The tune we sang, referred to as "Russia" in The Hymnal 1982 (the Episcopal hymnal), and "Russian Hymn" in Methodist and Presbyterian hymnals, was familiar. As a boy of 12 or 13, I joined the Order of the Arrow in the Boy Scouts (I was unfamiliar with the concept of cultural appropriation at the time). I learned the official song about brotherhood and service, set to that tune, which I expect E. Urner Goodman, who founded the order, lifted from a Presbyterian hymnal. The tune was new to me at the time, but I soon noticed bits of it in the 1812 Overture, and later noticed the whole thing in the Slavonic March. (I cued those up to the relevant bits, in case you don't want to listen to the whole thing). Not knowing about the Protestant hymn "God the Omnipotent," I just figured that Goodman had borrowed a favorite melody that Tchaikovsky wrote and reused.
Not exactly. The final piece of the puzzle clicked today when I saw the name of the composer in the hymnal. Alexei Fyodorovich Lvov -- not from Lvov, but from Tallinn, but who nevertheless counts as a Russian composer for reasons I don't fully understand, having little background in Russian Imperial history -- wrote this tune for "God Save the Tsar" in 1833, and it was the Russian national anthem until the revolution in 1917. Tchaikovsky used the melody in the Marche Slave to represent the Russians marching to assist the Serbs, and the Russian anthem triumphs over the French "La Marseillaise" in the 1812 Overture as the Russians turn Napoleon away. Of course the Soviets wouldn't be caught performing "God Save the Tsar," so Soviet-era performances substituted some other patriotic Russian melody. (Now, "God Save the Tsar" didn't exist in 1812, and in fact Napoleon banned "La Marseillaise" -- so I hope I can be forgiven for not noticing until today that "La Marseillaise" represents the bad guys. Bloody as it is, the good guys had the tune in Casablanca, and I forgot all about Napoleon.)
So, today, on the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that plunged us into continual war, we sung an old imperialist hymn that connected to a long history of war. I have been unable to discover how or when the tune for "God Save the Tsar" was joined with the text of "God the Omnipotent," but I kind of like that the old imperialist anthem is now a hymn for peace -- it seems to echo Christ turning the world upside down. Lvov's tune is stirring and straightforward. It makes the text seem to say "Give us peace Lord, and we expect it soon when you come in glory." We started there, but let's end with Arvo Pärt's setting of the old Latin text, which seems to echo best the longing for peace that we are connected to by centuries of prayer.
From Russia with Lvov,
Mike
