Cui, Cesar Antonovitch

1836-

Distinguished Russian composer, who, beside composing operas, songs and pieces for the violin and piano, is also a musical critic and an authority on the subject of artillery, having begun life as a military engineer. His father, Antoine Cui, a French soldier who settled in Russia after Napoleon's defeat at Moscow, was a man of great intellect and an excellent French teacher. Cui was born in Wilna, Poland, and received his early education at the high school at Wilna, where his father was the instructor in French. The boy from his earliest years showed great musical talent, and was given lessons on the piano. He was a pupil of Moniuszko and Balakirev, and has been called the first disciple of Balakirev, who afterwards became his friend and co-worker. He had also studied with Hermann and Dio, but it was Balakirev who first fired his enthusiasm for music. He studied at the Imperial Academy of Engineering at St. Petersburg, where he was afterward appointed an instructor. He lectured on the subject of fortifications at the Artillery School and Staff College at St. Petersburg and numbered among his pupils at that time, the present Czar, Nicholas II. He later wrote a treatise and history on the subject of fortifications, which gave him a position of great importance in military circles. From 1864 until 1868 he was the musical critic of the St. Petersburg Gazette, and in 1878 he published a series of articles on the music of Russia. His earliest operatic work was The Prisoner of the Caucasus, which was based on a poem of Pushkin's, but which was not given until 1883, after some of his other operas had been given. The first of his work to be produced was The Mandarin's Son, which was in the style of Auber and did not exhibit much originality. Among his other operas were William Ratcliffe, given at St. Petersburg in 1869, which was based on Heine's tragedy; and Angelo, which was modeled atfer Victor Hugo's drama of the same name. He also wrote Le Filibustier, for the French stage, to a libretto by Jean Richepin; while another opera, The Saracen, is founded on Dumas' Charles VII. This opera was produced at St. Petersburg in 1899 with great success. Beside his operatic music, Cui has composed two scherzos, and a tarantelle for the orchestra; suites for the piano and violin; and many songs, in which he excels. He has not made a signal success of any of his operas, and has been accused by his countrymen with having lacked originality, but his compositions are all of great excellence, although they show the influence of Chopin, Liszt and Schumann. He is at his best in solos and love-duets. He is one of the chief upholders of the national school of Russia, whose theories bear a strong resemblance to those of Wagner. Since 1864 Cui has been a contributor to many newspapers, and he has called attention to the activities of the new Russian school in numerous magazine articles. He is at present a major general and professor of fortifications in a military school at St. Petersburg and is also president of the Imperial Russian Musical Society, ranking high in musical and military circles.