Musorgsky: Pictures at n xhibiion a celebration of Russian eatness and a veiled reference to the assassination attempt reflecting a more general

tendency of realist artis to deal with .sedition and rebellion,?9

Realism is anti-romantic in so far as romanticism implies exaggeration, sentimentality, melodrame and concern ,vith the composer,s self-expression over the subject in hand, while the realist artist is always by deinition more detached. But it is also very much part of the Romantic age. Musorgsky is irs clearest musical adherent, but it is found in other composers' works that deal ,vith deep or violent emotions experienced by everyday people, notably Bizet's Cormen or the works of the ltalian verismo. s Dahlhaus tells us, reaism in music emerged against a background of romanticism's strong survival until the end of the century, after it had ceased to exist in other arts. ndeed, 'Realism was never more than a peripheral phenomenon in the music of the nineteenth century'.'o

Musorgsky ond Hrtmn

Musorgsky

in

1874

The year of Pictures at an rhibition ryas a Strange mixture of pessimism and optimism for Musorgsky. Public acclaim came with the staging of Boris Goduno; but this \ilas also the year of the desolate, subiective Song cycle Sunless. The death of Victor Farnan in the previous summer depressed and angered him, and his close friend Nadezhda Opochinina was to die in June !874. By now drink had a firm hold on Musorgsky; he ryas prey to bouts of

But much was still achieved in 1874-5 including extensive ryork

on ln Death. of Dances hoanshchina and Sorochintsy Fair, and the Sozgs nd decline date the is wrong to the end the tvo operas remained unfinished, but it in his po\ryers as beginning in 187+, as Stasov does. His dogmatic condemna.obscure, mannered, more often incoherent tion of the ,orks of this period as

illness and his ability to make sustained efforts at composition was curtailed.

and insipid' is ridiculous and says more about him being annoyed with Musorky,s drinking and his straying from the path of Russian realism than it does about Musorgsky's ryork. At this time too, Musorky was trying to

hold doryn a full-time, but thoroughly depressing and demoralising, clerical iob in the Foresrry Department of the Ministry of State Property. The 'Mighry Handful', despite the efforts of Stasov, was breaking up. Financial pressures had hit the Free Music School and had precipitated Balakirev,s ryithdrawal from musical life until 1876. With the exception of Stasov, Musorgsky \ilas composing free from the influence of his friends; indeed, his relationship u,ith them had become difficult, since they regarded his music as vayJvard and sometimes illiterate. He was discontented with his fellow composers, idealistic over-concern ryith technique and tradition and their failure to push at the boundaries of art, something ryhich forced Musorgsky increasingly to,ards writers, philosophers, visual artists and poets. }e formed friendships vith the poet Arseny Golenischev-Kutuzov, the sculptor Antokolsky, the painter Repin and the architect Victor Hartman. r3

t2

Musorgsky: Piclures a an xhibition

Musrgsky and larrman tl find a less cramped and warTner apartment. Fe still hoped that Musorgsky vould stay ryith him, so lie could not have becn too bad with the alcoholic

Mslrgsky \,vantcd t dcpict lie, not indulge in the ideaistic sonata-form wlrld l the symphonists:
mc, dear gnralissime, why our musicians talk more abut technique than abut goals
am not against symphonies, just symphonists, incorrigible conservatives. So don,t tell

or historical problems . . .. Rut one thought still clistresses me: Why do the .vans, . . [Statues ovan V and van on horseback] ... oAntokolsky liel Why do Repin,s
.Joatmen,

also .The Village Religious Procession, live? And they live in a ay that makes you feel, once you are acquainted with them, that .you arc exactly the one wanted to see,. Why is it that everything that has bcen done in the most recent music, despite its excelent qualities, does not live in this wayi . . . xplain this to me' only leave the boundaries o a aside _ believe in thcrn only relatively bccaus c he bundries f or in the religion oan aist mcan Stagnoior (letter to Stasov |3 / 5 July |87).
The excitement and SucceSS
o

in erov,s .Rirdcatcher, and the first couple in his .The Funters, and

[i.e. the amous Barge-Haulers painting] livei ... Why do the degenerate boy

cx-Guards' oficer.2 descendant of the utuzov vho Count Arseny Golenischev-utuzov, ^ commanded the Russian orces against Napoleon in 1812 and wh \ryas immortalised in Tolstoy,s Wr 'nd Pece, had becme close riend o Musorgsky in 1873 and rhey had stayed with one another for short periods
beore moving in together; indeed, there has been speculation that Musorgsky had an unulfilled homosexual inclination towards him. speculation that

.a Musorgsky was a masochist with vein o homoscxuality', is corrcct, then

his burst o crcativity in l874_5 may well have bccn stimulated by his clse relationship with Golenischev-utuzv.

Boris Gdunu,s staging on 8/}}Februa ry |874 in the Maryinsky Theatre scems to have cncouraged Musorgsky in his drinking and what Rimsky rccrs to as his .strange ways,: Musorgsky began to appear in our rnidst somewhat less requently than beore, and
a

Fartman,S death and the cornposition of Picres

death, at the age o thirry-nine, came iust as he reached a pint where he might have becn able to realise Somc o his concepts. his utter wastc of a talcnt through early death greatly distressed Musorgsky who also reproached himself

Victor Fartman died on 23 I|y/4 August 1873 o an ancurism. {is carly

even arrogant. {is conccit grcw trcmendusly, and his vague, involvcd \ryay o expressing himscl which had bccn characteristic o him, intensified considerably.

certain change bccamc noticcablc in him: he appeared mysterious someho, pcrhaps

On

6/ 18

condition:

March Stasov scnt his daughter this portrait of Musorgsky's

or not rccognising and acting on the signs of Hartman'S atal conditin. f it \ryere not or Pictures t an xhibitin Hartman would no\ry be almost cmpletely rgotten. Little i any o his architectural work now remains, and

he has cornpctely changed.He has bcgun to drink more and more, his face has swollen and turned dark red, his eyes have gone bad, and he hangs out at the Maly yaroslavets almst all day, whcre that damncd carousing crowd gathers. So many efos have been made to drag him out othere and join ith all of us again _ nothing helps. And bcsides.

his work as a painter, illustrator and designer is ephemeral. At the time o Hartman's death Stasov \ryas attcnding the Vienna World F'air where Hartman,s moel of his National Theatre in Moscow had just earned him a .n my cyes hc medal. Writing to his sistcr, Stasov appraiscd Hartman thus:

he has bccome somchow pctty and pusilanirnous.

respectable establishmcnt, is inclined to think that Stasov may be exaggeraring. Certainly Golenischev-utuzov,S reminiscence (March I874) o sharing a fat vith Musorgsky sho\ryS the composer in a quite diferent light: .At that time he lived on Shpalernaya, found tvo rooms next to him; \rye opened the doors dividing our odging so that a small apartment ryaS formed in which we set up our ioint housekccping. All morning until noon (when Musorgsky left or the ofice) and all evening we spent together in the large room of our

orlova, ho inorms uS that the .Maly Yaroslavets, was in fact quite

was the mst talented, the most original, the most adventurous, the boldest o all our architects, even those o the new young school . . o. o course I considered him rathcr incrior to Musorgsky, Repin and Antokolsky, however, he was a talcnt - strong!!'.0

n Stasov,s absencc Musorgsky provided an obituary or the

No.
203.

Sankt

Peterburgskiye edemsli

The obituary is not an eulogy. Like Stasov,

house.'Latcr in the spring utuzov

\ryrotc to his mother expressing his desirc

Musorgsky seems to have realised that Fartman was a remarkable talent, but not gcnius (despitc his recrence to Fartman with this term in his autobiography). Hc points to Hartman's Russianness and social concern, although the only example othe latter is the building oa theatre! Stasv and Count Paul Suzor, president of the Architects' Sociery, decided to mark Larnan,s cath with a memorial exhibition o as much his work as thcy could gather up. t pcnec during thc second wcek oF.ebruary l874, and ran
15

l4

Musorgsky: Plc ures at an xhibiin

Musorgsky and Harran

until March in the Hall of thc Academy of Artists in St Petersburg. t contained Hartman's architectural designs (government, military, industrial exhibitions, domestic and so on) and those for crat work, jewelery and ornamentation. Stasov dcscribcd the exhibition:
onhalf o these draings shows nothing typical of an architect. They are all lively, eegant sketches by genre-painter, the majority depicting scenes, characters and figures out of everyday life, caprured in the middle of everything going on around them: on Strccts, and in churches, in Parisian cataombs and olish monasteries, in Roman ..here aleys and in villages around Limoges. are carnival characters i
workers
Trench ryomen at prayer, Jews smiling from under their skull caps, Parisian rag-pickers . . . landscapcs with scenic ruins, magnificently done with a panorarna o the city . . .. Architecturc fills the other hal o his drawings.s

in smocks, priests with umbrellas under their

arTns

l Gavarni, riding mules, ederly

He

(see Chapter 5).

goes on to describe Hartman,s project for a Great Gate at

iev in detail

for the Songs nd Dnces f De,h (|s75). The manuscript of Picturcs was prcparcd in about t\ryenty days (approximately 212 June O. S.), providing furthcr evidence thar Musorgsky's mind ryas clear at this time. The {inal page of the manuscript is dated ,22lune1.874

Stasov notes the genrc-painter's mixture of characters and nationalities and typically draws attention to Farrman,s Sccncs from everyday lie. Thc sketches are rcgarded as 'lively and clcgant' but do not merit the critic's detailed attention in the way that the genuinely Russian nationalistic project for rhe Great Gate does. of the our hundred ryorks by Hartman exhibited, lcss than onc hundred have ever come to light. The situation has been confused by exrra itcms being added to the exhibition as it progressed but not lisred in rhe catalogue.6 Only six of the designs and illustrations that directly relare to Pictures may be identificd ryith ccrtainty (see Chaptcr 5). .Musorgsky, who loved Hartman passionately and ryas deeply moved by his death, planned to ..drary in music,, the best pictures of his deceased friend, reprcsenting himself as he strolled through the exhibition, joyfully or sadly rccalling thc highly talcnted deccased artist (Promcnade).'7 There is no record o when Musorgsky visited the cxhibition, or exactly when he conceived the idea ohis musical tribute. Stasov claimed in a lctter of 1903 t rkady Kerzin that he madc Suggestins as to the content of thc work. There is no evidencc to support this, beyond thc close rclationship between the two men and the way in which they constantly discusscd Musorgsky,s projects. t is possible that Stasov had a hand in shap ing Pictures as he did by suggesting the scenes

about its composition. n general, Musorgsky composed at the piano and tended only to produce a finished score; usually he was able to play complete compositions, or substantial portions o them, well in advance of the date of the manuscript. Orlova suggests that Musorgsky improvised or sketched Pictures during the spring: ,judging from the corrcspondence betryeen Rimsky-orsakov and Stasov, Musorgsky had already played the first hal of the suite in the spring. [n June] Musorgsky polished the first hal of the work, composed the second half and wrote ut the entire piece,.8 orlova,s idea vas presumably prompted by Stasov,s remark to Rimsky-orsakov: .You don,t know the second part at all' (in a letter quoted more fully below). However, it is hard to See how Rimsky-orsakov could have actually heard any of Picturs earlier in the yer since he was wy from St Petersburg training a military band from bcfore the Fartman exhibition; any knowledge hc had of it ryaS more likcly to have come from Stasov. Musorgsky's letter to Stasov (probably l?/}4June) gives the impression of a composer working at white heat:
artrnan is boiling as Boris boiled; sounds and ideas have been hanging in the air; am devouring them and stuffing myself _ barely have time to scribble them on paper. am writing the fouh number - the links are good (on .promenade,). want to finish

St Petersburg'; a few days of tidying-up must then have followed (when some of the small alterations may have been made) before the dedication to Stasov dated 27 lune 1874 was added and the half-erased remark in blue pencil: 'For press. Musorgsky, 26 Iuly 187+'. There arc no sketches and little information

l1

t,

_ intermezzo (also untitled); No. 3, .Tuileries, (disue enfns aris jeux); right betwcen the eyes, No. 4, .The Sandomirsko Bydlo, (le tilig) (Ie iligue, obviously is untitled, which is between us). How well it is working out .. . vant to add Vityushka,s [i.e.

it as quicky and securely as I can. My proflle can be seen in the interludes. consider it successul to this point .... The titles are curious: .Promcnade (in modo russico),. No. l, .Gnomus, _ intermezzo (the intermezzo is untitled); .{o. 2,,!| vecchio castello,

Victor [.aman,s] Jews.

\ryas trying to kcep himselat it, trying to ryork in a controlled manner without, presumably, alcoholic diversions; his culinary refercnces are typical. Hory much of the overall structure he had in mind vhen he began is difficult to tell. The letter above Suggests he workcd at the opening ive pieces in order

How long or in what state these ideas had been hanging in the air is unclear from this, the only reference to Pictures at an xhibition in Musorgsky,s prodigious correspondence. There is the strong impression that Musorgsky

l6

r7

Musorgsky: Pictures at on xhibiion

ryaS about to add the sixth. Whether he had fully formulated ideas or thc other pieces is not clear, but rye do get the impression that the work was composed in its final sequence. The second hal of Picturs is described in a letter from Stasov to Rimskorsakov:

Musorgsky and Fartman

and

The work of Victor Hartrnan

Partly because of his early death, the architect Victor Alexandrovich
suggested.ll ndeed, the opposite was the case. He seems to have lived comortable, untroubled existence, able to travel throughout urope rom l864 to 1868 indulging himself in his pcnchant fr making water colours and sketches of cathedrals and buildings o architectural intcrest, and the scenes from life that inspired Musorgsky. Little or nothing of Fartman,s elaborate architecture now remains; Mamontov the publisher's country house (now demolished) was typical o his architcctural srylc. The roos were steeply pitched and Surmounted ryith elaborate filigrce wlrk aS \ryere the ascias. The symmetry inherent in this jewellery-type decoration, in thc stecp-pitchcd roofs and in the elaborately decoratcd dormer windows, \ryas set by the asymmetry o the building itsel with its almost haph zrd|y placcd littlc wings and porches. As the realist artist ramskoy remarked: .When hc \ryas to build commonplace, utility objects Fartman was a failure, or he nccdcd airy-talc
castles and fantastic palaces for which there were no precedents - here he coud create truly wonderful things'.'' Harnan produced number o fantastic, almost impractical designs for everyday items such as that for a nutcrackcr, which inspired 'Gnomus', and

Hartmanro is a rather minor figure in Russian art and there is little evidence that his life \ryas the passionate struggle some Soviet commentators have

Musoryanin has positively completed and wrinen rhe last stroke of his piecc on Fartman. The second por you don,t know at al, and there, think are the vcry bcst things. 'The Limoges Gossips at the Market' - an enchanting sche rz.ino and vcry pianistic. Then comes.Baba.YE'_excellent and powerful, and in conclusion _.The iev Bogatyr,s Gate, _ in the manner of a hymn or finale i l ,S|avsiya, _ of coursc There is a particularly lovely church moti: .As you are baptised in Christ,, and thc
ringing bells are in a completely new style. n this second part rea ew unusually poetic lines. This [musical quotation] is the music for Lartman,s picrure of the .C-atacombs of aris, all made o skulls. Musoryanin has begun with a depiction o a gloomy vault (long stretched chords, purely orchestral, with great [pause mark]). Then rremolando comes in minor key the theme o the first promenade, _ these are faint lights ^ glimmering in he skulls, and here suddenly is sounded the magic, poctical appcal o Hartman to Musorgsky.e
a

rnillion times

ryorse and weaker,

but all the same a lovely, mighty and riginal thing.

Stasov,S tone is slightly derogatory: .iev, is not the equal of the hallowcd Glinka's .Slasiya'. But in presenting Musorgsky's music to those outside thc circle he would be more positive. Fe reported to Tchaikovsky in Scptcmber

|874 that Musorgsky has composed .Six ne\ry romances' which two are absolutely first rate' and a large piano piece vhich is unusualy original,
powerful and refined'. Musorgsky,s operatic projects took years to bring to ruition. The succcssul completion of Pictures in an extraordinary but o concentrated activity
indicates that the scale of the work, as with his songs, \ryas commensurate with his ability to sustain concentration. Had he delayed bur a week things might have been diferent. on the29 June/l l Juy Nadezhda opochinina (}. l821)

the design for clock in the orm o Baba-Yaga,s hut on hen,s

Frankenstein
ryaS

legs.

ris and Alexander had assisted Musorgsky in finding government employment on several occasions. Musorgsky's relationship with Nadezhda Opochinina is, like his relationships ryith women in general and his absolute horrr o marriage, something of a mystery. Nad ezhd \ryas eighteen years his senior but large number o significant compositions are dedicatcd to her anI Musorgsky did not make his dedications lightly. No correspondence exists t help us establish their relarionship.
18

died. opochinina ryaS the sister o Alexander and Vladimir opchinin. Musorgsky had lived with the opochinin amily during the compositin

connects with diamond shapes used in other additions. On the other hand, the plaited, snake-like strands of varying thicknesses on the upper part f the plinth of the clock are better. Musorgsky befriended Fartman in l870. That year he dedicatcd .[n the Corner, from The Nurser)/ to Harnan who advocated pcrorming the songs with sets and costumes; it \ryas Hartman ryho prevailed on the composer to restore the fountain Scene in ris Goduno. Minds o the stature of Musorgsky and Stasov \ryere attracted to Hartman,S ryork by the Russianness that veneered it, whcther derived rom peasant embroidery or country life in
19

also able to trace Fartman's designs or a prcsentation jug in the form of a chicken standing on a single clawed foot, and a candelabrum.13 Reflecting the qualities of nature, Hartman mixes regular and irregular, taking asymmetrical shapes and either drawing out or adorning them ryith patterns and symmetries. Sometimes this can have glib efect, as with the two chickens' heads placed in mirror image at the top o Baba-Yaga,s clock or the Sarytooth pattern o the cock,s comb on the top of the presentation Iug which

Musorgsky: Picures o of rhibition

the frm of bird and animal motis. The chickens that appear so frequently played a crucial role in the rural economy. The composer and the critic were also struck by the originality and quality of his artistry; the ordinariness of the materials or the subject did not matter. But it is clear that Fartman,s work lacked the strong Populist/realist social commitment of Musorgsky's music. Scial comment is dif{icult to incorporate in architecture or design, but even Hartrran,s sketches and watercolours Seem substantially unaffected by the opulist and realist movements. t would have been convenient for Soviet musicologists had Victor Fartman been one of the Russian realist artists or .eredvizniki,. This movement vas .born of protest in 1863 and died of senility in |923'; only ten years later it ryas resurrected for politica reasons

Mnuscrit, ubictin

,nd

ermance

Currently musicologists and performers take faithfulness to the original text

And until recently this style flourished in the Soviet Union'.ra But Hartman's name does not crop up amongst those of painters van ramskoy (l837_87), Vasili Perov (1833_82), lya Repin, and sculptor Mark Antokolsky ( I 842-1 902). Hartman \ryas a man of the sixties only in so far as he ryas part of the Slaonic renaissance in architecture, which
as 'the basis for Socialist Realism.

of good musical practice. There is marked reuctance to admit that

and the use o perforTnance practices from the composer,s day as benchmarks
a

sought inspiration in folk materials. Musorgsky's social concerns and realism place him a long vay from Fartman,s ephemeral sketches, and his musical style, stripped of all ornament, contrasts with Hartman's fussiness. But as well as their interest in things Russian and in scenes from life there is a deeper link in that both men's work often suggests realisation in other media and may give an impression of incompleteness. Both seem to be working in media only partly able to cope with what they wish to express. Furthermore, with both rye must tlerate a certain slightness in the individual items and only come to a judgement in the context of the whole musical suite or exhibition. n the end, Musorgsky is a much more fundamentally Russian artist than Hartman.

composer worth performing can possibly bc improvcd upon; indeed, there is oten the feeling that composer,s originality and Strength lies in those passages which may previously have been considcred to bc flaryed. Musorgsky,s music raises this authenticity issue in a nineteenth-century contcxt. While so .improve him, in the past there is nory a countcrmany musicians have tried to for works such Pictures and oris Gduna, reliable texts efort to establish quest not helped during the early decades o this century by the arrival of an

unreliable complete edition by Paul Lamm.

The manuscript
The only manuscript of Pictures, in Musorgsky's hand, is preserved in the manuscripts' department of the Salrykov-Schedrin Public Library in St
Petersburg.

little book comprising eight double sheets o manuscript paper

A title

page and tryenty-fivc pages of score take up the bulk o

Se\ryn

together. Musorgsky,s ink calligraphy is clear and has ew errors. lterations and corrections are made in pencil or by scraping-out the ofending notes with

sharp edge and then inking-in nev ones. Some larger-scale cuts and

alterations are indicated by dense crossings-out or by Musorgsky covering the unwanted text with strips o new manuscript tied to each margin. n all cases where Musorgsky has made an alteratin it is possible to study both od and new versions. A small number of facsimiles of the autograph \ryere produced

in

197 5.1

Musorgsky,s manuscript requires only slight editorial eforts. Sometimes where his slurs begin and end is unclear; his use of staccato marks is a little ambiguous or inconsistent; some accidentals are missing but context makes it quite clear vhat they should be. Musorgsky makes a couple of slips in the

20

2l

Musorgsky: Piclures ot on xhibiion

Synopsis

(l0) Bogatyrskie vorota (vo stol'nom gorode vo ieve) (Russian: The Knight,s Gate (in the Ancient Capital, iev)) llegro ll bree (M,estoso con gr'ndezza) (J = 84), Eb major.
Plate 6
Stasov: .The Bogatyr,s [night,s] Gate (a gate designed by Fartman or a competition at iev), in the .massive old Russian style, with a cupa in the form of a Slavonic helmet,. . . . .a majestic picture in the manner o ..Slavsya,, [a chorus in Glinka, s Lfe fr the Tsr with strongly national connections and melodic shapes not unlike those of Musorgsky here] and in the sryle of Glinka,s Ruslan Music.,.here is a particularly lovely church motifi ..AS you are baptized in Christ", and thc ringing bells - are in a complctely ncw srylc.' The competition \ryas or a design fr a grand entrance to the city of Kiev, to commemorate sar Aexander ,s escape from assassination by , Nihilist there on 4 April l866. The event encouragcd the return o reprcssion for thc remainder f Alexander,S reign. The competition \ryas called ff and no gate was built, but Hartman's design causcd a stir, and he regarded it as his finest work. The exhibition catalogue ists six views and pans. The one rye knory today is described as .Stone ciry-gates for iev, Russian style, with a small church inside. The archryay rests on granite pillars, three-quartcrs sunk

iev \ryas the birthplace of Christianity in Russia where in AD 988 Vladimir of ev became Christian and rdercd a mass baptism of his people in the Dnieper. The roots of ancient Russian church music lie in the inks betveen Kiev and yzntium. Musorgsky,s picce includes a revorking of the Russian
hymn identified by Stasov above, but his sctting does not reveal a very deep understanding of what ancient Russian Church music vas like (see Chapter 6). This hymn has nothing to do with Musorgsky's faith, or lack of it, it is there because of associations with Russian history and culture and because of the chapel in Hartman's design. Musorgsky's piece matches the grandncss of Hartman's concept. 'Kiev' is a collage of hymn and bell sounds which movcs to a mighty climax only fully attainable in the orchestra. The kcy is }, the pitch associated in Bris with the .impending death of the tsar'2o (a dcathy rcfercnce to this key already occurred towards the end o.Catacombs,). Thc opening processional melody must be played with pover, but something should be left in reserve for the final pages. The first forty-six bars are remarkable for their completely unadorned chordal writing and lack of pianistic figuration. Musorgsky's method of construction is typicaly Russian. The opening processional tune is presented in three guises, first plainly, then adorned with peaing bells and finally it is given climactic triplet rhythm. n between rye get the stark Statements of .As you are baptised in Christ, (marked Senza esressione) ad one massive interlude of Russian bell sounds (bars 8t-l l2) which incorporates the return of the opening 'Promenade' theme. The bell sounds form ^ pulsating, dissonant mass (each layer of ryhich should be played equally). Bell sounds are employed elsewhere in MusorgskY, notably in Boris Gdun.z| Pedals are very much part of this piece and no more so than in the final coda for vhich the greatest weight should be reserved. n 1875, perhaps influenced by .ev,, Stasov Suggested the death o a fanatical monk in his cell to the accompaniment of distant bells as a scenario for a song to Musorgsky and utuzov; they did not take up the idea. The influence of this piece is widespread, and can be strongly felt in Borodin's'Au Couvent'(lSS5) and Debussy,s .La Cathdrale engloutie, (t9t0).

us that the tower is decorated by bricks bearing all sorrs of ancicnt Russian figures on the edge and corner. he old Slavnic inscriptin on the arch o

into the ground. ts head is decorated with a huge headpiece of Russian carved designs, with the Russian State eagle abovc thc peak. To the right is a belry in three stories with a cupola in the shapc o a slavonic helmet., Stasov tells

the bells that are to be so promincnt in Musorky,s setting. For Stasov, Hartman's design passed muster because it had two essential qualitics: ancient Russianness and originality. t gave thc impression o the .old heric Russia'. The columns, he ryrote, .seem sunk into thc earth as though weighted down with old age, and as though God knows how many centuries ago they had becn buit. Above, instead of a cupola is a Slaonic \ryar helmet with pointcd pcak. The ryalls are dccorated ryith a, pattern of coloured brick! Fow original is this!'re The idea of a column half sunk into the ground had occurred to Fartman beore, he had used it as a studcnt in designing a monument to an architect; the design \ryon him prize.
48

headpiece (kokoshnik); kokoshnik and slavonic helmet represent female and male. observe too the ryrought-iron \ryork, the figures on the staincd glass and

figure of St Michael appears on the shield on thc bonnet-like woocen

the gateway reads: .Blessed is he that cometh in the namc of the Lrd,. The

49