| All-Night Vigil | |
|---|---|
| Sacred choral music by Sergei Rachmaninoff | |
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Sergei_Rachmaninoff,_1910s.jpg) The composer | |
| Opus | 37 |
| Text | All-night vigil |
| Language | Church Slavonic |
| Dedication | Stepan Smolensky |
| Performed | 23 March 1915: Moscow |
| Movements | 15 |
| Scoring | SATB choir |
The All-Night Vigil (Pre-reform Russian: Всенощное бдѣніе, Vsénoshchnoye bdéniye; Modern Russian: Всенощное бдение) is an a cappella choral composition by Sergei Rachmaninoff, his Op. 37, premiered on 10/23 March 1915 in Moscow.
The piece consists of settings of texts taken from the Russian Orthodox All-night vigil ceremony. It has been praised as Rachmaninoff's finest achievement[1] and "the greatest musical achievement of the Russian Orthodox Church".[2] It was one of Rachmaninoff's two favorite compositions[3] along with The Bells, and the composer requested that its fifth movement (Нынѣ отпущаеши, Nunc dimittis) be sung at his funeral.[3]
The title of the work is often mis-translated as Vespers. This is both literally and conceptually incorrect as applied to the entire work; only the first six of its fifteen movements set texts from the Russian Orthodox canonical hour of Vespers.
- ^ Francis Maes, tr. Arnold J. Pomerans, Erica Pomerans, A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar, University of California Press, 2002, p. 206
- ^ Rachmaninov's All Night Vigil: Vespers Archived 2006-04-29 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b Sergei Bertensson, Jay Leyda, Sophia Satina, Sergei Rachmaninoff: A Lifetime in Music, Indiana University Press, 2001, p. 191