Night On Bald Mountain
Mussorgsky’s (1839-81) Night on Bald Mountain was actually titled St. John’s Night on the Bare Mountain. St. John’s Night, or St. John’s Eve, is the night before the Feast of St. John which happens to fall around the summer solstice. Eastern Europeans have long celebrated it with a mixture of pagan trick-or-treat traditions and religious observances and bonfires. The first version appeared in 1867 and was revised around 1872 and again in 1880. In this last version he added a hauntingly beautiful quiet ending in which a church bell announces the dawn and daybreak chases away the evil sprites. Night on Bald Mountain has remained an audience favorite ever since its appearance in Walt Disney’s landmark movie, Fantasia.
Read more about this topic: St John's Eve
Famous quotes containing the words night, bald and/or mountain:
“Chance does not speak essentially through words nor can it be seen in their convolution. It is the eruption of language, its sudden appearance.... It’s not a night atwinkle with stars, an illuminated sleep, nor a drowsy vigil. It is the very edge of consciousness.”
—Michel Foucault (1926–1984)
“Under an old oak, whose boughs were mossed with age
And high top bald with dry antiquity.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Give me the islands of the upper air,
all mountains
and the towering mountain trees.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)