Dmitri Kabalevsky(1904-1987)

Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky was born on December 30, 1904, in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was baptized by a Russian Orthodox priest on January 5, 1905, known as the "Bloody Sunday" of the 1st Russian Revolution. His father, named Boris Kabalevsky, was a mathematician. The family of Kabalevskys belonged to Russian Nobility. In 1916 they moved to Moscow. Young Kabalevsky played piano for silent movies and studied composition under 'Nikolai Miaskovsky' at Moscow Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1925 as a composer. He joined the Union of Soviet Composers in 1932 and became professor of Moscow Conservatory. Kabalevsky always followed the official line of Communist party for survival under dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. In 1940 he joined the Communist Party and was made Chief Editor of the "Soviet Music" magazine.

In 1946 Kabalevsky was initially included in the bad list of "anti-Soviet" composers by the communist censor Andrei Zhdanov. By 1948 Kabalevsky repented to the Communist party and was cleared, but his teacher 'Nikolai Miaskovsky', and his famous colleagues Sergei Prokofiev, and Dmitri Shostakovich were viciously attacked by censor Zhdanov. From 1949-1952 Kabalevsky was Head of Music Department of Moscow Art Institute. In 1952 he was made Secretary of the Soviet Composers Union and remained in the leadership for 35 years. In 1956 he was Chairman of Commission in charge of music that was previously banned. Kabalevsky made a decision to keep the ban on 'Lady Makbeth of Mtsensk', an opera by Dmitri Shostakovich, which was already under the ban from 1936-1956. Kabalevsky approved the ban with his hypocritical comment that Shostakovich's opera was showing a murder and infidelity which was against the norms of Soviet morality.

Kabalevsky wrote music scores for several Soviet films, including 'Ivan Pavlov' (1949), a film about Doctor Pavlov and his research on conditioning dogs and humans to sounds, lights, and food. During the 1950's, 1960's, and 1970's Kabalevsky pushed his own educational system based on conditioning children to certain songs and marches through listening, singing, and marching to music. Instead of playing instruments and developing personal skills, children were lectured about Kabalevsky's theory of "three whales" of music, and listened to the recommended songs. Millions of children in the Soviet Union became conditioned to official marches, parades and political demonstrations under officially approved music and Soviet symbolics. Such ideas were not accepted in the Baltic Republics with their deep culture of choral singing on weekends, or in Ukraine and Georgia, where folk music runs deep in every family's tradition. Kabalevsky himself was a smooth lecturer and politician; his system was funded by the Soviet government and was taught by trained instructors in thousands of Soviet public schools. In reality his "good intentions" contributed to conditioning of several generations of children to obedience, like Pavlov's dogs.

Kabalevsky was awarded the Stalin's Prize (twice) and received many other Soviet State prizes and perks. He was awarded the Order of Lenin and was made the People's Artist of the USSR. He died on February 14, 1987, in Moscow. Of his two operas the most known is 'Colas Breugnon' based on the eponymous book by Romain Rolland. Among his four piano concertos the 3rd was premiered in 1952 by then 14-year-old Vladimir Ashkenazy and was recorded by Emil Gilels. His piano sonata was recorded by Vladimir Horowitz. His songs 'School waltz' and 'Krai rodnoi' are still remembered in Russia, and are even used in cell phones.