Hieromonk Pavel (Korotkikh). Conversations about church singing

"Howling of Wolves" and "Bleating of Sheep"
(about znamenny and partes singing)

It is known that there are two types of church singing that are widespread today - Znamenny and Partes. If someone is not familiar with the first, then they have probably heard the second. As a rule, everyone’s impressions of both types of singing are different. Church people, brought up on partes singing, when they hear the strict, flat unison of Znamenny chant, with a completely unusual rhythm, unusual melody, which does not affect their feelings, but rather acts on the mind, they feel very uncomfortable, as if they were taken out of the warm and familiar , just over their body, clothes, and lowered into the cold hole of emptiness. Their senses, unable to grasp the familiar thick and dense music, remain inactive, resulting in a feeling of loss of stability. The mind suddenly realizes its new state of “fasting” and freedom from sensual pleasures with ordinary “prayerful emotions” and at the same time reveals its inactivity. All this leads a person to a state of anxiety.
On the contrary, a person brought up on Znamenny chant, if he suddenly hears partes singing in church, then first begins to imagine himself in a theater or at an opera concert, and from here laughter is born. Then, if he has overcome laughter, waves of impressions from feelings irritated by music begin to carry the mind into various memories and thoughts, and sometimes even incline him to move his arms and legs to the beat of the chant. It goes without saying that no prayer is possible in this case, and a person who is in the mood for prayer strives to leave the service as soon as possible.
Why do people who are believers and seem to be in the mood for prayer and churchgoers have such different reactions to different styles of church singing? The first cannot hear the “wolf howl” of the Znamenny chant, the second cannot hear the “goat chanting” of the partes choir?
The reason lies in the singing itself, and not just in habit (although partly in that). Different singing has different effects on a person’s soul.

The main function of church singing is to convey to a person the Divine Word as fully and deeply as possible, as well as to concentrate the attention of the mind on prayer, collecting scattered thoughts and calming feelings. This can only be achieved by singing in one voice (unison). Then the text is heard clearly and clearly, without a “mess” of words and music.
Single-voice singing expresses simple ("like-minded") mental prayer and is the singing of "mental doing." “It would be proper,” teaches St. Gregory of Sinai, “and our singing, in accordance with the structure of life, should not be carnal, but angelic. Vocal singing is an indication of a mental cry and is given to us in case of carelessness and [spiritual] coarseness in order to renew the true mood.” . That is, monophonic singing brings the mind into a state of pure prayer, and vice versa, a purely praying mind requires precisely monophonic singing. Therefore, unison znamenny singing is ascetic singing and is especially appropriate for monks.
It is unison singing that is the original singing of the Orthodox Church. The Church sang in unison for a thousand years in the West - before the fall of Rome and the reform of the Gregorian chant, and for almost one thousand seven hundred years in the East - until the disastrous reforms of Metropolitan Peter Mogila in Little Russia and Patriarch Nikon in Great Russia, which introduced the new partes singing of Western heretics into the Church.
In partes singing, the clarity and clarity of the presentation of sacred texts to the praying listener are sacrificed to a three-dimensional spatial composition - a chord that imparts a rough physicality to the singing, but so pleasant to our carnal ears. The singing becomes denser, from a disembodied and angelic sound becoming heavy, white, and carnal. Therefore, it has a very strong effect precisely on our flesh - the area of ​​​​low instincts, and mental movements immersed in the flesh. Thus, singing falls from the realm of the intelligent to the realm of the sensual. It irritates our feelings, brings us sadness or joy, sadness to the point of despondency, joy to the point of clapping our hands. This stimulation of sensuality by the play of sounds is far from pure prayer and is more conducive to a state of delusion. Soulfulness, “boiling blood”, enthusiasm, dreaminess of the mind - these are the origins of charm. Therefore, partes singing should primarily be called “spiritual” or even bodily, and znamenny singing should be called “spiritual.”
Partes singing does not at all imply making statutory bows in the right places. Everyone who sang in the choir knows that serious prayer, “divine desire” is completely replaced by playfulness, the passionate tension of music, the kind that leads to “anointing” with hands and feet. Often partes melodies draw a person’s consciousness into them so much, like sticky honey into a voluptuous fly, that it is very difficult to free oneself from the state inspired by these melodies. An example is the widespread folk singing of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer in Kyiv chant.
But the melodies of the partes “smell” not only of voluptuousness, but also of decay. This is especially noticeable in the harmonizations of the court chapel of the 19th century. Compare the sound of the funeral hymns “rest with the saints” and “eternal memory”: firm, restrained, dispassionate, even dry, the sound of the Znamenny melody, reflecting the unshakable confidence in the eternal rest of the one who rested with the saints of God, and on the other hand, passionate, filled with human sadness and melancholy, thick, almost crumbling and decomposing at the last chord, the Partes harmonization of “eternal memory”, almost visibly reflecting the process of decomposition and disintegration of the perishable human body, which no one can resurrect and there is no need to.
In addition, partes singing does not want to obey the basic principle of the organization of Orthodox worship - the law of osmoglasiya: chants in the voices are either completely absent or greatly reduced and distorted beyond recognition, since non-professional singers are practically unable to perform the complex harmonies of prokymnes, alleluia, similars and samoglas and are forced to do everything greatly simplify or sing in one voice. In addition, partes harmonization itself strives to smooth out all the roughness of znamenny chant, strives to “comb it”, turn it into an ordinary strictly rhythmic musical mass. In a word, “Parthes harmonization of znamenny melodies nullifies all the melodic diversity of znamenny voices, bringing them under a single denominator of uniform tonic-dominant relations” (Martynov V.). Instead of znamenny chants, she creates melodies that are easy to remember and fill the consciousness of a praying person. They tickle voluptuousness, a special musical voluptuousness, make meaningless the text being sung, and fearlessly block the mind’s view of the Being. The mind, passionately captivated by them, is carried away by their playful and meaningless movement, spinning, dancing, and begins to sort through them, finding in this change new and new pleasure. A state of “musical delight” arises. It's hard for the mind to get out of it. In order for the mind to acquire initial sobriety, an effort of will is required.

All these qualities of partes are due to the fact that partes singing was born not in the Church, not in the service of the Word and the Rules, but in the office of secular composers, often non-church people or simply non-believers. It was intended to be performed by professional musicians: simple church choirs could hardly master six-, twelve-, or more-voice scores. Non-Orthodox or non-believing composers invested their human and sin-tainted talent into their creations. If patristic singing has the power to convey church holiness to those who sing, then partes singing conveys only the passion of secular composers, the worldly spirit, for according to the words of Chrysostom, “those who sing the Divine are filled with the Holy Spirit, just as worldly songs induce the spirit of Satan.” To get rid of this “worldly fusion” , the mind needs great prayerful effort. Thus, singing, instead of helping prayer (to understand the Divine Word to a person), hinders it in every possible way, scattering the praying mind. This absent-mindedness is a sin: “If it happens that I am more touched by singing than by the words sung, then I confess that I am grievously sinning, and then I would like not to hear the singer,” teaches Blessed. Augustine of Ipponia.

Introduction into the Orthodox Church
partes singing

Thus, partes, as we see it, initially became a kind of musical “debauchery.” The very appearance of early Russian polyphony testified to the beginning of the decay of the asceticism of liturgical singing. Noting the unorthodoxy and unchurchishness of the Kyiv partes introduced by Nikon in Moscow, Archpriest Avvakum bitterly remarked: “The current singing is so disgusting to God... but it’s not worth listening to - they sing in Latin, buffoon dancers.” He quite correctly noted the deep difference that exists between Znamenny singing, born in the Church, and the Kyiv “goat vocalization,” namely, the one that distinguishes Orthodox liturgical singing from secular music (“musikia”). If singing was defined as “heavenly” and “angel-like,” elevating a person’s mind to heaven, then musicia in the alphabet books of the late 17th century. was defined as “songs and blasphemies of demons, their own Latin choruses are chanted to the musical organ of harmony, that is, to the beneficial vessels of fluting and games, but all this, all that was predicted by the holy fathers, is cursed and excommunicated.” Thus, partes singing was understood as blasphemy, which heretics or “buffoon dancers” serve not to God, but to Satan, and in its performance it is very close to the sound of musical instruments invented by people, again at the instigation of demons (Gen. 4:21). Alas! These “demonic songs and blasphemies” would be heard in the churches of the Russian Church in the 18th and 19th centuries, during the dark synodal era.
The origins of partes are in the “luxurious style” of the Venetian school, characterized by bright coloristic effects, a tendency to use large sound masses, and timbre and textural contrasts. From there it was adopted by Polish composers, and then it penetrates into Little Russia, where Peter Mogila carries out his own reform of worship, similar to Nikon’s. Finally, Tsar Alexei and Patriarch Nikon forcibly implanted it in the Muscovite kingdom.
The introduction of partes, “Kievan” singing into the Great Russian Church after the reform of Patriarch Nikon most of all contributed, in our opinion, to the secularization (worldliness) of the church people. Having begun in the court churches and house churches of the aristocracy, very quickly the newfangled partes moved to parish churches, displacing znamenny singing. It lasted longest, apparently, in some monasteries and village churches. This process of displacement was greatly facilitated by the general Westernizing, or rather German-Lutheran, spirit of Petrine reform, which did not tolerate the old Russian piety. Znamenny singing was branded “Old Believers,” and Old Believers at that time meant almost a state crime. It is clear that singing “in a schismatic way” was not safe. Therefore, already at the beginning of the 18th century, according to the observations of scientists, in the Main Church there was no one who knew how to sing on hooks, everything was completely forgotten! “Music, having supplanted completely liturgical singing, took its place and began to be considered precisely liturgical singing, as if by right. This change was reflected even in the appearance of the singers. Thus, people with thick beards in cassocks and surplices gradually disappeared from the choirs, and their place was taken by some beardless fashionable personalities dressed in caftans of the Polish style." “The entire spiritual and musical literature of the ruling Church became the exclusive property of the Italian creativity of Araya, Zoppis, Salieri, Galuppi, Sarti, Paziello, Cimorosa, Bulan, Raupach, Curzelli, Sapienzi and others, who began with complete disregard for our ancient tunes as barbaric, intractable no music." In all their compositions there was a lot of pomp, density, harmony, vocal effects, but they were all secular in nature, their style was predominantly operatic. The choirs in the churches of the Ruling Church turned into some sort of concert stages, on which so much soon became permitted that it is now even strange to imagine that such musical compositions could ever be performed in parish churches. The cheekiness of composers reached the point that opera arias began to serve as melodies for Orthodox chants. Thus, the priest's aria from Spontini's opera "Vestal" was added to the sacred words "We sing to you", and the "cherubic" was cut out from Weber's opera "Free Shooter"!
Galuppi, Sarti and others required female voices to perform church music. “The nobles started choirs and, just as it was forbidden to bring women into the choir, the courtyard girls had their hair cut, dressed in men’s clothes and sang in the churches. It got to the point that in the churches the listeners forgot themselves and applauded!”
Everywhere in the churches of the Empire, Znamenny chant was supplanted by the so-called “Kievan” chant, which is actually Western European music. It is characterized by “not singing, but modal thinking, gravitating towards a clear minor and major. The rhythm of Kyiv chant tends to symmetry and squareness, going back to dance and song periodicity, which allows us to talk about the well-known influence of Ukrainian folk song.” “All southwestern melodies, from the tunes of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra to modern compositions based on them, touch the soul, but with the tenderness of this world, far from the spiritual tenderness that the Znamenny melody gives.”
During the Synodal period, the high spirituality of the Znamenny chant was replaced by the soulfulness of the secular partes, “the element of folk song entered into the choir singing (following the example of the Protestant West)... With the chant of the song “I wish I could eat dry crust” - a kind of boulevard cruel romance - people were taught to sing the prayer “To the Queen” my best." It is enough to compare this melody with any Znamenny chant to understand how low we have fallen. The intense litanies borrowed melodies from the folk song "Along and Along the River" and from the Polish Catholic carol. The three-beat waltz tune of the urban romance "To the Ruin of Moscow" adapted for the Eucharistic canon..." . Hymns with arbitrarily distorted text appeared, for example, the Lord’s Prayer with the repetition of the words “Our Father” after each petition, a new homemade text of the Trisagion (“Holy God, have mercy on us”), “Our Father” by Stepanov - “a solo number reminiscent of the demon’s aria from opera of the same name by A. Rubinstein." Rough naturalism and the use of strong dramatic effects characterize the “creativity” of such authors as Wedel (“The Door of Repentance” by Wedel - “the disorderly cry of an arrogant soul” in the rhythm of either a march or a dance”), Bortnyansky (“Diligently to the Mother of God”), etc. Vasilyev's "Great Doxology" can be characterized as a lightly bravura hymn, Veleumov - as a waltz, Arkhangelsky - as "an ear-pleasing oratorio with the play of four alternately entering voices." both falsely pathetic (prokeimenon “Divide My garments for myself”) and simply sentimental.
This is how P. I. Tchaikovsky characterized this pre-revolutionary church music: “All these Vedels, Dekhterevs, etc. loved music in their own way, but they were complete ignoramuses and with their works caused so much evil to Russia that even a hundred years is not enough to destroy it. From the capital to the village one can hear... Bortnyansky’s sugary style and - alas! The public likes it. A messiah is needed who would destroy all the old things with one blow and take a new path, and the new path lies in returning to the hoary old days.. ." .
Unfortunately, the revolution and persecution of religion prevented the return to the Church of true church and truly Russian singing - znamenny chant. By inertia, Partes singing continued to be preserved among the believing people in the USSR and abroad and continues even to this day. Now this is “old stuff” - false church music continues to be sung in Russian churches, forgetting what this practice led to.
As has already been said, partes singing, born in Roman Catholicism, contributes to the development of false prayer, which leads a person to delusion. Supporters of partes singing and “musicia” did not even think about such things as “raising the mind to heaven” or “opening the inner eyes”... They understood music as a kind of means intended to excite sensuality, for what is this “gaiety”, "horror" or "touchingness", no matter how various types sensuality?" Sensual prayer leads directly to delusion, according to the words of St. John of the Climacus: "being in temptation, I felt that this wolf wanted to seduce me, producing in my soul wordless joy, tears and consolation; and in my infancy I thought that I had received the fruit of grace, and not vanity and delusion.”
Hence it is not surprising that under the influence of partes - this musical charm - the very understanding of religion in Russian church society by the beginning of the revolution degenerated into an aesthetic religious feeling or even into religious exercises in art (E. Hartmann).

Lost Pearl

However, by the end of the 19th century, against the backdrop of a general cultural trend towards a return from the cultural German-Lutheran-Catholic dominance to the original and natural Russian culture, there was a manifestation of interest in our ancient Russian singing, but not in church society, but among art critics and historians.
Scientists and connoisseurs of beauty suddenly discovered all the unearthly beauty, all the spiritual wealth of Znamenny chant - this spiritual treasure of the nation, undeservedly forgotten. “The extraordinary rhythmic flexibility, the ability of our tunes to adapt to any asymmetrical or symmetrical rhythms in a prose text, the complete elasticity of stress in Church Slavonic speech have made us extremely far from official German rhythmic musical lines. Amazing freedom of rhythms and at the same time grace melodies,” noted the famous researcher of ancient Russian singing, director of the Synodal School S.V. Smolensky. “A sublime prayerful mood is involuntarily conveyed to the person praying when he listens to the impassive, majestic calm melody of Znamenny singing. The soul of a person, exhausted by worries, sorrows, labors, overwhelmed by passions, under the influence of these sounds, although for a while, calms down and is pacified, experiencing the purest and inexplicable pleasure.” .
Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) wrote in mid. 19th century about Znamenny singing: “Very rightly the Holy Fathers call our spiritual feelings “joyful sorrow”: this feeling is fully expressed by the Znamenny chant, which is still preserved in some monasteries and which is used in Edinoverie churches. The Znamenny chant is like an ancient icon. When you pay attention to it, it takes over your heart the same feeling that comes from looking at an ancient icon painted by some holy man. The feeling of deep piety that pervades the melody leads the soul to reverence and tenderness. The lack of art is obvious, but it disappears before the spiritual dignity of a Christian living his life. in suffering, constantly struggling with various difficulties of life, having heard the znamenny chanting, he immediately finds in it harmony with his state of mind. He no longer finds this harmony in the current singing of the Orthodox Church.
Absolutely correct point. This amazing effect of Znamenny chant is due to many reasons, but first of all it is achieved by singing in one voice (unison). It is unison singing - singing from the same lips, a single prayer - that many people standing in the temple reveal as a single body - the Church of God. “In the Church, nothing is without order... but even more so in the Church it is appropriate for one voice to always exist, just as there is one body. And if you sing..., you sing alone. John Chrysostom 36 conversation on 1 Cor.).
But it is not only singing with one voice that has such an effect on those praying. Znamenny singing is patristic singing, since it is in full agreement with the teaching of the holy fathers on prayer. Prayer must be performed consciously, undistractedly, with humility and fear of God. St. Basil the Great teaches this: “hear the commandment to kindly sing to Him with an undistracted thought, with a sincere disposition - the young men singing in the middle of the church should sing to God not with their voice, but with their hearts - the one who sings with his heart is the one who not only moves his tongue, but also the mind strains to understand the words of the song. Let the tongue sing, but at the same time let the mind seek the meaning of what is said, in order to sing to you with the spirit, and to sing with the mind too.” St. Basil is echoed by St. Gregory of Sinaite: “Vowel singing is an indication of the intelligent cry within...”.
Thus, Znamenny singing is, first of all, contemplation of the mind, contemplation of the mystery of God’s salvation, revealed in sacred words, and therefore it must be silent, no matter how paradoxical it may sound. This is the “silent doxology” that St. Gregory the Theologian sang to the Life-Giving Trinity, created by the holy fathers precisely in order to express mental prayer, when the human mind, raptured from the fast-flowing, corruptible stream of time, freezes in contemplation of the Eternally Existing One and rests in Him in silence.
Truly, how far from this is Partes singing, which can rightfully be called unconscious or mindless! Take a look at the partes choir. The singers often stand with their backs to the icons and the altar, laughing, and the movements of the regent are full of disorder. You can hear them shouting notes unworthy of the temple of God, using tunes that are alien to the ears of Orthodox Russian people. Looking from the outside, you might think: “here are the singers! They don’t pray themselves and interfere with others.” Meanwhile, the Holy Fathers categorically forbade such outrage.
“Unhappy poor man,” says St. John Chrysostom, “you should repeat the angelic praises with trembling and reverence, but you introduce here the customs of dancers, waving your arms, stamping your feet, moving your whole body. Your mind is darkened by theatrical scenes, and what happens there , you are transported to church."
Bl. Jerome: “We should sing to God not with our voices, but with our hearts, and not as if we were skillful in tragedy, bask in it, forcing us to listen to theatrical songs in church; on the contrary, we should sing with fear and with understanding. Let someone be, as they say, thin-voiced, but if he has good deeds, he is a sweet singer to God.”
“Following the example of the tragedians, one should not let the larynx and lips become unsatisfied with sweetness, so that theatrical voice changes and songs are not heard in the church; but one should sing with fear and tenderness” (he).
“The fathers have decreed that sacred songs and psalms should not be sung by disorderly and drunken people [that is, similar to the songs and screams of drunken people], and those that bring need to nature [that is, forcing unnatural sounds for humans, for example, men to sing in high voices]. Below are some good harmony [beautiful melodies], indecent to church composition and following, this is the essence of Musikian singing and excessive differences in voice (Italian disagreements to the lover, be aware of this rule, which prohibits organs and vile singing" (Great Respect of Patriarch Philaret, "On). church singing").
“Of those present here (in the church) there are people who, not honoring God and considering the sayings of the Spirit as ordinary, make discordant sounds and behave no better than those who are raging, hesitating and moving with their whole bodies and showing morals that are alien to spiritual vigilance” (Chrysostom)
This, in our opinion, is the main reason for such vitality of partes - the de-churching of consciousness and the general attitude generated by it towards worship as something ordinary, always repeating and almost boring. Hence the negligence in singing and reading, gross mistakes, cuts and violations of the Rules... An all-encompassing spirit of despondency hovers over our worship. Christians who do not know how to pray demand entertainment with lush and solemn singing, paying little attention to the sacred words sung.
Meanwhile, the holy fathers teach us to treat the Word of God not as a human word, but as containing great power capable of transforming our hearts, thoughts and feelings. After all, the word of God is a seed sown in hearts (Matthew 13:1-9). The infusion of the Word of God into the hearts gives birth to singing in the grace of the Holy Spirit, according to the words of the apostle. Paul: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teach and admonish one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16). It is the Holy Spirit who cries in our hearts “Abba, Father!” (Gal. 4:6), a person must only merge with this cry in one voice, abandoning all his “carnal wisdom” and raising his “earthly mind” to the Father of lights in pure prayer. Singing turns into a sacrament of the Church, into a sacred act, just as the preaching of the apostles was “a sacred act of the gospel of God,” sanctifying the offering of the pagans by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:16). Therefore, church rules prohibit the admission of ungodly people, those who do not know how to pray or lead a sinful life, to church singing as a sacrament, and certainly not members of the Church or unbelievers (Laod. 15).
So, in church singing, the first place should always be the Divine Word, with which man, as the “mouth of the Word” and the “golden trumpet of the Spirit,” must announce the new creation. Everything is subordinated to this goal and nothing should interfere with it.
Unfortunately, we have acquired the evil habit of thinking and living in the spirit of European anthropocentrism: we unconsciously consider ourselves the center of the universe, and perceive God as an abstract idea or something lying beyond the boundaries of our existence. Hence our attitude towards sacred worship: it is we who read the holy book, it is we who sing sacred hymns, it is we who perform the sacraments. In fact, everything is not like that. The medieval man understood that it was not he, but the book that was reading him, that the singing sounded through him, that the icon was looking at him, that he was only an object of action or a contemplator of the eternal creative and providential action of God. Man perceived worship as an eternal revelation sent down to earth, which he himself was only called to embody in earthly forms, reverently guarding from distortion. He felt like an instrument through which God enlightens and saves the cosmos. Hence the attitude to the word: “He who speaks what is fair must himself, as it were, receive words from God. For truth is not (the property) of the man speaking, but of the acting God.” So, the entire word of God is the property of God, not man, and man must dispose of this property as befits God, for the word of God will judge the world.
This should be the attitude of an Orthodox Christian: he must understand and feel that when he reads and sings sacred texts, he reflects in himself, as in a mirror, first in his mind, then with his voice, movement and all his behavior, with his life - the eternal , he must, as it were, pass through himself, through his nature, “the words of eternal life” (John 6:68)
It is clear that then we will have a completely different attitude towards worship: distortions and reductions associated with sinful weakness will be perceived as something unacceptable, we will feel guilty and repent for our unworthy service, “vibration of the air.” This pain of the heart about piety is the memory of God, which does not tolerate lust and takes away insensibility from the heart.

Return to church tradition

Znamenny singing was born in the system of the medieval Russian Orthodox worldview and it is difficult to understand it in isolation from the deeply churchly worldview of the ancient Russian people. But this does not mean that with the loss of this worldview modern people, singing is irrevocably a thing of the past and outdated. No, it cannot become obsolete, just as the theology of the Holy Fathers, divine services, iconography of the Church and other gifts of God, revealed by God and revealed in human nature, cannot become obsolete. It abides in itself as the highest Beauty, embodied in the sound of the consonance of the angelic worlds, as a reflection of the heavenly divine world, the eternal heavenly worship. Just as in theology no one can surpass the Byzantine Fathers of the Church, just as in icon painting no one can surpass St. Andrei Rublev, and in church singing no one can surpass the ancient Greek and ancient Russian “song-readers and standard-bearers.”
It is important for us, Orthodox church people of the 20th and 21st centuries, to understand and, having understood, to perceive with our hearts this amazing phenomenon, this grace-filled singing of the saints, transforming our inner world and leading us to what is above.
This requires something important, without which understanding and assimilation will become difficult: the deepest possible immersion in church tradition. We need to abandon the usual ideas in which we were brought up, rebuild our worldview in accordance with the worldview of the holy fathers of the Church, rebuild our lives according to patristic rules in order to accept the spirit of the holy fathers. And the most important and difficult thing to start with is that we need to learn to pray, and the way the saints teach. fathers. If we decide to follow the Holy Fathers in everything internal, then we will definitely come to the rejection of all the ugly forms of “Nikonianism” that have accumulated in the Church - Western singing and Western “icons”...
Today a person, even a believer and Orthodox, is often cut off from the patristic church worldview. Brought up in the spirit of anthropocentrism, loaded with various ideologies (primarily scientific) and philosophies “according to the elements of the world” (Col. 2:8), he often perceives Orthodoxy very superficially, underestimates the significance of the patristic teaching, and does not recognize the sinful corruption of his mind - this idol people of our rationalistic time, with whom he thinks to know everything - not only heaven, but also God himself...
But Christ demands self-denial from us. We need to throw out all the poisons we have absorbed from ourselves, and humbly absorb the pure Gospel of Christ, the patristic teaching in its entirety, not according to the principle “I like this, but I don’t like that.” Everything that was created by the Church was created for our salvation. The reluctance to accept patristic znamenny singing, as well as canonical icon painting and statutory worship, is characteristic of the “old man” with all his infirmities. But it is for his healing that Christ came, it is for his healing that the Church exists and everything that happens in it. By an effort of will we must desire its renewal. This is the sure way of salvation.

The lecture “Byzantine singing today” was read in the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University leading expert on Byzantine chant, Athenian priest John Fatopoulos in 2005 (http://www.pravoslavie.ru/put/1870.htm)

“Thank you for the opportunity to talk about the importance of Byzantine music in our cathedral Church. With the exception of the very reading of the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament, the entire service of the Orthodox Church has been clothed in church music from the very first centuries of the life of the Orthodox Catholic Church.

The Holy Fathers understood both the power of music and all the charm that it produces on the human soul, and the need for a person to express his feelings in prayer with God not only with words, but also through music. On the other hand, heretics even earlier began to compose poetry, clothed in sweet music, and thus spread their errors and instill them in the hearts of people. The Holy Fathers, enlightened by the grace of God, being deep experts on human nature, did not ignore the need of the human soul, its ability, its creative possibilities, and opened the way to full musical self-expression of the praying Church.

In his interpretation of the first psalm, Basil the Great writes: “Since the Holy Spirit saw that the human race was empty of virtues, and that we do not care about the truth of life because of our inclination to pleasure, then what does He do? He combines pleasant sweet singing with the teachings of the Church, so that we can imperceptibly, without fatigue, perceive the benefits of spiritual words with the pleasure that singing brings to our ears. For this purpose, He invented and arranged the melodies of psalms, so that those who are children in age or in spirit and mind would find it more convenient that they simply sing euphoniously - in fact, at the same time they would teach their soul.”

Thus, from the words of the Bishop of the Church - St. Basil - we clearly see that the introduction of music into church services is not just the artistic intervention of talented musicians putting church hymns into melodies, but the work of the Holy Spirit, “...who guides the Church into all truth...” - as the Gospel of John says.

The first hymns were also the composers of the words of the chants. Almost all the ancient Holy Fathers labored in this, which is why the singers considered it part of their pastoral ministry. Byzantine singing is not an unauthorized composition performed under the influence of instant inspiration and not the last echo of a certain musical tradition that originated in the 18th century, as some claim. This is ancient church music, passing in its natural development, movement through the centuries, respecting its heritage and carefully fulfilling the duty of introducing some changes that are not alien to the general spirit of the ordinary Orthodox service and the spirit and musical characteristics of Byzantine music.

The historical and spiritual foundations of music are the same as those of the Church, as we read in the Gospel, after the Last Supper, the disciples of Christ, “... having chanted, they went out...” Of course, this chant was simple and was sung as at a service in the synagogue. And in the New Testament we read how the Apostle Paul urges the Ephesians “... not to get drunk, but, being filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, sing hymns and spiritual songs and make melody in your hearts to the Lord...”. And Jacob, the brother of the Lord, convinces: “...if anyone is happy, let him sing psalms...”. If you carefully read the Word of God, you will notice that, just like the cure for dissipation, the correct outlet for emotions for a joyful and happy person is psalmody, which in itself is spiritual. There is an element of joy, beauty and delight in psalmody that promotes prayer and praise to God.

From the above passages of Holy Scripture, we can assume with a fair degree of confidence that the original Christian chant from the very beginning was not a reading, which is the reading of sacred texts. It was not monotonous, but had a melody and motive, which helped both the reader and the entire Church in prayer. Why did the Orthodox Church include music in its Divine Service? As you can see, in the New Testament music was an integral part of the hymns, second only to the poetic word. In this unity of words and melody there is a naturalness that originated in the Old Testament, where vocal and instrumental melodies contributed to worship. Likewise, the Church includes music in its services, but selectively. She knows the power of music, its pleasantness and the tenderness that it brings to the human soul. Above we have already cited the words of Basil the Great about music, and from them it is clear that the first goals of introducing music into the service of the Orthodox Church were educational goals.

The second goal is theological and anthropological. Let's consider how our Holy Fathers explain this. Athanasius the Great writes that “...singing psalms with melody is proof of the harmony of spiritual thoughts, and melodic reading is a sign of orderliness and a peaceful state of mind...”. St. Gregory of Nyssa, who holds the same opinion about music, says: “... big world- the universe, with its unchanging face, creates a very harmonious melody, a song of the ineffable words of God. The whole world is a musical harmony, the Creator and Maker of which is God. In the same way, man, by his nature, is a small world in which the entire musical harmony of the universe is reflected. This is proven, continues Saint Gregory, by the very structure of the organs of the human body, which were created in such a way that they could generate music. For example, the trachea, the tongue, the mouth contribute to this birth.”

Thus, music is in harmony with our nature, and a pleasant melody combined with a spiritual melody helps us to discover our nature and heal it. A harmonious melody, even in itself, proves to us that our treatment should be a logical and orderly life, and that our internal structure should not be devoid of music or false, but that, on the contrary, we should strive to curb the passions and abide in the moderation characteristic of virtues .

The third purpose for which the Church instituted music is pastoral and apologetic. In other words, music became a pastoral way of confronting heresy. So, for example, St. John Chrysostom and St. Ephraim the Syrian composed very euphonious hymns in order to resist the hymns of heretics who conveyed their false views to Christians with the help of beautiful music.

Now let's see how and under what conditions the Church accepted music into the Divine service. Music is understood by the Church as an ally of the poetic word, as its second half. As the holy fathers write, this is a dual unity, that is, the rhythm of the melody and the power of words, word and melody, poetry and music, forming sacred chant.

It is often said that in the service there is a primacy of the word over music, that music is the clothing of the word. This is true in the sense that a church melody cannot do without words. Church poetry is an independent musical art, and its goal is not the worldly pleasure of hearing, it is not concert music, but its goal is to serve in the sacrament of the Church. But at the same time, this is not true in the sense that, being the clothing of the word, church music cannot be perceived as something external, as something that can be thrown out because it is outdated or needs to be replaced due to its lack of modernity. something supposedly better. Church music is not a poor relative sitting at the gates of the word, it is close and characteristic of our nature, and “...like sweet honey, it pours into us the teaching of virtue that is contained in church hymns...”, as St. Gregory of Nyssa writes to us. And since church music is the work of the Holy Spirit, it will unite with the word into something inseparable.

My spiritual father, Archimandrite Sarandis Sarandos, says that in our service there is an interpenetration of words and melody and that melody is an image of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we see that this sea of ​​touching Byzantine music in all the fullness of its variety of melodies pleases the soul and with its ancient musical turns, gives it that proportionate pleasure that the holy fathers spoke about, satisfies the soul’s need for musical outpouring; and at the same time, it often keeps her against her will in the life of the Church, since thoughts combined with melody are easily accepted by the soul, without heavy assimilation by the mind. Music, as we know, is itself a language that helps translate the language of the spirit and way of thinking of the composer for the souls of listeners. In this case, the composer is the Church Itself, which creates music at all times, and captures souls in the network of humble holy music.

Let's talk about ourselves now characteristic features church singing, inherent in it from the very first years of Christianity and persisting to this day.

Firstly, church music is vocal - this means that musical instruments are excluded from the Orthodox service - an element that introduces a worldly spirit into the music and causes the mind of the worshiper to soar. “Those who celebrate must celebrate spiritually...” says St. Gregory the Theologian, and therefore encourages - “... let us sing hymns instead of beating the tympanum and sing hymns instead of melodies and songs...”. Other holy fathers teach in a similar way. The use of tools indicates spiritual infancy. Since many proponents of the use of instrumental music point to the use of instruments in the Old Testament service, St. John Chrysostom explains:

“In ancient times, the Jews used tools in their service because their minds were not sharp enough, because they had barely moved away from idolatry. Just as God allowed them to make bloody sacrifices, He also allowed them to use musical instruments, condescending to their weakness.”

During the prayer sacrifice, the Church, instead of offering to God, as the Jews did, the best animals or the best fruits, offers wine and bread from all the creations and benefits of God as a sacrifice. And at the same time, he wants to strengthen his prayer, his thanksgiving, his praise to God through what the person himself has best, and not with the help of any auxiliary means, such as musical instruments. She brings to God the inner man, the secrets of the human heart, with the help of the best instrument - the human voice. Saint Gregory the Theologian writes: “Higher than all musical instruments is chant, which connects every soul with the divine Meaning...”. With these words, the saint explains that when musical instruments are used in the service, they come between man and God and prevent the soul from uniting with Him.

Church hymns, primarily in the Greek Orthodox tradition, are monophonic. This means that when many people sing, everyone says the same thing, the voice seems to come from the same mouth. The Church did not accept the polyphony that Catholicism was the first to introduce. This was done by Her in order to avoid dispersion and confusion, both of the singers themselves and of the souls listening to the singing, and also to express Her unity in Christ. European polyphonic music expresses the great dispersion and division of our society into thousands of individual members. Byzantine monophonic music through church hymns expresses the unity of a thousand individuals, united in Christ and living in the Holy Spirit and waiting for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Church music is antiphonal - that is, it consists of two choirs - right and left. Or, if necessary, from two singers on the right and left choir. According to the tradition of the Church and the report of the historian Socrates, Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer, Bishop of Antioch, saw in a vision angels who glorified the Holy Trinity with antiphonal songs. He introduced this method of singing into the Antiochian Church, and from there the tradition of antiphonal singing spread throughout the Church. Already, before the 4th century, Basil the Great testifies that Christians in the Church, during the Divine service, are divided into two choirs and sing standing, opposite each other. Subsequently, only the protopsalt was left, who sang the beginning of the chant, and the believers sang its end. Byzantine church singing in its performance is pure, from the point of view of voice, that is, there are no mixed choirs of men and women. After the first centuries of Christianity, the Church, drawing on its experience, and in order to avoid the embarrassment caused by mixed singing, sometimes the musical impossibility of accommodating female and male voices to each other - here we are talking about monophonic music everywhere - came to the decision to establish only male choirs in parishes, allowing women to sing in nunneries. Although this practice of the Church is sometimes violated under the influence of the current new spirit of equality. Emerging problems have always returned the Church to realistic prescriptions and practices, which, if not observed, give rise to a lot of problems. Church singing with God is humble, which is evident both in the choice of chants, in the musical performance, and in the management of the choir. It prohibits theatrical actions, shouts and cries, which confuse the mind and excite the soul, as well as disorderly movements of the arms, legs and body, which distract the minds of worshipers from prayer, expel the world from their souls and turn the temple of God into a theatrical stage.

Church singing is part of Tradition. This means that there is no place in it for unauthorized works based on instant inspiration. The chants must follow Tradition in word and music, that is, what has been carefully and carefully verified by centuries-old liturgical practice.

Concluding our speech, we once again emphasize that church music was created with great attention by the Holy Fathers so that it would help the souls of Christians draw closer to God. This singing tradition, which is studied here in Moscow, at the school of Byzantine singing, with the patronage of the publishing house “Holy Mountain”, is protected from all worldly influence, in particular by synodal decrees, so that this music can continue to carry out its ministry in the Church.” .

The beginning of Christian church singing is sanctified by the example of Christ the Savior, Who ended the Last Supper with the singing of psalms - “And having sung, they went to the Mount of Olives” (Matthew 26:30).

This singing of the Savior with his disciples is the beginning of all New Testament liturgical singing.

According to the remark of St. John Chrysostom: “The Savior sang that we too should sing in the same way.”

From that time on, singing, taking on a certain character, became an integral part of every prayer meeting of the first Christians.

Jesus Christ sang with His disciples, without a doubt, the well-known melody of the psalms.

Having initially adopted Christianity, two musically gifted peoples - the Greeks and the Jews - brought their spiritual and musical wealth into the liturgical singing of the primal Christian Church.

Very little information has been preserved about the liturgical singing of the first two centuries of the Christian Church. The period of time of the Ecumenical Councils is the most beneficial for church singing, when it received a certain structure, solid principles, clear character and splendor. The fourth century was a time of intense activity in the field of church singing, when all the rites of the Christian Church were improved.

The pastors of the Church of Christian communities in different places and distant from each other, “moved as if by one spirit,” show special concern for church singing. St. Basil the Great works and talks about church singing in Caesarea of ​​Asia Minor, St. John Chrysostom improves the singing of the Church of Constantinople, St. Ephraim the Syrian - in Syria Palestine, St. Athanasius the Great - in the Church of Alexandria, St. Ambrose - in the Church of Milan.

Established in the 4th century, homophonic singing in the 8th century was finally completed in all its details, both theoretically and practically, by the greatest songwriter of the Orthodox Christian Church, St. John of Damascus.

In this form, liturgical singing, which was finally formed, became established in liturgical practice, adopting that uniform type of osmoharmony that is observed to this day in the Orthodox East.

Singing in the New Testament Church, following the example of the Savior and the holy apostles, is established vocal, without the accompaniment of musical instruments, since only the human voice is capable, with its timbre, elasticity of movements in relation to the strength and pitch of sound, to express the most diverse, deepest and subtlest movements of human feeling, and in When combined with the text, the vocal performance of sacred chants can produce a deep and irresistible impression on the listener.

St. Clement of Alexandria says: “We must honor God with the word, and not with the ancient psalter, trumpet, tympanum and flute.”

“If God allowed singing in the Old Testament Church, accompanied by playing musical instruments, it was solely because of the weakness and cowardice and carelessness of the Jews.”

St. John Chrysostom speaks about the meaning of church singing. “God, seeing that many of the people are careless, are burdened by reading spiritual scriptures... and wanting to make this work enjoyable and destroy the feeling of fatigue, he combined a melody with the prophecy so that everyone, carried away by the smooth flow of the verses, would proclaim the sacred chants with perfect zeal Nothing excites and inspires the spirit so much, nothing so detaches it from the earth and the bonds of the body, nothing so fills it with love for wisdom and indifference to everyday affairs, like harmonious singing, like a sacred song composed according to the rule of rhythm... Lord. established the singing of psalms, so that from this we would receive both pleasure and benefit."

Also says St. Basil the Great: “For this reason, the sweetness of song composition is associated with teaching, so that through the pleasantness of the ear, in an inconspicuous way, you can receive something useful from all words.”

The Holy Fathers of the Church deeply understood the significance of liturgical singing, and therefore they zealously cared about its organization. About church singing of St. John Chrysostom says that it... "is a triumph for those who rejoice, a consolation for those who are despondent, ... a taming of passions, curbs intemperance, extinguishes injustice, supports the truth, overthrows blasphemous plans, kills shameful thoughts, proclaims the divine law, preaches God, explains faith, stops the mouths of heretics, builds the Church...

The Holy Church has always directed everything in divine services towards enlightening the mind, towards warming the sense of faith. St. Clement of Alexandria writes what church singing should be like: “We must use modest and chaste tunes... modest changes in voice curb insolence.”

St. Athanasius the Great speaks about the edifying significance of church singing: “The Lord wanted melody to be a symbol of the spiritual harmony of the soul, He appointed to sing the psalms measuredly and read them in a chant; accompanying the psalms with singing does not mean concern for euphony, but a sign of a harmonious state of the soul.”

The significance of church singing lies in the fact that it promotes the lively participation of believers in divine services, it educates believers, makes them better, and contributes to the deep assimilation of moral, dogmatic and other Christian truths.

The Holy Fathers, speaking about church singing, always emphasize the qualitative side, i.e. that singing should be harmonious, harmonious, that it should give pleasure - “sweetness to the ear”, penetrating into the human soul, then it will correspond to its high purpose. According to the thought of one archpastor of the Russian Orthodox Church, “Church singing is an effective connection between earth and Heaven.”

N.V. Matveev "Choral singing"

Is novelty good in liturgical music, what do the holy fathers say about singing in church, and is there a struggle between the church and the secular? - the story about liturgical singing is continued by Archpriest Vitaly GOLOVATENKO, rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory, teacher of the department of ancient Russian singing art

Secular music and liturgical singing

One director of a monastery choir (note, a monastery, not a parish!) once told me that his singers—professional vocalists with higher musical education—often complain about the monotony of their choir repertoire: “Well, what is this: we sing the same thing and that.” same! But I want something new, diverse.”

This remark would not surprise me at all if we were talking about a concert or opera choir. On the contrary, in this case I would sincerely sympathize with the performers who are forced to constantly sing a dozen or two of the same works. But this is a voice church singers! And in my opinion, this is practically the same as if I, a priest, said something like “well, how long can you recite the same texts in church every day: I believe and Our Father, and the Virgin Mary, rejoice?“I also want something new!”

Of course, if we are talking about music, then there is no dispute: diversity, novelty, originality are the most important means of the aesthetic impact of secular musical art.

And the very term “music” (Old Russian music, from Greek ‘the art of muses’ or ‘musical art’ - independent, self-sufficient free art) is essentially inapplicable to liturgical singing. For the purpose of music is to delight the ear with melody and harmony. From pleasures life / Music is inferior to love alone(A. Pushkin).

The purpose of liturgical singing is to encourage prayer, and not in the melody of harmonies that are pleasant to the ear and soul, but in the emphatically strict and invigorating rhythms of the prayer text. Singing time, prayer hour -/ Let us diligently cry out to the one God:/ Holy, holy, holy art thou, our God!(Trinitarian troparion of the 5th tone of the Lenten Triodion). “The church stands without singing” - this is how in the old days in Rus' they said about a temple in which worship is not performed. Thus, during worship, singing and prayer appear as equal and complementary actions, and in a certain sense, singing is prayer, and prayer is singing.

And if joint church prayer is the spirit of worship, then church singing is its soul. The purpose of church prayer is communion with God. The purpose of church singing is to convey our common, brotherly prayers to Heaven. As St. Augustine once put it, Quis cantat, bis orat - “He who sings prays twice” (compare with the Russian proverb Singing - prayers aggravation).

But there are two fundamentally different spiritual states: communion with God (prayer to God) and contemplation of God (thinking about God). And not only singing, but every kind of church art should serve the main thing - to help spiritual achievement prayer work, without distracting the mind or entertaining the soul of the worshiper with an aesthetic moment or artistic image.

In secular art, on the contrary: it is the beauty of his works (in itself!) that is designed to awaken certain thoughts, feelings or moods in their contemplators. And if the task of church art is to encourage prayer, then the task of secular religious art is to encourage thinking about God or God-thinking.

That is why, since Old Testament times, in the Holy Scriptures the concepts of “music” and “liturgical singing” were strictly distinguished. That is why many Holy Fathers and teachers of the Church, calling for spiritual sobriety, strongly recommended not to confuse the art of music with the art of church singing.

Historical evidence of confusion: the voice of the ancient Church

Let young people listen to this, let those who are entrusted with the responsibility of singing in church listen: God must be sung not with the voice, but with the heart! It is indecent, like tragic singers, to lubricate the larynx and throat with a special substance so that theatrical melodies and tunes can be heard in church.(Blessed Jerome. Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians. Translation by S. S. Averintsev)

Among us there are those [people] who, despising God and treating the sayings of the Holy Spirit as the most ordinary words, make discordant sounds and behave no better than those possessed by demons: they shake and spin with their whole body, performing customs that are alien to spiritual concentration.

Pitiful and unfortunate man, you should be shouting the angelic praises with fear and trembling, but here you transfer the actions of mimes and dancers, obscenely stretching out your arms, stamping your feet and twisting your whole body! How are you not afraid and trembling, encroaching on such [prayer] sayings? Don’t you understand that the Lord Himself is invisibly present here, measuring everyone’s movements and examining their conscience? But you don’t even think about it: after all, what you saw and heard in theaters darkens your mind, and so you introduce theatrical actions into church rituals, so you pour out the disorder of your soul in inarticulate cries!

How will incessant lifting and movement of hands and crying, loud and strained, but devoid of meaning, help prayer? Isn't all this the actions of women selling themselves at crossroads, or theatrical screamers? How are you not ashamed of the words you proclaim: “Serve the Lord with fear and glorify Him with trembling” (Ps 2:11)?..

You will say: the prophet exhorts to glorify God with jubilant shouts. But we forbid not such exclamations, but an inarticulate cry, not the voice of praise, but the voice of disorder, the vainglorious competition of those praying to each other, the idle and inappropriate raising of hands, the stamping of feet, and all these depraved and effeminate customs of idle people having fun in the theaters or at the hippodrome . (St. John Chrysostom. 1st Discourse on Chapter VI of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Translation by S. S. Averintsev)

What kind of contrition is there for a monk when he stands in a cell or in a church and raises his voice like a bull? After all, if we stand before the face of God, we must stand in great contrition, and not in idle amusement.(Life of Elder Pamva. Translation by S. S. Averintsev)

Regarding those who come to churches to sing, we wish that they do not use disorderly(i.e. dissolute) screaming and did not amplify the natural voice to a scream; so that they also do not add anything inappropriate or inappropriate to the Church, but so that with much attention and heartfelt contrition they offer the psalmody(psalm singing) God looking at the inner(75th rule of the VI Ecumenical Council. Translation by the author)

Church And secular: fight or interaction?

Alas, neither these nor other similar sound judgments of the most authoritative representatives of the ancient Church, nor even all-Church council decrees had the desired effect, and worldly, secular elements continued their invasion into the sacred realm of the Church. Thus, one of the striking passages of the “Valaam Conversation”, a famous monument of Russian church journalism of the mid-16th century, echoes the previous statements:

Many of them consider themselves skillful singers, and when they come to the choir, they begin to sing the chants in their own way, and at the same time everyone praises their singing... It was said about such fools that, zealous in their singing, they bray like oxen in front of each other; they stomp their feet, shake their arms and nod their heads, emitting exclamations as if going mad.(Valaam conversation. Translation by the author)

And after the church and civil reforms of the 17th-18th centuries. ideas and realities of worldly culture began to be practically officially introduced into the liturgical culture of our Church, as a result of which the so-called secularization(or secularization) church art.

However, the church culture of any Christian state, starting with the great empire of the Romans, Byzantium, has always been penetrated by non-church elements, both folk and professional - secular. And vice versa: secular art also drew many ideas and thoughts, plots and images from the realities of church art. This mutual enrichment of the secular and the church is quite natural - a person remains a person both within the church fence and outside it.

Moreover, it is even useful to both cultures - both church and secular. After all, this is exactly how all the originality and unique originality of each Christian liturgical culture is born, which distinguishes it from other cultures that are fraternal in faith.

However, as we know, in everything, moderation is important. And if this measure is violated, internal disharmony and disruption of normal functioning begin in the life of every organism and every system. After all, any borrowing of someone else’s is good and useful only to a certain extent, namely, until it becomes excessive and begins to overshadow one’s own, native, gradually pushing it into the background, and then completely replacing it.

A similar substitution occurred in Russian liturgical culture in the 18th-19th centuries, when our church icon painting gradually turned into religious painting, our churches were built and rebuilt according to the models and modules of Western European architecture, and our liturgical singing became concert-opera. This kind of metamorphosis occurs everywhere and whenever, in our changes and improvements, the supreme first hierarchy of values ​​is once violated, which is worth talking about separately.

The essential reason for the substitution ecclesiastical secular

Having created man in His image and likeness (Genesis 1: 26-27), the Creator created a supreme thinking being, spiritually and physically turned upward to his Creator and Father. This idea is wonderfully reflected in the vocabulary Greek language, where the word “man” - ánthrōpos - was born from the combination of the preposition aná (‘up’) and the verb trépō (‘turn’, ‘turn’). At the same time, in accordance with the plan of the One-Trinity God, man was created with three components - in the unity of spirit, soul and body. And the body, as we know, was created from dust of the earth or “red clay” (Genesis 2: 7; 3: 19b), i.e. from a primary and primitive material substance, and ultimately - out of nothing.

But man was turned to God by his highest part - the region of the human spirit, the nature of which is divine. The spirit was called to rule over the soul, and the soul over the body. And as long as this primordial hierarchy was observed by man in his life and activity, he remained with God, being in the bliss of immediate and direct communication with God. But once he violated this first hierarchy and reoriented his spirit from the Creator to the self-sufficient beauty of the created fruit, he fell away from God: it was accomplished fall from grace person

With His great atoning Sacrifice - suffering and death on the Cross - God's Son, Christ, freed man from slavery to sin and death, returning to him his essential first hierarchy. But at the same time He in no way diminished human freedom, leaving everyone his personal right to decide the main issue of his life - the question of his spiritual orientation. And each of us, in our own time, chooses where and to whom to turn our spirit, and what values ​​to orient it towards.

Conventionally, this can be imagined this way: if our spirit is oriented towards God, i.e., turned towards Heaven, upward, then together with the spirit, our other two components - soul and body - are located in that same primordial hierarchy: the spirit controlled by God ( mind, thought) governs the soul (feelings, emotions), and the soul dominates the body (flesh and its physiology).

And if in human society this primordial hierarchy, the top of which is the spirit directed towards Heaven, is preserved, then (according to the words of the ambassadors of the Kyiv prince Vladimir) - “God dwells there with people.” And if this first hierarchy is violated, and the spirit of society is reoriented towards earthly things, material assets, then the main thing is replaced and the emphasis is transferred from the internal - essential and eternal - to the external - random and transitory.

And the wife saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes and desirable...(Genesis 3:6)

And the Lord said to Moses, Hasten to go down; For your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have become corrupt; They soon turned away from the path that I commanded them: they made themselves a molten calf and worshiped it, and brought sacrifices to it and said: Behold your God, O Israel!.. (Exodus 32:7-8)

And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they did not reject you, but they rejected Me, so that I should not reign over them; As they did from the day that I brought them out of Egypt until this day, forsaking Me and serving other gods, so will they do to you.(1 Samuel 8:7-8)

Consequences of reorientation of the spirit from the heavenly to the earthly

So in the religious life of Russia and, accordingly, in the liturgical art of the Russian Church in the 18th-19th centuries, under the influence of Western Christian culture, a substitution of spirituality took place sincerity. Church symbol- a sign and reflection of a higher, heavenly reality - was replaced religious illustration, and Christian symbolism - by figurativeness.

And so, instead of strict churches, lush palaces are erected, instead of canonical icons, paintings in gilded frames appear on their walls, and instead of traditional, age-old hymns, new-fangled, soulful choral concerts and opera arias are heard in the choirs...

And disappears church beauty , giving way social beauty, attractiveness. And the artistic embodiment of the realities of liturgical culture is no longer determined by the ancient and eternal canons, but by the changeable and transitory categories of fashion, artistic taste and style.

So it is not surprising that instead of prayer books in churches, for the most part there were spectators and listeners who did not move the spirit, did not strain the will to pray, but only delighted the soul in contemplating the artistic images of religious painting and listening to choral music. And it is not at all strange that in church usage in the 18th-19th centuries. new expressions appeared: “listen to mass”, “defend Easter matins”, “read the prayer rule”, etc.

(to be continued)

All people, when talking to others, know what they are saying, and they themselves stand with all attention, listening to the speeches of others. But it happens that while speakers know what they are saying to others, listeners often do not pay so much attention to what is said to them. Is there intelligence in such people? But if for such inattention to what other people tell us, we are considered unreasonable and indecent: then what hope of salvation can we have when approaching the psalms - these words of the Holy Spirit, we sing with our lips and seem to be singing songs to God, but our minds do not listen at all? why? when we give our mind to an evil demon - and from the very beginning of singing, it carries it away to worry about seemingly necessary things, or fills it with unclean and nasty memories - and we do not feel anything from what we sing! So, my good lady, show at least the same attention while singing psalms that you have when talking with others. If you do not make any effort about this, then your psalmody and your conversation with God will be a waste and nothing. This will not only be futile, but also not harmless work. The one who sings like this should cry and groan, because, thinking to please God, he angers Him even more with his disorderly singing. (Abba Isaiah to nun Theodora. Miterikon. Kyiv, 2001. P. 12-13)

Our liturgical chants are all edifying, thoughtful and sublime. They contain all theological science, and all Christian moral teaching, and all consolations, and all fears. Anyone who listens to them can do without any other teaching Christian books. Saint Theophan the Recluse

St. Filaret (Drozdov), Metropolitan of Moscow. From a letter to the rector of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Archimandrite. Anthony (February 12, 1850): “God sends us humility in the fact that the general wants to re-teach the entire church to sing in his own way. If they sing well in the Lavra; if the root of Greek singing is there, why would you want to tear out this root and offer four-part singing ? - If you give your notes, they will add such harmony to them that you will not recognize either your notes or your melody. And when you say that this is not similar to your previous one, then they will tell you that the harmony is correct, and everyone will recognize it as such. Europe. Therefore, it is better for us to sing, as St. Sergius blessed until now: and it is his mercy that the matter of Lavra singing was not started, which for some other places was not without difficulties.”

Here is another statement of the saint about church singing: " Orthodox worship, ancient, wise, full of grace and edification, we perform weakly, hasten, shorten and further hamper it with newly composed chants... not caring much about whether the spirit of life is clear in them..."

He who sincerely chants is renewed in soul and becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not think that psalmody is something unimportant. Although it seems to only enchant the ear, it actually awakens the soul. So the blessed prophet Elisha, whom some kings urged to predict the future, says: give me a man who knows how to sing (2 Kings 3:15). One who was skilled in singing came, and while he was singing, says Scripture, the Holy Spirit descended on Elisha. So what? Is the Holy Spirit enchanted by sounds and attracted by singing if He rests in a prophetic soul? To call the Holy Spirit to oneself, the purity of the prophet was sufficient for this. Why then does he say: give me a man who can sing? Not in order to delight the Spirit with psalmody, but so that, while he sang, the prophet’s mind, being renewed, became worthy of being visited by the Holy Spirit. For this purpose, he calls on the Spirit to show that He is fascinated not by psalmody, but by the soul awakened by psalmody. He descended not on the singer, but on the listener. (St. John Chrysostom)

St. Clement of Alexandria (+210) draws attention to the difference between Christian worship from Jewish and pagan in musical terms: “To glorify God, we only use the word of peace, and we no longer use the ancient psalter, nor the trumpet, nor the tympanum, nor the flute.” But not all types of vocal singing, in his opinion, can be accepted by Christians: “Music should be used for decoration and formation of morals... excessive music should be rejected, breaking the soul, going into variety, sometimes crying, sometimes uncontrollable and passionate , then frantic and insane. We must choose melodies imbued with dispassion and chastity; melodies that soften and relax the soul cannot harmonize with our courageous and generous way of thinking and disposition. Art, expressed in the flow of voices across different generations, is false art - it develops a tendency towards an inactive and disordered life. Strict and serious melodies prevent shamelessness and drunkenness in the bud. Chromatic harmonies should be left to unchaste music.”

St. John Chrysostom (+407). He, according to Socrates (5th century), replenished the night worship; demanded that the Orthodox, like the Arians, sing harmoniously and decorously in the choirs, perform sacred passages more often and proclaim words of confession of faith, in particular, the ancient song Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Crosses and candles began to be worn in passages, and from then on the Trinity glory began to be part of every service and at the end of almost every prayer. Chrysostom about singing: “Nothing excites, inspires the spirit so much, nothing so detaches it from the earth and the bonds of the body, nothing so fills it with love for wisdom and indifference to everyday affairs, like harmonious singing, like a sacred song, composed according to the rule of rhythm . We are by nature fond of singing and poetry; a crying child calms down by listening to them... when they listen to singing and songs, labor and work become more bearable... The Lord established the singing of psalms so that we would receive both pleasure and benefit from this.”

St. Athanasius of Alexandria (+373) about the singing of the psalms: “Why are the psalms sung in measured rhythm and in chant?.. The Lord, wanting the melody of the words to be a symbol of the spiritual harmony of the soul, ordered the psalms to be sung in measured rhythm and read them in chanting... Accompanying the psalms with singing does not mean concern for euphony, but a sign of a harmonious state of spiritual thoughts... He who sings well tunes his soul and, as it were, brings it out of unevenness into evenness...”

Woe to you too, regent, great woe, if in your work you give place to laziness, coldness, absent-mindedness, if you do not delve into the divine meaning of the chants, if you do not tremble before its greatness; if, while chanting God, your thoughts wander in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. If so, remember the words of the scriptures: “Cursed is everyone who does the work of God with negligence” (Jer. 48:10). Woe to the choir that interferes with prayer either with overly sweet sensual music, or with lies that can outrage even the untrained ear of a commoner, who has a natural instinct for comprehending a false sound. Woe to the choir that sets a bad example for those praying with its behavior: talking, laughing, fiddling around in the choir, singing while reading psalms, and in general, as if it doesn’t feel like it’s in church, completely not delving into the meaning of the service. In such behavior of the singers, which creates temptation in those praying and involuntarily puts a special non-church flavor on all the singing of the choir, the regent is most to blame, for he is entrusted not only with the leadership of the musical side of the matter, but also with maintaining the order as strict as possible, and even, in part, religiously. moral education of singers (archpriest Anatoly Pravdolyubov)

The ultimate goal...of all music is to serve the glory of God and the refreshment of the spirit. Where this is not taken into account, there is no real music, but only devilish chatter and noise (J. S. Bach)

Each time you need to sing like it’s the last. (archim. Matthew Mormyl)

“We must do everything possible to drive out the worldly spirit from our church singing, turn to its ancient beautiful examples, so dear to the heart of a believing and praying Orthodox Christian” (From the speech of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy on April 18, 1948)

Sing to our God, sing, sing to our King, sing. For God is the King of all the earth, sing wisely. (Psalm 46:7-8)

We wish that those who come to church to sing do not use disorderly cries, do not force an unnatural cry out of themselves, and do not introduce anything incongruous and unusual for the church, but with great attention and tenderness bring psalmody to God, who watches over the hidden. For the Holy Word taught the children of Israel to be reverent. (Canon 75 of the VI Ecumenical Council).

Believe and accept with your heart what you sing with your lips, and what you accept with faith, justify with your works. (10 rule of the IV Council of Carthage).

Christian singing should sound in the heart, and not in the lips alone, and every sound should be the sound of the heart, an expression of thought, a response to desires. Meaningless singing is unworthy of a Christian, whose every action must be reasonable. (St. John Chrysostom).

Day and night, treasures of heavenly blessings are opened to those who sing songs to God. (St. Neil of Sinai).

Skillful singing is pleasing to people for a short time, but reverent singing is pleasing to God and to people and is useful, introducing into them the spirit with which it breathes. (St. Philaret of Moscow).

We must always remember and realize that church singing is prayer and that the singing of prayers must be done reverently, in order to excite those standing in the Church to prayer... At the same time, the behavior of those singing must be reverent and consistent with the high rank of church singers, uniting their voices with the voices of angels . (St. John of San Francisco).

I think we often forget that ultimately, God is the ultimate beauty. (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh).

The place for performing liturgical singing is the temple of God - the house of prayer, in which everything should be done “decently and in order.” In the temple, as in the house of God, reverent and attentive standing should be a natural need of our spirit, like standing before the face of the Lord Himself, who is graciously present here. And singing, as one of the most important liturgical actions, should be entirely directed not only to the maintenance and preservation of this holy feeling, but also to its elevation - not to entertainment, but to the concentration of those standing in the temple. The main and essential task of church singing is therefore 1) to put one in a prayerful mood, 2) to teach and admonish. (Ignatiev A.A., priest. Liturgical singing of the Orthodox Russian Church... - Kazan, 1916.- P.5-6.)

The purpose of church singing is to excite and preserve the pious feeling of the Orthodox people during church services and for this purpose to support the edifying impressions that are already familiar. (Collected works and reviews of Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow... Vol. 3, p. 324. Quoted from: Russian sacred music in documents and materials. Vol. III. Church singing of post-reform Russia as understood by contemporaries (1861-1918) . - M.: Languages ​​of Slavic culture, 2002. - P.491)

“It is noteworthy that considering church singing as public prayer, the patristic tradition places on it, first of all, not melodic, but performing, moral requirements... Prayerful, attentive, tender and reverent singing can be called canonically prescribed. The patristic tradition also characterizes it as humbly and quietly praying with fear and trembling." Dmitry Yurevich. Church singing in patristic tradition and historical perspective

Since everyone who repents humbles himself, then for this reason God gives His grace to him, as a humble one, so that he would hate both lustful and evil deeds, and always remember his weakness and, remembering it, have compassion for people who servile himself and be lenient towards their weaknesses, not condemning anyone in their sins, so that he would be brief and patient, and find peace in his soul. Having reached this point, he will begin to sing a new song to the Lord, praise to our God, i.e. will begin to bring thanksgiving from a pure and contrite heart, because a pure heart is a contrite and humble heart. And any other psalmody except this is in vain and useless. It is impossible for anyone who does not sing in this way to converse with God through prayer. Even if he worked on it a lot and for a long time; but with his lips he will sing and say prayers, and with his mind he will think about what upsets God and moves Him to anger. (St. Simeon the New Theologian, part 1, 164.)

Since everything that is in accordance with nature is dear to nature, and music is in accordance with our nature, then the great David added sweet singing to the wise teaching of virtues, pouring into the lofty dogmas a kind of sweetness of honey, with the help of which our nature in some way studies and heals itself. And the healing of our nature is the harmony of life, which, in my opinion, is secretly inspired by sweet singing. For, perhaps, this very thing serves as a calling to a high state of life, to the fact that the character of those living virtuously should not be rude, strange, with all discord, not give, like a string, an excessively high sound, because the harmony of the string, being driven to excess, it is certainly violated; but on the contrary, one should not weaken one’s strength to the point of immoderation by voluptuousness, because the soul, weakened by such passions, becomes deaf and dumb: and everything else should also be raised and kicked over time, meaning that our morals will always preserve harmony and kindness. well, without excessive licentiousness and excessive tension. (St. Gregory of Nyssa, part 2, p. 13)

(Prophet David), giving the Divine words an unartificial sweetness, wants to interpret the meaning of the predicate by sweet singing with a certain flow of speech, when the very tact of the voice reveals, as much as possible, the thought contained in the utterances. Why is it such a seasoning for food, which, as if with some kind of sweets, makes the food of the lessons pleasant? (Ibid. 4, 2, 15. Quoted from: Treasury of Spiritual Wisdom, 10 vols.).

Purify your heart, then your service will be favorable to God. And professional singing rarely carries a living voice that reaches the Lord. You must have your heart turned to God. Only then will no one pay any attention to your singing, but everyone will follow you to God. (John (Krestyankin), archimandrite. Letters of Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) / 3rd ed., additional - Holy Dormition Pskovo-Pechersky Convent, 2003. - P. 232)

What is singing used for? Listen. God, seeing that many people were reluctant to take on this work [of prayer], and, wanting to make this work desirable and destroy the feeling of fatigue, combined a melody with the prophecies, so that everyone would enjoy the harmony of the melody, and with great zeal they would offer up sacred chants to Him. (St. John Chrysostom, T 5, P. 151. Quoted from: Treasury of Spiritual Wisdom, 10 vols.)

Liturgical singing, as we have seen, in the 2nd century. received significant development compared to the 1st century, if you believe the legend that it was St. Ignatius the God-Bearer was the initiator of antiphonal singing in the Christian church. In the 3rd century. it takes an equally significant step: it recognizes the need to regulate the very melody (not just the rite) of Christian singing. Track. on the issue of singing in the 3rd century. looks deeper than II. We have in mind the considerations expressed by Clement of Alexandria about appropriate music for Christians and their worship. First of all, Clement draws attention to the difference between Christian worship from Jewish and pagan in musical terms: “to glorify God, we only use the word of peace, and we no longer use the ancient psalter, nor the trumpet, nor the tympanum, nor the flute.” But not all childbirth and vocal singing, according to Clement, can be accepted by Christians and were accepted by the church of his time. “Music should be used for decoration and education of morals. After all, even at the feast (agape?) we drink for mutual singing, chanting our longed-for (hope) and glorifying God for the unenviable gift of human pleasures and for the constant supply of everything necessary for the growth of both body and soul. Excessive music (περιττὴ), breaking the soul, going into variety, sometimes crying (θρηνώδη), sometimes uncontrollable and passionate (ἀκόλαστον καὶ ἡδυπαθῆ), sometimes frantic and insane ( ἐκβατχευομένην καὶ μανικὴν)". Dwelling on the types of vocal Greek music that existed in his time, which won the attention of the entire world of that time, and had long been attached to eastern peoples and d.b. having everywhere replaced national tunes, Clement finds some of these genres completely unacceptable for a Christian and the church. “We must choose melodies imbued with dispassion and chastity; melodies that soften and relax the soul cannot harmonize with our courageous and generous way of thoughts and dispositions. Art, expressed in the flow of voices across different generations, is false art; it develops a tendency towards an inactive and disorderly life. Strict and serious melodies warn (p. 114) shamelessness, drunkenness in the very bud (this probably means agapes). It is necessary to provide chromatic harmonies (χρωατικὰς ἁρμονίας) to shameless (ἀχρώμοις) drinking bouts and music of heteras with bouquets.” “The various poisons of the crushing songs and plaintive verses of the Carian muses are equally fatal to morals, drawing them with unrestrained and tasteless (κακοτέχνῳ) music into the passion of the same feast.” But Clement speaks approvingly of some types of Greek music of that time, apparently finding in them something in common with the sacred music of the ancient Jews. “The model for music can be given by David, singing and prophesying, praising God rhythmically (ἐμμελῶς). Such an enharmonic mode (γένος ἑναρμόνιον) is most suitable for Doric harmony, and diatonic mode (διάτονον) for Phrygian harmony, as Aristoxenus says; So the harmony of the barbaric Jewish psalter, revealing in itself something venerable, as the most ancient, and becomes, especially in Terpandra (Greek musician), a model for Doric harmony, when he sings of Zeus as follows: Zeus is the beginning of everything, the leader of all, this is the beginning of songs I lift up Jupiter to you” Consequently, of the Greek melodies, Clement characterizes the Carian as too plaintive, gloomy for Christian use; nothing more is known about us. As for the chromatic, enharmonic and diatonic tunes, we also know their very structure. Their difference depended on the size of each of the three intervals in the tetrachord (a system of 4 strings or sounds), which formed the basis of Greek music. The total size of the intervals in the tetrachord was 2 ½ tones, and the simplest construction of the tetrachord was when it consisted of two whole intervals or tones and one half; such a construction was called diatonic (through a tone). A more artificial construction was when the tetrachord consisted of a one-and-a-half tone and two semitones; such a construction was called chromatic (colorful, variegated). The construction was even more artificial when the tetrachord was composed of a double tone and two quarter tones. “Such a tetrachord was probably not used in singing practice due to the impossibility of accurately performing with the voice and distinguishing quarter tones by ear, but was practiced in the field of instrumental music.” This last (p. 115) construction of the tetrachord was called enharmonic. But Clement, apparently, by enharmonic melody means some other kind (unison?), since he considers it simpler than diatonic and assimilates it to Doric melodies, which later writers classify as a diatonic type of music on a par with Phrygian. All these remarks by Clement about music are apparently caused by the illegibility of the Alexandrian (naturally, very educated in general and musically in particular) Christians towards various types of music. Clement so. The first of the church teachers came to the idea of ​​regulating the liturgical singing of Christians in relation to its melody itself and spoke out decisively for preventing the most artificial and passionate melodies from entering the church. The later organizers of church singing were St. Ambrose and Gregory the Great, and in the east St. John of Damascus from his system of voices, completely in accordance with the instructions of Clement, excluded the chromatic melody and adopted the Doric and Phrygian diatonic character. (M. Skaballanovich, Explanatory Typikon)

The wanton cry of those singing in church means that they are not accepted into church singing. It is also unpleasant to eat when adding to church singing. Let them be cast out of office and let them not sing in church. It is fitting to sing decorously and accordingly to send glory to the Master of all and to the Lord, as with one mouth from one’s hearts. Those who disobey this are guilty of eternal punishment, for they do not obey the holy fathers’ tradition and rule. (Tvpikon, there is a Charter. Chapter 28 “About outrageous screams.” Publication of the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, 1992, page 37 vol.).

Ignatius Brianchaninov about Znamenny singing: “The tones of this melody are majestic, drawn-out... depict the groans of a repentant soul, sighing in the country of its exile for the blessed, desired land of eternal joy, pure, holy pleasure... The majestic “Lord have mercy!” is like a desert wind : it’s so deplorable, touching, drawn-out... Everything cheerful, light, playful would seem strange, ugly.”

1953<Без даты>Difference of cultures. Northern people love the ancient style of icon painting. The northern peasant and tradesman, even if he does not pursue the antiquity of the icon, still demands that it be written in a “high and heavenly” letter, believing that everything holy and worshiped can be conveyed exclusively by the forms, lines and colors of Greek and Old Russian pictorial styles. In the days of my youth in the houses of northern people - Velomorye, North<ерная>Dvina, r<ека>Pinega, r<ека>Mezen, Pechora - it was impossible to meet an icon of the “new”, painting-“academic” style. This is, firstly, because the inhabitants of the North carefully protected the icons inherited from their ancestors. Secondly, when purchasing or ordering a new icon, they demanded that the image be “sacred,” canonical. “Picturesque” (once borrowed from the West) style of icon painting northern people considered profanation, reduction, thoughtlessness. They say, this is everyday life, this is ordinary, everyday life. And “that” art was transmitted from the heavenly world, from the angels. Regarding one of Nef’s paintings, the murk said: “Well... it’s like an ordinary painting... They’re taking pictures of ladies, and you can pray to them.” Although she is a modest person, she is very plump, bready... Her eyes are blue, her cheeks are rosy, her lips are puffy. No, this is not the “Highest Heaven”... The people of the North also loved the ancient style of church singing. The character of not only the melodies, but the very manner of performing pillar and hook singing was considered in the North to be adopted from the angels. On the contrary, theatrical, sensual singing, which has long been widespread in Russia, is not liked by northern people. The opera-concert style of church singing is considered by the Pomors, Dvinyans and others to be thoughtlessness, impoverishment, lies and insignificance. Concerts sung in church, the roar of bass, the screech of sopranos, according to northern people, are “stolen heresy.” I'm not talking about the Old Believers. This is the spirit of the general culture of the North. By the way, in such a hotbed of church culture as Siysky, from time immemorial only and exclusively “pillar” singing was used, znamenny with its special technique of performance. Northern people, considering the church to be “earthly heaven,” believe that everything here should be different from what it is in this world. Both the eyes and the ear must see and hear the “celestial”, the supermundane, the high. Conventionally idealistic painting, a special style of singing, the beauty of which is so unlike the generally accepted concepts and tastes of today - this is what the soul of Northern Rus' requires. Shergin Boris Viktorovich. Righteous Sun: Diaries of different years. - St. Petersburg: Bibliopolis, 2009. - pp. 565-567.

God commands that your life be a psalm, which would not be composed of earthly sounds (I mean thoughts by sounds), but would receive its pure and intelligible sound from above, from the heavenly heights. The listeners of this psalm are, in allegory, those to whom you set an example. a decent life. St. Gregory of Nyssa.

Put your life into song. I ask you, clothe life in song: then you will be able to feel the harmony of life and your connection with harmony... St. Nikolay (Velimirović) Serbian.