Alexander Kastalsky: His Life and Music

Alexander Kastal'sky (1856-1926) was a leading composer in the field of Russian church music whose work determined the course of its development in that period. An inspiration to composers such as Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky, he became a well-known ethnographer as well during the latter part of his life. This study of Kastal'sky and his music was originally published in Russian in 1999 and provides a full account of the composer's life and works. This English edition, translated by Stuart Campbell, also makes available a large amount of information about Russian church music of the late Imperial period generally, a topic which for many decades was not allowed to be studied in the USSR.