A Musical Analysis of Sergei Rachmaninoff 's Named "Two Sacred Songs: Prayer, Glory to God"

Abstract

Sergey Rahmaninov, who is known as a composer and pianist in the last phase of the Romantic period and stands out with his unique style in his musical approach, focused on musical forms such as concerto, symphony, suite, symphonic poem, variation, sonata, prelude, rhapsody, chamber music, opera and liet. The composer has approximately 80 works for piano and vocals. Rahmaninov's unpublished song cycle "Two Sacred Songs; Prayer, Glory to God", written in 1916, is the last of these works. It was published by Belwin-Mills Publishing in 1973, the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth. The song cycle “Two Sacred Songs; Prayer, Glory to God” is a work open to research, scientific and artistic interpretation since it was the last work written for piano and vocals and the publication process took place after the composer's death. Accordingly, the aim of this article is to give information about the musical structure of the work and to convey the findings obtained as a result of the analysis. The compilation method was applied in the research, and the findings obtained were conveyed through a table with the titles of form section, measure numbers, tonal information, vocal range of the vocal part and tempo unit. Various rhythmic structures were preferred to be used in the piano score of two songs. “Prayer” is written in 12/8 metre and is in the key of D Major. “Prayer” is symbolised as 'A', 'B', 'A' in 3-part liet form. Glory to God's is written in the key of E Major. Measure numbers of 4/4, 3/4, 2/4 are used. “Glory to God” is symbolised as 'A', 'B', 'A' in three-part liet form. Two Sacred Songs is composed of 2 songs, “Prayer” and “Glory to God”. Both songs contain themes such as 'God', 'nature' and 'love' and were arranged by Nina Koshetz. Intense and atonal chords are used in the piano score of both songs. In this article, Rahmaninov's song cycle “Two Sacred Songs: Prayer, Glory to God" is analysed and interpreted in terms of musical features related to vocalisation, which is a useful resource for pianists and soloists.