Chesnokov was born in
Vladimir, near
Moscow, on 24 October 1877. While attending the
Moscow Conservatory, he received extensive training in both instrumental and vocal music including nine years of
solfège, and seven years training for both the piano and violin. His studies in composition included four years of harmony, counterpoint, and form. During his years at the school, he had the opportunity to study with prominent Russian composers like
Sergei Taneyev and
Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, who greatly influenced his style of liturgy-driven choral composition. At an early age, Chesnokov gained recognition as a great conductor and choirmaster while leading many groups including the
Russian Choral Society Choir. This reputation earned him a position on staff at the
Moscow Conservatory where great composers and music scholars like
Tchaikovsky had shared their skills and musical insight. There he founded a choral conducting program, which he taught from 1920 until his death. By the age of 30, Chesnokov had completed nearly four hundred sacred choral works, but his proliferation of church music came to a standstill at the time of the
Russian revolution. Under communist rule, no one was permitted to produce any form of sacred art. So in response, he composed an additional hundred secular works, and conducted secular choirs like the
Moscow Academy Choir and the
Bolshoi Theatre Choir. In the
Soviet era, religion was often under oppression. Thus, the
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, whose last choirmaster had been Chesnokov, was destroyed, which disturbed him so deeply that he stopped writing music altogether. Chesnokov died on 14 March 1944 of a heart attack caused by malnutrition while he was waiting in a Moscow bread line. ==Notes==