Vladimir Ivanovich [Vladimir] Martynov (20/02/1946), a Russian composer, born in Moscow. He studied the piano under M. Mezhlumov and composition under N. Sidelnikov at the Moscow Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1970-71. In his first large-scale works he adopts the serial technique (Quartet, 1966 - Concerto for oboe and for flute, 1968 - ,i>Hexagramme for piano, 1971 - Sonata for violin and piano, 1973). In 1973 he began working in the studio for electronic music of the Scriabin museum, the meeting ground of many of the leading composers of the Russian avante-garde, such as Denisov, Gubaidulina, Schnittke, Nemtin and others. A rock-group, The Boomerang, was formed in the studio with the active participation of Martynov and for which he wrote the rock-opera The Seraphic Visions of St.Francis of Assisi (1978). At the same time he was exploring the possibilities of the minimalist system simoultaneously with Arvo Part and Valentin Sylvestrov.
In additions, the extraordinary variety of his interests led him to the study of folk music for which he travelled extensively all over Russia, the Caucasus and Tadjikistan, of theology, the history of religions and philosophy, medieval Russian and Western music and religious musicology. At the end of the 1970s he embarked on an investigation of the early Russian religious chant, while also publishing editions of works by Isaac, Machaut, Gabrieli, Dunstable and Dufay. At this period he accepted a teaching post at the Theological Institute of the Trinity-Saint Sergius. During the period 1980-83 his output was mainly devoted to church music. Then new works began to appear which combine the experiments of former period, continuing his involvement with minimalism (Opus post I,, 1984, Opus post II for piano, 1996, Twelve Victories of King Arthur, for seven pianos, 1990) and widening his explorations of the great religious themes in works like Apocalypse (1991), Lamentations of Jeremiah (1992), Magnificat (1993), Stabat Mater (1994), Requiem (1998), Games of Humans and Angels (1999) and Litanies to the Virgin (2000).