Salvation is Created Chesnekov - Finlandia by Sibelius

. For the small devotional assembly on the day preceding Graduation at our college, the choir and band jointly performed a work by a Russian composer: Salvation is created. [From a philosophical point of view salvation alone is bad enough, but to think of it being actually created give me a toothache! But from a strictly musical point of view, Salvation is a perfectly good word with which to start out a chorus...] Meeting the band director (whose idea it apparently was, to perform the 2-minute-plus work, judging from the fact that he conducted it) at the grocery store later that evening, I told him how very much I enjoyed it. His eyes lighted up, and he revealed that it was quite uncommon to have the work performed as a choral/band piece; apparently it is quite popular in the two separate formats: band transcription or a capella choral. Going out on YouTube, I discovered numerous submissions of this piece, performed by various groups. Here is the most disciplined choral performance, even if a little quiet, by the (no longer in existence) Dale Warland Singers. The Russian text is as follows (I'm not attempting to translate it, because it is poetic, and probably loses in the translation): Spaséñiye, sodélal yesí Posredé ziemlí, Bózhe. Allilúiya. The piece is frustratingly simple; there is no development at all, it's effect is entirely at the sensual, and rhetorical level. It is a collect, such as the Anglicans have. The instrumental version (wind ensemble; I could not find an orchestral version. This seems somehow appropriate; an orchestral performance would probably trivialize it) I have is by an unknown band, probably kept anonymous for fear of reprisals by the record company.  Here is a version for combined choir and band. Note for music insiders: this piece is almost totally homophonic (with some melodic interest, as always, in the bass, and occasionally in the tenor, over a pedal-point). In such a piece, the each note in the bass line has more importance for its role in a specific inversion of the chord than for its melodic function, at least compared to contrapunctal works. You can savor each chord separately; note the heavy use of first inversion, and a startling second inversion on the dominant chord, which subsequently hurries upward and downward to root position over slight harmonic shifts. This work somehow reminds me of the chorale in Finlandia, even though that chorale is somehow more scandinavian than this one, and this one is somehow more Russian than that one. (You would think that this is saying the obvious, but I only say that I don't know how or why this is so. I can't quite put my finger on the attributes of either piece that makes them have their distinctive national style.) Here is a performance by the Nino Rota Orchestra and chorus. This next is a wonderful performance by a Chinese choir, singing in Finnish! The song seems to inspire people of all nations. (Note again the use of the second inversion in an accented position.) Finally, an interesting Bach chorus: Komm, Susser Tod, "Come, sweet death," a strongly contrasting mood to both the preceding examples of slow choral pieces. (Actually, the Bach work might be only an organ piece, and not a chorale, even if the melody is a chorale melody.) This is a recording of a transcription for large orchestra by Leopold Stokowski, of (Disney's) Fantasia fame.