#mussorgsky
Poor Viktor Hartmann!
All that remained of his towering soul
were visions pressed on to paper
hanging in a St. Petersburg gallery.
Mussorgsky advanced his lumbering frame
along the gallery halls
searching for his lost friend.
Sonic images formed in the composer’s mind
singing replicas of Hartmann’s icons:
An old castle,
Children quarreling,
An ox resisting the weight of its cart,
The Great Gate of Kiev.
Mussorgsky’s notes sound and vanish
as ephemeral as life itself -
passing into the ether only to live anew
with each successive performance.
Viktor lives!
October, 2006
Mar 3, 2015
Mar 3, 2015 at 1:42 PM UTC
Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]
The Great Gate of Kiev
Mussorgsky’s The Great Gate of Kiev is no hymn to the
people of Ukraine (telegraph.co.uk)
If there was never a Great Gate of Kiev
Except in Mussorgy’s triumphal hymn
There ought to have been, and there will be some day
Trophied with captured Putinista flags
For now
Wherever a Ukrainian enters Kiev
By rail or bus, or in worn-out army boots
He is the Gate, the Knight’s Gate, the Golden gate
With a chapel and the most wonderful bells
And the pictures at an exhibition
Will be ikons of Ukrainian martyrs
Apr 21, 2024
Apr 21, 2024 at 10:01 AM UTC