Elégie, Op. 5 No. 3

Vladimir Ivanovich Rebikov (born May 31 [OR May 19] 1866 - Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia — died October 1, 1920 - Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine) was a late romantic 20th-century Russian composer and pianist.

He began studying the piano with his mother. His sisters also were pianists. He graduated from the Moscow University faculty of philology. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory, then taught and played in concerts in various parts of the Russian Empire: Moscow, Odessa, Kishinev, Yalta, as well as in Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Leipzig, Florence and Paris. Rebikov settled in Yalta in 1909.

Early works suggest the influence of Peter Tchaikovsky. He wrote lyrical piano miniatures (suites, cycles, and albums), children's choruses and songs. One of his vocal cycles is called Basni v litsach (The Fables in Faces) after Ivan Krylov. He also wrote a stage work Krylov's Fables (c. 1900). His children's music is the most notable of all his works. He continued the Russian penchant for the whole tone scale.

He used new advanced harmony such as seventh and ninth chords, unresolved cadences, polytonality, and harmony based upon open fourths and fifths. His orchestral and stage works include more than ten operas and two ballets.

Rebikov was already a forgotten figure by the time of his death at age 54. He was bitter and disillusioned, convinced wrongly that composers such as Debussy, Scriabin, and Stravinsky had made their way into public prominence through stealing his ideas. Ironically he is best known by way of his insubstantial music in salon genres. Rebikov's role as an important early instigator of twentieth-century techniques deserves to be more widely recognized.

The work was transcribed by Arthur Eaglefield Hull (1876–1928), and you should read more about him in the First Comment, where you'll also find performance notes.

The transcription score (p. 16 [p.14]) is attached below, as well as a photo of Rebeikov and two of A. E. Hull.