A mercy of peace
Milost' mira No. 1
4-Part - Sheet Music

SATB choir (div)

SKU: MR.KS-006

Milost' mira No. 1. Composed by Alexander Kastalsky. Musica Russica #KS 006. Published by Musica Russica (MR.KS-006).

Very soon after the publication of his early chant arrangements in the late 1890s, Kastalsky was hailed by colleagues and critics as the inaugurator of a new style in Russian sacred choral music. This setting of A Mercy of Peacethe Eucharistic Canon from the Orthodox Divine Liturgy, incorporating the Sanctus and Benedictusshows off Kastalsky's masterful handling of the chant, as he clothes the ancient znamenny melody in a new polyphonic garment, alternately surrounding it with modal harmonies, treating it imitatively, and developing it motivically. Paying homage to the original anonymous composer(s) of the chant, he preserves the lengthy melismatic passages (fitas) that were used to highlight and beautify specific words in the text and embellishes them further by his own inventive and imaginative counterpoint.


(Recorded by Conspirare on their CD, The Sacred Spirit of Russia, release date: Fall 2013).