Ilya Sats (1875-1912, Russia)

[Christopher]

I have posted in the downloads section some music by this Russian composer (born in Chernobyl, yes that one!).  He is very low-profile and appears mostly to have written incidental music for theatre productions, one of which (Bluebird for the play by Maeterlinck) remains fairly popular in Russia to the current day.  His page on the website of the Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT) reads as follows (google translate):

Ilya Alexandrovich Sats

(18.4.1875, Chernobyl, Kiev province - 11.10.1912, Moscow)

Composer. Studied at the Moscow Conservatory under S. I. Taneyev. He dropped out in 1899 to take part in the relief of the hungry on the Volga organized by Leo Tolstoy. Under suspicion of anti-government activities, he first went abroad, and then (as if to prevent deportation) - to Siberia. Upon returning to Moscow through Sulerzhitsky, he established close contacts with the Moscow Art Theater (he graduated from the conducting class of the Philharmonic School in 1907, already working here). One of the founders of the Studio on Povarskaya (head of the music section, music for "Death of Tentagil" by Maeterlinck). After the studio was closed, Stanislavsky called him to the Moscow Art Theater. Sats was the author of the musical solution for the performances "The Drama of Life" and "The Life of a Man" (1907), "Blue Bird" (1908), "Anatema" (1909), "Miserere" (1910), "Life in the Paws" (1911). In "My Life in Art" there is a separate chapter "I. A. Sats and L. A. Sulerzhitsky ". "I think," writes Stanislavsky, "that during the entire existence of the theater, I. A. Sats was the first to show an example of how one should relate to music in our dramatic art. Before starting work, he attended all rehearsals, was directly involved as a director in the study of the play and in the development of the production plan. Devoted to all the subtleties of the general plan, he understood and felt no worse than us, where, i.e. in what place of the play, for what, i.e. whether to help the director, for the general mood of the play, or to help the actor who lacks certain elements to convey certain parts of the role, or in order to reveal the main idea of ��the play, his music was needed. The essence, the quintessence of each rehearsal work, the composer framed and recorded in a musical theme or accords, which were the material for future music. He wrote it at the very last moment, when it was impossible to wait any longer. [...] His music has always been a necessary and integral part of the whole performance ". Sats from 1906 until the end of his days was on the staff of the Art Theater. As a composer, he also collaborated with the Ancient Theater in St. Petersburg (The Play about Robin and Marion, The Act about Theophile, The Brothers Today, season 1907/08; Calderon's Purgatory of St. Patrick, season 1911/12). He also worked for the Maly Theater, for the theater of V. F. Komissarzhevskaya. Shortly before his early death, he negotiated with Reinhardt about "Macbeth" and "Tempest". Suffering from severe depression, expressing the tragedy of his understanding of life in the music for "Hamlet" (staged by Craig, 1911), Sats was drawn to the spicy gaiety of cabaret culture, participated in its business endeavors. wrote opera parodies ("Revenge of Love", "Eastern Sweets"), worked in "The Bat", "Crooked Mirror", invented numbers for skits. The compilers of the collection of memoirs "Ilya Sats" (Moscow - Pg., 1923) tried to consolidate its complex appearance.



See also Russian wikipedia - https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сац,_Илья_Александрович
or Ukrainian - https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сац_Ілля_Олександрович

[semloh]

Christopher, thank you for all those downloads. You have been busy on our behalf!
Sats' Blue Bird is especially charming. Those Latvian archives are a rich resource!

[Christopher]

I'm glad you like Semloh! The benefits of having flu - you suddenly have the bandwidth to do a good old trawl which I always rather enjoy.

[Christopher]

I have just posted in the Downloads section a lovely little piece for violin and orchestra - "After Tears", a Jewish folk-song from Sats's incidental music to the play "Miserere". Very Jewish in style, just over 3 minutes long.

I found a note on an aution site selling the score which says "Ilya Sats is one of the founders of Jewish ethnography in Russia. Jewish folk melodies collected on trips around Ukraine were used in the musical accompaniment of the play "Miserere" based on the play by Semyon Yushkevich."

The recording is from 1928.