ALEXANDER
(b. St. Petersburg, Russia, 21 Jan 1899; d. Paris, France, 29 Sept 1977)

"My papa was avant-garde for his generation: in Russia he defended the newest experiments of Debussy and Ravel. When I was young, I was also avant-garde, that is, for my generation. My first symphony was hissed by the audience and panned by the critics, but both it and I survived. Today my two avant-garde compsoer-sons are continuing the tradition. It was to my great delight that they wished to study with Stockhausen and Boulez. They are striking out in their own directions, and what they are doing is fascinating to me." - Alexander Tcherepnin

Alexander Tcherepnin began playing the piano and composing at a very early age, stimulated by his father Nikolai, and the influential artists and musicians who frequented their home (among them Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Diaghilev). he studied in St. Petersburg, Tbilisi (Georgia) and Paris, moving with his family to escape the increasingly threatening Revolution. From Paris in 1922, he launched an international career as a pianist-composer. during tours to the Orient, 1934-37, Alexander taught young Chinese and Japanese composers and founded the Colelction Tcherepnine in Tokyo for hte publication of their music. In Shanghai, he met the Chinese pianist Hsien Ming Lee, who later became his wife. During 1949-69 he taught composition and piano at De Paul University in Chicago. From 1964 until his death, he maintained residences in New York and Paris, continuing to compose and tour as a pianist and conductor.

Alexander's compositional style is marked by his self-described search for a moe conscious and effective expression of the sounds "heard going on within me." Alexander described his compositions until 1921 as "instinctive." During 1921-33, his interest turned to larger forms, polyphonic complexities and experimentation. His early fascination with the ambiguity of the major-minor triad and the modal possibilities suggested by it led to the formulation of a nine-tone scale (C, Db, Eb, E, F, G, Ab, A, B; the superimposing of two major-minor triads). He also developed "interpoint," a system of polyphony which thematically presents rhythmic units. String Quartet no.2, op.40 is representative of this period.

After the war, Alexander wrote: "... The most important goal for the composer seemed now to serve humanity, to help unite people by works of art, to try to bring understanding, beauty and balance to shaken minds. ... The composer absorbs what humanity gives to him and gives it back to his community in the form of a work of art." With this new responsibility towards humanity, he spent his American years consolidating and developing the previous aspects of his style. The Duo for Two Flutes, op.108 is the last work Alexander finished. The work is a prime example of the consummation of nine-step materials, interpuntal writing and folk music motives. Alexander considered the Duo an important work and told his wife that he had "given much time and thought to it."

More about Alexander at the Tcherepnin Society website.