Biography of Mussorgsky. Some facts

The main figure of this article will be Modest Mussorgsky. Biography of the composer begins on March 16, 1839 in one of the small villages of the Pskov region. From an early age, parents who belonged to the ancient family of nobles, introduced the boy to music. Mother taught him to play the piano, and at the age of seven he already performed plays. A few years later, the future genius has already mastered whole concerts.

Biography Mussorgsky in the early years of life

Few of Modest's ancestors could have assumed that he would become a great musician and composer. All the relatives of Mussorgsky were loyal to the state, and men served in the army of the tsar. The exception was at first the father - Peter Mussorgsky, who had a great passion for music, and then his son, who inherited this gift. The first teacher in the piano was Modest's mother - Julia Chirikova.

In 1849, Modest Mussorgsky went to Petersburg, and there began his first professional music lessons with the teacher AA. Gerke. Under his leadership, he performs at chamber concerts, family evenings and other events. And already in 1852 he wrote and published his own polka under the name "Podpoporschik."

The period of foundation of the "Mighty Handful"

Since 1856, Mussorgsky's biography unfolds in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, in St. Petersburg, where he is in parallel acquainted with the composer A. Borodin. They become very close friends, which are united not only by the common cause, but also by creativity - music. Some time later he also meets with A. Dargomyzhsky, M. Balakirev, C. Cui, and also with the Stasov brothers. All these composers are familiar to us thanks to the "Mighty Handful" group, which they founded.

The main figure in their "pleiad" was Balakirev - he became a teacher and spiritual mentor for each composer. Together with him Mussorgsky taught new concerts and works of a large form of such famous composers as Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss. Visiting the Philharmonic, opera productions and other musical events contributed to the fact that for Modest purpose of life was the knowledge of the beautiful and the creation of his own.

Biography of Mussorgsky in the period of the new creation of the "Mighty Handful"

In the next decade composers of the "Mighty Handful" made the rule that they should follow all the musical canons of M. Glinka. During this period, Mussorgsky composed music for Sophocles' novel "Tsar Oedipus," and after that he began the opera Salammbo. Unfortunately, it remained unfinished, but many of the works written for her entered the composer's masterpiece - the opera Boris Godunov.

The period of travel and flowering of creativity

In the sixties Mussorgsky's biography unfolds on new lands. He goes on a journey in which the main point is the city of Moscow. It was this place that inspired him to write his opera Boris Godunov, because, in his opinion, "women and men" suitable for the performance met him exactly there.

In the future, the composer did not forget to give instrumental concerts, vocal performances. Among the pianists he had no equal, and his own works were praised by many connoisseurs of the beautiful. It was in this world that his composer Moussorgsky spent his early years.

His biography changes abruptly in the 80s. Then his health was disturbed, his financial situation was shaken. He no longer had so much time for creativity, so he started drinking. He died on his birthday, in 1881, in a military hospital.