One of the last pieces of piano music Mussorgsky wrote, Une Larme (A Tear) of 1880 is unfortunately one of the worst pieces of piano music he ever wrote. Aside from very youthful works like Porte-ensigne Polka and the three Souvenir d'enfance, Mussorgsky rarely wrote such trivial music. And aside from his failed sonata movements, he rarely wrote such poorly composed music. Une Larme is a calm, conventional piece of salon music which seems to have been written by an uninspired dilettante with only the slightes knowledge of harmony or structure. That Mussorgsky was at the time slowly dying of alcoholism and that his creative genius had collapsed under the strain of his psychological and physical failure is too clearly shown in the feebleness of Une Larme.

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