Melgunov Yuly Nikolaevich (August 30 [September 11], 1846, Kostroma Governorate — March 19 [31], 1893, Moscow) was a Russian pianist, music theorist, and folklorist. He came from an old noble family. He is connected with the Nizhny Novgorod area through his research and publication of Russian folk songs that were current in the governorates of Central Russia, including the Volga Region.[2]

Education and Musical Career

He studied at the Alexander (formerly Tsarskoye Selo) Lyceum, graduating in 1866. Alongside his studies, he took piano lessons in Saint Petersburg from A. L. Henselt and A. Dreyschock, and studied music theory with G. A. Laroche. Around 1870 he moved to Moscow and for a time studied in the piano class of N. G. Rubinstein at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1875–1876 he studied acoustics and the harmonization of ancient church chants under Yu. K. Arnold.

In Moscow he became a follower of the theory of musical rhythm developed by the German philologist and musicologist R. Westphal. In 1878, together with Westphal, he published a rhythmic-tempo edition of ten fugues by J. S. Bach, with his own preface, "On the Rhythmic Performance of Bach's Fugues." In the 1870s, in order to promote their views on the role of rhythm in classical music, he undertook a concert tour of Germany with Westphal. He also performed in cities of the Russian Empire together with F. Laub and K. Yu. Davydov.

Folklore Work

He collected and studied Russian folk songs. In his collections "Russian Folk Songs, Recorded Directly from the Voices of the People and Published with Commentary" (Parts 1–2, 1879 and 1885), he was the first to reproduce Russian peasant polyphony.[2] Melgunov put forward the idea that Russian song has a subvoice (podgolosok) texture, and described its modal basis in terms free of the schemes of the ancient Greek and medieval modes.

He was the author of a number of scholarly articles. In 1890, with his preface and under his editorship, the collection "Melodies of Vologda Governorate, Collected by M. Kuklin" (Part 1) was published. Posthumously, in 1907, "Materials on Musical Rhythmics" was published, a joint work by Melgunov, F. E. Korsh, and N. D. Kashkin.[2]

Sources

  1. ru.wikisource.org — Author: Yuly Nikolaevich Melgunov — Wikisource (archive)
  2. w.histrf.ru — MELGUNOV Yuly Nikolaevich — Read articles on the history of Russia for schoolchildren and students (archive)
  3. nlr.ru — Melgunov, Yuly Nikolaevich (1846-1893) ( 1/31 ) (archive)