June 19: the day of the death of Sergei Taneyev, the teacher of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin
Sergei Taneyev, a Russian composer, pianist, and music theorist born in Vladimir, died of pneumonia on June 19, 1915, at his dacha near Moscow. He was 58. His students Rachmaninoff and Scriabin became symbols of Russian music, and he himself became the founder of the national polyphonic school.
From Vladimir to the Moscow Conservatory
Taneyev was born in 1856 in Vladimir to a noble family. His love of art was instilled in him by his father, a physician, a master of literature, and a music connoisseur. Sergei studied piano at the age of five, and at nine, he entered the newly opened Moscow Conservatory as an auditor, where he captivated the admissions committee with his mature and serious playing, well beyond his years.
A child of the province, plump from the courtship of his father and mother, dressed in the fashion of the time, the future student attracted the sympathy of the professors from his first appearance.
(music critic Ivan Lipaev)
One of his teachers was pianist and founder of the Moscow Conservatory Nikolai Rubinstein. Taneyev studied instrumentation and composition in Pyotr Tchaikovsky's class and became his favorite student.
Pianist and teacher
Taneyev made his debut on the big stage, performing Johannes Brahms's first piano concerto in Russia. He became the first performer of Tchaikovsky's major piano works, performed his own compositions in Russia and abroad, and toured with Rubinstein.
At 25, he received a professorship and began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory, and by 30, he had become its director. In 1905, he resigned in protest against the authoritarian leadership. He became one of the founders and teachers of the People's Conservatory, participated in courses for workers, and gave free private lessons.
Theorist and innovator
As a music theorist, Taneyev anticipated many trends in 20th-century musical art: he was the first to propose a simple mathematical formula for composing complex counterpoints—polyphony, or polyphony.
He is known as the author of over 55 romances and 40 a cappella choruses, effectively reviving this once-popular genre in Russian music. Among the most famous are "In a Difficult Moment of Life" to Lermontov's words, "The Restless Heart Beats" to Nekrasov's verse, and "The Island," translated from English by Balmont.
After Tchaikovsky's death, he worked on the reconstruction and orchestration of his unfinished works.
Teacher of the greats
Taneyev's students included Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin. He supported the young Sergei Prokofiev, arranging for his works to be published.
He was a model in everything, in every deed of his, because whatever he did, he did only well.
(student Sergei Rachmaninov)
The last years in Dyutkovo
Until the end of his days, Taneyev lived with his nanny in a rented Moscow house. From 1908 onward, he rented a dacha every summer in the picturesque village of Dyutkovo, near Moscow, where he experienced a creative surge. In the summer of 1911, he composed his Sonata for Violin and Piano there, featuring a characteristic "country" minuet—in which one can hear the sounds of a running stream and birdsong. His famous choruses, "Evening" and "Look at the Darkness," set to words by Tyutchev, were also born at his country dacha.
In April 1915, Taneyev attended the funeral of his colleague and friend Alexander Scriabin with a cold. The cold developed into pneumonia. The composer asked to be taken to his dacha in Dyutkovo, where he died two months later, on June 19, 1915.
