Marian Victorowitsch Kowal

Marian Victorowitsch Kowal ( Russian Мариан Викторович Коваль , actually Ковалёв, Kovalev ; born August 4 ^{. Jul} / 17th August  1907 ^greg. In pristane Wosnessenija ; † 15. February 1971 in Moscow ) was a Russian composer and music official.

career

From the age of 6 Kowal received systematic piano lessons in Saint Petersburg . From 1918 to 1920 he attended the music school in Nizhny Novgorod , where he took piano lessons from Vera Alexandrovna Vinogradowa. From 1921 to 1925 he attended the music technology center in Petrograd , where he took piano lessons with Mikhail Alexejewitsch Bichter and music history with Vyacheslav Gavrilowitsch Karatygin. From 1925 Kowal attended the Moscow Conservatory , where he studied composition with Mikhail Gnessin . There he was a member of the PROKOLL association (creative collective of composition students at the Moscow Conservatory). In 1928 he broke off his studies and joined the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians (RAPM). He rounded off his composition knowledge and skills with Nikolai Mjaskowski and Semjon Semjonowitsch Bogatyrjow. In 1931 he worked for a few months as a fitter in the construction of Magnitogorsk in the Urals. From 1948 Kowal worked as a secretary and board member of the Union of Composers of the USSR. He headed the “Music of the National Republics” commission. From 1948 to 1952 he was the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Sowjetskaja Musyka” and from 1957 to 1961 artistic director of the “Pyatnitsky Folk Choir”, with which he made guest appearances in Austria, the Czechoslovakia, Canada, the USA and Mexico.

Honors

Kowal was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1943 . In 1947 he was awarded the title of "Honored Artist of the RSFSR" and in 1954 the same title for the Republic of Lithuania.

Ratings

Free from modernist influences and as a consistent fighter against any kind of constructivism in music, Kowal has always maintained an intimate bond with the musical tradition and folklore of his home country. His development as a composer was hampered by his membership in the RAPM and its propagated principles of disdain for professional composing and disregard for instrumental music. For Koval himself, music has always been a means of agitation. Starting with smaller vowel forms (mass, solo and choral song), he found his way to cantata, oratorio and opera. With the expansion of the form came an enrichment of the musical means of expression. Declamatory and recitative elements were withdrawn in favor of broad melodic lines. "The extent to which the composer struggled for the musical form can also be seen from the fact that most of his larger works have been revised one or more times and are available in several versions." Kowal was a master of the choral setting he had been since the 1930s increasingly equipped with dramatic elements. He designed his opera choirs into impressive folk and crowd scenes that followed the tradition of classical Russian opera, especially that of Modest Mussorgsky .

In the West, Kowal became known as a sharp-tongued and hostile critic of the "western" music of Dmitri Shostakovich during the second Stalinist culture campaign around 1948. With regard to Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony, a 2014 program booklet by the Cologne Philharmonic aptly describes the situation in 1948: “Composers like Marian Kowal and Tichon Chrennikow , who held important cultural and political offices, relentlessly counted their colleague Shostakovich. His intellectual gadgets represented a betrayal of the needs of the people, the neoclassical trait of the Ninth was a sign of decadence. In the secondary theme of the first sentence, Kowal saw the image of “a coarse, cheerful Yankee whistling a cheerful motif inexperienced” and summed up: “The old Haydn and a real sergeant in the US Army, unconvincingly trimmed for Charlie Chaplin, hunted galloping with all gestures and grimaces through the first movement of this symphony. «“ As a result of these official degradations, Shostakovich got into an existential crisis.

Works

The second and each subsequent year indicate significant revisions of the respective work by the composer.

Stage works

• 1932: Semlja wstajot (The land rises; based on the Hungarian piece Megmozdul a Föld by A. Hidas, Russian translation by L. Kotschetkow)
• 1939, 1951, 1965: Wolk i semero kosljat (The wolf and the seven little goats; based on the folk tale by E. Manutscharowa and M. Kowal), children's opera in three acts with a prologue
• 1940, 1959: Jemeljan Pugatschow (W. Kamenski), opera in five acts
• 1943, 1949: Sevastopolzy (The Men of Sevastopol; NL Braun and SD Spasski), opera in four acts with an epilogue
• 1929, 1949: Usadba (The manor; Ju. Anissimow after A. Pushkin, Count Nulin, 2nd version 1949 with the text by S. Gorodezki)
• 1964: Aksyusha (T. Ustinowa), ballet

Choral works

• 1935, 1969: Skas o partisane (The story of the partisan; A. Surkow), poem in six songs for baritone, soprano and mixed choir with piano
• 1939, 1972: Jemeljan Pugatschow (based on the poem of the same name by W. Kamenski), oratorio for three soloists, mixed choir and symphony orchestra in 2 parts
• 1942: Narodnaja swjaschtschennaja wojna (The Holy People's War; S. Alexandrowa, P. Afonin, M. Golodny, A. Prokofjew, N. Siderenko, Ja.Sedov and N. Waganowa), oratorio
• 1942: Tschkalow (W. Kamenski), oratorio for vocal soloists, choir a. Symphonic orchestra in acte parts
• 1968: Tschelowek (Ein Mensch; E. Mieželaitis), oratorio
• 1947: Swjosdy Kremlja (Kremlsterne; L. Oschanin), cantata for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass with piano
• 1949, 1969: Poema o Lenine (Lenin poem; ders.), Cantata for mixed choir a cappella
• 1933: Is shisni krasnoarmejza (From the life of a Red Army soldier; A. Surkow), suite for a soloist, choir a. piano
• 1938: Semja narodow (The People's Family; Folk Poems), suite for a cappella choir
• 1937: Wremena goda (The Seasons; A. Pushkin) for children's choir
• 1942: Ilmen-osero (Der Ilmensee; M. Matussowski) for male choir a cappella
• 1946: Pjat stichotworenij F. Tjutschewa (five poems by F. Tjutschew) for mixed choir a cappella
• 1948: Pesni sibirskich ochotnikow (songs of the Siberian hunters; L. Tschernomorzew) for male choir a cappella
• 1952: Po rodnoi strane (Through the homeland; B. Dubrowin), 19 choral movements
• 1964: Chory f. Mixed choir, for male choir and for female choir
• 1966: Junost (youth), songs a. Choirs with piano

Works for voice and piano

• 1929: Pesni is odinotschki (songs from the prison cell; A. Bogdanow and M. Kowal)
• 1935: Episod is 1905 goda (episode from 1905; D. Bedny, N. Kuznetsov, I. Frenkel and folk poetry)
• 1935: Prokljatoje proschloje (Accursed Past; NA Nekrasow)
• 1936, 1969: Puschkiniana, ten poems by A. Puschkin for speaker, voice a. piano
• 1939, 1957: O kakije pewzy! O, what singers !, five songs on lyrics v. L. Hughes (Russian translation by Ju. Anissimow)
• 1942, 1973: Frontowaja tetrad (front booklet; M. Matussowski, K. Simonow et al.)
• 1944: Ural-bogatyr (The Warrior Ural; W. Kamenski, M. Matussowski et al.), Ten Songs
• 1951: Pesni na stichi negritjanskich poetow (songs based on verses by negro poets)
• 1955: Romansy i pesni na stichi P. Komarowa (romances and songs based on poems by P. Komarow)
• 1958: Is japonskoi poesii (from Japanese poetry)
• 1964: Detskije pesni (children's songs)
• 1969: Jantarjok s solotymi lutschami (The amber with the golden rays; S. Neris; 1967)

Folk song arrangements

• 1962: Russkije narodnyje pesni for flute, voice and piano

Instrumental music

• 1940: Desjat pjes na marijskije narodnyje temy (Ten pieces on folk song themes of Mari) for piano
• 1955: Musykalnaja schkatulka (The Music Box), six pieces for piano
• 1963: Liritscheskaja powest (lyric novella) for piano
• 1956: Dwe pesni (Two songs) for harp
• 1956: Preljudija for harp
• 1946: Suite in Russian folk tunes for string quartet

Drama and film music

• 1941: Music for the film Delo Artamonowych (The Work of Artamonows; based on M. Gorki; 1941)

Fonts

• 1968: S pesnei skwos gody. Gossudarstvenny russki chor imeni ME Pjatnitskowo (With the song through the years. The State Russian ME Pyatnitski Folk Choir)
• Numerous articles in magazines and newspapers (see: GB Bernandt and IM Jampolski, Kto pisal o musyke (Who wrote about music) II, 1974, 51 f.)

literature

• Kowal, Marian Victorowitsch . In: Friedrich Blume (Hrsg.): The music in past and present general encyclopedia of music [MGG] (=  digital library . Volume 60 ). Unabridged electronic edition of the 1st edition. Directmedia Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89853-460-X , p. 43491 (cf. MGG Volume 16, p. 1047, Bärenreiter-Verlag 1986).
• Kowal, Marian Viktorowitsch . In: Wilibald Gurlitt, Carl Dahlhaus (Hrsg.): Riemann Musik-Lexikon. In three volumes and two supplementary volumes. 12th completely revised edition. tape 1 : persons Part A-K . B. Schotts-Sons, Mainz 1959, p. 957 (first edition: 1882).
• Kowal, Marian Wiktorowitsch . In: Wilibald Gurlitt, Carl Dahlhaus (Hrsg.): Riemann Musik-Lexikon. In three volumes and two supplementary volumes. 12th completely revised edition. tape 4 , Suppl persons part of A-K . B. Schotts-Sons, Mainz 1972, p. 672 (first edition: 1882, additional information on Kowal's work).
• Galina Grigor′yeva:  Koval ′, Marian Viktorovich. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Marina Lobanova:  Koval ', Marian Viktorovič. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 10 (Kemp - Lert). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2003, ISBN 3-7618-1120-9  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
2. ↑ Marcus Imbsweiler: Program of the Cologne Philharmonic. (PDF) About Shostakovich's 9th Symphony. January 19, 2014, p. 10 , archived from the original on February 17, 2017 .