The Hartman works on canvas, hardly known to art
But known to music, with sounds so profound and wonderful.
You go on the journey through the sounds
That come to your ears
The Promenade through the Academy of St Petersburg
Showing Viktor’s works assembled
As a tribute to the young artist,
Taken from us before his time.
Stopping at The Gnome, running clumsily,
His legs at odds with his body;
He stops when he hears the Troubadour
Playing before The Old Castle
The Promenade continues on to
The Gardens of the Tuileries
Where children play
To sounds so sublime that are formed in your mind
The sound of the Cattle in the distance
Come to you from the sounds from the orchestra
Then BANG! The sounds and the Cattle stop nearby
Only to move on to the sound dying away
The Promenade moves to the Ballet
And there performing on stage
Are Unhatched Chicks to Petipa’s steps
And Gerber’s music
The Canaries hatch, while watching from their frame
Are Goldenburg and Schmuyle.
But now written in music, as well as cast in paint.
The sound meanders along the floor
Until it reaches The Market at Limoges,
Where women are violently quarrelling.
So scuttling away through the Catacombs
Lit by the light of the lamp in hand.
Suddenly the witch is seen in her Hut on Fowl’s Legs,
Baba Yaga! A horrendous sight with her teeth of metal,
long nose and spindly, skinny legs.
The music dies away from this awful place
The Promenade is ending and at the door
The Gates of Kiev, in all their splendour
Give a sound so uplifting, as once more
Mussorgsky moves back to his piano;
To compose “Pictures at an Exhibition”.