Artemy Vedel

Artemy Vedel (Russian: Артемий Ведель; Ukrainian: Артемiй Ведель; ca. 1767, Kiev, Russian Empire [now Kyiv, Ukraine] — 1808, Kiev, Russian Empire)[1] was a Russian[2] Imperial military and monastic composer of Ukrainian origin.[1][3] Together with Maxim Berezovsky and Dmitry Bortniansky, Vedel is recognized as one of the Golden Three composers of the period.

He was born in Kiev. He studied at the Peter-Mogila-Academy and later in St. Petersburg and Moscow under Giuseppe Sarti. In 1796 accompanied Levanidov to Kharkiv to conduct the Kharkiv College choir. He did much of his composing in this period.[4]

In 1797 Tsar Paul I prohibited the performance in churches of any form of music except for the Divine Liturgy. In 1798 Levanidov was removed from his post by Paul I, leaving Vedel without a benefactor. Church authorities sent him to a mental asylum in 1799 for spurious reasons, and he died soon after.[4]

The V.I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine holds the only existing music composition manuscript handwritten by Vedel, the "Score of Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom and Other Compositions". The piece comprises the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom and various choral works. The ink varies in color, which suggests that Vedel wrote on the manuscript at different times throughout the years.[1]