Varlamov, Alexander Egorovich
Varlamov, Alexander Egorovich
Varlamov, Alexander Egorovich, Russian composer of Moldavian descent; b. Moscow, Nov. 27, 1801; d. St. Petersburg, Oct. 27,1848. At the age of ten he entered the Imperial Chapel at St. Petersburg, where his fine voice attracted the attention of Bortiansky, the director, who then became his teacher; after Variamovi´s voice broke in 1818, he left the choir and went to The Hague in 1819 as director of the choir at the Russian ambassadorial chapel. In 1823 he returned to St. Petersburg as singing teacher at the Drama School, which post he held until 1826. After teaching the young solo singers in the court chapel choir (1829-31), he served as Kapellmeister of the Moscow imperial theaters (1832-13); he returned in 1845 to St. Petersburg, where he gave private singing lessons. He composed two ballets, incidental music to 17 plays, and piano pieces, but became best known as a song composer. In addition to the songs he wrote for plays, he wrote 138 solo songs, 31 songs for vocal ensembles, and arrangements of over 50 folk melodies. A complete edition of his works was ed. by F. Stellovsky as Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy (12 vols., St. Petersburg, 1861-64). He publ. Polnaya shkola peniya (Complete School of Singing; Moscow, 1840; 2nded., 1953).
Bibliography
N. Listova, A. V.(Moscow, 1968).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire