Orthodox Sacred Music Reference Library
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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
Oh, the marvelous wonder
Model melody, Tone 1 Kievan Chant (Galician variant)
Sticheron at Lord, I call for Dormition
SATB
Autograph from the composer's archive
Not dated
1
Gd108
From My Youth
Tone 4, Greek Chant
S(div)AT(div)B
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 38, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1958. Also, in ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 55, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1962. Also, in ser. Tserkovno-khorovaia biblioteka: partitury dlia tserkovnogo khora, No. 31, Salzburg, Austria: Луч, [n. d.].
Composition dated 1952.
2
Gd010
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LBS 157 - Gardner
From the rising of the sun
At the greeting of a Hierarch
S(div)AT(div)B
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 190, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1975.
Composition dated 1954.
1
Gd051
-
LBS 157 - Gardner
Father and Son. No. 1
Znamenny Chant
S(div)AT(div)B(div)
In ser. Tserkovno-khorovaia biblioteka: partitury dlia tserkovnogo khora, No. 6, Salzburg, Austria: Луч, 1953.
Composition dated 1950.
Gd027
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Father and Son. No. 2
Kievan Chant
SATB
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 170, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1972.
Composition dated 1965.
1
Gd028
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LBS 157 - Gardner
The Singing of Psalms (Example)
SATB
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 176, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1972.
1
Gd107
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Most Blessed art Thou
Tone 2, Little Znamenny Chant
Resurrectional Theotokion at the Praises
SATB
Not published previously.
First published in vol.: I. A. Gardner, Sobranie dukhovnykh sochinenii, San Francisco: Russky Pastyr’; Moscow: Zhivonosnyi istochnik, 2008.
Gd011
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Predstatel'stvo khristian nepostydnoe
Steadfast Protectress of Christians
Tone 6, Greek Chant
Kontakion to the Mother of God
TTBB
Unpublished in composer's lifetime.
First published in vol.: I. A. Gardner, Sobranie dukhovnykh sochinenii, San Francisco: Russky Pastyr’; Moscow: Zhivonosnyi istochnik, 2008. Publication based on a reconstruction by I. G. Drobot from an audio recording in January 2008. Russiches Pontifikalamt. Schwann, Musica sacra, AMS 2580. Chor des Missions-Priestseminars der Spiritaner, Knechsteden bei Köln, Leitung: P Josef Wipper CSSP.
Gd024
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Razboinika blagorazumnago [No. 1]
The wise thief [No. 1]
Exaposteilarion at Holy Friday Matins
SSA
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 44, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1960. Also, in ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 55, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1962. Also, in ser. Tserkovno-khorovaia biblioteka: partitury dlia tserkovnogo khora, No. 17, Salzburg, Austria: Луч, [n. d.].
Composition dated 1952.
1
Gd096
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LBS 157 - Gardner