Eduard Artemyev
Eduard Artemyev was a Soviet and Russian composer, film composer, and musician, known especially for his scores for films by Andrei Tarkovsky, Nikita Mikhalkov, and Andrei Konchalovsky. He was born on November 30, 1937, in Novosibirsk, where his Moscow-born parents were temporarily staying. His father was an engineer and his mother a homemaker. At the age of seven, Artemyev was sent to Moscow to live with his uncle.
He received his first musical training at the Moscow Choral School and graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1960, having studied composition with Yuri Shaporin. That same year he met engineer Evgeny Murzin, creator of one of the world's earliest synthesizers. Artemyev subsequently devoted himself to sound synthesis and electronic music, experimenting at the Alexander Scriabin Museum studio, working as a programmer at a research institute, and collaborating with the Soviet Union's first experimental electronic-music studio.
In 1968, at the International Congress of Electronic Music in Florence, Artemyev's electronic compositions were presented on Murzin's distinctive photoelectronic ANS synthesizer. He later served as president of the Electroacoustic Music Association under UNESCO, founded the Russian Association of Electroacoustic Music in 1990, and was a member of the executive committee of the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music. He also lectured and gave master classes for composition students at the Moscow Conservatory, and from 1964 to 1985 was a senior instructor of orchestration at the Moscow Institute of Culture.
Film work brought Artemyev broad recognition. On the advice of composer Vano Muradeli, he provided sound for the 1961 film Toward a Dream, then went on to write music for more than 200 feature, documentary, and animated films. His notable scores include those for Tarkovsky's Solaris (1972), Mirror (1975), and Stalker (1979), as well as films by Mikhalkov, Konchalovsky, and Vadim Abdrashitov. His film music was collected on the 1998 album Territory of Love.
Many of Artemyev's best-known songs originated in, or drew upon, his film scores, including “Hang-Gliding Flight” and “Somewhere the Tango Has Fallen Silent.” His songs and ballads were performed by Gennady Trofimov, Valery Leontyev, Zhanna Rozhdestvenskaya, and Roza Babayan. With his group Boomerang, he created Warmth of the Earth, an album combining electronic rock and symphonic music, with lyrics by Yuri Rytkheu and vocals by Zhanna Rozhdestvenskaya. He also wrote the rock opera Crime and Punishment, based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, for the vocal-instrumental ensemble Singing Guitars.
His composition “O Sport, You Are Eternal Progress” was used at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Material from his 1980 cantata Ode to the Good Herald was later reworked into the 2018 mass Nine Steps toward Transfiguration. An adapted version of his theme from the film Siberiade appeared in PPK's “Resurrection,” which reached number three on the UK singles chart in 2002. His music also featured in the ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics, including themes from A Friend Among Strangers, a Stranger Among Friends and Stalker.
Artemyev received numerous distinctions for his music, including the Golden Mask for composer’s work in musical theater for Crime and Punishment in 2017, several Nika awards and Golden Eagle awards for best film music, and the Shostakovich Prize for his contribution to world musical culture. His recordings were issued by Electroshock Records, a label founded in the late 1990s by his son, Artemy Artemyev. Music written for Nikita Mikhalkov's unrealized film Chocolate Revolver became Artemyev's final film work and was used in Nikolay Lebedev's Nuremberg.
Artemyev died in Moscow on December 29, 2022, aged 85, from complications caused by pneumonia. He was buried at Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow.