This Episode’s Music: Mussorgsky – A Night on the Bare Mountain

http://course.szu.edu.cn/yinyue/xinshang/jiaoxiangyue/bjjc/mussorgsky/s15-57.mp3
It’s been a long time since I last posted music. Why? I forgot. Anyway, let’s pick one~ I’ve posted two pieces of serious classical music in a row, so this time let’s change the flavor and go with something eerie~ Halloween has already been over for a week, but let’s just barely count this as seasonally appropriate~
http://www.xici.net/b340764/d38035860.htm
The fantasia *Night on Bald Mountain* was originally named “The Night of St. John’s Eve on the Bare Mountain.”
It is a famous work by the Russian composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky.
*Night on Bald Mountain* is a single-movement programmatic piece, with narrative and pictorial qualities; its structure is free, close to a tone poem or a loosely organized set of variations.
The content of the whole work can be explained by a passage printed in the score:
“Mysterious sounds rise from underground.—The spirits of darkness appear, and following them comes the King of Satan.—Praises to the King of Satan; a devil’s mass.—The bacchanal of the Sabbath.—At the height of the revelry, the bells of a distant village church are heard, and the spirits of darkness scatter.—Dawn”

Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.