Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, (1839-81). Russian composer. He resigned an army commission in 1856 and worked as a clerk in the civil service, hoping to have more time to devote to music. His highly original works, many of which were left incomplete, made use of Russian folk music. Mussorgsky ruined his health by drinking and died in poverty. His masterpiece, the opera Boris Godunov (1869), became well known in a version revised by Rimsky-Korsakov but has since been produced in its original form. Other well-known works are the orchestral piece, Night-on the Bare Mountain, and the piano suite Pictures from an Exhibition.
