Gregory Alchevsky
Gregory Alchevsky
Alchevsky graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of
Biography
Family
Gregory Oleksiiovych Alchevsky was born in 1866 in Kharkiv (then in Sloboda Ukraine in the Russian Empire, now in modern Ukraine).[2][3] He was the son of a mining engineer, industrialist and banker Aleksey Alchevsky.[1] Gregory's mother Khrystyna Alchevska (née Zhuravleva),[4] was the daughter of a teacher,[5] and was herself a teacher.[6][7]
There was an artistic atmosphere within the Alchevsky house.
Gregory Alchevsky had five siblings—all six children were musically gifted. Their first music teacher was Lyubov Karpova, whom the family respected highly.
Education
Gregory had outstanding musical abilities from a young age.
Even when at the Conservatory, Alchevsky's compositions were noticed by the musical community. His friend Goldenweiser wrote of his fellow student as being "three heads above everyone else in terms of talent and instinct". According to Goldenweiser, his friend left the conservatory a month before graduating.[2]
Career
Alchevsky became increasingly well known in Russian musical circles.[2] He was on friendly terms with Russian cultural figures such as the composer pianists Alexander Scriabin and Alexander Goldenweiser.[7] His connections helped to popularise Ukrainian music.[2] In Kharkiv, Alchevsky organized a balalaika orchestra and several amateur string orchestras.[2][7]
Alchevsky's students included the singers Dmitry Aspelund, Nicholai Ozerov , and Sergei Yudin. He was also his younger brother Ivan's first vocal teacher.[2]
Alchevsky's late Romantic movement compositions have a tendency towards Slavic-Ukrainian folk music. His most popular works were his settings of folk songs and his two cycles of romances, which were published privately in Moscow by the Kharkiv-born singer Mikhail Slonov .[2] In 1910, Grigory and Ivan Alchevsky created the Ukrainian musical and dramatic society "Kobzar" in Moscow. They and other artists wrote about and performed Russian and Ukrainian works.[11] That year, Alchevsky was living in Moscow with his wife Maria Mykolaivna. They occupied a first-floor apartment in Bogoslovsky Lane (between Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street and Petrovka Street), and his brother Ivan at one time lived on the third floor of the same building.[12] Alchevsky died in Moscow in 1920.[3]
Compositions
Alchevsky's
Alchevsky made a notable contribution to Ukrainian music. His romances perpetuated the use of traditional Ukrainian folk songs in classical music, although his settings of Russian texts, such as "Sosna" by Lermontov, "I long stood motionless" by Afanasy Fet, and "I know what father has on these shores" by Maykov, more noticeably show the influence of Russian composers, in particular Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Taneyev.[14]
Alyosha Popovych
In 1904,
Symphony (first movement)
Alchevsky began to write a symphony, but it was never completed. He and Goldenweiser visited Rachmaninoff, who had a professional interest in the young composers. When Alchevsky showed Rachmaninoff the sketches of the first movement of his symphony, Rachmaninoff played it through and praised it. Over a year later, Rachmaninoff remembered the music and asked about it. When Alchevsky told him that only the first part was done, Rachmaninoff played an exposition of the piece without the use of a score.[16]
Romances
Alchevsky's romances were written for solo voice with piano:
- Opus 3. Romances for voice with piano with words by Maria Alchevska and others:[17]
- No. 1. "Любовь – это сон упоительный", Романс Рюделя из "Принцессы Грёзы" Ростана ("Love is an intoxicating dream", Rudel's romance from «La Princesse Lointaine» by Rostand), words by Tatyana Shchepkina-Kupernik;
- No. 2."Раб" ("Slave"), words by Olga Chyumina;
- No. 3. "Песня Лунного луча" ("Song of the Moonbeam"), words by Konstantin Sluchevsky;
- No. 4. "Я знаю, отчего" ("I know why"), words by Apollon Maykov;
- No. 5: "Сосна" ("Pine"), words by Mikhail Lermontov;
- No. 6. "Ах, как у нас хорошо на балконе" ("Oh, how nice it is on our balcony"), words by Yakov Polonsky.
- No. 1. "Любовь – это сон упоительный", Романс Рюделя из "Принцессы Грёзы" Ростана ("Love is an intoxicating dream", Rudel's romance from «La Princesse Lointaine» by Rostand), words by
- Opus 4. Romances for voice with piano with words by Khrystyna Alchevska and others:[17]
- No. 1. "Чого мені тяжко" ("Why is it hard for me"), words by Taras Shevchenko
- No. 2. "Літньої ночі" ("Summer night"), words by T. Shevchenko;
- No. 3. "Не дивися на місяць весною" ("Don't look at the moon in spring"), words by Khrystia Alchevska;
- No. 4. "Душа – се конвалія ніжна" ("The soul is a gentle lily of the valley"), words by K. Alchevska;
- No. 5. "Стояла я і слухала весну" ("I stood and listened to the spring"), words by Lesya Ukrainka;
- No. 6. "Безмежнеє поле" ("Boundless Field"), words by Ivan Franko.
Other works
Publications
Alchevsky's
Another work by Alchevsky, The most important wishes regarding voice education and conclusions from them, has not been studied.[11]
- Вокальная техника в ежедневных упражнениях (Vocal Technique in Daily Exercises) (1907);[17]
- Таблицы Дыхания Для Певцов И Их Применение К Развитию Основных Качеств Голоса (Breathing Tables for Singers and their Application to the Development of the Basic Qualities of the Voice) (1908, republished in 1928 and 1930).[17]
Commemoration
The 2015 HUP International Festival ("S. Rachmaninov and Ukrainian Culture") in Kharkiv commemorated Alchevsky's 150th anniversary as part of its celebrations.[19]
Notes
References
- ^ a b c "Alchevsky, Hryhorii". Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. 2001 [1984]. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Alchevsky 2014, pp. 4–6.
- ^ a b Dytyniak 1986, p. 15.
- ^ Kizchenko, Valentyna Ivanovna (2003). "Леванідов Андрій Якович" [Alchevska, Hrystyna Danilivna]. Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). Vol. 1. Institute of History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
- ^ a b Klepach, Tamila (2014). "Життя Заради Світла І Добра: Сторінками життєпису родини Алчевських" [Life for the Sake of Light and Goodness: Pages of the biography of the Alchevsky family,] (PDF). Divoslovo (in Ukrainian). pp. 53–56. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
- ^ a b "Alchevsky, Oleksii". Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ^ a b c d Ivanovskyi 2001.
- ^ Lysenko & Myoslavskyi 1980, p. 73.
- ^ Lysenko & Myoslavskyi 1980, p. 62.
- ^ a b "Alchevskyi, Hryhoriy Oleksiiovych". VUE. State Scientific Institution "Encyclopedic Publishing House". Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Алчевский Григорий Алексеевич" [Alchevsky Grigory Alekseevich] (in Russian). Central Library of Alchevsk. 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
- ^ Lysenko & Myoslavskyi 1980, p. 71.
- ^ Kizchenko, Valentyna Ivanovna (2016). "Grigory Olesiyovych Alchevsky". Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). Institute of the History of Ukraine, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ^ a b Hordiychuk 1990, pp. 233–234.
- ^ Hordiychuk 1990, p. 200.
- ^ Nikolaeva & Scriabin 2015, p. 144.
- ^ a b c d Bakhmet, Tatiana Borysovna. "Семья Алчевских" [The Alchevsky Family] (in Ukrainian). Kharkiv Music and Theatre Library. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
- ^ a b "Guide to the collections of handwritten materials of the VMOMC named after. M.I.Glinki" (PDF) (in Russian). Music Museum. p. 147. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
- ^ "The Rachmaninov Festival was successfully held in Kharkiv". Music Review Ukraine (in Ukrainian). 23 April 2015. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
Sources
- Dytyniak, Maria (1986). Українські композитори [Ukrainian Composers]. Edmonton, Canada: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta.
- Hordiychuk, M. M., ed. (1990). History of Ukrainian Music (in Ukrainian). Vol. 6. Kyiv: Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.
- Ivanovskyi, P. O. (2001). "Алчевський Григорій Олексійович" [Alchevsky Hryhoriy Oleksiiovych]. In Dzyuba, I. M.; Zhukovsky, A. I.; Zheleznyak, M. G. (eds.). ISBN 9789660220744.
- Lysenko, Ivan; Myoslavskyi, Kyril (1980). Іван Алчевський: Спогади, Матеріали, Листування [Ivan Alchevskyi: Memoirs, Materials, Correspondence] (PDF) (in Russian). Kyiv: Music Ukraine. OCLC 7554384.
- Nikolaeva, A.; Scriabin, Alexander (2015). "Наш Старик". Александр Гольденвейзер и Московская консерватория ["Our Old Man." Alexander Goldenweiser and the Moscow Conservatory] (in Russian). Moscow; Saint Petersburg: LitRes. ISBN 978-50400-6-169-3.
Published works
- Alchevsky, Gregory (2014) [1908]. Таблицы дыхания для певцов и их применение к развитию основных качеств голоса: Учебное пособие [Breathing Tables for Singers and their Application to the Development of Basic Voice Qualities] (PDF) (in Russian) (2nd ed.). Планета музыки [Planet of Music]. ISBN 978-5-91938-168-6.
External links
- Alphabetical catalog of music publications (1518- ) held in the Russian National Library. The index cards 1 to 8 relate to works by Alchevsky.
- Scores of Alchevsky's Romances: Op. 3. Nos. 1–6 kept at the Russian State Library (from the National Electronic Library project)