Jurjāns, Andrejs (EN)

Jurjāns Andrejs, *30 September (18 September) 1856 Ērgli, †28 September 1922 Riga, Latvian composer, French horn player, and folklorist. From 1875 to 1882, he studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory; in 1880, he completed his organ studies under L. Homilius; in 1882, his French horn studies under F. Homilius; and in 1881, his composition studies under N. Rimsky-Korsakov. From 1882 to 1916, he taught music theory at the Music Society school in Kharkiv, but he regularly travelled to Latvia, where he collected folk songs. Together with his brothers, he founded a French horn quartet that performed frequently. Jurjāns also performed as an organist and conductor, including during the Latvian song festivals (1888, 1895, 1910). In 1913, Jurjāns’s brother, Pavuls, founded Latvia’s first opera ensemble in Riga. In 1917, Jurjāns returned to Riga.

In the history of Latvian music, Jurjāns’s compositional work and his contributions to folklore hold particular significance. Thanks to his work Latviešu tautas mūzikas materiāli (Materials of Latvian Folk Music), Jurjāns is considered the founder of Latvian musical folklore. Jurjāns often used the collected folk songs in his compositions and also arranged them for chorus or for voice and piano.

Literature: J. Vitols Jurjāns A. un viņa laikmets (“Andrejs Jurjāns and His Era”), in: Mūzikas vēsture, ed. J. Vitoliņš, Riga 1937; J. Graubiņs Jurjāns A. latviešu mūzikā, in: J.A. Kopotas dziesmas, ed. J. Graubiņs, Riga 1939; O. Grāvītis Jurjāns A., Riga 1953, translation into Russian 1955; J. Vitoliņš A. Jurjāns klassik latyszskoj muzyki, “Sowietskaja Muzyka” XX, 1956.