Orthodox Sacred Music Reference Library
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Gardner, Ivan
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.
111 results found
Our master and bishop
Greek Chant, melody from M. Lisitsyn
SSA
In pub. Dukhovno-muzykal'nye proizvedeniia I. A. Gardnera: partitura dlia smeshannogo khora, New York, USA: Russian Orthodox Theological Fund, 1963.
Composition dated 1963.
1
Gd052
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Our master and bishop
Greek Chant, melody from M. Lisitsyn
S(div)A(div)T(div)B(div)
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 190, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1975.
Composition dated 1962.
1
Gd053
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Trisagion. No. 2a
Znamenny Chant
Holy God
Sviatyi Bozhe
SATB(div)
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 210, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1977. Also, in ser. Tserkovno-khorovaia biblioteka: partitury dlia tserkovnogo khora, No. 23а, Salzburg, Austria: Луч, [n. d.].
Composition dated 1951.
Gd017
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Trisagion. No. 2b
Znamenny Chant
Trio at a Hierarchical Liturgy
Holy God
Sviatyi Bozhe
SSA
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 210, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1977. Аlso, in ser. Tserkovno-khorovaia biblioteka: partitury dlia tserkovnogo khora, No. 23b, Salzburg, Austria: Луч, [n. d.].
Composition dated 1951.
Gd057
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Trisagion. No. 1
Znamenny Chant
Holy God
Sviatyi Bozhe
S(div)A(div)TB
In ser. Tserkovno-khorovaia biblioteka: partitury dlia tserkovnogo khora, No. 21, Salzburg, Austria: Луч, [n. d.].
Composition dated 1951.
3
Gd016
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Trisviatoe. No. 2. Variant A i B
Trisagion. No. 2. Variant A and B
Demestvenny Chant
Trio at a Hierarchical Liturgy
Holy God
Sviatyi Bozhe
SSA
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 53, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1962. Also, in ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 55, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1962.
Composition dated 1960.
4
Gd056
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Trisagion. No. 3
Greek Chant
Holy God
Sviatyi Bozhe
S(div)ATB
In ser. Notnaia biblioteka pravoslavnogo khristianina, No. 167, Berkeley, CA: The Orthodox Press, 1971.
Composition dated 1953.
4
Gd018
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Resurrectional Troparia
Tone 5, Little Znamenny Chant
Evlogitaria
Blessed art Thou, O Lord
Blagosloven esi, Gospodi
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. Also, in ser. Tserkovno-khorovaia biblioteka: partitury dlia tserkovnogo khora, No. 13, Salzburg, Austria: Луч, [n. d.].
Composition dated 1930, 1944.
5
Gd009
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Velichanie na Preobrazhenie Gospodne
Magnification for the Transfiguration of the Lord
Znamenny Chant
We magnify Thee, O Christ the Giver of life, and we honor
Velichaem Tia, Zhivodavche Khriste, i pochitaem
S(div)ATB
Unpublished in composer's lifetime.
From I. G. Drobot's personal collection. First published in vol.: I. A. Gardner, Sobranie dukhovnykh sochinenii, San Francisco: Russky Pastyr’; Moscow: Zhivonosnyi istochnik, 2008.
Gd087
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LBS 157 - Gardner
Velichanie na Rozhdestvo Khristovo
Magnification for the Nativity of Christ
Znamenny Chant
We magnify Thee, O Christ the Giver of life, Who for our sake
Velichaem Tia, Zhivodavche Khriste, nas radi nyne
S(div)ATB
In ser. Tserkovno-khorovaia biblioteka: partitury dlia tserkovnogo khora, No. 11a, Salzburg, Austria: Луч, 1953.
Composition dated 1952.
1
Gd082
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LBS 157 - Gardner