Dmitry Yaichkov (1869-1953)

YAICHKOV, Dmitry Moiseyevich (b. 1869, place of birth unknown; d. 30 December 1953, Vifania (Ptitsegrad), near Sergiev Posad) — graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory; at the end of the 1890s lived in Riga, then in Tiﬂis (Tbilisi); in 1909 was a teacher of singing at the Teachers’ Seminary in Vol’sk, in the Saratov district. Although subsequent details of Yaichkov’s life are as yet sketchy, it is known that during the years following World War I and the Revolution, he lived in Vifaniia (subsequently renamed Ptitsegrad) in the environs of Sergiev Posad. Although it was known that he was a composer of church music, the local communist authorities valued and respected his reputation as a musical pedagogue and left him alone to the end of his days.

Yaichkov devoted much attention to singing in the schools; compiled a number of musical textbooks, collections of children’s songs, arrangements of church hymns for children’s choir. In the area of sacred music he published 21 individual works, half of which are arrangements of various chants, and also a number of collections of service music: Melodies for “Lord, I call” — Resurrectional stichera, dogmatica, troparia at “The Lord is God” and heirmoi of znamenny, Kievan, and Greek Chants; The Memorial Service. An essay in harmonizing ancient chants; The Order for a Prayer Service of Thanksgiving; Stichera at the Lity, et al. Yaichkov’s arrangements are characterized by modal diatonic harmony, the use of counter-voice polyphony and a clarity of sonority.