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Nikolai Myaskovsky ( April 20, 1881 - August 8, 1950) was born near Warsaw (though moved to St. Petersburg in his teens,) and at first discouraged from a musical career -- not unusually -- and into the military, where indeed he did spend some of the years of the First World War. He was a friend of Prokofiev's beginning in Conservatory and throughout the older man's life, and, in Conservatory, besides sharing a dislike of their professor Lyadov which came out in the Grieg-variations movement of Myaskovsky's third string quartet- Grieg having been in turn a composer Lyadov was known to deprecate, they worked together on at least one work. This was a mostly lost symphony, part of which was later scavenged to provide material for the slow movement of Prokofiev's fourth piano sonata*. They both later produced works From old notebooks - in Prokofiev's case the third and fourth piano sonatas, in Myaskovsky's partially based on works from this period (and other works, such as Myaskovsky's 10th string quartet and what are now the fifth and sixth piano sonatas, are revisions of works he wrote at this time, as well.) The first of his surviving symphonies (c minor, op. 3, 1908/ 1921) was his Conservatory graduation piece.
His stint in the 'Great War' produced shell shock, and while recovering he produced two diametrically opposite works, his fourth symphony (op. 17 in e) and his fifth (op. 18 in D. His third of 1914 has a Scriabin-influenced sound, though its concluding funeral march has a direction that may be lacking in some works by that composer.) The next few years brought ascents and reversals - the death of his father from the anger of a revolutionary, his appointment to the teaching staff of the Moscow Conservatory and membership of the composers' union.
The years 1921 - 1933Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s Years: 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 See also 1933 in aviation 1933 in film 1933 in literature 1933 in mu (or so!) were years in which he most often experimented in music, producing works such as the tenth and thirteenth symphonies, fourth piano sonata, and first string quartet - also some of the suites of piano pieces - whose harmony is very much stretched, and the first years of his teaching at the Conservatory. Perhaps the thirteenth symphony is alone even among them, in one atmospheric and strange movement complete with fugatoFor the use of the word in psychology see fugue state In music, a fugue is a type of piece written in counterpoint for several independent musical voices. A fugue begins with its subject (a brief musical theme) stated by one of the voices playing alone.. And the only work by the composer premiered in the United States... (In passing, note that the third and fourth string quartets, though they share op. 33 with the first two, were first published together with them in the collected edition published after the composer's death, whether or not they were first published around the same time. These works - #3 in d, #4 in f - are mid-1930s revisions of works written in the last years of the 1900sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s Years: 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 Events and Trends Technology Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first doc, not new works as are the other two; so their style is quite different. Whether they sound worse is a matter of opinion, though they have a very high level of craftsmanship.)
His pupils were eventually to include such composers as KhachaturianAram Ilich Khachaturian ( Armenian: , Russian: pa Xaayp) ( June 6, 1903 May 1, 1978) was a composer of classical music. Khachaturian was born in Tiflis, Georgia, Russia (now Tbilisi, Georgia) to a poor Armenian family (several of his works show the influe, Rodion ShchedrinRodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin (born December 16, 1932) is a Russian composer. He was born in Moscow and studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Yuri Shaporin. His early music is tonal, colourfully orchestrated and often includes snatches of folk music, Dmitri KabalevskyDmitrij Borisovic Kabalevskij ( Russian commonly transliterated in English as Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky ( 30 December 1904 14 February 1987) was a Soviet composer. He was awarded a number of state honours for his musical works. Among his works is a vio, Vissarion Shebalin , and many others. The sixth symphony ( 1921 - 1923Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 Events January 1 Grouping of all UK railway companies into four larg, rev. 1947 - this is the version that is almost always played or recorded) his only choral symphony and the longest of what eventually became twenty-seven, sets a brief poem (in Russian though the score allows Latin alternatively - see the American Symphony page below on the origins of the poem, - the soul looking at the body it has abandoned.) The finale contains quite a few quotes - the Dies Irae theme, as well as French revolutionary tunes.
The next few years, after 1933, showed primarily a retreat from that style, though with - again mostly - no general retreat in craftsmanship.) The violin concerto dates from these years - in all he was to write two concerti, one for violin and also a cello concerto (several times recorded by Mstislav Rostropovich), or three if we count the Lyric Concertino of op. 32. Another standout, besides the violin concerto, of the years up to 1940 is the one-movement symphony no. 21 (in f#, op. 51) produced in that year and recorded by Morton Gould, a compact and mostly lyrical work, very different in harmonic language from the 13th.