Night on Bald Mountain (Prelude)

Inspired by Russian literary works and legend, Mussorgsky composed St. John's Eve on Bald Mountain on the theme of a Witches' Sabbath occurring on St. John's Eve, which he completed on that very night, 23rd June 1867. In 1886, five years after Mussorgsky's death, Rimsky-Korsakov published an arrangement of the work, Night on Bald Mountain. This adaptation is based on Rimsky-Korsakov’s version, which achieved worldwide fame in the 1940 Disney film Fantasia.

Mussorgky’s music sets the scene for a dark and sinister musical journey, and the optional ending in this arrangement gives the conductor two choices – a ‘fade to black’ by finishing at bar 81 or a bold and shocking conclusion by continuing to the end of the piece. The shorter version runs to approximately 1 minute and 45 seconds, whilst the full version is around one minute longer, making this piece a short, snappy opening to any musical programme, with plenty of space for theatrical story telling!

This arrangement was created as the opening item for Foden’s Band’s performance at the 2021 Brass in Concert Championships at Sage Gateshead.

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Instrumentation:
Brass Band