Heino Eller
Heino Eller was an Estonian and Soviet composer, violinist, and music teacher. He was born in 1887 in Dorpat, now Tartu, and died in Tallinn in 1970. He studied violin as a child and learned music theory privately. After completing secondary school in 1907, he studied violin, composition, and music theory at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where his composition and theory teacher was Vasily Kalafati. He also studied law at Saint Petersburg University.
From 1910 to 1920, Eller played violin in dramatic-theater orchestras, including the orchestra of the Petrograd Bolshoi Drama Theater. He taught violin at a music school from 1917 to 1920. From 1920 to 1940 he taught music theory and composition at the Higher Music School in Tartu and headed its theory and composition department. In 1940 he joined the Tallinn Conservatory as a professor and taught there until his death.
Most of Eller's works are instrumental. They combine features of early twentieth-century music and classical forms with elements of Estonian folk music, and his style drew close to Impressionism. His early works showed the influence of Edvard Grieg, Claude Debussy, and Alexander Scriabin. The symphonic poems Dawn (1920) and Night Calls (1921) introduced Impressionist sonorities, while Ghosts (1924) explored an Expressionist approach. His later music joined elements of different styles, including features of his own earlier works.
His works include three symphonies, five string quartets, two violin sonatas, four piano sonatas, and a violin concerto. Other notable pieces include Thirteen Pieces on Estonian Motifs (1941), the symphonic poems Flight of the Eagle (1949) and Singing Fields (1951), and Twelve Bagatelles (1963). He also wrote music for other instruments, as well as choral works, romances, and arrangements of folk songs.
Eller was an influential teacher whose students included E. Tubin, A. Pärt, V. Kapp, and A. Oit. He received the titles of People's Artist of the Estonian SSR and People's Artist of the USSR, and two State Prizes of the Estonian SSR. He was buried in Forest Cemetery in Tallinn.