All-Night Vigil

The All-Night Vigil for choir (Russian: , ), Op. 52, is an choral composition by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, written from 1881 to 1882. It consists of settings of texts taken from the Russian Orthodox all-night vigil ceremony. This work, like Sergei Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil, has been referred to as the Vespers. Like the Rachmaninoff, this is both literally and conceptually incorrect as applied to the entire work, as it contains settings from three canonical hours: Vespers, Matins and the First Hour. Background Prior to Tchaikovsky's setting of the all-night vigil, the only setting in existence had been by Artemy Vedel in the 18th century. Russian church music underwent a period of stagnancy in the 18th and 19th centuries. This was partially attributed to the monopoly on its composition and performance held by Dmitry Bortniansky, while he was the director of the Imperial Chapel.