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At a Glance
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Ivan III (the Great) and Ivan IV (the Terrible) expanded Russian territory and the authority of the czars.
Peter the Great sought to modernize and westernize Russia in order to
enable it to compete with European nations for trade, territory, and
prestige.
The desire to find a warm-water port was one factor that encouraged
Russian expansion.
Catherine the Great, while once interested in reforming certain abuses
of Russian government, became as autocratic as her predecessors after a
peasant revolt and the French Revolution.
The lives of peasants worsened under Peter and Catherine.
What Teachers Need to Know
A. History and Culture
Byzantine Influence in Russia
Teaching Idea
You may want to teach section B,
“Geography,” before “History and
Culture.”
The rise of Russia is closely related to the history of the Byzantine Empire,
which students in Core Knowledge schools should have encountered in Grades 3
and 4. For a thousand years after the fall of the Roman Empire in the west, the
Eastern or Byzantine Empire continued to build on ancient Greek and Roman traditions and culture. For example, Byzantine architects used the Roman dome to
build magnificent churches, such as Hagia Sophia in the Byzantine capital of
Constantinople (now called Istanbul). Byzantine artists also created beautiful
mosaics and icons. Students in Core Knowledge schools should have studied
Hagia Sophia and Byzantine mosaics as part of the art curriculum for Grade 3.
However, they may not be acquainted with icons, which are special pictures of
Jesus, Mary, and the saints. Icons are meant to help Christians during worship
and meditation.
Constantinople was a great religious center, home of the Eastern Orthodox
Church, which had split with the Roman Catholic Church in 1054.
Constantinople was also the center of a vast trading network that connected
Europe with the Middle East and Asia. Trade brought the Byzantine Empire great
riches as well as new cultural influences.
The influence of the Byzantine Empire in Russia dates at least to the 860s,
when the Byzantine Emperor sent two monks to convert the Slavic people of
Eastern Europe to Orthodox Christianity. At the time, the Slavs were pagans who
worshipped many gods. The two monks sent to convert them were two brothers
named Cyril and Methodius. Cyril and Methodius invented a new alphabet,
called the Cyrillic alphabet after Cyril. The Cyrillic alphabet was loosely based on
the Greek alphabet. Cyril and Methodius then taught the Slavs to read and write
using the Cyrillic alphabet so that they could read the Bible.
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VI. Russia: Early Growth
and Expansion
A little more than a century later, Christianity began to spread around Slavic
and Russian territories, but many people remained pagans. Once such person was
Prince Vladimir, the ruler of the city-state of Kiev, which would become the first
Russian state. According to legend, the prince sent emissaries to investigate the
major monotheistic religions of his day: Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman
Catholic Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. When his emissaries visited
Constantinople and saw Hagia Sophia, they were astonished and overwhelmed by
the beauty of the church, its dome, and its mosaics. Surely, they thought, this is
the house of the true God. Vladimir selected Orthodox Christianity as his own
religion, and decided it would also be the religion of his people. It is also possible that he may have been influenced to convert to Christianity by the economic
and political advantages of an alliance with Byzantium, as well as in order to get
approval to marry the Byzantine emperor’s sister. He ordered the old pagan idols
thrown into the Dnieper River and conducted mass baptisms in the same river.
Adoption of Eastern Orthodox Christianity had a number of benefits for the
Russians. It strengthened the commercial ties between Russia and the Byzantine
Empire and also provided the basis for the development of a national identity
among the various Russian city-states by giving them something in common.
Over time, princes of the various city-states adopted the written language of the
empire, as well as its architecture, music, and art. Like the Byzantine emperor, the
Russian czars (also spelled tsars) would claim jurisdiction over the church in
Russia, thus strengthening their own power. Similar to the monarchs of western
Europe, the Russian czars also came to believe in the theory of the divine right of
kings—that they ruled as the representative of God on Earth, and as such, their
authority was absolute.
Moscow as the Third Rome
Over time Kiev became less important and Moscow, to the north, became
more important. Moscow became the headquarters of the Russian church. When
the Byzantine Empire fell to the Turks in 1453, the rulers of Moscow announced
that Moscow was “The Third Rome.” Rome had been the capital city of
Christianity and so the “spiritual center of the world,” but then the popes and the
Roman Catholic church had fallen into heresy and false belief. After 1054, when
the Orthodox Church split with the Roman Catholic Church, Constantinople had
become the new “spiritual center of the world,” the “Second Rome.” When
Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453, the Russians thought Moscow was
poised to take its place and become the latest spiritual center of the world, the
“Third Rome.”
The Czars
Ivan III
Beginning in 1236, Mongols, nomadic warriors from Central Asia, had invaded and conquered large parts of Russia. Students in Core Knowledge schools
should have learned about the Mongols in the Grade 4 section on China. The
same people who swept south to conquer China swept north to conquer large
parts of Russia. In return for acknowledging the Mongols as their rulers and paying tribute to them, the princes of the various states were allowed to keep their
lands and titles. The Mongols remained in power until 1480 when Ivan III
declared Russia free of Mongol rule.
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Ivan III, also known as Ivan the Great, had come to power as the Grand
Prince of Moscow in 1462. During his reign of 43 years, he extended Moscow’s
control over a large area, annexing land from other city-states and from the Poles,
Lithuanians, and Mongols.
Teaching Idea
Using Instructional Master 25, Czars
of Russia (1613–1917), have students
keep a chart of the czars, their dates,
and their accomplishments.
The government was centralized and Ivan asserted his influence over the
church. He surrounded himself with the splendor and ceremony befitting an
emperor and adopted as the symbol of the czar the Byzantine symbol of the double eagle. Ivan’s reign laid the foundation for the later Russian state.
Ivan IV
Ivan IV, also known as Ivan the Terrible, reigned from 1533 to 1584. He
greatly expanded Russia’s borders, extending Russian rule throughout the
Volga River Basin to the Caspian Sea and pushing across the Ural Mountains
into Siberia. His attempt to win a foothold on the Baltic Sea was less successful. The Swedes and Poles defeated the Russian forces.
Date
Name
Czars of Russia (1613–1917)
Mikhail Feodorovich
(1596–1645)
1613–45
Alexei Mikhailovich
(1629–76)
1645–76
Study the family tree
and use
itLukianovna
to answer the
Evdokia
Streshneva
questions
on Master
25b.
Maria Miloslavskaya
Natalia Kirillovna Naryshkina
Sofia Alexeena
(1657–1704)
1682–89
Feodor Alexeevich
(1661–82)
1676–82
Praskovia Saltykova
Ivan V
(1666–96)
1682–96
Peter the Great ruled Russia from 1689 to 1725. Like his predecessors, Peter
was an autocratic ruler. Unlike them, he was fascinated by western Europe, its
culture, its sciences, and its growing industries.
Only 17 when he became czar, Peter had an immense curiosity about people,
ideas, and things. His appetite for information matched his size. He was 6 feet 9
inches tall and weighed close to 300 pounds. As a young man, he spent time in
the German Quarter of Moscow, where not only Germans but also Scottish,
English, and Dutch artisans lived. Although previous czars had been generally
suspicious of foreigners, some had been allowed to settle in special zones of the
city, but their contact with Russians was limited to people the czars trusted.
Unknown
Anna Ivanovna
(1693–1740)
1730–40
a
Peter the Great
Czarevich Alexei Crown Princess
Petrovich
lott
Ivan also established the Zemski Sobor, or land assembly, to act as an advisory body to the czar. It was the first national assembly of Russians ever convened.
However, Ivan IV was even more autocratic than Ivan III had been. In an effort to
rid himself of any threat from the boyars, who were hereditary aristocrats, he had
many of them accused of treason. He then seized their lands and divided the lands
among a new class of landholders that he created. In return for land, these men
owed the czar military service when he asked for assistance. The service was to
be performed by peasants supplied by the new nobility. In effect, Ivan created a
feudal system in Russia.
har
Paul I
(1754–1801)
1796–1801
Alexandra
Fyodorovna
Maria Fyodorovna
Prince Anton
Ulrich
Ivan VI
(1740–64)
1740–41
Alexander I
(1777–1825)
1801–25
Nicholas I
(1796–1855)
1825–55
Alexander II
(1818–1881)
1855–1881
Anna
Leopoldovna
Peter III
(1728–62)
1761–62
Catherine the Great
(1729–96)
1762–96
Peter II
(1715–30)
1727–30
Karl Friedrich
Anna Petrovna
Elizaveta Petrovna
(1709–61)
1741–61
Copyright ©Core Knowledge Foundation
Ivan earned his nickname because of his cruelty. He was initially called
“Ivan the Terrible” because he terrified his enemies, but later he also began
to terrify his own people. Indeed, he became one of history’s most famous
examples of the paranoid tyrant. Convinced that enemies and intrigue surrounded him, Ivan IV was suspicious of everyone. He established the
Oprichniki, a group of special guards, to search out traitors among his subjects. They acted like secret police and wore black uniforms. These policemen could throw people in jail or torture them on the slightest suspicion of
disloyalty. Ivan the Terrible also had a terrible temper. One day in a fit of anger,
he hit his eldest son so hard that he killed him.
fia
C
So
Ekaterina Skawronska
Evdokia
Lopuhina
Peter
theFedorovna
Great
(1672–1725)
1682–1725
Maria Aleksandrovna
Alexander III
(1845–94)
1881–94
Maria Fyodorovna
Nicholas II
(1868–1918)
1894–1917
Master 25a
Purpose: To gain
a greater
understanding of
the hereditary
monarchy in
czarist Russia
Grade 5: History & Geography
Use Instructional Master 25a–25b.
Teaching Idea
If you have taught Section V of World
History and Geography, ask students
what other important event occurred
in 1689. Students should respond that
the English Parliament passed the
English Bill of Rights in 1689.
Compare the political structure of
Russia at the time with that of
England; help students see that, while
England was beginning to place limits on the power of the king, Russia
was still an autocratic state in which
the czar had virtually unlimited
powers.
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VI. Russia: Early Growth
and Expansion
Wanting to see for himself, Peter took two trips to western Europe during
1697 and 1698, and during 1716 and 1717. Among the places he visited were
shipyards, universities, art galleries, and the British Parliament. He was an eager
student and learned about shipbuilding, medicine, military science, manufacturing, and the educational systems of the countries he visited. He returned to Russia
with a group of European experts that he had hired to help him transform Russia.
44
Modernizing and Westernizing Russia
Peter the Great visiting Europe
Teaching Idea
Peter the Great’s trip to western Europe
included many fascinating adventures.
Students may enjoy learning more
about Peter’s experiences, including
his travels in England and Holland, his
work as a carpenter, his studies in dentistry, his purchases while abroad, and
his attempts to travel incognito.
Teaching Idea
Have pairs of students create posters
advertising either of Peter’s decrees:
that men must be beardless or that
Russians—except for peasants—must
wear western European-style clothes.
Posters should contain the gist of the
decree and some slogan to promote
compliance. The message could rely on
what will happen if a person fails to
obey or could tout some benefit such as
a beardless man will be cooler in summer. Illustrations could be optional.
You may want to provide students
with books that show what western
Europeans were wearing in the early
1700s.
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Grade 5 Handbook
When Peter returned from his first European tour, he set about changing how
Russians looked and what they did for a living. Peter decreed that Russian men
were henceforth to be beardless, because that was the fashion in western Europe.
Men found wearing beards were at risk of having them shaved off on the spot. A
man could get around the decree by paying a tax for a beard license. Peter also
decreed that the long coats of Russian men were to be shortened and that everyone above the rank of peasant was to adopt western clothing.
Peter established a navy and modernized the army. No longer would the czar
have to depend on peasant soldiers supplied by the nobility. He established a
standing army by introducing conscription (forced service) and equipped it with
new weaponry from the west. He also established military-technical schools and
required that the sons of the nobility be sent to train as officers. Peter used government subsidies to encourage the development of manufacturing, shipbuilding,
mining industries, and international trading companies.
In part to make the government more efficient, and in part to further lessen
the influence of the nobility, Peter introduced reforms into the government. He
established a committee system to run government operations. Each committee
had eleven members who were to oversee a particular area, such as agriculture
and foreign affairs, similar to our government departments. To strengthen his
position, the czar personally appointed many officials, including the members of
the new advisory body of nobles, called the Senate, and the governors of
provinces.
Peter built on the idea of the service nobility, initiated by earlier czars.
According to this concept, service to the state was a requirement for admission to
the nobility. Peter established the Table of Ranks, which listed 14 civil and military ranks, covering all positions in the government and military. As one
advanced up the ranks and reached a certain level, one automatically became a
noble. As more men entered the nobility, the old landed aristocracy—the
boyars—became a smaller percentage of the nobility. Through this maneuver,
Peter continued to lessen the influence of the boyars.
Search for a Warm-Water Port
One of Peter’s great ambitions, as it had been for previous czars, was to secure
a warm-water port for trade. Most Russian ports were located in the far north and
froze up for part of the year. By increasing the amount of Russia’s international
trade, Peter believed he would also increase its wealth and power. His first efforts
were aimed at wresting territory on the Mediterranean from the Ottoman Turks,
as Ivan IV had tried to do, but Peter was unsuccessful in finding allies and abandoned the idea.
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Peter then set his sights on land along the Baltic Sea. He declared war on
Sweden in 1700 and ultimately won his warm-water port. He built St. Petersburg
on the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic, and moved the capital there from
Moscow. His new city was as grand as any capital in western Europe. It is called
Peter’s “Window on the West,” not only because it was a port that allowed Peter to
trade with the west year-round, but also because the city was built in the European
style, with canals and stately palaces like the ones Peter had seen on his trips to
western Europe. Peter encouraged western Europeans to come to Petersburg and
required many Russians nobles to build houses in his new capital.
Ever since Peter the Great, Russians have often found themselves divided
between two groups. One group, the so-called “westernizers,” has argued, in the
tradition of Peter the Great, that Russia needs to be more like the countries of
western Europe. On the other side are the “Slavophiles,” who think Russia is better than western Europe and should stick to its traditional Slavic ways. For the
most part, the westernizers have gravitated to St. Petersburg, with its European
style, while Slavophiles have preferred Moscow, built in the old Russian style.
Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great was actually not Russian, but German. She was chosen to
marry Peter, Duke of Holstein, a grandson of Peter the Great. As Czar Peter III, the
Duke initiated a series of policies that angered powerful nobles. He entered into an
alliance with Prussia, a long-time rival, expanded religious freedom, and closed
down the secret police. Catherine and the czar were not well suited for each other
and theirs was an unhappy marriage. Catherine—who had become thoroughly
Russian after almost twenty years in Russia—joined in a plot against Peter. The conspirators removed him from the throne and made Catherine sole ruler.
Catherine greatly expanded Russian territory, adding more of the Baltic
region and Ukraine. She also warred against the Ottoman Turks and seized portions of their empire. When European powers partitioned Poland in 1772, 1793,
and 1795, she gained the largest part for Russia. It was during her reign that
Russian exploration and colonization of Alaska began.
Like Peter the Great, Catherine was interested in the west. When she began
her reign, she intended to make a number of reforms to ease the life of serfs (peasants), promote education, and limit land acquisitions by nobles. However, the
peasant revolt led by Pugachev [POO-ga-chov] between 1773 and 1775 and the
French Revolution soon caused Catherine to become as autocratic as earlier czars.
The peasant uprising was a bloody and brutal revolt that resulted in the death of
thousands of wealthy Russian landowners, priests of the Russian Orthodox
Church, and merchants. Not wishing to antagonize the nobility, Catherine
increased the privileges of the nobility and decreased the freedom of peasants.
Reforms of Peter and Catherine and the Peasants
Catherine the Great
Teaching Idea
Compare the lives of peasants in
Russia, slaves in the colonies, and
serfs in the Middle Ages. What made
serfdom in Russia different?
The reforms of Peter and Catherine had little effect on the peasants—except
to bind them to the land as serfs. By the time of Peter, many peasants already had
no personal freedom of movement. A peasant family could not decide to move
from one landed estate to another because the second landowner offered better
working terms.
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VI. Russia: Early Growth
and Expansion
Teaching Idea
Create an overhead of Instructional
Master 26, Russia, and use it to orient
students to the physical features and
cities discussed in this section. Have
students use the distance scale to compute distances (for example, the length
and width of Siberia, or the distance
from Moscow to St. Petersburg).
During Peter’s reign, peasants became chattel, the property of the landholders on whose estate they worked. They could, therefore, be bought and sold. After
the peasant uprising during Catherine’s reign, she allowed the nobles to continue
the process of turning peasants into serfs. The word serf is from the Latin word
for slave; however, the status of the serf was somewhere in between that of a slave
and a free person. Serfs were the property of nobles, yet they had certain rights.
They were required to give certain payments to and perform specific services for
their owner. On the other hand, a serf was usually given a house, a plot of land
on which to grow crops, and some animals. Serfs were required to give some of
what they grew to their noblemen masters. In addition, serfs were required to
work the noble’s land.
Serfdom—the agricultural system based on the ownership of serfs—had
existed in Russia for centuries. In western Europe, the actual bonding of the peasant to the soil had largely ended by the 1400s and 1500s. By contrast, in Russia,
serfdom was gaining strength. In the 1700s, during the reign of Peter and
Catherine, while the Industrial Revolution was getting underway in Great Britain,
the restrictive powers of serfdom reached their height. Serfdom was not abolished
in Russia until 1861—four years before the United States abolished slavery.
B. Geography
Name
Background
Date
Russia
Russia stretches across two continents, Europe and Asia. Much of the early
history of Russia occurred in the European section as people there traded with
the Vikings, Byzantines, and later western Europeans.
Study the map. Use it to answer the questions below.
U.S.A.
ARCTIC OCEAN
NORWAY
N
EDE
SW
TIC
AL
ND
LA
FI N
A
SE
I
B
EST.
LAT.
St. Petersburg
RUSSIA LITH.
BELARUS
S
S
b
r
e
i
a
O
RUSSIA
M
r
L
ive
aR
Yekaterinburg
A
SE
Trans-Siberian
Railroad
ASIA
U
R
A
River
lg
Vo
Don
CK
Cities
T
i
N
U
Moscow
UKRAINE
Odessa
BL
A
N
A
EUROPE
Khabarovsk
Irkutsk
Moscow
KAZAKHSTAN
TU
RK
TAN
KIS
BE
UZ
AN
IST
EN
CA
SP
IA
N SEA
Novosibirsk
GA.
ARM.
AZER.
M
MONGOLIA
KYRGYZSTAN
Vladivostok
CHINA
IRAN
NORTH
KOREA
N
AFGHANISTAN
W
E
S
0
0
300
300
SOUTH
KOREA
600 miles
JAPAN
600 kilometers
1. What is the distance between Moscow and St. Petersburg?
about 400 miles
Copyright ©Core Knowledge Foundation
2. What is the distance between Moscow and Vladivostok?
about 4,000 miles
Purpose: To read and interpret a map of Russia
Master 26
Grade 5: History & Geography
Use Instructional Master 26.
Teaching Idea
Moscow and St. Petersburg are very
different cities. To give students a feeling for the differences, share pictures
of key buildings and streets in each
city (e.g., the Kremlin and St. Basil’s in
Moscow, and the Hermitage and other
palaces in St. Petersburg).
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Grade 5 Handbook
Moscow is located in west central Russia—European Russia—on the Moscow
River and is the capital of modern Russia. Ivan IV made it the capital of Russia in the
1400s, and it also became the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church. Peter the Great
transferred the capital from Moscow to the new city of St. Petersburg in 1712. The
capital was returned to Moscow in 1918 during the Russian Revolution.
Today, Moscow is the largest city in Russia (with a metropolitan area population of over 13 million), an important inland port, and the seat of Russia’s government. The Kremlin, meaning walled center of a city, is the heart of Moscow.
Here the czars built their palaces, Communist leaders reviewed thousands of soldiers marching through Red Square, and today, the national government uses a
former palace for the legislature. The Kremlin is also the site of St. Basil’s
Cathedral, once the center of the Russian Orthodox Church and now a national
museum. St. Basil’s is built in the traditional Russian style, with several onion
domes reaching up to the sky. From the Kremlin, wide boulevards extend through
the city in all directions. A person from Moscow is called a Muscovite.
St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg is Russia’s second-largest city (population 5 million) and is
located in northwestern European Russia on the Gulf of Finland. Peter the Great
built it in the western European style, with canals and glittering palaces, after
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four-note motif. Listen as Beethoven uses that simple idea in all sorts of different
ways: stringing several versions of it in a row or stacking it up on top of itself,
extending or abbreviating it, bringing it into the foreground or pushing it into the
background, using one statement of it to punctuate another, etc. Every section of
the movement seems to develop as a natural outgrowth of that little four-note
phrase.
As in most symphonies of Beethoven’s time, the second movement is slow.
Many slow movements of that era are songlike in melody and construction, and
this one is no exception. Two gentle, singable tunes alternate through the movement: the first has a lilting quality and finishes with the winds making a beautiful “sigh”; the second has a more steady and noble tone. These themes are varied
each time they appear with more and more elaborate decoration by the strings.
The third movement is called Scherzo, which means “joke.” (In some versions it might be called “Allegro.”) It was traditional for third movements of symphonies to be rather fast and light, and they almost always took the form of either
a minuet (a light dance in a meter of 34–) or scherzo (an energetic, rhythmically
driven piece, also often in 34–). This particular scherzo, however, is uncharacteristically dark and heavy. In many ways, its main theme is more of a march than a
scherzo. However, the middle section, with its scurrying strings, captures something of the traditional spirit of a scherzo. Notice that the marchlike music is
based on a rhythm that is essentially the same as the four-note phrase from the
first movement. This rhythm appears in all four movements and helps tie the
piece together as a whole. The prominent way it is used in this third movement
makes sure that the audience can hear the relationship.
Instead of the traditional break between movements, Beethoven writes the
third movement so that it leads directly into the fourth movement without any
pause. This is another way in which he indicates that he is thinking of the symphony as one large unified piece, and not as four disconnected movements. The
fourth movement is triumphant in spirit. By connecting the movements in this
way, Beethoven creates the effect that the triumph of the final movement is a resolution to the dark, ominous quality of the preceding movements. To make this
effect even stronger, Beethoven puts a little reminder of the third movement into
the fourth, just before the ending. This emphasizes the way that the triumphant
finale “answers” the earlier movement.
The symphony is often discussed as being representative of man’s struggle
with (and ultimate triumph over) Fate. This is accomplished through repetition
of the insistent motif from the first movement. Interpretations of this sort were
extremely popular in the 19th century.
Teaching Idea
The coda to the final movement of
Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5 prominently features the piccolo; this is
one of the earliest pieces to make
use of the piccolo. What does it bring
to the texture? How does Beethoven
use the instruments of the orchestra
to enhance the effect of his symphony? While listening to the piece, discuss its orchestration as a class. Pay
attention to the contrast between
phrases played by solo instruments,
phrases played by whole sections of
the orchestra, and phrases played by
the entire orchestra.
Teaching Idea
Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5 is more
than half an hour long and is one of
the most structurally elaborate works
that students will have studied to this
point. Allow sufficient time for the
class to become familiar with the
piece. This will require many repeated listenings and perhaps even more
active involvement with the themes of
the different movements. You may
wish to have the class break into 4
groups, and assign each to study 1 of
the 4 movements and present their
findings to the class. Make copies of
the score available to these groups
and encourage them to identify the
major themes and structures of each
movement.
Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Until the second half of the 19th century, Russia had no real classical music
tradition of its own, and Russian composers generally wrote in styles modeled
after the great German composers. In the 1860s, five major Russian composers
formed a group (nicknamed the “Mighty Handful,” after the five fingers of the
hand) that was dedicated to creating a truly Russian style of classical music that
would not be as derivative of the music of western Europe. The most original and
noteworthy of these five was Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881). While other
Music
403
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II. Listening and Understanding
Teaching Idea
Pictures of Mussorgsky show that he was
a large man, weighing nearly 300 pounds.
The theme in Pictures at an Exhibition,
stated over and over again, suggests a
very large man walking along. Without
specifically mentioning this to students,
have them walk to the music. Then ask
how a person who walks to such a “ponderous” movement might look (or what
his or her size might be).
Teaching Idea
Once students understand the premise
of the piece and have had the titles of
the individual movements explained
to them, have them draw what they
imagine the pictures to look like. Some
editions of the score include pictures
similar to those that inspired the music.
(The original pictures have been lost.)
Some of these are also available
online. You can show them to students,
but only after they have created their
own versions. Ask students how the
composer depicts these images with
musical sounds.
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Grade 5 Handbook
members of the “Mighty Handful” attempted to create the Russian sound by using
melodies from Russian folk songs, Mussorgsky did not borrow any actual
melodies, but adapted his compositional style to have audible similarities of harmony and rhythm to the style of Russian folk music. His compositions do indeed
sound somehow “Russian,” even though they are completely original.
Mussorgsky did not receive much training as a composer, and as a result, his
music is not always particularly polished. On the other hand, many people feel
that the raw and sometimes surprising sounds that he composed only enhance
the appeal of his works and contribute to the sense that they are somehow as
native to Russia as its folk music.
Mussorgsky’s greatest achievement is his opera Boris Godunov (1874) but far
better known are two other works—Night on Bald Mountain (1867) (which many
people know from the memorable sequence in the film Fantasia), and Pictures at
an Exhibition. In 1874, an exhibition of paintings and drawings by the Russian
artist Victor Hartmann was held in Moscow. Hartmann was a close friend of
Mussorgsky’s and had been attempting to do for the visual arts what Mussorgsky
and the “Mighty Handful” wanted to do for music—create a Russian style that did
not depend on foreign influences. Mussorgsky attended the exhibition and was
inspired to depict several of the artworks in musical form. The work he composed
not only represents these works but also the person who is viewing them. This
helps tie the unrelated images into a more cohesive whole structured around the
idea of the exhibition.
Mussorgsky originally wrote Pictures at an Exhibition for piano, but in 1924,
the French composer Maurice Ravel arranged the music for orchestra. It is in the
orchestrated form that the work is most often heard.
As you play the piece for your students, stop and discuss the items below.
• Promenade
The piece opens with a stately theme, which is meant to represent the composer (or any viewer at the exhibition) as he or she strolls from one picture to the
next. This theme will return occasionally throughout the piece, and is the one
idea that ties the whole set together.
1. “Gnomus” (The Gnome)
The image is of a threatening and grotesque dwarf.
• Promenade
The viewer quietly walks onward to a reprise of the Promenade theme.
2. “Il Vecchio Castello” (The Old Castle)
This picture depicts a night scene of an Italian castle, with a singer standing in
the foreground. The music, in imitation of Italian folk music, is mysterious and
shifting, appropriate to a night setting. Eventually the song drifts away into the
distance. Listen for Ravel’s rare orchestral use of the saxophone.
• Promenade
Another brief reprise of the Promenade, this one is more forceful than before.
3. “Tuileries” (Famous Garden in Paris)
The scene portrays children at play in the park having an argument. The
sounds of the children are depicted quite literally: the opening figure mimics the universal taunting melody of “nyah-nyah!” which is interspersed
with quick, light, bubbling figures that sound very much like children’s giggling laughter. Wind instruments (flutes, clarinets, piccolos) are used to
depict the children.
4.
•
5.
6.
7.
8.
•
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“Bydlo”
This movement portrays an image of a huge, heavy Polish ox-wagon, making its lumbering way down the road. Listen to the way Mussorgsky uses a
steady, rocking figure in the bass to give a sense of the wagon’s weight.
Promenade
This version of the Promenade begins quite tentatively—perhaps something
has troubled the viewer. However, the next picture will probably lighten his
spirits; we hear a brief preview of it before the final notes of this movement.
“Ballet of the Chicks in Their Shells”
The original drawing that inspired this movement was of whimsical
“unhatched egg” costumes for a ballet. The music imagines a comical dance
of chickens and eggs, using chirping sounds that imitate the actual sounds
of chicks. Clarinets are used to depict the chickens’ chirping sounds.
“Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle”
Sometimes called “The Rich Jew and the Poor Jew,” this movement is a
response to two contrasting portraits—one of a rich businessman, and the
other of a shivering beggar in the street. The imposing and severe theme of
the rich man, and the chattering desperation of the beggar, are heard first
separately and then combined.
“Limoges: The Marketplace”
In this scene, women argue in a bustling French marketplace. The frantic
and constant movement of the music captures the sense of the endless
activity of the marketplace. The piece seems to capture the cries of the different sellers and combines them in a progressively more chaotic and surprising way, each interrupting the previous.
“Catacombae: Sepulchrum Romanum”
In this drawing, the artist himself is seen in the Roman catacombs in Paris, an
underground system of tunnels and burial chambers with skulls stacked on the
ground nearby. Ominous chords capture the gloom and power of the scene.
“Cum Mortuis in Lingua Mortua” (Speaking to the Dead in a Dead
Language)
Mussorgsky explained this movement as representing his reaction to the
drawing of the catacombs. In the drawing, the artist can be seen examining
ancient skulls. Mussorgsky envisioned this as a sort of conversation
between the living and the dead, and he is prompted to his own thoughts
on death. The Promenade theme returns, but altered, as though seen
through the murk of the catacombs. The whole piece is colored by shifting
chords reflecting thoughts of mortality.
“The Hut on Fowls’ Legs”
This movement is also known as “Baba Yaga.” Baba Yaga was a witch from
Russian folklore who lived in a hut that could walk on the legs of a bird.
Her hut not only had a bird’s legs but also could fly, aided by the blood of
victims who were crushed when the house landed. Students should be able
to identify what is going on in this piece, based on a description of the hut
and what it represents. The pounding, rhythmic opening notes suggest a
giant bird, bouncing on its legs. A quieter chase theme follows, in which
the hut obviously gains speed and leaps into the air. The quiet, steady
theme on the violins represents the house circling, looking for a victim.
There is an almost cartoonlike quality to the rhythm. It is followed by a
lower and lower tone, as the house circles, until a single chord shows that
the hut has thudded to the ground, presumably on top of a victim. Soon
enough, the pounding rhythm returns, and the hut begins to bound into
the air, building to a frenzy that leads immediately into . . .
Name
Date
A Classical Crossword
Match the words and their clues to complete the puzzle.
LUTE
EXHIBITION
DOWLAND
RENAISSANCE
RUSSIA
NOTE
SCHERZO
DREAM
BEETHOVEN
CODA
1
2
3
B E E
T H O V E N
X
W
H
5
R E N A
I
N
6
I
8
L
E
I
H
R
A
Z
9
O
10
N O T
Across
2. German composer Ludwig van ___
5. period of great advances in the arts
6. Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer
Night’s ___
8. Mussorgsky’s native land
9. final part of a musical composition
10. in Symphony no. 5’s first movement:
four- ___ motif
S
D R E A M
T
R U S S
T
4
L
S S A N C E
B
7
D
C O D A
E
Down
1. English Renaissance composer John
___
3. Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an ___
4. nickname of Symphony no. 5’s third
movement (meaning “joke”)
7. most popular solo instrument during
6 Across
And Incidentally . . . Explain in your own words what “incidental music” is. Think of
a film or play you’ve seen that used incidental music, and then describe its effect.
Purpose: To review concepts and vocabulary relating to classical music
Master 62
Copyright ©Core Knowledge Foundation
CK_5_TH_MU_P369_417.QXD
Grade 5: Music
Use Instructional Master 62.
Music
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II. Listening and Understanding
10.
Cross-curricular
Teaching Idea
The sounds of Renaissance music may
seem new and different to students.
The most important thing for them is to
become accustomed to the musical
world of that era. Play recordings of
Renaissance music while studying
Renaissance art and history. This will
help set the scene; this will also help
students to build associations and a
sense of the cultural context for those
less familiar musical sounds. Ask students if they see connections among
the music, the paintings, and the architecture of the Renaissance.
Teaching Idea
If recordings of Dowland’s songs are
available, listen to the words and discuss with the class the ways in which
the music attempts to capture their
emotions. Since the words are really
Elizabethan poems, some of which can
be hard to understand, you may want to
discuss the lyrics before playing a
song. If you can’t find a recording in
your community, check for recordings
online.
“The Great Gate of Kiev”
This movement, the final piece in the set, is a response to an architectural
drawing of an enormous gate, imagined in a traditional Russian style. The
great, noble theme that Mussorgsky uses to depict the gate also expresses a
patriotic sentiment. This same sentiment can be felt in the quiet hymnlike
passages that interrupt the main theme. Toward the end of the piece, the set
as a whole is wrapped up by the introduction of the Promenade. A grand
final statement of the “Gate” theme, suggesting a grand and royal procession through the gate, follows.
B. Musical Connections
The Renaissance
Note that Renaissance music is closely connected with the Renaissance topics in the History section (pp. 164–168), as well as with certain topics in the
Visual Arts and Language Arts sections. We suggest that you teach about
Renaissance music in tandem with your study of other aspects of the Renaissance.
Your students’ understanding of the works discussed below will be much
increased if they are able to connect the composers and music described in this
section to the humanists, patrons, and city-states described in the History section.
As in the other arts, the Renaissance was a time of great advances in the
sophistication and variety of music. Before the Renaissance and during the
Middle Ages, music was written under considerable limitations—some resulting
from the limited theoretical understanding of music, and some resulting from the
specific religious and ceremonial purpose of most musical composition. As the
Renaissance began in the mid-15th century, a rising interest in the rich artistic
cultures of ancient Greece and Rome inspired composers to try to write more
expressive works. Attention began to be devoted to music theory, and as a result,
a much broader, more sophisticated musical language became available to
Renaissance composers. This change, of course, took place very gradually over a
long period of time.
One of the greatest Renaissance composers was Josquin Desprez [zyos-CAN
duh-PRAY] (c. 1445–1521). His works are some of the finest of the entire
Renaissance, despite the fact that he lived at the very beginning of this period. His
music is entirely for voice, which was the norm for his time; before the late 15th
century, instrumental music was almost never notated or published. Desprez’s
major works are masses (large works based on the church liturgy for use in services) and motets (shorter vocal works, usually in four parts, based on Latin texts).
His reputation rests in great part on the expressive qualities of his writing for
voice; he was a master of capturing the emotion of a text in his music and making sure the text could be understood. His music communicated with its audience
in a way no music had before. If you wish to play Desprez’s music for students,
try the CD Josquin Desprez: Motets & Chansons.
John Dowland (1562–1626) was an English Renaissance composer, famed for
his lute songs. A lute is a stringed instrument played somewhat like a guitar, but
with a different and distinctive timbre. The lute was the most popular solo instrument of the Renaissance. For this reason, many composers, such as Dowland,
wrote songs for a solo singer to be accompanied on the lute. Dowland’s songs are
noted for their subtle and expressive attention to the texts. Such songs also mark
the first time that the melody of a work and its accompaniment were written out
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Grade 5 Handbook