Kievan Chant

In 1976, the Orthodox Church in America published a setting of the hymns of Sunday evening Great Vespers in Kievan chant, harmonized and arranged by Boris Ledkovsky. This publication was allowed to go out of print, but there is some demand for it these days, as parish choirs seek to move to an older and more interesting chant tradition than late-19th-century Common Chant.

Pavel Chesnokov is one of the big names in late 19th and early 20th century Russian liturgical music. Depending upon his mood, he might set something from an austere chant tradition or free-compose a deeply-layered choral masterpiece. In this instance he took a simple chant melody from the square-note service books and gave it a very simple setting for male chorus.