Andrei Sychra
Andrei Osipovich Sychra (Sikhra, Sichra, in Russian Андрей Осипович Сихра Andrej Osipovič Sixra) (born 1773 (?1776) in
Czech ancestry. Sychra holds a prominent position within Russia, where he is often referred to as the patriarch of the seven-string guitar
, and also as its inventor, disputed though that may be. He was a major force in the development of Russian guitar music and one of its most prolific composers, as well as an important teacher who trained a number of students.
Sychra initially played the
Ruslan and Lyudmila
, with which he was assisted by the composer.
Sychra wrote a large number of pieces for amateurs, including studies, folk song settings, operatic transcriptions and arrangements of
Josef Lanner, an output that may explain his dismissal by Soviet-era musicologists as a mediocre composer. Among these compositions, however, are many that require the highest level of virtuoso technique, and which not only employ techniques not known in the West, such as the four-finger cross-string trill, but are also musically innovative. Much of Sychra's guitar music, especially the teaching pieces and studies, reproduces harp sonorities on the guitar, perhaps as a result of his early career as a harpist. His magnum opus
, the Praktičeskie pravila igrat' na gitare [Practical rules for playing the guitar] (St. Petersburg, 1817), which has long been esteemed by Russian guitarists, is only now beginning to attract international attention.
Interest in Sychra's composition and guitar technique has received renewed attention following the revival of his work by Dr. Oleg Timofeyev, whose doctoral dissertation (Timofeyev 1999a) and subsequent recordings (e.g., (Timofeyev 1999b), (Timofeyev 2000)) have been devoted to Sychra.
See also
References
- Timofeyev, Oleg Vitalyevich (1999a). "The Golden Age of the Russian Guitar: Repertoire, Performance Practice, and Social Function of the Russian Seven-String Guitar Music, 1800–1850 (Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Music, Duke University)" (Document). Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Dissertation Services (UMI Number: 9928880). pp. xviii, 584.
- Oleg Timofeyev (1999). The Golden Age of the Russian Guitar (CD). Dorian Recordings. DOR-93170.
- Oleg Timofeyev (2000). The Golden Age of Russian Guitar, Vol. 2 (CD). Dorian Recordings. DOR-93203.
- ISBN 966-7997-23-5.
External links
- Biography (also in Russian) (www.lute.ru)
- Biography (in Russian)
- Free scores by Andrei Sychra at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
Sheetmusic
- Guitar-Method: Теоретическая и практическая школа для семиструнной гитары (Theoretical and practical school for the seven-stringed guitar)
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