A Night on Bald Mountain. However, the original title that he used was, “St. John’s Eve.” Mussorgsky

Russia is known by people for many things, but at its heart she is known for her spirituality and steadfastness to the Orthodox Christian Faith which has led, governed, and supported almost every aspect of the country’s being. It has not only influenced the way people live, foods that they eat, and the way they celebrate (feast & fast), but also had a profound effect upon the nation’s innate philosophy. Art, fashion, culture, architecture have all been influenced by her conversion to Orthodoxy back in 988 AD. Yet no more so than reflected in its literature and music; the myriad of authors and composers, whose names which drip off the tongue like honey. Writers such Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Gorky, Chekhov, Leskov, Turgenev, Pasternak, and Solzhenitsyn; and composers like Bortniansky, Tchaikovsky, Gretchaninov, Balakirev, Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Borodin, Stravinsky, and Mussorgsky.

Although I am fond of most of the above composures, one of my favorites pieces is by Mussorgsky and is entitled: A Night on Bald Mountain. However, the original title that he used was, “St. John’s Eve.” Mussorgsky envisioned and conceived this piece based upon the eve of the Nativity of St. John the Forerunner when people traditionally held bonfires – a carryover from a pagan custom connected to the solstice. Mussorgsky even completed his opus on that very day. The score of this composition was later made famous by Walt Disney who utilized it in his cartoon Fantasia – and that’s probably where most of you will recognize it from, as well. Therefore, I encourage you to listen to it today, on the Eve of the Forerunner’s Nativity (June 23) via your computer (through Youtube or Google) and enjoy this traditional piece. And if you listen this evening while enjoying a fire in your backyard fire pit, all the better!

Fr. John