Edison Denisov
Encyclopedia
Tomsk
Tomsk is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Tom River. One of the oldest towns in Siberia, Tomsk celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2004...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
— November 24, 1996, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n composer of so called "Underground
Underground music
Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...
" — "Anti-Collectivist", "alternative" or "nonconformist" division in the Soviet music.
Biography
Denisov was born in TomskTomsk
Tomsk is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Tom River. One of the oldest towns in Siberia, Tomsk celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2004...
, Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
into the family of a radio physicist, who gave him the very unusual first name Edison, in honour of the great American inventor
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
. He studied mathematics before deciding to spend his life composing. This decision was enthusiastically supported by Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
, who gave him lessons in composition.
In 1951-56 Denisov studied at the Moscow Conservatory
Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...
— composition with Vissarion Shebalin
Vissarion Shebalin
Vissarion Yakovlevich Shebalin was a Soviet composer.-Biography:Shebalin was born in Omsk, where his parents were school teachers. He studied in the musical college in Omsk. He was 20 years old when, following the advice of his professor, he went to Moscow to show his first compositions to...
, orchestration with Nikolai Rakov, analysis with Viktor Zuckerman and piano with Vladimir Belov
Vladimir Belov (Pianist)
Vladimir Belov was a Russian pianist and teacher.A student of Felix Blumenfeld, he launched a successful career as a concert pianist. After a traumatic onstage blackout, he decided to quit performing and devote himself solely to teaching...
. In 1956-59 he composed the opera Ivan-Soldat (Soldier Ivan) in three acts based on Russian folk fairy tales.
He began his own study of scores, which were difficult to obtain in the USSR at that time, including music ranging from Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
and Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
to Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
and Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
. He wrote a series of articles giving a detailed analysis of different aspects of contemporary compositional techniques and at same time actively experimented as a composer, trying to find his own way.
After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory, he taught orchestration and later composition there. Among his pupils were composers Dmitri Smirnov
Dmitry Nikolayevich Smirnov (composer)
Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov is a Russian and British composer.-Biography:He was born in Minsk into a family of opera singers and he studied at the Moscow Conservatory 1967-1972 under Nikolai Sidelnikov, Yuri Kholopov and Edison Denisov. He also studied privately with Webern's pupil Philip...
, Elena Firsova
Elena Firsova
Elena Olegovna Firsova is a Russian composer.-Life:She was born in Leningrad into the family of physicists Oleg Firsov and Viktoria Lichko. She studied music in Moscow with Alexander Pirumov, Yuri Kholopov, Edison Denisov and Philip Herschkowitz...
, Vladimir Tarnopolsky
Vladimir Tarnopolsky
Vladimir Grigoryevich Tarnopolsky is a Russian composer.-Biography:Tarnopolsky studied composition at the Moscow Conservatory with Nikolai Sidelnikov and Edison Denisov and music theory with Yuri Kholopov. He graduated from the conservatory in 1978, and completed post-graduate studies in 1980...
, Sergei Pavlenko
Sergei Pavlenko
Sergei Pavlenko is a portrait painter of Russian origin and now based in Britain.-Biography:Pavlenko graduated in Painting from St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts in 1988...
, Ivan Sokolov
Ivan Glebovich Sokolov
Ivan Glebovich Sokolov is a Russian-born composer and pianist, currently living in Germany.After graduating from Moscow Conservatory in the early 80s, he taught composition and orchestral score reading there, while also promoting new music in concerts in and around Moscow...
, Yuri Kasparov, Dmitri Kapyrin and Alexander Shchetinsky.
In 1979 he was blacklisted as one of the "Khrennikov's Seven
Khrennikov's Seven
Khrennikov’s Seven was a group of seven Russian Soviet composers denounced at the Sixth Congress of the Composers' Union by its leader Tikhon Khrennikov for the unapproved participation in some festivals of Soviet music in the West. Khrennikov called their music "pointlessness... and noisy mud...
" at the Sixth Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers
Union of Soviet Composers
The USSR Union of Composers or Union of Composers of the USSR , , was a professional organisation of composers in the Soviet Union...
for unapproved participation in some festivals of Soviet music in the West.
Denisov became a leader of the ACM - Association for Contemporary Music
ACM - Association for Contemporary Music
Association for Contemporary Music was an alternative organization of Russian composers interested in avant-garde music. It was founded by Nikolai Roslavets in 1923. ACM ran concert series and published magazines promoting the modernist music of Mahler, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern, Krenek, and...
reestablished in Moscow in 1990. Later Denisov moved to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where after an accident and long illness he died in a Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
hospital in 1996.
Music
The cycle for soprano and chamber ensemble Le soleil des Incas (1964), setting the poems by Gabriela MistralGabriela Mistral
Gabriela Mistral was the pseudonym of Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga, a Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist who was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945...
and dedicated to Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, gave him an international recognition. This happened after the series of successful performances of the work in Darmstadt and Paris (1965). Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
liked the piece, discovering the "remarkable talent" of its composer. However, the piece was harshly criticised by the Union of Soviet Composers
Union of Soviet Composers
The USSR Union of Composers or Union of Composers of the USSR , , was a professional organisation of composers in the Soviet Union...
for its "western influences", "erudition instead of creativity", and "total composer's arbitrary" (Tikhon Khrennikov
Tikhon Khrennikov
Tikhon Nikolayevich Khrennikov was a Russian and Soviet composer, pianist, leader of the Union of Soviet Composers, who was also known for his political activities...
). After that, performances of his works were often banned in the Soviet Union.
Later he wrote a flute concerto for Aurèle Nicolet
Aurèle Nicolet
Aurèle Nicolet is a Swiss flautist. He is considered as one of the world's best flute players of the late twentieth century. He has performed in various international concerts. A number of composers wrote music especially for him, such composers include Toru Takemitsu, György Ligeti, Krzysztof...
, a violin concerto for Gidon Kremer
Gidon Kremer
Gidon Kremer is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 he left the USSR and settled in Germany.-Biography:Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish and Latvian-Swedish origins. He began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather,...
, works for the oboist Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger (born 21 May 1939 is a Swiss oboist, composer and conductor.-Biography:He was born in Langenthal, Switzerland, and began his musical education at the conservatories of Bern and Basel. He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez...
, clarinettist Eduard Brunner
Eduard Brunner
Eduard Brunner is a classical clarinetist. He began his musical education in Basel , where he was born, continuing his studies at the Paris Conservatoire with Louis Cahuzac...
and a sonata for alto saxophone
Alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
and piano for Jean-Marie Londeix
Jean-Marie Londeix
Jean-Marie Londeix is a French saxophonist born in Libourne who studied saxophone, piano, harmony and chamber music.Jean-Marie Londeix studied saxophone with the legendary Marcel Mule at the Paris Conservatory. He also studied with Fernand Oubradous and Norbert Dufourcq, among others...
, that became highly popular among saxophone players.
His sombre but striking Requiem
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...
, setting a multi-lingual text (English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
) based on works by Francisco Tanzer, was given its first performance in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
in 1980.
Among his major works are the operas L'écume des jours
L'écume des jours (opera)
L'écume des jours is an opera in three acts by the Russian composer Edison Denisov. The French text is by the composer based on the novel of the same title by Boris Vian...
after Boris Vian
Boris Vian
Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
(1981), Quatre Filles after Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
(1986) and ballet Confession after Alfred de Musset
Alfred de Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.Along with his poetry, he is known for writing La Confession d'un enfant du siècle from 1836.-Biography:Musset was born on 11 December 1810 in Paris...
.
Honours and awards
- People's Artist of the Russian FederationPeople's Artist of the Russian FederationPeople's Artist of the Russian Federation .The honorary title "People's Artist of the Russian Federation" is given not earlier than five years after the honorary title "Honored Artist of Russia" or "Honored Art Worker of Russia" the important artist who created extraordinary works of painting,...
- Honoured Artist of the RSFSR
- Chevalier of the Legion of Honour
- Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters
Selected works
- 1956-9 Soldier Ivan ( opera in three acts after motifs from Russian folk fairy tales
- 1964 Le soleil des Incas (Солнце инков — The Sun of Incas), text by Gabriela MistralGabriela MistralGabriela Mistral was the pseudonym of Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga, a Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist who was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945...
for soprano, flute, oboe, horn, trumpet, two pianos, percussion, violin and cello - 1964 Italian Songs, text by Alexander BlokAlexander BlokAlexander Alexandrovich Blok was a Russian lyrical poet.-Life and career:Blok was born in Saint Petersburg, into a sophisticated and intellectual family. Some of his relatives were literary men, his father being a law professor in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather the rector of Saint Petersburg...
for soprano, flute, horn, violin and harpsichord - 1966 Les pleurs (Плачи — Lamentations), text of Russian folksongs for soprano, piano and three percussionists
- 1968 Ode (in Memory of Che GuevaraChe GuevaraErnesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
) for clarinet, piano and percussion - 1968 Musique Romantique (Романтическая музыка — Romantic Music) for oboe, harp and string trio
- 1968 Autumn (Осень) after Velemir Khlebnikov for thirteen solo voices
- 1969 String Trio
- 1969 Wind Quintet
- 1969 Silhouettes for flute, two pianos and percussion
- 1969 Chant des Oiseaux (Пение птиц) for prepared piano (or harpsichord) and tape
- 1969 DSCH for clarinet, trombone, cello and piano
- 1970 Two Songs after poems by Ivan Bunin for soprano and piano
- 1970 Peinture (Живопись — Painting) for orchestra
- 1970 Sonate for alto saxophone and piano
- 1971 Piano Trio
- 1972 Cello Concerto
- 1973 La vie en rouge (Жизнь в красном цвете — The Life in Red), text by Boris VianBoris VianBoris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
for solo voice, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and percussion - 1974 Piano Concerto
- 1974 Signes en blanc (Знаки на белом — The Sighs on White) for piano
- 1975 Flute Concerto
- 1977 Violin Concerto
- 1977 Concerto Piccolo for saxophone and six percussionists
- 1980 Requiem after liturgian texts and poems by Francisco Tanzer for soprano, tenor, mixed chorus and orchestra
- 1981 L'écume des joursL'écume des jours (opera)L'écume des jours is an opera in three acts by the Russian composer Edison Denisov. The French text is by the composer based on the novel of the same title by Boris Vian...
(Пена дней — The Foam of Days), an opera after Boris VianBoris VianBoris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their... - 1982 Tod ist ein langer Schlaf (Смерть — это долгий сон — Death is a Long Sleep) — Variations on Haydn's Canon for cello and orchestra
- 1982 Chamber Symphony No. 1
- 1982 Concerto for bassoon, cello and orchestra
- 1983 Five Etudes for Solo Bassoon
- 1984 Confession (Исповедь), a ballet in three acts after Alfred de MussetAlfred de MussetAlfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.Along with his poetry, he is known for writing La Confession d'un enfant du siècle from 1836.-Biography:Musset was born on 11 December 1810 in Paris...
- 1985 Three Pictures after Paul KleePaul KleePaul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
for viola, oboe, horn, piano, vibraphone and double bass - 1986 Quatre Filles (Четыре девушки — The Four Girls), an opera in one act after Pablo PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
- 1986 Viola Concerto
- 1986 Oboe Concerto
- 1987 Symphony No. 1
- 1989 Clarinet Concerto
- 1989 Four Poems after G. de Nerval for voice, flute and piano
- 1991 Guitar Concerto
- 1992 History of Life and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christus according to St. Matthew for bass, tenor, chorus and orchestra
- 1993 Sonata for clarinet and piano
- 1993 Concerto for flute, vibraphone, harpsichord and string orchestra
- 1993 Completion of Debussy's opera Rodrigue et ChimèneRodrigue et ChimèneRodrigue et Chimène is an unfinished opera in three acts by Claude Debussy. The French libretto, by Catulle Mendès, is based on the plays Las Mocedades del Cid by Guillén de Castro y Bellvís and Corneille's Le Cid which deal with the legend of El Cid...
- 1994 Chamber Symphony No. 2
- 1994 Sonata for alto saxophone and cello
- 1995 Morning Dream after seven poems of Rose AusländerRose AusländerRose Ausländer , maiden name Rosalie Beatrice Scherzer, was a Jewish German- and English language poet. She was born in Bucovina, and lived in U.S.A, Romania, and Germany....
for soprano, mixed chorus and orchestra - 1995 Choruses for Medea for chorus and ensemble
- 1995 Completion of SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's opera-oratorio Lazarus oder Die Feier der Auferstehung (Лазарь и торжество Воскрешения) D689 - 1995 Trio for flute, bassoon and piano
- 1995 Des ténèbres à la lumière (From Dusk to Light) for accordion. Publ.: Paris, Leduc, 1996. Dur. 15'.
- 1996 Symphony No. 2 (March)
- 1996 Three Cadenzas for Mozart's Concerto for flute and harp (April–May)
- 1996 Sonata for two flutes (May)
- 1996 Concerto for flute and clarinet with orchestra (July)
- 1996 Femme et oiseaux (The Woman and the Birds) homage to Joan MiróJoan MiróJoan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...
for piano, string quartet and woodwind quartet (July–August) - 1996 Avant le coucher du soleil for alto flute and vibraphone (the last work, completed 16 August).
Quotations
- "The Reason for the longevity of great creations of Guillaume de Machaut, Claudio Monteverdi, Heinrich Schütz and J. S. Bach is not only in the information placed in them, but also in their construction infinitely perfect in its beauty" . (Cited from E. Denisov: Contemporary Music and the Problem of the Evolution of Composers’ Technology, Moscow, Soviet composer, 1986, p. 145.)
- "Beauty is the principal factor in my work. This means not only beautiful sound, which, naturally, has nothing to do with outward prettiness, but beauty here means beautiful ideas as understood by mathematicians, or by BachJohann Sebastian BachJohann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
and WebernAnton WebernAnton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
." - "The most important element of my music is a lyricism."
- "I find the serialist procedures very promising, but in my work I strive for the synthesis and use tonality, modality, aleatory and other expressive media."
- "I hate 'scholarly' music. Music has to be 'alive' but not scholarly." ("Neizvestnyi Denisov" – "Unknown Denisov", Moscow, Kompozitor, 1997, p. 48)
- "I love to write quiet and beautiful music". (Edison Denisov)
External links
- Edison Denisov at "Wikilivres"
- Edison Denisov at "Wanadoo"
- Brief bio at "Boosey & Hawkes"
- (French)
- Composer of Light (English)
- Fragments on Denisov (Russian)
- The texts of his vocal works at "Recmusic"
- Interview with Edison Denisov in Ruza Composers Colony near Moscow, July 1988
- Interview with Edison Denisov by Bruce Duffie, May 16, 1991