Modest Musogorsky?

Anybody know if this composer was a Jew?

It is spelled Mussorgsky, and no he just wrote a lot of Jewish theme/sounding pieces. He himself was not actually a Jew.

Originally Posted by Tiberius Tosi

It is spelled Mussorgsky, and no he just wrote a lot of Jewish theme/sounding pieces. He himself was not actually a Jew.

Wait, what Jewish themes or sounding pieces did he write? His most famous piece, Night on the Bald Mountain, is nothing of the Jewish sort. It's just his name seems it but I wasn't sure. Thanks anyway!

Originally Posted by Sirota

Wait, what Jewish themes or sounding pieces did he write? His most famous piece, Night on the Bald Mountain, is nothing of the Jewish sort. It's just his name seems it but I wasn't sure. Thanks anyway!

His name seems Russian... Modest is a normal Russian first name (as we are on composers, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's brother was named Modest), his fathers name, Pjotr (if I remember correctly) is again a completely normal Russian name. Mussogorsky sounds like a normal Russian surname to me, but I'm not an expert here. I believe this Mussogorsky here came from a very old Russian family. Lastly, Russians in that time were mostly orthodox christians, so I don't see why a normal Russian name implies that a person is jewish.

He was of noble origins, a Rurikovich actually.

Probably not, and it wouldn't matter, since he was a Russian nationalist anyway.

Was just listening to "Pictures at an Exhibition". Brilliant composer.