Modlitwy Borysa Godunowa w dramacie muzycznym Musorgskiego

Abstract

Who is God for Musorgski? What do religion and faith mean for him? In the available biographic materials about the composer, the problem is not presented clearly enough - we are unable to recreate the world outlook of this artist. We can, however, try to answer these questions in an indirect way - by asking the characters of the works by Musorgski about their ideas on religion and on God, and by trying to understand their prayers, since the characters of Musorgski’s plays do pray very often. Especially rich analytical material is provided by the prayers of Borys Godunow. This key character of Musorgski’s plays composes his prayers in quite a human way: he prays for others and for himself. He succumbs to various moods: he weeps, he begs, he expresses his doubts and his fears, he revolts, and finally he asks for forgiveness. Borys’ prayers are either the direct expression of the state of his soul or they hark back to another time and to another place than that of the drama. They evoke the time and space either of an old temple or of an extraterrestrial one. When Borys prays in the world of the drama, a recitative dramaturgy develops, the melodic line is enriched by the use of chromatics and the exposition of the interval leaps; one can see the differentiation of intonation in his crying, his pain, his suffering, his expressive speech, his outcries. The basic technical means used to recall the time and space of an old temple are reduction and archaization. As usually happens in such situations, the atmosphere of the Instrumental sounds is limited or eliminated. The vocal part becomes more quiet and markedly simpler. The musical devices of the prayer songs of Borys are clearly subordinated to the superior scope of the prayer as a contact with God, an interior need of the hero. Can art or a composition be a testimony of faith? It seems that they can. Musorgski’s situation is most probably that of getting closer to God, closer to God through art, through authentic art.