Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky

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Nikolai Myaskovsky (1912)

Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky (also: Nikolaj J. Mjaskovskij; Russian Николай Яковлевич Мясковский * 8 . Jul / 20th April  1881 greg. In Novogeorgievsk in Warsaw , † 8 August 1950 in Moscow ) was a Russian composer .

Life

Myaskovsky, the son of a Russian military engineer stationed near Warsaw, was initially supposed to embark on a career in the military, despite his obvious musical talent, according to his father's will. From 1893 to 1895 he attended the cadet school in Nizhny Novgorod and then until 1899 the cadet school in Saint Petersburg . At the same time he received his first music lessons from his aunt, a singer. From 1899 to 1902 he attended the St. Petersburg Academy of Military Engineering. He was then transferred to Moscow and worked in the military as an officer.

Meanwhile, Mjaskowski had made his first attempts at composition and took private lessons with Reinhold Glière in 1902/1903 . Even after he returned to Saint Petersburg, he continued his classes and finally entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1906 , where he studied with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoly Lyadow , among others . Here he made the acquaintance of the young Sergei Prokofiev , from which a lifelong friendship developed. In 1907 he submitted his retirement from the army and became a reservist the following year. After completing his studies in 1911, Myaskovsky wrote articles for a music magazine and gave private lessons.

In 1914 he was called up as a pioneer officer in the First World War and gave up his activities as a music reviewer and teacher. Myaskovsky was seriously wounded in the course of the war, then transferred to Reval (Tallinn) in 1917 and later sent back to Saint Petersburg because of a war neurosis . After the October Revolution he joined the Red Army and did not submit his departure until 1921.

In 1918, Myaskovsky moved to Moscow and took an active part in reshaping musical life. In 1921 he became professor of composition at the Moscow Conservatory (until 1950). He was also involved in founding the Association for Contemporary Music in 1923, which he left in the early 1930s. Mjaskowski joined the Soviet composers' association and had been working for the state music publishing house since 1922. He also worked as deputy head of the People's Education Commissariat and since 1940 as editor of the magazine Sovetskaya Musyka . Well-known composers such as Aram Chatschaturjan , Dmitri Kabalewski and Andrei Eschpai emerged from his composition class .

In 1948 Mjaskowski was one of the composers criticized as “formalists” in the decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU , but was soon rehabilitated again. He was a six-time Stalin Prize winner and a doctorate in cultural studies.

Audio language

Myaskovsky is one of the most highly regarded composers of the first decades of the Soviet Union and an important figure in Russian music history. His work can be divided into three periods (apart from his early work, which was not provided with opus numbers). The first period includes the compositions before the First World War. The influence of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff as well as a pronounced chromaticism is characteristic here . All of the larger works of this period have a tragic tone and, according to Mjaskowski's own statement, bear the “stamp of deep pessimism”. In some compositions the influence of symbolism can be seen .

After the war, his tonal language initially brightened significantly. During this second period, Mjaskowski was particularly interested in experiments and forced the chromatic and harmonic complexity of his music. He found inspiration, among other things, from modern European tendencies (compositions such as Ravel's La Valse ); Impressionist and expressionist influences are clearly visible. In addition, Myaskovsky also resorted to Russian folklore, which he subjected to alienation effects. Many passages have bitonal twists; sometimes the border to atonality is touched.

From around 1932 onwards, Myaskovsky's style changed fundamentally. During this period he clearly responded to the demands of “ socialist realism ” and to a certain extent oriented himself to the Russian national romanticism of the 19th century. The melody is in part extremely popular (e.g. in the 18th symphony) up to simple diatonic . In some works, Myaskovsky takes up political events (such as the collectivization of agriculture in the 12th symphony). In the 1940s, his tonal language became darker and more melancholy again. Overall, his late style is quite traditional; the harmony is not remotely as sharp as in the middle period; the tonality is reinforced.

Mjaskowski's music is based on an academic attitude that emphasizes above all the importance of the compositional craft and gives great weight to tradition. In some works he is blamed for a lack of inspiration in this context. His music is often kept introverted, characterized by thoughtfulness and melancholy and does not use any effects that appeal to the public. His preferred forms were symphony and string quartet. His best-known work today is the Sixth Symphony, a large-scale, epic work that is a response to the October Revolution and the Russian Civil War.

Works

  • Orchestral works
    • 27 symphonies
    • 3 symphonies
    • 2 symphonic poems
    • 1 violin concerto
    • 1 violoncello concerto
    • Several smaller pieces, overtures and marches
  • Vocal works
    • 2 cantatas
    • Several songs and song cycles for voice and piano
    • Mass songs
  • Chamber music
    • 13 string quartets
    • 1 violin sonata op.70
    • 2 violoncello sonatas
  • Piano music

Awards

literature

  • Soja Gulinskaja: Nikolai Jakowlewitsch Mjaskowski . New Music, Berlin 1985, OCLC 14401889 .
  • Matthias Falke: Nikolai Miaskowsky - First Symphony . Symphonic monographs. tape 3 . Norderstedt 2010, ISBN 978-3-8391-4307-0 .
  • Alfred Baumgartner: Propylaea World of Music - The Composers - A lexicon in five volumes . tape 4 . Propylaen Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-549-07830-7 , pp. 58/59 .
  • Gregor Tassie: Nikolay Myaskovsky: The Conscience of Russian Music . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland 2014, ISBN 978-1-4422-3132-0 .

Web links

Commons : Nikolai Myaskovsky  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Myaskovsky, Nikolai Jakowlewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Мясковский, Николай Яковлевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian composer
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Nowogeorgiewsk near Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1950
Place of death Moscow