Choirmaster Alexey Alexeitch works for weeks to prepare his singers for a visiting dignitary, only to have his hopes dashed at the last moment.
This story is another example of Chekhov’s general admiration for people doing their jobs. Alexey Alexeitch is not necessarily a very good musician, and he certainly doesn’t have a gentle touch as a teacher. But he takes his work seriously.
“Choristers” is a kind of bookend to “Art.” But in that story, the harsh taskmaster, Seriozkha, triumphs. In this one, all of Alexei Alexeitch’s work comes to naught. Like “Art,” “Choristers” is a warm portrait of small town life–a life that seems to be dying. At one rehearsal, the choirmaster says he prefers “the old ‘Our Father,’” and suggests that they sing it the old way for the big show. But the priest shakes his head: The important visitor is a big city man, used to more modern stuff. “That’s a very different sort of music there, brother,” the priest says, sadly.
As that conversation illustrates, another regular Chekhov theme repeated in this story is the chasm between city and village life, and the relative helplessness of the small town folk. The rich, far off in Petersburg or Moscow, have all the power and all the say. The big city visitor, a count, is the “owner” of the town, and revenues from his land pay the choirmaster’s salary. His wish is basically law.
For all its strengths, “Choristers” is marred by a subplot involving the choirmaster’s feud with another lowly church official. It’s an early story, written at a point when Chekhov relied on a twisty conclusion to give his stories a little oomph. He couldn’t help himself (at least as a young writer.) Otherwise it’s a satisfying portrait of small town life, offering a clear picture of yet another facet of the way villagers lived.
A biographical aside: Chekhov’s father, Pavel, was a deeply religious man who took more interest in the church, and especially in the music of the church, than he did in his grocery business in Taganrog. Pavel acted as head of the choir at his church in Taganrog, but he was too persnickety and difficult, and he was removed from the post after a couple years. You can see shades of Pavel in Alexey Alexeyitch.
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Alexey, though a choirmaster, is hardly angelic. He harangues and bullies and feuds. He’s flesh and blood. “The Letter” is another Chekhov tale that portrays religious officials as fully human.
A Chekhov Circus 