The History of the Library

The scores in the Orthodox Sacred Music Reference Library were collected in the form of original imprints and photocopies from government, academic, and private libraries in Russia, Eastern and Western Europe, and North America over a period of four decades, systematized and catalogued in detail by Dr. Vladimir Morosan, the Founder and Project Director of the OSMRL.

The location, acquisition and cataloging of the scores which consitute the OSMRL was carried out with the support of grants received by Vladimir Morosan from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation in 1973-74; the William J. Fulbright / IREX International Research and Exchange Program in 1979; and the United States National Endowment for the Humanities in 1984-5. The support of these organizations is gratefully acknowledged.

Musical scores were collected and photocopied or microfilmed at the library of St. Alexander Nevsky Catherdral, Paris; the library of the Russian Conservaroire, Paris; the library of Les pères assomptionnistes, Paris; the library of St. Serge Theological Institute, Paris; Prophet Elias Skete, Mt. Athos, Greece; the library of the Leningrad Theological Academy; the Glinka State Museum of Musical Culture, Moscow; the Lenin Library in Moscow; the LIbrary of the Moscow Conservatory; the Kolchin Collection of St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary, Yonkers, New York; and the private collections of Leonid I. Kishkovsky, Alexander A. Tkaczenko, V. Rev. Nikolajs Vieglais, Evgeny I. Evetz, Very Rev. Konstantin Tivetsky, and others.

About the Catalog Numbers

In the course of assembling and systematizing the sacred choral works of Orthodox composers (including those of Russian, Ukrainian, Belorussian origin, as well as those from other Orthodox nations), Vladimir Morosan developed a system of catalog numbers comprising two letters derived from the Latinized spelling of the composer's name (e.g., Cn—Chesnokov, Ta—Tchaikovsky, etc.) and ordinal numbers related in most instances to the known order of publication, as reflected in the composer's own opus numbers or the publisher's series numbers. (These same catalog numbers are reflected in the new editions published since 1990 by Musica Russica—www.musicarussica.com.)

Dr. Morosan's work on the project entitled "An Encyclopedic Thematic Catalog of Russian Choral Music" (unpublished) was funded in 1984-1985 by the United States National Endowment for the Humanities.