Ella Adayevskaya
Encyclopedia
Ella Georgiyevna Adayevskaya was a Russia
n composer
, pianist
, and ethnomusicologist. Adayevskaya was a pseudonym
; the composer derived it from the notes A
, D
, and A, played by the kettledrum in Mikhail Glinka
's opera
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 two opera
s. She also edited a collection of Italian dance songs and published her writings on folk music
and the music of ancient Greece
.
at the age of eight, and also studied with Nicolas von Martinoff. From 1862 until 1866 she continued her studies with Anton Rubinstein
and Alexander Dreyschock
at the St. Petersburg Conservatory
. Her other teachers included Alexander Famintsyn, Nikolai Zaremba
, and Ignaz Vojácek.
She also studied composition with Zaremba and Famintsyn, 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 svobody (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 in Venice
in 1882. In 1881, she composed her Greek Sonata for clarinet
and piano
. This piece, which used quarter tone
s, was inspired by the composer's study of the music of ancient Greece
, the Greek Orthodox Church
and Slavic
folk music
.
In 1882 she went to Italy
, collected national songs (among others waltz songs of the Resianer (Rhaetians) in 5-4 time).
On the invitation of Franziska von Loë, she moved to Neuwied
, on the Rhine, in 1909. Together they joined the more liberal-minded artistic circle formed around the poet Carmen Sylva. 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 in Bonn
in 1926. She was buried in the Alter Friedhof Bonn.
other choral works, songs
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
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, and ethnomusicologist. Adayevskaya was a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
; the composer derived it from the notes A
A (musical note)
La or A is the sixth note of the solfège. "A" is generally used as a standard for tuning. When the orchestra tunes, the oboe plays an "A" and the rest of the instruments tune to match that pitch. Every string instrument in the orchestra has an A string, from which each player can tune the rest of...
, D
D (musical note)
D is a musical note a whole tone above C, and is known as Re within the solfege system.When calculated in equal temperament with a reference of A above middle C as 440 Hz, the frequency of middle D is approximately 293.665 Hz. See pitch for a discussion of historical variations in...
, and A, played by the kettledrum in Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka , was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music...
's opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
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
Vocal music
Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...
(including choral
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
settings of the Russian Orthodox liturgy
Divine Liturgy
Divine Liturgy is the common term for the Eucharistic service of the Byzantine tradition of Christian liturgy. As such, it is used in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. Armenian Christians, both of the Armenian Apostolic Church and of the Armenian Catholic Church, use the same term...
), and two opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s. She also edited a collection of Italian dance songs and published her writings on folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and the music of ancient Greece
Music of Ancient Greece
The music of ancient Greece was almost universally present in society, from marriages and funerals to religious ceremonies, theatre, folk music and the ballad-like reciting of epic poetry. It thus played an integral role in the lives of ancient Greeks...
.
Life
Born in St. Petersburg on 22 February 1846 as Elizaveta von Schultz, Adayevskaya began taking piano lessons with Adolf von HenseltAdolf von Henselt
Adolf von Henselt was a German composer and pianist.-Life:Henselt was born at Schwabach, in Bavaria. At the age of three he began to learn the violin, and at five the piano under Frau von Fladt...
at the age of eight, and also studied with Nicolas von Martinoff. From 1862 until 1866 she continued her studies with Anton Rubinstein
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...
and Alexander Dreyschock
Alexander Dreyschock
Alexander Dreyschock was a Czech pianist and composer.Born in Žáky in Bohemia, his musical talents were first noticed at age of eight, and at age fifteen he travelled to Prague to study piano and composition with Václav Tomášek...
at the St. Petersburg Conservatory
Saint Petersburg Conservatory
The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students.-History:...
. Her other teachers included Alexander Famintsyn, Nikolai Zaremba
Nikolai Zaremba
Nikolai Ivanovich Zaremba was a Russian musical theorist and composer.Zaremba was born in the province of Vitebsk in 1821. He was one of the original professors at the St. Petersburg Conservatory when it was founded in 1862. In 1867, he succeeded Anton Rubinstein as the director of the...
, and Ignaz Vojácek.
She also studied composition with Zaremba and Famintsyn, 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 svobody (The Dawn of Freedom) followed in 1877; this four-act work was dedicated by the composer to Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
Alexander II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
, but was rejected by the censor
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
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 in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
in 1882. In 1881, she composed her Greek Sonata for clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. This piece, which used quarter tone
Quarter tone
A quarter tone , is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale, an interval about half as wide as a semitone, which is half a whole tone....
s, was inspired by the composer's study of the music of ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, the Greek Orthodox Church
Greek Orthodox Church
The Greek Orthodox Church is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity sharing a common cultural tradition whose liturgy is also traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament...
and Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
.
In 1882 she went to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, collected national songs (among others waltz songs of the Resianer (Rhaetians) in 5-4 time).
On the invitation of Franziska von Loë, she moved to Neuwied
Neuwied
Neuwied is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the right bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne...
, on the Rhine, in 1909. Together they joined the more liberal-minded artistic circle formed around the poet Carmen Sylva. 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 in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
in 1926. She was buried in the Alter Friedhof Bonn.
Operas
- Neprigozhaya (The Homely Girl)/Doch' boyarina (The Boyar's Daughter), 1873
- Zarya svobodï (The Dawn of Freedom), 1877
- Solomonida Saburova, unperformed
Vocal music
- Yolka (The Fir Tree), cantata, c. 1870; also
other choral works, songs
Chamber music
- Svabednï khor (Wedding Chorus) overture, c. 1870
- Greek Sonata for clarinet and piano, 1881
- piano pieces
Further reading
- Hüsken, Renate. Ella Adaïewsky (1846-1926): Pianistin – Komponistin – Musikwissenschaftlerin. Cologne: Dohr, 2005. ISBN 3-936655-18-9.