For whom did Garlicov write children's choirs? Choir and its management

“To the venerable creator of sweet singing,
servant of God Pavel Grigorievich,
many years to the glory of the Church
Orthodox to those who have labored..."

/ A. D. Kastalsky, from “Many Years to Paul
Grigorievich Chesnokov" /

"...P. G. Chesnokov left us inimitable examples of high religious inspiration, which burned with a quiet flame in him all his life. Without striving for any external effects, Chesnokov inspired the words of prayer requests and praises with the simplest melodies, sounding from the depths of pure and perfect harmony. His music is alien to earthly passions, and earthly thought does not penetrate the depths of simple and strict harmonies. This wonderful composer interpreted church music as prayer wings on which our soul easily ascends to the throne of the Most High.” These words, spoken in the obituary of the “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate” in April 1944, were the only ones that this genius of 20th century choral music received in the domestic press after his death. Like Bach, who absorbed all the German music that existed before him, in order to then build a grandiose building brick by brick, not subject to decay, Chesnokov, in the tragic year of 1917, summed up the thousand-year history of Russian church music, raising over the world the dome of a miraculous temple designed to purify human souls. And just as then, in the 18th century, blind contemporaries did not notice the grandiose creation that now amazes our imagination, so now we, standing at the foot of the temple, are trying in vain to discern the outlines of the cross on the dome, which goes into the clouds. It took decades and the efforts of many people to understand and appreciate Bach; an equally long journey must be made to comprehend Chesnokov.

The origins of his work should be sought in the depths of centuries, when monophonic chants that came from Greece and Byzantium were sung in monasteries and churches of semi-pagan Rus'. The strict ascetic spirit of the ascetics of the early Christian era lived in these chants, passed down by oral tradition from generation to generation. In addition to the znamenny (one-voice) chant, polyphonic chants were used: demestvennoe singing, travel chant. At the same time, the voices did not correlate harmoniously in any way, each went their own way, intertwining with the others in a bizarre dissonant vertical (the middle voice was called the “path” - hence the name of the chant, the top one - “top”, the bottom one - “bottom”). This fact is important for understanding the style of Chesnokov the composer. The slow and peaceful course of events was interrupted soon after 1652, when part of the Church, opposing the reforms of Patriarch Nikon, went into schism. The clouds were gathering more and more over the Orthodox Church, and the storm was not long in coming - in 1666, after the trial, the former Patriarch Nikon was exiled to a distant monastery. This breakdown in the Church predetermined the fate of Russia for centuries to come. From that moment on, the old singing remained only among the Old Believers, for whom time stopped moving; in the reformed Church, the wheel of history, having started to move, began to gain momentum. For liturgical singing, the first stage began: Polish-Ukrainian partes singing, which was strongly influenced by the Catholic Church, began to uncontrollably displace the previous chants. Following the first period (which lasted until the end of the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna (1730–1740)), the second followed - it was marked by the arrival of the Italian Francesco Araya in Moscow to “establish” musical life at court. The “Enlightened West”, at first as a thin stream, then as an increasingly full-flowing river, poured into Russia in order to teach the fine arts to Russian barbarians. The main apologist for the Italian style in Russian church music was Galuppi’s student, Dmitry Bortnyansky, director of the Court Singing Chapel, under the sign of whose dominance the entire 19th century would pass. After 1816 and until his death (1825), for ten years he was the only, practically omnipotent censor of spiritual and musical works admitted for performance in church and authorized for publication. Needless to say, this position greatly contributed to his enormous popularity (of course, we are not at all inclined to reduce his creative activity and talent as a composer: 59 spiritual concerts alone were written and published, of which 20 were double-chorus). Liturgical singing was again divided into two ways: parish and monastic. And if in monasteries behind high walls, under the watchful eye of church hierarchs, the statutory singing was still preserved, passed down in oral tradition by previous generations of novices and monks, then the long-suffering parishes turned this time into concert halls, where, along with the theater, the public went to listen to performances (it should be noted often masterful) of the same Italian opera music, only with liturgical texts. This is how Bulgakov, who was ambassador to Constantinople under Catherine II, reflects the morals of that time in a letter to his son: “The glorious singers of Kazakov, who now belong to Beketov, sing in the Church of Demetrius of Thessalonica in Moscow. There is such a congress that the entire Tverskoy Boulevard is filled with carriages. Recently, worshipers became so shameless that in the church they shouted “fora” (i.e. “bravo”, “encore”). Luckily, the owner of the singers had the idea to take the singers out, without which they would have reached greater obscenity.” Thus, in the minds of both the parishioners and the performers themselves, singing ceased to be part of the service, but became simply music, bringing pleasant “diversity” to the course of the service. The chaos generated by the craze for Italian notated singing could not exist for long, because it was corrupting the very foundations of church worship. It was put to an end by the imperious hand of General A.F. Lvov, who was appointed in 1837 to manage the Court Singing Chapel, and therefore all church music (here we do not take into account the complete lack of logic in the situation when singing in church is an integral part of the divine service , was regulated not by the charter and not even by church hierarchs, but by secular musicians who had a very vague idea of ​​the genesis of liturgical singing and church services as such). On the one hand, Lvov brilliantly coped with his task: over the 26 years of his activity in this post, he brought all everyday (voice) singing to uniformity, publishing the “Usage of Simple Church Singing Used at the Highest Court,” which became mandatory for all churches and which we still use today. It is also significant for us that he liberated the harmonized ancient chants from the Procrustean bed of symmetrical meter and time signatures, where Italian music, based on poetic versification and dance, had driven them. And yet, Lvov, replacing the Italian polyphony “concerto grosso” with a strict German chorale, was far from realizing the fact that ancient Russian music has its own, completely different laws of development. “The Znamenny chant still continued to remind people who undertook to harmonize it that they do not know its musical structure and, applying the new European harmony to it, do not know what they are doing and connect the incompatible” (Preobrazhensky, “Cult singing”). Thus, by the end of its third period, liturgical singing was again brought to a dead end. The voice routine, so rich in melodies in the ancient liturgical books, was reduced to eight voices of the Chapel's Practice, and the freely composed repertoire at the end of the 19th century was the same as at the beginning, plus the published works of Lvov himself. The removal of the Church itself from solving singing problems also had a negative impact. In some churches, the regents, despite the comments of the bishops, allowed themselves to completely neglect the Rules and adhered only to their personal taste in singing. Archbishop Nikanor of Kherson and Odessa speaks about his impressions upon entering the administration of the diocese in his letter to the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, K. P. Pobedonostsev: “Not only have I not seen anything like this, but I could not even imagine it. This is the order of the unimaginables... In general, nothing is read in the cathedral before the Six Psalms... The Prokeemnes are all sung on the same note. The old rich melodies are forgotten. In general, these practices of the Court Chapel have a disastrous effect on all-Russian ancient singing... The regent, frivolous to the point of insolence, even inflicted several insults on me, speaking in exaggerated Italian, to which I objected...” Tchaikovsky echoes him: “From the capital to the village, a sugary style is heard Bortnyansky and - alas! - the public likes it. We need a messiah who will destroy everything old with one blow and take a new path, and the new path lies in returning to hoary antiquity and communicating ancient melodies in appropriate harmonization. No one has yet properly decided how the ancient melodies should be harmonized...”

Meanwhile, in Moscow, which was not affected as much as St. Petersburg by the reformist activities of the managers of the Court Singing Chapel, a new period in the development of liturgical singing was gradually maturing. Beginning with the 20th century, it arose as a reaction of gifted, educated Russian musicians to the dominance of first Italian and then German music in worship, which in any case had absolutely nothing in common with the ancient roots of Russian church singing. The center of the new direction was the Synodal Choir, as well as the Synodal School of Church Singing formed under it. The necessary prerequisites for this were: the Synodal Choir, as a duty, sang services in the Moscow Great Assumption Cathedral, where its own special liturgical charter was in force and its obligatory tunes were preserved. Appointed in 1886 as regent of the choir, V. S. Orlov, a student of Tchaikovsky, raised the performing level of the choir to an unprecedented height, forever burying the monopoly of the Court Choir on highly artistic singing. The director of the School at that time was S.V. Smolensky (Chesnokov’s first and main teacher), who stated that “The Synodal School of Church Singing has as its goal the study of ancient Russian church singing...” He himself, being the largest theorist in this area, collected (at their personal funds) the richest, one-of-a-kind library of singing manuscripts.

Now we can be convinced that by the beginning of the 20th century the ground was completely prepared for the appearance in Russian church music of a figure of such caliber as P. G. Chesnokov, who combined in his work all the characteristic features of previous eras: the instrumentality of partes singing, the polyphony of Italian music, the rigor and beauty of the harmony of the German chorale; He graciously combined all this with a deep knowledge and inner feeling of the national roots of ancient Russian church chant, which could only be accessible to a sincere believer.

The future composer was born on October 24 (12 old style), 1877, near the city of Voznesensk, Zvenigorod district, Moscow province, in the family of a church regent. In addition to Pavel, Grigory Chesnokov had two more sons - Alexey and Alexander (the latter was also known as a spiritual composer, the author of many works for choir, including “Liturgy” op.8 for mixed choir). By the age of seven, the boy had discovered an extraordinary musical talent and a wonderful singing voice: they allowed him to easily enter the Synodal School, which he graduated with a gold medal in 1895. In high school, Chesnokov studied composition in Smolensky’s class; His first compositions date back to this period. After graduating from college, feeling insufficient technical preparedness for free creative expression in composition, Chesnokov took private lessons from S.I. Taneyev for four years. At this time, the composer worked as a teacher of choral singing in gymnasiums and women's boarding schools, and in 1903 he became the choir director at the Church of the Holy Trinity on Pokrovka (“on Gryazi”), which under his leadership became one of the best in Moscow, despite its amateurishness. status. “They didn’t pay the singers, but the singers paid to be accepted into Chesnokov’s choir,” recalled one of the old-time regents, S.N. Danilov, in 1960. In the magazine “Choral and Regency Affairs” in 1913 (No. 4) a review of the choir’s anniversary (to the 10th anniversary of Chesnokov’s management of the choir) concerts was published, where the author describes his impressions as follows: “...P. G. Chesnokov is both a remarkable virtuoso and a most subtle artist when it comes to conducting a choir. The choir sang simply and seriously, humbly and strictly. There is no desire to surprise with an extraordinary effect, to prepare something striking, some striking contrast. All shades are given as required by the inner feeling and musical beauty of each piece performed.” In addition, Pavel Chesnokov was regent in the Church of Cosmas and Damian on Skobelevskaya Square, and also (1911–1917) taught at the annual summer regency courses in St. Petersburg with P. A. Petrov (Boyarinov), which were called “Smolensky courses”, since they were a continuation of the work begun by Smolensky in Moscow in 1909. Every year at the end of the course, the choir of regents under the direction of Chesnokov sang a liturgy in the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, where works by Pavel Grigorievich himself (cherubic “Starosimonskaya”, “Rejoice”) and other authors (Tchaikovsky, Grechaninov, Kastalsky, Shvedov) were played. . After the liturgy, a memorial service for Smolensky was always served, where the “Requiem service on the themes of ancient chants” by Smolensky himself was performed. Chesnokov repeatedly left Moscow at invitations from places to conduct spiritual concerts (Kharkov, Nizhny Novgorod, etc.). Without confining himself to personal problems, at the same time Chesnokov the regent actively showed himself in the public arena, participating in the work of all (except the 2nd) regency congresses, which played a significant role in increasing the social status and improving the financial situation of the Russian regents. He zealously ensured that each congress actually brought concrete results and did not shy away from solving regency problems. Thus, the magazine “Choral and Regency Affairs” (1910, No. 12), under the title “Those who have ears to hear, let them hear,” published a letter written by Chesnokov after the 3rd Congress in 1910, which contains the following lines: “...Material and social the downtroddenness of the regents gave birth to regency congresses. And the first two showed clearly what and how the regent could achieve. But then those who were ashamed to be called regents appeared and merged the purely regency matter with the general choir matter. The 3rd congress of choral figures appeared, and we see what it gave. On it, everything related to the regency was carefully erased and bypassed... That is why I am still against the merger of regency congresses with congresses of choral figures.” Regency activity runs like a red thread through the composer’s entire life, despite any political cataclysms and persecutions. Chesnokov the regent did not imagine himself outside the church, remaining faithful to this ministry until the end of his days.

In 1913, at the age of 36, being a famous regent and author of spiritual works, Chesnokov entered the Moscow Conservatory (one can only marvel at this irresistible desire for perfection combined with true Christian humility!). There he studied composition and conducting with M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov, as well as instrumentation with S. I. Vasilenko. Like the hero of the Gospel parable, who with the 5 talents given to him acquired another five in order to double return to his master what his master had given him, Chesnokov by 1917, his fortieth birthday, the year he graduated from the conservatory, had 36 (out of 38 written by him) spiritual opuses (in total by this time there were 50 of them - together with secular music), behind were two decades of tireless work in the choral and regency fields, and active social activities. It was probably no coincidence that it was this year that Chesnokov and his choir participated in the enthronement of Patriarch Tikhon (the first since the abolition of the patriarchate in 1718), who failed to break the infernal machine of the new system, and whose martyrdom meant that everything Russia lived before this has become an irrevocable past, and everything that cannot be broken will be destroyed. Thus, the summer regency courses ceased, the Synodal School was first transformed into a Choral Academy and then abolished, churches were closed one after another, and regency congresses were out of the question. Everyone who surrounded Chesnokov either emigrated or, like himself, remained out of work. An example is A.V. Nikolsky, who, having signed an agreement “not to distribute his cult works” in order to prevent his family from starving, worked in Proletkult until 1925, composing new “proletarian songs”, although very similar to his spiritual works. The fate of N. M. Danilin was broken, who, after the collapse of a brilliant career as the regent of the Synodal Choir (suffice it to recall the famous trip to Rome with concerts in Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin, Dresden), tried to find employment as a choirmaster of the Bolshoi Theater, director of the choir of the former Court singing chapel, State Choir of the USSR, but did not stay anywhere for long; apparently, the contrast between what filled his former life as a church conductor and the new repertoire of Soviet choirs was too striking. Pavel Grigorievich, who in his fifties had to rebuild his life, was no exception. This period of the composer’s life is quite clearly recorded in the Soviet press. In it we can read that P. G. Chesnokov “was actively involved in the development of Soviet choral culture” (Musical Encyclopedia) and “his activities become at the service of the people, filled with new content” (K. B. Ptitsa). This means that in 1917–1922. he led the 2nd State Horus in 1922–1923. - Moscow Academic Chapel. In 1931–1933 worked as the chief choirmaster of the Bolshoi Theater, and at the same time directed the chapel of the Moscow Philharmonic; from 1917 to 1920 he taught at the Music School named after the October Revolution.

In 1923, the “People's Choral Academy”, created in place of the abolished Synodal School, ceased to exist. In turn, instead of it, a subdepartment was organized at the instructor-pedagogical faculty of the Moscow Conservatory. At its origins stood the main “ideologist” of the new direction, A.D. Kastalsky (he already taught at the conservatory, and many even considered him a “red professor” - however, unfairly) and former teachers of the Synodal School, and then the People's Choral Academy A.V. Nikolsky, N. M. Danilin, A. V. Alexandrov. P. G. Chesnokov, who since 1920 taught the choral class and the choral studies course he created at the conservatory, was one of them. Like any new undertaking (we do not question its expediency - in any case, no other way out was given), the department entered a long period of reorganization and reform: curricula, structure, name changed, choirs were created and disbanded, and their leaders changed. Chesnokov led the choral class of the subdepartment from 1924 to 1926 (the same year marked the 30th anniversary of the church singing activity of Chesnokov the composer and regent, on this occasion Kastalsky wrote inspired lines that serve as the epigraph of this article). When the department of choral conducting was created in 1932, Chesnokov was its first head, but he never stayed in such positions for long, because accusations of “churchism” (and until 1932 he was regent at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior) followed him like a trail until end of life. During these years, Chesnokov worked on the main theoretical work of his life - the book “The Choir and Its Management,” which was published in 1940 (the circulation sold out in a matter of hours). Since then, the work has been republished several times - and deservedly so: no one has yet written a better book that combines the theory and practice of choir conducting. Nevertheless, it clearly senses the internal breakdown that occurred in the author after the revolution. According to the original plan, this work was supposed to take stock and generalize the church singing experience that filled the life of the composer and regent, but due to the aggressive atheistic policy of the Soviet government (this was the time of the “godless five-year plan”: by 1943 it was not supposed to remain in Russia not a single temple, not a single priest - but the war got in the way) Chesnokov was forced to write simply about the choir; the only example of church music in this book is Berezovsky's "Do not reject me in my old age", without text. The creative activity of the composer-author of sacred works also ended long ago: his last opuses were secular. After 1917, according to the data available today, only 20 spiritual works were composed, some of which were published, and others, remaining in manuscripts, were included in opuses No. 51 and No. 53.

The last years of P. G. Chesnokov’s life were filled with need and deprivation. The official Soviet press tells us nothing about these years - and who wants to remember once again that we are to blame for the starvation death of another Russian genius? At best, we can read that this happened in “the difficult days of the Great Patriotic War, in April 1944” (K. B. Ptitsa). Old singers recall that Chesnokov, as regent, did not go with the “large group of professors” of the Moscow Conservatory to Nalchik and, having lost bread cards, spent his last days in lines at a bakery on Herzen Street, where on March 14, 1944 he was found a frozen, lifeless body, forever abandoned by a pure, childishly naive soul. The funeral service was held in the church on Bryusovsky Lane (Nezhdanova Street), and Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov found his final resting place at the Vagankovsky cemetery, where his ashes rest to this day.

This article does not aim to exhaustively summarize the entire life and creative biography of the composer, but we would like every musician, having come into contact with the spiritual world of the Master himself, to carefully and cautiously approach the interpretation of his works, aware of the greatness of the composer’s musical gift and the depth of his human humility.

In the constellation of names of famous composers of Russian sacred music, there is one name, when uttered, many Russians feel warmth and bliss in their hearts. This name has not been overshadowed by others, sometimes very famous names; it has stood the test of the strictest court - the impartial Court of Time. This name - Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov.

Chesnokov was born on October 25, 1877 in the village of Ivanovskoye, Zvenigorod district, Moscow province. Already in childhood, he discovered a wonderful voice and bright musical abilities. At the age of five, Pavel began singing in the church choir, of which his father was the choir director. This helped him enter the famous Synodal School of Church Singing, which became the cradle of many outstanding figures of Russian choral culture. Here his teachers were the great V.S. Orlov and the wise S.V. Smolensky. After graduating from college with a gold medal (in 1895), Chesnokov studied composition privately with S.I. for four years. Taneyev, simultaneously working as a teacher of choral singing in women's boarding schools and gymnasiums. In 1903, he became the choir director at the Church of the Trinity on Pokrovka (“on Gryazi”). This choir soon gained fame as one of the best in Moscow: “They didn’t pay the singers, but the singers paid to be accepted into Chesnokov’s choir,” one of the Moscow regents later recalled.

For many years, Chesnokov, while continuing to work in Moscow (during these years he also presided over the Church of Cosmas and Damian on Skobelevskaya Square), often traveled around Russia: he acted as a conductor of spiritual concerts, conducted classes at various regency and regency-teacher courses, and participated in the work of regency congresses. It was the regency business that was central to the life and work of the renowned master of church singing. But he himself was never satisfied with himself, and therefore in 1913, being already widely known throughout singing Russia, the 36-year-old composer of sacred music entered the Moscow Conservatory. Here he studied composition and conducting with M.M. Ippolitov-Ivanov and instrumentation with S.I. Vasilenko. Chesnokov marked his fortieth birthday in 1917 by graduating from the conservatory in the free composition class (with a silver medal), having in his creative portfolio about 50 opuses of sacred and secular music. And in the same year, it was Chesnokov and his choir who received the honor of participating in the enthronement of Patriarch Tikhon.

The master's subsequent activities were filled with painful attempts to find a place for himself in a new, radically changed life: conductor and artistic director of various Moscow choirs (but nowhere for a long time), teacher at a music school and the People's Choral Academy (formerly the Synodal School), professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Until 1931, he was regent at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and in 1932 he became the first head of the department of choral conducting at the conservatory. In 1933, Chesnokov’s book “The Choir and Its Management” was completed and in 1940 published (and sold out within a few hours) - the only major methodological work of the famous choral figure. It summarized the many years of invaluable experience of the author himself and his fellow synodals. For many years, this work (though without the chapter on regency practice removed by the author at the request of the publisher) remained the main manual for the training of domestic choirmasters. All this time he continued to compose sacred music, but no longer for performance or publication, but only for himself.

The last years of the composer's life were the most dramatic. Mental suffering was increasingly drowned out by alcohol. In the end, the heart could not stand it, and one of the most soulful lyricists of Russian sacred music found rest in the old Moscow Vagankovsky cemetery...

Assessing Chesnokov’s multifaceted, original talent, contemporaries noted in him a unique combination of various qualities, both musical and “great human”: strict professionalism and deep respect for his work, enormous musicality, brilliant artistic talent, a magnificent refined ear and, also, spiritual purity , sincerity, deep humanity and respect for people. And all these qualities were reflected in one way or another in his music, just as his characteristics as a choirmaster, conductor, and performer were reflected in it.

Among Chesnokov’s works there are romances and children’s songs (just remember the charming cycle “Galina’s Songs”), there is piano music, and among student works there are instrumental works and symphonic sketches. But most of his opuses were written in the genre of choral music: choirs a sarella and with accompaniment, arrangements of folk songs, transcriptions and editions. The most important part of his legacy is sacred music. In it the composer's talent and soul found the most perfect, deepest, most intimate embodiment.

Entering the galaxy of composers of the so-called new Moscow school of church music, Chesnokov is still noticeably different from them. Like Kastalsky, who constructed a special (partly speculative) “folk-modal system” and applied it in his secular and spiritual compositions, Chesnokov “built”, or rather, intoned his own system, built on easily recognizable melodic and harmonic turns of Russian urban song and everyday romance of the late 19th century. Unlike Grechaninov, who created a special monumental temple-concert style of sacred music, based on the vocal-instrumental polyphony of orchestral writing, Chesnokov creates the no less rich polyphony of his compositions exclusively on the unique originality of the singing voices a sarella, imperceptibly dissolving the dome “echoes” of the temple into the choral sonority acoustics. Unlike Shvedov, who imbued his spiritual compositions with the “delights” of romantic harmony and rational design of form, Chesnokov never succumbs to the temptation to compose for the sake of demonstrating authorship, but always follows his lyrical, sincere, childish, slightly naive musical instinct. Unlike Nikolsky, who often complicated the church-singing style by using brightly concert, purely orchestral writing techniques, Chesnokov always preserves in purity the unique, entirely Russian vocal-choral style of temple sonority. And yet he approaches the text like an astute playwright, finding in it monologues, dialogues, lines, summaries and many stage plans. Therefore, already in his Liturgy, Op. 15 (1905), he discovered and brilliantly applied all those dramatic techniques that Rachmaninov would use 10 years later in the famous “Vespers.”

And there is, among many others, one fundamental feature of Chesnokov’s vocal-choral writing. Whether a soloist sings or a choral part sounds, this statement is always personal, i.e., essentially, solo in nature. Chesnokov's melodic talent is not characterized by developed melodies (with the exception of quoting everyday tunes), his element is a short motive, less often a phrase: sometimes of a recitative-ariot nature, sometimes in the spirit of an urban romance song. But any melody requires accompaniment, and the role of such accompaniment is played by all other choral voices. Their task is to highlight, interpret, decorate the melody with beautiful harmony - and it is precisely admiring the beautiful, “spicy”, romantically refined harmony that is characteristic of Chesnokov’s music. All these features indicate that Chesnokov’s music belongs to the genre of lyricism - often sentimental, expressive in its improvisational and everyday origins, and personal in the nature of the statement.

Most of all, this statement becomes romantically moving and artistically convincing when the composer uses the concerto genre by entrusting the solo part to a separate voice. Chesnokov's legacy includes many choral concerts for all types of voices. Particularly notable among them is the six-concert opus 40 (1913), which brought the author truly boundless fame and glory (especially thanks to the unique concert for bass-octavist accompanied by a mixed choir). At the same time, much more often one can observe in Chesnokov’s works diverse manifestations of the principle of concert performance, based on the maximum identification of the group performing capabilities of the parts that make up the choir. Opus 44, “The Most Important Hymns of the All-Night Vigil” (1913), can be classified as works of this kind. It is significant that both of these opuses, completed in the year their author began studying at the Moscow Conservatory, not only demonstrate a new level of Chesnokov’s compositional skills, but also testify to his unique attitude to the genres of sacred music, built on the creative combination of domestic church singing traditions and the latest achievements musical art.

A remarkable feature of Chesnokov’s music is its simplicity and accessibility, its recognition and heartfelt closeness. She delights and elevates, cultivates taste and corrects morals, awakens souls and inspires hearts. Having gone through a long and difficult path together with the land that gave birth to it, this music still sounds bright and sincere today. Because, as it was said in the obituary of the composer’s memory, published in the “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate” in April 1944, “without striving for any external effects, Chesnokov inspired the words of prayer petitions and doxologies with the simplest melodies, sounding from the depths of pure and perfect harmony. (...) This wonderful composer conceptualized church music as prayer wings on which our soul easily ascends to the throne of the Most High.”

Konstantin NIKITIN

Pavel Chesnokov (1877–1944) also wrote secular music, but became famous primarily as an Orthodox church composer.

Last year, Russian music lovers celebrated the 135th anniversary of his birth, and in 2014 it will be 70 years since his death. For the second century now, his music has been inspiring souls and awakening hearts, and his encyclopedic work “The Choir and Its Management” is still a reference book for choral conductors. So, meet Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov

Hereditary Regent

The future composer was born in 1877 in the village of Ivanovskoye, Zvenigorod district, Moscow province, in the family of a local regent - conductor of a church choir. The Lord rewarded the boy with a ringing voice and an ear for music, thanks to which his singing “obedience” under the guidance of his father began at a very early age. At the age of seven, Pavel entered the Moscow Synodal School of Church Singing, where his mentors were the great choral conductors V.S. Orlov and S.V. Smolensky.

After graduating from college with a gold medal in 1895, the young regent worked in Moscow churches, gave singing lessons in gymnasiums and girls' boarding schools, and along the way studied composition with the master of polyphony S.I. Taneyev, who for many years was a professor and director of the Moscow Conservatory.

For about ten years, Chesnokov taught choral conducting at the Synodal School, at the same time holding the position of assistant regent of the Synodal Choir, and later conducted the chapel of the Russian Choral Society.

Under the leadership of Pavel Grigorievich, the choir at the Church of the Holy Trinity on Pokrovka became one of the best groups in Moscow: “They didn’t pay the singers, but the singers paid to be accepted into Chesnokov’s choir,” recalled the oldest Moscow choir director N.S. Danilov. In 1913, the magazine “Choral and Regency Affairs” enthusiastically wrote about the anniversary concerts dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the creative work of the famous maestro: “P.G. Chesnokov is a remarkable virtuoso in the matter of conducting a choir, and a most subtle artist. The choir sang simply and seriously, humbly and strictly.

...All shades are given as required by the inner feeling and musical beauty of each piece performed.”

Church of the Resurrection of the Word on Uspensky Vrazhek, where in the spring of 1944
The funeral service was held for the famous regent P.G. Chesnokova

Since the early 1900s, Pavel Chesnokov has become a recognized author of sacred music. He often goes on tours around the country, performing in concerts as a conductor, taking part in various regency courses and congresses.

Wide popularity in singing circles did not prevent the musician from continuing his education: in 1917, the 40-year-old composer and conductor received a diploma and a silver medal from the Moscow Conservatory, from which he graduated in the class of the legendary M.M. Ippolitova-Ivanov.

"Chorus and its management"

The revolution found the composer at the peak of his fame, in the prime of his life. The author of numerous spiritual and musical compositions, a regent who was honored to participate with his choir in the enthronement of Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and All Rus' in 1917, Chesnokov’s entire life and work were inextricably linked with the Church. The October events turned the page in the history of Orthodox Russia, and in its new, atheistic chapter, the work of the illustrious master became unnecessary and objectionable.

At first after the revolution, the works of Pavel Chesnokov were still heard in some places, but over the years the persecution of Church servants only intensified. The composer's creative activity is replaced by forced silence. Thoughts about emigration undoubtedly visited Chesnokov, especially after his younger brother Alexander moved to Paris, but Pavel Grigorievich, as a truly national artist, remained in Moscow.

From 1920 until the end of his life, Chesnokov taught choral conducting and dance studies at the Moscow Conservatory (from 1921 - professor), where he was invited by composer M.M. Ippolitov-Ivanov. In addition, he heads several amateur and professional groups, works as the chief choirmaster of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, and directs the choir of the Moscow Philharmonic.

At the same time, during these years, the maestro was working on the book “The Choir and Its Management” - the most important theoretical work of his life. “I sat down to write a big book because, having worked for twenty years in the field of my favorite choral business, I realized that there is no science in our art, and I set myself a bold thought - to create, if not a science, then at least a true and solid foundation for it.” , he explained. The book was not published for a long time - the author was clearly not forgiven for composing sacred music and working as a regent! - and only in 1940 his fundamental research finally saw the light of day. The collection immediately became a bibliographic rarity: upon publication, the entire edition sold out in a matter of hours.

The last years of the master's life were full of need and deprivation. The composer, whose work brought joy and light to life - it is on these that all Orthodox worship is built - died in the early spring of 1944 in war-starved Moscow. The funeral service was held in the church on Bryusov Lane, and Pavel Grigorievich was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery.

Song of the soul

The legacy of Chesnokov, whose name is mentioned next to such luminaries as Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, includes about five hundred choral works. About a fifth of them is secular music: arrangements of folk songs, choirs and romances based on poems by Russian poets, and children's songs. But the main part of his work is spiritual works: his own chants and transcriptions of traditional chants of Orthodox worship. Among them are complete cycles of the Liturgy and the All-Night Vigil, the opuses “Praise the Name of the Lord,” “Great Doxology,” “To the Most Holy Lady” and other works included in the golden fund of church musical culture. In addition to chants, the composer composed ekphonetics (chanted reading, one of the ways of voicing texts of the Holy Scriptures not intended for singing), as well as lithium prayers and litanies for the deacon and mixed choir.

Chesnokov’s music is deeply national and original; each of his melody helps to convey the words of prayer to believing hearts. Exquisitely beautiful harmonies, deepest emotional coloring, sincerity in the expression of religious feelings - the inimitable style of his choral writing cannot be confused with anyone else. “This wonderful composer interpreted church music as prayer wings on which our soul easily ascends to the throne of the Most High” - words from the obituary in memory of Pavel Chesnokov, published in the April issue of the “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate” for 1944, best characterize the unique gift of the largest author of spiritual music of the twentieth century.

That's what Chesnokov said

A choir is a collection of singers whose sonority has a strictly balanced ensemble, a precisely calibrated structure and artistic, clearly developed nuances.

The bad or good attitude of the regent towards the singers and the singers towards the regent has a corresponding influence on the performance. After all, what is performance? This is the closest spiritual communication, a complete merging of the souls of the singers with the soul of the regent. The regent at the moment of performance is the sun, the singers are flowers. Just as flowers open and reach out to the sun, absorbing its life-giving rays, so singers at the moment of performance open their souls, accepting the radiation of the regent’s inspiration and becoming inspired.

This is interesting

Polyphony, which is an integral part of modern Russian Orthodox sacred music, penetrated into Russian church singing only in the 17th century. And before that, from the moment of the Baptism of Rus' in 988, in our country there was a monophonic, or unison, performance that came to us, like Christianity itself, from Byzantium. Singing in unison, rich and expressive in its own way, was called znamenny - from the ancient Slavic word “znamya” (the sign with which the melody was recorded). Visually, these signs resembled hooks of various shapes, which is why Znamenny singing was also called hook singing. This recording of sounds had nothing in common with the usual musical notation - neither in terms of the recording principle, nor in appearance. The culture of ancient singing manuscripts, which existed for more than 500 years, has long sunk into oblivion, but among modern musicians there are sometimes enthusiasts who search for and decipher the rare hook art, little by little returning Znamenny singing to church use.

P.G. Chesnokov - on the 30th anniversary of creative activity

Thank you for the Orthodox story,

For the faith of our native antiquity,

For a song consonant, glorious,

In a vision of the coming Spring.

Thank you for the burning flame -

Their prayer lives in silence.

Thanks for all the pleasures

Our rapturous soul.

We welcome you for many years,

May genius live forever

And the Eternal to us, many years old,

He sings to the joy of Russia.

Clergy and parishioners of the St. Nicholas Church on Arbat

Russian composer, choral conductor, author of widely performed sacred compositions. Born near the town of Voskresensk (now the town of Istra), Zvenigorod district, Moscow province, on October 12 (24), 1877 in the family of a rural regent. All the children in the family showed musical talent, and the five Chesnokov brothers studied at different times at the Moscow Synodal School of Church Singing (three became certified regents - Mikhail, Pavel and Alexander). In 1895 Chesnokov graduated with honors from the Synodal School; subsequently took composition lessons from S.I. Taneev, G.E. Konyus (1862–1933) and M.M. Ippolitov-Ivanov; much later (in 1917) he received a diploma from the Moscow Conservatory in composition and conducting classes. After graduating from the Synodal School, he worked in various Moscow colleges and schools; in 1895–1904 he taught at the Synodal School, in 1901–1904 he was assistant director of the Synodal Choir, in 1916–1917 he conducted the chapel of the Russian Choral Society.

Since the 1900s, Chesnokov gained great fame as a regent and author of sacred music. For a long time he directed the choir of the Trinity Church on Gryazi (on Pokrovka), from 1917 to 1928 - the choir of the Church of St. Basil of Neocaesarea on Tverskaya; He also worked with other choirs and gave spiritual concerts. His works were included in the repertoire of the Synodal Choir and other major choirs. In total, Chesnokov created about five hundred choral plays - spiritual compositions and transcriptions of traditional chants (among them several complete cycles of the liturgy and all-night vigil, a memorial service, the cycles "To the Most Holy Theotokos", "In the Days of War", "To the Lord God"), adaptations of folk songs, choirs based on poems by Russian poets. Chesnokov is one of the most prominent representatives of the so-called. “new direction” in Russian sacred music; Typical for him, on the one hand, is an excellent mastery of choral writing, excellent knowledge of various types of traditional singing (which is especially evident in his transcriptions of chants), and on the other hand, a tendency towards great emotional openness in the expression of religious feelings, up to a direct rapprochement with song or romance lyrics (especially typical for spiritual works for solo voice and choir that are now very popular).

After the revolution, Chesnokov led the State Academic Choir and was choirmaster of the Bolshoi Theater; from 1920 until the end of his life he taught conducting and choral studies at the Moscow Conservatory. After 1928 he was forced to leave the regency and the composition of sacred music. In 1940 he published the book “The Choir and Its Management.” Chesnokov died in Moscow on March 14, 1944.

Chesnokov, Alexander Grigorievich(1890–1941), younger brother of Pavel Grigorievich, also a famous regent and composer. He graduated with honors from the Synodal School, and then from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the composition class of N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov. He was a teacher and regent of the Court Singing Chapel, a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He emigrated in 1923, first to Prague, where he directed the All-Student Russian Choir. A.A. Arkhangelsky, then moved to Paris. Author of a number of spiritual and choral works in the style of the “new direction”, an original oratorio for choir, soloists and orchestra “Requiem – The Sacrament of Death” (first performed in Moscow in the second half of the 1990s) and a number of secular works.

Encyclopedia Around the World

“Not every gathering of singers can be called a choir.” These words are attributed to Pavel Chesnokov. He also composed secular music, but became famous primarily as an Orthodox church composer. His encyclopedic work “The Choir and Its Management” can be called the bible of choral conductors.

His name is mentioned along with the names of such luminaries as Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky. Chesnokov's legacy includes about five hundred choral works. He wrote arrangements of folk songs, choruses and romances based on poems by Russian poets, and children's songs. But the main part of his work is spiritual works: his own chants and transcriptions of traditional chants of Orthodox worship. Among them are complete cycles of the Liturgy and All-Night Vigil, opuses “Praise the Name of the Lord,” “Great Doxology,” “To the Most Holy Lady” and other works included in the golden fund of church musical culture. Chesnokov’s music is deeply national and original; each of his melody helps to convey the words of prayer to believing hearts.

Of course, in the Soviet years, Pavel Grigorievich’s church music was not performed. But in the 80s, Chesnokov’s spiritual works began to penetrate the repertoire of academic choirs and stood the test of the strictest judgment - time.

Tatiana Klimenko

Pavel Grigorievich Chesnokov is one of the largest representatives of Russian choral culture of the late 19th - first half of the 20th centuries, a versatile choral figure - composer, conductor and teacher.

P.G. Chesnokov was born on October 24, 1877 in the village of Ivanovskoye, Zvenigorod district, Moscow province, in the family of an employee. The father combined his service with the work of a church regent in a small factory choir, where the boy’s musical development began. In 1886 he was assigned to the Moscow Synodal School, which he graduated brilliantly in 1895. In the same year, he began teaching at his native school (in 1901-1904 he was an assistant regent of the Synodal Choir and in 1895-1904 - a teacher at the Synodal School). Around the same years, the musician worked in two city primary schools for men, and later taught singing in women's educational institutions.

The choirmaster activity of P.G. Chesnokov began in 1900 in the Church of Cosma and Demyan in Shubin (near Tverskaya Street). From 1902 to 1914, he led the amateur choir at the Trinity Church on Mud, where he achieved significant results. Then, in 1915-1917, P.G. Chesnokov headed the Russian Choral Society (in 1916-1917 he also directed the choir of the Russian Choral Society), was invited to major cities of Russia to participate in concerts and to summer regency teacher courses in St. Petersburg (1911-1916 ).

During the Soviet era, the musician's performing activities reached new heights. Chesnokov led many professional choirs in Moscow: the Second State Choir (1919, 1921), the State Academic Choir (1922-1927), the working choir of Proletkult (1928-1932), worked as a choirmaster of the Bolshoi Theater, and directed the choir of the Moscow Philharmonic (1932-1933). ).

In the mid-1930s, Pavel Grigorievich worked in amateur choirs, achieving remarkable results in a number of cases (the choir of the Central Concert Hall and the Gorky Choir, etc.), conducted methodological courses for amateur performance leaders, and taught special choral disciplines at the School named after the October Revolution.

A characteristic quality of the performing appearance of the choirs led by Chesnokov was a light, beautiful, flying sound. Choral groups under his direction were distinguished by their excellent ensemble, structure, and subtlety of performance. The theoretical work of P.G. Chesnokov is widely known - “The Choir and Its Management,” on which the author worked from 1918 to 1929 (published in 1940). The manual for choral conductors summarized the author’s performing and teaching experience.

As a composer, Pavel Grigorievich graduated from the conservatory in 1917 with a silver medal. In the fall of 1920, Chesnokov joined the teaching staff of the Moscow Conservatory, where he worked until the end of his days. At the conservatory, he taught classes in solfeggio and theory (1920-1924), led a choral class (1924-1926; 1932-1934), participated in opera class productions, and taught a choral studies course he created (1925-1928). In 1932, having become a professor, he taught a special conducting class. Among his students: I. Litsvenko, G. Luzenin, Yu. Petrovsky, A. Pokrovsky, S. Popov, A. Khazanov.

The composer is from Peru about 360 chants, 18 works for mixed choir a cappella , 21 works for women's choir with piano, 20 children's songs, 21 romances.

In the last years of his life, the composer made 22 arrangements of Russian folk songs for soloists, mixed and male choirs a cappella , created about 20 chants and 4 romances. Many choral works were widely known and loved by performers during his lifetime. Spiritual opuses of P.G. Chesnov - two Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom for women's choir, opus 9 and 16; Liturgy of the Pre-illuminated Gifts, opus 24; Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, opus 42; Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, opus 50-a and All-Night Vigil, opus 50-b; and individual chants are the brightest examples of Russian musical culture.