Davidenko, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich

Born Apr. 1 (13), 1899. in Odessa; died May I, 1934, in Moscow. Soviet composer.

Davidenko graduated in 1929 from the Moscow Conservatory, where he had studied with A. D. Kastal’skii and R. M. Glière. From 1925 to 1929 he headed the Production Collective of Student Composers of the Moscow Conservatory (Prokoll). He worked actively with amateur musical groups and directed the performances of large choral groups during festivities. He was the author of many popular Soviet songs of the 1920’s and supported the establishment of revolutionary themes as an integral part of Soviet music. His choral compositions include “At the Tenth Verst” and “The Seething Street” from the collective oratorio The Path of October by Prokoll (1927) and the chorus “The Raising of the Wagon” from the unfinished opera The Year 1919 (1929; staged, 1931). He wrote songs to the words of N. N. Aseev (“Budenny’s Cavalry Army,” “The First Cavalry Army,” and “The Little Rifle”), D. Bednyi (“They Wanted to Beat Us Down”), and A. A. Zharov, M. A. Svetlov, and other poets. His works also include romantic ballads to the words of I. P. Utkin, reworkings of old Russian revolutionary songs, versions of Chechen melodies for piano, and the opera The Year 1905 (with B. S. Shekhter; performed on radio in 1935).