Smolenskii, Stepan

Smolenskii, Stepan Vasil’evich 

Born Oct. 8 (20), 1848, in Kazan; died July 20 (Aug. 8), 1909, in Vasil’sursk. Russian musicologist, paleographer, choir director, and educator.

Smolenskii graduated from the faculties of law and philology of the University of Kazan and taught singing at a teachers’ seminary in Kazan. From 1889 to 1901 he was director of the Synod School of Church Singing and a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. From 1901 to 1903 he directed the Court Choir in St. Petersburg.

A researcher and expert on church singing, Smolenskii contributed much to the study and collection of old Russian music. His works included A General Study of the Historical and Musical Significance of the Song Manuscripts of the Solovetskii Monastery Library and of the Singer’s Primer of Aleksandr Mezenets (1887) and On Notation in Old Russian Singing (1901). Smolenskii also published A Primer of the Znamennoe Penie of Aleksandr Mezenets (1888).

REFERENCES

Pamiati S. V. Smolenskogo (collection). St. Petersburg, 1910.
Lokshin, D. L. Zamechatel’nye russkie khory i ikh dirizhery, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1963. [23–1850–]