What is the Story Behind Night on the Bare Mountain?

‘Night on the Bare Mountain’ by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881) is a musical depiction of a witches sabbath on an exposed mountain. It is renowned for its orgiastic and supernatural atmosphere as a group of witches, demons and spirits gather for a night of chaos and revelry. Its pictorial nature has made our many versions a popular choice amongst 8notes members looking for something spooky to play, especially around Halloween.

And if the piece is wild, so too is the story of its composition…

Teenage wizardry….

The idea of a work containing elements of the supernatural seemed to have been conceived in Mussorgsky’s late teens, first with an opera project based on Gogol’s short story ‘St. John’s Eve’ (1858) and subsequently a depiction of a witch’s sabbath in a one act opera, to be titled ‘The Witch’ (1860). Neither project was completed.

A masterpiece is rejected

Mussorgsky didn’t give up, instead crystallising his idea in a tone poem, i.e. a pictorial work for orchestra, with the title ‘St. John's Eve on Bald Mountain’, which he finished on 23rd June 1867. The score is headed with the following programmatic description:

1. Assembly of the witches, their talk and gossip; 2. Satan's journey; 3. Obscene praises of Satan; and 4. Sabbath

Containing the same material as the subsequent ‘Night on the Bare Mountain’, the work is nevertheless fascinatingly different:

Satisfied with his work Mussorgsky presented it to his mentor and subsequent fellow member of the ‘Mighty Handful’ of Russian composers, Mily Balakirev. Unfortunately, Balakirev was scathing in his criticism of it, marking the score with comments such as ‘the devil knows what [this is]’ and ‘what rubbish.’ Devastated, Mussorgsky put the score to one side. It would not be played in this initial form until the twentieth century.

Attempts to reuse the material

Mussorgsky made two attempts to reuse the material from his tone poem. The first was as his contribution to a collaborative opera project ‘Mlada.’ Unfortunately this never reached fruition, this version of the work never being played. The second was as a dream intermezzo in his opera ‘The Fair at Sorochyntsi’, which was not finished at the composer’s death in 1881. The first performance of this eventually took place in 1931.

All of which meant that poor Mussorgsky was never to hear a performance of one of his most celebrated works.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s version

After Mussorgsky’s death, his colleague Rimsky-Korsakov prepared a new version of the work, smoothing out some of the rougher edges and giving it the structure and refinement that made it more accessible to audiences. It is this version that became wildly popular, and is generally the one that is played today:

So is it ‘bare’ mountain or ‘bald’ mountain?

The best translation from the Russian is ‘bald’ and was also used to refer to a specific place, hence the use of ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ (i.e. not ‘a’ bald mountain). ‘Night on the Bare Mountain’ has, however, become as least as common. So, whilst purists prefer the former, both are ok.

The work in popular culture

The most celebrated use of ‘Night on the Bare Mountain’ was in Walt Disney’s 1940 film ‘Fantasia’, where the giant devil summons evil souls from their graves. The music was orchestrated by Leopold Stokowski, though it follows the form of Rimsky-Korsakov’s version:

There have been many other more unusual adaptations, including David Shire’s disco adaption ‘Night on Disco Mountain,’ for the movie ‘Saturday Night Fever’ (1977):

It has also appeared in computer games, including Donkey Kong Country 2 (Nintendo) and Elite II: Frontier (Amiga):