Aleksandr Viktorovich Zatayevich (russian: Алекса́ндр Ви́кторович Затае́вич; 6 December 1936) was a Russian music

ethnographer Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

and exponent of

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

n folk music.

Life

Zatayevich was born on 20 March 1869 in

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, p=ɐˈrʲɵl, lit. ''eagle''), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast situated on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow. It is part of the Central Fed ...

. He graduated from the Oryol military gymnasium in 1886. He was largely self-taught in

music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

. He lived in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, and

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, then finally settled in

Orenburg Orenburg (russian: Оренбу́рг, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Ural River, southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is also very close to the Kazakhstan-Russia bor ...

in 1920, where he began his most significant work. He worked as an

, collector, researcher on Kazakh folk music, and recorded about 3,000 instrumental melodies. He contributed to the ''Warsaw Diary'' which published music critiques and analyses. He wrote over 2,300 pieces of Kazakh folk music, of which 1,500 were published in two volumes during his life. He was the first to create a categorization system for Kazakh music, including genres such as historic, comedic, and legendary. He died on 6 December 1936 in

. In 1896, he was the dedicatee of

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 ...

's '' Six moments musicaux''.

Bibliography

*—. ''1000 songs of Kyrgyz/Kazakh people: tunes and melodies''. Orenburg, 1925. *—. ''500 songs and ''kyuis'' of Aday, Bukey, Semipalatinsk, and the Ural Kazakhs''. Alma-Ata, 1931.

References

Russian ethnographers Russian composers Russian male composers 1869 births 1936 deaths People from Oryol {{Russia-academic-bio-stub