Orthodox music is a special layer of musical culture. In addition to liturgical singing, this category of vocal art includes cants, carols and songs on spiritual themes. Many authors, musicians and creative groups work in the genre of spiritual Orthodox song.
However, it is difficult to clearly determine who they are – Orthodox performers. Who evaluates their musical creativity and how? Which Orthodox performers do readers of the Orthodox Life portal listen to?
At the concert of Divna Ljubojevic and “Melody”
“You listen and don’t know where you are - in heaven or on earth”
Tatyana Matyash, editor of the “Sedmitsa” digest:
“It depends on who you call “Orthodox performers.” Kinchev, Shevchuk - yes, I used to listen often and now sometimes. But I don’t listen to Orthodox bards at all. But not because they are not good enough for me, it’s just that the guitar and Christian chants immediately bring to mind the Crimean evangelists who came to our holiday home every day to sadly sing about how Jesus loves everyone. A month of such concerts - and the topic of Orthodox bards was closed for me.
True, I once had a cassette with songs by Archdeacon Roman Tamberg. I liked and remembered his performance of “Holy Land”. From what is closer - the choir “Sirin” I can listen to, “He will cry, he will explain” at one time simply fascinated me. Recently on FB someone recommended “IHTIS” - “Our Faith”; I clicked and didn’t regret it. But this is all a song or two, selectively. And so that for a long time - Byzantine singing. “You really listen and don’t know where you are – in heaven or on earth.”
About Orthodox and demonic music
I, a Russian composer, had to speak out on this topical topic more than once - both orally and in writing, but today, when the 30-year rule of the oligarchs, the new bourgeoisie and bureaucratic power has crossed out all established positive ideas about the function of musical art, its spiritual and moral content and adaptation to modern listening perception, the need for a professional, detailed commentary has become a responsibility, and not only mine, but also the vast majority of secular and church musicians, and simply churchgoers, whose opinion is very close to mine. Therefore, if there is something subjective here, it does not dominate, but only highlights...
First of all, I will point out what is generally known and bitter: music has been turned from a morally cleansing, confessional and heartfelt art into a soulless GOODS that can only be bought or sold, and the performers and organizers provide us with only the so-called. A SERVICE, but not a confession of the heart. God's gift, the talent to hear this visible and invisible world has become a bargaining chip for all those trading in movable and real estate. Music is increasingly losing its astral, media and mystical functions and is degrading into a purely applied application to the pleasures of a depraved mind and soullessness, organized by modern electronic devices into a pleasant near-musical noise. The approach of the time of general apostasy has caused directly opposite trends in musical art: on the one hand, this is an irrepressible desire to preserve at least the crumbs of the former constant habitual “academicism” - general meaning and form, emotional clarity and multipolarity, linear “melody”, etc., but on the other hand, the complete dissolution of a recognizable “primer book” in subjective constructivism, a lack of emotionality, the destruction of the principles of form-building and the desire to avoid even a hint of the logic of building and developing material - understandable and accessible... These general comments are given only as a preliminary notice in order to specifically identify those signs, according to which can without mistake be classified as either Orthodox or demonic musical opuses...
Well, what does the concept proposed here really include - “Orthodox music”, and where are its boundaries and what is the essence of its “Orthodoxy”? The opinion is that Orthodox music can only be created from the pen of an Orthodox author, a person with Orthodox perception and understanding of this world, created ideal by the Creator, but darkened by the Fall. Since then, nostalgia for the primordial, this endless drama of humanity, will become in professional music the fundamental basis of those endless dramatic collisions that determine the semantic significance of the work created by earthly man, revealing both the beauty of the ideal world, and the perniciousness of the fallen world, and those countless contradictions that tear apart and block the path to purification and reunification with God... Such music can be written on gospel or biblical subjects and embody historical events accompanying the formation of Faith and Orthodoxy. However, the name or program may be missing: then the so-called. “non-program” music in purely instrumental and highly generalized images reveals the endless drama of man. This is how symphonies, concerts, quartets and other genres and forms arise. As for the canonical (service) genres, they will be discussed below. The same applies to the place of folk music and sacred genres in folk music...
Returning to the expanded concept of “Orthodox music”, to its specific features, I give here examples from Russian music, because it was in Russia, with its Orthodox history, that music could first of all be created, the origins of which we find in the Orthodox soul of the composer... Within the framework of a newspaper article, I , of course, I am omitting numerous historical background in order to briefly and clearly, but not to the detriment of the essence, present the most general provisions... The golden age, the dawn of Russian professional music is usually associated with the Balakirev circle, which went down in history under the name “The Mighty Handful”. Without a doubt, all the composers of the Russian “five”, including Cesar Cui, professed Orthodoxy, but we find bright Orthodox musical canvases primarily in Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky in his operatic and vocal works, in “Pictures at an Exhibition” for piano, in “Night” on Bald Mountain" for orchestra and other works. Let’s just remember the brilliant introduction to Khovanshchina” - “Dawn on the Moscow River”, where the characteristic features of Russian Orthodox listening are reflected in focus - deep confessional meaning, picturesqueness, leisurely variation-variant development of the material, colorful and iridescent timbre, impressive and memorable intonation movement (melody), figurative contrast, dynamic form, emotional intensity and, of course, the unforgettable Russian national character. Here we can also name Rimsky-Korsakov’s composition “Bright Holiday” with its unique Christmas flavor, the bright and colorful music of Anatoly Lyadov “From the Apocalypse”, the opera “Prince Igor” by Alexander Borodin with its picturesque representation of historical events, epic tonality and affirmation of patriotism, as a characteristic feature of Russianness. And even earlier, in the opera “A Life for the Tsar,” Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, the founder of the Russian classical school of composition, brought out the patriotic image of Ivan Susanin as a collective image of the Russian peasant. In the music of Mily Balakirev, the ideological inspirer of the circle, in his best works and in the tendencies of his entire work, we find all the characteristic features of the Russian Orthodox mentality, if we proceed from the words of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky - “Russian means Orthodox...”
The examples given here show that the author classifies a wide and open range of works as Orthodox music, not limited by the obligatory attributes of external Orthodoxy and not necessarily associated with church symbols, but having a common kinship with the Orthodox tradition - to seek the truth of life and love your neighbor as yourself themselves, having a common root with the moral foundations of Orthodox life. And here there is no way to ignore the work of the brilliant Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who left behind many works worthy of being heard and pleasing the ear for centuries to come. A realist and melodist, a deep psychologist and even a philosopher, Pyotr Ilyich in his work reveals the tragedy of a person torn between good and evil, between necessity and reality, between life and death, between faith and unbelief: in the 4th, 5th and 6th -th symphonies, operas “The Queen of Spades”, “Eugene Onegin” after Pushkin and in many other works. His contemporary and friend, composer Sergei Taneyev, composed his famous cantatas “John of Damascus” and “After the Reading of the Psalm,” which have a deep religious, philosophical and sacred meaning. And all of his work is marked with the stamp of confession, which would later become the main feature of the music of Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky, a Russian Soviet composer. Alexander Glazunov, an outstanding Russian symphonist, unfortunately, practically not performed today in his homeland, in his extensive work - 9 symphonies, chamber, orchestral, opera and ballet music (in almost all genres) - defined the original path of Russian symphonism, where very prominent and The Russian mentality of the composer and the characteristic features of the Orthodox thinking of a believer really had an impact. The influence of his music on the next generation of writers is undeniable and beneficial. This galaxy of composers is completed by Sergei Rachmaninov, whose work does not need laudatory comments. A deeply religious Orthodox composer, Sergei Rachmaninov left us his understanding of Russia and its difficult fate in dramatic, sometimes pathetic, but also quite often elegiac images. His music is always recognizable, because in it one can hear the pulse of the Russian heart, suffering for the sad fate of his beloved Fatherland, which the composer himself was forced to leave... His choral works “All-Night Vigil” and “Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom” became textbooks for all future generations. Each of the listed authors contributed their word to the national treasury of the Orthodox Fatherland...
Here I would like to emphasize that when we talk about Russian Orthodox music, we do not at all block the path to “foreign” music, to outstanding examples of Western music and its brilliant composers. However, there is a fairly clear divide between Catholic-Protestant and Orthodox thinking, which is naturally reflected in art, music and literature. And the business of every free person is to choose his own priorities at every stage of his spiritual development and knowledge. The purpose of this article is educational, but not edifying...
Russian Soviet music left us the name of a remarkable composer, who in his own way continued and developed the best traditions of realistic music, which absorbed the stylistics of folk and Church Orthodox music. Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov in his vocal and cantata-oratorio work masterfully embodied images of a national character with his (the composer’s) lyric-dramatic resolution of the hidden conflict, and this is not accidental... After the composer’s death, a large number of choirs were discovered, written on canonical church texts. The quality of the music and the insight into the essence of religion are unusually high and inimitable. The development of this wonderful heritage will enrich and is already enriching applied church and secular sacred music. I mention the names of the most famous and famous Soviet composers Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev, who did not verbally recognize the church, because in their music they were above their outward renunciation, and brought up on the sublime examples of Orthodox music, they sometimes rose in their best works to such revelations, to such depths that it is difficult to deny them an understanding of the highest media truths... (for example: Shostakovich’s 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th symphonies, Prokofiev’s 7th symphony, his “Thoughts” "for piano). The already mentioned Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky wrote 27 symphonies, and each of them is a lyrical-dramatic confession in the language of instrumental melodies, in the language of polyphony of orchestral lines, and in the most famous 6th symphony a choir is added, which sings in the finale an ancient chant “about the parting of the soul with body..." On the Internet you can find my detailed analytical article dedicated to the spiritual quest of Russian composers in Soviet times, where most of the research is devoted to N.Ya. Myaskovsky... It is impossible not to mention the name of the brilliant Russian composer - Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky, who wrote many sacred works unique in language, including those based on Russian canonical texts, but, unfortunately, converted to Catholicism in emigration...
All of the listed composers, each in their own time and with their own individual style, created spiritual music in the full sense of the word, collecting a rich collection of musical treasures worthy of sounding and delighting the Orthodox heart today and tomorrow. Alas, not everything is performed on the current stage: the repertoire of official public broadcasting and performing practice is very far from Orthodox needs, and is entirely subordinate to commercial requirements... I will keep silent about current Orthodox music and its fate in the 20th century, because this already the topic of a new article, other names and other problems. The concept of Orthodox music given here is thus thought, seen and interpreted quite capaciously, for it includes not only professional Orthodox music in spirit of the last three or four centuries, but also applied canonical music in the works of composers from Arkhangelsk to Kastalsky (also the subject of a separate article) , as well as countless scatterings of sacred songs of folk music, deserving the highest attention and study. Musical education in seminaries, regency classes, and even in grammar schools cannot bypass at least familiarization with this heritage. At the same time, remembering the words and instructions of the Optina elder Barsanuphius, and in our time Patriarch Alexy II, one cannot refuse the practice of the so-called. a secular spiritual concert, allowing wonderful but little-known music, original and traditional music, to be heard publicly, revealing the names of our best Orthodox composers for the glory of the Russian Fatherland and its Orthodox history.
I don’t want to talk much about “demonic” music, so as not to please the demon. To our great sadness, this music has filled our stage, radio, television and the Internet, desecrated and vulgarized the world airwaves and many hearts of listeners, especially inexperienced youth, and crippled thousands of destinies to the delight of the enemy of humanity. This is basically applied music for the legs, arms and body, where it has nowhere to hide, and it is easily recognizable by its inherent characteristics: the complete absence of positive and reasonable thoughts and motivation capable of building at least some image or semblance of an image, and if and an image is built, which is certainly destructive and aggressive, with a tail and horns... Verbose and promiscuity, selfish appeals of a depraved mind and insane demands - “I want it this way”, a primitive musical “primer” with a set of the same primitive cliches that reduce a person to an animal level . Inability to comprehend, and therefore ignoring, high and positive concepts and aspirations: there is not and cannot be God here, but there is a demonic vile potency and a set of satanic spells. All so-called I also attribute rock culture, all rock music, to Satanism - hidden or overt. No and, in principle, cannot be, and so-called. "Orthodox" rock. The multi-genre nature of demonic music allows it to dress up in different clothes, but all dance music cannot be attributed to demonic obsession. There is classical ballet, there are folk dances, and, finally, there are quite decent choreographic genres, where there is no place for vulgarity and debauchery, but there is beauty of lines and forms, grace and figurative embodiment... The demonic essence is revealed in unbridledness and uncontrollability, for the enemy controls everything - visible and invisible, which can penetrate into serious non-dance music - program and non-program. Especially often they sin with this so-called. avant-garde artists who sometimes lose their guiding threads, which are easily intercepted by... Satan.
I am concluding this topic, which I consider unfinished, preliminary, with a kind of extended introduction, because I myself have more and more new questions and possible answers to them. This is because, perhaps for the first time, an attempt has been made to comprehend Orthodoxy in its general musical aspect, to put together a chain of reflections and generalizations of its essence, recognizable in the nature of intonation, in the significance and reliance on znamenny chant, which are very different from the style of secular and folk music and etc. Having gone beyond the limits of canonical singing, where word and intonation are inseparable, in non-canonical music we will certainly feel and hear the Orthodox soul, and that is why we call it Orthodox. I believe that reflections on this topic, specific references to musical works and accessible generalizations will help all of us to truly understand and appreciate not only the enormous role of the musical element in the Orthodox service, but also to appreciate the feat of those Authors who connected their Faith with Creativity...
Vladimir Uspensky, composer
“I really like Orthodox liturgical music”
Pavel Lebedev, layout designer:
“I haven’t been listening lately. The only thing I like is Valery Malyshev - the depth of his lyrics and music. I remember a characterizing statement, if I’m not mistaken, Fr. Igor Ryabko about Orthodox bards - “a mournful whimper,” often the music is “not up to par.” I really liked and like Orthodox liturgical music (music education has an effect, after all). But somehow I don’t follow the emergence of new Orthodox bards - maybe someone interesting has appeared recently, but I don’t know.”
Metropolitan Anthony told how the Church views music
Music has a powerful influence on the mind and will of a person, it is important to take this into account when choosing a piece of music to listen to, the head of the affairs of the UOC, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) of the UOC, shared with the audience of the “Church and Society” program.
He noticed that certain rhythms and motives can either calm a person or cause aggression or activity in him. This influence of music on a person is often used for commercial purposes by employees of shops or restaurants.
“Music is not a neutral phenomenon. Music primarily affects our emotions, but it also affects the mind and our will. In the Orthodox Church there are no canons, there are no such unambiguous decrees that would regulate the choice of music. At the same time, each of us must understand that if music has such an influence on our emotions, on our behavior, then we need to act accordingly when choosing the music that we listen to,” said the bishop of the UOC.
According to the hierarch of the canonical Church, music can bear the stamp of either the truth of God or sin. We first read about instrumental music in chapter 4 of the book of Genesis, when it describes the 2 paths that human civilization took after the Fall, said Metropolitan Anthony. Cain, who killed his brother, was the first to build a city, his son Lamech was the first to break the law of monogamy, and Lamech’s son Jabal became the “father” of those playing the harp and pipes, Bishop Anthony recalled. At the same time, the descendants of the righteous Seth took a different path - under Enos they first began to call on the name of God, i.e. perform public worship, and the Lord took Enoch alive to heaven, he added. And he summed it up: human culture bears the stamp of the Fall, but music is present not only in this earthly world and is not limited only to our earthly history.
As an example, Metropolitan Anthony cited the visions of the prophet Isaiah and the contents of the book of Job, where people were shown how angels joyfully sing at the Throne of God. In the New Testament, Evangelist Luke mentioned a miracle when an army of angels announced the joyful news of the Nativity of Jesus Christ to the shepherds by singing, the hierarch of the UOC added.
“Music is always a continuation of what is in a person, what is in the middle, in the heart of each of us. This is a manifestation of what a person lives by. Each such creativity, each sound of modern music or, perhaps, not modern music, it reveals how much the human heart is filled with sin or the truth of God. But, at the same time, this really is something not earthly,” noted Bishop Anthony.
He recalled the point of view of some ascetics of Orthodoxy, who believed that flowers and music remained on earth as a reminder of paradise. This is a feeling, perhaps subconscious, that music does not begin here on earth, and, most likely, does not end on earth, explained Metropolitan Anthony.
According to him, in the Orthodox Church there is not even a strict ban on the use of musical instruments during worship. In the Albanian Orthodox Church, for example, they use a harmonium during services, Bishop Anthony shared with the audience. He also spoke about the meaning of church singing, the meaning of dividing prayers into voices, and whether it is possible to sing together with the choir in church.
The UOJ previously reported on the influence of Orthodoxy on modern music and on the work of which modern Ukrainian and foreign musical groups were influenced by Christianity.
“I’m listening to Valery Malyshev”
Svetlana Chernaya, entrepreneur:
“I like his work, his explanations for the songs, his life’s path to Orthodoxy!
He is a very interesting person. To sink to the “very bottom” in show business (in his words) and “break into” Orthodoxy... This says a lot. First of all, about the fact that the Lord loves him, and, of course, about God’s Providence. I really like to discover something new for myself in his songs about the lives of the Saints, about historical moments, about the development of Orthodoxy. And Valery is a very interesting conversationalist with a lot of experience, which he is happy to share with us in his work.”
Canonical genres of sacred music
Sequence is one of the genres of free-form spiritual music. This genre became especially widespread during the Renaissance. A famous author of the sequences was Tommaso da Celano, a minister of the Franciscan monastery. He is the author of the sequence Dies Irae (Judgment Day), which has become a canonical work. In Europe in the 15th-17th centuries, during the Reformation, such genres of sacred music as hymn, chorale and passion became most popular. As a result of the reformation of the foundations of the Christian faith, secular poets and composers now often became the authors of canonical works. A hymn is a solemn song of praise. Among the brightest works of this genre are the well-known religious hymns Te Deum, Ave Maria, and many works by the reformer Martin Luther.
Martin Luther
Passions, or passions, are musical works dedicated to the Passion of Christ. They appeared in the free form of religious oratorios from the beginning of the 17th century: “Seven Words of the Savior on the Cross” by Haydn or “Seven Words of Christ on the Cross” by Schutz. Oratorios also include texts of an evangelical nature—Berlioz’s “The Childhood of Christ” and Bach’s “A Christmas Carol”—and those based on stories from the Old Testament, such as most of Handel’s works.
Paraliturgical music
Paraliturgical music has existed in parallel with church music throughout its history. It includes works of a religious nature that do not comply with the canons accepted for church musical works. Accordingly, such works could not be used during religious services, but they were still popular among the people. Paraliturgical music includes cantics in Spain and Portugal, conducts and noels in France. They were of great importance for the development of large forms of sacred music and the emergence of folk spiritual songs.
Evolution of sacred music
Starting from the 14th century, various genres of secular music began to actively develop, which could not but influence spiritual music. Small forms of church works, such as passions and masses, were influenced by the increasingly popular opera and symphonic genres. In the 18th century, works of church music spread beyond church use. Thus, coronation and funeral masses (requiems) were specially composed, which were intended for performance at courts and in concert halls.
