Listening Recommendations: Vespers by Sergei Rachmaninov

Hey guys,

Here's one of my favourite pieces, Vespers by Russian composer, Sergei Rachmaninov (or Rachmaninoff).

The Vespers, also known as All-Night Vigil, was composed during the First World War and performed to benefit the war effort. It's most notably one of the most beautifully written Russian liturgical pieces, and is considered perhaps as the crowning achievement of the "Golden Age" of Russian Orthodox sacred choral music.

The piece, itself, consists of/ is based on chant, namely the znamenny style, recitative Greek style, and 'Kiev' chant - the Ukranian adaptation of the znamenny style. It is sung a cappella, the traditional vocal complement of the Russian Orthodox Church, and is framed around 15 major psalms and hymsn of the Resurrection Vigil

The depth of the music is extraordinary, Rachmaninov made use of the tone, timbre and range of the human voice like no other. The piece varies from 3, 5, 6 and 8-part harmony and comes packaged with a basso profundo. Only in Russia would you be able to find basses who could scale to a low B-flat.

Listen to the fifth movement for the a/m low B-flat. Rachmaninov loved this piece such much he requested for this to be performed at his funeral. What's more this has the score:

P.S. If you notice that they're singing an A, that's 'cause they're flat. Can you imagine, they ARE SINGING AN A!? haha




Here's the other introspective Blagoslovi Dushe Moya Gospoda

Enjoy!! :)