All-Night Vigil (Rachmaninoff)
| All-Night Vigil | |
|---|---|
| Sacred choral music by Sergei Rachmaninoff | |
The composer | |
| Opus | 37 |
| Text | All-night vigil |
| Language | Church Slavonic |
| Dedication | Stepan Smolensky |
| Performed | 23 March 1915: Moscow |
| Movements | 15 |
| Scoring | SATB choir |
The All-Night Vigil (Pre-reform Russian: Всенощное бдѣніе, Vsénoshchnoye bdéniye; Modern Russian: Всенощное бдение) is an a cappella choral composition by Sergei Rachmaninoff, his Op. 37, premiered on 10/23 March 1915 in Moscow.
The piece consists of settings of texts taken from the Russian Orthodox All-night vigil ceremony. It has been praised as Rachmaninoff's finest achievement and "the greatest musical achievement of the Russian Orthodox Church". It was one of Rachmaninoff's two favorite compositions along with The Bells, and the composer requested that its fifth movement (Нынѣ отпущаеши, Nunc dimittis) be sung at his funeral.
The title of the work is often mis-translated as Vespers. This is both literally and conceptually incorrect as applied to the entire work; only the first six of its fifteen movements set texts from the Russian Orthodox canonical hour of Vespers.