Composed in 1975, 24 Hours in the Village (Derevensliye sutki) is a chamber suite for wind quintet by Evgeny Svetlanov, offering a vivid musical portrayal of rural life unfolding over the course of a single day. The original Russian title refers specifically to a full twenty-four-hour cycle, a nuance that has led to multiple English translations, including Village Day, A Day in the Country, and Rural Hours.
Unlike Svetlanov’s large-scale symphonic works, 24 Hours in the Village reveals an intimate and picturesque side of the composer’s musical language. Deeply rooted in the Russian tradition of character pieces and programmatic miniatures, the work evokes the rhythms, colors, and emotional contours of village life through transparent textures and highly idiomatic writing for winds.
The suite unfolds as a sequence of contrasting movements, each corresponding to a moment of the day. Rather than narrating events, Svetlanov captures atmospheres: the calm lyricism of morning, the vitality of midday, the reflective warmth of evening, and the mysterious stillness of night. Throughout the work, melodic clarity and expressive immediacy prevail, supported by subtle polyphonic interplay among the five instruments.
24 Hours in the Village occupies a distinctive place within Svetlanov’s output, illustrating his mastery of chamber writing and his ability to convey expansive narrative ideas within a compact form.
Movements:
- Morning
- Midday
- Evening
- Midnight