Nicolay Andreyevich Roslavets

Russian composer Nicolay Andreyevich Roslavets (1881-1944). This son of poor Ukrainian peasants taught himself music for twenty years before joining the elite at the Moscow Conservatory. Being a supporter of the revolution, he held important official functions in the musical life of Moscow until he himself was trampled by the infernal Soviet machine. He died forgotten by the world, and for half a century his name was banned from the official history books. Considered a sort of 'Russian Schoenberg', Roslavets developed his own system of composition based on the 12 tones of the chromatic scale without, however, denying Scriabin's influence.