Aleksander Eduard Thomson
Aleksander Eduard Thomson (born January 19 . Jul / 31 January 1845 greg. In Pringi, then parish Sangaste , Livonia ; † 20th October 1917 in Petrograd , Russia ) was an Estonian composer.
life and work
Aleksander Eduard Thomson was born in the parish of Sangaste (German Theal ) as the son of a mill tenant. He attended the elementary school in Valga ( Walk ) in Livonia and the district school in Tartu . Thomson graduated from Jānis Cimze's famous teacher training college in Valga in 1865 .
From 1870 to 1872 he studied mathematics at the University of Tartu . He then worked as a teacher in Kanepi ( Kannapäh ), Vana-Võidu ( Alt-Woidoma ) near Viljandi and in the German church school in Peterhof, Russia ( Петергоф in Russian ). At that time he was already organizing choral events with a relatively large number of participants. In Saint Petersburg he was the tutor of Anton Rubinstein's family .
From 1876 until his death in 1917 Thomson taught mathematics at the German grammar school in the Russian capital. However, he regularly visited his Livonian and Estonian homeland.
Aleksander Eduard Thomson discovered an inclination for music early on. He is considered to be one of the founders of the folk music choral tradition in Estonia. Around forty choral works and adaptations composed by him have been preserved. The number of his compositions is estimated at around 70. He often took the texts of his songs from folk poetry, but also from the works of Carl Robert Jakobson , Lydia Koidula and Friedrich Robert Faehlmann . In addition, Thomson, together with his friends Mihkel Veske and Johann Köler, collected Estonian folk songs, which he made accessible to a larger audience, and other ethnographic evidence.
Private life
Aleksander Eduard Thomsen's first marriage was to the sister of the nationally-minded Estonian journalist Carl Robert Jakobson.
Web links
- Life, work, pictures (Estonian)
- Curriculum vitae and list of works (Estonian)
- Album academicum of the Imperial University of Dorpat , Dorpat 1889, page 648
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eesti Elulood. Tallinn: Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti Entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , p. 530
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Thomson, Aleksander Eduard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Estonian composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 31, 1845 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pringi, then the parish of Sangaste , Livonia |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 20, 1917 |
| Place of death | Petrograd , Russia |