Aleksander Gurilyov

Aleksander Lvovich Gurilyov (; – ) was a Russian composer, pianist, violinist, and music teacher who largely enriched the traditional romantic Russian repertoire through his solid technical accomplishments. He composed well over 200 pieces imbued with romantic, sentimental moods and subtle lyricism which enjoyed great success in Russia. He wrote numerous morceaux (short pieces) in a proto-dramatic, lyric declamatory style, all pre-dating the aesthetics of Dargomyzhsky, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky.

Family Aleksander was born in Semyonovskoye, Serpukhov Oblast into the family of serf musicians in the court of Count V.G. Orlov. His father, Lev Gurilyov, was the first to teach him music, beginning with rudimentary introductions.

Training Aleksander was raised as a member of the court of Count Vladimir Orlov's country estate Otrada, near Moscow. He was taught violin by his father, Lev Gurilyov, a serf musician and kapellmeister in the orchestra of the Orlovs. Together with his children, he took lessons in piano playing from Russian-based pianist of Irish origin John Field and later studied music theory under the guidance of Iosif I. Genishta.

Despite the rapid and sustained success of his published songs and compositions, Gurilyov spent most of his adult life in poverty, earning his keep as a private music teacher and editor. In his last years, he became paralyzed and suffered from mental illness, which eventually became the cause of his death, eventually passing in Moscow in 1858. He wrote over 200 pieces, of which 50 are either folk pieces or were written using similar effects. Many of his songs have been sung by the Don Cossack Choir and other renowned, Russian vocal groups.

Mother, My Dear The Gray-Winged Swallow Hovers The Bell Is Ringing Monotonously Little Sarafan (words by Aleksandr Polezhayev) La Fontaine Song Of The Coachman The Lovely Bird Has Flown The Swallow Circles Avert Your Eyes, Don't Look! I Told You When We Parted The Maiden's Sorrow Monotonously Rings the Little Bell You Can Not Understand My Grief A Toy Heart (words by Eduard Ivanovich Guber) The Prayer (words by Mikhail Lermontov) You Do Not Sing, Nightingale (words by Aleksey Koltsov) A Girl's Sadness (words by Aleksey Koltsov) Separation (At the Dawn of Hazy Youth) Variations on Do Not Awaken Her at Dawn of Alexander Varlamov Do Not Torture Me, My Darling from the opera Ivan Susanin of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka