Gurilev, Alexandr

Born Aug. 22 (Sept. 3), 1803, in Moscow; died there Aug. 30 (Sept. 11), 1858. Russian composer, pianist, and teacher. Son of the serf musician Lev Stepanovich Gurilev (1770–1844), conductor and violinist in Count V. G. Orlov’s orchestra.

Gurilev studied with his father (violin), J. Field (piano), and I. I. Genishta (music theory). He was freed in 1831 and lived in Moscow as a composer and teacher (he taught piano and singing). He is known primarily for his lyrical love songs and songs about everyday life that were extremely popular among the city’s lower classes. Among the best-known are “Mother, My Dear,” “The Gray-Winged Swallow Hovers,” “The Bell Is Ringing Monotonously,” “Little Sarafan,” and “Separation” (“At the Dawn of Hazy Youth”). Gurilev also wrote treatments of folk songs and piano works, creating dances and virtuoso pieces for concerts (variations of A. E. Barlamov’s love song “Do Not Awaken Her at Dawn” and the trio “Do Not Torture Me, My Darling” from I. Glinka’s opera Ivan Susanin).