Nicolas Slonimsky facts for kids
Nicolas Slonimsky (born April 27, 1894 – died December 25, 1995) was a famous musician. He was born in Russia as Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy. Later, he became an American citizen. Nicolas Slonimsky was many things: a conductor, a writer, a pianist, and a composer. He was also a lexicographer, which means he wrote dictionaries, especially about music.
He is best known for his books about music. These include the Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns. He also wrote the Lexicon of Musical Invective. Slonimsky edited Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, a very important music dictionary.
Contents
His Amazing Life
Early Years in Russia and Europe
Nicolas Slonimsky was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His family was Jewish, but his parents later joined the Orthodox faith. Nicolas was baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. His aunt, Isabelle Vengerova, was his first piano teacher. She later helped start the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
He grew up in a family of smart and educated people. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, he moved south. He went to Kiev, then to Constantinople, and finally to Paris. Many other Russian musicians and his sister, Yulia Slonimskaya Sazonova, had already moved there. He worked as a piano player for the conductor Serge Koussevitzky. From 1921 to 1922, he toured Europe with singer Vladimir Rosing. In 1923, Rosing became the opera director at the Eastman School of Music in New York. He invited Slonimsky to join him there.
Nicolas's younger brother, Mikhail Slonimsky, stayed in Russia and became a writer. His nephew, Sergei Slonimsky, became a composer.
Becoming a Conductor
In Rochester, New York, Slonimsky kept studying music. He learned about composing and conducting. His teachers were Albert Coates and Eugene Goossens. He played piano for Rosing's singing concerts, including one at Carnegie Hall in 1924. After two years, he moved to Boston. There, Koussevitzky was leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Slonimsky became his pianist and secretary.
During this time, Slonimsky taught music theory. He taught at the Boston Conservatory and the Malkin Conservatory. He also started writing music articles for newspapers and magazines.
Slonimsky began writing his own songs and other pieces. He performed as a piano soloist and helped singers. In 1927, he started the Boston Chamber Orchestra. He asked modern composers to write music for it. Slonimsky loved new music. Because of this, he met composers like Henry Cowell and Charles Ives. He led the very first performances of many important works. These included Ives' Three Places in New England in 1931. He also conducted Edgard Varèse's Ionisation in 1933. This piece was for thirteen percussion (drum) players.
In 1931, Slonimsky married Dorothy Adlow. She was an art critic for a Boston newspaper. They got married in Paris, and Varèse was the best man. Their daughter, Electra, later put together his letters and writings.
In 1932, Slonimsky led concerts in Havana, Cuba. These concerts featured music by Ives, Cowell, and others. He then traveled to Paris, Berlin, and Budapest to conduct more concerts. He said that conducting was "the nearest approximation to music in motion." Because his tours were so popular, he was asked to conduct five concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in 1933. These concerts were talked about a lot and got different reviews.
Later Life and Work
In 1964, Slonimsky's wife died. He then moved to Los Angeles, California. He taught at UCLA for three years. He also gave many talks about music. He would introduce himself by spelling his name: "Slonimsky. S-L-O as in slow, N-I-M as in nimble, S-K-Y as in sky." He had a funny sense of humor. He was often a guest on radio and TV shows, like Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.
He became friends with the famous musician Frank Zappa. In 1981, Slonimsky even played some of his own music at a Zappa concert. He named his cat "Grody-to-the-Max" after learning the phrase from Zappa's daughter.
Slonimsky wrote a book called Lectionary of Music. He called it a "reading dictionary." In 1988, he published his life story, Perfect Pitch. It was full of fun stories about famous musicians he knew.
For his 98th birthday, he visited St. Petersburg, Russia. He took part in a music festival there. A movie about his life, A Touch of Genius, was shown on his 100th birthday. It included videos from this visit. Nicolas Slonimsky died in Los Angeles in 1995. He was 101 years old.
His Musical Compositions
Piano Music
- Minitudes
- Variations on a Kindergarten Tune
- Yellowstone Park Suite
- Russian Nocturne
- Two Etudes
- Silhouettes Iberiennes
- Russian Prelude
- Modinha
- Variations on a Brazilian Tune (My Toy Balloon)
- Studies in Black and White
Chamber Music
- Muss Perpetuo
- Suite (Сюита)
- Piccolo Divertimento
- Quaquaversal Suite
Commercial and Satire Music
- Five Advertising Songs
- Gravestones at Hancock, New Hampshire (1945)
- A Very Great Musician
- I Owe a Debt to A Monkey (A Humorous Encore Song)
Books and Other Writings
Books He Wrote
- Music Since 1900 (1937)
- Supplement to Music since 1900 (1986)
- Music of Latin America (1945)
- Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns (1947)
- The Road to Music New York (1947)
- A Thing or Two about Music (1948)
- Lexicon of Musical Invective (1953)
- Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1958)
- The Concise Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1987)
- Perfect Pitch (1988)
- Lectionary of Music (1989)
Collected Writings
- Nicolas Slonimsky: The First Hundred Years (1994)
- The Great Composers and Their Works (Reissued as The Listener's Companion) (2000)
- Nicolas Slonimsky: Writings on Music (2004)
- Dear Dorothy - Letters from Nicolas Slonimsky to Dorothy Adlow (2012)
See also
In Spanish: Nicolas Slonimsky para niños
