Orthodox Sacred Music Reference Library
Receive a gift from us -
a list of all the composers' titles!
Gardner, Ivan
GARDNER, Ivan Alekseevich (1898-1984), known in the West as Johann von Gardner, was a unique and multi-faceted Russian musician and scholar, whose entire life, in one way or another, centered around Orthodox church music, Gardner was compelled to leave his homeland in 1920, living thereafter in Serbia (Yugoslavia), the Holy Land, Austria, and Germany. A portion of his life was lived under the name Philip, as a monk and later a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Towards the end of World War II, he left the priesthood, and devoted his life to Orthodox church music as a choirmaster, composer, scholar, and publicist. As a researcher and author, he single-handedly carried the torch of scholarship in the field of Russian Orthodox liturgical music, at a time his compatriots in the Soviet Union were prevented from doing so by the Communist regime. He authored a major two-volume history of Russian church singing (the first part of which is available in English translation) as well as several hundred articles and monographs. In his writings he sought to continue, through historical investigation and scholarly argument, the movement initiated at the Moscow Synodal School of Church Singing—the attempt to return Russian liturgical music to its traditional Orthodox roots from which it had strayed in the 18th and 19th centuries under Western European influence.
Although Gardner’s contribution to this process as a composer is less known, he wrote over 100 sacred liturgical choral works, almost all of them based on authentic Znamenny, Demestvenny, Kievan and other chants. In his compositions he was in every respect a follower of the best traditions of the “New Direction” in Russian sacred choral composition—established by composers such as Kastalsky, Gretchaninoff, Chesnokov, Rachmaninoff, and others—using the full coloristic resources of the mixed choir in a rich palette of “choral orchestration.” Like many of the works of the Moscow School, Gardner’s compositionas and chant arrangements for the most part lay outside the capabilities of Russian émigré choirs, and thus remained unsung until recently. A fresh consideration of his works reveals Gardner to be an important composer whose creative legacy merits being incorporated into the mainstream corpus of the Orthodox sacred choral repertoire.
111 results found
One is Holy
Kievan Chant
SATB
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 71, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1964.
Composition dated 1953.
2
Gd046
-
LBS 157 - Gardner
When from the Tree
Tone 2, Kievan Chant (Galician Melody), to the melody "When from the Tree"
Aposticha at Vespers of Great and Holy Friday
S(div)A(div)T(div)B(div)
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 218, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1978.
Composition dated 1955.
2
Gd099
-
LBS 157 - Gardner
Eksapostilarii v Nedeliiu Fominu
Exapostilarion on St. Thomas Sunday
Znamenny (Put') Chant
On this day Spring is fragrant
Dnes' vesna blagoukhaet
S(div)A(div)T(div)B(div)
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 190, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1975.
Composition dated 1968.
2
Gd103
-
LBS 157 - Gardner
Elitsy vo Khrista krestistesia
As many as have been baptized
Galician Chant
Trisagion Hymn for appointed feasts
SATB
Unpublished in composer's lifetime.
Prepared from a manuscript in the composer's archive.
2
Gd019
Elitsy vo Khrista krestistesia
As many as have been baptized
Galician Chant
Trisagion Hymn for appointed feasts
TTBB
Unpublished in composer's lifetime.
Manuscript in the composer's archive.
2
Gd020
The Lord reigns
Tone 6, Znamenny Chant
Saturday Prokimenon
TTBB
Unpublished in composer's lifetime.
From I. G. Drobot's personal collection. Composition dated 1961. First published in vol.: I. A. Gardner, Sobranie dukhovnykh sochinenii, San Francisco: Russky Pastyr’; Moscow: Zhivonosnyi istochnik, 2008.
Gd002
-
LBS 157 - Gardner
Gospodi, spasi blagochestivyia
O Lord, save the faithful
S(div)A(div)T(div)B
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 80, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1964.
Composition dated 1958.
Gd055
-
LBS 157 - Gardner
And for all mankind
Znamenny Chant
S(div)AT(div)B(div)
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 59, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1963.
Composition dated 1956.
2
Gd059
-
LBS 157 - Gardner