Hey Kids, Meet Modest Mussorgsky!
from the Hey Kid's, Meet the Composer Index

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881) Russian Romantic Era Composer

Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was born on March 9, 1839, in Karevo, a village 400 kilometers from St Petersburg, Russia. At six years old Modest began piano lessons with his mother who encouraged his early efforts at composition. At the age of ten, Modest and his brother were taken to St. Petersburg to study piano at the elite Peterschule. At thirteen, Mussorgsky entered the Cadet School of the Guards. Music remained important to him and, at his father's expense, he published his first piece, Porte Enseigne Polka for the piano.

In 1856, Mussorgsky joined the Preobrazhensky Imperial Guards Regiment. As a teenage officer, Mussorgsky met Aleksandr Borodin who was a medical officer. Several years later they, along with Mily Balakirev (the leader), Cesar Cui, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, would form the Mighty Five, a group of composers united to create nationalistic music that was distinctly Russian.

Mussorgsky died on March 16, 1881. His written musical compositions have been an inspiration for many Russian composers. Some of his greatest accomplishments include the orchestral work Night on the Bald Mountain, made famous by Walt Disney when it appeared in Fantasia in 1940, and his most creative and celebrated composition, Pictures at an Exhibition, a collection of piano pieces which describe a set of 10 drawings and watercolor paintings. This work is also often performed as a piece for symphony orchestra.

Homeschool Lesson Plans

Create a Wordfind
Create your own wordfind at puzzlemaker.com with the keywords from the biography. Take your scissors and cut off the part that shows the words used to create the search. Let them know how many words there are to find, and then ask your child to complete the wordfind by identifying the keywords found in the biography, and then circling them in the puzzle.

Watch a YouTube Video
Watch a YouTube video of Modest Mussorgsky's Night on the Bald Mountain from Walt Disney's animated classic Fantasia.

Paint a Watercolor
Paint a watercolor for one of the piano pieces from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. If you would like a few tips on making a great watercolor painting you can visit www.watercolorpainting.com and click on the Tutorials tab.

No. 1 - The Gnome: Sketch a little gnome, clumsily running with crooked legs.
No. 3 - The Old Castle: Sketch a medieval castle before which a troubador sings a song. One of the statements of The Old Castle theme begins at 2:06.
No. 5 - Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks: Sketch two or three chicks hatching from their shells.
No. 10 - The Great Gate of Kiev: Sketch a massive gate that would serve as an entry way to a great Russian city.

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