Boris Struve

Boris Alexandrovich Struve was a Russian musicologist, cellist, and methodist. Born in Kolomna into the family of Baron Alexander Krüdener-Struve, a State Duma deputy, he graduated from the Imperial Nicholas Tsarskoye Selo Gymnasium in 1915. He briefly attended Petrograd University and the Imperial Military Medical Academy before focusing on music, studying the cello under Leonty Piorkovsky and Evgeny Wolf-Israel.

Struve began his concert career in 1922, performing with the Leningrad State Academic Capella, before shifting his focus to scientific and pedagogical work in 1925. In 1931, he began teaching the history and theory of bowed string performance at the Leningrad Conservatory, becoming a professor in 1935 and earning a Doctor of Arts degree in 1940. During World War II, he was evacuated to Tashkent with the conservatory, where he researched Uzbek musical culture and received an honorary certificate from the Uzbek SSR government.

As a scholar, Struve published numerous significant works on string pedagogy and organology. His research covered the physiological aspects of playing, such as vibration and hand positioning, as well as the prevention of occupational diseases in musicians. He was also a historian of musical instruments, authoring books on the origins and development of the violin and viol families, including "Sketches on the History of Bowed Instruments" (1938) and "The Process of Formation of Viols and Violins" (published posthumously in 1959).

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