Vichnaya Pamyat
by Various
Baritone Horn TC - Digital Sheet Music

Baritone Horn TC,Bass Trombone,Cornet,Euphonium,Trumpet,Tuba - Level 2 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.752458

By Various. By Hildur Gudnadottir. Arranged by Rob Bushnell. Contemporary,Film/TV,Folk,Religious,Sacred. 17 pages. Rob Bushnell #6506025. Published by Rob Bushnell (A0.752458).

In 1982, the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Nuclear Power Plant started a series of tests to simulate an electrical power outage to help create procedures for maintaining the circulation of the reactor coolant for the 60-75 seconds needed until the back-up generators got to full power. This was key to ensure that the coolant pumps did not stop working; otherwise, it could lead to the core overheating or, worse, the core melting down. The first test was unsuccessful, and, after some modifications, the test was repeated in 1984 and 1985.

On 25 April 1986, a fourth test was scheduled to take place at 1415hrs during a controlled power-down of one of the reactors. However, at 1400hrs, another regional power station went offline, causing the test to be delayed by 10-hours. With the well-prepared day and evening crews’ shifts over, the test was left to the unprepared night crew. Unbeknownst to them, safety systems and protocols had been disabled or ignored earlier in the day, power-output issues had left the reactor in an unstable condition and there were basic design flaws with the reactor when it was constructed. All of this led to an uncontrolled chain reaction and, at some point around 01:23:45 in the morning of 26 April 1986, explosions and a fire destroyed a reactor building of reactor number 4 at Chernobyl. Radioactive contamination was released into the surrounding areas, 100,000s of people were evacuated, a 30-kilometre exclusion zone was put in place and whilst, officially, only 31 people died from this disaster, it has been estimated that between 4,000 and 16,000 fatalities are related to the events of that day. The area is likely to be unsafe for the next 20,000 years.

The soundtrack to the TV mini-series "Chernobyl" is by the Icelandic composer, Hildur Guðnadóttir. The music is made, almost entirely, from sounds that she recorded at a decommissioned Nuclear power plant in Lithuania, giving it a very raw quality. She says "the show itself portrays the disaster with respect and realism, and I was adamant the score reflects this. I wanted to show the viewer how it would feel to be there, and to tell this story of fear, loss and, ultimately, human error."

"Vichnaya Pamyat" translated to "Memory Eternal" in Ukrainian, but a better English equivalent would be "Rest in Peace". It is a hymn used during Ukrainian Orthodox Christian church funerals and memorial services.  Guðnadóttir’s arrangement is heard at the end of the final episode of the series.

This arrangement is not in the original key and has been transposed to make it easier to play. A version in the original key is available, item number H0.1099667-SC004126925. The arrangement also includes alternative parts for tenor horn, treble-clef trombone/euphonium and tuba. A recording of the music from the original soundtrack can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Poc3MF8GFk.