Alexander Alexandrovich Ilyinsky (Russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Ильи́нский; 24 January [O.S. 12 January] 1859 – 23 February 1920) was a Russian music teacher and composer, best known for the Lullaby (Berceuse), Op. 13, No. 7, from his orchestral suite "Noure and Anitra", and for the opera The Fountain of Bakhchisaray set to Pushkin's poem of the same name.
His major work, the 4-act opera The Fountain of Bakhchisaray, to a libretto based on Alexander Pushkin's poem, was produced in Moscow in 1911.[4] He also wrote a symphony, a Concert Overture,[1] a string quartet, three orchestral suites, a set of orchestral Croatian Dances, a symphonic movement called Psyche,[1] two cantatas for female chorus and orchestra (Strekoza (The Dragonfly) and Rusalka), incidental musictoSophocles' Oedipus Rex and Philoctetes, and to Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich, piano pieces, church music, songs, etc. His name is perhaps most familiar to music students for his Lullaby from the third orchestral suite (sometimes described as a ballet),[1] "Noure and Anitra", Op. 13, which excerpt has appeared in many different arrangements.
Alexander Ilyinsky also wrote "A Short Guide to the Practical Teaching of Orchestration" (1917), which remained in use long after his death.[2] In 1904 there appeared under his editorship "Biographies of all Composers from the Fourth to the Twentieth Century".[1] He edited the complete piano works of Beethoven for a commercial publication.[5]
He died in 1920 in Moscow.
Orgy of the Spirits, an excerpt from The Fountain of Bakhchisaray, was used in the scores of the film East of Java (1935)[6] and the adventure serials Tim Tyler's Luck (1937) and Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938).[2] It was also used as the theme music for the radio serial The Witch’s Tale.[7]
