This is not only the first life-and-works on Musorgsky in English for over half a century but also the largest such study of the composer ever to have appeared outside Russia. Mussorgsky was one of the towering figures of nineteenth century Russian music - but also one of the most tragic. Largely an amateur with no systematic training in composition, he nevertheless emerged in his first opera, Boris Godunov, as a supreme musical dramatist, presenting here (and in certain of his piano pieces in P...

• Preface
• Illustrations
• 1:Childhood and early years
• 2:The making of a composer: I
• 3:The making of a composer: II
• 4:The early songs: I
• 5:Salammbô
• 6:The early songs: II
• 7:St John's Night on the Bare Mountain more songs
• 8:The Marriage: towards Boris
• 9:Boris Godunov: composition and production
• 10:Boris Godunov
• 11:Life alongside Boris - The Nursery completed, A note on Musorgsky's spelling of his name
• 12:Life alongside Boris II: Khovanshchina begun
• 13:Two rel...