Ernest Pingoud ([]; 14 October 1887 – 1 June 1942) was a Finland, Finnish composer.

Life

Born in Saint Petersburg to a German-Finnish mother and a father of French Huguenots, Huguenot ancestry, Pingoud was a pupil of the Russian composers

Anton Rubinstein Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the S ...

Alexander Glazunov Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov; ger, Glasunow (, 10 August 1865 – 21 March 1936) was a Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He was director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 ...

and

Nikolai 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 ...

at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He also took private lessons with Alexander Siloti, who had come to know the family when he became a neighbour of their summer residence at Tikkala Manor near Viipuri on the

Karelian Isthmus The Karelian Isthmus (russian: Карельский перешеек, Karelsky peresheyek; fi, Karjalankannas; sv, Karelska näset) is the approximately stretch of land, situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern R ...

. In 1906, he went to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

to study with the music theorist

Hugo Riemann Karl Wilhelm Julius Hugo Riemann (18 July 1849 – 10 July 1919) was a German musicologist and composer who was among the founders of modern musicology. The leading European music scholar of his time, he was active and influential as both a mu ...

and the composer Max Reger, who considered him one of his best pupils. Perhaps on his father's instructions, Pingoud also studied non-musical subjects, including philosophy and literature, as well as mining and metallurgy, at Jena, Munich, Bonn and Berlin. He chose to present a thesis on

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...

, which for some reason was never approved. In 1908, while still a student, Pingoud began a writing career by becoming musical correspondent for the ''St. Petersburger Zeitung''; he held the post until 1911 and then subsequently contributed concert and opera reviews from St. Petersburg until 1914. After the revolution, Pingoud moved to Helsinki where he lived for the rest of his life except for brief periods spent in

Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...

and

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

. Besides his composing, he contributed to several newspapers and worked as an administrator of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and as director of a concert agency. His first orchestral concert, held in Helsinki in 1918, heralded the arrival of a modernist musical aesthetic in Finland. The music shocked the audience, much like their counterparts at the notorious 1913 premiere of Stravinsky's '' The Rite of Spring'' in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. Stylistically, the works showed the influence of

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic music, Romantic and early Modernism (music), modern eras, he has been descr ...

, Alexander Scriabin and

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...

. Hostility in Finland towards his music resulted in a string of pejorative labels, including "ultra-modernism" and even "musical Bolshevism", although his command of orchestration did eventually receive some critical acknowledgement. His open rejection of Finnish nationalism may have been responsible for some of the disapproval he encountered (unlike other Finnish composers of the time he avoided composing works inspired by the

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies an ...

). Pingoud committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

by throwing himself under a train in Helsinki in 1942.

Style

Pingoud's preferred mode of musical expression was orchestral, especially in

symphonic poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...

s following the example of Scriabin His three piano concertos seem to look more to the models of

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

and

Sergei Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...

. Although the concision of his ''Fünf Sonette'' has been compared to early works of the Second Viennese School, his musical language remained predominantly tonal. He made extensive use of the Prometheus chord and the octatonic collection.

Recordings

A CD containing some of Pingoud's symphonic poems has been recorded for Ondine by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo.

Works

Solo Voice * Barcarole (Venelaulu) * Berceuse (Kehtolaulu) Op. 11a No 3 * En blomma Op. 11a No 1 * Färden i storm (Matka myrskyssä) Op. 11a No 4 * Hjärtan fjärran och hjärtan nära... * Konvallerna * Ninon * På kvällen * Serenad i Toledo (Serenadi Toledossa) * Serenad (Serenadi) * Tanke * Tystnad * Törnekronan (Piikkikruunu) * Vattenplask Op. 11a No 2 * Återkomsten (Paluu) Orchestral *''Prologue'', op. 4 *''Confessions'', op. 5 *''La dernière aventure de Pierrot'', op. 6 *''Le fétiche'', op. 7 *Piano Concerto No. 1, op. 8 (1917) *''Hymne à la nuît'', op. 9 *''Danse macabre'', op. 10 *''Cinq sonettes pour l'orchestre de la chambre'', op. 11 *''Un chevalier sans peur et sans reproche'', op. 12 *''Mysterium'', op. 13 *''Flambeaux éteints'', op. 14 *''Chantecler'', op. 15 *''Le sacrifice'', op. 17 *Symphony No. 1, op. 18 (1920) *Symphony No. 2, op. 20 (1921) *''Le prophète'', op. 21 *Piano Concerto No. 2, op. 22 (1921) *Piano Concerto No. 3, op. 23 (1922) *Symphony No. 3, op. 27 (1923-7) *''Cor ardens'' (1927) *''Narcissous'' (1930) *''Le chant de l’espace'' (1931/38) *''La flamme éternelle'' (1936) *''La face d’une grande ville'' (1936/37)

References

External links

Collected Solo Songs published by Edition Tilli Ltd.Profile from the Finnish Music Information Centre (in English)''La face d'une grande ville'' (''Suurkaupungin kasvot'') by Pingoud, performed by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pingoud, Ernest 1887 births 1942 suicides Finnish classical composers 20th-century classical composers Musicians from Saint Petersburg Suicides by train Suicides in Finland Finnish people of French descent Finnish male classical composers 20th-century Russian male musicians 20th-century Finnish composers