Zarins, Margher Ottovich

Margher Zarins was born on May 11 (24), 1910 in the village of Jaunpiebalga (now in Latvia ) into a family of a rural teacher.

In 1929 he graduated from the Jelgava Teachers Institute. Having received a school teacher diploma, he came to Riga. While working in evening school, at the same time from 1929 to 1936 he studied at the Latvian Conservatory (now the Jazep Vitol Latvian Academy of Music ) in three specialties: composition (by J. Vitol ), piano (by A. Daugulis ) and organ (by P. P. Josuusa ).

The first compositions date back to 1936 . M. Zarins himself noted the influence of M. Ravel and K. Debussy on his formation as a composer ^[1] .

With the establishment of Soviet power in Latvia in 1940, he was appointed music director and conductor of the Art Theater of the Latvian SSR (now the Dailes Theater ) (Riga), having worked in this position for 10 years and composed music for many performances. This stage of Zarins' work, in addition, is characterized by intensive work with Latvian musical folklore .

In 1951 - 1952 - Artistic Director of the Latvian Philharmonic .

All this time he continued to write works that met Soviet ideological requirements. These works, however, served Zarins, as the modern musicologist put it, indulgences ^[2] . In fact, he is occupied with the problems of neoclassicism and polystylistics, which is reflected in some of his works.

Literary creativity, combining the elements of realism and science fiction, has become prevalent in the last years of his life.

In 1951 - 1952 and 1956 - 1968 - Chairman of the Union of Composers of the Latvian SSR, in 1962 - 1968 - Secretary of the Union of Composers of the USSR . Member of the Union of Cinematographers of the Latvian SSR ^[3] . Member of the Writers' Union of the Latvian SSR (since the 1970s)

Margher Zarins died on February 27, 1993 in Riga . He was buried at the Berzain cemetery in Cesis (Latvia) ^[4] .

• Order of Lenin (01/03/1956)
• Order of Friendship of Peoples (05.23.1980) ^[5]
• Medals.
• People's Artist of the USSR ( 1970 )
• People's Artist of the Latvian SSR ( 1965 )
• Honored Art Worker of the Latvian SSR ( 1955 )
• Stalin Prize of the third degree ( 1951 - for the oratorio "Valmiera Heroes", 1950 )
• State Prize of the Latvian SSR ( 1957 )

• operas - “Barin and the Hussar” (1939), “Towards the New Shore” (based on the novel by V. Latsis , 1955), “Green Mill” (based on the novel by E. Yanshevsky, 1958), “The Beggars Opera” (based on the story “In the Shadow” the Blue Mosque ”by J. Griva on the life of the Turkish poor, using poems by O. Khayyam and N. Hikmet ), (1956),“ The Miracle of St. Maurice ”(1964),“ Opera on the Square ”(centenary of V.I. Lenin , based on poems by V.V. Mayakovsky and articles by J. Reed , 1970), “The Wondrous Adventures of Old Tyzel” ( 1982 , according to his own story), “A Midsummer Night's Dream” ( 1984 ), revision and editing of Zemdegi’s opera by J. Medina (1950).
• oratorios - “Valmiera Heroes” (1950), “Fighting the Devil's Swamp” (1951), “Mahogany” (on the fate of P. Lumumba , using verses by L. Hughes , 1965)
• cantatas - “Trumpeter from Talava” (lyrics by R. Blaumanis , 1936), “Song of Friendship” (lyrics by V. Grevin, 1948), “Holiday prologue” (lyrics by A. Kruklis, 1950), “From the time of the Latvian Reds shooters "(for a female choir and a quartet of horns, 1967)
• for piano and orchestra - concert (1936), program suite “Greek Vases” (1943)
• for harpsichord, piano and symphony orchestra - Concerto grosso (1968; second edition 1973)
• for organ and chamber orchestra - Concerto innocente (1969), Concerto triptihon (1972)
• for organ, percussion ensemble and harp - Pathetic Concert (1947)
• for brass band - suite (1948)
• for string quartet, clarinet, English horn and flute - 3 legends (1945)
• for organ - Variations BACH (1970), Variations on the theme of J. Poruk (1971)
• for voice with a chamber orchestra - vocal cycles (1963), Baroque Partita (1963), Carmina antica on ancient Greek texts (1964)
• for 3 sopranos, male octet and chamber orchestra - “Ode to the Swing” (1940)
• for 2 soloists, choir and orchestra of folk instruments - choreographic production "Harvest Festival" (1949)
• for voice and piano - romances, song cycles - “Soviet humor and satire” (lyrics by J. Vanaga , P. Sils and V. Grevin, 1950), “Soviet woman in the struggle for peace” (lyrics by P. Vilipa, 1951 ), “Silver Light” (lyrics by J. Rainis , 1952), “Four Japanese Miniatures” (lyrics by M. Base, 1963), “Songs to the Words of J. Poruk” (1971)
• for choir and symphony orchestra - suite “Portraits” (1959)
• for boys and orchestra choir - vocal cycle (1961)
• for the choir a cappella - 12 Latvian folk dances and round dances (1948), the suite “Collective Farm Dyins” (1952), “Folk Song of the World” (1951), the series “The Wonderful Adventures of Old Taisel” (1960), Variations on a Partisan Theme ( 1962)
• for a children's choir and instrumental ensemble - a children's suite “Dunno in the Solar City” (based on the book of the same name by N. N. Nosov , 1962 )
• songs for the female choir Adamson's
• cycle for male choir Burns
• Songs of Beilitis
• Latvian folk song processing (over 20)
• instrumental miniatures
• solo songs (approx. 30), children's songs
• music for films, for the theater, including the performances (St. 50) of Romeo and Juliet (1943-1944), Much Ado About Nothing , Twelfth Night by W. Shakespeare , Maria Stuart by F. Schiller , Dubrovsky " A.S. Pushkin ," Egor Bulychev and others "by M. Gorky (1945-1946)," Anna Karenina "(1948-1949) by L. N. Tolstoy ," Fire and Night "," The Golden Horse "(1941) J. Rainis, Spartak, 1905 A. Upita , Maya and Paya A. Brigadere , Tricks of Trina by R. Blaumanis and others.

• 1956 - Behind a swan cloud of clouds
• 1957 - Nauris
• 1959 - Echo
• 1960 - On the verge of a storm
• 1963 - House in the Dunes
• 1965 - Conspiracy of Ambassadors
• 1966 - Edgar and Christina
• 1967 - Larks arrive first
• 1968 - The Times of Surveyors
• 1969 - The rich lady
• 1970 - Raven Street Republic
• 1971 - In the shadow of death
• 1972 - Scam of Ceplis
• 1975 - Summer of motorcyclists
• 1975 - Assault on the secret police
• 1975 - Contrary to fate
• 1977 - A man in his prime
• 1978 - Family Album

At the last stage of his work, Zarins switched mainly to literature classes. Starting with a collection of short stories on musical themes, “An Evening Organ Song, Musical Stories” (1970), in 1972 he published the novel “Fake Faust, or a Forwarded, Updated Cookbook - P. P. P.” (Russian translation 1984 , English translation 1987 ), full of “grotesque interweaving of linguistic and stylistic layers” ^[6] . Among other works are the novels “Mysteries and happenings”, “The Miraculous Adventures of Old Tyzel”, “Calendar of the Kapelmeister Kocin” ( 1982 ), memoirs “An Optimistic Encyclopedia of Life”, stories, essays, short stories, novels, articles, and essays.

• Tatyana Kurysheva. Margher Zarin. - M .: Soviet composer, 1980 .-- 208 p.
• Raffi Harajanyan . Composers - pupils of Jazep Vitol. // Music of Soviet Latvia. - Riga, 1988 .-- S. 34–42.

• Zarins, Margher Ottovich (English) on the Internet Movie Database
• Zarin Margher Ottovich - article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia .