Nikolai Myaskovsky (ru: Николай Мясковский) (April 20, 1881 – August 8, 1950) was a Russian composer. Russian (русский язык   listen?) is the most widely spoken language of Europe and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. ... April 20 is the 110th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (111th in leap years). ... 1881 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... August 8 is the 220th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (221st in leap years), with 145 days remaining. ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Biography

Myaskovsky was born near Warsaw and moved to Saint Petersburg in his teens. At first he was discouraged from a musical career — not unusually — and into the military, where indeed he did spend some of the years of the First World War. He was a friend of Prokofiev's beginning in Conservatory and throughout the older man's life. In Conservatory, they shared a dislike of their professor Lyadov which came out in Myaskovsky's choice of theme for the variations with which he closed his third string quartet (probably not his third, but eventually so published) since Lyadov disliked Grieg the theme's author. Prokofiev and Myaskovsky worked together while in Conservatory on at least one work, a mostly lost symphony, part of which was later scavenged to provide material for the slow movement of Prokofiev's fourth piano sonata. They both later produced works subtitled From old notebooks using materials from this period — in Prokofiev's case the third and fourth piano sonatas, in Myaskovsky's, other works, such as Myaskovsky's 10^th string quartet and what are now the fifth and sixth piano sonatas, are revisions of works he wrote at this time. The first of his surviving symphonies (C minor, op. 3, 1908/1921) was his Conservatory graduation piece. Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa, see also other names, in full The Capital City of Warsaw, Polish: Miasto StoÅ‚eczne Warszawa) is the capital of Poland and its largest city. ... Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ... Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Russian: , April 271, 1891 – March 5, 1953) was a Ukrainian-born Russian composer who mastered numerous musical genres and came to be admired as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. ... Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov (Анатолий Константинович Лядов), often transliterated Liadov, (May 11, 1855 - August 28, 1914) was a Russian composer, teacher and conductor. ... Edvard Hagerup Grieg (June 15, 1843–September 4, 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. ... 1908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

His stint in the 'Great War' produced shell shock, and while recovering he produced two diametrically opposite works, his fourth symphony (op. 17 in e) and his fifth (op. 18 in D. His third of 1914 has a Scriabin-influenced sound, though its concluding funeral march has a sense of direction that may be lacking in some works by that composer.) The next few years brought ascents and reversals — the death of his father from the anger of a revolutionary, his appointment to the teaching staff of the Moscow Conservatory and membership of the composers' union. Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Скря́бин; sometimes transliterated as Skryabin or Skrjabin) (January 6, 1872 – April 27, 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist. ... The Moscow Conservatory is a prominent music school in Russia. ...

Students of his middle years

The years 1921 – 1933 were years in which he most often experimented in music, producing works such as the tenth and thirteenth symphonies, fourth piano sonata, and first string quartet — also some of the suites of piano pieces — whose harmony is very much stretched, and the first years of his teaching at the Conservatory. Perhaps the thirteenth symphony is alone even among them, in one atmospheric and strange movement complete with fugato. And the only work by the composer premiered in the United States... (In passing, note that the third and fourth string quartets, though they share opus 33 with the first two, were first published together with them in the collected edition published after the composer's death, whether or not they were first published around the same time. These works — #3 in d, #4 in f — are mid-1930s revisions of works written in the last years of the 1900s, not new works as are the other two; so their style is quite different. Whether they sound worse is a matter of opinion, though they have a very high level of craftsmanship.) 1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1933 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... In music, a fugue is a type of piece written in counterpoint for several independent musical voices. ... Opus is a Latin word which means work (in the sense of a work of art). Some composers musical pieces are identified by opus numbers which generally run either in order of composition or in order of publication. ... // Events and Trends Technology Lawrence Hargrave makes the first stable wing design for a heavier-than-air aircraft Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first documented flight in a powered heavier-than-air aircraft Mass production of automobile Wide popularity of home phonograph Panama Canal is built by the United...

His pupils were eventually to include such composers as Khachaturian, Rodion Shchedrin, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Vissarion Shebalin and many others. The sixth symphony (1921–3, rev. 1947 — this is the version that is almost always played or recorded) his only choral symphony and the longest of what eventually became twenty-seven, sets a brief poem (in Russian though the score allows Latin alternatively — see the American Symphony page below on the origins of the poem, — the soul looking at the body it has abandoned.) The finale contains quite a few quotes — the Dies Irae theme, as well as French revolutionary tunes. Aram Ilich Khachaturian (Armenian: Ô±Ö€Õ¡Õ´ Ô½Õ¡Õ¹Õ¡Õ¿Ö€ÕµÕ¡Õ¶, Russian: Аpaм Ильич XaчaÑ‚ypян) (June 6, 1903 – May 1, 1978) was a composer of classical music. ... Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin (born December 16, 1932) is a Russian composer. ... Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky (Russian Дмитрий Борисович Кабалевский) (1904-1987) was a celebrated Soviet composer. ... Vissarion Shebalin (1902–1963) was born on June 11, 1902 in Omsk. ... 1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1923 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Dies Iræ (Day of Wrath) is a famous Latin hymn written by Thomas of Celano. ...

The next few years, after 1933, showed primarily a retreat from that style, though with — again mostly — no general retreat in craftsmanship. The violin concerto dates from these years — in all he was to write two concerti, one for violin and also a cello concerto (several times recorded by Mstislav Rostropovich), or three if we count the Lyric Concertino of op. 32. Another standout, besides the violin concerto, of the years up to 1940 is the one-movement symphony no. 21 (in F-sharp minor, op. 51) produced in that year and recorded by Morton Gould, a compact and mostly lyrical work, very different in harmonic language from the thirteenth. Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (Мстисла́в Леопо́льдович Ростропо́вич) (born March 27, 1927) is a Russian cellist and conductor, considered to be one of the greatest living cellists. ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Morton Gould (December 10, 1913 – February 21, 1996) was an American pianist and composer. ...

Last ten years and classicizing

The next year contained the Symphony-Ballade (symphony 22) in B minor, quite likely inspired in part by the first few years of the war. The year 1941 also saw an evacuation, along with Prokofiev and Khatchaturian among others, to what were then the Kabardino-Balkar regions. Which is why if you listen to Prokofiev's 2nd string quartet and Myaskovsky's 23^rd symphony or 7^th string quartet you will hear themes in common — they're Kabardinian folk-tunes the composers took down. The sonata-works (symphonies, quartets, ...) written in this period (especially starting with the 24^th symphony, the piano sonatina, the 9^th quartet) while Romantic in tone and style are direct in harmony and development. He does not deny himself a teasingly (?!!) neurotic scherzo, as in his last two string quartets (that in the thirteenth quartet, his last published work, is frantic, and almost chiaroscuro but certainly contrasted...) and the general paring down of means usually allows for direct and reasonably intense expression, as with the cello concerto and second cello sonata, the latter dedicated to Rostropovich. The Kabardino-Balkar Republic or Kabardino-Balkaria (Russian: Кабарди́но-Балка́рская Респу́блика; Kabardian: Къэбэрдей-Балъкъэр Республикэ, Balkar: Къабарты-Малкъар Республика) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic), located in the northern Caucasus. ... An element in art, chiaroscuro (Italian for lightdark) is defined as a very high contrast between light and dark. ...

What there is not, is much experiment, to suggest as with some earlier works that Scriabin or Schoenberg might still be an influence. Some things may work better and some worse in a late style like this. This may have been, of course, and in part or in whole, an attempt to dodge condemnation, especially after the Zhdanov Decree. There was of course no dodging possible, and Myaskovsky was condemned in turn, only rehabilitated posthumously after his death in 1950, leaving an output of eighty-seven published opus numbers spanning some forty years and students with recollections. (There's also a recollection in Testimony, a controversial book of interviews.) Myaskovsky was awarded with the Stalin Prize six times — no other composer was awarded with this prize so often. Andrei Zhdanov Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov (Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Жда́нов) (February 26 [February 14, Old Style], 1896–August 31, 1948) was a Soviet politician and an ally of Joseph Stalin. ... Testimony (ISBN 0879100214) was published in October 1979 by the Russian musicologist Solomon Volkov. ... The USSR State Prize (Russian:Госуда́рственная пре́мия СССР) was the Soviet Unions highest civilian honour. ...

Surname also transliterated to Miaskovski(i.)

Influence

While Myaskovsky had many students — in addition to those listed above there were also Alexander Lokshin, Boris Chaikovskii, and Evgeny Golubev, a teacher and prolific composer whose students included Alfred Schnittke — the degree and nature of his influence on his students is difficult to measure. Even lacking, I believe, is an account of his teaching methods, what and how he taught, or more than brief accounts of his teaching; Shchedrin makes a mention in an interview he did for the American music magazine Fanfare, and that section in Testimony, if authentic, is another. It has been said that the earlier music of Khachaturian, Kabalevsky and other of his students has a Myaskovsky flavor, with this quality decreasing as the composer's own voice emerges (since Myaskovsky's own output is internally diverse such a statement needs further clarification, of course. See this biographical essay on Kabalevsky's music for a case in point) — while some composers, for instance the little-heard Evgeny Golubev, kept something of his teacher's characteristics well into their later music. The latter's sixth piano sonata is dedicated to Myaskovsky's memory. Evgeny Golubev (February 16, 1910, Moscow – December 25, 1988, Moscow) (ru: Эвгэний Голуъэв) was a Russian composer. ... Alfred Garyevich Schnittke (Russian: Альфре́д Га́ррьевич Шни́тке, November 24, 1934 – August 3, 1998) was a Russian- German Jewish composer of classical music. ...

* This information is from Harlow Robinson's biography of Prokofiev, Viking, 1987.

External Links

• A Myaskovsky website
• Myaskovsky opus list
• American Symphony page on Myaskovsky’s 6th Symphony
• detailed article about Myaskovsky and his works

Books

• Aleksei Ikonnikov, Myaskovsky; his life and work. Translated from the Russian and published by Greenwood Press in 1969. Original dates from 1946. Probably no longer available. ISBN 0837121582.
• Harlow Robinson, Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography, ISBN 1555535178 (new paperback edition) — referred to in main text.