Alexander Taneyev

A member of Russian aristocracy, Taneyev was a high-ranking state official, serving for 22 years as the head of His Imperial Majesty's Own Chancellery.

After studying at university, he entered the Russian civil service, succeeding his father as director of the Imperial Chancellery.

It was rumored that Taneyev kept a score that he was working on hidden beneath official documents so that he might pen a few notes between appointments.

Taneyev's compositional output was large: two operas, four symphonies, several pieces for orchestra, numerous choral works, and a considerable amount of chamber music including three string quartets.

Taneyev married Countess Nadezhda Illarionovna Tolstoy (1860-1937), a descendant of Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, Prince of Smolensk.