From out of the drawer: Faith, ritual and Russian Orthodoxy

Nikolai Korndorf's setting of the Divine Liturgy

Authors

• Gregory Myers

Keywords:

Russian Orthodoxy, Divine Liturgy, sacred music, Nikolai Korndorf

Abstract

The centerpiece of this study is a remarkable exemplar of sacred music composition literally extracted from the drawer: a complete setting of the Russian Orthodox Divine Liturgy by the late-twentieth-century Russian-Canadian composer, Nikolai Sergeevich Korndorf dated 1978.2 It has a two-fold purpose: (1) to explore some of the circumstances of its creation (how, why and when?) and, (2) to use it to frame a commentary on the impact of the Russian Orthodox Church on Russian music composition in general, looking to nineteenth-century precedents for lingering/prevailing attitudes towards it, posing the questions: Why has the Russian Orthodox Church been largely overlooked in Russian music production and why has it assumed a role in recent years?