Hlib Taranov

Hlib Pavlovych Taranov (15 June 1904 – 25 January 1989) was a Ukrainian Soviet composer and pedagogue of Jewish origin. He became a professor in 1939, received the degree of Doctor of Art Studies in 1944, and was named an Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR in 1957.

He received his first music lessons under M. Chernov and Reinhold Gliere. From 1918 to 1920 he studied at the Petrograd Conservatory, and from 1920 to 1924 at the Kyiv Conservatory, studying composition with Gliere and Borys Lyatoshynsky and conducting with Felix Blumenfeld and Nikolai Malko. In 1925 he graduated from the Mykola Lysenko Kyiv Music and Drama Institute.

From 1925 Taranov taught at the Lysenko Kyiv Music and Drama Institute and later at the Kyiv Conservatory, where he held the rank of professor from 1939. Between 1944 and 1950 he headed the orchestration department at the Leningrad Conservatory. From 1956 to 1968 he served as deputy chairman of the board of the Union of Composers of the Ukrainian SSR.

Taranov’s output was varied in genre, with symphonic music occupying a leading place. Many of his works were programmatic and characterized by topical subject matter and civic themes. He prepared an edition and orchestration of the opera “Kateryna” by Mykola Arkas (1956) and also wrote music for Lazar Frenkel’s film “Together with the Fathers” (1932).

Among his selected works are the opera “The Battle on the Ice” (1943; second revision 1979), five suites including “Ukrainian Suite” (1950), symphonic poems including “David Guramishvili” (1953), scherzo-poems such as “The First Space” (1961) and “New Express” (1977), and a concerto for balalaika and bandura with orchestra (1954). He also composed chamber instrumental ensembles, songs, choruses, and romances on texts by Taras Shevchenko, Alexander Blok, and Mikhail Lermontov, and authored the textbook “Course in Score Reading” (1939).

He died in Kyiv in 1989 and was buried at Lukyanivske Cemetery. In 1960 he was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.

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