Aksyonov Semyon Nikolaevich

Main article: History of music in Russia

Biography

Semyon Nikolaevich Aksyonov was born around 1784. He came from nobles, combined a military and administrative career with music classes.

Service in Moscow and guitar lessons from A. Sihra

He began his service in 1801, a watchman of the provisions department; in 1803 he was a clerk, and on December 31, 1804 he was promoted to 14th grade. Continuing to serve in the same department (until April 6, 1807), Aksyonov was appointed on June 16 of the same year to the Mining Department, and from here (January 12, 1808) to the Siberian treasury.

Living in Moscow, Aksenov took guitar lessons from A. Sikhra and achieved major success, even then showing a special love for folk song. As M. Stakhovich points out, "Aksenov was the first to exclusively process the guitar for Russian songs and developed a particularly singing side of it - ligates" ^[1]..

Aksenov's passion for Russian song had a great impact on Sikhra, who until that time was mainly engaged in the processing of works of Western music. The singing ability of the performance, which distinguished Aksenov's game, was not too liked by Sihra, who likened the guitar to a harp and considered the guitar to be a pictorial rather than expressive instrument. He called the legato and vibrato used by Aksenov "gypsy," but was forced to reckon with these individual features of his talented student. Significant was Aksenov's guitar technique. The "exercises" created by Sikhra were intended for Aksenov, which indicates his great success in this area. By the time Sihra left Moscow, Aksenov was already known as the best guitarist-performer.

1810: Moving to Petersburg and the beginning of the publication of a magazine about a seven-string guitar

In 1810, Aksyonov retired, came to St. Petersburg and decided on the Forest Department, and in 1811, with the rank of 10th grade, he moved as an executor to the St. Petersburg Office of Addresses, becoming known to the head of the capital, General Vyazmitinov.

[...] Having settled in St. Petersburg, Aksyonov began to publish a "New Magazine for a Seven-String Guitar Dedicated to Music Lovers." The magazine contained Russian songs with variations, including variations on the song "Among the Flat Valley" that became especially popular. In addition to Aksenov's variations on Russian songs, the magazine contains variations on the aria from Mozart's The Wedding of Figaro and Aksyonov's romance for singing with the accompaniment of the guitar "I Really Meet All Spring."]

Following the publication of the magazine, Aksenov published a number of works in variational form (variations on the songs "Ah, why are you, blueberry, sad, sitting," "Blame me on the people," "Kamarinskaya," dedicated to Sihra, etc.). Of the works of Western music, he processed only Dussek's "Hunting" and the aria of L. Maurer. The number of Aksenov's printed plays was relatively small.

Aksenov put Sikhra very high as a teacher. The already mentioned "Exercises" of Sihra were published thanks to Aksenov, who took on all the works and expenses for their printing and distribution. In 1817, on the eve of the publication of Execution, Aksenov wrote: "Mr. Sihra, so famous for lovers of guitar music in talent, in art, in practical and detailed information of this instrument, has now composed four large performances in tones for this, do, sol and re major and si mineur. With this composition, the Russian seven-string guitar can boldly be proud of all the previously known sketches, exercises and schools published on the guitar. The exercises of Sihra will be published under the title: "Practical rules for playing the guitar, in four large exercises consisting of" and will make up a very considerable edition. These rules are recommended to all connoisseurs, amateurs and students on the guitar. Only long-term experience and activity can produce such rare compositions, even more worthy of attention and respect because they are made for an instrument very new. In the four exercises of Sihra there are the same pleasures, the same beauties and the same art of music, what other instruments are famous for, long processed, and what the guitar has become along with them. The connection of harmony with the melodium in these exercises, artificial transitions from tone to another constitute for hearing a lovely chain of musical modulations, everywhere deliberate and adjusted. All passages in these exercises, as in the classical composition, are indicated by numbers showing frets and fingers. It should be added that it is very capable and useful also for six-string and five-string guitars. I can boldly call this composition a musical source, in which everyone will find benefit. This is the key to the secret of playing skillfully on a pleasant instrument.

The assessment of this composition of Sihra is clearly exaggerated, but the given review characterizes Aksenov himself as a person deeply devoted to his teacher. It is also interesting in it the evidence of Aksenov that back in 1817 not only seven-string and six-string, but also five-string guitar were distributed in Russia, for which, in his opinion, Sihra's "Exercises" were quite suitable.

Aksenov tried to compose not only for the guitar. He was close to literary circles and since 1818 he was a member of the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature, in whose magazines he placed his romances on the texts of contemporary poets - F. Glinka, Nechaev, etc. ("Flowers are one comfort to me," "I will not tell you - I love," "You wanted songs, Chloe," etc.). Although these romances are printed in a magazine for singing with a piano, the texture of the accompaniment clearly speaks of the author's "guitar" plan.

1819: Edition of Ignatius von Geld's augmented school of playing the seven-string guitar

On September 13, 1819, Semyon Nikolaevich Aksyonov was appointed an official of special assignments under the Krigs Commissioner General Abakumov, with the rank of 8th class.

In 1819, the "Ignatius von Geld School for Seven-String Guitar, reviewed, corrected and supplemented by S. Aksenov," was published. I. Gelda was no longer alive at that time, and his School was considered the best methodological guide to playing the guitar and had, despite a number of reprints, significant demand. Therefore, when the bookseller V. Plavilshchikov proposed editing the Geld School for a new publication, Aksenov willingly agreed, making his own additions to the School. He wrote a small chapter - "A way to play the guitar with harmonic sounds," which explained the techniques for extracting natural and artificial flagships on the guitar. He repeatedly applied them in his own writings. In addition, to the instructional plays available at the Geld School, Aksenov attached small pies of his own pedagogical purpose, processing and sketches. All this was done quite competently both from the artistic side and methodically.

The extraction of flag sounds, used by Aksenov, was regarded by contemporaries as a major "domestic invention." The magazine "Domestic Notes" reported this: "Now a famous amateur and excellent guitar player S. N. Aksenov discovered a way to play all notes harmonically on this instrument. Until now, the only three modes were known - 4, 5 and 7, which emit flag sounds. G. Aksenov extended them to all halftones, brought them into the system and adapted them so that everyone playing the guitar can easily comprehend this discovery, since he will carefully study the description of it placed in the new guitar school... Lovers of harmony with gratitude will learn about this discovery, for nothing can be more pleasant than flag sounds on the guitar: then it is made more gentle than even wind instruments. "

On August 27, 1823, Semyon Nikolaevich Aksyonov was appointed an official of special assignments under the Minister of War and served in this position until December 6, 1827. From January 4, 1828 he was an official of special assignments in the commissariat department of the Ministry of the Sea, and from April 23, 1830, until his resignation, a member of the general presence of the department.

Termination of musical activity and departure to the estate in the Ryazan province

After 1830, and maybe a little earlier, the musical activity of S. N. Aksenov ceased. According to M. Stakhovich, "recently, rarely anyone managed to hear him, and then too close people or relatives. According to their reviews, his game was extraordinary, but these cases were too rare. By deception, as "they told me, they mined his forgotten excellent and famous guitar from the box, transferred it from room to room so that he would not guess, and that he himself accidentally took it and, playing, fantasized. Then you could only hear him. "

Andrei Osipovich Sihra and Semyon Nikolaevich Aksenov. Author: Chernetsov Grigory Grigorievich. Study for the painting "Parade on the Field of Mars in 1831," 1832 GTG. Author's inscriptions: under the left figure in pencil paint - Sihra under the right - Aksenov: On the back of the cardboard with a pen is the author's inscription and signature: (C) cr and Aksenov famous Gita (rist) in S. Petersburg, from nature G. Chernetsov.

In the 1830s, Aksyonov moved to his Loshaki estate in the Dankovsky district of the Ryazan province, where he lived the remaining years of his life. But in 1833, in the village of Borok, the landowner of 65 souls, a pier on the river. A couple with bread warehouses became the widow of the college registrar Fatov - Princess Varvara Alekseevna Kropotkina, who married for the 2nd time Semyon Nikolaevich Aksenov (1787-1840), an official of the 6th class. Commissariat Department of the Ministry of the Sea, the famous first guitarist in Russia. He had three children - Nikolai (p.3.06.1828), Anna (p.30.06.1829) and Natalya (p.22.08.1831), most likely children from the 2nd wife, indicated by Princess Varvara Alekseevna.

The composer died on April 30 [May 11], 1853.

The "newly settled village" indicated in the Ryazan archive, perhaps there is an Aksenov farm, named after the guitarist and shown by I.I. Prokhodtsev in "Populated Places." Now this farm is called Maysky and is located not far from Borok for s. Berezovo Shilovsky district of the Ryazan region on the river. Tyrnitsa.

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