Night on Bald Mountain
Night on Bald Mountain (Russian: Ночь на лысой горе, romanized: Noch′ na lysoy gore), also known as Night on the Bare Mountain, is a series of compositions by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881). Inspired by Russian literary works and legend, Mussorgsky composed a "musical picture", St. John's Eve on Bald Mountain (Russian: Иванова ночь на лысой горе, romanized: Ivanova noch′ na lysoy gore) on the theme of a Witches' Sabbath occurring at Bald Mountain on St. John's Eve, which he completed on that very night, 23 June 1867. Together with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko (1867), it is one of the first tone poems by a Russian composer.[1]
This article is about the Mussorgsky compositions. For the 1964 Patrick White play, see Night on Bald Mountain (play).
Although Mussorgsky was proud of his youthful effort, his mentor, Mily Balakirev, refused to perform it. To salvage what he considered worthy material, Mussorgsky attempted to insert his Bald Mountain music, recast for vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra, into two subsequent projects—the collaborative opera-ballet Mlada (1872), and the opera The Fair at Sorochyntsi (1880). However, Night on Bald Mountain was never performed in any form during Mussorgsky's lifetime.[2]
In 1886, five years after Mussorgsky's death, Rimsky-Korsakov published an arrangement of the work, described as a "fantasy for orchestra." Some musical scholars consider this version to be an original composition of Rimsky-Korsakov, albeit one based on Mussorgsky's last version of the music, for The Fair at Sorochyntsi:
It is through Rimsky-Korsakov's version that Night on Bald Mountain achieved lasting fame. Premiering in Saint Petersburg in 1886, the work became a concert favourite. Half a century later, the work obtained perhaps its greatest exposure through the Walt Disney animated film Fantasia (1940), featuring an arrangement by Leopold Stokowski, based on Rimsky-Korsakov's version. Mussorgsky's tone poem was not published in its original form until 1968. It has started to gain exposure and become familiar to modern audiences.
Name[edit]
The original Russian title of the tone poem, Иванова ночь на лысой горе, translates literally as Saint John's Eve on Bald Mountain, usually shortened to Night on Bald Mountain. However, due to several ambiguities, the composition is also known by a number of alternative titles in English.
The Russian word "ночь" (noch′) is literally "night" in English, but idiomatically this would refer to the night following St. John's Day, variously observed between 21 June (the summer solstice) and 25 June. The night before St. John's Day is usually referred to as "St. John's Eve" in English; Russian does not make this distinction.
Bald Mountain is the most familiar translation of "лысой горе" (lysoy gore) in English, and is also the most literal. The adjective "bald" is commonly used in English place names for barren hills, mountains, and other features, and so is also idiomatic. However, because the most familiar use of "bald" describes hairlessness, this part of the title is also known as "Bare Mountain". The use of "bald" to describe barren landscapes is common in European languages. In French, the piece is known as Une nuit sur le mont Chauve and in Italian Una Notte sul Monte Calvo (A Night on Bald Mountain).
Some performances of the work also insert the article "the" before "Bald Mountain" or "Bare Mountain". Articles are not used in Russian, but are often applied to nouns when translating Russian into languages that regularly use articles, such as English and French. However, because the title of the work refers to a specific place called "Bald Mountain", an article would not normally be used in English.[a]
Tone poem: St. John's Eve on Bald Mountain (1867)[edit]
Glorification of Chernobog from Mlada (1872)[edit]
Composition history[edit]
The first re-modelling of the tone poem took place in 1872, when Mussorgsky revised and recast it for vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra as part of act 3 that he was assigned to contribute to the collaborative opera-ballet Mlada. In this new version the music was to form the basis of the Night on Mount Triglav (Russian: Ночь на горе Триглаве, Noch′ na gore Triglave) scene.
Mussorgsky referred to this piece under the title Glorification of Chernobog (Russian: Славленье Чёрнобога, Slavlenye Chornoboga) in a list of his compositions given to Vladimir Stasov.[14] In 1930, Pavel Lamm, in his edition of Mussorgsky's complete works, referred to the piece as Worship of the Black Goat (Russian: Служение чёрному козлу, Sluzheniye chornomy kozlu).
Mlada was a project doomed to failure, however, and this "second version" languished along with the first. The score of Glorification of Chernobog has not survived, and was never published or performed.
Dream Vision of the Peasant Lad from The Fair at Sorochyntsi (1880)[edit]
Composition history[edit]
The work's "third version", the Dream Vision of the Peasant Lad (Russian: Сонное видение паробка, Sonnoye videniye parobka), was composed eight years later when Mussorgsky revived and revised the second version to function as a "dream intermezzo" in his opera The Fair at Sorochyntsi (1874–80), a work which was still incomplete at the time of his death in 1881. Mussorgsky's piano-vocal score is dated 10 May 1880.[8]
Mussorgsky originally chose the end of act 1 of the opera as the location for his choral intermezzo. It is now generally performed in the Shebalin version (1930) of the opera, where it is relocated to act 3, just after a partial reprise of the peasant lad's dumka. The theme of the dumka also serves as one of the main themes of the new quiet ending.
Performance history[edit]
The Dream Vision of the Peasant Lad was first performed as part of Vissarion Shebalin's performing edition of The Fair at Sorochyntsi, which premiered in 1931 in Leningrad at the Maly Theater, conducted by Samuil Samosud. Shebalin's orchestration was published by Muzgiz (IMSLP) in 1934.
Other arrangements[edit]
At the climax of the 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz, an arrangement of the piece is heard, while the Wicked Witch of the West pursues Dorothy Gale and her friends.
David Shire arranged an orchestral disco adaptation, "Night on Disco Mountain", for the 1977 motion picture Saturday Night Fever. The arrangement was released as part of the film's soundtrack. "Night on Disco Mountain" is based on the first portion of Mussorgsky's composition, complementing the composer's unusual selection of instruments with "wah-wah electric guitar solo, synthesized bells, a constantly throbbing electric bass, hi-hat, snare drum, and a variety of exotic bongos and percussion instruments", "various studio sound effects", and "an otherworldly synthesized chorus".[24][25]
The German progressive thrash metal band Mekong Delta features a cover of the piece on their fourth studio album, Dances of Death (and Other Walking Shadows).[26]
The second main level of Earthworm Jim ("What the Heck?") opens with this theme.[27]
The Nintendo game Donkey Kong Country 2 has a version of the song called “Haunted Chase” in the level “Haunted Hall”.
Yoko Shimomura arranged a version of the piece for the international release of the 2002 video game Kingdom Hearts.[28] Re-arrangements of that version were then used in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix.[29][30]
A section of the piece is found in the 2014 video game Skylanders: Trap Team during the final boss fight with the villain Kaos.
A version of the piece was arranged for the game The End Is Nigh titled Golgotha – Night On Bald Mountain (Mussorgsky 1867) by video game composer team Ridiculon (Matthias Bossi and Jon Evans).[31]
The Russian dancer and choreographer Igor Moiseyev also created a piece from variations of the same theme.[32]
The piece appears in the 2022 film Babylon.
The piece from Fantasia once again returns in the 2023 short Once Upon a Studio.
