Choir as «vocal orchestra» in contemporary Russian composers’ legacy

Alexander S. Ryzhinsky

Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, Moscow, Russia,
loring@list.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9558-0252

Xiaoyong Shao

Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, Moscow, Russia,
shao333@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1400-3018

On the basis of the considered compositions of recent years, which have become a notable event in the concert life of our country — Concerto for choir and solo piano «Gloria», Concerto for domra and choir a cappella by K. Bodrov, A. Tchaikovsky’s piece «Cherry Orchard» for domra and choir and E. Podgaits’ «Prayer to the Virgin Mary» for accordion and choir — the authors come to the following conclusions: the phenomenon of the «vocal orchestra» in the understanding of modern Russian composers is primarily associated with the transfer of the functions of the orchestra to the choir in works of concert or concert-related genres. The work of prominent Russian musicians is also identified as a «catalyst» of the trend under study: Е. Mechetina (piano), E. Mochalova (domra) and M. Vlasova (accordion).

Keywords: contemporary choral music, instrumental concert, choral concert, vocal timbres, A. Tchaikovsky, K. Bodrov, E. Podgaits

For citation: Ryzhinsky A. S., Shao X. Choir as «vocal orchestra» in contemporary Russian composers’ legacy. Scholarly papers of Gnesin Russian Academy of Music. 2024;(3):29-41. (In Russ.). DOI: 10.56620/2227-9997-2024-3-29-41

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