FIVE PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION (score & parts)

Pictures at an Exhibition (1874) by the Russian composer Mussorgsky (1839-81) takes the form of an imaginary tour around an art gallery. Mussorgsky musically depicts a series of pictures by artist/architect, Viktor Hartmann’s drawings and watercolours.

This arrangement for bassoon choir features five of the ten pictures most suited to the ensemble. The suite begins with the famous Promenade theme which depicts the observer moving from one picture to the next. This Promenade has alternative endings so it can be played as a standalone (encore?) piece or as an introduction to the remainder of the suite. The first picture, The Old Castle, has a beautiful, melancholic troubadour theme. Bydlo is next which describes a Polish ox cart on enormous wheels. Then, in Catacombs and Cum mortuis in lingua mortua (a disguised Promenade), we descend down into the eerie Paris catacombs. After this we encounter the child-killing witch, Baba Yaga, in a shortened version of The Hut on Fowl’s Legs which is then followed directly by the finale, the Great Gate of Kiev, which is based on a sketch of a monumental gate for Tsar Alexander II.

In this arrangement for bassoon choir there are parts for eight bassoons and two contrabassoons. The instruments are grouped into Group A1-4 plus Contra A, and Group B1-4 plus Contra B. This enables antiphonal effects (and rests for performers). The group should form a semicircle, with players A1 and B1 sitting opposite each other and the other players cascading into towards the contras seated centrally. Due to the complexity of the piece there are no parts for very easy bassoon or mini bassoons.

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