Salvation is Created

Salvation is Created

Pavel Tschesnokoff
(October 12 1877-March 14 1944)

arranged by Bruce Houseknecht

Teacher’s Guide

Neil A. Kjos Music Company, Publisher

Grade 3

Learning Goals:
Students will play with balance and blend. (Standard 2)
Students will play with effective dynamic contrast (Standard 2)
Students will play with sustained phrasing and legato style (Standard 2)
Students will play with good breath support (Standard 2)
Students will learn about chorale and vocal characteristics (Standard 6)
Students will learn about Russian Orthodox church music of that time period (Standard 9)

The Composer
Pavel (Paul) Grigorievich Tschesnokoff (1877–1944) (also transliterated Chesnokov) was a Russian composer, conductor and teacher. He composed over five hundred choral works, over four hundred of which are sacred. Today he is most known for this piece, Salvation is Created.

Tschesnokoff taught choral singing and chant at the Moscow Synodal School for 25 years and later became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory and was conductor of several state choirs in Moscow. Tschesnokoff also wrote a book still used by choirmasters in which he offers advice to choral conductors, telling them to use smooth gestures to create a continuous sound and to use as few gestures as possible so as not to weaken their effect. He saw the conductor as responsible for the success or failure of the choir.

Tschesnokoff was a composer for the Russian Orthodox church before communist rule. About a third of his sacred works are based on chant, while the rest are freely composed. After the revolution, greater controls over what composers could write were instituted, and Tschesnokoff, fearing repressions against himself and his family if he continued to write sacred choral works, ceased the composition of sacred music entirely.

The Composition
This piece was originally written as vocal music for the Russian Orthodox Church in 1912. Salvation is Created is one in a cycle of ten Communion Hymns, Op. 25, and is based on a cantus firmus chant taken from Obihod notnago peniya, the codex that contained the major musical components of the Russian Orthodox liturgical repertoire. It was traditionally scored for either six or eight voices (SATTBB or SSAATTBB). The text is as follows:
Russian text: Spaséñiye, sodélal yesí posredé ziemlí, Bózhe. Allilúiya.
English translation: Salvation is created, in midst of the earth, O God, O our God. Alleluia.

Historical Background
When communism took over in Russia after the revolution, the shift of power created greater government control over what kind of music composers could and couldn't write. If Tschesnokoff and other church music composers continued writing sacred music for the church, they ran the risk of being killed, or having their families taken away or killed by the communists. Tschesnokoff opted to save his family and himself, and never wrote another piece of sacred music. Years after his death communism fell, the Berlin Wall came down, and the Russian Orthodox church opened its doors again. Salvation is Created became the unofficial anthem of the church. Tschesnokff never heard the piece performed, but his children were finally able to hear it years later.

Technical Considerations
The scales of C minor and Eb major are required for the entire ensemble. The A sections are in C minor, while the B sections are in Eb major. The phrases should be played in a legato, sustained manner with only 2 breaks (measures 14 and 35), facilitated by the use of staggered breathing in the ensemble. The melodic theme from the A section is heard twice in each section, each time with a different choir of voices, in the style of antiphonal choirs. In the B section, the full choir is heard. As the individual voices of a vocal choir blend together to form the timbre, each of these smaller instrumental choirs should also try to match tone, timbre and style. The rhythms in this piece are not difficult, but maintaining a regular pulse throughout the entire ensemble at this slow tempo provides a challenge. The musicians must be able to internalize the tempo and match entrances with each other to keep the flow and movement of the piece going.

Stylistic Considerations
Because this piece was originally a choral work, the same stylistic characteristics can apply to the instrumental ensemble. Tschesnokoff intended for his sacred chorales to be performed with no breaks, creating the illusion of constant sound. To accomplish the long, fluid phrases with no breaks requires the use of staggered breathing by the ensemble. Use of rubato at key points in the phrases serves to heighten the emotion and expressive qualities of the piece. The dynamic contrast and harmonic tension can also be brought out by the use of give and take of tempo.

Musical Elements
This piece begins quietly in C minor, giving a dark somber tone to the A section. The B section soars into a brighter Eb major, increasing dramatically in dynamics and texture, before tapering off and modulating back to C minor. There is a great deal of harmonic tension and release throughout, emphasized by the dynamics and percussion.

Form and Structure
The form of this piece is A B A B, with a short coda at the end of each B section. The melodic themes from both the A and B sections are simple and elegant, and are heard over rich, full harmonies. The A section is very dark, quiet and intense. The tonality of the A section is primarily C minor with some modal tendencies. The opening chord is scored as an open 5th, creating a brief taste of early church mode writing. The B section shifts to a major tonality, Eb major. In addition to being a brighter sound due to the tonality shift, the B section is also a much louder dynamic, with full band scoring including percussion. The coda transitions back to the dark and quiet C minor modality.

References and Resources

Rommereim, J. C. "'The Choir and How to Direct It:' Pavel Chesnokov's magnum opus." CHORAL JOURNAL, Official Publication of the American Choral Directors Association XXXVIII, no. 7 (1998): 29-42.

Tchesnokov, Pavel. "Salvation is Created (Pavel Tchesnokov)." Choral Public Domain Library. Edited by Rafael Ornes. March 19, 2002. http://wso.williams.edu/cpdl/sheet/tsch-sal.pdf

Bakst, James. A History of Russian-Soviet Music. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1966.

deAlbuquerque, Joan. Salvation Is Created, Pavel Tschesnokoff (1877-1944). Vol. IV, in Teaching Music through Performance in Band, by Larry Blocher, Eugene M Corporon, Ray Cramer, Tim Lautzenheiser, Edward S. Lisk and Richard Miles, 370-374. Chicago, IL: GIA Publications, Inc., 1997-2002.

Leonard, Richard Anthony. A History of Russian Music. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1956.

Moscow Hotels, JSC. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior. 2001-2007.
http://www.moscow-taxi.com/churches/cathedral-of-christ-savior.html.

Thompson, Oscar. The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians. Tenth Edition. Edited by Bruce Bohle. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1975.

Strategies and Activities:
Use the Eb major and C minor scales in warm-up activities to help familiarize the students with these keys.
Have the band play through different chorales and other choral transcriptions for band so they will learn to recognize the phrasing and use staggered breathing.

Ask the students to sing their parts to hear it as a vocal piece. They can either sing on a specific syllable, or using the English text.
Study a copy of a vocal score for this piece to see how the phrasing and flow of the piece will best work.

Student Guide Answer Key:
In the Student Guide, the students are asked to fill in specific information to the following sections:

Form Analysis:
This piece is in a simple A B A B form. Each A section is made up of two smaller sections that have the same melodic and harmonic material. The B sections are made up of longer sections, and are followed by a short transition, or coda. In the chart below, write in the measure numbers for each section.

A	A	B	Coda	A	A	B	Coda
1-4	5-9	10-18	19-21	22-25	26-30	31-39	40-42

Melody:

There are really only two melodies in this entire piece. One melody is heard in measures 10-18 and again at measures 31-39, and is played with the full ensemble. The other melody is heard four different times, and with different groupings of instruments. See if you can locate these four different spots, and identify which instruments are playing the melodic line in each one.

1. Measure 1-4, French horn, clarinets

2. Measure 5-10, Flutes, trumpets

3. Measure 22-25, Trombones

4. Measure 26-30, Flutes, clarinets, trumpets

Harmony:
The harmony of this piece alternates between the keys of C minor and Eb major. The A sections are in the darker-sounding minor key, and the B sections soar into the brighter major key, giving the piece it’s sound-color contrast. Then the short codas after the B sections bring the piece back into the minor key. This kind of contrast can lead to a variety of images. Describe what kind of picture or image you might imagine when listening to the contrasting sections of Salvation is Created.

There is no specific right answer for this section. Just check to see that the students have come up with some input.

Visual Examples
Because this piece is from music of the Russian Orthodox Church, here are some examples of famous church buildings in Russia. In a paragraph, describe how the architecture reminds you of the style or form of the piece.

The Pokrovski Cathedral (St. Basil’s) on Red Square in Moscow

The Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Sergiev Posad

The church of the Ascension at Kolomenskoye, built in 1532 by Prince Vasili III.

Assessment:

The students’ work on the student guide will be assessed by the following grading rubric.

Category	0	1	2	Points
Form	The student does not answer any of the questions correctly	The student answers 1 to 6 parts of the question correctly	The student answers 7-8 parts of the question correctly
Melody	The student does not answer any of the questions correctly	The student answers 1 to 3 parts of the question correctly	The student answers all 4 parts of the question correctly
Harmony	The student does not write a descriptive answer at all.	The student writes a short but non-descriptive answer	The student writes a descriptive answer
Visual	The student does not write a descriptive answer at all	The student writes a short but non-descriptive answer	The student writes a descriptive answer about the visual images
Total

Grading Scale:
7-8 points: A
5-6 points: B
3-4 points: C
2-3 points: D
0-1 points: F