Tobias, Rudolf

Born May 29,1873, in Käina, in what is now Hiiumaa Raion; died Oct. 29, 1918, in Berlin. Estonian composer and organist.

In 1897, Tobias graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied organ with L. F. Homilius and composition with N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. From 1898 to 1904 he worked in St. Petersburg as a choral director and organist. From 1904 to 1908 he taught in Tartu, where he founded the first Estonian string quartet, worked as a conductor and music critic, and, with A. Läte, organized concert programs. After 1910, Tobias lived in Paris, Leipzig, and Berlin, where he taught music theory at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik from 1912 to 1918 and gave concerts of his own music.

Tobias composed the oratorios lona (1909) and the unfinished This Side of Jordan, the cantata John Damascene (1897), various works for organ, the symphonic poems Kalevipoeg’s Dream (1912) and Kalevipoeg at the Gates of Hell (1912), the overture Julius Caesar (1896), and instrumental chamber works.