Just as an authentic icon makes visible for us, the invisible Kingdom of God, so too, authentic Church music makes audible for us the inaudible song of the angels around the throne of God.
And just
as an icon of Christ or the Theotokos differs in style from nation to nation,
and from one century to the next, so too, a musical setting of a hymn to Christ
or to His mother differs in style from nation to nation and from one century to
the next.
Because
we respect the tradition of the Church, and because we know that no culture or
no era stands in isolation from another in Church History, we seek to develop
Church art in a living continuity with the past, realizing however, that the
one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church to which we are united, is not simply
the Church of the past, but also of the present and of the future.
Our
Patriarch Ignatius IV commenting in his book The Resurrection and Modern Man on
the Apocalyptic verse "Behold, I make all things new" emphasizes that
God comes into the world from the future. So, too, should our music, and
iconography be made new from generation to generation, not in the sense of
radical innovation or novelty, but new according to the renewal of the Holy
Spirit in the Church. We must trust that the Holy Spirit will reveal the mind
of the Church in every generation and in every nation as the faithful apply the
great commission not only to the spread of the Orthodox faith in thought, word
and deed, but also in Christian art.
Each
nation and every generation must be taught and baptized. Every culture must be
sanctified, and the effective missionary will find things already existing in
the culture to illustrate the universality of the Gospel, just as St. Paul did
at the altar of the unknown god (Acts 17:23) and the Russian missionaries with the
native culture of Alaska.
In our
day and age, music abounds in so many forms. Church music abounds in many
forms. Authentic Church music of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church
abounds in expressions from other cultures, other nations, and previous
generations. We know our roots, and because we live in America, we have to say
"roots" and not "root" because we live in the melting pot
of the world. Concerning the Church, it is no different. We live in the musical
and iconographic melting pot of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
There are
forces at work, however, that would prevent us from baptizing our nation with
the whole tradition that has been handed down to us. We have the Bible, the
Liturgy, the Councils, the Fathers, the canons and the lives of the saints. All
these things have been translated into English, so that we can read, study and
worship in our own tongue. To a certain degree, our architecture, music and
iconography remain in what might be called "cultural captivity".
Perhaps
it is because art, more than any of these other aspects of our holy tradition,
expresses our ethnic and nationalistic roots and our love for the fatherland.
But what is the true fatherland? Is it not the kingdom of God not of this
world, the age to come, the eschaton? It is this kingdom, which demands our
ultimate loyalty and the culture of this kingdom, which we are called to
preserve and protect.
Authentic
Church music is music that helps us to pray, to worship God, to enter the
heavenly Holy of Holies. Authentic Church music is Orthodox Church music. But
when we say the word "Orthodox" what do we mean? Do we mean Church
music that finds its root and expression in certain geographical areas of the
world? Is Orthodox Church music limited to that music, which through the
centuries has been developed in the great patriarchal, sees of Antioch,
Jerusalem, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome? Should we add Moscow and Kiev,
and throw out Rome because of the great schism? Is Orthodox Church music
limited to Byzantine, Russian, Romanian, Serbian, Carpathian and Bulgarian?
How did
the music of the Church in Russian become Russian? Since the faith was received
from Ss. Cyril and Methodios, its roots are Byzantine, or is it? Are we not
aware that the music of today's Church in Russia was heavily influenced under
the reign of Peter the Great by the Polish-Ukrainian composers of the 17th
Century followed by the Italian-style choral polyphony of the 18th and 19th
Centuries?
Is the
Byzantine music that we sing today really Byzantine, i.e. from the Byzantine
era of the 4th through the 15th Centuries? Are we not aware that the Church
music of the See of Constantinople was heavily influenced by the demands of the
Turks after the fall of the empire in 1453 AD? Are we aware that the authentic
music of the Byzantine Church lost its diatonic character and accepted
enharmonic and chromatic intervals during this period of the Turkish yoke? Are
we aware that the music of today's churches in the Byzantine tradition
throughout the entire Mediterranean region of the world is the result of the
codification of these oriental elements by Chrysanthus in the 19th Century and
is scarcely 200 years old?
Why is it
necessary to point out all these things? Is it to shock us or to scandalize us?
Absolutely not. Rather, it is important to note that the Church has always
accepted certain cultural adaptations of its music in order to minister to the
faithful, to further the spread of the Gospel and to continue to baptize the
culture in which it finds itself, and in order to continue living in the
renewal of the Holy Spirit in the Church.
Again, it
is important to ask, what is "Orthodox" Church music? Is it simply
music that is contrasted in its sound and use in worship to Roman Catholic
music, Episcopalian music, Baptist music, or Mega Church Music? Are we simply
another denomination with our own brand of Church music to be used as a kind of
badge or nametag so people know who we are, so that we can simply distinguish
(or denominate) ourselves from others who call themselves Christian?
In the
4th Century, St. Ambrose of Milan, whom we commemorate on December 7th, wrote
countless hymns in Latin, rhymed and metered in long meter. Are these hymns
Orthodox? If we are referring to their theological content and use in true
prayer and spiritual ascent in worship, the answer is a resounding YES. If
however, we say that they are not Orthodox because he lived in Italy or was a
bishop in the See of Rome, we are sadly mistaken.
Rome was
Orthodox in the 4th Century and St. Ambrose is our saint, and his writings and
hymns belong to the body Patristic literature handed down to us through the
ages. Obviously his hymns are not prescribed for us to sing in our services
since they are not found in our Typikon or in our hymnals; nevertheless, this
example is used to challenge our perspective in terms of how we use the word
"Orthodox".
Orthodox
music is not defined by its nationalistic culture or geographical origin.
Neither is it defined simply in denominational (i.e. prejudicial) terms. The one,
holy catholic and apostolic Church is not a denomination.
Orthodox
Church music is that music which raises the eyes of our hearts to see the True
Light. Orthodox Church music lifts up our hearts to receive the Heavenly Spirit
and discover the true faith as we worship the undivided Trinity in the Kingdom
of God not of this world. Orthodox Church Music, authentic Church music as
such, transcends all cultural and denominational expressions and labels.
Some may
negatively assume that such a proposal must necessarily lead to the development
of an American Orthodox music, which will sound like Protestant music or the
70's rock and roll Christian music of the baby boomer generation's surfer
churches. On the contrary, we are hinting at the development of authentic
sacred music for the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America,
a music founded on "that which has been delivered to us", but which
is also the result of our interaction as Orthodox Christians with the
surrounding American culture.
Others
may say that western music lacks that "mystical" quality of the
eastern musical tradition, which is so important to our worship. We should be
reminded once again, however, that Orthodoxy couldn't be defined in
geographical terms. The Orthodox Faith and worship is not trapped in its
architecture, music or iconography in the eastern hemisphere. If it is trapped,
then we need to free it from its bonds.
It is
therefore incumbent upon us, here today at this Conference on Missions and
Evangelism to struggle with these issues, to humble ourselves before God, to
lay down the sword used to attack our own and to raise it up instead, against
the Devil. So, who is the Devil? Any person who disagrees with me? Let's hope
not. The Devil is the one who would foil our mission to bring America to it's
true spiritual home in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.
We need
to band together as a family, as brothers and sisters in Christ for the great
challenge ahead of us. We need to encourage those among us whom God has gifted
with music to exercise and multiply their talents for the spread of the Gospel
in this nation. In order to do this, we need to look at the progress that has
already been made, follow in those footsteps, and then forge ahead where the
need is felt and the Spirit of God leads.
A path
has already been cut by Orthodox American musical pioneers such as the Priest
Michael G.H. Gelsinger, Professor Michael Hilko, the Archpriest James Meena,
Frederick Karam, Basil Kazan, Raymond George, the Archpriest Antony Bassoline,
the priest Sergei Glagolev, the priests Vladimir and Igor Soroka. These and
many others have taken English translations of our hymns and set them to
traditional old country melodies, transposed the Byzantine notation into
western musical notation, (i.e., five lines and four spaces) and harmonized
Byzantine melodies. Some composers have even produced new melodies that do not
belong to any 8-tone system, but are somehow reminiscent of the long-standing
"Church sound", i.e., the sound of heaven.
So, where
do we go from here? This question is being posed fundamentally to the composers
and arrangers of music for the Church. What is the next step? The answer that
came to me from Fr. John Namie of blessed memory will surprise you. He said to
me, "Fast and pray. If you fast and
pray, just as the iconographer fasts and prays before he or she produces an
icon, you will produce music that we can use to pray."
So, we
must become spiritual musicians, a holy people, and a people after God's own
heart. The King of Rock and the King of Pop will not likely produce the music
for our prayer, but musicians who pray will produce music for prayer.
Our
objective is not to save our kids with musical cultural relevancy, although we
want our kids to be saved. But children respond to spiritual authenticity and
repel hypocrisy. If we as musicians don't pray, if our only experience of
church is Sunday Divine Liturgy, if we don't understand the liturgical cycles
and structure of the services Vespers, Matins, Holy Week, major feasts and
such, we may produce American music for the Church, but will it be Orthodox
sacred music for prayer in America?
In
addition, we need to continue working on the translations of our texts into
English, and improve on existing ones. We should continue the work of
transcribing Byzantine notation into modern western linear notation and adopt
modern western scale intervals. We need to simplify the melodies in connection
with the texts and encourage congregational participation. We should encourage
the harmonization of the melodies. I have heard it said that the great musical
contribution of the East is its melodies and the great contribution of the West
is its development of harmony. What better place than America to bring these
two great traditions together to form something uniquely American in terms of
Orthodox Music? This, of course, has already been done in Russia, and will
undoubtedly be a powerful influence on what is done in America in this area of
musical development.
Finally,
we need to work on a blend of musical renderings by clergy, cantors, choir and
congregation, but not exclusively any one of these. The congregation should
sing the responses, acclamations, and dialogues, but the fixed and variable
sung hymnody and psalmody should include this blend described above.
In
conclusion, I would like to thank the Department of Missions and Evangelism and
the Department of Sacred Music of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America
for sponsoring this weekend entitled The Gospel in Song: Music, Missions and
Evangelism. My prayer today, is that the leadership of these departments will
rediscover that artistic path which has already been cut for us, and organize
the construction of a musical, architectural and iconographic superhighway that
will allow all Americans seeking the true faith, to make their journey home to
the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Amen.
An
article by Rev. John
Finley
Source: http://antiochian.org/node/22682
CONVERSATION