Alexander Sergeivich Famitsin (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: Александр Сергеевич Фаминцын) (1841-1896) was a renowned 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, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governmen ...

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 mu ...

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

Saint Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory (russian: Санкт-Петербургская государственная консерватория имени Н. А. Римского-Корсакова) (formerly known as th ...

, 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 at the ...

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, particular ...

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 (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Серо́в, Saint Petersburg, – Saint Petersburg, ) was a Russian composer and music critic. He is notable as one of the most important music critics in ...

Life

Alexander Sergeivich, of aristocratic descent, was born at Kalouga, Oct. 24 (O.S.), 1841. He was educated in St. Petersburg, and on leaving the University spent two years in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, 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 resigned 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 Sardanapalus (; sometimes spelled Sardanapallus) was, according to the Greek writer Ctesias, the last king of Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotami ...

'', 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 or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...

s, a

pianoforte The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

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: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

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).

References

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Famitsin, Alexander People from Kaluga Russian nobility