Alexander Tcherepnin

Alexander Nikolayevich Tcherepnin (; 21 January 1899 – 29 September 1977) was a Russian-born composer and pianist.

His father, Nikolai Tcherepnin (pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov), and his sons, Serge Tcherepnin and Ivan Tcherepnin, as well as two of his grandsons (sons of Ivan), Sergei and Stefan, were composers. His son Serge was involved in the earliest development of electronic music and instruments. His mother was a member of the artistic Benois family, a niece of Alexandre Benois.

Biography He was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and played the piano and composed prolifically from a very early age. He was stimulated in this activity by the atmosphere at home, which—thanks to his family's Benois-Diaghilev connection—was a meeting place for many well-known musicians and artists of the day. By the time he began formal theory and composition studies in his late teens, he had already composed hundreds of pieces, including more than a dozen piano sonatas. Among his teachers in Russia were composer Victor Belyayev (pupil of Anatoly Lyadov and Alexander Glazunov), who prepared Tcherepnin for Saint Petersburg Conservatory; Leokadiya Kashperova (renowned pianist, protégée of Anton Rubinstein); and his professor at the Conservatory Nikolay Sokolov (pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov). Notably at that time Tcherepnin's mentor was famous musicologist Alexander Ossovsky, who also was a friend of his father. His works were influenced by composer Alexander Spendiarov.

After the 1917 Russian Revolution, the family fled Saint Petersburg and settled for some time in Tbilisi, Georgia. In young Tcherepnin's luggage were some two hundred short piano pieces, quite a number of which eventually reached print (notably in his Bagatelles, Op. 5). In Tbilisi he continued his studies at the conservatory, gave concerts as both pianist and conductor and wrote music for the Kamerny Theatre. Because of the political environment in Tbilisi after Georgia was sovietized, the Tcherepnins chose to leave Russia permanently in 1921. They settled in Paris, where Alexander completed his studies with Paul Vidal and Isidor Philipp, who was the head of the piano department at the Paris Conservatory, and became associated with a group of composers that included Bohuslav Martinů, Marcel Mihalovici and Conrad Beck. Philipp secured the publication of several groups of short piano pieces that Tcherepnin had composed in Russia.

From Paris Tcherepnin launched an international career as a pianist and composer. In 1925 he won the Schott Prize with his Concerto da Camera, Op. 33. He began yearly visits to the United States in 1926 and later went to the Far East, making several extended visits to China and Japan between 1934 and 1937. He promoted composers in Japan (Akira Ifukube, Fumio Hayasaka, Bunya Koh, and others) and China (He Luting and others), even founding his own publishing house in Tokyo for the purpose. While in China, he met the young Chinese pianist Lee Hsien Ming (1915–1991), and the two later married in Europe. They had three sons together: Peter, Serge and Ivan.

During World War II, he lived in France. The war virtually stopped his musical activities. The immediate postwar period, however, brought a resurgence of creative energies; the result was a number of important works, beginning with Symphony No. 2 (composed 1947, not orchestrated until 1951). In 1948, he went to the United States, settling in Chicago in 1950 and in 1958 acquiring United States citizenship. He and his wife taught at DePaul University in Chicago. His students there included Phillip Ramey, Robert Muczynski, Gloria Coates, and John Downey. Tcherepnin's Symphony No. 3 was written while in Chicago during this time, commissioned in 1951 by Patricia and M. Martin Gordon, who were the founders of Princess Pat, a Chicago-based cosmetic company. The work was dedicated to Patricia Gordon and premiered in 1955 with Fabien Sevitzky conducting the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Meanwhile, his Symphony No. 2 had its world premiere with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1952 under the direction of Rafael Kubelík. In 1957, Tcherepnin completed two major American orchestral commissions: the Divertimento, Op. 90 (for Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and his Symphony No. 4, Op. 91 (for Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony Orchestra). In 1964 he moved to New York and subsequently divided his time between the United States and Europe. He died in Paris in 1977.

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra was the first to record his complete symphony cycle, conducted by Lan Shui. In 2008, these recordings were reissued together with Singapore Symphony performances of his six piano concertos (Noriko Ogawa, pianist), along with the Symphonic Prayer, Op. 93, Magna Mater, Op. 41 and other orchestral works.

He was a National Patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity., Delta Omicron

Style and techniques His output includes three operas, four symphonies, a divertimento (which is a symphony in all but name), six piano concertos, works for ballet, choral music, alto saxophone solo, and a large amount of solo piano music. His Symphony No. 1 (1927) is remarkable for including the first symphonic movement ever written completely for unpitched percussion; this preceded by four years Edgard Varèse's Ionisation of 1931.Benjamin Folkman, cited in One of two symphonies left incomplete at his death would have been for percussion alone. Tcherepnin invented his own harmonic languages. The most famous of his synthetic scales, derived by combining minor and major hexachords, has nine notes and consists of three conjunct semitone-tone-semitone tetrachords. This came to be known as the "Tcherepnin scale", and may be classified with Messiaen's modes of limited transposition.

He also worked with pentatonic scales, old Russian modal tunes, Georgian harmonies, and a six-note "chromatic perfect" scale built upon half-step and step-and-a-half intervals also called as the augmented scale. Tcherepnin discussed these techniques in his monograph "Basic Elements of My Musical Language".

Works List of compositions by Alexander Tcherepin

Works with and without opus numbers are listed in this section, together with their dates of composition.

Songs

My Flowering Staff (Цветущий Посох) A volume of poems by Sergei Gorodetsky, set to music in a cycle of 36 Songs (incorporating Opp. 15, 16 and 17) (1918–22)

Symphony

Op. 42 Symphony No. 1 (1927) Op. 77 Symphony No. 2 (1946–51). Op. 83 Symphony No. 3 (1951). 1. Incorporating music from the ballet Dionys (1940) 2. Incorporating music from the ballet Atlantide (1943) 3. Incorporating music from the ballet Le Vendeur des papillons (c.1945) 4. Incorporating music from the ballet Dionys (1940) Op. 91 Symphony No. 4 (1957)

Orchestral

Op. 5 Bagatelles, version for orchestra (1958) Op. 5 Bagatelles, version for piano and orchestra (1960) Op. 25 Rhapsody georgienne (Georgian Rhapsody) for cello and orchestra (1922) Op. 33 Concerto da Camera for flute, violin and chamber orchestra (1924) Op. 37 3 Stücke fur Kammerorchester (Three Pieces for Chamber Orchestra), 1921–25. 1. Overture 2. Mystère 3. Pour un entrainment de boxe (For a Boxer's Training) Op. 37/2 Mystère for cello and chamber orchestra (1925).

Small Ensemble

Op. 34 Trio for violin, cello and piano (1925) Op. 38 No. 2 Arrangement for cello and percussion Op. 38 No. 3 Arrangement for cello and strings Op. 38 No. 4 Arrangement for cello and percussion Op. 38 No. 9 Arrangement for cello and strings Op. 38 No. 10 Arrangement for cello and strings Op. 47 Trio Concertante, arrangement for violin, cello, piano and strings (1960). Op. 59 Trio for 3 flutes (1939). Op. 61 Trio for 3 trumpets or clarinets (1939). Op. posth. Canon (1922–23), transcription for piano of Canon for string trio, which is based on the second movement of the cello sonata

Piano Op. posth. Sunny Day (Forgotten Bagatelle) for piano (1915). Op. 1 Toccata No. 1 for piano (1921). Op. 2 No. 1 Nocturne No. 1 for piano (1919). Op. 2 No. 2 Danse No. 1 for piano (1919). Op. 3 Scherzo for piano (1917). Op. 4 Sonatine romantique for piano (1918). Op. 5 Bagatelles (10 pieces), original version for piano (1912–18). Revised and edited 1958. Op. 6 Petite Suite for piano (1918–19). Op. 7 Pièces sans titres (8 Pieces Without Title) for piano (1915–17). Op. 8 No. 1 Nocturne No. 2 for piano (1919). Op. 8 No. 2 Danse No. 2 for piano (1919). Op. 9 Eight Preludes for piano (1919–20). Op. 10 Feuilles libres (Loose Pages) for piano (1920). Op. 11 Arabesques for piano (1920–21). Op. 11 No. 5 Arabesque for Violin and Piano (1920–21). Op. 12 Piano Concerto No. 1 (1919–20). Op. 12 Arrangement of Piano Concerto No. 1 for 2 pianos. Op. 13 9 Inventions for piano (1920–21). Op. 14 Sonata for Violin and Piano (1921–22). Op. 15 6 Mélodies for soprano or tenor and piano (1921). Op. 16 8 Mélodies for soprano or tenor and piano (1918–22). Op. 17 Haltes (Stops) for soprano or tenor and piano (1918–22). Op. 18 10 Etudes for piano (1915–20). Op. 19 2 Novelettes for piano (1921–22). Op. 20 Toccata No. 2 for piano (1922). Op. 21 6 Études de travail (6 Practice Studies) for piano (1922–23). Op. 22 Piano Sonata No. 1 (1918–19). Op. 23 4 Nostalgic Preludes for piano (1922). Op. 24 4 Preludes for piano (1922–23). Op. 24 No. 3 Arrangement of Prelude No. 3 for two flutes and piano (1971). Op. 25 Rhapsody georgienne, arrangement for cello and piano. Op. 26 Piano Concerto No. 2 (1922–23), original version for smaller orchestra. Op. 26 Arrangement of Piano Concerto No. 2 for 2 pianos (1923). Op. 26 Piano Concerto No. 2, reorchestrated for larger orchestra (1950). Op. 27 Slavic Transcriptions for piano (1924). 1. Les Bateliers du Volga (The Volga Boatmen) 2. Chanson pour la cherie (Song for the Beloved) 3. Chanson: Grandrussienne (The Great Russian People) (later title: Russian Song) 4. Le Long du Volga (The Banks of the Volga) 5. Chanson tchèque (Czech Song) Op. 28 Canzona for piano (1924). Op. 29 Sonata No. 1 for cello and piano (1924). Op. 30 No. 1 Sonata No. 2 for cello and piano (1924). Op. 30 No. 2 Sonata No. 3 for cello and piano (1919–26). Op. 31 4 Romances for piano (1924). Op. 33a Intermezzo, arrangement for piano solo of the second movement of Concerto da Camera (1926). Op. 33 Arrangement of Concerto da Camera for flute, violin and piano. Op. 43 Elegy for Violin and Piano (1929). Op. 44 Quintet for piano and strings (1927). Op. posth. Tanz (Dance), arrangement of second movement of the Quintet for piano (1928) Op. 46 Entretiens (Conversations), piano solo (1930). Op. 47 Concertino for violin, cello, piano and string orchestra (1930–31). Op. 47 Concertino, original version for 12 solo strings and piano (1930). Op. 47 Concertino, version for clarinet, bassoon, piano and strings (1944). Op. 47 Triple Concertino, definitive version for violin, cello, piano and orchestra (1965). Op. 48 Piano Concerto No. 3 (1931–32). Op. 48 Arrangement of Piano Concerto No. 3 for 2 pianos. Op. 49 Duo for violin and cello (1932). Op. 50 Dances russes (1933). Op. 51 Étude du piano sur la gamme pentatonique (Piano Study on the Pentatonic Scale) (1934–35). No. 1. Première suite (1934) No. 2. Deuxième suite (1934) No. 3. Bagatelles chinoises (Chinese Bagatelles) (1935) Op. 52 Five Concert Etudes (1934–36). No. 1 Shadow Play No. 2 The Lute No. 3 Homage to China No. 4 Punch and Judy No. 5 Chant Op. 53 Technical Exercises on the Five Note Scale, piano studies (1934–36) Op. 56 7 Etudes for piano (1938). Op. 57 Suite georgienne (Georgian Suite) for piano and strings (1938). Op. 57 Arrangement of Suite georgienne for 2 pianos. Op. 57 Suite georgienne, version for 1 piano 4 hands. Op. 57 / WoO Dialogue, arrangement of second movement of Georgian Suite for piano solo (1952). Op. 58 Sonatina for timpani and piano (1939)