The Realization of the Church Reading and Singing Particularities of the Russian Orthodox Christian Tradition in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Sacred Works
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Abstract
The sacred works of Sergei Rachmaninoff have long been acknowledged as presenting one of the
pinnacles of the “new direction” of Russian sacred music of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Rachmaninoff was among the composers who have most profoundly and brilliantly realized in their
musical oeuvres the very spirit of church service singing. At the same time, in the “Liturgy of St.
John Chrysostom” and the “All-Night Vigil” by Rachmaninoff reflection is also found of separate
elements of the traditions of church reading, as well as certain regularities common both for church
singing and reading, which up to the present day has not formed a subject of scholarly research. At
the same time, the melodicism of the poglastisas [the intoning] of chant-like singing possesses not
only a certain pitch set and laws of rhythmic intonations common to singing, but also a lucid modal
nature, similar to the church mode of the Znamenny chant.
The article demonstrates elements and techniques in Rachmaninoff’s “Liturgy” and “All-Night
Vigil” common to both church singing and reading. The diatonicity, the preservation of the most
delicate differentiation between the words, the conformity between the liturgical and the melodic
elements, the predominance of the text over the music and, correspondingly, the subservience of
the musical rhythm to the rhythm of words, the absence of significant extension of the syllables,
the unhurried quality of the motion of musical time, the usage of natural vocal registers (without
tension of tessitura), all of which are characteristic to these examples, are revealed. Unified means
of emphasis of the key semantic units through the rising of the tessitura and the enhancement of the
dynamics are highlighted through the intermittence and prolongation of the emphasized word, as
well as through syllabic chant.
Keywords: Sergei Rachmaninoff, sacred music, church reading, Liturgy.
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