Keldysh, Yuri (Vsevolodovich)

Keldysh, Yuri (Vsevolodovich), eminent Russian musicologist; b. St. Petersburg, Aug. 29, 1907. He was a student in music history of Ivanov- Boretsky at the Moscow Cons, (graduated, 1930; candidate degree, 1940; Ph.D., 1947, with the diss. Khudozhestvennoye mirovozzreniye V.V. Stasova [The Artistic Views of V.V. Stasov]). From 1930 to 1950 he taught at the Moscow Cons., where he became a prof, in 1948. He again served on its faculty from 1957. From 1950 to 1956 he was a teacher at the Cons, and from 1955 to 1957 was director of the Inst. of Music and Theater in Leningrad. He was ed. of the journal Sovetskaya muzika (1957–60) and of the valuable Muzikalnaya Entsiklopediya (6 vols., 1973-82). Keldysh was one of the foremost Russian musicologists of the Soviet era, and was the author of numerous articles and books.

Writings

Romansovaya lirika Musorgskovo (Mussorgsky’s Lyrical Songs; 1933); Russkaya klassicheskaya muzika (1945; 2^nd ed., enl., 1960); Istoriya russkoy muz’iki (History of Russian Music; 3 vols., 1947-54); ed. with M. Druskin, Ocherki pò istorii russkoy muz’iki 1790-1825 (Essays on the History of Russian Music 1790-1825; Leningrad, 1956); La musique russen en XIXe siècle (Neuchâtel, 1958); Russkaya sovetskaya muzika (1958); ed. Voprosi muz’ikoz-naniya (Questions of Musicology; 1960); Kritika i zhurnalistika: Sbornik statey (Criticism and Journalism: Collection of Articles; 1963); Russkaya muzika XVIII veka (Russian Music of the XVIII Century; 1965); 100 let Moskovskoy konservatorii (100 Years of the Moscow Cons.; 1966); Rakhmaninov i evo vremya (Rachmaninoff and his Time; 1973).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire