Valentina Ramm

'''Valentina Yosifovna Mandelstam Ramm'''<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=РАММ в музыкальной энциклопедии |url=https://www.music-dic.ru/html-music-enc/r/6376.html |access-date=2025-12-06 |website=www.music-dic.ru}}</ref> (22 October 1888 - 3 July 1968) was a Ukrainian author, composer, coloratura soprano, translator and violinist. She composed over 100 songs and several string quartets.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Cohen |first=Aaron I. |title=International Encyclopedia of Women Composers |date=1987 |publisher=Books & Music (USA) |isbn=978-0-9617485-1-7 |pages=573 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Musical_Leader/uWsmC63IAssC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=valentina+ramm+composer&dq=valentina+ramm+composer&printsec=frontcover |title=The Musical Leader |date=1942 |publisher=J. French Demerath and E. French Smith |language=en}}</ref>

==Life and work== Ramm was born in Kharkov, Ukraine.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Valentina Ramm |url=https://www.earsense.org/chamber-music/composer/Valentina-Ramm/ |access-date=5 December 2025 |website=earsense.org}}</ref> She graduated from the Leipzig Conservatory (today the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig) in 1908. Her teachers included B. Heidiger, S. Krell, K. Zitt (possibly Hans Sitt, who taught at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1884 to 1921), as well as Mikhail Gnessin in Moscow.<ref name=":1" />

Ramm worked in several areas related to music:

*after 1908: sang and taught singing in Rostov-on-the-Don, Russia;

*1928-29 secretary of the Association of Chamber Music and voice teacher at the Alexander Scriabin music school;

*1930-32 editor for Muzgiz (at that time the Soviet State Music Publishing House) and director of a society for young composers;

*1938-40 editor at a record company; and

*1941-43 lecturer at the Kirov Music School.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Ramm, Valentina Iosifovna |url=https://renataoliveira84.wixsite.com/femalecomposers/ramm-valentina-iosifovna |access-date=2025-12-06 |website=femalecomposers |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Valentina Iosifovna Ramm Song Texts {{!}} LiederNet |url=https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_settings.html?ComposerId=36467 |access-date=2025-12-06 |website=www.lieder.net}}</ref>

Ramm wrote articles on the history of song and song in civil strife. She composed over 100 songs on texts by Soviet poets such as Aleksandr Aleksandrov, Alexander Blok, Mikhail Lermontov, Alexander Pushkin, Ovady Savich and Fyodor Tyutchev.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" />

Fluent in German, Russian and Yiddish, Ramm translated two Bach cantatas into Russian, and translated works by Joel Engel, Mikhail Gnessin, Aleksandr Krein, and Aleksandr Veprik into German.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=List of works by Valentina Ramm - IMSLP |url=https://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Valentina_Ramm |access-date=2025-12-06 |website=imslp.org}}</ref>

==Works== Ramm’s works were published by Universal (Leipzig).<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Stewart-Green |first=Miriam |title=Women composers: A checklist of works for the solo voice |date=1980 |publisher=Hall |isbn=978-0-8161-8498-9 |series=A reference publication in women's studies |location=Boston, Mass |pages=112, 173}}</ref>

=== Printed works ===

*''International Collection of Revolutionary Songs (editor)''<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |title=Biographical dictionary of Russian/Soviet composers |date=1989 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-24485-8 |editor-last=Ho |editor-first=Allan Benedict |location=New York |pages=179, 434 |editor-last2=Feofanov |editor-first2=Dmitry}}</ref>

*''Schubert v Massovoi Auditorii 1928''<ref name=":1" />

*''Zapadnoyevrodeiskaya Khudozhestvennaya Pesnya 1929''<ref name=":1" />

=== Ballets ===

*''Caliph-Stork<ref name=":2" />''

*''Sleeping Beauty'' (incidental music)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Laurence |first=Anya |title=Women of Notes: 1,000 Women Composers Born Before 1900 |publisher=Richards Rosen Press Inc. |year=1978 |location=New York |pages=84}}</ref>

*''Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights''<ref name=":0" />

=== Chamber works===

*''Sonata'' (violin and piano)<ref name=":1" />

*''String Quartet No. 1, opus 16<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5" />''

*''String Quartet No. 2<ref name=":1" />''

*''Wind Quartet''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boenke |first=H. Alais |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Flute_Music_by_Women_Composers/aOjEEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=valentina+ramm+composer&pg=PA190&printsec=frontcover |title=Flute Music by Women Composers: An Annotated Catalog |date=1988-10-19 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-0-313-36831-8 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Orchestral works ===

*Five Nights and Days: Funeral Stanzas, opus 7 (orchestra and baritone; text by

Vera Inber)<ref name=":5" />

*Nike (voice and orchestra; text by Vladislav Bronevsky)<ref name=":1" />

*Santa Ursula Cantata<ref name=":6" />

*Slavyanski Marsh (wind orchestra)<ref name=":1" />

*Torzhestvennie Marsh (wind orchestra)<ref name=":1" />

*Udarnitzy Metalla Cantata (text by Tatyana Sikorskaya)<ref name=":1" />

*V Stepnykh Aulakh Cantata (text by Dzhabaev Dzhambul)<ref name=":1" />

=== Piano works===

*''From the World of Animals, opus 10<ref name=":5" />''

*''Intermezzo, opus 5<ref name=":5" />''

*''Suite''<ref name=":7" />

=== Vocal works===

*Dni Voiny: Five Cycles (voice and string quartet; text by Soviet poets)<ref name=":1" />

*Four Folk Songs (voice, string quartet and flute)<ref name=":1" />

*O Voine, Eight Children’s Songs (voice and string quartet)<ref name=":1" />

*Penthesilea: Triptych of Sofia Parnok, opus 9 (voice and piano)<ref name=":5" />

*Rodina Cycle (voice and piano)<ref name=":1" />

*Triptych, Penthesilea (voice and piano; text by Sophia Parnok)<ref name=":1" />

*Two Children’s Songs, opus 4<ref name=":5" />

== References == {{reflist}}

Category:Ukrainian women composers Category:Ukrainian women writers Category:1888 births Category:1968 deaths Category:University of Music and Theatre Leipzig alumni Category:People from Kharkov Governorate Category:String quartet composers