Orthodox liturgical singing. Church singing

Church singing and icons, which have accompanied Orthodox worship since ancient times, have a living family connection: reveal the transcendental essence of existence through special, sacred art; in them, in the same faith, the refined depth of religious contemplation, sublimity, penetration, and the revelation of special, unearthly beauty are captured. An icon is a contemplative chant, where the range of musical sounds and tones is embodied in the visual form of colors, lines and figures. Chanting is an icon in musical sounds. The Holy Trinity of St. Andrei Rublev and the hymns of the Kyiv chant are mystically consonant. Orthodox church singing and iconography is a worldview embodied in iconography and songwriting.

The musical composition of church singing uniquely and surprisingly harmoniously combines the images of biblical Jerusalem and ancient Byzantium, ascetic Egypt and Thebaid and Pious ancient Rus'. Reverently listening to the sacred poetry and words and music in ancient chants, the believing soul cannot help but feel in them the beating of the life of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church of Christ.

The melodic and poetic content of ancient church hymns reflects the essence of the entire Christian idea, which begins with human sorrow for (1 John 5:19), passes through tender joy for (Gal. 3:13) and ends with delight for (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed ). Here is a mystical recollection of the past, an experience of the present, and contemplation of the future. Our ancient church hymns are like precious stones on the royal crown of the Church: shining with all the fullness of their splendor in a liturgical frame, they increase the richness and beauty of church services.

Each service has its own content and form, hence the variety of services; however, their essence lies in the mystical mystery of the redemptive, saving love of God for fallen humanity and in the response movement of the suffering soul, thirsting for redemption and salvation.

Ancient church hymns are marked with the stamp of the conciliar creativity of the Church, in which the individual is completely absorbed and merges with the believers, and yet they were created by the most worthy sons of the Church. Their authors were people whose entire lives were spent in severe ascetic deeds, incessant fasting and fervent prayers, and sometimes ended in martyrdom for Christ. Ancient church chants are for the most part examples of pure high poetry and in their Greek prototypes they are mostly in poetic form. The lofty sacred poetry of the word sounds like music in itself. This is easily grasped and realized in the internal unity of the chant with the service of which it is part.

Ancient church singing, like church reading, icons and the entire liturgical structure of Orthodoxy in general, is alien to sentimental subjectivity, sensuality and what is usually called theatricality. It is filled with reverence and fear of God, for it inalienably belongs to the sacred rite (divine service), which is the common property of the children of God, the conciliar prayer work of the entire Church, where there is and cannot be a place for the subjective and theatrically false. This idea is expressed in the 75th canon of the VI Ecumenical Council (680-681), which resolutely prohibits the use of the spirit of the Church in the Church, and everything else. The direct meaning of the conciliar verdict regarding sentimental subjectivism logically expresses and suggests the idea of ​​the catholicity of church singing.

It is generally accepted that our ancient church chants are the most perfect type of musical and poetic creativity, which combines the internal unity of sacred rites, words and music (singing). The combination of internal unity in action, word and music has always been sought and sought by true poets and musicians, and yet it is fully possible and feasible only in the sphere of religious worldview, for it is the fruit of religious inspiration.

The most reliable way to determine the suitability of a musical work for liturgical use is the ability to evaluate it from the point of view of churchliness, which does not require special musical education.

Church singing, single or polyphonic, choral, should be reverent and prayerfully motivating. For this, regents and psalm-readers should adhere to the ancient church chants - Znamenny, Greek, Bulgarian and Kyiv. The humming and style of secular singing characteristic of operatic arias, as well as the accompaniment of a choir with a closed mouth and everything else that would make church singing similar to secular singing, are unacceptable in church singing. According to Patriarch Alexy (I Simansky), such singing becomes essentially worldly singing, a frivolous combination of sounds. A temple in which non-church singing is allowed, thus turns from a house of prayer into a hall of free concerts that attract, rather than pray, those who must endure this singing that distracts them from prayer.

Performing church chants in the tone of secular romances or operatic arias does not allow worshipers not only to concentrate, but also to grasp the content and meaning of the chants. Such singing only impresses the ear, but leaves no trace in the soul. And this despite the fact that in pursuit of a tasteless, from the church point of view, imitation of secular singing, we have amazing examples of strictly church singing, sanctified by time and church traditions.

In church singing, it is necessary to avoid both excessive haste and procrastination, drawn out singing and long pauses between exclamations and chants. Slow, drawn-out singing with long pauses unnecessarily lengthens the service and forces cuts to be made so that the time of the service does not drag on, for example, solo performances and other concert numbers are performed by shortening other chants, but it is not superfluous to recall that the charter prescribes that this book should be read at all and some other prayers being fulfilled today. It is better, of course, to sacrifice those that give nothing to the soul of the person praying and, with fast but clear singing, completely perform all the stichera and read all the troparia of the canon, which will allow the believer to enjoy the richness of their dogmatic content and the incomparable beauty of church poetry. It is also necessary that the regents prepare for services in advance. Like the readers, they must, before it begins, together with the rector of the temple, understand all the features of the service. Their duty is to look at all the changing chants of a given day and make stanza arrangements in them.

Orthodox church music is divided into several types:
1. Ancient - in Ancient Rus' this is a znamenny chant, crowd singing. Znamenny singing was widespread in Rus' from the 11th to the 17th centuries. They still sing according to Znamenny notation in the Old Believer Church.
2. Partesnaya (polyphonic, choral) - originated in the 17th century. in Ukraine and Belarus under the influence of Catholic partes music, then from the 18th century. began to spread in Russia. Many composers wrote liturgical partes music, for example: D. S. Bortnyansky (“Cherubic”), S. V. Rachmaninov (“All-Night Vigil”), etc.
3. Spiritual Poems and Psalms(songs on spiritual themes) - not liturgical Orthodox music.
4. Bells ringing .
In addition to hymns sung in eight voices, there are also those in the service for which the music was specially written, for example, “Our Father,” “Like the Cherubim,” etc.
Festive services have a special, more varied musical design. For example, in the last part of the liturgy, a concerto is sometimes performed - a complex choral chant, accessible to highly professional singers.
The distribution of chants according to their content is governed by the law of octopus, which is the basis of the liturgical singing of the Orthodox Church.

4. Special names of chants.

Listen (Magnification):

The performance of a particular genre, the time, place of performance in the service, the originality of its content and theme, the peculiarities of the text and methods of performance - all this contributed to the assignment of certain names to the chants.
- Many chants were named after their initial words: Doxology, Many-merciful, Majestic , Blessed , For those who praise , I cried to the Lord , Immaculate , Cherubic .
- Other chants began to be named depending on the time of their use:

We owe the formation of church hymns in Orthodoxy to Jesus Christ.
The angels sang in heaven when He was born! "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will to men!" The Savior loved choral singing and at meetings and dinners and on the road, he sang Psalms and Songs. Matthew in his Gospel mentions the ascent of the Savior with his disciples to the Mount of Olives, which was accomplished precisely with song. And all the Holy Apostles continued chanting during the prayers and services of the Lord.

Modern Orthodox services and chants are based on the texts of the Psalms from the Psalter. The most vivid Song at the All-Night Vigil is “Lord, I cry to You!” - this is Psalm 140. There are also Songs from the Old Testament - the Songs of David, the Song of Anna, the mother of Samuel, the Song of the Prophet Habakkuk, the Prophet Isaiah, the Prophet Jonah.
And of course, the Songs of the New Testament - the unforgettable beauty of the Song of the Mother of God - “My soul magnifies the Lord...”, the Song of Simeon the Receiver of God, performed during Great Lent, “Now you let go...”.

There are “Small Doxology” and “Big Doxology” - these are collections of spiritual Songs.
They are respectively called “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” and “Glory to God in the Highest.”

And the Chant itself in modern Services has also changed. For example - responses to the Litany "Lord have mercy!" and “To your Spirit...” and even “Amen!” The choir is now singing, and the parishioners are singing along and echoing it. All this was invented to facilitate and understand the Service for parishioners in the church.

Until the 5th century, church singing was monophonic, and the chorus was picked up by the parishioners. And from the 5th century, when Orthodoxy was finally found as a religion. The construction of Temples began, the clothes of the priests were determined, the decoration of the Temples was purchased, and icon painting flourished. It was then that the Order of the Divine Service was written. And only later it was reconstructed by John Chrysostom and the Liturgy came, and even later it was supplemented by Basil the Great.
At the Laodicean Council it was decided that only the Choir sings Prayers, Praises, and Hymns, and the rest only sing along. It was in 367 in the city of Laodicea in what is now Turkey, not far from the famous town of Pamukkale.

We made this decision due to the “discordance of folk performance” - the people stopped sincerely treating the Songs of the Lord. Although everyone knows, “the Angels themselves help to sing in the church...”. Church chants were given a certain theatricality, which of course attracted more parishioners. But it is through “sweet singing” that our soul is filled with the Orthodox Faith, it is from quiet and inviting notes that it soars to the very dome of the Temple.

The appearance of Church hymns in Rus' happened thanks to Prince Vladimir. It was after the Baptism of Rus' in 988 that Greek services and chants were adopted. The Monk Ephraim the Syrian created a musical notation that is still used today - this is Hooks. At the same time, the liturgical books were established - Octoechos, Stichirari, Irmologi, Kondakari, Triodion.

In Orthodox Hymns observed -
Osmoglasie - choir of eight voices
Hook recording of a melody - musical notation of stichirari and songs
Allowing monophonic and polyphonic voices in the choir, but in no case chord sounds!
Strictly voice singing, no instruments.
Traditional singing - Songs and Praises are sung differently in each locality.

There are many local chants. For example, the Kievan Chant was formed from two Chants - Galician and Volyn; the chant is very beautiful, multi-transitional, but at the same time shorter, compared to the Greek Chant, which is based on Greek osmoglasis, it is more extended and less iridescent. But the Bulgarian Chant is more symmetrical and more divided into bars and is more like Bulgarian folk songs.

CHURCH SINGING TERMINOLOGY.

CHANTS OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

O.D.Lada

Antiquity of the use of sacred chants

Singing was part of the worship of the Old Testament Church. In the Christian Church, the use of singing is sanctified by the example of Jesus Christ, who after the Last Supper sang with His disciples.

Undoubtedly, singing has been part of worship since apostolic times. Ap. Paul ordered the Ephesians and Colossians to admonish each other with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, meaning singing specifically during public worship, and not private.

With particular clarity, the use of singing during divine services in apostolic times is revealed from the Epistles of St. Paul to the Corinthians. Here the apostle, indicating what kind of hymns should be in the liturgical meetings of Christians, at the same time notes: Everything is nice and in order, let them be(1 Cop. 14.40), which gives us the right to think that singing was not only part of the divine service, but also had its own order and was performed according to the order established by the apostles.

Since then, singing has never ceased to be one of the main parts of Christian worship.

Differences between Christian hymns according to their origin

Already in the worship of the apostolic time, three types of hymns are distinguished: psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.

Concerning psalms David, they have a very extensive use in the worship of the Orthodox Church.

The second row is hymns. This name refers to the so-called hymns of the Old Testament fathers, namely: the song of Israel, sung upon crossing the Red Sea (Ex. XV, 1-19), the accusatory song of Moses (Deut. XXXII, 1-43), the song of Anna, mother Samuel (1 Samuel II, 1-10), songs of the prophets: Isaiah (Is. XXVI. 9-17). Habakkuk (III, 1-12), Jonah (II, 3-10), the song of the three Babylonian youths (Dan. III, 24-90). This also includes: the song of the Mother of God (Luke I, 46-55), the prayer of Simeon the God-Receiver (Luke II, 29-32), the prayer of Zechariah (Luke I, 68-79).

The use of all these hymns in Christian worship is contemporary with the beginning of the use of psalms. In the 4th and even 3rd centuries there are interpretations of these hymns by St. Hippolytus, Didymus, Eusebius and Theodore of Irakli. The songs of the Old Testament righteous are especially remarkable in that they were accepted by St. John of Damascus for the founding of the canons he compiled. The reason for this was, without a doubt, their long-standing use during divine services, due to which some hermits, even when compiling troparions, used these songs instead of troparia. The songs of the Old Testament righteous were included in the canons in the following order: the first song of the canon is modeled on the song of Moses upon crossing the Red Sea; the second is modeled on the accusatory song of Moses before his death to the people of Israel, who had forgotten the good deeds of God; the third is modeled on the song of St. Anna, the mother of Samuel, and depicts the Church before the coming of Christ as not being fruitful, like the mother of Samuel, but now rejoicing over her many children: the fourth - modeled on the song of the prophet Habakkuk, who foresaw the coming of Christ; the fifth is modeled on the song of the prophet Isaiah, praising the deliverance of the Church from enemies: the sixth is modeled on the song of the prophet Jonah, who struggled with death in the belly of the whale, and depicts the state of a sinner whose soul is filled with evil and his belly is approaching hell; the seventh and eighth songs are modeled after the songs of the three youths, who confessed God’s judgment over them and the people of Israel and called upon all creation to glorify the Lord for keeping them unharmed.

Finally, the third category - spiritual songs. This name designates songs composed and composed by Christians themselves under the inspiration of the spirit of grace.

They are the fruit of the Christian’s own spirit and are completely imbued with the spirit of grace and truth of Christ.

With the bringing of grace and the revelation of the truth of Christ, the Church had to glorify God and depict His glory more expressively, accurately and in detail than was possible in the songs of the Old Testament.

This is the significant difference between spiritual songs and the chants of the first two categories.

We find examples of this type of chants already in the Holy Scriptures. This is the song of thanksgiving sung by the faithful on the occasion of the miraculous salvation of St. Peter and John from prison (Acts 6:23-30).

The context of the speech, as well as the rhythmic meter, close to the meter of the Old Testament songs, give the right to consider the following passages as excerpts from the songs of the apostolic Christians:

...rise from your sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ will illuminate you(Eph. 5:14);

Greatness is the mystery of piety: God appeared in the flesh, I was justified in Dus, appearing as an angel, quickly preached to the nations, believed in the world, ascended in glory(1 Tim.3, 16);

The word is true: if we die with Him, we will live with Him. We endure the Lord, and we will reign with Him: if we reject Him, He will reject us. Even if we do not believe, He remains faithful: for He cannot deny Himself(2 Tim. 2, 11-12).

Based on the practice of apostolic times, the Church subsequently develops and processes this type of chant with particular strength and variety.

Names of church songs

The first category consists of songs that borrow their name from the content:

Resurrected. These are songs whose general subject or theme is the glorification of the resurrection of Christ. And since the memory of this event is timed to coincide with Sunday, the name also indicates the time of use of these songs;

Holy Cross. Its content is the memory of the suffering and resurrection of the Savior;

Theotokos. This is the name of the songs composed in honor of the Mother of God;

Holy Cross. It got its name because it remembers the crying of the Virgin Mary at the cross of the Savior. They are sung on Wednesdays and heels;

Dogmatist. IN These songs, along with praises of the Mother of God, contain dogmatic teaching about the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, mainly about the incarnation and union of two natures in Him. Compiler of dogmatists - St. John of Damascus. The Mother of God dogmatists are sung after the stichera on Lord, I cried and after the stichera on the poem;

Lamps. These chants are sung at Matins after the canon and are called so because they mostly contain a prayer for enlightenment from above. Sometimes exapostilaria are designated by this name. The lamps for all voices are usually placed separately at the end of the octoechus. In other books they do not have a voice inscription (in the menaions and triodes);

Exapostilaria. This song is also sung after the canon at Sunday Matins and replaces the everyday chanting. The Sunday exapostilaria were compiled by Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus;

Trinity. Their general content is the glorification of the Most Holy Trinity. They are sung at Matins, when after the Six Psalms and Litany the following is sung: Achliluia, and are not sung when singing God is Lord. They relate to the service of the day and are sung in a voice that is sung in a row during the week;

Martyred. These are songs in honor of the martyrs. They are sung according to the Octoechos on all days of the week at Vespers - in stichera on stichera (on Saturday - and on Lord, I cried) at Matins - in the sedals, in the canons (except Thursday) and in the stichera on the stichenna, at the liturgy - in Blessed ones,

Repentant And touching. The common theme of these songs is confessing sins to God, lamenting them, and praying for forgiveness. They are laid out at the services of Monday and Tuesday in the modified songs of the Octoechos;

Dead And deceased. They contain prayers for the departed. They are placed only in the Saturday service, since on this day the Church remembers the departed. This also includes the mortuary troparia blameless sung at burial.

The second category consists of chants, the names of which indicate their volume. These are:

Stichera. This is the name given to chants consisting of many verses written in the same meter and mostly preceded by verses of the Holy Scriptures. This name was transferred from the Old Testament poetic writings, which the ancient Fathers of the Church called stichera, according to the model and to replace which Christian stichera began to be compiled. According to the difference of verses

In the Holy Scriptures preceding the stichera, these latter are distinguished into three types:

1) stichera on Lord, I cried - these are those who are sung at Vespers and have before them verses from 140 (Lord, I cried) as well as from Psalms 129 and 141;

2) stichera verse or on the poem. They differ from the first stichera in that they have verses not from the indicated psalms, but from various others, as well as from the books of Holy Scripture in general, which verses are chosen according to the memory of the day and to which denomination the saint belongs. These stichera are sung at Vespers and matins;

3) stichera on praise- those who have before them verses from the so-called laudable Psalms 148, 149 and 150, in which the word often appears: praise.

Kontakion And icos. In these chants the essence of the holiday or praise of the saint is depicted, with the difference, however, that in the kontakion this content is presented briefly, and in the ikos - at length. These chants are also similar in appearance: they are written in the same meter, mostly end with the same words and are sung in the same voice. In terms of their content, kontakion and ikos usually serve as a model for the entire sequence to which they belong; the kontakion represents, as it were, a theme of succession, the development of which is proposed in ikos. Therefore, ikos are always delivered after kontakions and never before. Regarding size, presentation and voice, kontakion and ikos do not serve as a model for other hymns that follow.

Among the compilers of kontakia and ikos, Roman the Sweet Singer, who lived in the 5th century, is especially famous.

Songs of the third category take their names from the composition, size and manner of singing. These are:

Canon. An extensive chant, composed according to well-known rules from the combination of several songs or odes, written in the same poetic meter, into one harmonious whole. The chant itself gets its name from the correctness and harmony of combining individual parts into one whole. The canon consists of nine songs and serves as a depiction of the heavenly hierarchy and its songs. Such a canon is called complete. But it can contain four, three or two songs. In the whole canon, one thought is revealed, for example, the Resurrection of the Lord, the Cross of the Lord, the Mother of God, etc. are glorified. On this basis, each canon has special names, for example, the Resurrection Canon, the Canon of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, the Canon of the Mother of God, etc. .

Each individual canticle of the canon consists of several verses. The first verse of each song is called Irmos. Irmos are based on songs borrowed from the Holy Scriptures. At the same time, the irmos serves as a model and connection for subsequent verses, informs them of the order regarding the number of feet and lines and the tone of their singing. The following verses are called troparia. A special irmos attached to the end of each song is called katavasiya (performed by both faces). In addition, the entire canon is divided into three parts by small etenia. The canons appear in Christian worship very early, but in their original form they were a series of troparia or stichera without irmos.

The first Irmos were compiled by St. John of Damascus, he also brought the troparia into a harmonious whole and informed the canon of its real form.

Antiphons. These are songs that are sung in both choirs alternately. There are several types of antiphons:

1) Antiphons of kathismas. This is what the parts are called Glory kathisma, because the charter appoints the verses of kathisma to be sung alternately by two faces;

2) Fine antiphons from Psalms 103 and 145, sung at the liturgy following the Great Litany. When figurative antiphons are sung, instead of the third antiphon they sing Blessed and between them the troparia of the 3rd and 6th or another song of the Matins canon;

3) Everyday antiphons, consisting of Psalms 9, 92 and 94 and sung instead Blessed and pictorial psalms, when the charter does not indicate the songs of the canon for singing on Blessed ones,

4) Holiday antiphons, sung on the twelve feasts of the Lord;

5) Power antiphons. These are Sunday morning antiphons, so named because they were composed by St. John of Damascus in relation to the 15 psalms (from 119 to 133), which the Jews called songs of degrees;

Similar, self-similar and self-agreeable These names are assigned to some songs of the Menaion when the voice in which they should be sung is indicated, for which purpose the songs themselves are inscribed with the indicated names.

Similar A song which in content, but more often in meter or tone, or both, is similar to another song of the Menaea or Octoechos, the initial words of which are written immediately after the word: similar Almost always a song similar to another in size is also similar in voice.

Samopodobny and Samoglasny differ from similar ones in that no other song served as a model for them, neither in content, nor in size, nor in voice. The difference between self-similar and self-vocal is as follows: self-similar two or three songs are called, which, although not composed in the likeness of others, are, however, similar to each other in size, tone and content, and even literally. The voice to which they should be sung is indicated in front of them. Samoglasny the essence of songs is written completely independently as regards meter, tone and content, and the voice in which they are sung is assigned to them in relation to their content, independently of other songs.

For self-vocalists, special tunes have been invented that differ from ordinary church voices. However, the voice of Octoechos is often inscribed above them, to which they must be sung;

Inert. Peculiar melodies, distinguished by protractedness, with which some chants are sung, for example, sacraments and magnifications. The fourth category consists of names indicating the position and condition of the worshipers during singing. These are:

Akathist. It is forbidden to sit while singing the akathist.

Initially, this name was adopted by songs of thanksgiving in honor of the Mother of God, sung in Constantinople on the occasion of deliverance from enemies in 626. This akathist consists of 24 songs, according to the number of letters of the Greek alphabet, 12 of them are kontakia and 12 are ikos. They are located in such a way that the kontakion and ikos constantly follow one another. The theme of the akathist is the first kontakion: The elected governor has a victorious...

The entire akathist is divided into two parts, of which the content of the first (up to the seventh ikos) is historical, and the second is dogmatic.

Subsequently, the name of the akathist was transferred to other chants composed according to the same principle: to the Sweetest Jesus, St. Nicholas and other saints.

Sedalen. The name is opposite to the first and denotes a chant, during which one was allowed to sit until listening to the reading that took place on the sedalny, which consisted of an interpretation of the Apostle, the Gospel, or in a description of the life of a saint, a holiday, etc. The sedalny rely on matins after kathismas, polyeleos and on 3rd song of the canon, after which a “reading” is assigned. However, permission to sit is not necessarily associated with the name sedalina, and there are sedalina that must be heard while standing.

Ipakoi. This song is sung at Sunday vigil, also at the Midnight Office after the canon, at Matins before the antiphons and the reading of the Gospel, and according to the 3rd song of the canon after the sedalna, the Charter prescribes singing with the ipaka always standing.

The fifth category includes chants that take their name from the time they are performed in the order of church services. These are:

Luminaires Sung after the prayers of the lamp (Blessed is the man).

Prokeimenon. This is the name of the verse that precedes the reading of Holy Scripture: Apostle, Gospel, proverb. It is borrowed from the Holy Scriptures and briefly indicates either the content of the reading, or the meaning of the day and the prayers of the day. Hence, the prokeimnas are distinguished into the prokeimnas of the Apostle and the prokeimnas of the day. The prokeimenon of the day is pronounced at Vespers, and at the liturgy the prokeimenon of the Apostle and the day are pronounced. Each prokeimnu is accompanied by a verse that is in close connection with it. In addition to those indicated, there are also great prokemenas, sung at the vespers of the weeks of Great Lent and the Lord's holidays and differing from the first in that they have not one, but three verses.

Alliluary. A verse that precedes a reading from the Gospel, for which it serves as a preface. It is relied upon when singing hallelujah, from which it got its name. Also called simply Hallelujah. In addition to its relationship to the Gospel reading, the alleluia can also be related to the service, and is then called the alleluia of the day, alleluia of the voice and alleluia of the holiday.

Involved. A verse sung during clergy communion.

Release notes. Hymns sung at the end of Vespers, Matins (at God Lord and by Fortunately there is) The troparia, kontakion and theotokos are absolution.

The sixth category consists of chants, which received their names from those places of Holy Scripture with which their singing is connected. These are.

Blessed are you. Troparions sung with chorus 12th century. Psalm 119: Blessed be ecu, Lord, teach me by Thy justification;

Immaculate. 17 kathisma in the sequences of burials and others: more often - the first article of this kathisma in the ranks of burial, since the rest here have special names (2nd Your commandments and 3rd Your name) from the last words of the first verse,

Blessed. This is the name of the well-known Gospel verses about the beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12) and those hymns (usually the troparia of the canon) that are sung at the liturgy following these verses. Most often name Blessed used in the latter sense and denotes the troparia of the canons for singing with verses about the beatitudes;

Praiseworthy. Psalms of praise and stichera connected with them;

Polyeleos. Singing Psalms 134 and 135. It got its name from the frequent repetition of the words in these psalms: mercy and from the abundant burning of oil during singing.

The article is illustrated with photographs of the amateur choir of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the direction of Elena Golovatskaya. Author of the photo Galina Russo.

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CHANTS in the Orthodox Church - a necessary accessory to worship, like Christians of almost all other faiths, from the very beginning of the Church of Christ. Excerpts from church hymns have been preserved from apostolic times in the Holy Scriptures (Eph. 5:14; 2 Tim. 2:11; 1 Tim. 3:16; Rev. 5:9; 11:15; 15:3; 21:13). Several hymns, including “Quiet Light...”, “Praise the Lord, O Youths,” and “Blessed art thou, O Lord...” are found in the “Apostolic Constitutions.” Then follow the hymns of hymnologists, already known by name (see Filaret, Archbishop of Chernigov, “Review of hymns and hymns of the Greek Church,” 1864). The names of the chants were different at different times. They point not only to the fact that all these types of lyrics were intended for singing (in the temple), but also to their special, in the original, style of speech, the exact definition of which has become impossible over time and is now only a matter of speculation among scientists. Since the time of the Ecumenical Councils, in the Byzantine Empire, church songwriting, varied in content, has been divided into many types, with special names for each, indicating either the content of the chant, then the time of its singing during worship, or the external form and mutual relationship of the chant: antiphons , akathists, theotokos, blessed, magnifications, exapostilaries, zadostoyniks, ikos, ipakoi, irmos, canons, katavasia, kontakion, many years, martyred, immaculate, absolution, parastas, sedal prokeimnas, self-concordant, self-similar, luminary, doxologies, stichera, verse stichera , three-canticle, troparia, etc. (for an explanation of the meaning of these names, see the book by Archpriest K.T. Nikolsky, “A Manual for the Study of the Charter of Divine Services of the Orthodox Church,” St. Petersburg, 1888). All church hymns are collected and distributed, in relation to the conditions of their liturgical use, in liturgical books (service book, octoechus, menaions, book of hours, triodions, akathist books, canon, irmology, etc.). The main question in Christian hymnology concerns the external form of chants. Some scholars (Svida, L. Allatsii, in modern times Luft in his “Liturgics”, Kaiser in “Beiträge zur Geschichte d. Kirchenhymnen”, 1868, etc.) think that in addition to the three canons of St. John of Damascus (for the Nativity of Christ, Epiphany and Pentecost), written in correct iambic verses, all other hymns of the Eastern Church are written, in Greek originals, in ordinary prose. Other scholars argue that the chants, if not all without exception, then in the majority, had the same meter as the poetic works of the ancient Greeks. In the 12th century. The Byzantine grammarian Tricha explained the rules of Greek versification with examples of Greek church chants. There is an assumption that the rhymes of the lyrical odes and tragic choruses of the ancient Greeks are “hidden” in the Greek troparions, on the grounds that many of the troparions are written in lines of equal number of syllables, and that in many manuscripts of chants the dots are not placed in the usual order for this sign. It is now considered beyond doubt that metrical poems, modeled after ancient Greek ones, did not exist in the church. Christians directly alienated this form, as well as everything pagan. Poems by Christian writers (Clement of Alexandria, Methodius, etc.), written metrically, were not included in the liturgical singing. Athanasius the Great and John Chrysostom rebelled against hymns composed following the pagan example (which was the case among heretics); the latter called them "satanic songs." Jerome said that God needs to sing “not with the voice, but with the heart, and not anoint the larynx with sweets, following the example of the tragedians, so that theatrical melodies and songs can be heard in the church.”