Program Music:
“Pictures at an Exhibition”
Mussorgsky
The Burning River Brass
Arr. Michael Allen
Powerpoint by Michael Macartney
Program Music
Program Music is intended to musically
represent or accompany an extra musical theme
such as a painting, geographical feature,
emotion etc. The term is almost exclusively
applied to works from the Romantic Period
(1825-1910)
Examples of Program Music
Berlioz – Symphonie Fanstastique
Saint Saëns – Carnival of the Animals
Smetana – Die Moldau
Stravinsky – The Rite of Spring
About the Composer
Mussorgsky wrote a colossal opera (Boris
Godunov), five-dozen wonderful songs, and
not much else. More accurately, he started
many pieces, and the few he finished
typically suffered editorial interference when
they were published. At first it seemed to
have been sheer indolence that curbed his
output; eventually he paid more attention to
drinking than to music, and that’s what did
him in at age 42
Pictures at an Exhibition
Written by Mussorgsky for his late friend Victor
Hartmann. Hartmann was an architect and painter
who passed away in 1873. After his death an
exhibition was organized in honor of Hartmann. A
huge selection of his creations – over 400
watercolors, drawings, and jewelry designs – was
exhibited in tribute at the St. Petersburg Academy of
the Arts. Mussorgsky was so moved by the display
that he composed a piano suite in tribute, however it
wasn’t published until 5 years after the composers
death.
Tuileries
This movement comes from the painting “The
Tuileries Gardens”. The gardens are located
in Paris and like most of the paintings
represented in this work this one was lost,
however through Mussorgsky’s use of the
“universal melody” and falling thirds you can
imagine the children playing and taunting
each other in the garden.
Pictures at an Exhibition
10 of Hartmann’s pictures are represented
through Mussorgsky’s music, however only 3
appeared in the actual exhibition. The others
were in Mussorgsky’s private collection or he
had seen them somewhere else.
Pictures at an Exhibition
The other 5 movements are the recurring
Promenade theme used to illustrate the viewers
walk from painting to painting and to unify the 15
movement work
He also uses this theme in the piece’s finale
“The Great Gate of Kiev”
The Great Gate of Kiev
The Great Gate of Kiev
A competition was held to select the best design
for a gateway to be built in Kiev to honor the
failed assassination of Czar Alexander II in
1866. Hartmann won the competition. His entry
showed a Moorish-looking structure topped with
a cupola in the shape of an old Russian battle
helmet, with a small crowd of people admiring
the gate that dwarfs them.
The Great Gate of Kiev
Pictures at an Exhibition rises to this grand and
glorious finale that leaves the listener feeling as
if they had traveled to Kiev and are now standing
in front of this tragically non-existent gate.
Program Music
This suite is a perfect example of Program
Music because it takes pictures (an extra-
musical idea) and uses themes, textures, and
timbre to represent them musically. The
beauty of this piece is that Hartmann’s lost
artwork lives on through the music.