Ivan Wyschnegradsky

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Ivan Alexandrovich Wyschnegradsky (born May 2, jul. / 14. May  1893 greg. In St. Petersburg ; † 29. September 1979 in Paris ) was a Russian composer who more than two thirds of his life in France spent, and one of the pioneers of microtonal Music.

Life

Wyschnegradsky was the son of a banker. His grandfather Ivan Alexejewitsch Wyschnegradski was a well-known mathematician and Minister of Finance from 1888 to 1892. After initially studying law, Wyschnegradsky moved to the St. Petersburg Conservatory at the age of 17 , where he studied with Nikolai Sokolow from 1911 to 1914 . There he became acquainted with the work of Scriabin , which exerted a strong influence on him. In the years 1916 and 1917 the oratorio La Journée de l'Existence was created on its own text, in which a 12-note cluster over five octaves is heard at the end . From the ideas of a "sound continuum" that Wyschnegradsky developed in the following years and decades, numerous compositions arose using micro-intervals and ultra-chromatic systems, which, however, only found greater attention in the music world towards the end of his life.

In 1920 Wyschnegradsky emigrated to Paris. In 1922 he traveled to Berlin to meet other composers who dealt with quarter tones : Richard Stein , Alois Hába , Willy von Möllendorff and Jörg Mager . Plans to construct a quarter-tone piano together with Hába failed; partly for technical reasons, partly due to visa problems that forced him to return to Paris. In Paris in 1923 he married the artist Hélène Benois.

After attempts to construct a quarter-tone piano did not lead to satisfactorily playable solutions in the period that followed (Wyschnegradsky had a three-manual grand piano built by Förster in 1930), Wyschnegradsky decided in 1936 to continue his previous compositions - including quarter-tone orchestral works that had been created in the meantime, which were then considered impracticable - to be reworked for several pianos tuned in the respective distance (e.g. two pianos with a quarter tone spacing, three pianos with a sixth tone spacing)

On January 25, 1937, a concert was given for the first time, the Festival de musique à quarts de ton , which was entirely dedicated to his music. On this occasion some of his works were premiered with two or four pianos in quarter-tone intervals; the composers Charles Koechlin and Olivier Messiaen became aware of him through this concert. The plan to give such a concert every year was eventually interrupted by World War II.

After the Second World War, Wyschnegradsky had to go to a sanatorium for 3 years to cure his tuberculosis and got into a creative crisis. However, the young Olivier Messiaen , among others, encouraged him to continue with his work. The young Pierre Boulez also took part in a performance of the Deuxième fragment symphonique in a version for four pianos in 1951 .

In 1977 Radio France put on a big concert with Wyschnegradsky's music. He was unable to accept an invitation from the DAAD as “composer in residence” to Berlin for health reasons.

plant

Wyschnegradsky wrote mainly (also for practical reasons) chamber music, especially for two pianos tuned quarter-tone apart; furthermore several works for three pianos tuned to sixth-tone intervals, as well as Arc-en-Ciel op. 37 for six pianos twelve-tone spaced. This piece was performed at the Donaueschinger Musiktage in 2010, for example .

He also wrote two string quartets in quarter tones (op. 13, 1923–24 and op. 18, 1930–31), another string quartet in conventional tuning (op. 38, 1945/59) and an unfinished, one-movement string trio in quarter tones ( op. 53, 1978).

Wyschnegradsky also wrote a manual for the quarter-tone harmonics ( Manual d'Harmonie à Quarts de Ton , Paris 1932) and essays on the subject of ultra-chromaticism.

Compositions by genre

  • Stage works
    • Acté Choréographique op. 27 - based on a separate text for a soloist, mixed choir, four pianos and percussion instruments (quarter-tone composition), 1937–46
    • L'Éternel Étranger op. 50 - based on a separate text for a soloist, mixed choir, four pianos and percussion instruments (quarter-tone composition), 1939–68
  • Orchestral works
    • Funeral March op.9 - for strings and harps (quarter-tone composition), 1922
    • Five variations without theme and ending op.34 - (quarter-tone composition), 1952
  • Chamber music
    • Chant douloureux et étude op. 6 - for violin and piano (third, quarter, sixth and eighth notes in the violin part), 1918, 5´
    • Méditation sur 2 thèmes de la Journèe de l'Existence op.7 - for violoncello and piano (third, quarter, sixth and eighth notes in the violoncello part), 1958
    • Chant nocturne op.11 - for violin and 2 pianos tuned quarter-tone apart (third, quarter, sixth and eighth notes in the violin part), 1921 (reworked 1971)
    • String Quartet No. 1, Op. 13 - 1924
    • Prelude and fugue on the song "Das Rote Evangelium" Op. 15 - for string quartet (quarter-tone composition), 1927
    • String quartet No. 2 op.18 - (quarter tone composition), 1930/31
    • Sonata in one movement op.34 - for viola and two pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1934
    • String Quartet No. 3 op. 38b - 1945–58
    • Composition op.43 - for string quartet (quarter-tone composition ), 1960
    • String trio op.53 - (quarter-tone composition), 1978/79
  • Piano works
    • Piano for 2 hands
      • Two preludes op. 2 - 1917
      • Five fragments op.5 - for piano in half and quarter tones, 1918
      • Prélude et Étude op. 30 - sixth tone composition, 1945
      • Étude sur le Carré magique sonore op. 40 - 1956
      • Two preludes op. 41 - 1956
      • Two pieces op.44 - for the micro-interval piano by Julián Carrillo , 1959
      • Prelude and Etude op.48 - for the microinterval piano by Julián Carrillo , 1966
      • Intégrations op. 49 - 1966/67
    • Works for 2 and more pianos
      • Six variations on the note DO op.10 - for two pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1918/20
      • Prelude and Dance op.16 - for two pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1928
      • Thus spoke Zarathustra op. 17 - Symphony for four pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1929/30
      • Two Concert Etudes op.19 - for 2 pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1932
      • Etude in the form of a Scherzo op.20 - for 2 pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1932
      • Prelude and Fugue op.21 - for 2 pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1933
      • 24 Préludes dans tous les Tons de l'Echelle chromatique diatonisée à 13 Sons op.22 - for 2 pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1934 (revised 1958/60)
      • Symphonic fragment No. 1 op.23 - for 4 pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1934
      • Symphonic fragment No. 2 op.24 - for 4 pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1937
      • Kosmos op.28 - for 4 pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1939/40
      • Prelude and Fugue, Op. 30 - for 3 pianos (sixth-tone composition), 1945
      • Symphonic fragment No. 3 op.32 - for 4 pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1946
      • Zwei Fugen op.33 - for 2 pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1951
      • Arc-en-ciel op.37 - for six pianos (twelve-tone composition), 1959
      • Symphonic fragment No. 4 op.38 - for 4 pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1956
      • Étude sur les Mouvements rotatoires op.45 - for 2 pianos with four hands each (quarter-tone composition), 1961
      • Two compositions op.46 - for 3 pianos (quarter and sixth tone composition), 1961
      • Transparences II op.47 - for Ondes Martenot and two pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1963
      • Intégrations op.49 - for two pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1967
      • Dialogue à Trois op.51 - for three pianos with one-pitch pitch, 1974
  • Organ works
    • Étude tricesimoprimal op.42 - for the organ by Adrian Fokker in thirty-first tone intervals, 1959
  • Vocal instrumental works
    • Singing voice and / or choir and orchestra
      • Tag des Daseins op. 1 ( La Journée de l'Existence ) - oratorio based on a separate text for speaker, choir ad. lib. and large orchestra, 1916/17, revised 1927 and 1939/40
  • Songs
    • L'Automne op. 1 - for bass-baritone after Nietzsche, 1917
    • Le Soleil décline op.3 - for bass-baritone after Nietzsche, 1917/18
    • Le scintillement lointain des étoiles op.4 - for soprano after Sophie Savitch-Wyschnegradsky, 1918
    • Das Rote Evangelium op.8 ( L'évangile rouge ) - for bass-baritone and piano after Knaizeff, 1918/20
    • Drei Lieder op.11 - after Nietzsche for bass-baritone and two pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1923
    • Linnite op.25 - Mimodrama based on a fairy tale by Sophie Savitch-Wyschnegradsky for three female voices and four pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1937
    • To Richard Wagner op.26 - after Nietsche for bass-baritone and two pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1934
    • Two Russian songs op.29 - for bass-baritone and two pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1940
  • Vocal works
    • Two Choirs op.14 - after Pomorski for mixed choir and four pianos (quarter-tone composition), 1926
  • Transcriptions
    • Symphonic Fragment No. 1, Op. 23 - for orchestra, 1967
    • Etude sur les Mouvements rotatoires op.45 - orchestrated for chamber orchestra, 1965

Individual evidence

  1. a b c http://www.ivan-wyschnegradsky.fr/en/biography/

literature

  • Juan Allende-Blin: A conversation with Ivan Wyschnegradsky . In: Alexander Scriabin and the Scriabinists Ed. Heinz-Klaus Metzger, Rainer Riehn. Music Concepts, Vol. 32/33. edition text + kritik, Munich 1983, pp. 103–122. ISBN 3-88377-149-X
  • Detlef Gojowy: New Soviet Music of the 20s. Laaber-Verl., Laaber 1980. ISBN 3-921518-09-1

Web links