Tchaikovsky, Piotr Ilyich

(7 May 1840, Votkinsk, Viatka district, Russia – 6 November 1893, St. Petersburg)

   Renowned chiefly for concert music, Tchaikovsky took a serious interest in the condition of Russian Orthodox music, editing the complete sacred choral works of Dmitri Bortniansky. He also composed complete settings, unusual for his time, for unaccompanied choir of the two most important Orthodox liturgies, the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (1878) and the All-Night Vigil (1882), the latter using traditional chants, a set of nine sacred choruses (1885), and a setting of an Orthodox Easter hymn "The Angel Cried Out" (1887). These works, relatively free of Western European traits, initiated a furious period of composition by Russian composers for Orthodox liturgy in the first two decades of the 20th century.

   See also Vespers (Allnight Vigil); Znamennīy Raspev.