Alexander Sergeivich Famintsin (

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: Александр Сергеевич Фаминцын) (1841-1896) was a Russian musical writer,

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

and

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Saint Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory () (formerly known as the Petrograd Conservatory and Leningrad Conservatory) is a school of music in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty member ...

, pupil of

Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano in the Co ...

Moritz Hauptmann Moritz Hauptmann (13 October 1792, Dresden – 3 January 1868, Leipzig), was a German music theorist, teacher and composer. His principal theoretical work is the 1853 ''Die Natur der Harmonie und der Metrik'' explores numerous topics, particu ...

and

Ernst Richter Ernst Friedrich Eduard Richter (24 October 18089 April 1879), was a German musical theorist and composer, born at Großschönau, Saxony. He first studied music at Zittau, and afterwards at Leipzig, where he attained so high a reputation that in ...

and friend of

Alexander Serov Alexander Nikolayevich Serov (, – ) was a Russian composer and music critic. He is notable as one of the most important music critics in Russia during the 1850s and 1860s and as the most significant Russian composer in the period betwee ...

Life

Alexander Sergeivich, of aristocratic descent, was born at Kalouga, Oct. 24 (O.S.), 1841. He was educated in St. Petersburg, where he studied with Jean Vogt, and on leaving the university spent two years in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, where he studied theory under Hauptmann, Richter, and Moscheles. On his return to Russia he was appointed professor of musical history and aesthetics at the newly opened Conservatoire. He also was secretary of the Russian Music Society. He resigned from the conservatory in 1872, in order to devote himself to composition. As a critic he made himself notorious by his attacks upon the new national school of music. A.F. Famintsin was one of the commission members in the deceleration of independence of Ukrainian language in 1906.

Works

Operas

Famitsin composed two weak but pretentious operas: ''

Sardanapalus According to the Greek writer Ctesias, Sardanapalus ( ; ), sometimes spelled Sardanapallus (), was the last king of Assyria, although in fact Aššur-uballiṭ II (612–605 BC) holds that distinction. Ctesias' book ''Persica'' is lost, but we ...

'', given in St. Petersburg in 1875, but with so little success that he made no effort to produce his second opera, ''Uriel Acosta''. His instrumental works include three

quartet In music, a quartet (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations of four instruments in chamber music is the string quartet. String quar ...

s, a

pianoforte A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an action mechanism where hammers strike strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a chromatic scale in equal temp ...

quintet A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...

, and a 'Russian Rhapsody' for violin and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

Books

Two books of 'Songs for Russian Children' have outlived his more ambitious attempts. As a musical antiquary he did his best work in the following publications: * ''Russian Mummers and Gleemen'' (1889) * ''The Ancient Indo-Chinese Scale in Europe and Asia'' * ''Russian Folk-Songs'' (1890) * ''The Gussies: a Russian National Instrument'' (1890) * The Dombra and Kindred Instruments (1891). He also translated

Adolf Bernhard Marx Friedrich Heinrich Adolf Bernhard Marx . B. Marx(15 May 1795, Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Halle – 17 May 1866, Berlin) was a German people, German Music theory, music theorist, Music criticism, critic, and musicologist. Life Marx was the son of ...

's ''Allgemeine Musiklehre'' and Richter's ''Harmonielehre'' into Russian.

References

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Famitsin, Alexander People from Kaluga Nobility from the Russian Empire 1841 births 1896 deaths Musicologists from the Russian Empire 19th-century musicologists Music critics from the Russian Empire Academic staff of Saint Petersburg Conservatory 19th-century composers from the Russian Empire Russian translators