Night on Bare Mountain

• In 1860, Mussorgsky wrote to Balakirev that he was working on incidental music for Ved’ma, (The Witches), a play by his army friend, Baron Georgy Mengden. This musical material would eventually become St. John’s Night on Bare Mountain.¹
• Mussorgsky returned to this material in 1866-7, and reconceived it as a standalone symphonic poem. At this point, he referred to the music in his letters as “The Witches,” but when it was finished, he called it Ivanova noch’ na Lïsoy gore (St. John’s Night on Bare Mountain).²

“Russian and original, … hot and chaotic” 

Mussorgsky, describing St. John’s Night on Bare Mountain.³

• The work exists in several versions in addition to the one Mussorgsky completed in 1867. Mussorgsky adapted versions of the music for inclusion in his Mlada, 1872 and Sorochintsï Fair, 1880. Additionally, Rimsky-Korsakov offered a further adaptation when he was editing Mussorgsky’s works after the composer’s death.⁴
• The title refers to a Russian legend in which a witches’ sabbath takes place in midsummer, on the eve of the feast of St. John.⁵

“Subterranean din of supernatural voices. Appearance of Spirits of Darkness, followed by that of the god Chernobog. Glorification of the Black God, The Black Mass. Witches’ Sabbath, interrupted at its height by the sounds of the far-off bell of the little church in a village. It disperses the Spirits of Darkness. Daybreak.”

Mussorgsky’s description of the events depicted in Night on Bare Mountain. ⁶

1. Robert W. Oldani, “Musorgsky [Mussorgsky; Moussorgsky], Modest Petrovich,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed March 25, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000019468. 
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Eric Bromberger, “Night on Bare Mountain (orig.),” The Hollywood Bowl, accessed March 25, 2021, https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/musicdb/pieces/2446/night-on-bald-mountain-orig.
6. Quoted in Eric Bromberger, “Night on Bare Mountain (orig.),” The Hollywood Bowl, accessed March 25, 2021, https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/musicdb/pieces/2446/night-on-bald-mountain-orig.