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Sunless (song cycle)
Encyclopedia
Song cycle
A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...
by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
, written in 1874, to poems by Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov
Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov
Arseny Arkadyevich Golenishchev-Kutuzov , was a Russian poet known in part for writing the texts of Modest Mussorgsky's two song cycles of the 1870s: Sunless and Songs and Dances of Death....
, a relative of the composer.
Song Titles
The individual song titles are as follows:- «В четырех стенах» Within Four Walls
- «Меня в толпе ты не узнала» Thou Didst Not Know Me in the Crowd
- «Окончен праздный шумный день» The Idle Noisy Day is Ended
- «Скучай» Boredom
- «Элегия» Elegy
- «Над рекой» Over the River
Appearance in Popular Culture
- The piece was featured and discussed in the film-essay Sans SoleilSans SoleilSans Soleil is a 1983 French film directed by Chris Marker. The title is from the song cycle Sunless by Modest Mussorgsky...
by director Chris MarkerChris MarkerChris Marker is a French writer, photographer, documentary film director, multimedia artist and film essayist. His best known films are La jetée , A Grin Without a Cat , Sans Soleil and AK , an essay film on the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa...
, receiving an electronic experimental interpretation by composer Isao TomitaIsao Tomita, often known simply as Tomita, is a Japanese music composer, regarded as one of the pioneers of electronic music and space music, and as one of the most famous producers of analog synthesizer arrangements...
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