Gerasimov B. O Russian Tong. Compositions for mixed choir a cappella

The choruses collected in this book may be used in a Concert Hall as well as in a Choral Conducting classroom. Some scores are complicated enough to challenge even a well trained professional collective, others can be comfortably sung by students or advanced amateurs.

Three Poems by M. Lermontov are well known in Russian choral literature from famous classical compositions by P. Tchaikovsky, A. Rubinstein, and M. Ippolitov-Ivanov. Original approach to musical setting of these masterpieces is awaiting critical appreciation by musicians and audience. Same is regarding Tyutchev’s Tears and Willow. The rest of Tyutchev’s poems are set to music for the first time.

The author’s style can be characterized as scrupulously careful with the texts, austere and laconic with musical form, and marked with visible intention to achieve aesthetically fair musical expression of poetry.

The author, former graduate from the Glinka Choir College (1961) and Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory (1966) in Leningrad, from 1990 lives in New York, USA.

Contents:

THREE CHORUSES ON POEMS BY MIKHAIL LERMONTOV
   1. From Goethe (Ьber allen Gipfeln ist Ruh) — Music text example
   2. From Heine (Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam)
   3. Cliff
O, RUSSIAN TONGUE. Lyrics by Fyodor Tyutchev
FOUR SEASONS. Four choruses on poems by Fyodor Tyutchev
   1. Summer
   2. Autumn
   3. Winter
   4. Spring
WILLOW (Why d’you bend your head down to water?..). Lyrics by Fyodor Tyutchev
NIGHTMARE. Lyrics by Fyodor Tyutchev
OUR FATHER
REQUIEM. Three choruses on poems by Fyodor Tyutchev
   1. Of All the Life That Struggled Here Long Ago...
   2. People’s Tears
   3. The Final Cataclysm