I got annoyed!
So, my good fellow, you have a sweet tooth for birds!
No! Stop, you’re caught. You bad cat!
As if nothing were the matter, I stood there looking off to the side,
Just observing with one eye: something strange!
The cat calmly looked me in the eye,
And was already putting his paw into the cage,
He was just about to grab the bullfinch…
But I whacked him!
Mommy! What a hard cage,
My fingers hurt so, Mommy, Mommy!
Here, right at the very tips, right here,
It aches so, it aches so…
No! What a cat, Mommy, … huh?
Hobbyhorse Ride (Poekhal na palochke)
Dedicated to Dmitrii Vasil’evich and Poliskena Stepanovna Stasova.
September 14, 1872.
Hey! Hop (5x)! Hey, let’s go!
Hey! Hey! Hey, let’s go! Hop (10x)! Hey (5x)!
Ta-ta-ta- … (33 “ta”s)! Whoa! Stop! Vasia, oh Vasia!
Listen, come over and play today;
What reins I’ve got:
Long, long ones, strong ones, look, they won’t break.
So come to our place to play, Vasia: but not late!
Now, you, hop! Hop, hop! Goodbye, Vasia!
I’m riding out to Iukki … but toward evening …
I’ll surely be there … you see, we go to bed
Early, very early … come over and see!
Tra-ta- … (1”tra” and 15 “ta”s)! Hey! Ta (16x)! Let’s go!
Hey! Hey, let’s go! Hey, hey, let’s go! Hey, hey! I’ll run over you!
Oh! Oh, it hurts! Oh, my leg! Oh, it hurts! Oh, my leg!…
“My dear, my little boy, what’s the matter?
Stop crying now, it will go away, sweetie,
stop, stand up straight on your feet, like that, my child.
Look, how delightful! See? In the bushes on the left?
Ah, what a wonderful bird! What feathers!
See? And so? Did it go away?” Ha! You fell for it, Mommy!
See, I was just fooling, silly. That’s what!
Svetlana Kurs
soprano
Juan Pablo Andrade, piano
“Mussorgsky and the Nursery”
Graduate Lecture/Recital
Friday, April 25, 2003
5:30 pm
Recital Hall, School of Music
Program
Lecture: “Mussorgsky and the Nursery “
Intermission
Nursery (cycle of seven songs) Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
With Nurse (1839-1881)
In the Corner
The Beetle
With the Doll
Before Going to Bed
Sailor the Cat
Hobbbyhorse Ride
In partial fulfillment of the degree requirements for the
Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy
_____
The hall is equipped with a listening assistance system.
Patrons needing such assistance should contact an usher in the lobby.
What you see in your dreams, you will tell me about:
About the strange island where they don’t reap or sow,
Where juicy pears
Blossom and ripen,
And golden birds sing day and night!
Lulla, lullaby, Tiapa!
Before Going to Bed (Na son griaduschii)
Dedicated to Sasha Cui, the son of Cesar Cui. 1870.
Lord, have mercy on Daddy and Mommy and save them, Lord!
Lord, have mercy on little brother Vasia and little brother Misha.
Lord, have mercy on old Grandma,
Send her good health,
Good Grandma, old Grandma; Lord!
And, (our) God, save:
Aunt Katia, Aunt Natasha, Aunt Masha, Aunt Parasha,
Aunt Liuba, Varia and Sasha, and Olia, and Tania, and Nadia;
Uncle Petia and Kolia, Uncle Volodia, and Grisha, and Sasha;
And save and have mercy on them all, Lord.
And Fil’ka, and Van’ka, and Mit’ka, and Pet’ka,
And Dasha, Pasha, Sonia, Duniuska…
Nurse, oh, Nurse! How does it go after that, Nurse?
“Shame on you, such a naughty girl!
How many times have I taught you already:
Lord, also have mercy on me, a sinner!”
Lord, also have mercy on me, a sinner!
Was that right, Nursie?
Sailor the Cat (Kot Matros)
Dedicated to Dmitri Vasilyevich and Polyxena Stepanovna Stasova.
August 15, 1872.
Oh, Mommy, Mommy dear!
I [a girl] raced around after that parasol, Mommy – it’s very hot, you know –
I rummaged in the commode and looked on the table:
nowhere, as luck would have it!
I dashed over to the window,
(thinking) maybe I forgot the parasol there…
Suddenly I saw: on that window our cat Salor
Was scratching, climbing onto the cage.
The bullfinch was trembling; cowering in the corner, peeping.
But Nursie’s cap is sideways.
Nursie was bad to little Misha,
She put him in the corner for no reason;
Misha isn’t going to love his Nursie any more, so there!
The Beetle (Zuk)
Dedicated to Vladimir Vasil’evich Stasov. October 18, 1870.
Nurse, Nursie! Listen what happened, Nurse dear!
I [a boy] was playing there in the sand, behind the arbor,
By the birches,
I was building a little house out of the maple splinters,
The ones that Mommy herself broke up for me.
I was already finishing the house,
A house with a roof, a real house. Suddenly!
On the very roof there sits a beetle,
Enormous, black, as thick as this.
He waves his feelers scarily, like this,
And keeps on looking right at me!
I got frightened! And the beetle buzzes, gets mad,
He spreads his wings, he wants to catch me.
And he flew over and hit me in the temple!
I hid, Nursie, I cowered, I was afraid to make a move!
I just barely opened one eye!
And what did I see? Listen, Nursie.
The beetle was lying there with his little feet joined,
With his nose upward, on his back,
And wasn’t angry any more or waving his feelers,
Or buzzing any more, only his wings were trembling!
What about him, did he die? Or was he pretending?
What was it, what happened to the beetle? Tell me, Nursie!
He hit me and he fell down himself!
Whatever happened to him, to the beetle?
With the Doll (S kukloi)
Dedicated to Taniuska and Goga Musorgskaia, the composer’s nieces.
December 18, 1870.
Lullaby, Tiapa, Tiapa, sleep, go to sleep,
Go to rest!
Tiapa, you must sleep. Tiapa, sleep, go to speep!
The bogeyman will eat Tiapa up, the gray wolf will get her,
He’ll carry her off into the dark forest!
Tiapa, sleep, go to sleep.
Modest Mussorgsky:
With Nurse (S nianei)
Dedicated “to the great teacher of musical truth Aleksandr Sergeevich
Dargomizskii.” April 26, 1868.
Tell me, Nursie,
Tell me, dear,
About that horrible bogeyman;
How that bogeyman roamed through the forests,
How that bogeyman brought children into the forest,
And how he gnawed their little white bones,
And how those children screamed and cried.
Nursie!
You know, the bogeyman ate those children up because
they treated their old nurse badly,
and didn’t obey their daddy and mommy;
that’s why he ate them up, right, Nursie?
Or tell you what:
Better than that, tell me about the emperor and empress,
Who lived beyond the sea in a rich tower.
Besides, the emperor always limped on one leg,
And whenever he stumbled a mushroom grew.
And that empress always had a head cold,
And when she sneezed the windowpanes shattered!
You know, Nursie,
Don’t tell me any more about the bogeyman.
Forget about the bogeyman!
Nurse, tell me something funny!
In the Corner (V uglu)
Dedicated to the painter-architect Victor Aleksandrovich Gartman (Hartmann).
September 30, 1870.
“Oh, you naughty boy!
You unwound my yarn, you lost my needles!
Ah! You dropped all my stitches!
You splashed ink all over the stocking!
Into the corner! Into the corner! Into the corner with you!
Naughty boy!”
I didn’t do a thing, Nursie,
I didn’t touch the stocking, Nursie!
The kitten unwound the yarn,
And the kitten scattered the needles.
But little Misha was a good boy,
Misha was well behaved.
But Nursie is bad and old, Nursie’s nose is all dirty;
Misha is nice and clean, all combed and brushed,
But Nursie’s cap is sideways.
Nursie was bad to little Misha,
She put him in the corner for no reason;
Misha isn’t going to love his Nursie any more, so there!
The Beetle (Zuk)
Dedicated to Vladimir Vasil’evich Stasov. October 18, 1870.
Nurse, Nursie! Listen what happened, Nurse dear!
I [a boy] was playing there in the sand, behind the arbor,
By the birches,
I was building a little house out of the maple splinters,
The ones that Mommy herself broke up for me.
I was already finishing the house,
A house with a roof, a real house. Suddenly!
On the very roof there sits a beetle,
Enormous, black, as thick as this.
He waves his feelers scarily, like this,
And keeps on looking right at me!
I got frightened! And the beetle buzzes, gets mad,
He spreads his wings, he wants to catch me.
And he flew over and hit me in the temple!
I hid, Nursie, I cowered, I was afraid to make a move!
I just barely opened one eye!
And what did I see? Listen, Nursie.
The beetle was lying there with his little feet joined,
With his nose upward, on his back,
And wasn’t angry any more or waving his feelers,
Or buzzing any more, only his wings were trembling!
What about him, did he die? Or was he pretending?
What was it, what happened to the beetle? Tell me, Nursie!
He hit me and he fell down himself!
Whatever happened to him, to the beetle?
With the Doll (S kukloi)
Dedicated to Taniuska and Goga Musorgskaia, the composer’s nieces.
December 18, 1870.
Lullaby, Tiapa, Tiapa, sleep, go to sleep,
Go to rest!
Tiapa, you must sleep. Tiapa, sleep, go to speep!
The bogeyman will eat Tiapa up, the gray wolf will get her,
He’ll carry her off into the dark forest!
Tiapa, sleep, go to sleep.
Modest Mussorgsky:
With Nurse (S nianei)
Dedicated “to the great teacher of musical truth Aleksandr Sergeevich
Dargomizskii.” April 26, 1868.
Tell me, Nursie,
Tell me, dear,
About that horrible bogeyman;
How that bogeyman roamed through the forests,
How that bogeyman brought children into the forest,
And how he gnawed their little white bones,
And how those children screamed and cried.
Nursie!
You know, the bogeyman ate those children up because
they treated their old nurse badly,
and didn’t obey their daddy and mommy;
that’s why he ate them up, right, Nursie?
Or tell you what:
Better than that, tell me about the emperor and empress,
Who lived beyond the sea in a rich tower.
Besides, the emperor always limped on one leg,
And whenever he stumbled a mushroom grew.
And that empress always had a head cold,
And when she sneezed the windowpanes shattered!
You know, Nursie,
Don’t tell me any more about the bogeyman.
Forget about the bogeyman!
Nurse, tell me something funny!
In the Corner (V uglu)
Dedicated to the painter-architect Victor Aleksandrovich Gartman (Hartmann).
September 30, 1870.
“Oh, you naughty boy!
You unwound my yarn, you lost my needles!
Ah! You dropped all my stitches!
You splashed ink all over the stocking!
Into the corner! Into the corner! Into the corner with you!
Naughty boy!”
I didn’t do a thing, Nursie,
I didn’t touch the stocking, Nursie!
The kitten unwound the yarn,
And the kitten scattered the needles.
But little Misha was a good boy,
Misha was well behaved.
But Nursie is bad and old, Nursie’s nose is all dirty;
Misha is nice and clean, all combed and brushed,
Svetlana Kurs
soprano
Juan Pablo Andrade, piano
“Mussorgsky and the Nursery”
Graduate Lecture/Recital
Friday, April 25, 2003
5:30 pm
Recital Hall, School of Music
Program
Lecture: “Mussorgsky and the Nursery “
Intermission
Nursery (cycle of seven songs) Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky
With Nurse (1839-1881)
In the Corner
The Beetle
With the Doll
Before Going to Bed
Sailor the Cat
Hobbbyhorse Ride
In partial fulfillment of the degree requirements for the
Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy
_____
The hall is equipped with a listening assistance system.
Patrons needing such assistance should contact an usher in the lobby.
