Yavorsky, Boleslav

Yavorsky, Boleslav [Яворський, Болеслав; Javors'kyj], b 22 June 1877 in Kharkiv, d 26 November 1942 in Saratov, RSFSR. Musicologist, composer, pianist, and educator. He graduated from the Kyiv Music School (1898) and the Moscow Conservatory (1903) and served as professor of the Kyiv Conservatory (1916–21) and the Lysenko Music and Drama Institute (1918–21) and director of the People’s Conservatory in Kyiv (1917–21). He was appointed professor at the Moscow Conservatory (1938–42). His students included Mykola Leontovych, Hryhorii Verovka, Mykhailo Verykivsky, Pylyp Kozytsky, Vasyl Verkhovynets, and Eleonora Skrypchynska. His musical theories are promulgated in Stroenie muzykal'noi rechi (The Structure of Musical Speech, 3 vols, 1908) and Struktura melodii (The Structure of Melody, 1929) and analyzed in G. McQuere’s Russian Theoretical Thought in Music (1983). He also composed an opera, The Tower of October (1930), and some piano and vocal music.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]