| Honorific Prefix: | Major General |
| Semyon Chernetsky | |
| Native Name Lang: | ru |
| Birth Date: | 24 October 1881 |
| Birth Place: | Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (now Odessa, Odessa Oblast, Ukraine) |
| Death Place: | Moscow, RSFSR, Soviet Union (now Moscow, Russia) |
| Placeofburial: | Novodevichy Cemetery |
| Birth Name: | Solomon Isayevich Chernetsky |
| Allegiance: | |
| Branch: | Red Army |
| Serviceyears: | 1924-1949 |
| Rank: | Major General |
| Commands: | Central Military Orchestra of the People's Commissariat of National Defense |
Major General Semyon Aleksandrovich Chernetsky (Russian: Семен Александрович Чернецкий) was a Ukrainian-born Russian and Soviet military conductor. He is credited as the founder of modern Russian military bands. He served as the Senior Director of the Central Military Band of the People's Commissariat of National Defense of the USSR from 1924 to 1950.
Tchernetsky was born on 24 October 1881 in Odessa to a musical family. He was born Solomon Isayevich Chernetsky, a Jewish name which he russified in 1917 to Semyon Aleksandrovich. His father, Isay Aleksandrovich Shtember was a violinist and violin teacher. His mother Dora Isayevna Chernetskaya was a piano teacher. His cousin Lev would later become the bandmaster of the 8th Don Cossack Regiment of the 8th Cavalry Division based at Odessa.
From 1892-1893, Chernetsky studied the trombone in the orchestra of the 24th Dragoon Lubny Regiment in Kishinev, Bessarabia Governorate (now Chișinău, Moldova), where his uncle Issac was the conductor. In 1900, due to the difficult financial situation of the family, after the death of his father and without graduating from college, he was sent to Kishinev to live with Issac. In Kishinev, he graduated from the music classes of the local branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society and decided to devote himself to military music. At first he tried his hand as an assistant to his uncle, and in 1903 he himself became bandmaster of the 14th Artillery Brigade (part of the 15th Infantry Division of the Imperial Russian Army). In the same year, during the Kishinev pogrom, he participated in the organization of self-defense, and as a result was seriously wounded and lost his left eye.[1] [2] In 1911 he entered the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, which he graduated in 1917.
In 1918, Chernetsky joined the Red Army and was appointed as the head of the military bands of the Petrograd military district. He quickly rose through the ranks, eventually being appointed as the director of the Military Band of the Workers and Peasants Red Army in 1924. After more than 10 years in this position, he formed the Central Military Band of the People's Commissariat of National Defense, which later became the first military band to be formed in modern Russia. In 1935, together with professor Heinrich Neuhaus at the Moscow Conservatory, he created the Military Faculty of the Moscow State Conservatory, where music students get a curriculum based on the conducting and combat repertoire. On 1 August 1937, Cherneysky founded the Moscow Military Music College as a means of building and enhancing the knowledge of potential military musicians in the Red Army.[3] On 24 June 1945 Chernetsky led the massed bands during the Moscow Victory Parade of 1945 on Red Square.
In 1946, he suffered from a paralysis, which resulted in his retirement from active service after 25 years in the armed forces. Tchernetsky died on 13 April 1950 in Moscow. He is buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Chernetsky is highly regarded in the Russian military music sphere and one of the most outstanding Russian military composers in the 20th century. Depending on sources, he wrote between 100-200 marches, patriotic songs and other works in his lifetime. In addition to military marches, he also wrote some socio-political ones such as Glory to the Motherland, Lenin's Call and the March of Moscow Pioneers. Many of his military marches are the most famous and common ones used by the Russian Military Band Service, some of which have been used Moscow Victory Day Parade on Red Square for decades.
Marches[9]