Orthodox Sacred Music Reference Library

Gardner, Ivan

Gardner in beret

GARDNER, Ivan Alekseevich (1898-1984), known in the West as Johann von Gardner, was a unique and multi-faceted Russian musician and scholar, whose entire life, in one way or another, centered around Orthodox church music, Gardner was compelled to leave his homeland in 1920, living thereafter in Serbia (Yugoslavia), the Holy Land, Austria, and Germany. A portion of his life was lived under the name Philip, as a monk and later a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Towards the end of World War II, he left the priesthood, and devoted his life to Orthodox church music as a choirmaster, composer, scholar, and publicist. As a researcher and author, he single-handedly carried the torch of scholarship in the field of Russian Orthodox liturgical music, at a time his compatriots in the Soviet Union were prevented from doing so by the Communist regime. He authored a major two-volume history of Russian church singing (the first part of which is available in English translation) as well as several hundred articles and monographs. In his writings he sought to continue, through historical investigation and scholarly argument, the movement initiated at the Moscow Synodal School of Church Singing—the attempt to return Russian liturgical music to its traditional Orthodox roots from which it had strayed in the 18th and 19th centuries under Western European influence.

Although Gardner’s contribution to this process as a composer is less known, he wrote over 100 sacred liturgical choral works, almost all of them based on authentic Znamenny, Demestvenny, Kievan and other chants. In his compositions he was in every respect a follower of the best traditions of the “New Direction” in Russian sacred choral composition—established by composers such as Kastalsky, Gretchaninoff, Chesnokov, Rachmaninoff, and others—using the full coloristic resources of the mixed choir in a rich palette of “choral orchestration.” Like many of the works of the Moscow School, Gardner’s compositionas and chant arrangements for the most part lay outside the capabilities of Russian émigré choirs, and thus remained unsung until recently. A fresh consideration of his works reveals Gardner to be an important composer whose creative legacy merits being incorporated into the mainstream corpus of the Orthodox sacred choral repertoire.

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Budi imia, Gospodne

Blessed be the Name

Tone 4, Znamenny Chant

TTBB

In pub. Gesänge der heiligen und güttlichen Liturgie nach byzantinisch-slawischem ritus. Für einfachen vierstimmigen Chor zusammengestellt von Johann von Gardner, Krefeld-Traar, Germany: Verlag St. Andreas, 1954.

Gd050

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd049

Budi imia, Gospodne

Blessed be the Name

Tone 4, Znamenny Chant

SATB

In pub. Dukhovno-muzykal'nye proizvedeniia I. A. Gardnera: partitura dlia smeshannogo khora, New York, USA: Russian Orthodox Theological Fund, 1963.

Composition dated 1941.

1

Gd049

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd091

Da ispravitsia. No. 2

Let my prayer arise. No. 2

Prokeimenon at the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts

SA(div)T(div)B(div) and SAA Trio

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 122, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1968.

Composition dated 1961.

3

Gd091

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Da ispravitsia. <No. 1>

Let my prayer arise.

Not found.

Gd090

Gd092

Da molchit

Let all mortal flesh keep silent

Cherubic Hymn at the Liturgy of Holy Saturday

S(div)ATB

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 97, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1966.

Composition dated 1965.

3

Gd092

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd109

Dome Efrafov

O House of Ephratha

Model melody, Tone 2 Kievan Chant (Galician variant), Tone 2

Sticheron for the Pre-Feast of the Nativity

SATB

Autograph from the composer's archive

MS dated: 28-8-1954; another: 10-?-1954

2

Gd109

Gd037 044 source

Dostoino est' vos'mi glasov

It is truly meet in the 8 Tones

Znamenny Chant

Hymn to the Mother of God

S(div)A(div)T(div)B(div)

In pub. Dukhovno-muzykal'nye proizvedeniia I. A. Gardnera. Dostoino est'. 8-mi glassov. Znamennogo raspeva, Jordanville, New York, USA: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1967.

Compositions dated 1963-1965.

15

Gd037-044

8 Click [+] to expand

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

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Gd037

1

Dostoino est'. Glas 1-i

It is truly meet. Tone 1

2

Gd037

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd038

2

Dostoino est'. Glas 2-i

It is truly meet. Tone 2

3

Gd038

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd039

3

Dostoino est'. Glas 3-i

It is truly meet. Tone 3

4

Gd039

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd040

4

Dostoino est'. Glas 4-i

It is truly meet. Tone 4

4

Gd040

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd041

5

Dostoino est'. Glas 5-i

It is truly meet. Tone 5

2

Gd041

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd042

6

Dostoino est'. Glas 6-i

It is truly meet. Tone 6

2

Gd042

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd043

7

Dostoino est'. Glas 7-i

It is truly meet. Tone 7

3

Gd043

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd044

8

Dostoino est'. Glas 8-i

It is truly meet. Tone 8

3

Gd044

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

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Gd032

Dostoino est'. No. 1

It is truly meet. No. 1

Tsar Feodor's Melody

Hymn to the Mother of God

S(div)A(div)T(div)B(div)

In pub. Dukhovno-muzykal'nye proizvedeniia I. A. Gardnera: partitura dlia smeshannogo khora, New York, USA: Russian Orthodox Theological Fund, 1963. First edition (1926) also found in ser. Tserkovno-khorovaia biblioteka: partitury dlia tserkovnogo khora, No. 2, Salzburg, Austria: Луч, [n. d.].

Composition dated 1926, 1950.

1

Gd032

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd033

Dostoino est'. No. 2

It is truly meet. No. 2

Hymn to the Mother of God

S(div)AT(div)B(div)

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 134, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1969. Аlso, in ser. Tserkovno-khorovaia biblioteka: partitury dlia tserkovnogo khora, No. 4, Salzburg, Austria: Луч, [n. d.].

Composition dated 1949.

2

Gd033

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Dostoino est'. No. 3

It is truly meet. No. 3

Tone 5, Greek Chant

Hymn to the Mother of God

S(div)A(div)TB

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 190, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1975.

Composition dated 1952.

Gd034

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner