Aleksandr Nikolayevich Serov was a Russian composer and essayist. Educated as a jurist (he graduated from the School for Jurisprudence in 1840) and employed as a clerk at the Ministries of Law and Interior Affairs, Serov mastered extensive musical knowledge in a proficient manner all by himself and acquired all the compositional skills required of a composer. His close friend was Vladimir Vasil’yevich Stasov. From 1851 onwards Serov frequently wrote essays on music and contributed them to periodicals, becoming one of the founders of Russian musical criticism. He is chiefly known for his operas “Judith” (1862), “Rogneda” (on a subject from Russian history; 1865) and “The Power of the Fiend” (based on the play of Aleksandr Ostrovsky, uncompleted). He also composed a number of orchestral, choral and chamber compositions, as well as songs. His son was the painter Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov.
