Songs and Dances of Death
Songs and Dances of Death is a song cycle for voice and piano by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, written in the mid-1870s, to poems by Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov, a relative of the composer.
Each song deals with death in a poetic manner although the depictions are realistic in that they reflect experiences not uncommon in 19th century Russia: child death, death in youth, drunken misadventure and war.
The song cycle is considered Mussorgsky's masterpiece in the genre.Songs
Songs and Dances of Death consists of four individual songs, as follows:
1. Lullaby
2. Serenade
3. Trepak
4. The Field MarshalRecordings
The Songs and Dances of Death have been recorded by numerous vocalists, including Vladimir Rosing, George London, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Boris Christoff, Kim Borg, Martti Talvela, Matti Salminen, Anatoly Kotcherga, Paata Burchuladze, Aage Haugland, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Ewa Podles, Galina Vishnevskaya, Brigitte Fassbaender, Anja Silja and Yevgeny Nesterenko.
