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9006
The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
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The
present record, sung in English, contains the Eucharistic Liturgy
of St. John Chrysostom for the Feast of the Dormition of the
Mother-of-God, which is the patronal feast of the Russian Cathedral
in London. This is particularly reflected in the texts following
the Little Entrance, including the festal Troparion, The Prokeimenon,
the Alleluias and the two scriptural readings. The "Liturgy
of the Catechumens", also called the "Liturgy of the
Word", constitutes the first part of the service; the second
part, the "Liturgy of the Faithful", deals with the
sacrament of bread and wine. (The words of institution and the
invocation of the Holy Spirit have been omitted in this recording).
It opens with the Cherubic Hymn during which the bread and wine
are carried in solemn procession to the Holy Table, continues
through the Creed and the prayers of the Eucharist to the singing
of the Lord's Prayer, and closes with the prayers of thanksgiving
and the dismissal.
The corporate nature of the Liturgy is underlined by the fact
that a substantial part of the service takes the form of a dialogue
between one voice (often the clergy) and the choir. These exchanges
are considered as much a part of the overall musical form as
are the purely choral portions of the Liturgy (which reflect
the faith of the Church) or the movements and processions of
the clergy during the service.
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The melodies derive from the contemporary
tradition of the Russian Church and have been adapted for
use in English in the Cathedral. Only a few of the settings
are by known musicians: the Cherubic Hymn is by G. Lvovsky
(1830-1894), the Anaphora by M. Kovalevsky (bom 1903), the
Hymn to the Mother-of-God by A. Katal'sky (1856-1926), and
the Lord's Prayer by N. Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1909). Glancing
back to the origin and history of these melodies in ancient
Russia we can see that they go back to the medieval chant
known as Znameny which flourished in Russia from the advent
of Christianity there in 988 until the 17th century; thus
they span the Kievan era (1 Oth-13th century), the Mongol
yoke (13th-15th century) and the Moscovite kingdom (15th-17th
century). At the same time, in that part of South-West Russia
which had been under the political and cultural domination
of Poland, there appeared a number of younger melodic traditions
more or less related to the Znameny but adapted to singing
in parts. At that time church choirs were made up of tenors
and basses only: boys were not introduced before the end
of the 17th century, and women only at the end of the 19th
century. By about the year 1900, when the music which we
sing today became established in modem Russia, two powerful
styles of harmonic writing had deeply influenced not only
the composers but also the choirs in their style of interpretation:
in the 18th century, the Italy of Venice and Bologna, and,
in the 19th, the Germany of the Protestant chorale. Russian
church singing has thus grown closer to Western European
music, distancing itself somewhat from its roots and from
its liturgical premises and tending dangerously towards
foreignness and secularity.
It is the Russian melodic treasury which has assured the
survival of the age-long tradition of liturgical singing,
helped as it was by the deeply ingrained sense of corporate
prayer of the Church and the shape of the Orthodox Liturgy.
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MP3
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Audio: sound average / download fast |
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