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123716
123716
23.5
123716

All-Night Vigil ('Vespers')

Vsenoshchnoye bdeniye

By Sergei Rachmaninoff

https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/all-night-vigil-vespers-sheet-music/123716?ac=1

Mixed Chorus
Vsenoshchnoye bdeniye. Composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). Edited by Vladimir Morosan and Alexander Ruggieri. Sacred. With Language: Church Slavonic. Musica Russica #RA-ANV. Published by Musica Russica (MR.RA-ANV).

Item Number: MR.RA-ANV

ISBN 9780962946066.

Acknowledged as the pinnacle of the early20thcentury new Russian choral school, Rachmaninoff's Vigil has become a fixture in the worldwide choral repertoire. This edition of Rachmaninoff's masterwork is the gold standard, used by choirs all over the world for the past 20 years. The true and tested Russicao transliteration system ensures superior and authentic diction results. Audio diction tracks can be downloaded from Musica Russica's website.



Sergei Rachmaninoff's AllNight Vigil , opus 37, stands as the crowning achievement of the Golden Age; of Russian Orthodox sacred choral music. This period, which began in the 1880s and lasted until the communist takeover in 1917, was a time when dozens of Russian composers, from such prominent figures as Tchaikovsky and RimskyKorsakov to lesserknown choral specialists; such as Kastalsky, Chesnokov, Gretchaninoff, and Nikolsky, turned their creative energies to composing choral music on texts drawn from the Russian Orthodox liturgy.



Much of the melodic material was drawn from the wellspring of ancient unison chants,,known by such exotic names as Znamenny (meaning notated by means of neumes;), Kievan (referring to Kiev, the cradle; of Russian Christianity and Eastern Slavic civilization), and Greek (ostensibly stemming from Byzantium, the Second Rome). To use these chants in contemporary liturgical circumstances, however, required dressing them up, so to speak, in new polyphonic attire. Ten of the fifteen hymns are based on unison chant melodies drawn from the service as it would have been sung in medieval Russia; for the remaining five sections Rachmaninoff composed what amount to his own chant melodies.



Viewed in the broad context of twentiethcentury European music, Rachmaninoff's work is quite conservative; and, at the same time, quintessentially Russian. It is a setting of the AllNight Vigil service, a curious liturgical concatenation of three services,,Vespers, Matins, and First Hour,,which was introduced in Russia in the fourteenth century, but proved to be popular and enduring in Russia alone of all Orthodox nations. For his setting Rachmaninoff chose fifteen major psalms and hymns that form the unchanging framework of the Resurrectional Vigil (the service celebrated every Saturday evening).



The music is for chorus a cappella , the traditional vocal complement in the Russian Orthodox Church, which has maintained the ancientChristian patristic prohibition against musical instruments of any kind.



Rachmaninoff's choral masterpiece, the AllNight Vigil was written in 1915, and was premiered March 10, 1915, in a concert by the Moscow Synodal Choir under the direction of Nikolai Danilin, a friend and classmate of Rachmaninoff's.

  • Ratings + Reviews

  • 5

    Debra Harp
    Location:
    Las Vegas, NV
    Difficulty Level:
    Advanced
  • July 31, 2008 Great edition!

    This is a great edition of Rachmaninoff's "Vespers". An editorial note is included & the text with the English translation (as set by Sergei Rachmaninoff) is included as a preface to the main work. Sheet Music Plus made this acquisition a very pleasant experience. Thank you...

    38 of 68 people found this review helpful.
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  • 4

    Beth Jepp
    Location:
    Perth Western Australia
    Difficulty Level:
    Intermediate/advanced
  • April 24, 2008 Heavenly Music

    Well presented score except when the sections such as sopranos didvide into three. As I was singing second soprano I found it difficult to read the middle set of notes especially when the tempo increased and the words were unfamiliar.This was a big challenge for our choir and we...

    are hoping that we do justice to Rachmaninoff when we perform this work on May 25th in St Joseph's church Subiaco in Perth Western Australia.

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    37 of 69 people found this review helpful.
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  • 5

    Anonymous
    Location:
    Harlingen, TX
    Difficulty Level:
    Advanced
  • January 10, 2008 Astounding

    This piece is just so pleasing to the ears. Whether your audience knows Russian or not, the listeners can still feel what the singers are saying through the melodies and harmonies. One of my favorite Rachmoninov works. This will also be performed by the Texas All-State Mixed Choir (under...

    the direction of Craig Jessop) on Feb. 16, 2008 in San Antonio, Texas.

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    34 of 64 people found this review helpful.
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  • 5

    Anonymous
    Location:
    Difficulty Level:
    Advanced
  • April 10, 2007 Rachmaninoff Vespers

    An excellent score. It has the Russian both and the cyrillic alphabet,and whatever they call the transliteration, plus English translations. All the many dynamic markings are there, and the score is of the right size for choral singers. Not to large, not too small. Especially nice is the incluson...

    of the original Orthdox chants at the end. You can map them against the pieces, see which voices have the chants, and admire how the composer ws able to use the entire chant,and only alter the rhythmic values. A Bach-like accomplishment.

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    30 of 65 people found this review helpful.
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  • 5

    Anonymous
    Location:
    Independence, KS
    Difficulty Level:
    Intermediate/advanced
  • March 25, 2003 Absolutely Brilliant!

    This Opus is one of Rachmaninoff's best! I sang it in a choir, and am now preparing to use it in my choir. Make sure that your choir is a strong one, so you can get the Russian depth in the singing. The Bass section needs to be deep...

    , and the Soprano section needs to be high. Take careful note of crescendos, and don't do unnecessary breathing.

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    29 of 64 people found this review helpful.
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