Ella Georgiyevna Adayevskaya (Ella Adaïewsky; ; 26 July 1926) was a Russian-German

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

, and

ethnomusicologist Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

. Adayevskaya wrote vocal music (including

choral A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

works), chamber music, and two

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

s. She also edited a collection of Italian songs and published writings on

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

and the

music of ancient Greece Music was almost universally present in ancient Greece, ancient Greek society, from marriages, funerals, and Religion in ancient Greece, religious ceremonies to Theatre of ancient Greece, theatre, folk music, and the ballad-like reciting of epic ...

Life

Born in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

on 22 February 1846 as Elizaveta/Elisabeth von Schultz, as the daughter of the prominent Estophile of Baltic German heritage Georg Julius von Schultz. Adayevskaya began learning the piano in childhood. Amongst her teachers were

Adolf von Henselt Georg Martin Adolf von Henselt (9 May 181410 October 1889) was a German composer and virtuoso pianist. Life Henselt was born at Schwabach, in Bavaria. At the age of three he began to learn the violin, and at five the piano under Josepha von Fl ...

Anton Rubinstein Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein (; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was the elder brother of Nikolai Rubinstein, who founded the Moscow Conservatory. As a pianist, Rubinstein ran ...

, and Alexander Dreyschock. She studied composition with Alexander Famintsyn and Nikolai Zaremba. Adayevskaya was a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

derived from the notes A, D, and A, played by the

kettledrum Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

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 ...

Ruslan and Ludmila ''Ruslan and Ludmila'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform ) is a poem by Alexander Pushkin, published in 1820. Written as an epic literary fairy tale consisting of a dedication (посвящение), six "cantos" ( песни), and an epilogue ( ...

''.Brown (n.d.) Her earliest works include choruses written for the Russian Imperial Chapel Choir. In the 1870s, she wrote two operas. The first, titled '' Neprigozhaya'' (''The Ugly Girl'') (in the composer's German manuscript ''Salomonida, die Tochter des Bojaren'', ''Salomonida, The Boyar's Daughter''), was a one-act piece written in 1873. The more ambitious '' Zarya'' (''Dawn'', German title ''Die Morgenröte der Freiheit (The Dawn of Freedom)'' ) followed in 1877; this four-act work was dedicated by the composer to

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

Alexander II, but was rejected by the censor.Hüsken, 312 Later, she embarked on several solo concert tours of Europe and settled in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

in 1882. In 1881, she composed her ''Greek Sonata'' for

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

and

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

. In Italy, she collected national songs, amongst them songs of the people of the

Raetia Raetia or Rhaetia ( , ) was a province of the Roman Empire named after the Rhaetian people. It bordered on the west with the country of the Helvetii, on the east with Noricum, on the north with Vindelicia, on the south-west with Transalpine ...

region in quintuple metre.Eaglefield Hull (1924), 6. In 1911, she moved to

Neuwied Neuwied (, ) is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the Neuwied (district), District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the east bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt ...

where was associated with the circle of the poet Carmen Sylva and published many articles on folk music. Adayevskaya died in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

in 1926. She was buried in the

Alter Friedhof, Bonn Alter Friedhof (Old Cemetery) is a historically significant cemetery in Bonn, Germany, in area, located near the center of the modern city. The cemetery was established in 1715 as a cemetery for soldiers and strangers, outside the city walls of ...

Works

Operas

*'' Neprigozhaya'' (''The Ugly Girl''), 1873 *'' Zarya svobody'' (''The Dawn of Freedom''), 1877

Vocal music

*''Yolka'' (''The Fir Tree''), cantata, c. 1870; also *other choral works, songs

Chamber music

*''Greek Sonata'' for clarinet and piano, 1881 *piano pieces

Notes

References

*Brown, Malcolm Hamrick (n.d.)
"Adayevskaya [née Schultz
/nowiki>, Ella Georgiyevna."">ée Schultz">"Adayevskaya [née Schultz
/nowiki>, Ella Georgiyevna."in Oxford Music Online, accessed 22 January 2016. *Eaglefield-Hull, A. (1924). ''A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians'' London: Dent. *Hüsken, Renate (2005). ''Ella Adaïewsky (1846-1926): Pianistin – Komponistin – Musikwissenschaftlerin''. Cologne: Dohr. . *Schultz-Adaïewsky E. Morgenröte der Freiheit. Volksoper in vier Akten. Klavierauszug. Nach dem Autograf bearbeitet und herausgegeben von Denis Lomtev. – Lage (Westf.): BMV Robert Burau, 2015.

External links

Biographer Renate Hüsken's website on Adaïewsky
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adayevskaya, Ella 1846 births 1926 deaths 19th-century classical composers from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian classical composers Pupils of Adolf Henselt Pupils of Nikolai Zaremba Composers from the Russian Empire Pianists from the Russian Empire Musicologists from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian musicologists Russian Romantic composers Russian women classical composers Russian classical pianists Russian women musicologists 19th-century classical pianists Russian women classical pianists 20th-century Russian women composers 19th-century German women composers 20th-century Russian pianists 20th-century Russian educators People from the Russian Empire of German descent Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the German Empire 19th-century women pianists 20th-century Russian women pianists 19th-century German musicologists 20th-century Russian composers