- Ella Adayevskaya
Ella Georgiyevna Adayevskaya (née Schultz; _ru. Елла (Елизавета) Георгиевна Адаевская (Шульц); OldStyleDateDY|February 22|1846|February 10 –
July 26 ,1926 ) was a Russiancomposer ,pianist , andethnomusicologist . Adayevskaya was apseudonym ; the composer derived it from the notes A, D, and A, played by thekettledrum inMikhail Glinka 'sopera "Ruslan and Ludmila". She was also known as Elisabeth (von) Schultz-Adaïewsky, as well as by the pseudonym Bertramin.Adaïewsky wrote
piano concertos ,vocal music (including choral settings of the Russian Orthodox liturgy), and twoopera s. She also edited a collection of Italian dance songs and published her writings onfolk music and themusic of ancient Greece .Life
Born in
St. Petersburg onFebruary 22 ,1846 as Elisabeth von Schultz, Adayevskaya began taking piano lessons withAdolf Henselt at the age of eight, and also studied withNicolas von Martinoff . From 1862 until 1866 she continued her studies withAnton Rubinstein andAlexander Dreyschock at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Her other teachers includedAlexander Famintzin ,Nikolaus Zaremba , andIgnaz Vojácek .She also studied composition with N. I. Zaremba and A. S. Famintsïn, and in about 1870 began writing music for the Imperial Chapel Choir. Two operas soon followed. The first, titled variously "Neprigozhaya" ("The Homely Girl") and "Doch' boyarina" ("The Boyar's Daughter"), was a one-act piece produced in 1873. The more ambitious "Zarya svobodï" ("The Dawn of Freedom") followed in 1877; this four-act work was dedicated by the composer to
tsar Alexander II, but was rejected by the censor because it depicted a scene of a peasant uprising. Adayevskaya wrote one more opera, the comic "Solomonida Saburova", but this remained in manuscript. Later, she embarked on several solo concert tours of Europe and settled inVenice in 1882. In 1881, she composed her "Greek Sonata" forclarinet andpiano . This piece, which usedquarter tone s, was inspired by the composer's study of the music ofancient Greece , theGreek Orthodox Church and Slavicfolk music .In 1882 she went to
Italy , collected national songs (among others waltz songs of the Resianer (Rhaetians ) in 5-4 time). [A. Eaglefield-Hull, "A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians" (Dent, London 1924), 6.]On the invitation of
Franziska von Loë , she moved toNeuwied , on the Rhine, in 1909.Together they joined the more liberal-minded artistic circle formed around the poetCarmen Sylvia . Adayevskaya's musical pursuits eventually came to be dominated by folk music research, which resulted in a substantial output of publications on the subject. Adayevksaya died inBonn in 1926. She was buried in theAlter Friedhof Bonn .Works
Operas
*"Neprigozhaya" ("The Homely Girl")/"Doch' boyarina" ("The Boyar's Daughter"), 1873
*"Zarya svobodï" ("The Dawn of Freedom"), 1877
*"Solomonida Saburova", unperformedVocal music
"Yolka" ("The
Fir Tree "), cantata, c. 1870; alsoother choral works, songsChamber music
"Svabednï khor" ("Wedding Chorus") overture, c. 1870"Greek Sonata" for clarinet and piano, 1881piano pieces
Notes
References
*Brown, Malcolm Hamrick. "Adayevskaya (née Schultz), Ella Georgiyevna." "The
Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers ",Julie Anne Sadie andRhian Samuel , eds. (New York ;London :W. W. Norton & Company , 1995), p. 506.
*Eaglefield-Hull, A., "A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians" (Dent, London 1924), 6.Further reading
*Hüsken, Renate. "Ella Adaïewsky (1846-1926): Pianistin – Komponistin – Musikwissenschaftlerin". Cologne: Dohr, 2005. ISBN 3-936655-18-9.
External links
* [http://www.adaiewsky.de/ Biographer Renate Hüsken's website on Adaïewsky (in German)]
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