Russian music, and indeed all Russian art throughout its history, has been most closely connected with the deep Orthodox worldview. It is here that the roots of the originality and originality of our culture. Over the past century, this connection has been forcibly destroyed. Restoring this spiritual connection is the most difficult task facing our society. Only on this path I see the future of our art.
G.V. Sviridov
When I think about music, I am reminded that it was performed in cathedrals and churches. I want her to have the same sacred, the same reverent attitude, so that our listener would look for, and most importantly, find answers to the most important, most intimate questions of her life, her destiny.
G.V. Sviridov
METROPOLIT HILARION (ALFEEV)
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He is the author of a number of musical works of the chamber and oratorio genre, including: "St. Matthew Passion" for soloists, "Memento" for a symphony orchestra, "May the Saints rest in peace" for male choir and orchestra.
Metropolitan Hilarion's works are performed by the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Moscow Synodal Choir.
Metropolitan Hilarion is the creator of the genre of Russian spiritual instrumental-choir oratorio on liturgical texts using the intonations of Russian church singing, elements of the Baroque musical style and the style of Russian composers of the 20th century.
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ARCHIMANDRITE MATTHEW (MORMYL)
Everyone should sing as if he sings for the last time in his life.
Archimandrite Matthew (in the world Lev Vasilyevich Mormyl) is an outstanding church composer and choirmaster. Born on March 5, 1938 in the North Caucasus, in the village of Arkhonskaya, in a Cossack family with hereditary musical traditions.
Father Matthew directed the choir of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra for almost 50 years. During this time, he created a school of church singing, transcribed many hymns and wrote a large number of works that today are commonly called "Lavra".
In the 1950s and 1960s, he collected and recorded fragments of traditional church and monastic singing that had been almost completely destroyed in previous decades. When churches and monasteries began to open throughout the country in the 1990s, copies of his arrangements became the basis of the repertoire for the newly created church choirs.
DEACON SERGIY TRUBACHEV
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In 1950 he graduated from the Institute. Gnesins, in 1954 - the Moscow Conservatory.
Deacon Sergius Trubachev created numerous church singing works, made harmonizations of monastic and ancient Russian chants.
GEORGY VASILIEVICH SVIRIDOV
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In 1936, Georgy Sviridov entered the Leningrad Conservatory, where he became a student of D.D. Shostakovich.
One of the key themes in Sviridov's work is Russia.
He created liturgical works for church choirs.
DAVID FYODOROVICH TUKHMANOV
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Creativity of David Tukhmanov has won national recognition and love. He composed about two hundred songs, music for films and performances. The composer also works in the academic genre, he wrote works: the oratorio "The Legend of Yermak", the poem for violin and orchestra "Holy Night", numerous chamber vocal compositions. His opera The Queen was staged at the Helikon-Opera in Moscow and on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.
David Fedorovich Tukhmanov is a holder of the badge of honor of the Russian Foundation for Public Recognition.
Since 2008 - member of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Culture and Art.
Since 2010 - Member of the Patriarchal Council for Culture.
PATRIARSH CHOIR OF THE TEMPLE OF CHRIST THE SAVIOR
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The choir at the church was founded in 1998, and already in 2000, with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II, the team received the status of the Patriarchal Choir of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
Since 2007, the choir has been directed by the choir director Ilya Tolkachev.
In addition to performing spiritual chants during divine services, the choir participates in important church and state celebrations, arranges classical music concerts in the Hall of Church Cathedrals of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
The basis of the repertoire of the Patriarchal Choir is made up of outstanding works of Russian sacred music, arrangements of Russian folk songs and works by Russian composers: P.I. Tchaikovsky, S.V. Rachmaninov, P.G. Chesnokova, A.T. Grechaninov.
The Patriarchal Choir of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is actively touring.
(FLV file. Duration 12 min. Size 97.3 Mb)
CHOIR OF MOSCOW SRETENSKY MONASTERY
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Today the choir consists of 30 people, their own composers and arrangers.
Choir director - Honored Artist of Russia Nikon Zhila.
In addition to regular services in the Sretensky Monastery, the choir sings at solemn Patriarchal services in the Moscow Kremlin, participates in international music competitions and missionary trips of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The choir performed at concert venues: the library of the US Congress in Washington, Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center in New York, the Arts Center in Toronto, Town Hall in Sydney, Berliner Dom, Cadogan Hall in London, repeatedly gave concerts in Notre Dame de Bet.
In addition to sacred music, the choir's repertoire also contains the best works of the song tradition of Russia, which consists of Russian, Ukrainian, Cossack folk songs, romances and songs of the war years.
(FLV file. Duration 16 min. Size 123.5 Mb)
MOSCOW SYNODAL CHOIR
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At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, the choir's repertoire included not only church hymns, but also works of secular music, as well as arrangements of Russian folk songs. The choir performed works by Sergei Rachmaninov, Alexander Kastalsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
In 1919, when the Kremlin cathedrals were closed, the choir ceased to exist for a long time.
On January 3, 2010, in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill gave his blessing to revive the Moscow Synodal Choir on the basis of the church team at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow" on Bolshaya Ordynka.
Today the choir has 80 members.
(FLV file. Duration 14 min. Size 109.1 Mb)
The secular works of outstanding Russian composers organically included images of Orthodox spirituality, and found a vivid embodiment of the intonation of Orthodox church music. The introduction of bell ringing into operatic scenes became a tradition in nineteenth-century Russian opera.
Coming to the roots
Possessing high value orientations, carrying moral purity and inner harmony, Orthodox spirituality nourished Russian music, in contrast, representing and denouncing the insignificance of worldly fuss, the baseness of human passions and vices.
The outstanding heroic-tragic opera by M. I. Glinka “A Life for the Tsar” (“Ivan Susanin”), the drama “The Tsar’s Bride”, folk musical dramas by M. P. Mussorgsky, epic operas by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov and others, it is possible to comprehend deeply only through the prism of Orthodox religious culture. The characteristics of the heroes of these musical works are given from the point of view of Orthodox moral and ethical ideas.
Melos of Russian composers and church hymns
Since the 19th century, Orthodox church music has been abundantly penetrating into Russian classical music at the intonation-thematic level. The quartet-prayer sung by the heroes of the opera A Life for the Tsar by the genius Glinka is reminiscent of the partess style of church hymns, the final solo scene by Ivan Susanin is, in essence, a prayerful appeal to God before his death, the epilogue of the opera begins with a jubilant choir "Glory", close to the church genre "Multiple Years". The solo parts of the characters in the well-known musical folk drama about Tsar Boris Mussorgsky, revealing the image of Orthodox monasticism (Elder Pimen, the Fool-for-Christ, Kaliki passers-by), are permeated with the intonations of church hymns.
Severe choirs of schismatics, sustained in the style, are presented in Mussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina. On the intonations of Znamenny singing, the main themes of the first parts of the famous piano concertos by S.V. Rachmaninov (second and third).
Scene from the opera “Khovanshchina” by M.P. Mussorgsky
A deep connection with Orthodox culture can be traced in the work of the outstanding master of the vocal and choral genre G.V. Sviridov. The original melos of the composer is a synthesis of folk-song, church-canonical and Kantian principles.
Znamenny chant dominates in Sviridov's choral cycle "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" - based on the tragedy by A.K. Tolstoy. "Chants and Prayers", written in church texts, but intended for secular concert performance, are Sviridov's unsurpassed creations, in which ancient liturgical traditions organically merge with the musical language of the 20th century.
The bells are ringing
Bell ringing is considered an integral part of Orthodox life. Most composers of the Russian school have a figurative world of bells in their musical heritage.
For the first time, Glinka introduced scenes with bell ringing into Russian opera: the bells accompany the final part of the opera A Life for the Tsar. The re-creation of the bell ringing in the orchestra enhances the drama of the image of Tsar Boris: the scene of the coronation and the scene of death. (Mussorgsky: musical drama "Boris Godunov").
Many of Rachmaninov's works are filled with bells. One of the clearest examples in this sense is the Prelude in C-sharp minor. Remarkable examples of the recreation of bell ringing are presented in the musical compositions of the composer of the 20th century. V.A. Gavrilina ("Chimes").
And now - a musical gift. A wonderful choral Easter miniature by one of the Russian composers. Already here the bell-likeness manifests itself more than clearly.
M. Vasiliev Easter Troparion “Bell”
By contemporary Orthodox music, we mean religious music written by Orthodox composers in recent years. Chronologically, we consider 1988, the year of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', as the starting point of Orthodox modernity.
Vladimir Fayner - the composer's professional interest and creative inspiration is given to the issue of applying the contrapuntal principles of the development of melodies and tunes in relation to the applied tasks of liturgical performance.
The reproduction or, if you like, the illustrated embodiment of the declared method has been convincingly embodied in a whole series of capital opuses, which are of undoubted interest for performance.
"Bless, my soul, the Lord"- a work for a choir or three soloists with developed voices. It is necessary to work with each voice separately and then combine the parties in a polyphonic system.
"Trisagion"- a work for a choir or three soloists, each voice is sufficiently developed. There are many melodic chants in the parts, which are complex intonationally and rhythmically.
Irina Denisova- the author of more than 80 church hymns, harmonizations and adaptations. The musical collection of her compositions "Singing All-Moving", published by the publishing house of the St. Elisabeth Monastery, has already undergone a second edition and is in demand among Orthodox musicians in Belarus and Russia. The same publishing house recently released an "author's" CD by I. Denisova under the same title. A significant role in the works is played by a single intonation built on the synthesis of "archaic" and "modern" musical structures. This type of intonation is becoming an important sign of modern thinking in composer creativity.
Concert "Under Your Grace"- very expressive concert chanting, requires work on the harmonic system, since deviations are very common, chromatic moves in parts should be worked out. Rich dynamic ensemble.
Kontakion of Akathist to the Apostle Andrew- in the chant there are deviations in different keys, which can cause certain difficulties for the performers. It is also necessary to pay attention to the change in size in the middle of the work and to the tempo dramaturgy.
III.Conclusion
Thus, I would like to emphasize that sacred music is a fertile ground for the vocal education of a choir, since initially it was based on singing practice, and not on abstract composer research.
Simplicity, spirituality, flight, tenderness of sound - this is the basis for the performance of church compositions. Immersion in the atmosphere of spirituality, the desire to embody the high images embedded in the chants, a reverent attitude to the text, natural expressiveness from the heart, educates the soul of the child and has a positive effect on the formation of his aesthetic views. And therefore, it is necessary to include compositions of Russian sacred music in the repertoire of children's choirs.
