Musorgskij e i ricordi di infanzia: Tracce liriche e musicali in Detskaja

This essay aims at finding autobiographical traces of Modest Musorgskij’s childhood in his composition Detskaja – The Nursery (1873). Musorgskij is the author both of the music and the lyrics. He structured the piece from a child’s point of view, which is characterised by incoherence and behavioural gaps. This total immersion in the child’s world is further enhanced by the structure of the music, which is free from the western tenets and rich in rhythm variations and dissonant harmonies. Letters, biographies and autobiographical sketches are precious sources for finding connections between the child’s world and Musorgskij’s vision of childhood, based on his own.