Andrejs Jurjāns (September 30, 1856 – September 28, 1922) was a Latvian composer and

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

. He was

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

's first classical composer, having composed instrumental pieces and

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...

s. Jurjāns also studied and collected more than 6000 pieces of Latvian folklore, among them 3000 songs, which he compiled in six books, called ''Latvju tautas mūzikas materiāli'' (Materials of Latvian Folk Music).

Biography

Andrejs Jurjāns was born in 1856 in

Ērgļi Ērgļi is a small town in the Ērgļi Parish of Madona Municipality in the Vidzeme region of Latvia on the banks of the Ogre river. It serves as the administrative center for Ērgļi Parish. Ērgļi had 2,769 residents as of 2017. History ...

, Latvia. Active in music from a young age, Jurjāns decides to become a musician after participating as a choir singer in the First Latvian Song Festival in 1873. In 1875, he studied music at the

St. Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory () (formerly known as the Petrograd Conservatory and Leningrad Conservatory) is a school of music in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members ...

, attending

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

and

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

classes with

Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov. At the time, his name Reforms of Russian orthography, was spelled , which he romanized as Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakow; the BGN/PCGN Romanization of Russian, transliteration of Russian is used for his name here; ...

and German organists Louis Homilius and

Friedrich Homilius Friedrich may refer to: Names *Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich'' *Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich'' Other *Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...

. In 1877, he published his first composition. From 1882 to 1916 Jurjāns taught music in the Russian Imperial Music Society Conservatory in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

, Ukraine. At the same time, he took an active part in Latvian musical life as a collector, researcher and arranger of national folk songs. His five-volume work, "Materials of the Latvian Folk Music" encompasses about 2,000 tunes. Jurjāns laid the foundation for further research in this area. Together with his brothers and musicians

Juris The Juris (also ''Juri'', ''Yuri'') were a tribe of South American Indigenous people, formerly occupying the country between the rivers Içá (lower Putumayo) and Yapura, north-western Brazil. In ancient days they were the most powerful tribe of ...

, Pāvuls and Pēteris he regularly took part in the

Latvian Song Festival The Latvian Song and Dance Festival () is one of the largest amateur choral and dancing events in the world, and an important event in Latvian culture and social life. As one of the Baltic song festivals, it is also a part of the UNESCO Mast ...

as the Jurjāns' French horn quartet. Around 1910 Jurjāns' hearing became weaker and in 1916 he retires from his teaching career. Seriously ill, in 1920 he returns to Latvia, where he dies in 1922. After the death of Jurjāns, the 6th part of his work was published posthumously by his brother Pāvuls.

Compositions

Jurjāns composed 15 symphonic works, 5 vocal and instrumental works, as well as many solo songs, choir and folk songs. He is the first person to detail the Latvian folk song characteristics, thus attempting to turn the public's attention to common features in Latvian and Russian folklore. Jurjāns often used folk song intonations and fragments in his compositions. Jurjāns called on the new generation of Latvian composers to learn from Russian classical music, namely, from the work of composer

Mikhail Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka ( rus, links=no, Михаил Иванович Глинка, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, mʲɪxɐˈil ɨˈvanəvʲɪdʑ ˈɡlʲinkə, Ru-Mikhail-Ivanovich-Glinka.ogg; ) was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognit ...

Selected folk songs

* ''"Pūt, vējiņi"'' * ''"Čuči, mana līgaviņa"'' * ''"Kur tu skriesi, vanadziņi"'' * ''"Es karāi aiziedams"'' * ''"Aiz upītes es uzaugu"'' * ''"Tautu meita, melnacīte"'' * ''"Stādīju ieviņu"'' * ''"Tautiešam roku devu"'' * ''"Kur gāji, puisīti", etc.''

Selected choir songs

* "Nevis slinkojot un pūstot" * "Lūk, roze zied" * "Ozoldēli, liepas meitas" * "Nakts dziesma" * "Dievozolu trijotne", etc.

Symphonic music

* ''Symphonic allegro'' (1880) * ''Latvju dejas (Latvian Dances)'' suite (1884) * ''Tēvijai'' (To the Fatherland) cantata (1888)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jurjans, Andrejs 1856 births 1922 deaths Latvian composers Latvian musicologists Saint Petersburg Conservatory alumni 19th-century musicologists Composers from the Russian Empire Musicologists from the Russian Empire