Biography

Roman Ledenyov was a Soviet and Russian composer and educator. He was born on December 4, 1930, in Moscow, to a father who worked for the predecessor organization of the current Ministry of Agriculture and a mother who was a philologist. He studied composition with Messner and Shebalin at the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory. After graduating from the school, he enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory, where he initially studied with Rakov and later with Anatoly Alexandrov. He continued his studies with Anatoly Alexandrov at the Moscow Conservatory's postgraduate program, completing it in 1958. Ledenyov's career as an educator began as an assistant in the Music Theory Department of the Moscow Conservatory. The official website of the Moscow Conservatory and many sources state this period as 1956 to 1964, during his postgraduate studies. However, Ledenyov's memorial article "Memories of Musicologist Zuckerman" states, "After graduating from postgraduate school, I became an hourly-paid teacher in the Music Theory Department." Additionally, some sources indicate that he began teaching at his alma mater after completing his postgraduate studies, making the exact period of his assistantship uncertain. From 1978, he taught in the Composition Department of the same conservatory, serving as a professor from 1991 until his later years. From 2006, he also taught at the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory. He was a member of the Union of Soviet Composers and its successor organization, the Union of Russian Composers, serving as secretary from 1970-73 and 1995-2006. In 1995, he was awarded People's Artist of the Russian Federation. He passed away on August 15, 2019, in Moscow. His son, Andrei Ledenyov (b. 1959), is also a composer, primarily creating film music.

Musical Style

Ledenyov's compositional style changed significantly depending on the composers who influenced him. Works from the late 1940s to the early 1960s show similarities to Prokofiev, whom he admired during his student years. Ledenyov later recalled in his essay "His Music Lives" that "in my youth, Prokofiev's music completely captivated me, filling the space to the horizon... I began to greedily absorb this wonderful music." Works from this period include Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 1 (1952), and String Quartet, Op. 7 (1958). Subsequently, like some Soviet composers such as Denisov and Schnittke, he was drawn to avant-garde music. He was particularly strongly influenced by Webern, creating musical silences with meticulous attention to the spaces between sounds. Works from this period include Six Pieces for String Quartet and Harp, Op. 16 (1966), and Ten Sketches for Chamber Ensemble, Op. 17 (1967). In the 1970s, he returned to Russian tradition, which became Ledenyov's representative style. However, he created his own melodies based on the Russian spirit, rather than quoting folk music. He and the revered Sviridov dedicated works to each other, and when Sviridov passed away in 1998, Ledenyov wrote a memorial piece. During this period, he actively composed vocal works based on the poems of Russian poets, such as the song cycle Nekrasov's Notes for bass and piano, Op. 24 (1974), and From Russian Poetry for mixed choir, Op. 80 (2006). However, a similar style can be observed in works from other genres as well.

Children's Piano Pieces

Ledenyov wrote approximately 350 piano pieces for children, but often multiple pieces are assigned a single opus number, making it difficult to accurately estimate the individual composition years (for example, the number Op. 9-1 is assigned to 24 pieces). Currently, three piano pieces are published in Japan: "A Sad Event," "In the Deep Forest," and "A Good Quarrel." Among these, "A Sad Event" and "In the Deep Forest" are considered early works as they were published in 1962. It should be noted that "A Sad Event" is a free translation of the title, and the original title is "An Unpleasant Event." Musical Pictures, Op. 26, which includes "A Good Quarrel," is a large collection consisting of 105 pieces, composed over approximately 20 years starting from 1962. "A Good Quarrel" is assigned the number Op. 26-1 along with 24 other pieces, suggesting it was written relatively early.

References

• Skurko 2022 — Skurko, E. R. Roman Ledenyov and Sergei Prokofiev: Points of Contact // Problemy muzykal'noy nauki / Music Scholarship. 2022. No. 1. Pp. 38–53.
• Ledenyov, Roman Semenovich [Electronic resource] / P. I. Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory. - Available at: http://www.mosconsv.ru/ru/person/8950 (accessed 2024-08-30).