Tadeusz (Tadeusz) Stanisławowicz Majerski (* June 29, 1888, Lviv - † October 16, 1963, Lviv) was a Ukrainian teacher, composer, pianist, and musician.
He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of Lviv University and the Conservatory of the Galician Music Society (GMS, 1911) with a degree in piano and composition from Ludomyr Ruzhytskyi, then in 1912-1914 he improved his performance skills at the Leipzig Conservatory with Joseph Pembauer.
In 1910-1920, he actively performed as a soloist and ensemble player in Poland, including in an ensemble with cellist D. Danchowski. He made a concert tour (Belgrade, Vienna, Budapest) with his brother Jan Majerski, a tenor at the Paris Opera; he gave a series of concerts with the singer A. Yanovska (Lviv, 1923), and from 1927 he also performed as an ensemble player in a trio (together with S. Krebs and A. Schmar). From 1920 he taught piano and piano technique at the Conservatory of the Moscow State Music Theater, from 1927 he was a professor of the higher and concert courses of the Moscow State Music Theater. In 1931, he founded the Society of Music and Opera Amateurs. In the 1930s, he was mainly engaged in piano pedagogy and composition, and sometimes published as a music critic.
In 1939-1941 and 1944-1955, he taught general piano at the Lviv State Conservatory, and in 1955 he was appointed to the special piano class, where he worked until the end of his life. Among his students were A. Dunda, V. Zaderatsky, L. Kompaniets, L. Mazepa, H. Moser, A. Nikodemovych, and E. Chekharovska.
He died in Lviv and was buried on the 63rd field of Lychakiv Cemetery.
Characteristics of his work
Mayersky's compositional work covers various genres of vocal and instrumental music. He composed his first works in his younger years, and in the 1920s, according to his contemporaries, he had already reached creative maturity. Mayerskyi's special place among Lviv composers is determined by the fact that in the 1930s he, like J. Kofler, became interested in the dodecaphonic technique and tried its use in his works. These were the first and only two musicians not only in Lviv but in the whole of Poland who mastered this innovative compositional technique at that time [3]. It was at this time that he composed his central works, symphonic and piano pieces. "The Symphonic Etudes for Large Orchestra, the composer's main pre-decaphonic work, were performed at various stages, including in 1938 in Lviv and later in Basel. The composer's dodecaphonic works do not constitute a separate group, but are naturally limited to the period of the 1930s. These are three piano cycles (4 Preludes, 3 Pieces, and Musical Pictures). Mayersky's use of the dodecaphonic technique is not at all orthodox. The composer uses not only the methods of development characteristic of dodecaphony, but also those accepted in tonal music.
In 1948, the composer was classified as a "formalist", which was accompanied by criticism with a political coloring and was a source of great distress for him. Among the works of the postwar period, the Second Piano Concerto can be considered one of the most significant. In the works of this period, he returned to tonality and more explicit genre and domestic connections. Despite the fact that at different stages of his career his music and compositional technique underwent significant changes, Mayersky's style is a coherent and quite individual phenomenon. His sphere is lyrical and dramatic. This is connected with his inclination to non-programmatic instrumental music (there are no choral works at all) and to genres that provide for the possibility of a more personal expression: concertos for soloist and orchestra, pieces for individual instruments (piano, organ, violin) or works for chamber ensemble. In the 1940s and 1950s, Mayersky was perhaps the only Lviv composer who continued to develop these genres consistently and fruitfully.
Most of Mayersky's works have a tonal harmony that is strongly chromaticized and rich in modulations. The complex use of various means of creating thematic contrast allows Mayersky to achieve an expressive juxtaposition of themes in the form of a large work, and the figurative and emotional content and stylistics of the music reproduce the peculiar spiritual world of the Lviv intellectual of the second third of the twentieth century. This music has its own unique charm and deserves to be performed and studied in depth.
Works.
musical comedy based on his own libretto "Miss Ellis" ("The Blue Wind"), (1915; 1930);
music for Rostan's play The Faraway Princess (score and voices, 1928);
music for Rybicki's play Snowy Night;
orchestration of Leontovych's unfinished opera "On the Mermaid's Easter "*;
for symphony orchestra
"Symphonic Etudes" (1934),
"Nocturne (1937),
Symphony (1939),
Symphony (1942),
Toccata and Fugue (1947),
March on a Theme of a Polish Folk Song (1947), an untitled work;
for piano and symphony orchestra - concertos: № 1* (1934), № 2 (1946);
for violin and symphony orchestra - concerto (1957-1962);
Suite for chamber orchestra (1930)*,
piano quintet "In Memory of M. Karlovych" (1953),
String Trio (1932),
for cello and piano - Suite (1934-1936)*, Sonata (1949);
for piano - Variations* (1928), Variations* (1950), 4 preludes (1935), Preludes and Fugues* (1934), 3 works (1935), Musical Pictures: 3 pieces (1948), Suite (1951 - Polonaise, Mazurka, Lullaby, Krakowiak), Expressions (1957), Two Etudes dedicated to Mrs. M. Krushelnytska (1963);
for violin and piano - Lento (1954);
for solo violin - Variations (1952);
4 works for organ (1953);
for voice and piano - 4 songs (1935), the song "Saddened" (year unknown), Romances* (3 - 1935-1937);
methodical works on piano pedagogy: "School of Piano Playing", "Methodology of Piano Playing";
articles about A. Scriabin, K. Shymanovsky, etc.
* works mentioned in the literature, the location of which is unknown.
