View source for Isaak Dunayevsky

{{Short description|Soviet composer and conductor (1900–1955)}}
[[File:Isaak Dunaevsky.jpg|thumb|200px|Isaak Dunayevsky]]

'''Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky''' ({{langx|ru|Исаак Осипович Дунаевский}} {{Audio|Ru-Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky.ogg|listen}}; also [[Transliteration|transliterated]] as '''Dunaevski''' or '''Dunaevskiy'''; {{OldStyleDate|30 January|1900|18&nbsp;January}}{{spaced ndash}}25 July 1955) was a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] film composer and conductor of the 1930s and 1940s, who composed music for [[operetta]] and film comedies, frequently working with the film director [[Grigori Aleksandrov]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The BFI Companion to Eastern European and Russian Cinema|page=1937|author=Richard Taylor, Nancy Wood, Julian Graffy, Dina Iordanova|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-1838718497|date=2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema|author=Peter Rollberg|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2009|place=US|isbn=978-0-8108-6072-8|pages=197–199}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Egorova |first=Tatiana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=flwABAAAQBAJ&dq=Isaak+Dunayevsky&pg=PA35 |title=Soviet Film Music |date=2014-07-10 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-37718-3 |language=en}}</ref>

==Biography==

Dunayevsky was born to a [[Jews|Jewish]] family in [[Lokhvytsia]] in the [[Poltava Governorate]] of the [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Myrhorod Raion]], [[Poltava Oblast]], [[Ukraine]]) in 1900. He studied at the [[Kharkiv]] Musical School in 1910 where he studied [[violin]] under [[Konstanty Gorski]] and [[Joseph Achron]]. During this period he started to study the theory of music under [[Semyon Bogatyrev]] (1890–1960). He graduated in 1919 from the [[Kharkiv National Kotlyarevsky University of Arts]]. At first he was a violinist, the leader of the orchestra in Kharkov. Then he started a conducting career. In 1924 he went to [[Moscow]] to run the Theatre Hermitage. In 1929 he worked for the first time for a music hall ("To the icy place") with the [[Moscow music hall]] and began collaborating with [[Leonid Utesov]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Creekmur |first=Corey K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZJvAAAAQBAJ&dq=Isaak+Dunayevsky&pg=PA111 |title=International Film Musical |date=2013-01-11 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-5430-7 |language=en}}</ref> Later, he worked in [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]] (1929–1941) as a director and conductor of the [[Saint Petersburg Music Hall]] (1929–34), and then moved to Moscow to work on his own operettas and film music.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart |publisher=Metzler |year=1998 |isbn=3761811098}}</ref>

Dunayevsky wrote 14 operettas, 3 ballets, 3 cantatas, 80 choruses, 80 songs and romances, music for 88 plays and 42 films, 43 compositions for light music orchestra and 12 for jazz orchestra, 17 [[melodeclamation]]s, 52 compositions for symphony orchestra and 47 piano compositions and a string quartet. Among other works, he set to music [[Mikhail Svetlov (poet)|Mikhail Svetlov]]'s ‘''Song of Kakhovka''’, written in 1935, which became extremely popular.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dunaevsky |first=Valery |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MTcqCwAAQBAJ&dq=Kakhovka+song+1935+Dunaevsky&pg=PT88 |title=A Daughter of the "Enemy of the People" |date=2015-10-28 |publisher=Xlibris Corporation |isbn=978-1-5035-7490-8 |language=en}}</ref>

He was one of the first composers in the [[Soviet Union]] to start using [[jazz]]. He wrote the music for three of the most important films of the pre-war Stalinist era, ''[[Jolly Fellows]]'', ''[[Circus (1936 film)|Circus]]'' and the film said to be Stalin's favorite film ''[[Volga-Volga]]'', all directed by [[Grigori Aleksandrov]].

In a reply to the British book ''The World of Music'', he listed the following as his chief works: ''The Golden Valley'' operetta (1937), ''The Free Wind'' operetta (1947), and music to the films ''Circus'' (1935) and ''The Kuban Cossacks'' (1949).

He died of a heart attack in Moscow in 1955. His last piece, the operetta ''White Acacia'' (1955), was left unfinished at his death. It was completed by Kirill Molchanov and staged on 15 November 1955, in Moscow.

A previously unknown opera libretto ''Rachel'' (1943) by [[Mikhail Bulgakov]], was later found in his archive. The libretto was based on [[Guy de Maupassant]]'s ''[[Mademoiselle Fifi (short story collection)|Mademoiselle Fifi]]'' and was published in a book by [[Naum Shafer]] (see references and links below).

A book of his essays and memoirs was published in 1961.

==Honors==
Dunayevsky was named a [[People's Artist of the RSFSR]] in 1950. He was twice awarded the [[USSR State Prize|Stalin Prize]] (1941, 1951) and received two orders and many medals (including [[Order of the Red Banner of Labour]], [[Order of the Red Star]], and [[Order of the Badge of Honour]]).

The asteroid (4306) Dunayevsky is named in his honour.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schmadel |first=Lutz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VoJ5nUyIzCsC |title=Dictionary of Minor Planet Names |date=2003-08-05 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-3-540-00238-3 |language=en}}</ref>

==Family==
His brother Semyon (1906–1986) was a conductor; another brother, Zinovy (1908–1981), was a composer.

Dunayevsky was married once. He had a son Yevgeny (b. 1932) by his wife Zinaida Sudeikina, and another son [[Maksim Dunayevsky|Maksim]] (b. 1945) by his lover, the ballerina Zoya Pashkova (1922—30.01.1991).<ref>{{cite web |title=Zoia Pashkova Biography |url=https://www.kino-teatr.ru/teatr/acter/w/sov/398137/bio/ |website=kino-teatr.ru |location=Russia |language=Russian}}</ref> Maksim is also a well-known composer.

The American journalist [[Vladislav Davidzon]] is a descendent of the composer.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/yevgeniy-fiks-gay-communist-yiddish-utopia | title=Yevgeniy Fiks' Gay, Communist, Yiddish Utopia | date=4 December 2018 }}</ref>

The American drag performer [[Plane Jane]] (Andrew Dunayevskiy), who appeared on [[RuPaul's Drag Race season 16|Season 16]] of [[RuPaul's Drag Race]], is a distant relative of Dunayevsky.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5wnqlALePk |title=Plane Jane and Lieutenant Brigadier General Cuhntalina Badussy with Katya {{!}} The Bald & the Beautiful |language=en |access-date=2024-04-09 |via=www.youtube.com}}</ref>

==Works==
*''The Tranquillity of the Faun'', ballet (1924)
*''Murzilka'', ballet for children (1924)
*''For Us and You'', operetta (1924)
*''Bridegrooms'' (''Женихи''), operetta (1926)
*''The Knives'' (''Ножи''), operetta (1928)
*''To the icy place'', operetta (1929)
*''Million Langours'', operetta (1932)
*''[[Jolly Fellows]]'' (''Весёлые ребята''), film music (1934), including "[[Serdtse (song)|Serdtse]]"
*''Three Friends'' (''Три товарища''), film music (1935) 
*''[[Late for a Date]]'' (''Девушка спешит на свидание''), film music (1936)
*''[[Seekers of Happiness]]'' (''Искатели счастья''), film music (1936)
*''[[Circus (1936 film)|Circus]]'' (''Цирк''), film music (1936) 
*''[[The Children of Captain Grant (film)|The Children of Captain Grant]]'' (''Дети капитана Гранта''), film music (1936), including two songs and the famous orchestral overture 
*''The Golden Valley'' (''Золотая долина''), operetta (1937)
*''[[Volga-Volga]]'' (''Волга-Волга''), film music (1938) 
*''The Roads to Happiness'' (''Дороги к счастью''), operetta (1939)
*''My Love'' (''Моя любовь''). film music (1940)
*''Moscow'', suite for solo voices, chorus and orchestra (1941)
*''The Wind of Liberty'' (''Вольный ветер''), operetta (1947)
*''[[Cossacks of the Kuban]]'' (''Кубанские казаки''), film music (1949)
*''The Son of the Clown'' (''Сын клоуна''), operetta (1950)
*''Glory of the Railwaymen'', cantata 
*''Our Homeland May Flourish!'', cantata 
*Ballet Suite for orchestra
*''Suite on Chinese themes'', orchestra
*''Rhapsody on Songs of the people of the Soviet Union'', jazz orchestra
*''The Music Store'', jazz orchestra
*String Quartet
*''Song of the Fatherland'', film music
*''Requiem'', narrator and quintet
*''Song of Stalin'', chorus and orchestra
*''White Acacia'' (''Белая акация''), operetta (1955, completed by [[Kirill Molchanov]])
* ''Quiet, Everything Quiet'' (Тихо, всё тихо), the sign-off tune of the Soviet television until 1991.

Also:
*Songs
*Pieces for chamber orchestra
*[[Incidental music]] for theatre and cinema

==See also==
* [[Maksim Dunayevsky]]

==Bibliography==
*Kommissarskaya, M Dunayevsky, the article in "Tvorcheskiye biografii Kompozitorov", Moscow, 1989 {{in lang|ru}}
*Shafer, Naum “Dunayevsky Today” Moscow, Sovetsky Kompozitor, 1988 {{in lang|ru}}

== References ==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://odessareview.com/isaak-dunayevsky-red-mozart-soviet-cinema/ Isaak Dunayevsky: The Red Mozart Of Soviet Cinema]
*[https://www.jewishgen.org/Ukraine/OTW_Bios_Stamps_Dunayevsky.asp Famous Ukrainian Jews Commemorated on Postage Stamps-Isaak Dunayevsky]
*[https://russkiymir.ru/en/publications/268744/ The heart grows light with a joyful song:120th birthday of Isaak Dunayevsky]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060915061350/http://home.wanadoo.nl/ovar/dunayev.htm Ovar]
*[http://shafer.pavlodar.com/works/book1.htm Naum Shafer, “Dunayevsky Today”]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunayevsky, Isaak}}
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1955 deaths]]
[[Category:Soviet composers]]
[[Category:20th-century Ukrainian musicians]]
[[Category:People from Lokhvitsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:People from Poltava Oblast]]
[[Category:Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]]
[[Category:People's Artists of the RSFSR]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Star]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Stalin Prize]]
[[Category:Light music composers]]
[[Category:Male film score composers]]
[[Category:Jewish classical musicians]]
[[Category:Jewish composers]]
[[Category:Jewish Ukrainian musicians]]
[[Category:Male operetta composers]]
[[Category:Soviet classical musicians]]
[[Category:Soviet conductors (music)]]
[[Category:Soviet film score composers]]
[[Category:Soviet male composers]]
[[Category:Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery]]