Alexander Taneyev

Alexander Taneyev was a Russian Empire statesman, courtier, and amateur composer, as well as Ober-Hofmeister of the Imperial Court. He was born in St. Petersburg on January 17, 1850, into the Taneyev family. His father was S. A. Taneyev, and his mother, Anna Vasilyevna, was the daughter of Major General V. A. Bibikov. He graduated from the Imperial St. Petersburg University.

Taneyev built a major career in state service and at court. He held the ranks of chamber junker, chamberlain, secretary of state, and finally Ober-Hofmeister of the Court of His Imperial Majesty. From 1896 to 1917 he served as chief administrator of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery, where his father had also served for many years. He was a member of the State Council from 1907 to 1917 and an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences from 1902. He also worked on charitable and administrative committees, including bodies overseeing petition review, workhouses, shelters for children, the service and awards of civil officials, and aid for deserving civil servants, widows, and orphans.

According to the article, Taneyev had considerable influence on the imperial couple. A. A. Mosolov described him as broadly educated, an outstanding musician, very intelligent and skillful, and a true courtier who had risen to the top of the hierarchy after inheriting his administrative post from his father. In 1903 he and his wife took part in the famous costume ball.

As a musician, Taneyev came from a musical family: his father was a passionate amateur composer, and his mother played the piano excellently. He received a very solid musical education at home. He studied composition theory with Friedrich Reichel in Dresden, and later in St. Petersburg with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexei Petrov; he also benefited from the advice of Balakirev, who arranged two of Taneyev's piano waltzes for concert performance.

Taneyev's compositions enjoyed success in Russia and abroad. Among his published works were the one-act opera Cupid's Revenge to a libretto by T. Shchepkina-Kupernik, the Symphony No. 2 in B minor, two orchestral suites, two mazurkas for orchestra, a ceremonial march for orchestra, two string quartets, piano pieces, works for violin with piano or orchestra including Rêverie, pieces for cello and clarinet, duets and romances for voice with piano, and choruses both a cappella and with orchestra. In manuscript remained his Symphony No. 1, the symphonic picture Alyosha Popovich, and other works. The opera Cupid's Revenge was performed at the Hermitage in the presence of members of the imperial family.

He also collected Russian folk songs. This activity led in 1900 to his appointment, after T. Filippov, as chairman of the song commission at the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, which organized expeditions to collect folk songs.

Taneyev was married from September 19, 1882, to Nadezhda Ilarionovna Tolstaya, daughter of General I. N. Tolstoy and heiress to the Rozhdestveno estate near Moscow. They had several children, including Anna Vyrubova. Alexander Taneyev died in Petrograd on February 7, 1918, and was buried at Tikhvin Cemetery.

Connections

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