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Alexander Nikolayevich Tcherepnin 1899–1977

Alexander Nikolayevich Tcherepnin, the Russian-born composer and pianist, died in Paris on September 13; he was 78. To describe him as Russian would be misleading, for although he was born in St Petersburg his music and indeed his life were cosmopolitan in the extreme, while retaining links with the Russian tradition. From childhood he composed ‘by instinct’, and by the time he moved to Paris in 1921 after three years study in Tbilisi, his works displayed a personal series of compositional precepts which he retained till his death: a nine-note scale derived from ascending and descending hexachords and a process of ‘interpoint’ involving non-coinciding bar-lines within controlled polyphony. He readily absorbed the influences he encountered on his concert tours, which took him through Europe to the Middle and Far East, and he made a particular study of the traditional music of the orient. His piano method on the pentatonic scale became a standard textbook in China, and his foundation of a music publishing company in Tokyo led him to be described as the father of contemporary Japanese music. He retained a personal language in his large output, which contains works in all fields. His death saw him at work on a commission for Solti and the Chicago SO. His music is characterized by strong, forthright ideas, bold imagination, a keen ear for colour and atmosphere, compactness, clarity and scrupulous attention to detail and effect.

Musical Times, December 1977