Boris Goltz

Boris Goltz was a Soviet composer and pianist. He was born in Tashkent on December 29, 1913, and from 1926 lived in Leningrad.

From 1927 to 1933 he studied at the Leningrad Central Music Technical School in the piano class of Maria Barinova and also at the instructor department of the 1st Music Technical School. At the same time, he worked as an accompanist in cinemas. In 1933 he entered the Leningrad Conservatory. He graduated from the conservatory in two specialties: in 1938 he completed the piano faculty under Leonid Nikolayev and N. Braun, and in 1940 he completed composition studies under Vladimir Pushkov, also studying with Boris Asafyev.

Goltz's talent was noticed already during his student years. His most widely recognized works were the cycle 24 Preludes for Piano and a string quartet. His legacy also includes a concerto for piano and orchestra, a Festive Overture for orchestra, pieces for violin and piano and for cello and piano, works for balalaika, an impromptu for variety orchestra, romances on poems by Alexander Pushkin, Alexander Blok, Alexander Churkin, and N. Braun, as well as music for the play Night Review and for several films.

He also worked in the genre of the mass song. Among his earlier songs were Siberian Rivers, Call, and Soviet Border Guard. His film music included scores for Miners, The Gardener, The Fourth Periscope, and The Railcar Leaves at Dawn.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Goltz volunteered for the front. In 1941-1942 he worked in the creative group attached to the Political Administration of the Baltic Fleet, which was engaged in creating mass songs. He wrote around twenty songs that were published and broadcast on radio in besieged Leningrad, including Oath, Song about Brinko, Song of Anger, Baltic Artillery Song, Prepare for Campaign, Baltic Sailors, Song of the 3rd Guards Regiment, Song of Revenge, Revenge of the Baltic Sailors, For the Honor of the Motherland, The Little Star Shines High in the Sky, and Song of the 55th Army. For the last of these, during the conditions of blockaded Leningrad, he was rewarded with a food ration.

Goltz died of starvation in besieged Leningrad on March 3, 1942, at the age of twenty-eight. His death came during the siege that also shaped the final period of his work and the wartime songs for which he became especially remembered.

Connections

This figure has 1 connection in the Music Lineage catalog.