Nikolay Andreyevich
Roslavets

(1880/1881–1944)

Nikolay Andreyevich Roslavets was a Russian composer. In 1912 he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied violin with Ivan Voytsekhovich Grzhimali, and also studied with Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Il’insky, Mikhail Mikhaylovich Ippolitov-Ivanov and Sergey Nikiforovich Vasilenko. He was an active member of the Association for Contemporary Music, which was formed in the 1920s and the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Muzykal’naya kultura” (1924). He wrote the first atonal compositions in Russia.

His compositions include the ballet “Pakhta” (“Cotton”); the mystery “Heaven and Earth” based on George Gordon Byron’s tragedy (1912), the cantata “October” (1927); symphonies (the 1910s, 1922, 1923), symphonic poems (“Soviet Uzbekistan”, 1932); two concertos for violin and orchestra (1925, 1936); compositions for wind ensemble, choral works; compositions for chamber ensembles (five string quartets); works for violin and piano, for cello and piano, piano and vocal works, mass songs.