Oginski, Prince Michael Cleophas

1765-1833

Polish composer, pianist and violinist, Grand Treasurer of Lithuania and Senator of Russia. Born at Gutzow, near Warsaw. He was the nephew of Michael Casimiro Oginski, of Lithuania, a talented amateur musician, to whom is accredited the invention of pedals for the harp, and who is said to have suggested to Handel the oratorio, Creation, as well as to have written the article on the harp in the First French Cyclopaedia. Cleophas studied music under Kozlowski and wrote fourteen fine polonaises; three marches; and romances for the piano. Twelve polonaises were published in the Harmonicon in 1824. One, called The Death Polonaise, composed in 1793, was world-famed because of the romantic story attached to it. He died at Florence.