My music must be an artistic reproduction of human speech in all its finest shades. That is, the sounds of human speech, as the external manifestations of thought and feeling must, without exaggeration or violence, become true, accurate music.
Letter to Lyudmila Shestakova on July 30, 1868. "The Musorgsky Reader: A Life of Modeste Petrovich Musorgsky in Letters and Documents", p. 113, 1947.
