Au village, subtitled a fantasy for piano, is one of the handful of piano pieces which Mussorgsky composed in the final year of his life. Although like Meditation and Une Larme, it is trivial and insignificant work, it has two positive features. It has a slow introduction which could be described as slightly more than conventionally beautiful and its main body is a somewhat fast and lively dance of indeterminate but distinctly Slavic inclination. Neither of the other works could be described as either beautiful or lively and, given the alcoholic degeneracy of Mussorgsky's personality and genius, finding these qualities in so late a work is a relief to the listener.

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