All cards on the table, I think novel "American Orthodox" musical constructions are silly. There's a rich patrimony to draw from already. If you want to spend time correcting some translations or making the music better fit the words, I'm all for it. As someone who has looked at the Slavonic version of a hymn and then seen how a musician crammed the English-language equivalents into the music in much the same way others might stuff an undersized suitcase, I see the need. But that Appalachian Christ is Risen and all of its ilk can be thrown overboard with not a tear shed by me.
Is the answer to simplify it as other jurisdictions have done? Is it to add more variety to an already difficult amount of music? Or is it to work on fundamentals at all the parishes and slowly increase capabilities through regular, quarterly instruction? Honestly, many parishes in this country can't sing what is already on the page.
Obikhod? Ok. Znamenny? Good with me. Prostopinijie? All the way.
But, for my money, let American Orthodox choirs learn to walk before they seek to run.
(SVS) - St Vladimir’s Seminary and its Institute of Sacred Arts announce the 2023 Summer Music Institute, “Sing to the Lord a New Song: American Orthodox Music,” taking place on June 20–24. The focus of this year’s Institute is on the living practice of creative music-making and composition within the Orthodox liturgical tradition in North America.
Participants will:
- Explore what it means to be striving for an American Orthodox musical tradition
- Hear from and engage with our keynote speakers—acclaimed choral composers and writers working in this field
- Hone their skills in musicianship and ear training coaching sessions
- Rehearse and sing Benedict Sheehan’s Liturgy No. 2: The St. Michael’s Service, a new work composed expressly for skilled, non-professional church choirs
- Be invited to submit compositions to be sung in a Contemporary Composer’s Reading Session, and receive feedback from faculty composers as well as institute instructors (optional)
- Select the option to participate in a two-day private and small group coaching intensive in either conducting, composing & arranging, or vocal technique
Our keynote presentations will be offered by a diverse group of acclaimed composers who explore different areas of the tradition of Orthodox liturgical music. A highlight of the week will be the hierarchical liturgy in which participants will sing Benedict Sheehan’s Liturgy No. 2: The St. Michael’s Service, commissioned by St Michael’s Orthodox Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
By popular request and feedback from participants, we are pleased to add the Pre-Institute Intensive for two days before the Institute begins (June 19-20), as a concentrated immersion into specific areas of liturgical musical study. These two days are a chance to receive one-on-one and small group coaching in an intimate setting with world-class faculty, including Benedict Sheehan, Talia Sheehan, Juliana Woodill, and Harrison Russin.
The full Summer Music Institute will begin in the evening of Tuesday, June 20, and conclude on Saturday, June 24. Instruction at the Institute will focus on general musicianship skills, with tracks being offered for musicians of all skill levels.
This year's Institute will run concurrently with the Diaconal Vocations Program of the OCA; daily services will be celebrated by students in the DVP and chanted by the students of the Music Institute.
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For whatever my opinion might be worth, I wholly agree with the following, particularly prostopinije:
ReplyDelete"Or is it to work on fundamentals at all the parishes and slowly increase capabilities through regular, quarterly instruction? Honestly, many parishes in this country can't sing what is already on the page.
"Obikhod? Ok. Znamenny? Good with me. Prostopinijie? All the way."
Again, and to me, there is more than sufficient depth available, particularly in my world. To attempt to create an "American" instance seems fictional in a way, would leave many unsatisfied and frustrated and the target audience is not likely to materialize in the desired quantity.
Fight to preserve tradition, making corrections where English awkwardly trips over the Slavonic melodies. Once that which is traditional has been put aside, it is very difficult to turn back.
After years of faithful service to the church, a pious parishioner shows you some settings he has made of the more common hymns. It comes to light that a decade ago, before converting, he was an accomplished high-church Lutheran choral composer. He kept writing privately for his own benefit when he converted, but now he would like your blessing to share his settings with your choir director and other parishes. He loves everything about the tradition, but he loves to compose and would like to do more.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you tell him? 'Sorry bud, the patrimony is rich enough?'
'You should have been a painter?'
You're asking me if Lutheran music has any place in the Orthodox chant world? No. If you're asking me, "Can he use his knowledge of music to now learn about the music of his parish (Byzantine, Serbian, Georgian, etc.) and then be of use to his parish now that he has the requisite knowledge?" Sure.
DeleteIf you have ever seen a new-hire tell his boss, "At my last job we did it this way" only to hear his boss say, "Well, you work here now" then you have some idea of my opinion on the matter.
Per your example, in whose tradition were those melodies crafted? If the Lutheran tradition/their settings, that wouldn't seem appropriate, or adaptable. If prostopinije, for example - perhaps a Marian hymn, or a hymn to the patron of the parish, perhaps there is merit to considering its inclusion. I don't necessarily believe there should be an impenetrable layer of shelac over what is currently relied upon.
DeleteCertainly, Met. Hilarion has composed settings for use within the MP (if they aren't strictly intended for non-liturgical performances). To craft an "American" style seems unnecessary. Agree with the author, one must learn to walk before one can run. A real life example is the rich chant patrimony shunned by the RC's in favor of card store saccharine "hymns", or adaptations from protestant denominations.
Tim says:
ReplyDelete"...What do you tell him? 'Sorry bud, the patrimony is rich enough?'
'You should have been a painter?'..."
How about:
"You can have our caustic (or insert preferred modifier here) sounding ethno-national music when you pry if from our cold dead fingers...which will be in about two or three generations in any case..."
Our host says:
"... tell his boss, "At my last job we did it this way" only to hear his boss say, "Well, you work here now" then you have some idea of my opinion on the matter."
Just where is "here"?!? Is it some inward/private place where a (ever shrinking) few, overweighed by clerics and their desires/needs, get to craw into their own eccentric and self serving patterns/rhythms of worship, piety, praxis, and parish life? OR is it the fields of the Lord - the "all Nations" where we are to become whatever it is we need to become for Christ Himself!!
This of course does not mean we are to replace Tradition with fadish little-t traditions or any other mediocrity from the culture ("today we have tone nine by Garth Brooks!"), but geesh, could we risk just a little and step out from anachronistic tones/music just a wee little bit? The sky is not following...
A few points. There is no anachronism in the tones. "Here" is the music of the jurisdiction of the parish. Priests are trained for years to do the music for the parish they are going to serve. They are not being eccentric or self-serving, they are trained to do something and then do it. It would be odd to send a priest who does Romanian chant to a Georgian parish and expect it to be as seamless as if he went to an ROEA parish.
DeleteAdditionally, and this might not be immediately apparent to you, the music and rubrics related to it dictate a lot of the liturgy. There are musical sections that are vacant in some traditions. There are musical sections that are present in some traditions. You could not take a Slavic priest and throw him into the Greek musical setting and have him do all the things when or how he had been trained to do it. I hazard to say he'd often be censing into complete quiet. Music is not simply the soundtrack to the Liturgy - it's enmeshed.
Surely the leaders of the Summer Music Institute know all of these issues, and more besides. I am no musician, and I understand that the musical/liturgical traditions are complex and cannot be altered on a whim. However, you have all named a number of distinct musical/jurisdictional settings. If some of these arguments were true there would only be one setting. I expect that American Orthodoxy will develop a distinctive musical setting on much the same time scale that it develops a single jurisdiction.
DeleteYour points are spot-on. My comments were more from the perspective of a-liturgical hymns, and I suppose a choral accompaniment. Chant during Divine Liturgy, Presanctified etc. is, as you suggest, enmeshed. Change there would be disruptive to the liturgy itself in addition to begging the question: why?
Delete