Studies On Eastern Orthodox Church Chant

This book focuses on the compilation of the different practices of Eastern Orthodox Chant, looking at the subject through various languages, practices, and liturgical books and letters. The subject of this book is also analysed through newly found, unique material, to provide the entire history of Eastern Orthodox Chant, from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries and approached through a number of different disciplines. The book consists of sixteen topics, grouped in four parts: Studies on Genre, Studies on Liturgical Books, Studies on Distinguished Men of Letters, and Studies on Bulgarian Orthodox Church Chant. The aim of the book is to present the Eastern chant as a phase in the evolution of Mediterranean art, which is the cradle of Graeco-Roman heritage. This complex study brings in a variety of sources to show the purpose of Eastern Orthodox Chant as strengthening the Christian faith during the Middle Ages and the revival of Balkan nationalism in the nineteenth century. This book will appeal to students and scholars alike, interested in liturgical musical books, liturgy, and chant repertory. Likewise, it will be of interest to those engaged in medieval and early modern history, music, and culture.

"The focus is on the study of important oldest genres, liturgical books and distinguished men of letters revealing the compilation of different practices and languages. It is done for the first time. For the first time also, are introduced newly found sources, some of which are unique, and unknown men of letters with their contribution to the field of Eastern Orthodox chant. The book gives a possibility of the reader to have various medieval sources in different languages in one place. The topics discussed are from the entire history of Eastern chant - from the ninth to the nineteenth century. They are studied on the ground of a complex interdisciplinary approach. The book consists of 16 topics, grouped in 4 chapters. The author discusses unknown or not well-known topics of the history of Eastern Orthodox church chant. The aim of the book is to present the Eastern chant as a phase in the evolution of Mediterranean art, which in fact is the cradle of our common Graeco-Roman heritage. The complex study of genres, liturgical books and the work of distinguished men of letters of this chant shows its ability to compile various traditions in different languages and national practices, to contaminate their wealth in order to strengthen the Christian faith during the Middle Ages and the early Balkan National Revival. The book's audience will include everyone interested in liturgical musical books, liturgy and chant repertory. Likewise, it will include those engaged in the study of medieval and the early Balkan National Revival music and liturgical history"--

Articles in this volume include: "A Medieval Slavonic Theoretical Treatise on Music, " by Stefan Lazarov, "Notes on Cyprian the Hymnographer, " by Mariangela Arata, "The Akathistos Hymn, " by Antonia Filonov Gove, and more.

This comprehensive study is intended to serve not only as a standard reference work but also as the cornerstone and inspiration for future research into the music of the Russian Orthodox Church. As its author emphasizes, the music of the Orthodox Church cannot be understood in purely aesthetic categories, apart from the liturgical context which determines both its content and its function. Accordingly, this first volume examines not only the early history of Russian chant, but also the structure of Orthodox worship and the poetical forms of its hymnography. Dr. Johann von Gardner, the eminent Russian-born musicologist, holds the Chair of Russian Liturgical Music at the University of Munich. Over the past fifty years he has written over 300 articles on liturgical music as well as several major scholarly books. RThis book represents the culmination of his scholarly labors. St. Vladimir's Seminary Press publishes a wide selection of books on Orthodox theology, worship, history, spirituality and art. These include such works as Theology of the Icon by Leonid Ouspensky, an illustrated exploration of the Orthodox understanding of the icon; Introduction to Liturgical Theology by Alexander Schmemann, which studies the ordo or "shape" of Orthodox worship and its historical evolution from its beginnings down to the Byzantine synthesis of the ninthtwelfth centuries; Nicholas Cabasilas' Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, a classic expression of Byzantium's last great flowering of theology; and The Russians and Their Church by Nicholas Zernov, a popular survey of the entire scope of Russian Church history. All four books provide further insights into the life and thought of the Orthodox Church.

The history of church singing in Russia constitutes an essential aspect of that nation's culture and musical history. For the first 650 years, from the Christianization of Rus' in the year 988, liturgical chant was the only documentable art music in that vast territory that eventually became the modern nations of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Indeed, in Russia before the revolution of 1917, "liturgical musicology" was a bona fide scholarly discipline, taught in conservatories, universities, and theological seminaries. All activity in the field came to a halt, however, during the 75-year "Soviet era," when the study and practice of sacred music was severely repressed for ideological reasons, with a resulting lack of published research and secondary material. Consequently, Russian and Western music historians, church musicians, and liturgical scholars (as well as ordinary church-goers), whose interest in Orthodox Christianity and its art has been increasing of late, have been deprived of reference works that would impart even a general knowledge of the history and development of liturgical singing in the Russian Orthodox Church. The present Volume, Russian Church Singing: Volume 2 is the second installment of Professor Johann von Gardner's monumental work to appear in English translation. The 396-page volume, translated and edited by Dr. Vladimir Morosan, considers the development and practice of liturgical chant in the Russian lands from a variety of aspects: its origins and the various cultural influences upon its formation; extant manuscripts; the evolution of the notation and the problematics of deciphering it into modern-day notes; the forces involved in its performance; its stylistic evolution from exclusively monodic forms to improvised and, eventually, notated polyphony; its earliest known composers and performing ensembles; its aesthetics in relation to liturgy, the language, and the various problems that arose over the centuries, resulting in the adoption of Westernized stylistic models around the year 1650, which marks the approximate end of the time period covered in this volume. Much of this information is made accessible for the first time to the English reader, and will be of interest both to the specialist and to the general reader, generating a healthy demand for further research and exploration into this fascinating and hitherto unknown field. Book jacket.

Over the last two decades, the American academy has engaged in a wide-ranging discourse on faith and learning, religion and higher education, and Christianity and the academy. Eastern Orthodox Christians, however, have rarely participated in these conversations. The contributors to this volume aim to reverse this trend by offering original insights from Orthodox Christian perspectives that contribute to the ongoing discussion about religion, higher education, and faith and learning in the United States. The book is divided into two parts. Essays in the first part explore the historical experiences and theological traditions that inform (and sometimes explain) Orthodox approaches to the topic of religion and higher education—in ways that often set them apart from their Protestant and Roman Catholic counterparts. Those in the second part problematize and reflect on Orthodox thought and practice from diverse disciplinary contexts in contemporary higher education. The contributors to this volume offer provocative insights into philosophical questions about the relevance and application of Orthodox ideas in the religious and secular academy, as well as cross-disciplinary treatments of Orthodoxy as an identity marker, pedagogical framework, and teaching and research subject.