Alyaksei Turankou (1886-1958) - Belarusian composer

[Christopher]

I've posted up a few pieces by Alyaksei Turankou (1886-1958 - Alexei Turenkov in Russian).  I'm particularly pleased to have found his "Doina - Moldavian Melody" - I've heard it played so often by street musicians all over Russia/Belarus/Ukraine and Moldova and always wondered what it is.  A version of it also featured in the black and white film "The Scarlet Empress" about Catherine the Great, in the wedding feast scene - I even posted up here asking if anyone knew what it was! - http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,2090.msg24955.html#msg24955

[Christopher]

Here's some biographical information on Turankou - information taken from both his Belarusian and Russian wikipedia pages.  Interestingly the Russian one completely omits that he was arrested, convicted by the NKVD and sent to the Gulag....

Born January 21, 1886 in St. Petersburg into a peasant family. From 1911 to1914 he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in composition, was a student of composer Alexey Liadov and Nikolai Sokolov.

From 1918 Turenkov lived and worked in Gomel in Belarus where he was in charge of the music section of the city department of public education. He also taught at the local music school, played a part in the Gomel Symphony Orchestra, directed the choral amateur groups, later headed the music section of the Gomel oblast department of education. In 1934 he moved to Minsk where he was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR. During the Second World War, he remained in occupied territory. In 1941-1944, he was an employee at the publisher VSHPLM (Publisher of School Textbooks and Literature for Young People) in Minsk and at the publisher Konstantin Ezovitov in Riga.

He was arrested in Minsk on 22.07.1944 and convicted by the extrajudicial bodies of the NKVD on 06.23.1945 as a "helper of the German occupiers". Sentenced to 10 year hard labour and 5 years in prison with confiscation of property rights. He was transported to one of the concentration camps of the Gulag, where, according to A. Tsarankov, he almost died of hunger. He was released by 1947 and rehabilitated by the judicial board for criminal cases of the Supreme Court of the BSSR on 10.21.1959.

Turenkov made a great contribution to the development of Belarusian musical art, and became one of the founders of the choir genres, romance and popular songs in the Belarusian music. He was the author of a large number of pieces of music, including operas, ballets, suites, cantatas, orchestral works, songs, (including poems by A. Prokofiev, L. Oshanin, M. Rilsky, V. Lebedev-Kumach, E. Dolmatovski, M. Matusovsky , A. Zharov, Ya. Kupala, M. Tank and other well-known Soviet poets). He was the composer of music to films "The Fire Years" and "The Janusz Family." In 1940 Turenkov was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Belarusian SSR.

He wrote the opera "The Flower of Happiness" (libretto by V. Borisevich, P. Brovka and P. Glebka, 1939), "Clear Dawn", and the ballet "Forest Fairy Tale". He wrote music for many dramatic performances ("Pinsk gentry" and others.) and for movies. He arranged Belarusian folk songs. Of particular importance in his work is the opera "The Flower of Happiness", which is defined by poetry, lyricism, coupled with national folk music, and music performance precision in the depiction of images and witty folk humour

He died September 27, 1958 and is buried in the Military Cemetery in Minsk.

[Pen Dragon]

I've posted up a few pieces by Alyaksei Turankou (1886-1958 - Alexei Turenkov in Russian).  I'm particularly pleased to have found his "Doina - Moldavian Melody" - I've heard it played so often by street musicians all over Russia/Belarus/Ukraine and Moldova and always wondered what it is.

This one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7iKIdenSAg

It's an arrangement of Moldavian/Romanian folk song.

[Christopher]

I've posted up a few pieces by Alyaksei Turankou (1886-1958 - Alexei Turenkov in Russian).  I'm particularly pleased to have found his "Doina - Moldavian Melody" - I've heard it played so often by street musicians all over Russia/Belarus/Ukraine and Moldova and always wondered what it is.

This one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7iKIdenSAg

It's an arrangement of Moldavian/Romanian folk song.

Yes, that's the same youtube link as I have seen.  So you are saying that the melody is a Moldavian/Romanian folk song, and that Turankou simply wrote an arrangement of it?

[Pen Dragon]

Exactly.