Boris Ledkovsky’s “Great Vespers” in the Liturgical Singing Tradition of the Orthodox Church in America — Maria Kiryushina
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Great Vespers: Composition and Context
Great Vespers by Boris Ledkovsky was published as a standalone collection in 1976 by St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, a year after the composer’s death. Most of the hymns comprising Great Vespers are English versions of works originally composed in Slavonic, found in the Obikhod (All-Night Vigil), published in 1959, and in the Volumes 2 and 3 of Ledkovsky’s Collected Sacred Works, published in 1972 and 1982, respectively, in Jordanville; some were also included later in St Vladimir’s Seminary Press’s English-language editions of 1980 and 1982 (Holy Week, The Divine Liturgy, and The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts). Ledkovsky himself did not undertake the adaptation of his Church Slavonic works into English; instead, he relied on the expertise of his colleagues David Drillock, Helen and John Erickson, and Rosemary Yevich, who adapted the musical material into English. The adaptations were primarily based on texts used by the American Metropolia (as the OCA was called before its autocephaly). According to a letter from Fr John Erickson to the author, many English translations initially drew on Isabel Hapgood’s work. However, by 1967, a commission of the Russian Orthodox Greek-Catholic Church of America (i.e., the Metropolia) had developed its own English translations for the Divine Liturgy, Vespers, Matins, and other services. As Erickson notes, these translations were “based on the original Greek texts, while also considering the practices of the Russian Church.”
While these translations intersected with Hapgood’s, they aimed to simplify the syntax for greater clarity. Communication with Moscow was restored only in 1970, with the granting of autocephaly to the OCA by the Moscow Patriarchate. While using common English translations of scripture, such as the King James Version (KJV) and the Revised Standard Version (RSV), Old Testament texts and allusions were often modified to align with the Greek Septuagint. The translation principles employed in the above translations of scripture English-language were also followed in liturgical publications of the OCA, employing archaic verb forms and pronouns (e.g., “Thou hast,” “Thou art”) for addressing the persons of the Holy Trinity and modern ones (e.g., “you have,” “you are”) for addressing the Mother of God and saints. This usage is reflected in the texts used in Great Vespers. <…>
