Konstantin Romanovich Eiges (surname sometimes spelt Eyges,
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 ...
Константин Романович Эйгес, 24 May (
Old Style
Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) indicate dating systems before and after a calendar change, respectively. Usually, this is the change from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar as enacted in various European countries between 158 ...
)/ 5 June 1875 – 2 Dec 1950) was a Russian composer, teacher, and pianist.
Early life
Eiges was born in
Bogodukhov
left
Bohodukhiv ( uk, Богодухів, russian: Богодухов - ''Bogodukhov'') is a city in Kharkiv Oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of Bohodukhiv Raion (district). Bohodukhiv hosts the administratio ...
(now Bohodukhiv in
Kharkiv oblast
Kharkiv Oblast ( uk, Харківська́ о́бласть, translit=Kharkivska oblast), also referred to as Kharkivshchyna ( uk, Ха́рківщина), is an oblast (province) of eastern Ukraine. The oblast borders Russia to the north, Luhans ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
), to
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish parents, the doctor Ruvim Manasiyevich (also known as Roman Mikhailovich) Eiges (born
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
, 1840) and his wife Sofiya (Shifra) Iosifovna, née Eltsin. He was one of ten children, many of whom went on to artistic or academic careers; Vladimir Eiges (1877-1949) was a professor of mathematics, Aleksandr (1880-1943), also a mathematician, was an authority on
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...
, Veniamin (1888-1956) was an artist, Yekaterina (1890-1958) was a poet and sometime girlfriend of
Sergei Esenin
Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin ( rus, Сергей Александрович Есенин, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ jɪˈsʲenʲɪn; ( 1895 – 28 December 1925), sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one o ...
.
Career
Eiges attended
Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (russian: Московская государственная консерватория им. П. И. Чайковского, link=no) is a musical educational inst ...
between 1900 and 1905, where his teachers included
Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov
Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov (russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Ипполи́тов-Ива́нов; 28 January 1935) was a Russian and Soviet composer, conductor and teacher. His music ranged from the late-Romantic era ...
(composition),
Sergei Taneyev
Sergey Ivanovich Taneyev (russian: Серге́й Ива́нович Тане́ев, ; – ) was a Russian composer, pianist, teacher of composition, music theorist and author.
Life
Taneyev was born in Vladimir, Vladimir Governorate, Russia ...
(counterpoint) and Adolf Yaroshevsky (piano).
[Powell (n.d.)] He was a colleague 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 ...
and
Nikolai Medtner
Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (russian: Никола́й Ка́рлович Ме́тнер, ''Nikoláj Kárlovič Métner''; 13 November 1951) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. After a period of comparative obscurity in the 25 years immedi ...
. His pupils included
Alexei Stanchinsky. Most of his compositions are for piano solo, though he also wrote songs and chamber works, a
cantata
A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir.
The meaning of ...
''The Song of Oleg the Wise'', and a
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 ...
, ''The Snowstorm''. Eiges wrote numerous essays on music and philosophy, including essays on
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
and
Alexander Skriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (; russian: Александр Николаевич Скрябин ; – ) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. Before 1903, Scriabin was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin and composed ...
.
Family
Eiges was the father of the composer Oleg Eiges (1905-1992) and the artist Sergei Eiges (1910-1944).
References
;Notes
;Sources
*Powell, Jonathan (2015). "The piano Music of Konstantin Romanovich Eiges." Booklet accompanying
CD ''Konstantin Eiges: Piano Music'',
Toccata Classics
Toccata Classics is an independent British classic music label founded in 2005.
The founder of Toccata Classics is Martin Anderson, a music journalist. The label was founded primarily to promote unrecorded works by lesser-known composers, inc ...
, TOCC0215, pp. 2–11.
* Powell, Jonathan (n.d.)
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1875 births
1950 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century male musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century Russian male musicians
Composers for piano
Russian Jews
Jewish classical composers
Jewish classical pianists
Moscow Conservatory alumni
People from Bohodukhiv
Pupils of Sergei Taneyev
Russian classical pianists
Male classical pianists
Russian male classical composers
Russian music educators
Russian Romantic composers
{{Russia-musician-stub