Mussorgsky’s composition ‘Night on a bare mountain’ depicts a Witches Sabbath on the eve of which saints day?
"Night on Bald Mountain Night on Bald Mountain (), 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"" () on the theme of a witches' sabbath occurring on St. John's Eve, which he completed on that very night, 23 June 1867. Together with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's ""Sadko"" (1867), it is one of the first tone poems by a Russian composer. Although Mussorgsky was proud of his youthful effort, his mentor, Miliy Balakirev, refused to perform"
"goats, trampling the cross, and being re-baptised in the name of the Devil while giving their clothes to him, kissing his behind, and dancing back to back forming a round."" As referenced earlier, Hawthorne seems to have been describing a witches' sabbath and the surrounding activity in his short story, ""Young Goodman Brown."" Musically, the supposed ritual has been used as inspiration for such works as Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and the fifth movement of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. In film, Robert Eggers' 2015 ""The Witch"" depicts a celebration of this ritual during the movie's climax. Also,"
"where he linked it to Modest Mussorgsky's ""Night on Bald Mountain"" in one of his most famous pastiches. The end of Mussorgsky's work blends with almost no break into the beginning of Schubert's song, and as Deems Taylor remarked, the bells in ""Night on Bald Mountain"", originally meant to signal the coming of dawn, which cause the demon Chernobog to stop his dark worship and the ghosts to return to the grave, now seem to be church bells signalling the beginning of religious services. A procession of monks is shown walking along. The text for this version is sung in"
"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. Although still rarely performed, it has started to gain exposure and become familiar to modern audiences. The original Russian title of the tone poem, ""Иванова ночь на лысой горе"", translates literally as ""Saint"
"specifically by Herbert Stothart, who provided most of the underscoring for the film. A humorous adaptation of ""Night on Bald Mountain"" for brass band and kazoo was recorded by the Roto Rooter Good Time Christmas Band, and appears on the album ""Retro Rooter"". [[Category:Compositions by Modest Mussorgsky]] [[Category:Symphonic poems]] [[Category:Adaptations of works by Nikolai Gogol]] [[Category:1867 compositions]] [[Category:1886 compositions]] [[Category:Segments from Fantasia]] [[Category:Music based on European myths and legends]] [[Category:The Devil in fiction]] [[Category:The Devil in classical music]] Night on Bald Mountain Night on Bald Mountain (), also known as Night on the Bare Mountain, is a series of compositions"
"Walpurgis Night Walpurgis Night, an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German ' ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in Francia, and is celebrated on the night of 30 April and the day of 1 May. This feast commemorates the canonization of Saint Walpurga and the movement of her relics to Eichstätt, both of which occurred on 1 May 870. Saint Walpurga was hailed by the Christians of Germany for battling ""pest, rabies and whooping cough, as well as"
"Lysa Hora (folklore) Lysa Hora or Bald Mountain (Ukrainian: Лиса гора, ""Lysa hora"", pl. ""Lysi hory""; Russian: Лысая гора, ""Lysaya gora"", ) is a concept of East Slavic, and particularly Ukrainian, folk mythology related to witchcraft. According to legends, ravens, black eagles, witches and other paranormal creatures periodically gather on the ""bald mountains"" for their ""Sabbath"". Mentions of ""Lysi Hory"" can be found in various historical and literary sources, such as in the writings of Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Bulgakov (who uses it in ""The Master and Margarita"" as the mountain where the ""Iyeshua"" (Jesus of Nazareth) was crucified). The"
"The Eve of St. Agnes The Eve of St. Agnes is a Romantic narrative poem of 42 Spenserian stanzas set in the Middle Ages. It was written by John Keats in 1819 and published in 1820. The poem was considered by many of Keats' contemporaries and the succeeding Victorians to be one of his finest and was influential in 19th century literature. The title comes from the day (or evening) before the feast of Saint Agnes (or St. Agnes' Eve). St. Agnes, the patron saint of virgins, died a martyr in 4th century Rome. The eve falls on 20 January;"
"to compose his tone poem ""Night on Bald Mountain"", adapted by Yuri Ilyenko into a film of the same name. Kupala Night Kupala Night, (; ; ; ), is celebrated in Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Russia during the night from 6 to 7 July (on the Gregorian calendar). (This corresponds to 23-24 June on these countries’ traditional Julian calendar.) Calendar-wise, it is opposite to the winter holiday Koliada. The celebration relates to the summer solstice when nights are the shortest and includes a number of Slavic rituals. The name of the holiday was originally Kupala; a pagan fertility rite later"
"April 1890, at the [[Théâtre de la Monnaie]] in [[Brussels]]. The following program is printed in Rimsky-Korsakov's edition of ""Night on Bald Mountain"", published in 1886 by [[V. Bessel and Co.]]: Subterranean sounds of non-human voices. Appearance of the spirits of darkness, followed by that of Chernobog. Glorification of Chernobog and [[Black Mass|Black Service]]. Sabbath. At the height of the sabbath, the distant ringing of a village church bell is heard; it disperses the spirits of darkness. Morning. Recordings of Rimsky-Korsakov's revision are too numerous to catalog in this article. [[File:Leopold Stokowski LOC 26447u.jpg|upright|thumb|Leopold Stokowski]] Millions of 20th-century listeners owe"
"The Fair at Sorochyntsi The Fair at Sorochyntsi (, ""Sorochinskaya yarmarka"", ""Sorochyntsi Fair"") is a comic opera in three acts by Modest Mussorgsky, composed between 1874 and 1880 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The composer wrote the libretto, which is based on Nikolai Gogol's short story of the same name, from his early (1832) collection of Ukrainian stories ""Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka"". The opera remained unfinished and unperformed at Mussorgsky's death in 1881. Mussorgsky worked on the opera between 1874 and 1880, in competition with his work on ""Khovanshchina"" (1872–1880); both were incomplete at the time of his death"
"against witchcraft."" In Germanic folklore, "" (), literally ""Witches' Night"", was believed to be the night of a witches' meeting on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, a range of wooded hills in central Germany between the rivers Weser and Elbe. Christians prayed to God through the intercession of Saint Walpurga in order to protect themselves from witchcraft, as Saint Walpurga was successful in converting the local populace to Christianity. In parts of Christendom, people continue to light bonfires on Saint Walpurga's Eve in order to ward off evil spirits and witches. Others have historically made Christian"
"is still possessed, so the village becomes abandoned. This short story was famously the main inspiration for the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's tone poem, ""Night on Bald Mountain"", made known to the wider international audience by its use in Disney's ""Fantasia."" The story was adapted in an eponymous Ukrainian SSR movie directed by Yuri Ilyenko and featuring Larisa Kadochnikova and Boris Khmelnitsky in lead roles that was released in the Soviet Union in February 1969. St. John's Eve (short story) ""St. John's Eve"" (; translit. ""Vecher nakanune Ivana Kupala"") is the second tale in the collection ""Evenings on a Farm"
"to Sunday, or to a time period similar to Sabbath in the seventh-day church minority. In connection with the medieval beliefs in the evil power of witches and in the malevolence of Jews and Judaizing heretics (both being Sabbathkeepers), satanic gatherings of witches were by outsiders called ""sabbats"", ""synagogues"", or ""convents"". Local variations of the name given to witches' gatherings were frequent. Perhaps the earliest work that mentions a something like a gathering that might be interpreted, from the Christian point of view, as witches sabbath is""Canon Episcopi"" (906) and later included in Burchard of Worms's collection in the 11th"
"exact origins and factual evidences of the concept are unclear. Researchers list dozens of supposed ""bald mountains"" sites throughout Ukraine and Poland. The most famous among them are the Lysa Hora and Zamkova Hora hills in Kiev, Ukraine, and Łysa Góra in Poland. Lysa Hora (folklore) Lysa Hora or Bald Mountain (Ukrainian: Лиса гора, ""Lysa hora"", pl. ""Lysi hory""; Russian: Лысая гора, ""Lysaya gora"", ) is a concept of East Slavic, and particularly Ukrainian, folk mythology related to witchcraft. According to legends, ravens, black eagles, witches and other paranormal creatures periodically gather on the ""bald mountains"" for their ""Sabbath"". Mentions"
"half of the 20th century, with a tradition of hanging cowslips to ward off evil. Walpurgis Night Walpurgis Night, an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German ' ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve), is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in Francia, and is celebrated on the night of 30 April and the day of 1 May. This feast commemorates the canonization of Saint Walpurga and the movement of her relics to Eichstätt, both of which occurred on 1 May 870. Saint Walpurga was hailed"
"Gretchen's eternal damnation at the Last Judgement, as well as Gretchen's attempts to resist them, are interwoven with verses of the hymn Dies irae (from the traditional Latin text of the Requiem Mass), which is being sung in the background by the cathedral choir. Gretchen ultimately falls into a faint. Walpurgis Night and Walpurgis Night's Dream A folk belief holds that during the Walpurgis Night (""Walpurgisnacht"") on the night of 30 April—the eve of the feast day of Saint Walpurga—witches gather on the Brocken mountain, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, and hold revels with the Devil. The celebration"
"rather than a soloist as was the norm. The total effect allowed the ""movement of the dancers to blend ... they became a sculpted entity capable of expressing the whole ballet action."" Exter also ""depersonalized the dancers, clothing them in identical gray costumes."" Yet it was ""the architectural poses of Nijinska's choreography that gave the costumes their distinctive shape"". For his 1867 'symphonic poem' ""La Nuit sur le Mont chauve"" Mussorgsky was inspired by the witches sabbath as told by Nikolai Gogol in his St. John's Eve story. The composer, however, repeatedly revised and eventually incorporated the music into Act"
"was not performed until the 20th century. Musicologist Aleksandra Orlova claims that the original manuscript of this version was discovered in the library of the Leningrad Conservatory by musicologist Georgiy Orlov in the late 1920s, that it was performed once by the Leningrad Philharmonic Society, and that Nikolay Malko brought along a copy of it when he emigrated to the West. Gerald Abraham states that this version was performed by Malko on 3 February 1932, apparently in England. Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi claims that Malko performed this version in several countries in 1933. Russian legend tells of a witches' sabbath taking place"
"the feast day on the 21st. The divinations referred to by Keats in this poem are referred to by John Aubrey in his ""Miscellanies"" (1696) as being associated with St. Agnes' night. Keats based his poem on the folk belief that a girl could see her future husband in a dream if she performed certain rites on the eve of St. Agnes; that is she would go to bed without any supper, undress herself so that she was completely naked and lie on her bed with her hands under the pillow and looking up to the heavens and not to"
"Tcherepnin in 1923 and by Vissarion Shebalin in 1930. Shebalin's version became the standard since then. This also includes the ""Night on Bald Mountain"" as a prelude to the third act, instead of an interlude in act one (following Gritsko's Dumka), as Mussorgsky originally planned. The Fair at Sorochyntsi The Fair at Sorochyntsi (, ""Sorochinskaya yarmarka"", ""Sorochyntsi Fair"") is a comic opera in three acts by Modest Mussorgsky, composed between 1874 and 1880 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The composer wrote the libretto, which is based on Nikolai Gogol's short story of the same name, from his early (1832) collection of"
"lit on a day in August on mountains so they can be seen from afar as an appeal for sustainable development of mountain regions. In the Czech Republic, the festival called ""Burning the Witches"" (also Philp & Jacob Night, Walpurgis Night or Beltane) takes place on the night between 30 April and 1 May. This is a very old and still observed folk custom and special holiday. On that night, people gather together, light bonfires, and celebrate the coming of spring. In many places people erect maypoles. The night between 30 April and 1 May was considered magical. The festival"
"spirits, with the burnings sending the ""witch"" away to Bloksbjerg, the Brocken mountain in the Harz region of Germany where the great witch gathering was thought to be held on this day. Some Danes regard this tradition of burning witches as inappropriate. In Scandinavia, young people visited holy springs as ""a reminder of how John the Baptist baptised Christ in the River Jordan."" On Saint John's Eve and Saint John's Day, churches arrange Saint John's worship services and family reunions also occur, which are an occasion for drinking and eating. In 1885, Holger Drachmann wrote a ""midsommervise"" (Midsummer hymn) called"
"Christmas Eve (Gogol) ""Christmas Eve"" (, ""Noch pered Rozhdestvom"", which literally translates as ""The Night Before Christmas"") is the first story in the second volume of the collection ""Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka"" by Nikolai Gogol. The story opens with a description of the winter scenery of Dikanka, Ukraine, a witch flying across the night sky and the devil stealing the moon and hiding it in his pocket, first playing with it in the sky, which no one in the village notices. Since it is the night before Christmas, the devil is free to roam around and torment people"
"of saying Free Woman. Her feast day is 21 January. Because of the legend around her martyrdom, she is patron saint of those seeking chastity and purity. Agnes is also the patron saint of young girls. Folk custom called for them to practise rituals on Saint Agnes' Eve (20–21 January) with a view to discovering their future husbands. This superstition has been immortalised in John Keats's poem, ""The Eve of Saint Agnes."" Since the Middle Ages, Agnes has traditionally been depicted as a young girl in robes, with a lamb, the symbol of her virginal innocence, and often, like many"
"the Feast of Saint Walburga. The Germanic term ' is recorded in 1668 by Johannes Praetorius as ' or '. An earlier mention of ' and ' is in the 1603 edition of the ' of Johann Coler, who also refers to the following day, 1 May, as """", feast day of the apostles James the Less and Philip in the Western Christian calendar of saints. The 17th-century German tradition of a meeting of sorcerers and witches on May Day eve (', ' ""Witches' Night"") is influenced by the descriptions of Witches' Sabbaths in 15th- and 16th-century literature. Given that"
"in the Harz Mountains in central Germany. Traditionally, the bonfires were lit to fend off witches, but today - when the witch effigy catches fire - she is said to be ""flying away to Brocken"", which can be interpreted as helping the witch on her way. On Saint John's Eve and Saint John's Day, churches arrange Saint John's services and family reunions also occur, which are an occasion for drinking and eating. The feast of St. John the Baptist, is one of the quarter days in England. The town of Midsomer Norton, in Somerset, England, is sometimes said to be"
"know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway? The play ""Jerusalem"" (2009) by Jez Butterworth takes place on St George's Day, 23 April, also the day of death and estimated birth day of William Shakespeare. Additionally, the play ""Andorra"" (1961) by Max Frisch focusses greatly on the (fictionalised) Andorran celebrations of St. George's Day. The play begins and ends with references to a ceremonial whitewashing of houses by the town's virgins, again reflecting the day's central theme of purity. Saint George's Day Saint George's Day, also known as the"
"as her remains traveled along the route."" The eve of May Day, traditionally celebrated with dancing and bonfires to ward off witches, came to be known as ' (""Saint Walpurga's night"") in the German language. The shortened name of the holiday is ' in German, ' (""Valborg's Mass Eve"") in Swedish, ' in Finland Swedish, ' in Finnish, ' in Estonian, ' in Lithuanian, ' or ' in Latvian, ' and "" in Czech. In English, it is known as Saint Walpurga's Night, Saint Walburga's Night, Walpurgis Night, Saint Walpurga's Eve, Saint Walburga's Eve, the Feast of Saint Walpurga or"
"convention and a Witches' Sabbath. When elements of Ariosto's poem supplied Philippe Quinault's libretto for Jean-Baptiste Lully's opera ""Roland"", performed at Versailles, 8 January 1685, Demogorgon was king of the fairies and master of ceremonies. Demogorgon also is mentioned in the Book II of the epic poem ""El Bernardo"" written in Mexico by Bernardo de Balbuena and published in Spain in 1624. The passage tells how the fairy, ""Alcina"", visits Demogorgon in his infernal palace: Aquí Demogorgon está sentado<br>en su banco fatal, cuyo decreto<br>de las supremas causas es guardado<br>por inviolable y celestial preceto.<br>Las parcas y su estambre delicado<br>a cuyo huso"
"Saints' Day to the Sunday on or after 1 November. The liturgical colour of the day is red, which represents the Holy Spirit and the Martyrs of the Christian Church. Luther's hymn, ""Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott"" (""A Mighty Fortress is our God""), a paraphrase of Psalm 46, is traditionally sung on this day. It is also traditional in some Lutheran schools for schoolchildren to hold Reformation Day plays or pageants that re-enact scenes from the life of Martin Luther. The fact that Reformation Day coincides with Halloween is not mere coincidence. Halloween, being the Eve of All Saints'"
"on Sundays and higher-ranking feast days. The liturgical Forefeast of the Nativity begins on December 20, and concludes with the Paramony on December 24. During this time hymns of the Nativity are chanted every day. In the Russian usage, the hangings in the church are changed to the festive color (usually white) at the beginning of the Forefeast. Two Sundays before Nativity (hence, between 11 and 17 December of each year), the Church calls to remembrance the ancestors of the church, both before the giving of the Law of Moses and after, like Adam, ""and on through Seth, Enoch, Noah,"
"than isolation and eventual self-destruction. For a time Mussorgsky was able to maintain his creative output: his compositions from 1874 include ""Sunless"", the ""Khovanshchina"" Prelude, and the piano suite ""Pictures at an Exhibition"" (in memory of Hartmann); he also began work on another opera based on Gogol, ""The Fair at Sorochyntsi"" (for which he produced another choral version of ""Night on Bald Mountain""). In the years that followed, Mussorgsky's decline became increasingly steep. Although now part of a new circle of eminent personages that included singers, medical men and actors, he was increasingly unable to resist drinking, and a succession"