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Tikhon Khrennikov

Tikhon Nikolayevich Khrennikov (Russian: Тихон Николаевич Хренников; 10 June [O.S. 28 May] 1913 – 14 August 2007) was a Russian and Soviet composer, pianist, and General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers (1948–1991), who was also known for his political activities.[1] He wrote three symphonies, four piano concertos, two violin concertos, two cello concertos, operas, operettas, ballets, chamber music, incidental music and film music.[2]

Tikhon Khrennikov at the Bolshoi Theatre in 2003

During the 1930s, Khrennikov was already being hailed as a leading Soviet composer. In 1948, Andrei Zhdanov, the leader of the anti-formalism campaign, nominated Khrennikov as Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers. He held this influential post until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Biography

Early years

Tikhon Khrennikov was the youngest of ten children, born into a family of horse traders in the town of Yelets, Oryol Governorate, Russian Empire (now in Lipetsk Oblast in central Russia).

He learned guitar and mandolin from members of his family and sang in a local choir in Yelets. There he also played in a local orchestra and learned the piano. As a teenager he moved to Moscow. From 1929 to 1932, he studied composition at the Gnessin State Musical College under Mikhail Gnessin and Yefraim Gelman. From 1932 to 1936, he attended the Moscow Conservatory. There he studied composition under Vissarion Shebalin and piano under Heinrich Neuhaus. As a student, he wrote and played his Piano Concerto No. 1, and his graduation piece was the Symphony No. 1. His first symphony was conducted by Leopold Stokowski.[3] He became popular with the series of songs and serenades that he composed for the 1936 production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow.[3]

By the 1930s, Khrennikov was already treated as a leading Soviet composer. Typical was his speech during a discussion in February 1936 concerning Pravda articles "Muddle Instead of Music" and "Balletic Falsity":

The resolution on 23rd April 1932 appealed to the consciousness of the Soviet artist. Soviet artists had not withstood scrutiny. After 23rd April, youth was inspired to study. The problem was, we had to master the skills and techniques of composition. We developed an enthusiasm for modern western composers. The names of Hindemith and Krenek came to be symbols of advanced modern artists. [...] After the enthusiasm for western tendencies came an attraction to simplicity, influenced by composing for the theatre, where simple, expressive music was required. We grew, our consciousness also grew, as well as the aspiration to be genuine Soviet composers, representatives of our epoch. Compositions by Hindemith satisfied us no more. Soon after that Prokofiev arrived, declaring Soviet music to be provincial and naming Shostakovich as the most up-to-date composer. Young composers were confused: on the one hand, they wanted to create simpler music that would be easier for the masses to understand; on the other hand, they were confronted with the statements of such musical authorities as Prokofiev. Critics wrote laudatory odes to Shostakovich. […] How did young composers react to Lady Macbeth [of Mtsensk]? This opera contains several large melodic fragments which opened some creative perspectives to us. But the entre‘actes and other things aroused complete hostility.[4]

Together with other representatives of Soviet culture (Nikolay Chelyapov, Nikolai Myaskovsky, Nikolay Chemberdzhi, Sergei Vasilenko, Victor Bely, Alexander Veprik, Aram Khachaturian, Boris Shekhter, M. Starodokamsky, Georgy Khubov, Vano Muradeli, Vladimir Yurovsky and Lev Kulakovsky), Khrennikov signed the statement welcoming "a sentence of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, passed on traitors against the motherland, fascist hirelings, such as Tukhachevsky, Yakir and others".[5]

Having "adopted the optimistic, dramatic and unabashedly lyrical style favored by Soviet leaders",[6] Khrennikov shot to fame in 1941, with the "Song of Moscow" ("Свинарка и пастух", meaning "Swineherd and Shepherd") from his music score for the popular Soviet film They Met in Moscow,[7] for which he was awarded the Stalin Prize. In 1941, Khrennikov was appointed Music Director of the Central Theatre of the Red Army, a position he would keep for 25 years.

In February 1945 Khrennikov was officially posted by the Political Authority (Politupravlenie) of the Red Army from Sverdlovsk, where he and his family had been evacuated, to the First Belorussian Front, and the Army commanded by General (later Marshal) Chuikov.[8]

In 1947 he joined the CPSU and became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet.[9]

General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers

On 10 January 1948, more than 70 composers, musicians and music lecturers were summoned to a three-day conference in the Kremlin, to be lectured by the communist party's chief ideologist Andrei Zhdanov on how to write music. As one of the main speakers, Khrennikov backed the party line, and attacked all three of the greatest composers present, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev and Khachaturian. Years later, he defended his behaviour by telling a BBC correspondent: "They told me - they forced me - to read out that speech attacking Shostakovich and Prokofiev. What else could I have done? If I had refused, it would have been curtains for me."[10]

In 1948, Joseph Stalin appointed Khrennikov General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers,[11] a position he would keep until the union was disbanded with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.[12]

In an interview with pianist Jascha Nemtsov on 8 November 2004 in Moscow, Khrennikov asserted that composer Mieczysław Weinberg, when arrested, had been discharged immediately because of Khrennikov's protection. According to Khrennikov the same had happened to Alexander Veprik. Extant evidence demonstrates that Veprik spent four years in a prison camp and Mieczysław Weinberg was released in June 1953 because of Stalin's death.[13]

In 1949, Khrennikov officially attacked the composer Alexander Lokshin, using formulations of one of Stalin's ideologists,[further explanation needed] Pavel Apostolov. In his speech Khrennikov contrasted Lokshin's "modernist" style with the bylina Stepan Razin's Dream by Galina Ustvolskaya, which he considered an ideal example of true national art.[14]

Khrennikov's speech aroused great indignation in Mikhail Gnessin, who accused him of duplicity: not daring to criticise Lokshin in a professional environment, Khrennikov attacked him ideologically from his position as a leading Soviet official.[15] After this ideological campaign Lokshin was excluded from academic circles.

Khrennikov did not prevent Prokofiev's first wife, Lina Codina, from being charged as a "spy" following her arrest by the NKVD on 20 February 1948. As head of the Composers' Union, Khrennikov made no attempt to have the sentence against Lina Prokofieva quashed or reduced. The Composers' Union did not help Prokofiev's sons, who were compulsorily evicted from their apartment. After Codina returned from the Gulag, the Union of Soviet Composers did nothing to improve the extremely bad living conditions of her family; it was the prominent singers Irina Arkhipova and Zurab Sotkilava who protected Prokofiev's first family. Afterwards, the family was exposed to regular official humiliations. According to Prokofiev's first son, Sviatoslav, the Union refused Codina permission to go to Paris, even though she had been personally invited by the French culture minister to the opening of Prokofiev's memorial board. Instead, Khrennikov took part at that ceremony with his whole family. The Union also refused Lina Prokofieva permission to go to the opening of the Sydney Opera House. At the same time, Sviatoslav Prokofiev noted the typical logic of the Soviet functionary: sometimes Khrennikov could help if it was not dangerous for his own position and career.[16][dubious ]

The ideological campaigns of 1948–49 against musical formalism were directly connected with the offensive against "rootless cosmopolitans," which formed a part of the state anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union that flourished after the Second World War.[17][dubious ] The leadership of the Union of Soviet Composers branded certain composers as "zionist aggressors" or "agents of world imperialism", and made accusations of "ideologically vicious" and "hostile" phenomena in Soviet musical culture. An accusation of Zionism was often used as a weapon against people of different nationalities, faiths and opinions, such as Nikolai Roslavets. "Struggle against formalists" was pursued in other countries too. According to György Ligeti, after Khrennikov's official visit to Budapest in 1948, The Miraculous Mandarin by Béla Bartók was removed from the repertoire and paintings by French impressionists and others were removed from display in museums.[18]

Khrennikov and other functionaries of the Union of Soviet Composers constantly attacked the heritage of the Russian avant-garde as well as its researchers.[19] For example, the East German musicologist Detlef Gojowy [de] (1934–2008) was persecuted because of his promotion in the West of modern Soviet music of the 1920s. Gojowy was proclaimed to be an "anti-Soviet writer" – until 1989 he was forbidden to visit the Soviet Union and some of his publications that he sent to Soviet colleagues were intercepted by customs. At the same time, Soviet musicologists engaged in developing a Russian avant-garde tradition were officially prohibited from going abroad.[20] Once again, Nicolai Roslavets was an example.

Khrennikov was a Member of Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from the 1950s on.[year needed] From 1962, he was a representative in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Later years

In his last years, Khrennikov publicly stated his disapproval of Perestroika, its leaders, and the fall of the Soviet Union:

It was a betrayal by our leaders. I consider Gorbachev and his henchmen, who deliberately organised persecution of Soviet art, to be traitors to the party and the people [...]".[21]

In another interview given to the same newspaper Zavtra (meaning "Tomorrow") he described Stalin as a "genius", an "absolutely normal person", tolerant of criticism:

Stalin, in my opinion, knew music better than any of us. […] As in classical Ancient Greece, so too in the Soviet Union music was of the greatest importance to the state. The spiritual influence of the greatest composers and artists in the formation of intelligent and strong-willed people, first of all through radio, was huge.[22]

Khrennikov's memoirs were published in 1994. He died in Moscow aged 94 and is buried near his parents' tomb in his native town of Yelets.

Compositions

Symphonies

  • Symphony No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 4 (1933–35)
  • Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 9 (1940–42)
  • Symphony No. 3 in A major, Op. 22 (1973)

Other symphonic works

  • "Mik", suite for orchestra, Op. 3 (1934)
  • Much Ado About Nothing, incidental music, Op. 7 (1935–36)
  • "Don Quichotte" by Mikhail Bulgakov, suite for orchestra, Op. 10 (1941)
  • "Love For Love", suite from the ballet, Op. 24b (1976)
  • "A Hussar Ballad", suite from the ballet, Op. 25b (1978)

Concertos

  • Piano Concerto No. 1 in F major, Op. 1 (1932–33)
  • Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 14 (1958–59)
  • Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 16 (1964)
  • Piano Concerto No. 2 in C major, Op. 21 (1972)
  • Violin Concerto No. 2 in C major, Op. 23 (1975)
  • Three Pieces for Violin and orchestra, Op. 26b (1978)
  • Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 28 (1983–84)
  • Cello Concerto No. 2, Op. 30 (1986)
  • Piano Concerto No. 4, for piano, string orchestra and percussion, Op. 37 (1991)

Operas

  • "Into the Storm", four acts, Op. 8 (1936–39) - Libretto by A. Faiko and Nikolai Virta based on N. Virta's novel "Loneliness".
  • "Brother-in-Law Without Kindred (Frol Skobeev)", comic opera, Op. 12 (1945–50) - Libretto by S. Tsenin after D. Averkiev's Play "Frol Skobeev".
  • "Mother", three acts, Op. 13 (1952–57) - Libretto by A. Faiko based on Maxim Gorky's novel "Mother".
  • "One Hundred Devils and Just One Girl", operetta in three acts, Op. 15 (1962–63) - Libretto by E. Shatunovsky.
  • "A White Night", musical chronicle in three acts, Op. 17 (1966) - Libretto by Y. Shanutovsky, after Tolstoi.
  • "The Low-Born Son-in-Law" (1967) - second version of "Frol Skobeyev" (1950)
  • "The Boy Giant", children's opera in three acts, Op. 18 (1968–69) - Libretto by N. Shestakov and N. Satz.
  • "Much Ado About Hearts", three acts (1972–73) - Libretto by Boris Pokrovsky after Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing".
  • "Dorothea", two acts, Op. 27 (1982–83)
  • "Golden Calf", Op. 29 (1984–85), based of the novel by Ilf and Petrov
  • "The Naked King", comic opera, Op. 31 (1988)
  • Musical for children "Wonders, oh, wonders!", musical for children (2001)
  • "At 6 P.M. After the War", musical (2003)

Ballets

  • "Our Courtyard" (Happy Childhood), children's ballet in one act, Op. 19 (1970)
  • "Love For Love", two acts, Op. 24 (1976)
  • "A Hussar Ballad", three acts, Op. 25 (1978)
  • "Napoleon Bonaparte", Op. 40 (1994)
  • "The Captain's Daughter", Op. 41 (1999)

Music for plays

  • "Mik" (1934)
  • "Alexander Shigorin" (1935–36)
  • "Big Day" (1937)
  • "Guilty Without a Sin" (1937)
  • "I’m the Son of Working People" (1938)
  • "Romantics" (1939)
  • "Don Quichotte" by Mikhail Bulgakov (1941)
  • "A Long Time Ago" (1942)
  • "Birthday" (1944)
  • "Marine Officer" (1944)
  • "Wise Things" (1965)
  • "Rootless Son-in-law" (1966)

Chamber music

  • "Birkenstamm", version for violin ensemble (1935)
  • String Quartet No. 1 (?)
  • String Quartet No. 2 (?)
  • Three Pieces for Violin and piano, Op. 26 (1978)
  • String Quartet No. 3, Op. 33 (1988)
  • Sonata for Cello and piano, Op. 34 (1989)
  • Five Pieces for woodwind instruments, Op. 35 (1990)

Piano works

  • Five Pieces for piano, Op. 2 (1933)
  • Three Pieces for piano, Op. 5 (1934–35)
  • Five Pieces for piano, Op. 38 (1992)
  • Six Children's Pieces for piano, Op. 42 (2002)

Vocal and choral works

  • Three Romances for voice and piano after Pushkin, Op. 6 (1935)
  • "Birch Tree", song for voice and piano (1935)
  • Three Lieder for voice and piano, Op. 7b, from the incidental music "Much Ado About Nothing", Op. 7 (1935–36)
  • "Three Pans", song for voice and piano (1939)
  • "We Are Masters of the War", song for chorus and piano (1941)
  • "Song About a Moscow Girl", song for voice and piano (1941)
  • "Song About Friendship", song for voice and piano (1941)
  • Five Romances for voice and piano after Robert Burns, Op. 11 (1942)
  • "Farewell", song for voice and piano (1942)
  • "There is a Good Town in the North", song for chorus and piano (1942)
  • "New Year’s", song for voice and piano (1942)
  • "Everybody for the Motherland", song for chorus and piano (1942)
  • "Men from Ural are Great Warriors", song for chorus and piano (1942)
  • "Song of the Soviet Union", song for chorus and piano (1943)
  • "Luchint’s Song", song for chorus and piano (1943)
  • "Song of Song", song for voice and piano (1944)
  • "Waiting Home", song for voice and piano (1944)
  • "Moscow’s Windows", song for voice and piano (1960)
  • "Morning Song", song for voice and piano (1960)
  • "Our Soviet Country", song for chorus and piano (1964)
  • Three Poems for chorus, Op. 20 (1971)
  • Three Sonnets by W. Shakespeare for voice and piano, Op. 32 (1988)
  • Three songs based on the lyrics by Nekrasov for chorus a capella, Op. 36 (1990)
  • Five Romances after lyrics by Ivan Bunin, Op. 39 (1992)
  • "Tatyana’s Day", waltz, for voice and piano (2004) - after Mikhail Lomonosov

Film music

Recordings (very incomplete list)

  • Piano Concertos No. 1–3. Tikhon Khrennikov (piano), USSR State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov.[23]
  • Piano Concerto No. 4, String Quartet No. 1, Cello Sonata, Songs.[23]
  • Symphonies No. 1–3. USSR State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov. Recorded 1973, 1978.[23]
  • Iz-za lesa svestitsya (The half-moon shines) and Spi, Natasha, spi, rodnaya (Sleep, Natasha, sleep, my darling) from Into the Storm (opera) Op. 8; Sam ne znayu pochemu (For some unknown reason) from Mother (Khrennikov opera) Op. 13. Daniil Shtoda (tenor), Philharmonia of Russia, Constantine Orbelian. Delos Records 2005

Interviews

Some of Khrennikov's statements mentioned above are included in the 2004 documentary Notes interdites: scènes de la vie musicale en Russie Soviétique (English title: The Red Baton) by Bruno Monsaingeon.[24][25]

Khrennikov was interviewed by former BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith for the BBC's 2006 radio show Challenging the Silence. In it Khrennikov denied the suggestion that he was at the heart of the criticism of composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich,[clarification needed] though he expressed pride that he "was Stalin's Commissar. When I said No! (he shouts), it meant No."[26]

Recognition

 
Stamped envelope issued to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Tikhon Khrennikov. Russian Post, 2013.
Prizes
second class (1942) - for the music to The Swineherdess and the Shepherd (1941)
second class (1946) - for the music to Six P.M. (1944)
second class (1952) - for the music to Donetsk Coal Miners (1950)
  • USSR State Prize (1967) - for a series of instrumental concertos (Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Concerto for Cello and Orchestra)
  • Lenin Prize (1974) - for the 2nd Piano Concerto with orchestra
  • Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR (1979) - for the 2nd Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
  • Prize of the President of the Russian Federation (2003)
Titles
Awards
International awards and titles

Quotations

Khrennikov had to take part in repressions against Shostakovich during the enforcement of the "Party line" in music, but unlike the leadership of the Soviet Writers Union, he was never involved in political reporting on his colleagues.

— K. A. Zalessky, Stalin's Empire: A Biographical Encyclopedic Dictionary[27]

Khrennikov not only survived Stalin's repressive reign but lived in comfort under the succession of Soviet rulers and post-Soviet presidents that followed: Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko, Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin. He remains an influential musical figure: he is a professor at the Moscow Conservatory and has been chairman of the Tchaikovsky Competition for the last 25 years. In his native city of Yelets, his home has been turned into a museum and an arts school, and a statue has been erected in his honor. His socialist realist works are regularly performed and his songs remain as popular as ever. Khrennikov's long and improbable career began in 1948, when Stalin personally picked him to lead the Union of Soviet Composers. His first accomplishment on the job was an attack on abstract, "formalist" music in a speech at the First Congress of Composers in 1948, two months after the infamous Resolution of the Central Committee that condemned the "formalism" of Shostakovich, Prokofiev and others. "Enough of these symphonic diaries - these pseudo-philosophic symphonies hiding behind their allegedly profound thoughts and tedious self-analysis," he proclaimed. "Armed with clear party directives, we will stop all manifestations of formalism and popular decadence."

— Vadim Prokhorov, Andante, 24 June 2003

See also

References

  1. ^ Peter Rollberg (2009). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. US: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 348–350. ISBN 978-0-8108-6072-8.
  2. ^ Tikhon Khrennikov at IMDb
  3. ^ a b The Economist obituary 1 September 2007 p. 73
  4. ^ Vystuplenie tov. Khrennikova. – Protiv formalizma i fal’shi. Tvorcheskaya diskussiya v Moskovskom soyuze sovetskikh kompozitorov (Comrade Khrennikov’s speech. - Against formalism and falseness. Creative discussion in the Moscow Union of Soviet Composers). Sovetskaya Muzika, 1936, №3, p. 45.
  5. ^ Sovetskaya muzika, 1937, № 6, p. 5.
  6. ^ Quoted from: Kozinn, Allan (15 August 2007). "Tikhon Khrennikov, Prolific Soviet Composer, Dies at 94". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 March 2011.
  7. ^ Svinarka i pastukh (They met in Moscow) at IMDb
  8. ^ Valentina Rubtsova (Ed.). Tak eto bilo. Tikhon Khrennikov o vremeni i o sebe (That's how it was. Tikhon Khrennikov about his time and himself). Moscow, 1994, p. 84-85.
  9. ^ Barnett, Rob (Ed.). "Khrennikov: Three Symphonies". MusicWeb International. 6 April 2006. Retrieved 26 February 2009
  10. ^ McSmith, Andy (2015). Fear and the Muse Kept Watch, The Russian Masters - from Akhmatova and Pasternak to Shostakovich and Eisenstein - Under Stalin. New York: New Press. pp. 266–67. ISBN 978-1-59558-056-6.
  11. ^ "Генеральным секретарём назначить Хренникова". Literaturnaya Gazeta. 19 June 2013.
  12. ^ "Tikhon Nikolaevich Khrennikov".
  13. ^ Jascha Nemtsov. '"Ich bin schon längst tot" - Komponisten im Gulag: Vsevolod Zaderackij und Alexander Veprik'. Osteuropa 6/2007, pp. 315–340
  14. ^ Tikhon Khrennikov: "Za noviy podem sovetskoy muziki" ("For the new rise of Soviet music"). Sovetskaya muzika, 1949, № 12, p. 51; see also: A. A. Lokshin: Geniy zla (The Genius of Evil). 3rd, revised and expanded ed. Moscow, 2003, p. 93-94
  15. ^ Marina Lobanova: "Ästhet, Protestler, Regimeopfer: Das Schicksal Alexander Lokschins im politisch-kulturellen Kontext der Sowjetzeit", in: M. Lobanova, E. Kuhn (eds.): Ein unbekanntes Genie: Der Symphoniker Alexander Lokschin. Monographien – Zeugnisse – Dokumente – Würdigungen. Berlin 2002, p. 32
  16. ^ Valentina Chemberdzhi. Dvadtsaty vek Lini Prokof’evoy (Lina Prokofieva‘s twentieth century). Moscow, 2008, pp. 250, 259-260, 263-264
  17. ^ Benjamin Pinkus. The Soviet Government and the Jews 1948–1967: A documented study. Cambridge University Press, 1984. pp. 101, 112-113, 158-159, 491, 510.
  18. ^ "Ich sehe keinen Widerspruch zwischen Tradition und Modernität!". "György Ligeti im Gespräch mit Marina Lobanova": Das Orchester 12/1996, pp. 10–11.
  19. ^ M. Lobanova: '"Er wurde von der Zeit erwählt": Das Phänomen Tichon Chrennikow'. In "Schostakowitsch in Deutschland" (= Schostakowitsch-Studien, Band. 1). Published by H. Schmalenberg (Studia slavica musicologica, Vol. 13). Berlin 1998, pp. 117–139.
  20. ^ Detlef Gojowy (2008). Musikstunden: Beobachtungen, Verfolgungen und Chroniken neuer Tonkunst. Dohr. ISBN 978-3-936655-54-4.
  21. ^ Tikhon Khrennikov: "Ya chist pered muzikoy i narodom ..." ("I am innocent towards music and the people ..."). Zavtra, № 41 (254), 13 October 1998. (in Russian). Archived from the original on 5 December 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2009.
  22. ^ Tikhon Khrennikov: "Stalin znal muziku luchshe nas ..." ("Stalin knew music better than we ..."). Zavtra, № 39 (671), 27th September 2006. (in Russian). Archived from the original on 5 December 2009. Retrieved 2 October 2009.
  23. ^ a b c Woolf, Jonathan (December 2006). "[CD review]". musicweb-international.com. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  24. ^ Notes interdites : scènes de la vie musicale en Russie Soviétique: entry at WorldCat
  25. ^ Joan O'Connor. "Notes interdites: scènes de la vie musicale en Russie soviétique (review)". Notes - Volume 65, Number 3, March 2009, pp. 567–570. Available online at the Project MUSE web site.
  26. ^ Martin Sixsmith (15 July 2006). "The secret rebel". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
  27. ^ K. A. Zalessky. Империя Сталина. Биографический энциклопедический словарь (Stalin's Empire: A Biographical Encyclopedic Dictionary), Veche, Moscow, 2000.

External links

  • Official Site of Tikhon Khrennikov

tikhon, khrennikov, tikhon, nikolayevich, khrennikov, russian, Тихон, Николаевич, Хренников, june, 1913, august, 2007, russian, soviet, composer, pianist, general, secretary, union, soviet, composers, 1948, 1991, also, known, political, activities, wrote, thre. Tikhon Nikolayevich Khrennikov Russian Tihon Nikolaevich Hrennikov 10 June O S 28 May 1913 14 August 2007 was a Russian and Soviet composer pianist and General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers 1948 1991 who was also known for his political activities 1 He wrote three symphonies four piano concertos two violin concertos two cello concertos operas operettas ballets chamber music incidental music and film music 2 Tikhon Khrennikov at the Bolshoi Theatre in 2003 During the 1930s Khrennikov was already being hailed as a leading Soviet composer In 1948 Andrei Zhdanov the leader of the anti formalism campaign nominated Khrennikov as Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers He held this influential post until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 Contents 1 Biography 1 1 Early years 1 2 General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers 1 3 Later years 2 Compositions 2 1 Symphonies 2 2 Other symphonic works 2 3 Concertos 2 4 Operas 2 5 Ballets 2 6 Music for plays 2 7 Chamber music 2 8 Piano works 2 9 Vocal and choral works 2 10 Film music 3 Recordings very incomplete list 4 Interviews 5 Recognition 6 Quotations 7 See also 8 References 9 External linksBiography EditEarly years Edit Tikhon Khrennikov was the youngest of ten children born into a family of horse traders in the town of Yelets Oryol Governorate Russian Empire now in Lipetsk Oblast in central Russia He learned guitar and mandolin from members of his family and sang in a local choir in Yelets There he also played in a local orchestra and learned the piano As a teenager he moved to Moscow From 1929 to 1932 he studied composition at the Gnessin State Musical College under Mikhail Gnessin and Yefraim Gelman From 1932 to 1936 he attended the Moscow Conservatory There he studied composition under Vissarion Shebalin and piano under Heinrich Neuhaus As a student he wrote and played his Piano Concerto No 1 and his graduation piece was the Symphony No 1 His first symphony was conducted by Leopold Stokowski 3 He became popular with the series of songs and serenades that he composed for the 1936 production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Vakhtangov Theatre in Moscow 3 By the 1930s Khrennikov was already treated as a leading Soviet composer Typical was his speech during a discussion in February 1936 concerning Pravda articles Muddle Instead of Music and Balletic Falsity The resolution on 23rd April 1932 appealed to the consciousness of the Soviet artist Soviet artists had not withstood scrutiny After 23rd April youth was inspired to study The problem was we had to master the skills and techniques of composition We developed an enthusiasm for modern western composers The names of Hindemith and Krenek came to be symbols of advanced modern artists After the enthusiasm for western tendencies came an attraction to simplicity influenced by composing for the theatre where simple expressive music was required We grew our consciousness also grew as well as the aspiration to be genuine Soviet composers representatives of our epoch Compositions by Hindemith satisfied us no more Soon after that Prokofiev arrived declaring Soviet music to be provincial and naming Shostakovich as the most up to date composer Young composers were confused on the one hand they wanted to create simpler music that would be easier for the masses to understand on the other hand they were confronted with the statements of such musical authorities as Prokofiev Critics wrote laudatory odes to Shostakovich How did young composers react to Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk This opera contains several large melodic fragments which opened some creative perspectives to us But the entre actes and other things aroused complete hostility 4 Together with other representatives of Soviet culture Nikolay Chelyapov Nikolai Myaskovsky Nikolay Chemberdzhi Sergei Vasilenko Victor Bely Alexander Veprik Aram Khachaturian Boris Shekhter M Starodokamsky Georgy Khubov Vano Muradeli Vladimir Yurovsky and Lev Kulakovsky Khrennikov signed the statement welcoming a sentence of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union passed on traitors against the motherland fascist hirelings such as Tukhachevsky Yakir and others 5 Having adopted the optimistic dramatic and unabashedly lyrical style favored by Soviet leaders 6 Khrennikov shot to fame in 1941 with the Song of Moscow Svinarka i pastuh meaning Swineherd and Shepherd from his music score for the popular Soviet film They Met in Moscow 7 for which he was awarded the Stalin Prize In 1941 Khrennikov was appointed Music Director of the Central Theatre of the Red Army a position he would keep for 25 years In February 1945 Khrennikov was officially posted by the Political Authority Politupravlenie of the Red Army from Sverdlovsk where he and his family had been evacuated to the First Belorussian Front and the Army commanded by General later Marshal Chuikov 8 In 1947 he joined the CPSU and became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet 9 General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers Edit On 10 January 1948 more than 70 composers musicians and music lecturers were summoned to a three day conference in the Kremlin to be lectured by the communist party s chief ideologist Andrei Zhdanov on how to write music As one of the main speakers Khrennikov backed the party line and attacked all three of the greatest composers present Dmitri Shostakovich Sergei Prokofiev and Khachaturian Years later he defended his behaviour by telling a BBC correspondent They told me they forced me to read out that speech attacking Shostakovich and Prokofiev What else could I have done If I had refused it would have been curtains for me 10 In 1948 Joseph Stalin appointed Khrennikov General Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers 11 a position he would keep until the union was disbanded with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 12 In an interview with pianist Jascha Nemtsov on 8 November 2004 in Moscow Khrennikov asserted that composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg when arrested had been discharged immediately because of Khrennikov s protection According to Khrennikov the same had happened to Alexander Veprik Extant evidence demonstrates that Veprik spent four years in a prison camp and Mieczyslaw Weinberg was released in June 1953 because of Stalin s death 13 In 1949 Khrennikov officially attacked the composer Alexander Lokshin using formulations of one of Stalin s ideologists further explanation needed Pavel Apostolov In his speech Khrennikov contrasted Lokshin s modernist style with the bylina Stepan Razin s Dream by Galina Ustvolskaya which he considered an ideal example of true national art 14 Khrennikov s speech aroused great indignation in Mikhail Gnessin who accused him of duplicity not daring to criticise Lokshin in a professional environment Khrennikov attacked him ideologically from his position as a leading Soviet official 15 After this ideological campaign Lokshin was excluded from academic circles Khrennikov did not prevent Prokofiev s first wife Lina Codina from being charged as a spy following her arrest by the NKVD on 20 February 1948 As head of the Composers Union Khrennikov made no attempt to have the sentence against Lina Prokofieva quashed or reduced The Composers Union did not help Prokofiev s sons who were compulsorily evicted from their apartment After Codina returned from the Gulag the Union of Soviet Composers did nothing to improve the extremely bad living conditions of her family it was the prominent singers Irina Arkhipova and Zurab Sotkilava who protected Prokofiev s first family Afterwards the family was exposed to regular official humiliations According to Prokofiev s first son Sviatoslav the Union refused Codina permission to go to Paris even though she had been personally invited by the French culture minister to the opening of Prokofiev s memorial board Instead Khrennikov took part at that ceremony with his whole family The Union also refused Lina Prokofieva permission to go to the opening of the Sydney Opera House At the same time Sviatoslav Prokofiev noted the typical logic of the Soviet functionary sometimes Khrennikov could help if it was not dangerous for his own position and career 16 dubious discuss The ideological campaigns of 1948 49 against musical formalism were directly connected with the offensive against rootless cosmopolitans which formed a part of the state anti Semitism in the Soviet Union that flourished after the Second World War 17 dubious discuss The leadership of the Union of Soviet Composers branded certain composers as zionist aggressors or agents of world imperialism and made accusations of ideologically vicious and hostile phenomena in Soviet musical culture An accusation of Zionism was often used as a weapon against people of different nationalities faiths and opinions such as Nikolai Roslavets Struggle against formalists was pursued in other countries too According to Gyorgy Ligeti after Khrennikov s official visit to Budapest in 1948 The Miraculous Mandarin by Bela Bartok was removed from the repertoire and paintings by French impressionists and others were removed from display in museums 18 Khrennikov and other functionaries of the Union of Soviet Composers constantly attacked the heritage of the Russian avant garde as well as its researchers 19 For example the East German musicologist Detlef Gojowy de 1934 2008 was persecuted because of his promotion in the West of modern Soviet music of the 1920s Gojowy was proclaimed to be an anti Soviet writer until 1989 he was forbidden to visit the Soviet Union and some of his publications that he sent to Soviet colleagues were intercepted by customs At the same time Soviet musicologists engaged in developing a Russian avant garde tradition were officially prohibited from going abroad 20 Once again Nicolai Roslavets was an example Khrennikov was a Member of Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from the 1950s on year needed From 1962 he was a representative in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Later years Edit In his last years Khrennikov publicly stated his disapproval of Perestroika its leaders and the fall of the Soviet Union It was a betrayal by our leaders I consider Gorbachev and his henchmen who deliberately organised persecution of Soviet art to be traitors to the party and the people 21 In another interview given to the same newspaper Zavtra meaning Tomorrow he described Stalin as a genius an absolutely normal person tolerant of criticism Stalin in my opinion knew music better than any of us As in classical Ancient Greece so too in the Soviet Union music was of the greatest importance to the state The spiritual influence of the greatest composers and artists in the formation of intelligent and strong willed people first of all through radio was huge 22 Khrennikov s memoirs were published in 1994 He died in Moscow aged 94 and is buried near his parents tomb in his native town of Yelets Compositions EditSymphonies Edit Symphony No 1 in B flat minor Op 4 1933 35 Symphony No 2 in C minor Op 9 1940 42 Symphony No 3 in A major Op 22 1973 Other symphonic works Edit Mik suite for orchestra Op 3 1934 Much Ado About Nothing incidental music Op 7 1935 36 Don Quichotte by Mikhail Bulgakov suite for orchestra Op 10 1941 Love For Love suite from the ballet Op 24b 1976 A Hussar Ballad suite from the ballet Op 25b 1978 Concertos Edit Piano Concerto No 1 in F major Op 1 1932 33 Violin Concerto No 1 in D major Op 14 1958 59 Cello Concerto No 1 in C major Op 16 1964 Piano Concerto No 2 in C major Op 21 1972 Violin Concerto No 2 in C major Op 23 1975 Three Pieces for Violin and orchestra Op 26b 1978 Piano Concerto No 3 in C major Op 28 1983 84 Cello Concerto No 2 Op 30 1986 Piano Concerto No 4 for piano string orchestra and percussion Op 37 1991 Operas Edit Into the Storm four acts Op 8 1936 39 Libretto by A Faiko and Nikolai Virta based on N Virta s novel Loneliness Brother in Law Without Kindred Frol Skobeev comic opera Op 12 1945 50 Libretto by S Tsenin after D Averkiev s Play Frol Skobeev Mother three acts Op 13 1952 57 Libretto by A Faiko based on Maxim Gorky s novel Mother One Hundred Devils and Just One Girl operetta in three acts Op 15 1962 63 Libretto by E Shatunovsky A White Night musical chronicle in three acts Op 17 1966 Libretto by Y Shanutovsky after Tolstoi The Low Born Son in Law 1967 second version of Frol Skobeyev 1950 The Boy Giant children s opera in three acts Op 18 1968 69 Libretto by N Shestakov and N Satz Much Ado About Hearts three acts 1972 73 Libretto by Boris Pokrovsky after Shakespeare s Much Ado About Nothing Dorothea two acts Op 27 1982 83 Golden Calf Op 29 1984 85 based of the novel by Ilf and Petrov The Naked King comic opera Op 31 1988 Musical for children Wonders oh wonders musical for children 2001 At 6 P M After the War musical 2003 Ballets Edit Our Courtyard Happy Childhood children s ballet in one act Op 19 1970 Love For Love two acts Op 24 1976 A Hussar Ballad three acts Op 25 1978 Napoleon Bonaparte Op 40 1994 The Captain s Daughter Op 41 1999 Music for plays Edit Mik 1934 Alexander Shigorin 1935 36 Big Day 1937 Guilty Without a Sin 1937 I m the Son of Working People 1938 Romantics 1939 Don Quichotte by Mikhail Bulgakov 1941 A Long Time Ago 1942 Birthday 1944 Marine Officer 1944 Wise Things 1965 Rootless Son in law 1966 Chamber music Edit Birkenstamm version for violin ensemble 1935 String Quartet No 1 String Quartet No 2 Three Pieces for Violin and piano Op 26 1978 String Quartet No 3 Op 33 1988 Sonata for Cello and piano Op 34 1989 Five Pieces for woodwind instruments Op 35 1990 Piano works Edit Five Pieces for piano Op 2 1933 Three Pieces for piano Op 5 1934 35 Five Pieces for piano Op 38 1992 Six Children s Pieces for piano Op 42 2002 Vocal and choral works Edit Three Romances for voice and piano after Pushkin Op 6 1935 Birch Tree song for voice and piano 1935 Three Lieder for voice and piano Op 7b from the incidental music Much Ado About Nothing Op 7 1935 36 Three Pans song for voice and piano 1939 We Are Masters of the War song for chorus and piano 1941 Song About a Moscow Girl song for voice and piano 1941 Song About Friendship song for voice and piano 1941 Five Romances for voice and piano after Robert Burns Op 11 1942 Farewell song for voice and piano 1942 There is a Good Town in the North song for chorus and piano 1942 New Year s song for voice and piano 1942 Everybody for the Motherland song for chorus and piano 1942 Men from Ural are Great Warriors song for chorus and piano 1942 Song of the Soviet Union song for chorus and piano 1943 Luchint s Song song for chorus and piano 1943 Song of Song song for voice and piano 1944 Waiting Home song for voice and piano 1944 Moscow s Windows song for voice and piano 1960 Morning Song song for voice and piano 1960 Our Soviet Country song for chorus and piano 1964 Three Poems for chorus Op 20 1971 Three Sonnets by W Shakespeare for voice and piano Op 32 1988 Three songs based on the lyrics by Nekrasov for chorus a capella Op 36 1990 Five Romances after lyrics by Ivan Bunin Op 39 1992 Tatyana s Day waltz for voice and piano 2004 after Mikhail LomonosovFilm music Edit Struggle Is Still On 1938 Swineheard and Shepherd 1941 Return with Victory 1941 Six O Clock in the Evening After the War 1944 The Train Goes East 1947 Miners of Donetsk 1950 Cavalier of the Golden Star 1951 At Six PM after the War 1952 True Friends 1953 The Captain s Daughter 1958 Hussar Ballad 1961 Comrade Arseny 1964 No Password Necessary 1967 Mother 1968 sound version of the 1926 silent film Three 1969 Ruslan and Ludmila 1972 Stars and fans 1973 Talents and Admirers 1973 Afterthought Had Hit You Congratulations 1976 Duenna 1978 We Were Chosen by Time 1978 The Antarctic Novel 1979 Money Box 1980 Heart Operation 1982 Love for Love 1983 Two Comrades 1999 Recordings very incomplete list EditPiano Concertos No 1 3 Tikhon Khrennikov piano USSR State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov 23 Piano Concerto No 4 String Quartet No 1 Cello Sonata Songs 23 Symphonies No 1 3 USSR State Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov Recorded 1973 1978 23 Iz za lesa svestitsya The half moon shines and Spi Natasha spi rodnaya Sleep Natasha sleep my darling from Into the Storm opera Op 8 Sam ne znayu pochemu For some unknown reason from Mother Khrennikov opera Op 13 Daniil Shtoda tenor Philharmonia of Russia Constantine Orbelian Delos Records 2005Interviews EditSome of Khrennikov s statements mentioned above are included in the 2004 documentary Notes interdites scenes de la vie musicale en Russie Sovietique English title The Red Baton by Bruno Monsaingeon 24 25 Khrennikov was interviewed by former BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith for the BBC s 2006 radio show Challenging the Silence In it Khrennikov denied the suggestion that he was at the heart of the criticism of composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich clarification needed though he expressed pride that he was Stalin s Commissar When I said No he shouts it meant No 26 Recognition Edit Stamped envelope issued to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Tikhon Khrennikov Russian Post 2013 PrizesStalin Prizes second class 1942 for the music to The Swineherdess and the Shepherd 1941 second class 1946 for the music to Six P M 1944 second class 1952 for the music to Donetsk Coal Miners 1950 USSR State Prize 1967 for a series of instrumental concertos Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Concerto for Cello and Orchestra Lenin Prize 1974 for the 2nd Piano Concerto with orchestra Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR 1979 for the 2nd Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Prize of the President of the Russian Federation 2003 TitlesPeople s Artist of the USSR 1963 People s Artist of the RSFSR 1954 Honored Artist of the RSFSR 1950 AwardsHero of Socialist Labour 1973 Four Orders of Lenin 1963 1971 1973 1983 Order of the Red Banner of Labour twice 1966 1988 Order of Honour 1998 Medal For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941 1945 1946 Medal For the Defence of Moscow 1946 Medal For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941 1945 1946 Medal In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow 1947 Jubilee Medal Twenty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941 1945 1965 Jubilee Medal Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941 1945 1975 Jubilee Medal Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941 1945 1985 Medal Veteran of Labour 1995 Jubilee Medal 50 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941 1945 1995 Medal In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow 1997 Jubilee Medal 60 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941 1945 2005 International awards and titlesDecoration of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture Poland Medal Friendship of Peoples Mongolia Silver Medal of the World Peace Council 1959 Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius 1st class Bulgaria 1968 Corresponding Member of the German Academy of Arts GDR East Germany 1970 Medal 25 Years of People s Power 1970 Academician of the Academy Tiberiyskoy Italy 1976 Prize of the International Music Council of UNESCO 1977 Member of Legion of Gold Italy 1981 Medal of Georgi Dimitrov 1882 1982 Bulgaria 1982 Order of the Friendship of Peoples GDR 1983 Academician of the Academy of Santa Cecilia Italy 1984 Order of Merit culture Romania 1985 Medal of Richard Strauss GDR 1985 Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters France 1994 UNESCO Mozart Medal 2003 Quotations EditThe examples and perspective in this article may not include all significant viewpoints Please improve the article or discuss the issue March 2009 Learn how and when to remove this template message Khrennikov had to take part in repressions against Shostakovich during the enforcement of the Party line in music but unlike the leadership of the Soviet Writers Union he was never involved in political reporting on his colleagues K A Zalessky Stalin s Empire A Biographical Encyclopedic Dictionary 27 Khrennikov not only survived Stalin s repressive reign but lived in comfort under the succession of Soviet rulers and post Soviet presidents that followed Khrushchev Brezhnev Andropov Chernenko Gorbachev Yeltsin and Putin He remains an influential musical figure he is a professor at the Moscow Conservatory and has been chairman of the Tchaikovsky Competition for the last 25 years In his native city of Yelets his home has been turned into a museum and an arts school and a statue has been erected in his honor His socialist realist works are regularly performed and his songs remain as popular as ever Khrennikov s long and improbable career began in 1948 when Stalin personally picked him to lead the Union of Soviet Composers His first accomplishment on the job was an attack on abstract formalist music in a speech at the First Congress of Composers in 1948 two months after the infamous Resolution of the Central Committee that condemned the formalism of Shostakovich Prokofiev and others Enough of these symphonic diaries these pseudo philosophic symphonies hiding behind their allegedly profound thoughts and tedious self analysis he proclaimed Armed with clear party directives we will stop all manifestations of formalism and popular decadence Vadim Prokhorov Andante 24 June 2003See also EditKhrennikov s SevenReferences Edit Peter Rollberg 2009 Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema US Rowman amp Littlefield pp 348 350 ISBN 978 0 8108 6072 8 Tikhon Khrennikov at IMDb a b The Economist obituary 1 September 2007 p 73 Vystuplenie tov Khrennikova Protiv formalizma i fal shi Tvorcheskaya diskussiya v Moskovskom soyuze sovetskikh kompozitorov Comrade Khrennikov s speech Against formalism and falseness Creative discussion in the Moscow Union of Soviet Composers Sovetskaya Muzika 1936 3 p 45 Sovetskaya muzika 1937 6 p 5 Quoted from Kozinn Allan 15 August 2007 Tikhon Khrennikov Prolific Soviet Composer Dies at 94 The New York Times Retrieved 21 March 2011 Svinarka i pastukh They met in Moscow at IMDb Valentina Rubtsova Ed Tak eto bilo Tikhon Khrennikov o vremeni i o sebe That s how it was Tikhon Khrennikov about his time and himself Moscow 1994 p 84 85 Barnett Rob Ed Khrennikov Three Symphonies MusicWeb International 6 April 2006 Retrieved 26 February 2009 McSmith Andy 2015 Fear and the Muse Kept Watch The Russian Masters from Akhmatova and Pasternak to Shostakovich and Eisenstein Under Stalin New York New Press pp 266 67 ISBN 978 1 59558 056 6 Generalnym sekretaryom naznachit Hrennikova Literaturnaya Gazeta 19 June 2013 Tikhon Nikolaevich Khrennikov Jascha Nemtsov Ich bin schon langst tot Komponisten im Gulag Vsevolod Zaderackij und Alexander Veprik Osteuropa 6 2007 pp 315 340 Tikhon Khrennikov Za noviy podem sovetskoy muziki For the new rise of Soviet music Sovetskaya muzika 1949 12 p 51 see also A A Lokshin Geniy zla The Genius of Evil 3rd revised and expanded ed Moscow 2003 p 93 94 Marina Lobanova Asthet Protestler Regimeopfer Das Schicksal Alexander Lokschins im politisch kulturellen Kontext der Sowjetzeit in M Lobanova E Kuhn eds Ein unbekanntes Genie Der Symphoniker Alexander Lokschin Monographien Zeugnisse Dokumente Wurdigungen Berlin 2002 p 32 Valentina Chemberdzhi Dvadtsaty vek Lini Prokof evoy Lina Prokofieva s twentieth century Moscow 2008 pp 250 259 260 263 264 Benjamin Pinkus The Soviet Government and the Jews 1948 1967 A documented study Cambridge University Press 1984 pp 101 112 113 158 159 491 510 Ich sehe keinen Widerspruch zwischen Tradition und Modernitat Gyorgy Ligeti im Gesprach mit Marina Lobanova Das Orchester 12 1996 pp 10 11 M Lobanova Er wurde von der Zeit erwahlt Das Phanomen Tichon Chrennikow In Schostakowitsch in Deutschland Schostakowitsch Studien Band 1 Published by H Schmalenberg Studia slavica musicologica Vol 13 Berlin 1998 pp 117 139 Detlef Gojowy 2008 Musikstunden Beobachtungen Verfolgungen und Chroniken neuer Tonkunst Dohr ISBN 978 3 936655 54 4 Tikhon Khrennikov Ya chist pered muzikoy i narodom I am innocent towards music and the people Zavtra 41 254 13 October 1998 Tihon Hrennikov Ya ChIST PERED MUZYKOJ I NARODOM in Russian Archived from the original on 5 December 2009 Retrieved 2 October 2009 Tikhon Khrennikov Stalin znal muziku luchshe nas Stalin knew music better than we Zavtra 39 671 27th September 2006 Tihon Hrennikov STALIN ZNAL MUZYKU LUChShE NAS in Russian Archived from the original on 5 December 2009 Retrieved 2 October 2009 a b c Woolf Jonathan December 2006 CD review musicweb international com Retrieved 27 June 2013 Notes interdites scenes de la vie musicale en Russie Sovietique entry at WorldCat Joan O Connor Notes interdites scenes de la vie musicale en Russie sovietique review Notes Volume 65 Number 3 March 2009 pp 567 570 Available online at the Project MUSE web site Martin Sixsmith 15 July 2006 The secret rebel The Guardian Retrieved 22 March 2011 K A Zalessky Imperiya Stalina Biograficheskij enciklopedicheskij slovar Stalin s Empire A Biographical Encyclopedic Dictionary Veche Moscow 2000 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tikhon Khrennikov Official Site of Tikhon Khrennikov Onno van Rijen s page on Tikhon Khrennikov Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Tikhon Khrennikov amp oldid 1133228208, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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