Andrey Anokhin

Who was Andrey Anokhin?

Andrey Viktorovich Anokhin was a Russian ethnographer, music scientist and composer.

Andrey Anokhin was born in a village Right Lamki in Tambov Governorate's Arjan district. In the beginning of 1870 his family moved to Biysk. Anokhin graduated Biysk missionary school, continued his training in the Moscow Synodal School, and later took courses in the Saint Petersburg imperial court singing chapel. From 1900 Anokhin taught and composed in Tomsk; he joined the Tomsk branch of the Russian Musical Society and the Tomsk Society for Siberian studies led by Grigory Potanin. From 1906 to 1931 Anokhin made numerous ethnographic and folklore expeditions across Southern Siberia, Mongolia, and Eastern Kazakhstan. Anokhin worked with the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, which stores the materials of Anokhin's expeditions.

Andrey Anokhin studied a musical culture of Altaians, recorded and processed more than 500 Altai songs, and about 300 songs of Teleuts, Khakases, and Tuvinians. He produced descriptions of national musical instruments, distinct musical harmonics, tonality and rhythm of the national songs and musical compositions.