This date in 1839 was the birthdate of the Russian composer Modest P Mussorgsky. 10 things you might not know about him:
He was born in Karevo, 250 miles south of St Petersburg, to an aristocratic family which was descended from Rurik, a legendary founder of the Russian state.
The family name was derived from another ancestor who had had the nickname "Musorga," which meant, appropriately enough, 'Music maker.' However, the name was also quite similar to the Russian word for rubbish, so from 1863 they altered the name so it sounded less like that.
He started learning Piano at six and by the age of nine could play complicated pieces.
A career in music wasn’t his family’s first choice for him, though. They wanted him to join the military so at the age of 13 he was enrolled in the Cadet School of the Guards. He was, however, allowed to continue playing the piano. In due course he graduated and got a commission with the Preobrazhensky Regiment, the top regiment of the Imperial Guard.
Here, he met the composer Aleksandr Borodin, and also became friends with César Cui, Mily Balakirev, and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. They became known as “The Five”, a group of influential Russian composers. Modest eventually resigned his commission in order to concentrate on music.
His mission in music was to create music which sounded Russian, rather than following the usual Western styles. Some of his most famous works include the opera Boris Godunov, the orchestral piece Night on Bald Mountain, and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition.
He was 29 when he wrote Boris Godunov, using as reference Pushkin's play and Karamzin's history. However, the opera was rejected by the theatre at first because it had no principle female role. Mussorgsky revised it, making the changes the theatre had asked for and more. The new version was accepted.
His family lost much of their land because of the emancipation of the serfs. Mussorgsky had to spend time trying to help his family, which made it hard to find time to compose. He had a day job as a civil servant to support himself but it wasn’t a very secure job and at times, he didn’t get paid.
He was an alcoholic and went into decline when he and his composer friends began to go their separate ways. He suffered from seizures and delirium tremens and was admitted to a hospital. He seemed to improve at first and had a portrait painted by Ilya Repin, which depicted him with a drink induced red nose. However, Mussorgsky died a week after his 42nd birthday.
The progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer performed and recorded an arrangement of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition in 1971, featuring lyrics by Greg Lake, and released it as a live album.
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