Pyotr Ivanovich Turchaninov was a Russian church composer and choirmaster, an archpriest of palatial churches (in 1833-1841). The son of a nobleman from Kiev, Turchaninov possessed a wonderful voice and in his youth sang in the chorus of General Levanidov. He studied with Giuseppe Sarti and Artemy Lukyanovich Vedel. In 1803 he was ordained as a priest. In 1809 he was appointed as the choirmaster of the Metropolitan’s Choir and, later, as a singing instructor at the Court Singers’ Cappella in St. Petersburg. He wrote numerous original compositions for church choir (including the Concerto “Voskresni Bozhe, sudi zemli” – “Resurrect, O God, Judge the Earth”) and harmonic arrangements of early Russian chants. The most outstanding of all of Turchaninov’s arrangements are: “Tebe odeyushchagosya” (“To You, Who Adorns”), “Da molchit vsyakaya plot’” (“Let All Flesh Be Silent”) and Hirmoses of Holy Thursday and Holy Saturday.
