1 | [[quoteright:247:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/score_mussorgsky_4673.png]] |
2 | [[caption-width-right:247: The front page of the score.]] |
3 | |
4 | ''Pictures At An Exhibition'' is an 1874 piano suite, composed by Music/ModestMussorgsky [[AdaptationDisplacement but more famous]] in Music/MauriceRavel's orchestral arrangement. The work was inspired by a collection of paintings from a friend of Mussorgsky, Viktor Alexandrovich Hartmann (5 May 1834 – 4 August 1873). Each individual piece carries the title of one of these paintings which, unfortunately, are nowadays mostly [[MissingEpisode missing]]. Descriptions of what the works showed have survived, so that the modern day listener at least has some idea what they might have looked like. |
5 | |
6 | The work has been covered by various pop musicians (Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer, Isao Tomita, Music/TangerineDream, Music/{{Animusic}}, Music/SoundHorizon,...) and even adapted to film, including a 1966 version by Creator/OsamuTezuka. |
7 | |
8 | !! Tropes found in the original work: |
9 | * AncientTomb: "Catacombs" |
10 | * AvianFlute: Music/MauriceRavel's orchestration of this piece contains a movement entitled "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks." Its scoring prominently features two flutes playing grace-note figures that ornament running oboe and bassoon passages, the whole suggesting an energetic clutch of baby chicks. |
11 | * BigFancyCastle: "The Old Castle", "The Great Gate Of Kiev". |
12 | * {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Baba Yaga's chicken-legged home, which even moves according to the legend. |
13 | * BookEnds: The "Promenade" theme which opens the suite (and recurs throughout the first half) returns as part of the ending of "Great Gate of Kiev". |
14 | * CelebrityElegy: The compositions are a tribute to the paintings of artist Viktor Hartmann, a friend of the composer who had passed away the year before. |
15 | * GreedyJew: Musicologists have observed that the characters in "Samuel Goldenburg and Schmüyle"-- two Jewish men, one a wealthy banker and one a whining beggar-- bear an unfortunate resemblance to versions of this stereotype. |
16 | * MuseumOfTheStrangeAndUnusual: The paintings have a variety in topics. |
17 | * MockingSingSong: "Tuileries" depicts children playing in the titular gardens using the archetypal teasing melody. |
18 | * NameAndName: "Samuel Goldenburg and Schmüyle", who are two Jewish men, one rich and one poor. |
19 | * NightmareFuelStationAttendant: The score has a few haunting moments: "The Gnome", "Chickens In Their Eggs" and "The Hut On Fowl's Legs/Baba Yaga". The pieces which bear these names may well make you glad that the paintings which inspired them have since been lost forever. |
20 | * OurGnomesAreWeirder: "The Gnome", who apparently has crooked legs. |
21 | * PublicDomainSoundtrack: The entire score is in the public domain. |
22 | * RearrangeTheSong: Music/MauriceRavel rather heavily rearranged the work in adapting it from solo piano to orchestra, producing the version which is by far most frequently performed today. |
23 | * RecurringRiff: The opening theme appears as a recurring {{Leitmotif}} between each piece, representing someone at the Exhibition walking from picture to picture. |
24 | * RockMeAmadeus: The entire score has been covered by Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer and Music/TangerineDream, as well as synthesizer composer Isao Tomita. Music/SoundHorizon's "Yoiyami no Uta" includes snippets of classical pieces in rapid succession: Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", Chopin's "Fantaisie-Impromptu", and Mussorgsky's ''Music/PicturesAtAnExhibition''. "[[Music/{{Animusic}} Cathedral Pictures]]" contains excerpts from Mussorgsky's "Music/PicturesAtAnExhibition", specifically "The Old Castle", "The Hut on Fowls Legs", and "The Great Gate of Kiev", all arranged for an organ, an electric bass, and drums. |
25 | * SerenadeYourLover: "The Old Castle" is said to depict a troubadour singing to someone in a castle window. |
26 | * SillyWalk: "The Gnome", described as "clumsily running with crooked legs" and "The Ballet of Unhatched Chickens In Their Eggs", where the music sounds chaotic, visualizing chicks running around with NoSenseOfDirection. |
27 | * Myth/SlavicMythology: "The Hut On Fowl's Legs/Baba Yaga" is based on the Slavic folkloric character Literature/BabaYaga. |
28 | * StandardSnippet: "Promenade", "The Old Castle", "The Great Gate Of Kiev". |
29 | * TickTockTune: "The Hut On Fowl's Legs/Baba Yaga" it's about a design for a clock in the shape of the hut of the named witch from Russian folklore, and the music strongly suggests the ticking of the clock, especially in the Isao Tomita interpretation. |
30 | * UncommonTime: Mussorgsky freely mixes time signatures throughout the work. The first "Promenade" notably alternates between 5/4 and 6/4, and is perhaps better thought of as longer phrases of 11/4. This was simplified by a student of his contemporary Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (who also renotated some examples of this from Mussorgsky's ''Boris Godunov'' in straight 2/4) and has been the norm for subsequent publications. WordOfGod says that this meter is supposed to simulate a natural walking pattern. |
31 | * WickedWitch: Baba Yaga in "The Hut On Fowl's Legs". |
32 | |
33 | !! The 1971 version by Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer provides examples of: |
34 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/picturesatanexhibition_2606.jpg]] |
35 | |
36 | * AlbumTitleDrop: |
37 | --> ''We're gonna give you "Pictures At An Exhibition"'' (roaring applause) |
38 | * ConceptAlbum: A rock interpretation of Mussorgsky's famous piece. |
39 | * CoverAlbum: All tracks are covers. |
40 | * CoversAlwaysLie: All tracks are indeed from Mussorgsky's ''Pictures At An Exhibition'', except for the final one, a cover of "Nutrocker" by B. Bumble & The Stingers, itself based on ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'' by Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky. |
41 | * DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover is literally paintings displayed at a museum. |
42 | ** The original gatefold sleeve shows the paintings as blank canvases. The actual (not original) paintings are revealed on the inside... except for "Promenade", which is still a blank canvas. (Because, you know, that music is not about a painting.) |
43 | * EpicRocking and FadingIntoTheNextSong: All pieces fade into each other, making this one extra long piece of epic rocking. |
44 | * {{Instrumental}}: Most of the tracks are instrumental, though the band provided self-written lyrics for some of the pieces. |
45 | * LiveAlbum: The entire album is live. |
46 | * PackagedAsOtherMedium: The album cover is presented as a series of paintings hanging in an art gallery. |
47 | * ProgressiveRock: A cornerstone of the genre. |
48 | * RearrangeTheSong: The band arranged the music with rock band instruments and added some lyrics to certain pieces. |
49 | * RockMeAmadeus: Like most of the band's work. |
50 | * ShoutOut: Keith Emerson named his autobiography: "Pictures of an Exhibitionist". |
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