Andrejs Jurjāns

Andrejs Jurjans
Born (1856-09-30)September 30, 1856
Ergli, Latvia
Died September 28, 1922(1922-09-28) (aged 65)
Riga, Latvia
Alma mater St. Petersburg Conservatory
Occupation Composer, musicologist

Andrejs Jurjāns (September 30, 1856 —September 28, 1822) was a Latvian composer and musicologist. He was Latvia's first classical composer, having composed instrumental pieces and cantatas. Jurjans also studied and collected more than 6000 pieces of Latvian folklore, among them 3000 songs, which he compiled in six books, called Latvju tautas mūzikas materiāli (Materials of Latvian Folk Music).[1]

Biography

Andrejs Jurjans was born in 1856 in Ergli. In 1875, he studied music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, having composition, organ and French horn classes with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Louis Homilius and Friedrich Homilius.

In 1877, he published his first composition. From 1882 to 1916 Jurjans taught music in the Russian Imperial Music Society Conservatory in Kharkiv, Ukraine.[2] At the same time, he took an active part in Latvian musical life as a collector, researcher and arranger of national folk songs. His five-volume work, "Materials of the Latvian folk music," collects about 2,000 tunes.[3] Jurjans laid the foundation for all further research in this area. Together with his brothers, he regularly took part in the Latvian Song Festival.

Around 1910 Jurjāns hearing became weaker. In 1916 he was unable to finish the teacher's work. Seriously ill in 1920, he returns to Latvia, where he dies in 1922.

After the death of Jurjans, the 6th part of his work was published posthumously by his brother, Pavuls.

Compositions

Jurjans composed 15 symphonic works, 5 vocal and instrumental works , as well as many solo songs, choir and folk songs. He is the first person to detail the Latvian folk song characteristics, thus to turn the public's attention in Latvian and Russian folklore common features. Jurjāns often used folk song intonations and fragments in his compositions A.Jurjāns called the newer Latvian composers to learn from the Russian classical music - especially from Mikhail Glinka.

Selected folk songs

Selected choir songs

Symphonic music

References

  1. ↑ "Jurjans, Andrejs (1856 - 1922)". Musica Baltica. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  2. ↑ Švalbe, Erika Lynn (December 1997). "Andrejs Jurjāns as Symbol of Latvian Identity: Native Folk Songs in his Large-Scale Symphonic Works". UNT Digital Library. University of North Trxas. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  3. ↑ "Reading Europe - Materials of Latvian Folk Music: Vol. 5". www.theeuropeanlibrary.org. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
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