Andrejs Jurjāns (September 30, 1856 – September 28, 1922) was a Latvian composer and

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

. He was

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

's first classical composer, having composed instrumental pieces and cantatas. Jurjāns 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).

Biography

Andrejs Jurjāns was born in 1856 in

Ērgļi Ērgļi is a small town in Ērgļi Parish, Madona Municipality in the Vidzeme region of Latvia on the banks of the Ogre river. It serves as the administrative center for Ērgļi Parish. Ērgļi had 2,769 residents as of 2017. History Ērg� ...

. Active is music from a young age, Jurjāns decides to become a musician after participating as a choir singer in the First Latvian Song Festival in 1873. In 1875, he studied music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, attending

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature * Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

, organ and

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

classes with

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsk ...

and German organists

Louis Homilius Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis ( ...

and Friedrich Homilius. In 1877, he published his first composition. From 1882 to 1916 Jurjāns taught music in the Russian Imperial Music Society Conservatory in

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine. Jurjāns laid the foundation for further research in this area. Together with his brothers and musicians

Juris The Juris were a tribe of South American Indigenous people, formerly occupying the country between the rivers Içá (lower Putumayo) and Yapura, north-western Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Po ...

, Pāvuls and Pēteris he regularly took part in the Latvian Song Festival as the Jurjāns' French horn quartet. Around 1910 Jurjāns' hearing became weaker and in 1916 he retires from his teaching career. Seriously ill, in 1920 he returns to Latvia, where he dies in 1922. After the death of Jurjāns, the 6th part of his work was published posthumously by his brother Pāvuls.

Compositions

Jurjāns 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 attempting to turn the public's attention to common features in Latvian and Russian folklore. Jurjāns often used folk song intonations and fragments in his compositions. Jurjāns called on the new generation of Latvian composers to learn from Russian classical music, namely, from the work of composer

Mikhail Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka ( rus, link=no, Михаил Иванович Глинка, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka., mʲɪxɐˈil ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡlʲinkə, Ru-Mikhail-Ivanovich-Glinka.ogg; ) was the first Russian composer to gain wide recogni ...

Selected folk songs

* ''"Pūt, vējiņi"'' * ''"Čuči, mana līgaviņa"'' * ''"Kur tu skriesi, vanadziņi"'' * ''"Es karāi aiziedams"'' * ''"Aiz upītes es uzaugu"'' * ''"Tautu meita, melnacīte"'' * ''"Stādīju ieviņu"'' * ''"Tautiešam roku devu"'' * ''"Kur gāji, puisīti", etc.''

Selected choir songs

* "Nevis slinkojot un pūstot" * "Lūk, roze zied" * "Ozoldēli, liepas meitas" * "Nakts dziesma" * "Dievozolu trijotne", etc.

Symphonic music

* ''Symphonic allegro'' (1880) * ''Latvju dejas (Latvian Dances)'' suite (1884) * ''Tēvijai'' (To the Fatherland) cantata (1888)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jurjans, Andrejs 1856 births 1922 deaths Latvian composers Latvian musicologists Saint Petersburg Conservatory alumni 19th-century musicologists