Biography
Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky (Russian: Исаак Осипович Дунаевский ; also transliterated as Dunaevski or Dunaevskiy; 30 January [O.S. 18 January] 1900 – 25 July 1955) was a Soviet film composer and conductor of the 1930s and 1940s, who composed music for operetta and film comedies, frequently working with the film director Grigori Aleksandrov. Dunayevsky was born to a Jewish family in Lokhvytsia in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Myrhorod Raion, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine) in 1900. He studied at the Kharkiv Musical School in 1910 where he studied violin under Konstanty Gorski and Joseph Achron. During this period he started to study the theory of music under Semyon Bogatyrev (1890–1960). He graduated in 1919 from the Kharkiv National Kotlyarevsky University of Arts. At first he was a violinist, the leader of the orchestra in Kharkov. Then he started a conducting career. In 1924 he went to Moscow to run the Theatre Hermitage. In 1929 he worked for the first time for a music hall ("To the icy place") with the Moscow music hall. Later, he worked in Leningrad (1929–1941) as a director and conductor of the Saint Petersburg Music Hall (1929–34), and then moved to Moscow to work on his own operettas and film music.
Dunayevsky wrote 14 operettas, 3 ballets, 3 cantatas, 80 choruses, 80 songs and romances, music for 88 plays and 42 films, 43 compositions for light music orchestra and 12 for jazz orchestra, 17 melodeclamations, 52 compositions for symphony orchestra and 47 piano compositions and a string quartet.
He was one of the first composers in the Soviet Union to start using jazz. He wrote the music for three of the most important films of the pre-war Stalinist era, Jolly Fellows, Circus and the film said to be Stalin's favorite film Volga-Volga, all directed by Grigori Aleksandrov.
In a reply to the British book The World of Music, he listed the following as his chief works: The Golden Valley operetta (1937), The Free Wind operetta (1947), and music to the films Circus (1935) and The Kuban Cossacks (1949).
He died of a heart attack in Moscow in 1955. His last piece, the operetta White Acacia (1955), was left unfinished at his death. It was completed by Kirill Molchanov and staged on 15 November 1955, in Moscow.
A previously unknown opera libretto Rachel (1943) by Mikhail Bulgakov, was later found in his archive. The libretto was based on Guy de Maupassant's Mademoiselle Fifi and was published in a book by Naum Shafer (see references and links below).
A book of his essays and memoirs was published in 1961.
Filmography
all 34
Movies 32
TV Shows 2
Writer 1
Rich Bride (2019)
Орлова и Александров (2015)
Choo-Choo-2 (2001)
No Return (1991)
In Search of Captain Grant (1985)
Вольный ветер (1983)
Wind of Freedom (1961)
Spring, Flowers and, of course... Love (1961)
White Acacia (1958)
Devotion (1954)
Variety Stars (1954)
The Boys from Leningrad (1954)
Friendship Triumphs (1951)
Cossacks of the Kuban (1950)
Spring (1947)
The Shining Path (1940)
My Love (1940)
Youth of Commanders (1940)
Концерт на экране (1940)
Цирк (1940)
Volga - Volga (1938)
In Memory of Sergo Ordzhonikidze (1937)
Teremok (1937)
Beethoven Concerto (1936)
Seekers of Happiness (1936)
Late for a Date (1936)
Capt. Grant's Family (1936)
Circus (1936)
The Goalkeeper (1936)
Way of the Ship (1935)
The Red Village (1935)
Three Comrades (1935)
Jolly Fellows (1934)
Первый взвод (1933)
Ratings
Information
Known ForSound
GenderMale
Birthday1900-01-30
Deathday1955-07-25 (55 years old)
Birth PlaceLokhvytsia, Ukraine
ChildrenMaksim Dunayevsky
SiblingsZinovy Dunayevsky, Semyon Dunayevsky
CitizenshipsRussian Empire, Soviet Union
Also Known AsИсаак Дунаевский, Isaak Dunaevskii, Isaak Dunaevskiy, Ісак Осипович Дунаєвський, Ісак Дунаєвський
AwardsStalin Prize, Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945", Honored art worker of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow", Order of the Badge of Honour, Order of the Red Star, Order of the Red Banner of Labour, People's Artist of the RSFSR
This article uses material from Wikipedia.
- Isaak Dunayevsky
- Filmography
- Information
- Related Persons