...The Rest of the Story

As Paul Harvey used to say.....
I went hunting online for another piece of band music, a piece that Thomas played in eighth grade for All-District Middle School Honor Band entitled "Salvation is Created" by Pavel Chesnikov. Short, but very dramatic in tone color and dynamics. The title and author immediately suggested Orthodox Church music to me. Pavel's biography had more drama than I could imagine...

Chesnokov was a composer and choirmaster. "Salvation is Created" is a communion hymn specifically for a liturgy celebrated on Thursday. This was the last choral music he wrote for the Church before Communism shut down churches. According to Wikipedia, he never heard it performed publicly - but it escaped to the west. Chesnokov continued composing secular works and teaching choral conducting until Stalin coveted the ground of Christ the Savior cathedral in Moscow and blew up the church. Chesnokov, in disgust, never composed anything again, because he had been the cathedral's last choirmaster.

As for the site, it proved too swampy to support Stalin's world congress of soviets and was covered with a public swimming pool. After communism fell, the people of Moscow rebuilt the cathedral. Vindication.

Americans and Western Europeans seem to think they do a vocal piece honor by arranging it for instruments. This is contrary to Eastern church tradition, which maintains that the best sound to praise God is the one He gave men, the human voice. But... one can listen to the band arrangement (choose "Salvation is Created") and judge its merits against the choir arrangement.

I must admit guilt to co-opting this music. Thomas would practice his trumpet and forget his English or history. So when I'd ask him while driving to school in the morning if he were finished with homework, and he'd answer "no", I'd sing, "Thou art roa-sted, thou-ou-ou-ou art roa-sted" to the first line. After a couple rounds of "Mom, Dad would roast you for singing church music with other words," Thomas figured it was easier to do the homework to shut me up. Mom Power.

Oops (3/1) - forgot the pdf sheet music for anyone who'd like to see it, courtesy ChoralWiki. Daniel, Thomas, anyone?