Prince Nikolai Borisovich Galitzin (russian: Николай Борисович Голицын, (alternatively transcribed Golitsyn, Golitsïn or Golitsin; 8 December/19 December 1794 – 22 October/3 November 1866) was a Russian aristocrat, of the

Galitzin The House of Golitsyn or Galitzine was one of the largest princely of the noble houses in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire. Among them were boyars, warlords, diplomats, generals (the Mikhailovichs), stewards, chamberlains, the richest m ...

family. He was an amateur musician, and is known particularly for his commissioning three

string quartets The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

— opp. 127, 130 and 132 — from

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

, which are among the composer's group of late string quartets.

Family

His parents were Boris Andreevich Galitzin and his wife Ana, and one of his sisters was the philanthropist

Tatiana Potemkina Tatiana (or Tatianna, also Romanization, romanized as Tatyana, Tatjana, Tatijana, etc.) is a female name of Sabine-Roman origin that became widespread in Eastern Europe. Variations * be, Тацця́на, Tatsiana * bg, Татяна, T ...

. He graduated from the

page corps The Page Corps (russian: Пажеский корпус; french: Corps des Pages) was a military academy in Imperial Russia, which prepared sons of the nobility and of senior officers for military service. Similarly, the Imperial School of Jurisprud ...

in 1810 and became an officer of the Russian Army (Kiev Dragoon Regiment), joining his father. He participated in 50 battles, including the

Battle of Borodino The Battle of Borodino (). took place near the village of Borodino on during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The ' won the battle against the Imperial Russian Army but failed to gain a decisive victory and suffered tremendous losses. Napoleon ...

and the capture of Paris. His son (1823–1872) was a composer and conductor.

Beethoven's commission

The prince had lived for a while in Vienna and knew the music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. He played the

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

; his wife was an accomplished pianist. He arranged piano works of Beethoven for string quartet and

string quintet A string quintet is a musical composition for five string players. As an extension to the string quartet (two violins, a viola, and a cello), a string quintet includes a fifth string instrument, usually a second viola (a so-called "viola quintet" ...

.Paul Nettl. "Galitzin, Prince Nikolaus Boris". ''Beethoven Encyclopedia''. Philosophical Library, New York, 1956.The Late Quartets
''The Beethoven Quartet Companion'', edited by Robert Winter, Robert Martin, accessed 10 May 2014. In November 1822 he commissioned Beethoven to write string quartets. He wrote in French from

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 ...

to the composer:

Being as passionate an amateur as an admirer of your talent, I am taking the liberty of writing to you to ask you if you would be willing to compose one, two or three new quartets. I shall be delighted to pay you for the trouble whatever amount you would deem adequate.

Beethoven agreed to this, requesting 50

ducat The ducat () coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages from the 13th to 19th centuries. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wi ...

s for each quartet. He had not written a string quartet since his Op. 95 in 1810. In 1823 he was occupied with writing his Ninth Symphony, and he began serious work on the quartets in 1824. The first of these, the String Quartet No. 12 in E flat major, Op. 127, was given its first performance by the

Schuppanzigh Quartet The Schuppanzigh Quartet was a string quartet formed in Vienna in the 1790s by the violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh. It continued, with breaks and changes of members, for many years. Schuppanzigh was a close friend and admirer of Ludwig van Beethoven, a ...

in March 1825. The quartet later performed the other two works commissioned, the String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130 and String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132.The early performers of the quartets of Beethoven
Elias String Quartet: the Beethoven Project, accessed 10 April 2014. Beethoven received the fee for the first quartet; although the prince acknowledged his debt for the other quartets, it was not paid in the composer's lifetime, the matter being finally settled with Beethoven's heirs in 1852.

Other associations with Beethoven

The prince was an intermediary in the sale of a copy of Beethoven's choral work ''

Missa solemnis {{Audio, De-Missa solemnis.ogg, Missa solemnis is Latin for Solemn Mass, and is a genre of musical settings of the Mass Ordinary, which are festively scored and render the Latin text extensively, opposed to the more modest Missa brevis. In French ...

'' to the Russian court; it was through him that the first performance of the work took place in St Petersburg in April 1824. Beethoven's overture ''

The Consecration of the House ''The Consecration of the House'' (german: Die Weihe des Hauses), Op. 124, is a work by Ludwig van Beethoven composed in September 1822. It was commissioned by Carl Friedrich Hensler, the Director of Vienna's new Theater in der Josefstadt, and ...

'', published in 1825, was dedicated to the prince.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Galitzin, Nikolai Borisovich 1794 births 1866 deaths Nikolai Borisovich 19th-century people from the Russian Empire Russian patrons of music Russian people of Georgian descent Russian princes