How about Some Borsch with Cherries? Musorgsky’s The Marriage and the Wagnerian Leitmotif

Authors

Martin Nedbal, University of KansasFollow

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This article explores the treatment of recurring motives in Modest Musorgsky’s experimental operatic fragment, The Marriage (1868). Previous commentators (Richard Taruskin and Márta Papp) have understated the significance of these motives. However, a closer examination at the musical score shows that they provide the opera with a certain degree of dramaturgical and musical coherence. Musorgsky’s motives also frequently comment on the dramatic procedures onstage. Furthermore, Musorgsky’s motivic work in this opera prefigures what he will do in the two versions of Boris Godunov. Therefore, The Marriage can be compared to the work of other opera composers of the time who were experimenting with motivic development, particularly Richard Wagner. Earlier scholars’ evaluations of Musorgsky’s motives in The Marriage as incoherent may initially appear to be based on objective aesthetic criteria but ultimately channel subjective value judgments steeped in cultural politics and nationalist biases.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.