Aleksandr Kopylov (1854-1911)

KOPYLOV, Alexander Aleksandrovich—b. 2[14] July 1854, St. Petersburg; d. 20 February [5 March] 1911, Strel’na, nr. St. Petersburg. From 1862–72 was member of the Imperial Court Chapel, where he studied the violin. Continued his studies in composition with Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoly Liadov, while teaching at the Imperial Chapel until 1897. As a composer, Kopylov wrote a symphony, chamber music, piano music, as well as a number of unaccompanied sacred and secular choruses. Kopylov’s choruses are written primarily in a homophonic style that employs a standard Western European nineteenth-century harmonic vocabulary.