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:
“Around, the night drops swiftly down
Its veils; does not condemn
Or praise the different actions done.
The hour that strikes across the town
Caresses all and injures none
As sleep approaches them.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“The moon sees nothing of this. She is bald and wild.”
—Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)
“Marry a mountain girl and you marry the whole mountain.”
—Irish proverb.