Isaak Dunayevsky
Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky also Dunaevsky or Dunaevski (Template:Lang-ru; 30 January [O.S. 18 January] 1900 Lokhvitsa, Poltava - 25 July 1955, Moscow) was a Soviet composer and conductor, who specialized in "light music" for operetta and film comedies, frequently working with the film director Grigorij Aleksandrov.
Biography
Dunayevsky studied at the Kharkiv Musical School in 1910 where he studied violin under Joseph Akhron (1886-1943). During this period he started to study the theory of music under Semyon Bogatyrev (1890-1960). He graduated in 1919 from the Kharkiv Conservatory. At first he was a violin player, the leader of the orchestra in Kharkiv. Then he began to conduct. In 1924 he went to Moscow to run the Theatre Hermitage. After that he worked in Leningrad (1929-1941) as a director and conductor of the "Music-Hall" (1929-1934) and then moved to Moscow to work on his operettas and film music.
He was named a People's Artist of the USSR (1950) and was awarded the USSR State Prize (twice in 1941, 1951), two orders, and many medals (for instance, the Order of the Red Labour Banner, the Order of the Red Star, and the Badge of Honour).
Dunayevsky was married twice. He had a son Evgeny (Yevgeny, b. 1932) by his wife Zinaida Sudeikina, and another son Maksim (Maxsim, b. 1945) by his lover ballerina Zoya Pashkova. His brother Semyon (1906-?) was a conductor, another brother Zinovy (1908-1981) was a composer. His son Maksim Isaakovich Dunayevsky (b.1945), also a well-known composer, continues the traditions of his father in musicals and operettas.
He didn’t finish his last piece the operetta “White Acacia” (1955) that was completed by Kirill Molchanov and staged on November 15, 1955, Moscow. There were many concerning his possible suicide, though his son Maxim in public interviews, as well as some of his biographers, deny this fact.
A book of his essays and memoires was published after his death, in 1961.
Legacy
He wrote 14 operettas, 3 ballets, 3 cantatas, 80 choruses, 80 songs and romances, music for 88 plays and 42 films, 43 compositions for light music orchestra and 12 for jazz orchesta, 17 meladeclamations, 52 compositions for symphony orchestra and 47 piano compositions and a string quartet.
He was one of the first composers in the Soviet Union to start using jazz. His music was accessible to the masses, with melodious and memorable tunes, and that secured his success.
In a reply to the British book The World of Music, he listed the following as his chief works: The Golden Valley operetta (1937), The Free Wind operetta (1947), music to the film "Circus" (1935), and music to the film "The Kuban Cossacks" (1949).
Works
- "The Tranquillity of the Faun", ballet (1924)
- "Murzilka", ballet for children (1924)
- "For Us and You", operetta (1924)
- "Bridegrooms", ("Женихи") operetta (1926)
- "The Knives", ("Ножи") operetta (1928)
- "Polar Passions", operetta (1928)
- "Million Langours", operetta (1932)
- "The Merry Boys" ("Весёлые ребята") film music (1934)
- "Three Friends" ("Три товарища") film music (1935)
- "Circus" ("Цирк") film music (1936)
- "The Golden Valley" ("Золотая долина") operetta (1937)
- "Volga-Volga" ("Волга-Волга") film music (1938)
- "The Roads to Happiness", ("Дороги к счастью") operetta (1939)
- "Moscow", suite for solovoices, chorus and orchestra (1941)
- "The Wind of Liberty" ("Вольный ветер") operetta (1947)
- "The Son of the Clown" ("Сын клоуна") operetta (1950)
- "Glory of the Railwaymen", cantata
- "Our Homeland May Flourish!", cantata
- Ballet Suite for orchestra
- Suite on Chinese themes for orchestra
- Rhapsody on Songs of the people of the Soviet Union for jazz orchestra
- "The Musicstore" for jazz orchestra
- String Quartet
- Music to the Film "Song of the Fatherland"
- Requiem for narrator and quintet
- Song of Stalin for chorus and orchestra
Also:
- Songs
- Pieces for chamber orchestra
- Incidental music for theatre and cinema
Quotations
"During WWII, Dunayevsky fell into a deep depression. From 1941 to 1946, he did not write for movies; while the few songs he did write did not render the usual quality of excellence. He thought that his sunny, optimistic music did not match the tragic time. Despite this standstill he made a fresh beginning in 1947 writing operettas and music for new movies. The fruits of his labor were again the great successes he had previously enjoyed. Dunayevsky worked in excess of his fragile health. Even in the last year of his life he wrote an operetta and music, full of vivifying meaning and the energy, for three movies. Isaak Dunayevsky died at the age of 55, leaving behind true musical gems. Some sources indicate that he committed suicide." (Jewish Gen Ukraine, see the link below)
“Dunayevsky died of a heart attack on July 25, 1955. But we still can hear rumours about his suicide. To fight against such gossip is a principal and important fundamental duty of everyone who writes about the composer…” (Naum Shafer, “Dunayevsky Today”)
External links
- Ovar
- Naum Shafer, “Dunayevsky Today”)
- Interview with Maxim Dunayevsky
- Jewish Gen Ukraine
- About Dunayevsky’s relatives
- About Dunayevsky’s death
See also
- List of Russian Jews/temp: Isaak Dunayevsky, composer
- USSR State Prize: Isaak Dunayevsky: Music from the films Circus and Volga-Volga
- List of Ukrainians:Isaak Dunayevsky, author of numerous popular Soviet songs
- Meanings of asteroid names (4001-4500): | 4306 Dunaevskij || 1976 SZ5 || Maxim Dunayevsky, Soviet composer* (probably a mistake?)
- List of suicides: (no reference?)
- History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union: ...and Soviet music—Anton Rubinstein and Isaak Dunayevsky;