Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre

Estonian Music
Essay
Spring 2022

Galina Grigorjeva

a focus on choral music

Sara Corriga
MA student
Galina Grigorjeva, born in 1962 in Crimea, is a Ukraine-born Estonian composer, She is very
prolific, having produced over seventy works including an opera for children, solo instrumental
music, chamber music, orchestral works, vocal music, and choral works. Her compositions
demonstrate a unique and colorful musical language as well as a deep artistry. She currently works
as a freelancer composer in Tallinn.

Her family origins refer to different countries as, her father had Greek, Polish, and Russian ancestry,
and her mother was half Ukrainian and half Russian. Though Russian culture dominated the cultural
landscape in which she grew up, Grigorjeva’s eclectic cultural background enriched her upbringing
and her music. Grigorjeva started her music education by taking piano and composition lessons at
the primary school for music at the age of five. She studied theory at the Simferopol Music School
between 1978 and 1982. Grigorjeva then turned to composition, studying at the Odessa
Conservatory for three years (1982–1985) before enrolling in the composition class of Yuri Falik
at the N.A. Rimski-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory from 1985 to 1991.

In St. Petersburg, Grigorjeva deepened her faith in the Russian Orthodox Church, which became a
major influence on her music. Despite the suppression of religious freedom under the Soviet Union
regime during this time period, Grigorjeva started to believe in God and her faith grew. Moreover,
Grigorjeva was nurtured with the art and musical traditions of the Orthodox Church through her
innumerable visits to the museums in St. Petersburg, especially the State Hermitage Museum where
the great ikons and other artworks connected with the Orthodox Church were exhibited. While at
the St. Petersburg Institute of Theater and Music, Grigorjeva met her future husband, an Estonian
musician studying to become a theater director. Following her marriage, Grigorjeva moved to
Estonia in 1991 with her husband.

In Estonia , she pursued postgraduate study with Lepo Sumera at the Estonian Academic of Music
from 1994 to 1998. After graduating, Grigorjeva began her carrier as a freelance composer. She was
appointed composer in residence at the NYYD, an international contemporary music festival held in
Tallinn since 1991, for the 2006/2007 season. She was awarded the Heino Eller Music Prize in
2003, and the Annual Prize of the Endowment for Music of Estonia in 2004 and 2013. In addition,
Grigorjeva’s album In Paradisum, featuring the Estonian National Male Choir and Mikk Uleoja,
was awarded the Estonian Music Prize in the category of Classical Album of theYear 2014.

Her unique and engaging compositional style replete with timbral and textural explorations based
on her deeply rooted Slavonic cultural background and Russian Orthodoxy. Throughout her works,
Grigorjeva has shown interest in experimenting with timbre, which can be seen in her
unconventional combinations of sound. Some of Grigorjeva’s instrumental works also move into
more avant-garde compositional techniques such as pointillism as well as old musical materials of
the Russian Orthodox Church. In an interview with Postimees, Grigorjeva clarifies her dynamic
compositional approach by explaining that she views herself as an intervallic-minded composer
rather than a harmonic-focused composer. 1 In other words, she prefers to create colorful sonorities
through intervallic relationships between the harmonies rather than using a functional harmonic
language. Grigorjeva explained in an interview with the author that she uses intervals and
harmonies as symbols of concepts and does not use them in structural relationships based on
Western classical music theory.

The texts that Grigorjeva uses usually carry great personal significance for her, reflecting her faith
and her values. Grigorjeva describes her affinity for the use of text in this way:

“There are two reasons why I use text often. One is programmatic. Another reason is that,
in my opinion, good knowledge and understanding of poetry is disappearing nowadays. I
do not claim that there are few good poets in our days, […] but high poetry – I often turn
to canonical texts – is primarily a word and a thought that compels one to focus: it no
longer rides the storyline but retains the idea of global truths.”2

1Immo Mihkelson, “The pulse of music beyond language barriers”, Postimees (2000). https://www.emic.ee/immo-
mihkelson-muusika-pulsist-teispool-keelebarjaare---postimees-09062000
2 “On kaks põhjust, miks sageli teksti kasutan. Üks on pragmaatiline: saan sellistelt koosseisudelt palju tellimusi. Teine
põhjus on see, et minu arvates on tänapäeval kadumas hea poeesia tundmine ja mõistmine. Ma ei väida, nagu oleks
meie päevil häid poeete vähe, neid on. [...] Aga kõrgpoeesia – pöördun sageli kanooniliste tekstide poole – on eeskätt
sõna ja mõte, mis sunnib inimest tähelepanu koondama: ta ei ratsuta enam süžeed mööda, vaid jääb mõttesse
globaalsete tõdede üle.”

Galina Grigorjeva, interview by Tiina Mattinen, (Muusika, November 2014),

https://www.sirp.ee/s1-artiklid/c5-muusika/2014-04-11-11-14-15/
As a choir conductor, I would like to see in particular one of her choir piece, In Paradisum, in the
SATB version

Text:

In paradisum deducant te angeli;

in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres,
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem.
Chorus angelorum te suscipiat,
et cum Lazaro quondam paupere
æternam habeas requiem.

May the angels lead you into paradise;

may the martyrs receive you at your arrival
and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem.
May choirs of angels receive you
and with Lazarus, once (a) poor (man),
may you have eternal rest.

In paradisum (Into paradise) is one of the most famous Gregorian antiphon from the traditional
Latin liturgy of the Western Church Requiem Mass. It is sung by the choir as the body is being
taken out of the church. As other famous text, as vexilla regis or locus iste, it is often used by
composers to write also independent pieces, due to its evocative meaning. The melody of
Grigorjeva’s piece, through which the text is delivered, is based on the original Gregorian chant.
This piece is divided in two parts, counting 13 bars for each part. The first part is an introduction to
the paradise, where the martyrs receive the soul and lead it to the holy city of Jerusalem. This part
accompanies the entrance of the soul to paradise, with a very calm and progressive beginning; the
second part has a change of character as the soul is finally welcomed by the a choir of angels in
paradise. This part is joyful and welcoming, celebrating the eternal salvation and the final eternal
rest, expressed through the last 4 bars: a calm and delicate description of eternal peace.

Generally speaking, Grigorjeva’s harmonic vocabulary is usually focused on creating colour rather
than function, mostly based on modal and diatonic concepts. She successfully creates colourful
sonorities by the use of tertian chords, added tone chords, quartal and quintal harmonies, and tone
clusters. These technique allows her to create deep pathos and spiritual resonance.

In the beginning of this piece, she states the main tonality of the entire piece, E minor, which is
confirmed in the end of the piece, bars 25-26, with a Picardy third cadence. This technique is typical
of old style music, in particular related to this text. In fact, this text, which as mentioned, belongs to
the Requiem mass, is related to a sorrowful fact (the funeral), which usually calls for a minor
tonality, but, as the soul hopefully deserves eternal peace, it turns itself into major cadence, in order
to wish the salvation of the soul.

Thus, the piece start with E note sang on the same octave by Tenor, Alto and Soprano voices. The
melody is given to the soprano but each note stays as pedal through the other voices. As we see, the
melody is directly taken from Gregorian chant, but, she uses a minor third interval in the beginning
instead of a major one and starts a third lower than the original chant.
The piece continues bar by bar, adding every time a note on the cluster, trough each voice (D bar 2
on tenor, C bar 3, A bar 4) and finally adding bass on bar 5 and 6, in this case preparing a cadence
on G major chord. The melody, still taking inspiration for the original Gregorian melody, is
displayed through voices (alto and tenor bar 3, tenor bar 5 and 6). Moreover, what seems to be a
cadence Dominant-Tonic in G major between bars 5 and 6, is immediately coloured by an F# on
soprano voice in bar 6. This gives a magical colour and sensation to this part and really gives and
idea of the abilities of Grigorjeva to exploit simple harmonies changes in order to create beautiful
colour landscapes for the ear.

In bar 7 she proceeds this downward direction through the bass line, ending on bar 8, which is also
the beginning of a second part within the first part. Here the main tone, E, is stated again and works
as a sort of tonic pedal through these two bars, which prepare bar 10 on an empty chord ( open fifth
without third note) of B.
I would like to highlight the beautiful counterpoint technique she uses between tenor and soprano
voices in bars 8 and 9, starting from G, each voice takes the opposite direction, arriving on C note in
the beginning of bar 9 and then moving around this note till bar 10. Moreover, the use of an
irregular metric for each bar, instead following the text’s rhythm, gives this sensation of floating
like we are really going up to paradise.
As mentioned, on bar 10, we reach this B chord, and the third will be added only in bar 11, alto
line, and again in bar 12, while soprano and tenor starts preparation of the cadence for the second
part (bar 14).

The second part of the piece, where finally the doors of paradise are open, is based on a Dominant A
pedal of D Major tonality and the entire choir impersonates the choir of angels who welcomes the
soul in paradise, by singing all together homo-rhythmically and repeating the text chorus
angelorum, three times, which is always an important number in liturgy, but each time with a
different rhythm. In particular, the last time (bar 17) the bass line changes as the tonality (in fact
now we are in a B minor area).
These two bars (17 and 18), with their lower character with respect to the previous bars, prepare us
for the new part of the text (et cum Lazaro, which will be repeated 2 times). In fact, in bar 18, the
bass line proceeds downward again, giving a temporary rest to this forte part and giving space to
load again the last culminating moment of the piece in bars 19 and 20 (the composer goes back to
the previous chord of bar 14).

Suddenly, as the dynamic changes, also the tonality, move a minor third higher (from A major chord
in root position till a C major chord in second inversion). This sudden change, given in particular by
the C# mutating into C natural, gives this new and peaceful colour, and create a new sensation into
the listener, although without giving the sense of final rest, as she stays in second inversion chord of
C major. After a pause of all the choir, the only GP of this piece, soprano and alto voices start to
sing again, reached by tenor and bass right afterwards, in a piano subito dynamic, on a A minor in
first inversion chord (then colored by B and F#). Grigorjeva this time moves from a C major chord
in second inversion to a A minor chord in first inversion, closer gap with respect to the previous
one, which gives this sens of softness and quiet.
This part prepares the last three bars which are a big II-I64-V-I cadence in E minor with Picardy
third (there is no C# through out these bars so we cannot consider it E major areas). Particularly
interesting is the third chord of bar 26, which create a beautiful delicate tension released on the final
tonic chord. These last bars are magnificent in their delicacy and extension: she exploits the highest
notes of soprano and bass register (see bar 24) and create this soft suspension in I-64 chord in bar
25, holding it through the all bar. Finally, in the last bar, with a ritardando molto and small
crescendo, she closes with great elegance this wonderful piece with an appoggiatura chord before
the last tonic chord.

I particularly enjoyed this piece by Grigorjeva for her descriptive abilities and harmonic choices. It
was really adherent to the text. Moreover, I chose this piece for his inspiration to Gregorian chant,
one of the origin of Western music. I found her a composer full of different influences, as she comes
from Eastern Europe, but with Russian orthodox influence and also very open to western music
influences and traditions. I thought this piece could be a good example of this type of different
inspirations and styles.