Tchaikovsky
www.tchaikovsky-research.net

TH 77

All-Night Vigil

Всенощное бдение

An exercise in harmonising the Vesper Service, for unaccompanied voices, Op. 52 (1881–82).

• Composed May 1881–March 1882.
• Scored for unaccompanied SATB chorus.
• Also arranged for solo piano by Tchaikovsky, June 1881–March 1882.
• First performed in Moscow, 27 June/9 July 1882, conducted by Petr Sakharov.
• Average duration: 49m.

History

In a letter of 8/20 May 1881, Tchaikovsky asked Petr Jurgenson to send the complete text of the All-Night Vigil and Dmitrii Razmuovskii's Russian Church Songs [Церковное пение в России] [1]. On 21 June/3 July the composer told Jurgenson: "I am now writing church-music, which is an attempt (albeit a very modest one) to come to grips with the style established by Bortnianskii and tutti quanti of others..." [2]. The composer also wrote about this to Eduard Nápravník: "I have taken an interest in the study of our ancient church music, and am attempting to it for four-part chorus. The result of these efforts will be an All Night Vigil, in which I should like to further the cause of our serious church music, which has been distorted by untalented and commonplace Capelli" [3]. By mid/late July the rough work was complete [4].

On 1/13 September 1881, the composer wrote to Petr Jurgenson from Kamenka: "My opus is completely ready, i.e. the All-Night Vigil, which I had begun to copy out, but was interrupted by Bortnianskii [5], and since I could not sustain both works, I abandoned it for a time" [6]. The task of editing Bortnianskii's compositions, and then working on the opera Mazepa, the Trio (Op. 50), and various other compositions considerably delayed the completion of the All-Night Vigil. Only on 7/19 February 1882 did Tchaikovsky resume the copying out of this composition, which was completed by 7/19 March 1882 in Naples [7]. In August Tchaikovsky reviewed changes to the text required by the censor, and in late September/early October he received the first proofs of the Vigil. which were returned in mid/late October [8]. The issuing of the full score was held up until March 1883 by the church censor, whose petty objections meant that Jurgenson was prevented from bringing out the edition as advertised [9].

The first performance took place at Moscow in a concert in the hall of the Industrial Exhibition on 27 June/9 Jult 1882, conducted by Petr Sakharov.

From: Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), pp. 360–361
English text copyright © 2006 Brett Langston

References:

1. Letter 1745 to Petr Jurgenson, 8/20 May 1881 [back]
2. Letter 1791 to Petr Jurgenson, 21 June/3 July 1881 [back]
3. Letter 1801 to Eduard Nápravník, 3/15 July 1881 [back]
4. See letter 1826 to Sergei Taneev, 5/17 August 1881 [back]
5. The task of editing Bortnianskii’s Complete Church Music [back]
6. Letter 1849 to Petr Jurgenson, 1/13 September 1881 [back]
7. See letters 1958 and 1987 to Nadezhda von Meck, 7/19 February and 7/19 March 1882 [back]
8. See letter 2113 to Petr Jurgenson, 20 September/2 October 1882 [back]
9. See letter from Petr Jurgenson to Tchaikovsky, 1/13 March 1883 — Klin House-Museum Archive [back]