Работы П. Г. Чеснокова 1903 и 1912 годов о церковных хорах и регентской деятельности

Abstract

The article reveals the main ideas of the early works of the outstanding composer and choir director Pavel Chesnokov on church choirs and practice of the choir directors, which he himself considered the forerunners of his main work in the field of choral science, the book “The Choir and How to Direct It”. The publication of this work in 2023 in its original edition, created for the choir directors, made it possible to trace the evolution of Chesnokov's views on the organization of choral work. The works “Thoughts on the Affairs of an Amateur Choir” (1903) and “Notes of the Choir Director” (1912), whose autographs are stored in the Russian National Museum of Music, have never been published before. They are of great interest as documents depicting not only the process of creating a book, but also, in general, revealing the diverse context of the choir director's practice at the beginning of the 20th century. The article reveals cross-cutting themes that are present to some extent in all of Chesnokov's works, some “parallel places” in the texts are presented. In the work “Thoughts on the affairs of an amateur choir” P. G. Chesnokov defines the principles of organizing the choir, the goals and objectives of the forthcoming work: the need for theoretical studies, the development of a new modern repertoire of church singing, primarily the works of the Moscow Synodal School. In early works, three main qualities of choral sonority have already been formulated: ensemble, structure and nuances, but there is no detailing of working methods. Acquaintance with the early works makes it possible to realize what huge steps Chesnokov took in developing and deepening the problems of choral studies during the preparation of the book “The Choir and How to Direct It”.