mussgorsky and ives

8/2/2019 Mussgorsky and Ives

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Tony Powell

A Nations Pride Shown in Music

Greatness! My chest slightly rises, my ears become more attune, and I feel a sense of

pride well up from my chest, the emotions I experienced after listening to the first twenty

seconds of a classical pieceby Modest Mussorgsky, The Great Gate of Kiev. I personally

interpret the piece as a story being told, a very passionate story, with dramatic tales of triumph

and accomplishment. The main melody exuded a steadfast confidence facilitated by multiple

instruments in melodic crescendos at a slow tempo. This is symbolic of introducing a hero or

heroes to the story. The main melody demands attention. The large, low pitched, tympani

drums convey a certainty and declare, Listen to what I have to say, its important. Clearly,

Mussorgsky is attempting to show the awesome power of Russia through a great musical

presentation of an architectural cachet.

At the beginning of the second movement, in contrast to the introduction, a small group

of soft, slow tempo clarinets and bassoons play in melody in an effort to convey important,

factual information to justify the grandiose introduction. Now that the introduction has been

justified, the third movement boasts the full weight of the brass section coming in at low pitch

consonance with the tympani drums to re-emphasize the great importance of the story. High

note, allegro violins accompany the slow tempo of the brass and drums to signify a tale of

sophisticated greatness in which few people have the skills to rival. This might have been

Mussorgsky attempting to portray the level of intricacy in the design of The Gate of Kiev. At the


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end of the third movement, the powerful refrain is brought back exhibiting Rondo form in the

piece.

Clarinets and bassoons return once more in the fourth movement to tell again their

back story and disposition in which the piece is about. A dreadful style of tone changes in the

fifth movement is painted through an attention grabbing church bell and low, steady beat tubas

that convey an ominous presence and an underlying antagonist in the piece. Mussorgsky might

have been trying to convey impending danger to the Gate of Kiev. Before the low, foreboding

beat can begin to gain cadence, woodwinds, violins, trumpets, and eventually bells arrive and

overpower the lower note instruments through forte crescendo. To me, this represents evil

being subjugated, and good (Russia) prevailing over adversity. In the last movement, the

refrain is played slow and forte to once again show the great power and immutability of the

hero or heroes in this grand demonstration.

Having listened to this great piece, I find it sad that Modest Mussorgsky, who came from

humble beginnings, died at a young age, not leaving many musical works for the world to enjoy.

In the late 1800s, a friend of Mussorgskys, Viktor Hartmann, died of an aneurism. Hartmann

had many great works of art, which Mussorgsky displayed in an Exhibition which later inspired

him to create ten musical pieces to comprise Pictures at an Exhibition. Thankfully, in the mid

twentieth century, the musical world fell in love with the 10th

piece, The Great Gate of Kiev, and

recognized all the hard work Mussorgsky had done to honor Russia and the late, great artist,

Viktor Hartmann.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Hartmannhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Hartmann


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Another nationalistic piece which evokes a sense of pride, although with a dash of

bewilderment, would most certainly be Putnams Camp, by Charles Ives. This piece is the

second piece in a set of three pieces written by Ives in an effort to delineate American society.

Putnams Camp, in ABA form, is supposed to represent a boy walking through a 4th

of July picnic

in Connecticut, listening to multiple bands, falling asleep and dreaming, then waking up. At the

introduction, the dissonant, forte melodies of two marching bands clash against each other and

reminded me of a powerful, disorganized U.S. government. Throughout the first section, some

portions of the two bands seem to come into harmony, only to be immediately disrupted by

dissonant piano, trombones, flutes and more. The two marching bands are paired against each

other through unique, powerful melodies that contrast each other so sharply, it appears they

are responding to each other with a series of playful, patriotic, musical retorts. Towards the

end of the first section, the boy falls asleep as the orchestra slowly decrescendos while

individual instruments begin to die off, bringing a close the dissonant clash of bands. While the

boy dreams, the beginning of the second section starts off slowly with an underlying, dissonant

beat of violins that invokes a growing tension in me that foreshadows eventful beginnings. This

entire section reminds me of waking up outside in tents during my enlistment in the Marines,

lying in a sleeping bag listening to the growing bustle of people starting off the morning. A

trumpet lightly interjects to represent reveille: syncopated violins mimic showers turning on

and off, an oboe melody representing nature, and finally as camp is finishing up the morning

activities, everything begins to go quiet. Triumphantly, as usual, officers arrive in the form of a

brass melody barking orders and detailing the activities of the day before the General arrives.

The violins, cymbals, flutes and the rest of the orchestra respond to these orders with a variety


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of dissonant melodies. General Putnam arrives on scene via forte brass instruments and

ensuing calamity follows through the entire orchestra.

At the start of the final section, the two symbolic marching bands coalesce into harmony

for a brief moment, only to fall into a fast beat mix of forte crescendo and decrescendo

melodies. This last section resembles the first section, concluding the ABA form. The tension

builds at the end as rhythm increases then decreases while tonal color clashes. No instrument

is in consonance. In a last ditch effort to show the mighty power of the United States, a full

blast of the entire orchestra is bellowed out in one fortissimo chord. This piece clearly

demonstrated and painted a picture of the U.S. government puffing its chest and boasting

nationalistic pride with traditional U.S. marching bands.

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