Salvation is Created
Spaséñiye, sodélal (Salvation is Created), by the Russian composer Pavel Chesnokov, is a Communion Hymn intended for the Russian Orthodox liturgy for Friday. Its text (“Salvation is created, in midst of the earth, O God, O our God. Alleluia”) is based on Psalm 74. It is a setting of a Kievan chant melody. Written in 1912, it is one of the last sacred works composed by Chesnokov. Following the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union’s Cultural Bureau forced Chesnokov to limit his composition to secular music.
Chesnokov was born in Vladimir, near Moscow on 24 October 1877. While attending the Moscow Conservatory, 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.
Chesnokov was the last choirmaster of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (the site of the 1882 premiere of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture) before it was demolished by Joseph Stalin. This act disturbed him so deeply that he stopped writing music altogether.
He died on 14 March 1944 of a heart attack caused by malnutrition while he was waiting in a Moscow bread line.