The Mysterious Thread in Musorgsky's 'Nursery'

Russ, Michael

doi:10.2307/854044

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Our choice for using prolongational analysis and revealing quasi-Ursatz schemas may seem at first inappropriate for music that consciously avoided mainstream harmonic and developmental theories and practices (Russ, 1992, p. 9). However, the specific pieces – especially “The Old Castle” – afford the application of such a methodology, albeit in an idiomatic way, due to their linear texture (see also Puffett, 1990, and Russ, 1990, for prolongational analyses of “Catacombs” and “Nursery”).…”

Section: Music Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Embedded blends and meaning construction in Modest Musorgsky’sPictures at an Exhibition

Tsougras

Stefanou

2018

Musicae Scientiae

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Conceptual blending is a cognitive theory positing the combination of diverse conceptual spaces for the creation of novel blended spaces. Musical conceptual blending can be intra-musical, pertaining to the combination of diverse structural elements for the creation of new melodies, harmonies or textures, as well as cross-domain, involving the integration of musical and non-musical spaces for the creation of novel analogies or metaphors. This article presents a structural and hermeneutical analysis of "Il vecchio castello" and "Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle" from Modest Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition in an attempt to disclose both the intra-musical (combination of modal, tonal or coloristic harmonic spaces and rhythmic/textural structure) and extra-musical (contextual, symbolic and programmatic aspects) conceptual blending that the works incorporate. The reductional/prolongational analyses provide input for two distinct Conceptual Integration Networks, the first describing the intra-musical blending of melodic harmonization and the second proposing the cross-domain blending of the musical and pictorial input spaces into a blended hermeneutical space that projects the works' narrative/programmatic/emotional potential. The proposed analyses show how musical structure promotes creative listening and meaning construction through complex cross-domain integration. This research suggests that conceptual blending theory as an analytical tool can promote a richer structural interpretation and experience of music, even in cases of instrumental, non-vocal compositions.

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Section: Music Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Embedded blends and meaning construction in Modest Musorgsky’sPictures at an Exhibition

Tsougras

Stefanou

2018

Musicae Scientiae

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Book Review

1993

Tempo

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A Voice Unknown: Undercurrents in Mussorgsky's Sunless

Perry¹

2004

19th-Century Music

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Mussorgsky's Sunless cycle is aesthetically and stylistically an anomalous member of his oeuvre. Its notably effaced, pared-down, and withdrawn qualities present challenges to critical interpretation. Its uniqueness, however, renders it a crucial work for furnishing the fullest possible picture of Mussorgsky as a creative artist. The author of its texts, Golenishchev-Kutuzov (whose relationship with Mussorgsky at the time of its writing possibly extended beyond the platonic) has been identified by recent scholarship as an essential "eye-witness" for those to whom Stasov's populist characterization of the composer does not ring entirely true. Golenishchev-Kutuzov believed that in Sunless Mussorgsky first revealed his authentic artistic self. According to Golenishchev-Kutuvoz, Mussorgsky regarded his signal achievement in Sunless to have been the eradication of all elements other than "feeling." In other words, he had thrown off the stylistic shackles imposed by the aesthetics of realism and relied entirely on intuitive harmonic invention as the sole conveyor of a purely subjective, "affective" meaning in the cycle. This hypothesis forms the point of departure for an investigation of select numbers of the cycle. Analysis reveals that the affective aspect is not the only significant element operative. Alongside remnants of the realist style, there is evidence, of varying degrees of subtlety, for a knowing use of symmetrical pitch organization. Mussorgsky not only adapted the usual referential attachments of symmetrically based chromaticism--typically found in Russian operas of the second half of the nineteenth century--he also, through extremely simple but effective means, synthesized the "intuitive" harmonic and "rational" symmetrical elements of the cycle's pitch organization so that the latter emerges seamlessly out of the former. This remarkable synthesis ensures the cycle's uniformity of tone while also allowing for a reading that extends beyond the generally affective to the symbolically more specific. This symbolic level of reading offers several interpretative possibilities, one of which may refer even to the relationship of the poet and the composer. Irrespective of such potentials for interpretation, the most significant achievement in the cycle remains the synthesis of the intuitive/affective and rational/symbolic elements of its organization. Songs 1, 2, 3, and 6 of the cycle are considered in detail.

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The Mysterious Thread in Musorgsky's 'Nursery'

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Embedded blends and meaning construction in Modest Musorgsky’sPictures at an Exhibition

Embedded blends and meaning construction in Modest Musorgsky’sPictures at an Exhibition

Book Review

A Voice Unknown: Undercurrents in Mussorgsky's Sunless

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