Songs and Dances of Death - Mussorgsky

The exact date of this episode is unknown. We've filled in the date above with a placeholder. What we actually have on record is: 1954-12-uu.

"Songs and Dances of Death" was written by Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky in the mid-1870s as a musical accompaniment to poems written by his relative, Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov. As Canby notes, each song, "has death personified in it, and death comes claiming some human life."

1. "Lullaby" or "Cradle Song" (1875)
A mother cradles her sick infant, who grows more feverish as morning approaches. Death appears, disguised as a babysitter, and rocks the infant into eternal sleep.

2. "Serenade" (1875)
The figure of Death waits outside the window of a dying woman, serenading the woman in the manner of a wooing lover.

3. "Trepak" (1875)
A drunken peasant stumbles outside into the snow and becomes caught in a blizzard. As he freezes to death, he dreams of summer fields.

4. "The Field Marshal" (1877)
The figure of Death is depicted as an officer commanding the troops after a dreadful battle. She asserts her enduring remembrance of them all.

Mussorgsky intended to orchestrate this song cycle himself, but passed away before he could complete the task. The songs were first orchestrated by Glazunov (Nos. 1 and 3) and Rimsky-Korsakov (Nos. 2 and 4) shortly after Mussorgsky's death in 1881. They were published in 1882.

WNYC archives id: 58663