Chimes: Upon Reading V. M. Shukshin Explained

Chimes
Subtitle:	Upon Reading V. M. Shukshin
Type:	Choral symphony
Composer:	Valery Gavrilin
Text:	Russian folk texts, Albina Shulgina, and Valery Gavrilin
Language:	Russian
Dedication:	To
Composed:	1978–1982
Published:	1985
Publisher:
Movements:	20
Scoring:	Oboe, percussion, 2 solo singers, speaker, and SATB choir
Duration:	ca. 85 minutes

Chimes: Upon Reading V. M. Shukshin (Russian: Перезвоны — По прочтении В. М. Шукшина|Perezvony — Po prochtenii V. M. Shukshina) is a choral symphony by Valery Gavrilin. It was composed between 1978 and 1982, and premiered in 1984. The texts, inspired after a reading of Vasily Shukshin, are compiled from folk poetry, Albina Shulgina, and Gavrilin himself. The premiere in 1984 was seen as a turning away from European themes to Russian themes in Gavrilin's output.^[1] The work was recorded by Melodiya in 1988, with the soloists Natalia Gerasimova, Svetlana Beloklokova, Ludmila Slepneva, Anatoly Lyubimov, and the Moscow Chamber Choir, conducted by .

Instrumentation

The instrumentation for Chimes is as follows:

Woodwind

Oboe

Percussion

Tam-tam

Voices

Soprano solo

Tenor solo

Speaker (male voice)

SATB choir (sopranos dived into two sections)

Notes and References

Solomon Volkov - St Petersburg: A Cultural History 2010 - Page 546 1451603150 "A sensation was caused by the premiere in Petersburg of Bell Chimes, a nationalistic "symphony-ritual" (as the composer called it) by Valery Gavrilin, a follower of Georgy Sviridov, a leading Slavophile musician (and former student of Shostakovich) and composer of the Petersburg Songs."