Leonid Hrabovsky
Internet Edition compiled by Onno van Rijen
Updated 20 February 1999
Born
28 January 1935 in Kiev.
Education
He began to study the piano at the age of sixteen. Three years later he entered
Lev Revutsky's composition class at the Kiev conservatory, continuing
meanwhile to study economics at the Universiy (1951-1956).
From 1956 to 1962 he was a member of Boris Lyatoshinsky's composition
class at the conservatory, where he was appointed to teach theory and
composition in 1966.
Style
In the mid-1960s, together with Valentin Silvestrov and Vitaly Hodziatsky,
Hrabovsky helped initiate a movement for musical experiment. These three
composers (the Kiev group) were among the first in the former USSR to
explore graphic notation, new instrumental techniques, musique concrète and
serial procedures. Providing one of the most serious challenges to the aesthetic
norms of socialist realism, they had a part in provoking heated disputes within
the Soviet Composers' Union.
Works
- Intermezzo for orchestra (1958)
- String Quartet No. 1 (1958)
- Four Ukrainian Songs for mixed chorus and orchestra opus 6 (1959)
- Sonata for solo violin opus 8 (1959)
- Symphonic Frescoes from the cycle "It is not allowed to happen again" after Boris Prorokov opus 10 (1961)
- Five Poems of Vladimir Mayakovsky for baritone and piano opus 9 (1962)
- Symphonic Frescoes on a Theme of Boris Prorokov opus 10 (1961)
- Four Two-Part Inventions for piano opus 11A (1962)
- Five Characteristic Pieces for piano opus 11B (1962)
- "The Bear", chamber opera after Anton Chekhov (1963)
- "The Marriage Proposal", chamber opera after A. Chekhov (1964)
- Sextet for horns (1964)
- Trio for violin, double bass and piano (1964, new version 1975)
- "Microstructures" for oboe solo (1964, new version 1975)
- "Pastels" after P. Tyshyna for mezzo-soprano and four string instruments (violin, viola, cello, double-bass) (1964, revised 1975)
- Two a cappella choruses after Mayakovsky and Asseyev (1964)
- "From Japanese Haiku" for tenor, piccolo, flute, bassoon and xylophone (1964, revised 1975)
- "Constants" for four pianos, six percussion groups and solo violin (1964)
- Four Inventions, arrangement of piano pieces opus 11A for chamber orchestra (1965)
- "Epitaph to the Memory of Rainer Maria Rilke" for soprano, harp, celesta, guitar and bells (1965, revised 1975)
- Small Chamber Music No. 1 for fifteen strings (1966)
- "The Sea", melodrama after Saint-John Perse for narrator, chorus, organ and orchestra (1966-1970)
- "Marginalia on Heissenbuettel" for speaker, two trumpets, trombone and percussion (1967, revised 1975)
- Homöomorphie I-III for piano (No. 3 for two pianos) (1968-1969)
- "Ornaments" for oboe, viola and harp or guitar (1969, new version 1987)
- Homöomorphie IV for large orchestra (1970)
- Small Chamber Music No. 2 for oboe, harp and twelve strings (1971)
- Meditation and Pathetic Recitative for string orchestra (1972)
- Symphony No. 1 "Rex" (1973)
- Symphony No. 2 (1975)
- Five Character Pieces, transcription of opus 11B for orchestra (1975)
- "At St. John's Eve", symphony-legend after Gogol for large orchestra (1976)
- "Bucolic Strophes" for organ (1976)
- "Concorsuono" for solo french horn (1977)
- Symphony No. 3 "Zodiac" (1977)
- Concerto Misterioso for nine instruments (flute, clarinet, bassoon, antique cymbals, harpsichord, harp, violin, viola and cello) (1977)
- String Quartet No. 2 (1980)
- "The Night Blues" for guitar (1981)
- "Tango and Foxtrot" for guitar (1981)
- "Homages", seven pieces for guitar (1981)
- Three Pieces in an old style for guitar (1981)
- "When", introduction and nine miniatures after V. Khlebnikov for mezzo-soprano, three instrumental soli and twelve strings (1987)
- Für Elise-Zur Erinnerung for piano (1988)
- "Voices" for cello (1990)
- "Hlas I" for cello (1990)
- "Temnere Mortem" for four-part mixed chamber chorus a cappella after Skovoroda (1991)
- "Vorzeli", symphonic elegy for three orchestral groups (1992)
- "And It Will Be" for soprano, violin, clarinet, piano and Casio 100 tonebank synthesizer with additional percussion (1993)
- "Hlas II", orbituary for Dmitri Shostakovich for bass clarinet (1994)
Thanks to Robert Avak, O. Kuzyszyn and the composer for additional information
You can find more information on Hrabovsky at the composers website
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