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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Gd083

Stikhiry po Evangelii na Rozhdestvo Khristovo

Post-Gospel Stichera for the Nativity of Christ

Tone 2, Little Znamenny Chant

All things are filled with joy today

Vsiacheskaia dnes' radosti

SATB

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 171, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1972. Аlso, in ser. Tserkovno-khorovaia biblioteka: partitury dlia tserkovnogo khora, No. 11b, Salzburg, Austria: Луч, [n. d.].

Composition dated 1952.

2

Gd083

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd081

Stikhiry po Evangelii na Vvedenie vo khram Presviatoi Bogoroditsy

Post-Gospel Stichera for the Entrance of the Most-Holy Mother of God

Tone 2, Little Znamenny Chant

Today the animate temple

Dnes' khram odushevlennyi

SATB

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 171, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1972.

Composition dated 1952.

2

Gd081

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd094

Stikhiry po Evangelii v Nedeliiu vaii

Post-Gospel Stichera for Palm Sunday

Tone 2, Little Znamenny Chant

Today Christ enters

Dnes' Khristos vkhodit

SATB

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 171, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1972.

Composition dated 1952.

2

Gd094

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd001

Svete tikhii

Gladsome Light

Kievan Chant

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

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 107, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1967.

Composition dated 1953.

2

Gd001

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd085

Svetilen na Rozhdestvo Khristovo

Hymn of Light [Exapostilarion] for the Nativity of Christ

Znamenny (Put') Chant

From on high our Savior

Posetil ny est'

SSA

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 63, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1963.

Composition dated 1960.

3

Gd085

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd084

Svetilen na Rozhdestvo Khristovo

Hymn of Light [Exapostilarion] for the Nativity of Christ

Znamenny (Put') Chant

From on high our Savior

Posetil ny est'

SATB(div)

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 63, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1963.

Composition dated 1960.

3

Gd084

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd080

Svetilen na Vozdvizhenie

Hymn of Light [Exapostilarion] for Exaltation

Put' Chant

The Cross is the guardian

Krest khranitel'

SSA

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 206, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1976.

Composition dated 1975.

3

Gd080

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd079

Svetilen na Vozdvizhenie

Hymn of Light [Exapostilarion] for Exaltation

Put' Chant

The Cross is the guardian

Krest khranitel'

SATB

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 206, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1976.

Composition dated 1975.

2

Gd079

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd104

Svetilen Piatidesiatnitsy

Svetilen [Exapostilarion] of Pentecost

Put' Chant

The Father is Light, the Word is Light

Svet Otets', Svet Slovo

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

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 71, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1964.

Composition dated 1955.

2

Gd104

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner

Gd047

Telo Khristovo

Receive the Body

Serbian Chant

Paschal Communion Hymn

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

In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 112, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1967.

Composition dated 1960.

2

Gd047

  • N157 263x 2b2

    LBS 157 - Gardner