Alexander Goedicke

A composer who doesn't even warrant a mention in my 1980 New Groves, so obscure had he become!

His full name was Alexander Fyodorovich Goedicke, though for simplicity this site drops the use of the patronymic. He was born in Moscow, in 1877, of German descent. He studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating in 1898. Without formal training in composition, he nevertheless added composing to his duties, as well as teaching music and playing both piano and organ. He actually won the Rubinstein Prize for Composition aged 23 and, in particular, his piano transcriptions of organ pieces are said to be extremely skillful. That didn't seem to help him once the Soviets came to power in the 1917 revolution, however: his output of symphonies, operas and chamber music fell into almost total oblivion.

---