Born in Karevo, Russia in 1839, Modest Musorgsky is considered one of the most original and influential of the 19th-century Russian nationalist composers.
His mother gave him piano lessons. At age nine, he played a piano concerto by John Field before an audience in his parents’ house. At age 13, he was enrolled in a military academy in St. Petersburg and entered the Russian army in 1856. During this time, he sustained his interest in music even though he had not yet studied harmony or composition.
In 1857, he joined a circle of Russian nationalist composers from whom he received instruction in composition. In 1858, he resigned from military service to devote himself to music. He began working for the government in 1863 but was dismissed from his post in 1867 because of his heavy drinking.
After his dismissal, he spent some time composing. The resulting works include Saint John’s Night on the Bare Mountain, also known as Night on Bald Mountain. In 1869, Musorgsky was reinstalled in his government job and was able to complete the original version of the opera Boris Godunov, which was first produced after considerable changes in 1874.
Other works during this time include the song cycles The Nursery (1872) and Songs and Dances of Death (1877), and the piano suite Pictures from an Exhibition (1874).
When he died at age 42 from an alcohol-related stroke, many of Musorgsky’s works were unfinished. Some were completed by fellow composers. Among them are the operas Khovanshchina, completed by Rimsky-Korsakov, and The Fair at Sorochinsk, by César Cui.
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