert van Keulen (1992; for band)

★ Hans Wilhelm Plate (1993; for 44 grand pianos and one prepared piano)

★ Jim Prime & Thom Hannum (ca. 1994; for brass quintet and band; abridged version)

★ Hans-Karsten Raecke (ca. 1994; for chorus, vocal soloists, synthesizers, brass and percussion)

★ Tangerine Dream (1994)

★ Trevor Parks (1994; for two pianos and wind band)

★ Elmar Rothe (1995; for three guitars)

★ Mekong Delta (1997; for metal band)

★ Joachim Linckelmann (ca. 1999 for wind quintet)

★ Vladimir Boyashov (ca. 2000 for Russian folk orchestra)

★ Tim Seddon (ca. 2002 two pianos)

★ Clare & Brent Fisher (2004; for jazz bigband)

★ Carl Simpson (2004; for wind orchestra)

★ Wayne Lytle, for the DVD Animusic 2 (2005; for synthesizer; ''Promenade'' + 3 movements)

★ Cameron Carpenter (2006, for organ)

★ Sergei V. Korschmin (2006; for brass ensemble)

★ David Aydelott (2006; for marching band)

★ Joseph Kreines (2006; for band, commissioned by the Timber Creek High School Wind Ensemble)

★ Ward Swingle (date unknown; for vocal ensemble, double bass and percussion; ''Limoges'' only)

★ John Boyd (date unknown; for band)

★ Vyacheslav Rozanov (date unknown; for bayan orchestra; ''The Old Castle'' only)

★ William Schmidt (date unknown; for saxophone choir);

★ Andres Segovia (date unknown; for guitar; ''The Old Castle'' only)

★ Elias Seppala (date unknown; for band)

★ Atsushi Sugahara (date unknown; for percussion ensemble)

★ Tohru Takahashi (date unknown; for band)

★ Simon Wright (date unknown; for band)

★ Akira Yodo (date unknown; for clarinet choir)

★ Michael Sweeney (date unknown; for band)

★ Massimo Gabba (2006; for organ)

★ Adam Berces (2007; for synthesizer - 'Pictures at an Exxhibition' album)

★ Nicholas Sprenger and Co-Arranger Carter Page (2007; for electric 7-String Guitar and electric 4-String Bass Guitar, Shortened versions of ''Promenade'', ''The Old Castle'', ''Bydlo'' and a reprise of ''Promenade'' in place of ''The Great Gate Of Kiev'' for the Experimental/Avant-Garde/Metal band KHAZM)

★ Mauricio Romero (2007; complete transcription for double bass alone)

★ Tony Matthews (2007; complete transcription for Brass Quintet)

Usage and Tributes

★ ''Gnomus'', ''Tuileries'' and other excerpts were used extensively for the score of Hanna-Barbera’s cartoon series, ''The Smurfs''.

★ An excerpt of the piece was used as part of the score in several episodes of the Warner Bros. animated television series ''Animaniacs''.

★ An abridgement of the ''Promenade'' theme was the theme tune of the British political sit-com ''The New Statesman''.

★ The ''Promenade'' theme was used in audio-visual mode in ''self-test'' software of 8-bit Atari computers (''self test'' is built into ROM of the computer).

★ The movement ''Gnomus'' is played during the interpretive dance scene in the movie ''The Big Lebowski''.

★ ''The Bogatyr Gates'' is used as the entrance theme to WWE wrestler and color commentator Jerry "The King" Lawler. Previously the company had used the same music as the entrance theme for other wrestlers portrayed as the "King of Wrestling," most notably Harley Race and Haku.

★ There is a society devoted to the promotion of performances and arrangements of the suite, International Kartinki's Vystavki Association (IKVA).

★ The "Promenade" theme is also a song that one may choose as the background music in the game .

★ The "Promenade" was used for a comedy character's ("Horacio Cascarin") "Museum of Soccer" created by the Mexican genius Andres Bustamante

★ Animusic's Cathedral Pictures is based off of Pictures at an Exhibition.

★ Part of "The Hut on Hen's Legs" (Baba Yaga) was used as the theme music for the 1977 BBC documentary series ''The Secret War''.

★ The ''Promenade'' theme is used at the opening of rapper Method Man's first solo album, ''Tical (album)''.

★ A short excerpt from "Baba Yaga" is used in the South Park episode "Tweek vs. Craig" as Kenny imagines all the sharp tools he'd be around if he transferred from Home Ec to Shop Class.

★ The most famous use of Promenade may be as the jingle (via synthesizer) in the ident logo for the now defunct World Northal Corporation, a distributor of foreign films during the 70s and 80s, most notably Kung Fu Theater type movies.

Recordings

★ Link to download music - Pictures at an Exhibition recording from Musopen.

See also

★ Lists of solo piano pieces

★ Romantic music

★ Symphonic poem

Notes

1. The Lives of the Great Composers, , Harold C., Schonberg, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London, 1981, ISBN 0-393-01302-2
2. Alfred Frankenstein, "Victor Hartman and Modeste Musorgsky," The Musical Quarterly 25 (1939), 282.

References

★ Calvocoressi, M.D., Abraham, G., ''Mussorgsky, 'Master Musicians' Series'', London: J.M.Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1946

★ Calvocoressi, M.D., ''Modest Mussorgsky: His Life and Works'', London: Rockliff, 1956

★ Frankenstein, Alfred. "Victor Hartmann and Modeste Musorgsky." ''The Musical Quarterly'' 25, no. 3 (1939): 268–291.

★ Russ, Michael. ''Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition'' (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK; 1992). ISBN 0-521-38607-1 (paperback), ISBN 0-521-38442-7 (hardback).

External links

★ Reproductions of Viktor Hartmann’s pictures

★ Another page with reproductions (German)

★ Another page with reproductions (Hungarian)

★ A page with additional pictures reproduced in higher resolution (Japanese site with English pages)