The All-Night Vigil, Op. 37 is an a cappella choral composition, written by Sergei Rachmaninoff
and premiered in 1915. The piece is made up of settings taken from the Russian Orthodox All-night
vigil ceremony. Hailed as Rachmaninoff’s finest achievement and “the greatest musical achievement
of the Russian Orthodox Church”, the All-Night Vigil was composed in less than two weeks in January
and February 1915. Even though Rachmaninoff by this time had stopped attending Church services, he
based ten of the fifteen sections of the All-Night Vigil on traditional Russian Orthodox Chant, as
required by the Russian Orthodox Church. The five remaining original sections of the opus (numbers
1, 3, 6, 10 and 11) were so heavily influenced by chant, however, that Rachmaninoff called them
“conscious counterfeits”.
Rachmaninoff’s work is a culmination of the preceding two decades of interest in Russian
Orthodox sacred music, as initiated by Tchaikovsky’s setting of the all-night vigil. Both Tchaikovsky’s
and Rachmaninoff’s settings of the all-night vigil employ extensive use of traditional Russian
Orthodox chants (indeed, the former’s influence is reflected in the latter’s opus); however, the setting
by Rachmaninoff is much more complex in its use of harmony, textual variety and polyphony.
The All-Night Vigil is especially unique in that the composition masterfully combines both
ancient Russian Orthodox chant and Romantic-styled composition (the latter being distinctive to the
late 1800s to early 1900s), woven together by Rachmaninoff to such an expert degree that the chant
melodies take on a life of their own, so to speak – thus making this work a genre of its own.
Both styles of music – the Russian Orthodox Chant and the Romantic – require their own
definitions in order for the All-Night Vigil to be comprehended as a whole.
Sergei Rachmaninoff was considered the last voice of the Romantic Period, which lasted from
the late 18th or early 19th century up until the early 20th century. In the first half of his compositional
career, Rachmaninoff was influenced heavily by Tchaikovsky. However, it did not take long for
Rachmaninoff to mature and produce his own version of the Russian Romantic style. Rachmaninoff
used more of what some might consider random and modulatory movement – changing keys on a
whim (or so it appeared to the naked eye), but not so much so that the composition became modernist
in its essence. Rachmaninoff was tied too strongly to the Romantic style for him to break away
definitively from that tradition. Written during the beginnings of a great period of turmoil in Russia
(i.e., the outbreak of World War I, and the inception of the Bolshevik Revolution and the subsequent
Russian Civil War), the All-Night Vigil premiered in Moscow on March 10, 1915, being performed by
the Moscow Synodal Choir to enthusiastic acclaim and thunderous applause. Unfortunately, two years
later, both the Synodal School and Choir were disbanded by the Bolsheviks, who had decreed the
Russian Orthodox Church to be illegal, and Her faithful as “enemies of the state”. As a result,
Rachmaninoff was forced to flee with his family to the West, were he lived the rest of his life.
Even though Rachmaninoff did not consider himself a Russian Orthodox believer, research
shows that he did worship in the Russian Orthodox Church as a child, thus making his All-Night Vigil
somewhat reminiscent of the ancient liturgical practices still in use during his childhood. The all-night
vigil service itself would run from Saturday evening Vespers through Sunday morning Matins;
Rachmaninoff took portions of the vigil and set them to music, thus composing the All-Night Vigil.
The type of chant that Rachmaninoff drew from in his opus was the Russian znamenny chant, used by
the Russian Orthodox Church since the late 10th or early 11th century, continuing up until the mid-17th
century. Znamenny chant was so named because it employed the use of certain symbols (in Russian:
znamëna) in its musical notation. Sung in unison, the fluid, melismatic znamenny chant remained the
only style of singing in the Russian Orthodox Church until the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in 1654.
Sergei Rachmaninoff died in Beverly Hills, California, on March 28, 1943. At his request, the
fifth movement of his All-Night Vigil was sung at his funeral.
Celebrating our 10th anniversary St.Petersburg Men's Ensemble presents exclusive adaptation of
10 fragments of All-Night Vigil, Op. 37 by Sergei Rachmaninoff for men’s choir.
This adaptation is created by Alexander Govorov (Men's choir "Soglasie") and Kirill Sokolov
(St.Petersburg Men's Ensemble).
For the first time All-Night Vigil, Op. 37 is presented outside Russia performed by men’s choir.
Part 1
1. #1 Come, Let us worship
Come, let us worship God, our King.
Come let us worship and fall down before Christ, our King and our God.
Come, let us worship and fall down before the very Christ, our King and our God.
Come, let us worship and fall down before him.
2. #2 Bless the Lord, O my soul (Greek chant)
Blessed art thou, O Lord.
O Bless the Lord, O my soul,
Lord my God, thou art very great. Blessed art thou, O Lord.
Thou art clothed with honor and majesty. Blessed art thou, O Lord.
The waters stand upon the mountains. Marvellous are thy works, O Lord.
The water flow between the hills. Marvellous are thy works, O Lord.
In wisdom hast thou made all things. Glory to thee, O Lord, who hast created all.
3. #3 Blessed is the man
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. Alleluia.
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Alleluia.
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice in him with trembling. Alleluia. Blessed are all who take
refuge in him. Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! Alleluia. Salvation is of the Lord; and thy
blessing is upon thy people. Alleluia.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto ages of
ages. Amen. Alleluia. Glory to thee, O God!
4. #4 O gladsome radiance (Kiev chant)
Gladsome light of the holy glory of the immortal one— the Heavenly Father, holy and blessed—
O Jesus Christ! Now that we have come to the setting of the sun, and behold the light of evening,
we praise the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—God. Thou art worthy at every moment
to be praised in hymns by reverent voices. O Son of God, thou art the giver of life; therefore all
the world glorifies thee
5. #6 Rejoice, O Virgin
Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos,
Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,for thou hast borne the Savior of our souls.
6. #7 Hexapsalmos the Six Psalms: Glory to God in the highest
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill among men.
O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall proclaim thy praise.
7. #9 Blessed be the Lord (Znamenny chant)
Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes.
The angelic host was filled with awe when it saw thee among the dead.
By destroying the power of death, O Savior, thou didst raise Adam and save all men from hell.
Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes.
“Why do you mingle myrrh with your tears of compassion, O ye women disciples?”
cried the radiant angel in the tomb to the myrrh-bearers. “Behold the tomb and understand: the
Savior is risen from the dead.”
Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes.
Very early in the morning the myrrh-bearers ran with sorrow to thy tomb,
but an angel came to them and said: “The time for sorrow has come to an end!
Do not weep, but announce the resurrection to the apostles!”
Blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes.
The myrrh-bearers were sorrowful as they neared the tomb but the angel said to them:
“Why do you number the living amongst the dead? Since he is God, He is risen from the tomb.”
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
We worship the Father, and his Son, and the Holy Spirit: The Holy Trinity, one in essence!
We cry with the seraphim: “Holy, holy, holy art thou, O Lord!”
Both now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Since thou didst give birth to the Giver of Life, O Virgin, thou didst deliver Adam from his sin!
Thou gavest joy to Eve instead of sadness! The God-man who was born of thee has restored to
life those who had fallen from it. Alleluia. Glory to thee, O God!
8. #10 Having Beheld the Resurrection of Christ
Having beheld the resurrection of Christ, let us worship the holy Lord Jesus,
the only sinless one. We venerate thy cross, O Christ, and we hymn and glorify thy holy
resurrection,
for thou art our God and we know none other than Thee. We call on thy name.
Come, all you faithful, let us venerate Christ’s holy resurrection. For behold, through the cross
joy has come into all the world. Ever blessing the Lord, let us praise his resurrection,
for by enduring the cross for us he has destroyed death by death.
9. #11 My soul magnifies the Lord
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
More honorable than the cherubim and more glorious beyond compare than the seraphim,
without defilement thou gavest birth to God the Word, true Theotokos, we magnify thee.
For he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath done great things for me and holy is his name, and his mercy is on
those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones and has exalted those of low degree;
he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
as he promised to our forefathers, to Abraham and his seed forever.
10. #15 Queen of the Heavenly Host (Greek Chant)
To thee, the victorious Leader of triumphant hosts, we thy servants, delivered from evil,
offer hymns of thanksgiving, O Theotokos. Since thou dost possess invincible might, set us free
from all calamities, so that we may cry to thee: “Rejoice, O unwedded Bride!”
Part 2
“The Tula Harmonica”
Humorous song which tells about two brothers who came from the village into St. Petersburg
to purchase boats. One bought a boat with a hole in it; the other purchased a boat with no bottom...
“Monotonously Rings the Little Bell”
The story of this song is tragic: In Siberia in 1852 they found a dead body of coachman who got
frozen during a long road. There was a notebook with handwriting poems in his bag. Name of the
author of the poems Ivan Makarov was not known during his life time. After a year since they were
published the poems composer Alexander Gurilev) (1803 – 1858) wrote music for a poem what he
liked the most.
«In the Dark Woods» - In this folk song a peasant plows the field for planting flax seeds but he
complains that a little sparrow comes around to steal the flax shoots from the field. The peasant
threatens to catch the little bird and pluck its feathers, so it stops stealing from his crop.
The Volga Boatmen Song – “Yo, heave-ho!”
This is a well-known traditional Russian song collected by Mily Balakirev, and published in his
book of folk songs in 1866. It is a genuine shanty sung by burlaki, or barge-haulers, on the Volga,
Russia’s Mother-River. The burlaki are depicted in Ilya Repin’s famous painting, Barge Haulers on
the Volga, which hangs in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
«Barynya» is a fast Russian folk dance and music. The word barynya was used by simple folk as a
form of address to a woman of higher class, a feminine form for the word "barin", landlord. The
Barynya dance is an alternation of chastushkas or song-patter and frenetic dancing. The dancing was
without special choreography and consisted mainly of fancy stomping and traditional Russian
squatwork – knee bending
«By the long road" or «Those Were the Days» is a song credited to Gene Raskin, who put English
lyrics to the Russian romance song "By the long road", composed by Boris Fomin (1900–1948) with
words by the poet Konstantin Podrevskii. It deals with reminiscence upon youth and romantic
idealism.
The English version:
Once upon a time there was a tavern,
Where we used to raise a glass or two.
Remember how we laughed away the hours,
And dreamed of all the great things we would
do.
Refrain: Those were the days my friend,
We
thought they'd never end,
We'd sing and dance for-ever and a day,
We'd live
the life we choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
For we were young and sure to have our way.
Then the busy years went rushing by us.
We lost our starry notions on the way.
If by chance I'd see you in the tavern,
We'd smile at one another and we'd say: Refrain
Just tonight I stood before the tavern,
Nothing seemed the way it used to be.
In the glass I saw a strange reflection,
Was that lonely person really me? Refrain
Through the door there came familiar laughter.
I saw your face and heard you call my name.
Oh, my friend, we're older but no wiser,
Original version:
You rode on a troika with sleigh bells, And in the distance lights flickered.. If only I could follow you now I would dispel the grief in my soul! By the long road, in the moon light, And with this song that flies off, ringing, And with this ancient, this ancient seven-string, That has so tormented me by night. For in our hearts the dreams are still the same.
Refrain
But it turns out our song was futile, In vain we burned night in and night out. If we have finished with the old, Then those nights have also left us! Out into our native land, and by new paths, We have been fated to go now! ...
You rode on a troika with sleigh bells, [But] you've long since passed by!
«Kalinka»
Kalinka (juniper) and malinka (raspberry) were the traditional offerings to a pre-Christian Slavic
goddess of the earth, symbol of Spring, love and fertility, named Lyuli. As the traditional heavenly
ally of the Russian agricultural population, but also of young people in love, Lyuli survived
Christianization and is still alive in quite a lot of folksongs. Since most of these songs begin with a
similar melody, they all might be derived from a common origin, maybe a very old hymn or a pagan
ritual in honor of the goddess Lyuli.
We sincerely hope that our program has allowed you to become more deeply familiar
with Russian spiritual music, as well as to get acquainted with the unforgettable
diversity of Russian folk songs in a variety of genres and periods.