All-Night Vigil
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The All-Night Vigil (Russian: Всенощное Бдение, All-Night Vigil), Opus 37, is an a cappella choral composition by Sergei Rachmaninoff, written and premiered in 1915. The title of the work is often rendered as The Vespers, which is literally incorrect and conceptually imprecise, as the work consists of settings of two canonical hours – vespers and matins – from the Eastern Orthodox liturgy.
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[edit] Composition History
The All-Night Vigil was written in less than two weeks in early 1915, and was first performed in Moscow in the March of that year, partly to benefit the Russian war effort. Nicolai Danilin conducted the all-male Moscow Synodal Choir at the premiere. It was received warmly by critics and audiences alike, and was so successful that it was performed five more times within a month. Rachmaninoff himself considered the Vigil one of his two favorite pieces, along with The Bells, and requested that its Nunc dimittis (no. 5) be performed at his funeral (a request that was not carried out). The Nunc dimittis (Nyne otpushchayeshi) has gained notoriety for its ending, in which the low basses must negotiate a descending scale that ends with a low B flat (the third B flat below middle C).
[edit] Description
The All-Night Vigil is perhaps notable as one of two liturgical settings (the other being the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom) by a composer who had stopped attending church services. As required by the Russian Orthodox Church, Rachmaninoff based ten of the fifteen sections on chant. However, the five original sections (numbers 1, 3, 6, 10, & 11) were so heavily influenced by chant that the composer called them "conscious counterfeits".
The Vigil includes three styles of chant: znamenny (in numbers 7, 8, 9, 12, 13 & 14), a more recitational 'Greek' style (numbers 2 & 15), and 'Kiev' chant - the Ukrainian adaptation of znamenny style (numbers 4 & 5). Before writing, Rachmaninoff had studied ancient chant under Stepan Smolensky, to whom he dedicated the piece. It is written for a four-part choir, complete with basso profondo. However, in many parts there is three, five, six, or eight-part harmony; at one point in the seventh movement, the choir is divided into eleven parts.
[edit] Movements
| Church Slavonic | English | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Приидите, поклонимся | Come, let us worship |
| 2 | Благослови, душе моя | Praise the Lord, O my soul |
| 3 | Блажен муж | Blessed is the man |
| 4 | Свете тихий | O gentle light |
| 5 | Ныне отпущаеши | Lord, now lettest Thou |
| 6 | Богородице Дево, радуйся | Rejoice, O Virgin |
| 7 | Шестопсалмие | The Six Psalms |
| 8 | Хвалите имя Господне | Praise the name of the Lord |
| 9 | Благословен еси Господи | Blessed art Thou, O Lord |
| 10 | Воскресение Христово видевше | Having beheld the Resurrection |
| 11 | Величит душа моя господа | My soul magnifies the Lord |
| 12 | Славословие великое | The Great Doxology |
| 13 | Тропарь: Днесь спасение | Troparion: Today salvation is come |
| 14 | Тропарь: Воскрес из гроба | Troparion: Thou didst rise from the tomb |
| 15 | Взбранной Воеводе | O queen victorious |
[edit] Discography
The first recording of the Vigil was made by Alexander Sveshnikov with the State Russian Choir for the Soviet Melodiya label in 1965. Because of Soviet anti-religious policies, this record was never available within the USSR, but was only made for the export market. This recording still has a legendary reputation, in part because of its extremely strong low basses. [1]
Other notable recordings of the Vigil have been made by the Robert Shaw Festival Singers, the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir, the Swedish Radio Chorus and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir.
