Arnold Alexandrovich Alshwang was a Soviet musicologist and music teacher. He was born in Kyiv on October 2, 1897.
He studied at a commercial school in Kyiv and graduated from the Kyiv Conservatory in 1920 as a pianist, in Heinrich Neuhaus’s class. In 1922, he completed composition studies with Reinhold Glière and Boleslav Yavorsky. He received a doctorate in arts in 1944.
From 1919 to 1921, Alshwang directed a military music school in Kyiv. He taught at the Kyiv Conservatory from 1923 to 1925 and at the Moscow Conservatory from 1930 to 1934. He later returned to music and teaching.
Alshwang published books on Claude Debussy in 1935, Alexander Scriabin in 1945, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1959. His book on Beethoven first appeared in 1940; he revised it as a monograph in 1952, and an expanded edition was published in 1963. A collection of his writings on works by Debussy and Maurice Ravel appeared posthumously in 1963.
He died in Moscow on July 28, 1960, and was buried at Vagankovo Cemetery.