13 Facts About Nikolai Obukhov

Nikolai Borisovich Obukhov was a modernist and mystic Russian composer, active mainly in France.

Nikolai Obukhov's music is notable for its religious mysticism, its unusual notation, its use of an idiosyncratic 12-tone chromatic language, and its pioneering use of electronic musical instruments in the era of their earliest development.

In 1913 Nikolai Obukhov married Xenia Komarovskaya; they had two sons before they left Russia.

In France Nikolai Obukhov met and studied with Maurice Ravel, who not only showed some interest in his music but provided financial assistance for the refugee family and set Nikolai Obukhov up with a publisher.

Nikolai Obukhov worked with Pierre Dauvillier and Michel Billaudot on the construction of the device, probably at different times.

Nikolai Obukhov remained in Paris, living in a small apartment with his wife, composing and writing about his harmonic and notational system.

Nikolai Obukhov became one of the most vigorous proponents both of Obukhov's music and of his unusual electronic instrument, and she provided him with a house and financial support.

Nikolai Obukhov is buried in the Cimetiere de Saint-Cloud; atop his ruined monument was once a stone replica of his croix sonore, placed there by Marie-Antoinette Aussenac-Broglie.

Nikolai Obukhov's output includes works for piano; songs for voice and piano; works for electronic instrument and piano, usually the croix sonore or sometimes the ondes Martenot; chamber works for combinations of voices, instruments, and Obukhov's invented instruments; works for orchestra; and enormous oratorios or cantatas for voices, croix sonore, piano, organ, and orchestra.

Nikolai Obukhov evolved a technique of using all twelve tones, not in rows as Schoenberg was developing in Vienna, but as defining harmonic areas or regions through twelve-tone chords.

Nikolai Obukhov was one of several composers at the time working on 12-tone methods; others in Russia included Roslavets, Lourie and Golyshev.

Nikolai Obukhov intended the performer to be like a priestess performing a religious rite, and no public performance is known to have taken place in which the performer was male.

Nikolai Obukhov kept it in a "sacred corner" of their Paris apartment, in a shrine upon which he placed candles to burn day and night, along with religious icons.