Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hey everybody this is Steve and singing is a huge part of how we pray.
As we've covered before, Orthodox Churches have a very distinctive look: the icons, the
architecture, all of it comes together to beautifully show our relationship with God
and the story of our salvation.
Yet Orthodox Churches don't only have a distinctive look: they also have a distinctive sound.
When you walk into a Church service, anything from a prayer service like Matins and Vespers
to our worship in the Divine Liturgy, you'll notice something.
We don't simply read our prayers: we sing our prayers.
To understand why that is, I'm very happy to welcome my former professor, Dr Grammenos
Karanos.
Menios is the Assistant Professor of Byzantine Liturgical Music at Hellenic College Holy
Cross, where I went to seminary.
Not only is Menios a wonderful chanter and an accomplished scholar, you may remember
Menios from the great talk he gave at YCC17, and from his appearance back in episode 100
of Be the Bee.
Thanks for joining us!
Thank you Steve.
It's great to be with you.
Liturgical music is something I'm very passionate about.
I love studying, performing, and teaching Byzantine chant.
Because you're right, our services are mostly sung rather than simply read.
This is a practice that goes all the way back to the Temple and Old Testament worship and
it has been the tradition of the Church for the entirety of its existence.
Back in episode 45, you noted that the Books of Psalms has been called "The Hymn Book of
the Temple."
The ancient Israelites sang the Psalms, with instrumental accompaniment, as part of their
worship.
As we read in Acts, the first generation of Christians continued to pray in the Temple.
And, over time, as our Church services developed, they retained the predominantly musical character
of Old Testament worship.
So why is music such an integral part of our prayer and worship?
Well, I think there are at least three reasons.
First, music appeals to something very deep in the human mind and heart.
Second, music helps create an experience that words alone cannot.
And third, music helps express the reality of the Kingdom of God.
You're right, Professor.
Music does appeal to something deep within us.
Think of how much easier it is to learn a song than it is to simply learn a paragraph
of text.
Or how a particular tune or piece of music can burrow deep into your mind and heart and
just echo there, so you can't get it out of your head.
There's actually research that suggests that humans made music even before we developed
the ability to speak.
And that we sang language before we spoke it.
In medicine today, doctors are even treating people suffering from Alzheimer's disease
with music.
People who are otherwise unable to speak or interact are suddenly brought back to themselves
when they hear their favorite music.
Links to some of these studies and videos are down in the doobly do.
Yet not only does music resonate deeply with us, it connects us to something we may not
otherwise be able to experience.
Byzantine music, for example, has eight modes.
Each of these modes has a particular mood or feeling that it inspires.
For example, on feasts of the Cross we don't simply say "Save, O Lord, your people and
bless your inheritance."
We chant it in the first mode, which is triumphant and powerful:
♫Save, O Lord, your people♫
And every Pascha, we don't simply say that Christ is risen.
We chant it in the plagal first mode, which has a similarly energetic and hopeful quality:
♫Christ is risen from the dead♫
Contrast that with the the more humble, penitential feel of "Through the intercessions of the
Theotokos" in the 2nd mode:
♫Through the intercession...♫
Or "They stripped me of my garments," one of the most powerful hymns of Holy Week, in
which, the Lord, naked on the Cross, speaks to us directly.
It is in the plagal second mode, which evokes sorrow and compunction:
♫They stripped me of my garments♫
And contrast that with the majesty and splendor of the Varys Mode:
♫What god is as great as our God♫
It's one thing to simply say that Christ is Risen.
It's another to experience a taste of that joy by singing it.
It's one thing to state that I am a sinner.
It's another to allow my heart to be pierced by a sweetly mournful melody.
It's one thing to say that God is wondrous.
It's another to be swept up into the heights of that wonder by a song that speaks, not
simply to the mind, but to the heart as well.
And I think all of this really gets to your third point: that music helps to express the
reality of the Kingdom of God.
As we described back in episode 119, symbols are moments of collision: when our world and
God Himself collide.
When we get a taste of the reality of the Kingdom of God.
Just like icons aren't simply artistic paintings, but rather sacramental images that reflect
the present reality of the saints in God's Kingdom, chant is more than artistic music.
It's a glimpse of something more.
It's a glimpse that doesn't simply communicate facts to our minds but rather grabs our hearts
and points them away from sin and towards the Lord: with repentance, humility, and genuine
love.
It's a glimpse that doesn't simply teach us about the Kingdom but rather gives us a taste
of the Kingdom.
So that we can experience, to the very core of our being, the reality of God's love.
The reality of His victory over sin and death.
You see, we sing in Church, not simply because it's a more effective way of learning the
truths of our faith, but because singing transcends mere head knowledge and helps us to know the
Lord with our whole hearts.
Because the songs of the Church both bring us into God's presence and shape our desires,
so that we can love Him and His saints and His righteousness with even greater zeal.
Because, in the words of a modern God-bearing father, Elder Timotheos Tzanis the Cretan,
who fell asleep in the Lord in 1991:
"The cantor who chants with the grace of God is captured by the Holy Spirit, he does not
live in this world, he ascends to the heavens!
And he imparts this grace to the entire congregation!
If only we had eyes to see the rays of light that come out of the cantor's mouth and fall
on the heads of the faithful!"
So let's be the bee, and sing to the Lord.
♫Be the Bee, and Live Orthodoxy.♫ Remember to like and subscribe, and share.
Remember to like and subscribe, and share. I'll see you all next week.
Thanks to our supporters on Patreon who helped make this episode possible.
To support the creation of more Orthodox Christian content, please visit patreon.com/y2am.