Dovgan', Vladimir Borisovich (b Polyarnïy, Murmansk district, 24 March 1953). Russian composer and pianist. He graduated from the Gnesin Music Academy in 1976, having studied composition with G.I. Litinsky and the piano with L.E. Brumberg. From 1977 he has taught composition at the Gnesin Music Lyceum. He was deputy chairman of the Moscow Union of Composers (1987–92), chairman of the board of the Music Fund for Russia (1988–90) and a piano teacher at the Bogoslovsky Institute.
Vocal and instrumental genres are prominent in Dovgan''s output. Stylistically, his music is reminiscent of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Skryabin and Prokofiev, but also bears comparison with the work of a closer contemporary, Boris Chaykovsky. He finds new compositional resources in Ukrainian folk music which he heard as a child and during expeditions in the Trans-Carpathian region where he notated about 100 songs. The cycle Iz ukrainskoy narodnoy poe.zii ('From Ukrainian Folk Poetry') is based on authentic melodies; the organic and original way in which he uses folk sources is evident in the Kontsertnaya rapsodiya for piano and wind orchestra, Verkhovenskaya, a sonata-rhapsody for bayan and the cantata Chudove dzherelo ('The Miraculous Source') on folk texts in the Carpathian dialect of the Ukrainian language.
In his vocal music Dovgan' relies on the traditions of the 19th-century Russian romance: he combines these with the romantic lyricism of Schubert and Schumann in his cycles to poems by Anna Akhmatova and Maksim Voloshin. His Shest' romansov na stikhi App. Grigor'yeva ('Six Romances to Poems by Appolon Grigor'yev') have been described as a kind of Russian Dichterliebe. In the 1980s he turned to large-scale symphonic works with the lyrical and psychological First Symphony, the epic third and fourth piano concertos, and the monumentally dramatic Second Symphony which he dedicated to his parents, 'fighters of the Great Patriotic War'. The 1990s saw him turning to religious themes and old Russian sources such as the znamennïy chant in works such as the concerto for mixed choir Iz triodi postnoy ('From the Triodon of Lent') and other liturgical canticles to Orthodox texts. Dovgan' makes professional appearances as a pianist and writes much for the piano, including concertos, sonatas and numerous other pieces.
Vladimir Dovgan
Biography
Dovgan', Vladimir Borisovich (b Polyarnïy, Murmansk district, 24 March 1953). Russian composer and pianist. He graduated from the Gnesin Music Academy in 1976, having studied composition with G.I. Litinsky and the piano with L.E. Brumberg. From 1977 he has taught composition at the Gnesin Music Lyceum. He was deputy chairman of the Moscow Union of Composers (1987–92), chairman of the board of the Music Fund for Russia (1988–90) and a piano teacher at the Bogoslovsky Institute.
Vocal and instrumental genres are prominent in Dovgan''s output. Stylistically, his music is reminiscent of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Skryabin and Prokofiev, but also bears comparison with the work of a closer contemporary, Boris Chaykovsky. He finds new compositional resources in Ukrainian folk music which he heard as a child and during expeditions in the Trans-Carpathian region where he notated about 100 songs. The cycle Iz ukrainskoy narodnoy poe.zii ('From Ukrainian Folk Poetry') is based on authentic melodies; the organic and original way in which he uses folk sources is evident in the Kontsertnaya rapsodiya for piano and wind orchestra, Verkhovenskaya, a sonata-rhapsody for bayan and the cantata Chudove dzherelo ('The Miraculous Source') on folk texts in the Carpathian dialect of the Ukrainian language.
In his vocal music Dovgan' relies on the traditions of the 19th-century Russian romance: he combines these with the romantic lyricism of Schubert and Schumann in his cycles to poems by Anna Akhmatova and Maksim Voloshin. His Shest' romansov na stikhi App. Grigor'yeva ('Six Romances to Poems by Appolon Grigor'yev') have been described as a kind of Russian Dichterliebe. In the 1980s he turned to large-scale symphonic works with the lyrical and psychological First Symphony, the epic third and fourth piano concertos, and the monumentally dramatic Second Symphony which he dedicated to his parents, 'fighters of the Great Patriotic War'. The 1990s saw him turning to religious themes and old Russian sources such as the znamennïy chant in works such as the concerto for mixed choir Iz triodi postnoy ('From the Triodon of Lent') and other liturgical canticles to Orthodox texts. Dovgan' makes professional appearances as a pianist and writes much for the piano, including concertos, sonatas and numerous other pieces.