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Pictures at an Exhibition
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Pictures at an Exhibition (Kartinki s vystavki – Vospominaniye o Viktore Gartmane, "Pictures from an Exhibition – A Remembrance of Viktor Hartmann") is a famous suite of ten piano pieces composed by Modest Mussorgsky in 1874.
The suite is generally acknowledged to be Mussorgsky's greatest solo piano composition, and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists.
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Encyclopedia
Pictures at an Exhibition (Kartinki s vystavki – Vospominaniye o Viktore Gartmane, "Pictures from an Exhibition – A Remembrance of Viktor Hartmann") is a famous suite of ten piano pieces composed by Modest Mussorgsky in 1874.
The suite is generally acknowledged to be Mussorgsky's greatest solo piano composition, and has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists. It has also become known through various orchestrations and arrangements produced by other musicians and composers (see: Arrangements by other composers, below, for further discussion), with Ravel's arrangement being the most recorded and performed.
Composition history
It was probably in 1870 that Mussorgsky met artist and architect Viktor Hartmann. Both men were devoted to the cause of an intrinsically Russian art and quickly became friends. Their meeting was likely arranged by the influential critic Vladimir Stasov who followed both of their careers with interest.
Hartmann died from an aneurysm in 1873. The sudden loss of the artist, aged only 39, shook Mussorgsky along with others in Russia's art world. Stasov helped organize an exhibition of over 400 Hartmann works in the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg in February and March 1874. Mussorgsky lent works from his personal collection to the exhibit and viewed the show in person. Fired by the experience, he composed Pictures at an Exhibition in six weeks. The music depicts an imaginary tour of an art collection. Titles of individual movements allude to works by Hartmann; Mussorgsky used Hartmann as a working title during the work's composition. He described the experience to Stasov in June 1874: "Hartmann is seething as Boris was. Sounds and ideas float in the air and my scribbling can hardly keep pace with them."
Mussorgsky, himself a sufferer of delirium tremens and complications from alcoholism, would die seven years later at the age of forty-two.
Mussorgsky based his musical material on drawings and watercolours by Hartmann produced mostly during the artist's travels abroad. Locales include Poland, France and Italy; the final movement depicts an architectural design for the capital city of Ukraine. Today most of the pictures from the Hartmann exhibit are lost, making it impossible to be sure in many cases which Hartmann works Mussorgsky had in mind. Musicologist Alfred Frankenstein, in a 1939 article for The Musical Quarterly, claimed to have identified seven pictures by catalogue number. Two Jews: Rich, and Poor (Frankenstein suggested two separate portraits, still extant, as the basis for Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuyle), Gnomus, Tuileries (now lost), Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks (a ballet costume design), Catacombae, The Hut on Hen's Legs (Baba Yaga), and The Bogatyr Gates.
Mussorgsky links the suite's movements in a way that depicts the viewer's own progress through the exhibition. Two "Promenade" movements stand as portals to the suite's main sections. Their regular pace and irregular meter depicts the act of walking. Three untitled interludes present shorter statements of this theme, varying the mood, colour and key in each to suggest reflection on a work just seen or anticipation of a new work glimpsed. Mussorgsky, not generally known for cutting a svelte figure, wrote to Stasov: "My physiognomy can be seen in the interludes." A turn is taken in the work at the "Catacombae" when the Promenade theme stops functioning as merely a linking device and becomes, in "Cum mortuis", an integral element of the movement itself. The theme reaches its apotheosis in the suite's finale, The Bogatyr Gates.
Publication history
As with most of Mussorgsky's works, Pictures at an Exhibition has a complicated publication history. Although composed very rapidly (during June 2-22, 1874), the work did not appear in print until 1886 (five years after the composer's death), when an edition by the composer's great friend Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was published. This publication, moreover, was not a completely accurate representation of Mussorgsky's score, but presented an edited and revised text that had been reworked to a certain amount, as well as containing a substantial number of errors and misreadings.
Only in 1931, more than half a century after the work's composition, was Pictures at an Exhibition published in a scholarly edition in agreement with the composer's manuscript. In 1940, the Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola published an important critical edition of Mussorgsky's work with extensive commentary. Mussorgsky's hand-written manuscript was published in facsimile in 1975.
Gallery of Hartmann's pictures
The works by Hartmann that can be shown with any certainty to have been used by Mussorgsky in assembling his suite are as follows:
Movements of the suite
Vladimir Stasov's program, identified below, and the six known extant pictures suggest that the ten pieces comprising the suite correspond to eleven pictures by Hartmann, with Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle accounting for two. The five Promenade movements, consisting of an introduction and four links, are not numbered among the ten pictures. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Promenade movements are untitled in the composer's manuscript.
The enduring popularity of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition lies in the satisfaction it offers at both first hearing and in repeating visits. The variety of invention and distinctive character of each movement appeal at once. Visual motives find vivid aural form: clocks, bells, chants, feathers, flames, climb and descent. Yet the piece rewards additional hearings because new relationships are constantly to be discovered. The first two movements of the suite--one grand, one grotesque--find their counterparts, and their apotheoses, at the end. The suite traces a journey that begins at an art exhibit but sees the line between observer and observed obliterated at the Catacombs. At the moment observer and exhibit merge the journey takes on a different character. For all the variety they display in musical invention, each movement in Mussorgsky's suite springs from the opening melody. The Promenade theme provides distinctive "cells" of two and three notes that provide the germ of themes and accompaniment figures throughout the piece.
The recording accompanying this explanation is by the Skidmore College Orchestra and is courtesy of .
- Promenade (French): Key of B flat major, originally in 11/4 time. Tempo: Allegro giusto, nel modo russico; senza allegrezza, ma poco sostenuto. Stasov: In this piece Mussorgsky depicts himself "roving through the exhibition, now leisurely, now briskly in order to come close to a picture that had attracted his attention, and at times sadly, thinking of his departed friend." The melody and rhythm resemble Russian folk songs. The piece has simple, strong rhythms in asymmetrical meter, alternating between 5/4 time, and 6/4 time:
- No. 1 "Gnomus" : Key of E flat minor, in 3/4 time. Stasov: "A sketch depicting a little gnome, clumsily running with crooked legs." Hartmann's sketch, now lost, is thought to represent a toy nutcracker.
- [Untitled]: Key of A flat major. A placid statement of the promenade melody depicts the composer walking from work to work. Tempo: Moderato commodo assai e con delicatezza.
- No. 2 "Il vecchio castello" : Key of G sharp minor, in 6/8 time. Stasov: "A medieval castle before which a troubador sings a song." This movement is thought to be based on a watercolor depiction of an Italian castle. Hartman often placed appropriate human figures in his architectural renderings to suggest scale.
- [Untitled]: Key of B major. A brief statement of the promenade melody (8 measures) with more gravity than before. Tempo: Moderato non tanto, pesamente.
- No. 3 "Tuileries" (Dispute d'enfants après jeux) : Key of B major, in 4/4 time. The movement is in ternary form (ABA). Stasov: "An avenue in the garden of the Tuileries, with a swarm of children and nurses." Hartmann's picture of the Jardin des Tuileries near the Louvre in Paris (France) is now lost. Figures of children quarrelling and playing in the garden were likely added by the artist (see note on No. 2 above).
- No. 4 "Bydlo" : Key of G sharp minor, in 2/4 time. Tempo: Semre moderato, pesante. Stasov: "A Polish cart on enormous wheels, drawn by oxen."
- [Untitled]: Key of D minor. A somber, 10-measure presentation of the promenade theme, tranquillo.
- No. 5 "????? ?????????????? ???????" [Balet nevylupivshikhsya ptentsov] : Key of F major, in 2/4 time. Stasov: "Hartmann's design for the décor of a picturesque scene in the ballet Trilby." Gerald Abraham provides the following details: "Trilby or The Demon of the Heath, a ballet with choreography by Petipa, music by Julius Gerber, and décor by Hartmann... produced in 1870. The fledglings were canary chicks." This movement is in ternary form (ABA):
- Scherzino
- Trio
- Scherzino (literal repeat)
- Coda
- No. 6 "Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle" (Yiddish): Key of B flat minor, in 4/4 time. Stasov: "Two Jews: Rich and Poor" Some have incorrectly perceived this description to be part of the original title. Some arrangements have retitled this piece as "Two Polish Jews, Rich and Poor (Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle)". The title given here is the one used in Mussorgsky's original manuscript. The movement is thought to be based on two separate extant portraits. The use of augmented second intervals approximate Jewish modes such as the Phrygian dominant scale. The movement is in ternary form:
- Andante, grave energico (Theme 1 "Samuel Goldenberg")
- Andantino (Theme 2 "Schmuÿle")
- Andante, grave energico (Themes 1 and 2 in counterpoint)
- Coda
- Promenade: Key of B flat major. A nearly bar-for-bar restatement of the opening promenade, with block chords scored more fully. Many arrangements, including Ravel's orchestral version, omit this movement.
- No. 7 "Limoges, le marché" (La grande nouvelle) : Key of E flat major, in 4/4 time. Tempo: Allegretto vivo, sempre scherzando. Stasov: "French women quarreling violently in the market." Limoges is a city in central France. Mussorgsky originally provided two paragraphs, in French, describing the marketplace discussion (the 'great news') represented in this movement, but crossed them out. The movement is a scherzo in through-composed ternary form (ABA). A scurrying coda leads without a break into the next movement.
- No. 8 "Catacombae" (Sepulcrum romanum) . This movement is cast in two sections – a Largo in b minor, 3/4 time, and an Andante in b minor, 6/4 time. The first is almost entirely static consisting of a sequence of block chords; the second introduces the "Promenade" theme. Stasov: "Hartmann represented himself examining the Paris catacombs by the light of a lantern." The alternating loud and soft chords of the first section evoke the stillness and the acoustics of the catacombs. The second part features a gloomy setting of the promenade theme amid descending lines. The composer's manuscript for this portion of the movement is accompanied by the following penciled notes in Russian: "NB – With the dead in a dead language. A Latin text. Well may it be in Latin! The creative spirit of the dead Hartmann leads me towards the skulls, invokes them; the skulls begin to glow softly." The original published title, Con mortuis in lingua mortua, is correctly rendered in Latin as "Cum Mortuis in Lingua Mortua" .
- No. 9 "??????? ?? ?????? ??????" (????-???) [Izbushka na kur'ikh nozhkakh (Baba-Yaga)] : Key of C minor, in 2/4 time. A scherzo feroce with a slow middle section. Stasov: "Hartmann's drawing depicted a clock in the form of Baba-Yaga's hut on fowl's legs. Mussorgsky added the witch's flight in a mortar." Motives in this movement evoke the sounds of a large clock and the sounds of a chase. Structurally the movement mirrors and magnifies the grotesque themes of "Gnomus." This movement is cast in ternary form (ABA):
- Allegro con brio, feroce
- Andante mosso
- Allegro molto (a nearly literal repeat)
- Coda
- The central andante is one of the more demanding portions of the suite, featuring a 16th note triplet tremolo throughout. The coda leads without a break to the next and final movement.
- No. 10 "??????????? ??????" (? ???????? ?????? ?? ?????) [Bogatïrskie vorota (v stol'nom gorode vo Kieve)] : Key of E flat major, in 4/4 time. Tempo: Maestoso, con grandezza, generally broadening to the end. Bogatyrs are heroes that appear in Russian epics called bylinas. This movement is commonly translated as "The Great Gate of Kiev." The title is also sometimes rendered "The Heroes' Gate at Kiev." Stasov: "Hartmann's sketch was his design for city gates at Kiev in the ancient Russian massive style with a cupola shaped like a slavonic helmet." Hartmann made a sketch for a planned (but never built) monumental gate for Tsar Alexander II. This gate was to have commemorated the Tsar's narrow escape from an assassination attempt on 1866 April 4. Hartmann felt that his design for the gate was the finest work he had yet done, and it won the competition for the gate's design. The movement features a grand main theme that exalts the opening promenade much as "Baba Yaga" amplified "Gnomus"; also like that movement it evens out the meter of its earlier counterpart. It also introduces a solemn secondary theme suggestive of Russian Orthodox chant. The movement is cast as a broad rondo in two main sections: ABAB|CADA. The listener's expectation of a more conventional ABABA form gives the last half of the movement the feeling of a huge coda. Indeed it serves as one for the suite as a whole.
- Main Theme: Maestoso
- Hymn Theme (piano)
- Main Theme (with descending and ascending 8th note scales, suggesting a carillon)
- Hymn Theme (piano)
- Interlude/Transition, with sounding of "Promenade" theme (suggestions of ascent, bells, clockwork)
- Main Theme, Fortissimo. Triplet figuration. Tempo: Meno mosso, sempre maestoso.
- Interlude/Transition: Triplets.
- Main Theme, Fortissimo. Tempo: Grave, Sempre allargando. Rhythm slows to a standstill by the final cadence.
Arrangements by others
The first musician to arrange Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition for orchestra was the little-known Russian composer and conductor Mikhail Tushmalov (1861–1896). However, his version (first performed in 1891 and possibly produced as early as 1886 when he was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov) does not include the entire suite: Only seven of the ten "pictures" are present, leaving out Gnomus, Tuileries, and Bydlo, and all the Promenades are omitted except for the last one, which is used in place of the first.
The next orchestration was that undertaken by the British conductor Henry Wood in 1915. Wood withdrew his version when Ravel's was published but it has been recorded (by the London Philharmonic under Nicholas Braithwaite) and issued on the Lyrita label, revealing not only the omission of all but the first of the Promenades but extensive re-composition elsewhere.
The first person to orchestrate the piece in its entirety was the Slovenian-born conductor and violinist Leo Funtek, who finished his version in 1922 while living and working in Finland.
The version by Maurice Ravel (also produced in 1922, to a commission by Serge Koussevitzky) is a virtuoso effort by a master colourist, and has proved the most popular in the concert hall and on record. Ravel omits the Promenade between "Samuel" Goldenberg und "Schmuÿle" and Limoges and applies artistic license to some particulars of dynamics and notation. Koussevitzky held sole conducting rights in his commission for several years and not only published Ravel's score himself but in 1930 made its first recording with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
This exclusivity occasioned the appearance of other contemporary versions, such as the publication of an orchestral arrangement by Leonidas Leonardi, an orchestration student of Ravel himself, whose score requires even larger forces than Ravel's. Leonardi conducted the premiere of his transcription in Paris in 1924. Another arrangement appeared when Eugene Ormandy took over the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1936 following Stokowski's decision to resign the conductorship. He wanted a version of Pictures... he could call his own so he commissioned Lucien Cailliet (the Philadelphia Orchestra's 'house arranger' and a member of the woodwind section) to produce one, and this was premiered and recorded by Ormandy in 1937. Walter Goehr, on the other hand, published a version in 1942 for smaller forces than Ravel but curiously dropped Gnomus altogether and made Limoges the first "picture"!
Although Ravel's version has often been recorded, a number of conductors have made their own changes to the scoring, including Arturo Toscanini, Nikolai Golovanov and Djong Victorin Yu. The conductor Leonard Slatkin has also made several of his own 'compendium' versions, in which each Promenade and "picture" is by a different orchestral arranger. Conductor and pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy asserted that Ravel's orchestration reproduces misprints from a corrupted edition of the original as well as taking well-known liberties with notation and dynamics in producing his own arrangement of Pictures....
The conductor Leopold Stokowski had introduced Ravel's version to Philadelphia audiences in November 1929; he produced his own very free orchestration (incorporating much re-composition) ten years later, aiming for what he called a more 'Slavic' orchestral sound, feeling that Ravel's was too 'Gallic'. Stokowski revised his version over the years, and made three gramophone recordings of it (1939, 1941 and 1965). The score was not printed until 1971 and has since been recorded by several other conductors, including Matthias Bamert, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Oliver Knussen and Jose Serebrier.
Many other orchestrations and arrangements of Pictures... have been created, and the original piano composition is also frequently performed and recorded. A version for chamber orchestra exists by Taiwanese composer Chao Ching-Wen. Elgar Howarth arranged it for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble in the 1970s. Kazuhito Yamashita wrote an adaptation for solo classical guitar. Excerpts have also been recorded, including a 78 rpm disc of The Old Castle and Catacombs orchestrated by Sir Granville Bantock, and a spectacular version of The Great Gate of Kiev was scored by Douglas Gamley for full symphony orchestra, male voice choir and organ.
There have also been several very different non-classical interpretations: one incorporating progressive rock, jazz and folk music elements by the British trio Emerson, Lake & Palmer, heard on their 1971 album Pictures at an Exhibition (a deluxe edition of which, containing a second performance at a different venue, was released in 2008), and an electronic music adaptation by Isao Tomita was done in 1975. A heavy metal arrangement of the entire suite was released by German band Mekong Delta; another metal band, Armored Saint, utilised the Great Gate of Kievs main theme as the introduction to the track March of the Saint. In 2002, electronic musician-composer Amon Tobin paraphrased Gnomus for the track Back From Space on his album Out from Out Where. In 2003, guitarist-composer Trevor Rabin released his electric guitar adaptation of Promenade, once intended for the Yes album Big Generator, and later included on his demo album 90124.
Orchestral arrangements
A listing of orchestral arrangements of Pictures at an Exhibition:
Promenades omitted) Henry Wood (1915; four Promenades omitted) Leo Funtek (1922; all Promenades included) Maurice Ravel (1922; the fifth Promenade omitted) Giuseppe Becce (1922; for "salon-orchestra") Leonidas Leonardi (1924) Lucien Cailliet (1937) Leopold Stokowski (1939; third Promenade, Tuileries, fifth Promenade and Limoges omitted) Walter Goehr (1942; Gnomus omitted; includes a subsidiary part for piano) Sergei Gorchakov (1954) Daniel Walter (1959) Helmut Brandenburg (ca. 1970) Emile Naoumoff (ca. 1974, in concerto style with some added music, for piano and orchestra) Zdenek Mácal (ca. 1977) Lawrence Leonard (1977; for piano and orchestra) Vladimir Ashkenazy (1982) Pung Siu-Wen (ca. 1983; for orchestra of Chinese instruments) Alan Gout (1990; for chamber orchestra) Thomas Wilbrandt (1992) Djong Victorin Yu (1993; amended Ravel version) Byrwec Ellison (1995) Mekong Delta (1997; for group and orchestra) Carl Simpson (1997) Julian Yu (2002; for chamber orchestra) Chao Ching-Wen (2005 for chamber orchestra) Michael Allen (2007) Hanspeter Gmur (date unknown) Hidemaro Konoye (date unknown) Misao Kitazume (date unknown)
Non-orchestral arrangements
A listing of non-orchestral arrangements of Pictures at an Exhibition:
- Giuseppe Becce (1930; for piano trio)
- Duke Ellington (date unknown; for big band)
- Vladimir Horowitz (1946; revised version for solo piano. His performance of this arrangement at a 1951 concert in Carnegie Hall has been described as one of the greatest piano performances of all time; it was recorded for posterity)
- Rudolf Wurthner (ca. 1954; for accordion orchestra; abridged version)
- Ralph Burns (1957; for jazz orchestra)
- Erik Leidzen (ca. 1960; for band)
- Allyn Ferguson (ca. 1963; for jazz orchestra)
- Mark Hindsley (ca. 1963; for band)
- Dale Eymann (ca. 1965; for band;
The Bogatyr Gates only) Calvin Hampton (1967; for organ) B. Futerman (ca. 1968; Russian folk instruments orchestra, The Bogatyr Gates only) Roger Boutry (ca. 1970; for band) Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1971; rock group) Harry van Hoof (ca. 1972; brass ensemble; The Bogatyr Gates only) Isao Tomita (1975; for synthesizer) Oskar Gottlieb Blarr (1976; for organ) Elgar Howarth (ca. 1977; for brass ensemble) Arthur Wills (1970s; for organ) Dr. Keith Chapman (1970s; for the Wanamaker organ) Günther Kaunzinger (1980; for organ) Kazuhito Yamashita (1980; for classical guitar) Elgar Howarth (1981; for brass band) Reginald Haché (1982; for two pianos) Henk de Vlieger (1984; for 14 percussion players, celesta and harp) Arie Abbenes & Herman Jeurissen (ca. 1984; for carillon & band; The Bogatyr Gates only) James Curnow (1985; for concert band; abridged version) Jan Hala (ca. 1988; for guitar and pop orchestra; Baba-Yaga only) Jean Guillou (ca. 1988; for organ) Michael Briel (ca. 1988; for Commodore Amiga - the "16bit pictures at an exhibition") Heinz Wallisch (ca. 1989; for two guitars) Yuri Chernov (ca. 1991; for Russian folk instrument orchestra; The Bogatyr Gates only) Jevgenija Lisicina (ca. 1991; for three pipe organs; ca. 1997 for organ and 14 percussion instruments) Gert van Keulen (1992; for band) Hans Wilhelm Plate (1993; for 44 grand pianos and one prepared piano) Jim Prime & Thom Hannum (ca. 1994; for brass quintet and band; abridged version) Hans-Karsten Raecke (ca. 1994; for chorus, vocal soloists, synthesizers, brass and percussion) Tangerine Dream (1994) Friedrich Lips (c. 1994; on the Russian accordion, the bayan) Trevor Parks (1994; for two pianos and wind band) Elmar Rothe (1995; for three guitars) Mekong Delta (band) (1997; for metal band) Joachim Linckelmann (ca. 1999 for wind quintet) Vladimir Boyashov (ca. 2000 for Russian folk orchestra) Christian Lindberg (ca. 2000; for trombone and piano) Tim Seddon (ca. 2002 two pianos) Clare & Brent Fisher (2004; for jazz bigband) Carl Simpson (2004; for wind orchestra) Wayne Lytle, for the DVD Animusic 2 under the title Cathedral Pictures (2005; for synthesizer; Promenade, Baba Yaga and The Bogatyr Gates) Cameron Carpenter (2006, for organ) Sergei V. Korschmin (2006; for brass ensemble) David Aydelott (2006; for marching band) Joseph Kreines (2006; for band, commissioned by the Timber Creek High School Wind Ensemble) Ward Swingle (date unknown; for vocal ensemble, double bass and percussion; Limoges only) John Boyd (date unknown; for band) Vyacheslav Rozanov (date unknown; for bayan orchestra; The Old Castle only) William Schmidt (date unknown; for saxophone choir); Andres Segovia (date unknown; for guitar; The Old Castle only) Elias Seppala (date unknown; for band) Atsushi Sugahara (date unknown; for percussion ensemble) Tohru Takahashi (1999; for band) Simon Wright (date unknown; for band) Akira Yodo (date unknown; for clarinet choir) Michael Sweeney (date unknown; for band) Dag Jensen (date unknown; for four bassoons and contrabassoon) William John Coury III (date unknown; for percussion ensemble) Massimo Gabba (2006; for organ) Howard Perlman (2006; for trombone quartet; The Great Gate of Kiev only) Adam Berces (2007; for synthesizer - 'Pictures at an Exxhibition' album) Nicholas Sprenger and Co-Arranger Carter Page (2007; for electric 7-string guitar and electric 4-string bass guitar, Shortened versions of Promenade, The Old Castle, Bydlo and a reprise of Promenade in place of The Great Gate Of Kiev for the Experimental/Avant-Garde/Metal band KHAZM) Mauricio Romero (2007; complete transcription for double bass alone) Tony Matthews (2007; complete transcription for Brass Quintet) Michael Allen (2000; for brass ensemble, recorded by the Burning River Brass) Erin Ponto (2007; complete transcription for 2 harps) Merlin Patterson (2007-2008; complete transcription for wind ensemble) Slav de Hren (2008; for a punk-jazz band and vocal ensemble. Some of the pieces are complete transcriptions, others are improvisations on the original theme) Hirokazu Hiraishi (date unknown; for brass octet and three percussion players)
Usage and Tributes
* In 1966, famed Japanese manga artist Osamu Tezuka directed a 50-minute animated film based on Pictures at an Exhibition entitled Tenrankai no e.
Gnomus, Tuileries and other excerpts were used extensively for the score of Hanna-Barbera's cartoon series, The Smurfs. An excerpt of the piece was used as part of the score in several episodes of the Warner Bros. animated television series Animaniacs. The piece is used in the NES game Mario Is Missing. An abridgement of the Promenade theme was the theme tune of the British political sit-com The New Statesman. The Promenade theme was used in audio-visual mode in self-test software of 8-bit Atari computers (self test is built into ROM of the computer). The movement Gnomus is played during the interpretive dance scene in the movie The Big Lebowski. The Bogatyr Gates is used as the entrance theme to WWE wrestler and color commentator Jerry "The King" Lawler. Previously the company had used the same music as the entrance theme for other wrestlers portrayed as the "King of Wrestling", most notably Harley Race and Haku. There is a society devoted to the promotion of performances and arrangements of the suite, International Kartinkis Vystavki Association (IKVA). The "Promenade" theme is also a song that one may choose as the background music in the game Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions. The "Promenade" was used for a comedy character's ("Horacio Cascarin") "Museum of Soccer" created by the Mexican comedian Andrés Bustamante. Animusic's Cathedral Pictures is based on Pictures at an Exhibition, consisting of the first "Promenade", "The Hut on Hen's Legs(Baba Yaga)", and "The Bogatyr Gates". Part of "The Hut on Hen's Legs" (Baba Yaga) was used as the theme music for the 1977 BBC documentary series The Secret War. The Promenade theme is used at the opening of rapper Method Man's first solo album, Tical (album). A short excerpt from "Baba Yaga" is used in the South Park episode "Tweek vs. Craig" as Kenny imagines all the sharp tools he'd be around if he transferred from Home Ec to Shop Class.The Promenade was used as the jingle (via synthesizer) in the ident logo for the now defunct World Northal Corporation, a distributor of foreign films during the 70s and 80s, most notably Kung Fu Theater type movies.An excerpt of "The Hut on Hen's Legs" is also used in Animalympics during Tatiana Tushenko's gymnastics performance.The ending part of the song is heard on the "introduction sequence" of earlier RCA SelectaVision CED videodiscs.On their album entitled Handful of Rain, the band Savatage made a reference to the work in the song "Chance" in the lyrics: "Pictures at an Exhibition/Played as he stood in his trance..."The Promenade theme is used when the main character of Burn After Reading is put on hold with her insurance company.The Promenade theme can be heard in Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution. Upon the conclusion of a successful campaign, players are invited to view their accomplishments in the Hall of Glory, during which the passage constantly loops.A short clip from Tomita's version of 'Gnomus' was used as the introduction theme for a programme for the hearing impaired in Germany called 'Sehen statt Hören' (Seeing instead of hearing) for many years."The Great Gate at Kiev" is a recurrent theme used in the first episode of the anime series RideBack.
See also
External links
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- Link to download music - recording from Musopen.
- Link to download piano version - recording from Serg van Gennip.
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