Departures of note

Yefim Golyshev, a Ukrainian-born violinist and composer, is remembered for his only surviving composition, a string trio subtitled Zwölftondauer-Komplexe (twelve-tone-duration complexes). Published in Berlin in 1925 but possibly written as early as 1914, the piece integrates twelve-note and twelve-duration structures, making it one of the earliest examples of a twelve-tone technique variant, predating later developments by composers like Olivier Messiaen. Its five movements are titled by dynamics—Mezzo-forte, Fortissimo, Piano, Pianissimo, and Adagio—with the final movement's dynamics left to performers' discretion.

Before turning to composition, Golyshev had a successful career as a child prodigy violinist, earning the Reger Prize from Berlin's Stern Conservatory. He later became a founding member of the Dadaist November Group, creating 'anti-art' paintings and music for kitchen utensils and invented instruments, reflecting his avant-garde leanings. His other works, including two operas, romances, music for Vsevolod Pudovkin's lost film Igdenbu the Great Hunter, a string quartet, and additional pieces, are now lost.

In 1933, Golyshev fled the Nazis, moving first to Portugal and then to Barcelona, where he worked as a chemist until 1938. During World War II, he spent time in France, either in prison or in hiding. Between 1956 and 1966, he lived in São Paulo, influencing Brazil's Música Nova composers. He died in Paris in 1970, and in the same year provided illustrations for Raoul Hausmann's last book, Sensorialité Excentrique.