Alfred Julius Swan (1890-1970) comes from an English family who has been engaged in the rubber business in Russia for generations. He attended the Conservatoire of St. Petersburg, studied law, music and languages in Oxford, emigrated to the USA in 1920 and converted to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1936. His research focussed on the old chants of the Russian Orthodox Church and their relationship with the Russian folk song. As a composer, he left piano sonatas, string quartets and liturgical ch...