Career
Baron Boris Vietinghof-Scheel or Baron Schell (Russian: Фитингоф-Шель, Борис Александрович, translit Boris Aleksandrovich Fitinhof-Shel") (1829? in Morshansk – 8 October 1901 in Street St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Russian composer. His most noted work are the ballets The Haarlem Tulip (1887) and, composed for the Imperial Ballet of Saint St. Petersburg. He also scored four operas for the Saint St. Petersburg Imperial Opera, which were commissioned by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, director of the Imperial Theatres.
His Wedding March, scored especially for the wedding of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna is still occasionally heard.
Fitinhoff-Schell is also noted for his Fantastic Overture to his opera, in which whole-tone scales were profusely employed. Franz Liszt greatly appreciated this piece, describing its effect as ".. terrifying to all long and protruding ears." Liszt himself made use of the whole-tone scale in his Divina Commedia, illustrating the Inferno, and he used it systematically in his posthumously published organ and late piano pieces.