Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pavel (Paul) Grigorievich Chesnokov (Russian: Павел Григорьевич Чесноков) (1877–1944), also transliterated Tschesnokoff, was a Russian composer, conductor and teacher. He composed over five hundred choral works, over four hundred of which are sacred. Today, he is most known for his piece Salvation is Created.
Contents |
[edit] Life
Chesnokov began to sing with his church choir at age 5. He attended the Moscow Synodal School for ten years, graduating in 1895, and studied composition with Taneyev from 1895-1899. He went on to study conducting and composition at the Moscow Conservatory with Vasilenko and Ippolitov-Ivanov. Chesnokov taught choral singing and chant at the Moscow Synodal School for 25 years and later became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory and was conductor of several state choirs in Moscow.
Chesnokov was a composer for the Russian Orthodox church before communist rule. About a third of his sacred works are based on chant, while the rest are freely composed. After the revolution, greater controls over what composers could write were instituted, and Chesnokov fearing repressions against himself and his family if he continued to write sacred choral works, ceased the composition of sacred music entirely.
[edit] Works
Chesnokov is the most prolific composer associated with the Moscow Synodal School. Besides his catalogue of over 500 choral works, his works list of major works includes three complete settings of the Divine Liturgy, two complete settings of the All-Night Vigil, two settings of the Memorial Service, and a setting of the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts.
Chesnokov also wrote a book still used by choirmasters in which he offers advice to choral conductors, telling them to use smooth gestures to create a continuous sound and to use as few gestures as possible so as not to weaken their effect. He saw the conductor as responsible for the success or failure of the choir.
[edit] Salvation is Created
When communism fell years after his death, and the Russian Orthodox church opened its doors again, Chesnokov's Salvation is Created - a piece he had never heard performed himself - became the unofficial anthem of the church. Salvation is Created is one in a cycle of ten Communion Hymns, Op. 25, and is based on a cantus firmus chant taken from Obihod notnago peniya, the codex that contained the major musical components of the Russian Orthodox liturgical repertoire.
The common English translation of the text is:
- Salvation is created in the midst of the earth, O God. Alleluia.
[edit] Some notable works
- Corpus
- Salvation is Created (1912)
- O Lord God
- Now We Sing the Praise
[edit] Reference
- Morosan, Vladmir. Notes and preface to Salvation is Created, by Pavel Chesnokov. Madison, CT: Mussica Russica, Inc., 1995
[edit] External links
- Salvation is Created at ChoralWiki
