Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Spend Tonight On Bald Mountain

Modest Mussorgsky's composition Night on Bald Mountain was originally titled St. John’s Night on the Bare Mountain. The first version appeared in 1867 and was revised around 1872 and again in 1880.

In this last version he added a hauntingly beautiful quiet ending; in which a church bell announces the dawn, and daybreak chases away the evil spirit. As the sun rises, Church bells ring, Chernabog and his minions are banished. Ave Maria begins to play, symbolizing the triumph of Good over Evil.
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2.     “Night on Bald Mountain” (1867) The piece was inspired by a short story by Gogol in which St. John witnesses a witches' sabbath on the Bald Mountain near Kiev. After Mussorgsky's death, his colleague, Rimsky-Korsakov rearranged the piece.


Night on Bald Mountain has remained an audience favorite ever since its appearance in Walt Disney’s landmark movie, Fantasia:




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