Zataevich, Aleksandr

Born Mar. 8 (20), 1869, in Bolkhov, present-day Orel Oblast; died Dec. 6, 1936, in Moscow. Soviet musician, ethnologist, and composer. People’s Artist of the Kazakh SSR (1923).

Zataevich received his early musical education at a military academy in Orel. From 1904 to 1915 he served in Warsaw, where he was a music critic for the newspaper Varshavskii dnevnik (Warsaw Diary). After 1920 he lived in Orenburg. His activities became focused on the musical culture of the Kazakh people. Zataevich collected and wrote down over 2,300 folk songs and instrumental compositions (kiui). His principal works, 1,000 Songs of the Kirghiz [Kazakh] People (1925, 2nd ed., 1963) and 500 Kazakh Songs and Kiui (1931), were the first collections of Kazakh musical folklore. Many Soviet composers use these materials in their works. Zataevich also wrote piano music.