Composition history Rachmaninoff composed the
All-Night Vigil in less than two weeks in January and February 1915. The
All-Night Vigil is perhaps notable as one of two liturgical settings (the other being the
Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom) by a composer who had stopped attending church services. As required by the
Russian Orthodox Church, Rachmaninoff based ten of the fifteen sections on
chant. However, the five original sections (numbers 1, 3, 6, 10, & 11) were so heavily influenced by chant that the composer called them "conscious counterfeits". Rachmaninoff's work is a culmination of the preceding two decades of interest in Russian sacred music, as initiated by
Tchaikovsky's
setting of the all-night vigil. The similarities between the works, such as the extensive use of traditional chants, demonstrates the extent of Tchaikovsky's influence; however, Rachmaninoff's setting is much more complex in its use of harmony, textual variety and polyphony.
Performance history The first performance was given in
Moscow on 10/23 March 1915, partly to benefit the
Russian
war effort.
Nikolai Danilin conducted the all-male
Moscow Synodal Choir at the premiere. It was received warmly by critics and audiences alike, and was so successful that it was performed five more times within a month. However the
Russian Revolution of 1917 and the rise of the
Soviet Union led to the government condemnation of religious music, and on 22 July 1918 the Synodal Choir was replaced by a non-religious "People's Choir Academy". It has been written that "no composition represents the end of an era so clearly as this liturgical work". Individual movements of Rachmaninoff’s
Vigil are incorporated by conductors into the actual sacred performance, or celebration (to use the proper Orthodox term), of the
All-Night Vigil. On the night of April 2, 2022, Metropolitan
Hilarion Alfeyev, celebrated a hierarchical
All-Night Vigil that included all of the movements of Rachmaninoff’s work, incorporated with the complete order of the service. ==Analysis==