www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship Vespers, Matins & the Divine Liturgy The Revised Divine Liturgy In favor of chant

The criticisms of the chant may be summed up as follows:
1) I don�t LIKE it. It doesn�t please ME.
2) It is inconvenient to learn.

These are not convincing arguments.

Our world careens down the path of utilitarianism, recklessly tossing aside the cultural expressions of faith, love and, ultimately, our own humanity. If it doesn�t please someone in the moment, it is rejected and despised as of no worth. If it takes a bit of effort to preserve the past of a culture, it is shunned on superficial grounds. To paraphrase a French critic of Euro-Disney, we live in a cultural Chernobyl.

The Byzantine Hierarchs have taken a courageous step against the tides of our self-absorbed, consumer culture. They have restored the liturgical chant that is particular to Rus culture.

Chant is directed to the glory of God not to the tickling of ears. Byzantine chant contains within it certain ideas or notions of beauty and a way of life which are inexpressible in the language of words.

Secondly, the unique nature of chant in comparison to other forms of music finds a parallel in icons. Compared to other forms of painting, the icons look �boring�, �archane� or �strange� to some people. This, however, is because icons are uniquely devoted to communicating something about spiritual realities and the supernatural reality of God. Chant is to music, what icons are to oil paintings.

Recently, in Munster, Indiana, Professor Thompson gave an introduction to the new chant. During lunch I spoke with a woman about what she thought of the music. �I love it,� she said. �This is the music we had years ago when our church was in Gary. In the sixties they changed it. They tried to Americanize us! Now, they�ve given us back our music. For forty year we�ve waited for this music. Finally � finally we have our music back.�

This woman�s testimony convinced me to take the time to learn the restored chant of a beautiful liturgy.

R.

Good chant is not likely to be easy, but it is quite likely to repay serious effort.

A monastery of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in the USA is releasing music and CDs of well-executed Byzantine chant, which I gladly recommend.

Caution: "good chant" is not a term which includes such phenomena as the singing of a psalm verse to the tune of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean", or the singing of the Cherbicon to the tune of "Nearer, My God, to Thee"!

Fr. Serge

Improving chant structure without providing correct texts does not foster tradition. Just as making an icon with correct methodology but with wrong content (like an icon of Ghandi or of Lassie) is not in accord with tradition.

Rufinus

Have you heard the broadcast of the Divine Liturgy from the Cathedral in Parma ?

This is broadcast every Sunday evening on WHKW 1200 AM's website .

Some of us have heard this and so far the reports are not 100% favourable. This is coming from a Cathedral where they have been using this new version of the Divine Liturgy of our Father among Saints John Chrysostom for a good few weeks.

I would suggest that you re-read that thread.

Chant should not be rushed and certainly words should be distinct throughout - they were not when I listened.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

In this context (especially in re: the specific instance of the recorded Vigil Divine Liturgy from the Cathedral in Parma), it is good to remember the dictum of St. Augustine. He said, "Abuse ought not countenance disuse." If the chant from "The Divine Liturgies of Our Holy Fathers John Chrysostom and Basil the Great" was not well-sung in a given instance, it does not, therefore, imply that it is either intrinsically bad or that it does not work.

Currently, the Byzantine Catholic Seminary is hosting the Diaconate Study Program, which has assembled sixteen men from three of the four Eparchies of our Church. If you are in the neighborhood, you are invited (and more than welcome) to hear Vespers, Matins, and the Divine Liturgy celebrated with the restored (adjective chosen on purpose) prostopinije. Or, while you're at it, speak with the men who are in the program---many of whom will be at St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Parma this Sunday (June 24) for the deacon ordination there. It is my belief that you will hear something far different about the chant of the new book than has been posted many times here.

Thank you, Rufinus, for your kind words, by the way.

Prof. J. Michael Thompson
Byzantine Catholic Seminary
Pittsburgh, PA

Prof. J. Michael Thompson
Byz

I've heard nearly every chant style executed horribly. That is the fault of the singers, not the chant system.

Concerning Prostoponije, I have also heard some wonderful recordings and I hope that success can be repeated with a good English translation.

I would love to avail myself of the invitation to visit the Cathedral of St John. Sadly I have to decline - it would take far too long for me to get there - not to mention the horrifying cost [ for a pensioner ]

I have to say though - that I enjoy listening to Chant .

However I still feel that there is something wrong here - maybe it is just that as yet neither clergy nor cantor nor the few people I could detect [ very hard to do that - possibly microphone placement problems ] are as yet comfortable with the new music. If this is so - then I really do not feel they should be doing it when it is being spread to a large" audience" who may not be familiar with Byzantine Services.

There is no excuse for all the intrusive 'h's even so.

'Organic growth' and 'the last 50 years of practice' are things that have been brought up here in defense of many of the revisions in the RDL. But the reality is that most of the last 50 years and so called organic growth, were from our leaders in the past completely ignoring the directives of Rome and the fullness of the Ruthenian Recension.

The one area that was organic growth and didn't have ulterior motives behind it was our chant. Yet that is the area where the past several decades are worthless and organic growth is immaterial.


Monomakh

Amen!

Dear Monomakh,

Besides the adoption of Russian Tone 1 for the Typical Psalms, and the abandonment of the irmos melodies of Matins for not Irmos tone 6 (the "common" irmos melody) but samohlasen tone 6 (a melody for stichera), can you point to particular examples of organic progress that have been abandoned? (I had one poster here tell me that ALL irmoi should be sung to the Pochaiv melody for at LEAST ten years so that people can "get used to them" before we start using the prostopinije melodies... Organic progress?)

Rufinis, thank you for your comments!

Yours in Christ,
Jeff

P.S. Irmos Tone 6 is a wonderful example of the law of unintended consequences. Each of the people who have come to me arguing in favor of using a different standard melody for the irmoi sung at the Divine Liturgy on feasts, has complained that Irmos Tone 6 "sounds like a funeral" - most likely because this is the ONLY place most people ever heard it in English. But had we been having Matins all along, it would have been much clearer than in fact a RESURRECTIONAL Canon melody is being used at funerals!

On the other hand, the very first week I started singing the Matins canons to the prostopinije melodies in my old parish, years ago, I had a baba come up to me and tell me she remembered the melodies - and starting singing (in Slavonic) melodies I had prepared for the next week. Most of these are in the new books.

"The one area that was organic growth and didn't have ulterior motives behind it was our chant. Yet that is the area where the past several decades are worthless and organic growth is immaterial."

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Mr. Monomakh,

You have said this several times. May I ask, on what do you base it? The procedure by which the chant was transcribed and adapted and then published in "Byzantine Liturgical Chant" in 1970 was not any sort of "let's write down what we've learned to do." It was, in fact, done by a committee of clerics and cantors, who had a definite hermeneutic and specific agenda in the way that they did their work. And when it was done, it was handed to people who were told, "This is the way it's going to be from now on." And there was considerable discomfort and some outright refusal to use the materials.

Does that sound like what is going on now in the Metropolitan Church? Surely it does. But to somehow indicate that the former process was "organic growth" is disingenuous.

Prof. J. Michael Thompson
Byzantine Catholic Seminary
Pittsburgh, PA

While I agree that RESTORATION of prostopinije should have been and continue to be a priority, I think one thing may have been over looked in this process by those working on the change, is that while the music may be restored and be closer to the original melodies and usage of one particular church and region in Eastern Europe, that usage is not the be all and end all. Are not there different variations of the same chant in different regions, still sung in Slavonic, in Eastern Europe? Why is it unacceptable that there can be regional variations here in the USA?

The other thing that may be a deterent from ease of learning or acceptance, is that not only has the chant form itself been altered (for better or worse depending on the opinion), but the words themselves are now different. It's a lot to handle all at once. Especially for a graying church.

Mr. Thompson,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but was the new RDL music a collaboration of long-time Byzantine Catholic cantors? Did veteran cantors (the late Professor Kavka, Cantor Basil Brody, Cantor Andrew Husinec, Cantor/Professor Jerry Jumba, etc.) participate in this process? I don't recall seeing their names on the committee.

Ungcsertezs

Dear John,

I agree with most everything you say - and in fact, there are a variety of chant collections from the United States, dating from the 1920's to the 1990's, that went into the review work for the chant. (I was not party to the Music Commission's work, but I certainly am familiar with the sources that the members discussed at various points, and using in explaining the new settings.)

Unfortunately, although one can with practice "hear" regional variations, they are often swamped by differences between cantors even in a single town - especially when widely differing printed scores are used, along with singing "from memory" to texts other than those (often in Slavonic) which were first learned. I am working on compiling a collection of "traditional" variations on the MCI website, but there is also something to be said for a consistent "core repertoire" of chant in the Metropolia.

And as you say, the text changes do not make the task easier.

Yours in Christ,
Jeff

Was there a promulgation and mandate at this time also?