Nikolai Titov (composer)

Nicolai Alexeyevich Titov (Russian: Николай Алексеевич Титов, born St. Petersburg, May 10, 1800 - St. Petersburg, December 22, 1875) was a Russian composer.

Titov's was a musical family; his father, Alexey Nikolayevich Titov, was a composer, as were his uncle Sergei Titov (1770–1825) and his cousin Nicolai Sergeyevich Titov (1798–1843). Nicolai was never formally trained in music, and held a position in the Russian military from 1817 to 1867. He first composed in 1819, and later studied, though never formally, with Russian operatic composers Glinka and Dargomyzhsky.

Titov composed works for piano and marches, but he is best known for his output of some 60 songs, for which he would be dubbed "the father of Russian song".

Sources

• Don Randel, The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music. Harvard, 1996, p. 919.