Time of Day: Dawn

 Mussorgsky, Pigovat, Sviridov, Eller, Harris and Qin

by Maureen Buja  , Interlude

Mstislav Dobujisky: Act I design for Khovanshchina, 1950 (Met Opera Archives)

How do you take the morning, musically? Bright and brassy alarm bells, a gentle reminder from the buzzer, the shock of morning radio? We decided to survey music for the earliest time of day: Dawn.

We’ll start with Mussorgsky’s music to open Act I of his opera Khovanschchina. The prelude is Dawn on the Moscow River, which was orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov following the piano version. The opera opens in Moscow at dawn and is a highly romantic tone painting, with Russian folk song sounds, the gradual brightening of the sky, the bells sounding in the horns. In the opera house, it’s a wonderful way of waking up the stage and starting the opera.

Russian-Israeli composer Boris Pigovat (b. 1953) wrote his dawn piece in 2010 for violist Anna Serova. Pigovat was inspired by the description of sunrise in ancient Greece, as described by Nikolaj Kun in 1914:

The morning is near… There is a faint light in the East. Aeos and Pyrios, the morning stars and harbingers of Dawn, shine brightly in the East. There is a gentle breeze. The light in the East glows brighter and brighter… In vivid colours, on rosy wings, Dawn is soaring into the illuminated sky, drenched in rosy light. Dawn pours dew from her golden urn onto the Earth, and the dew sprinkles the grass and flowers with glistening, diamond-like drops. All is fragrant, all around. The waking Earth happily greets the sun god, Helios. (Kun: Legendy i Mify Drevnej Gretsii (Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece, 1914))

Percussion and harp are the twinkling stars and the breeze is in the woodwinds’ notes. The viola invokes the colours of the morning.

Modest Mussorgski - His Music and Life

The Russian Modest Mussorgski was born on March 21, 1839 in Karewo/Pskow. He passed away in Saint Petersburg on March 28, 1881.

His ancestors have been Russian princes and their relatives. He was appointed to start an officer's cadet career. In 1856, Mussorgski joined a guard regiment. He became acquainted with Alexander Dargomischski, Cesar Cui and Mily Balakirew.

Modest, meanwhile an alcoholic, didn't know how to convert his incredible music talent into a successful classical music composer career. A genius finder talent let him rush centuries in advance in subscribing incredible composer talents. He developed a unique expressionism and impressionism of unknown Russian music reality.

"Pictures at an Exhibition" and "A Night on a Bald Mountain" as well as "The Dances of the Deaths" belonged to Russian classical music jewels.

Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition, The G...