Stepan Ivanovych Davydov (Davydiv; *12 January 1777, Chernihiv region - †22 May 1825, Moscow) was a Ukrainian composer, chapel master, and teacher.
Stepan Davydov came from a small-estate Chernihiv noble family. As a musically gifted boy, he was among the singers selected in Ukraine and arrived in St. Petersburg at the end of 1786 and became a student at the Court Singing Chapel. In this only "musical academy" in the capital, Davydov received a professional education. From the age of 15 he composed sacred music.
He continued his musical education with Giuseppe Sarti. He served as a singer in the aforementioned chapel in 1786-1795, and from 1787 to 1800 he was the Kapellmeister of the court orchestra. Later (1800-1804 and 1806-1810) he worked at the Directorate of Imperial Theaters (Kapellmeister, singing teacher). From 1814 he directed the musical theater of Count Sheremetyev in Moscow.
He composed ballets The Crowning Glory (1801), The Harvest Festival (1823) and others, and the opera Lesta, the Dnipro Mermaid (1805). He also wrote music for tragedies, divertissements, church compositions, etc. Davydov is also known for his arrangements of folk songs and dances. In his works, he used Ukrainian folk melodies, in particular the melody of the song "A Cossack Went Across the Danube."
