Songs and Dances of Death

Songs and Dances of Death (Russian: Песни и пляски смерти, Pesni i plyaski smerti) is a song cycle for voice (usually bass or bass-baritone) and piano by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, written in the mid-1870s, to poems by Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov, a relative of the composer.

Each song deals with death in a poetic manner although the depictions are realistic in that they reflect experiences not uncommon in 19th century Russia: child death, death in youth, drunken misadventure and war.

The song cycle is considered Mussorgsky's masterpiece in the genre.

Lullaby (Колыбельная) (14 April 1875) (in F-sharp minor–A minor) 2.

The Field Marshal (Полководец) (5 June 1877) (in E-flat minor–D minor) The Songs and Dances of Death have been recorded by numerous vocalists, including Vladimir Rosing, George London,[2] Ferruccio Furlanetto,[3] Nicolai Ghiaurov, Boris Christoff,[4] Kim Borg,[5] Martti Talvela (twice: once with piano accompaniment[6] and once with full orchestra[7]), Matti Salminen,[8] Anatoly Kotcherga,[9] Paata Burchuladze, Aage Haugland,[10] Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Ewa Podles, Irina Arkhipova, Galina Vishnevskaya, Brigitte Fassbaender, Anja Silja and Yevgeny Nesterenko.