Night on Bald Mountain Night on Bald Mountain Night on Bald Mountain (), also known as Night on the Bare Mountain, is a series of compositions by Modest Mussorgsky (1839–1881). Inspired by Russian literary works and legend, Mussorgsky composed a "musical picture", "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, 23 June 1867. Together with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's "Sadko" (1867), it is one of the first tone poems by a Russian composer. Although Mussorgsky was proud of his youthful effort, his mentor, Miliy Balakirev, refused to perform
Night on Bald Mountain John's Eve on Bald Mountain", usually shortened to "Night on Bald Mountain". However, due to several ambiguities, the composition is also known by a number of alternate titles in English. The Russian word "ночь" ("noch′") is literally "night" in English, but idiomatically this would refer to the night following St. John's Day, variously observed between 21 June (the summer solstice) and 25 June. The night before St. John's Day is usually referred to as "St. John's Eve" in English; Russian does not make this distinction. "Bald Mountain" is the most familiar translation of "лысой горе" ("lysoy gore") in English, and