Click below to listen to this program:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
The program begins with the Dismissal Troparion for St. John Climacus or of the Ladder, that great 6th-century ascetic who wrote “The Ladder of divine ascent.” The text of this Troparion, which we will hear sung to a Russian znamenny chant in Church Slavonic is as follows:
With the rivers of your tears, you have made the barren desert fertile. Through sighs of sorrow from deep within you, your labors have borne fruit a hundredfold. By your miracles you have become a light, shining upon the world. O John, our Holy Father, pray to Christ our God, to save our souls.
The voice of the chanter is heard rather frequently on The Rudder, particularly during the weeks of Great Lent, is that of Hierodeacon Gherman Ryabtsev, who began his musical life in Russia as a rock star before turning to Holy Orthodoxy and becoming a monk at the Valaam Monastery in Northern Russia. Once there, he undertook the enormous labor of recording vast quantities of unison známenny chant--which was once the standard liturgical singing of the Russian Orhtodox Church, but since the late 17th century fell into disuse and was replaced by harmonized singing in the Western European manner. Now, after having lain silent and largely forgotten, znamenny chant is once again being heard in churches and on CDs, thanks to the efforts of Father Gherman and other liturgical singers in Russia and elsewhere in the world.
Another hymn in honor of St. John of the Ladder, a Vesper sticheron, is sung by the Choir of St. Seraphim Church in Santa Rosa, California. The melody is a special pattern or model melody, called a prosomoion in Greek or podoben in Russian, in this instance, “O glorious wonder.”
Next, we hear several versions of the hymn “Open to me the doors of repentance, O life-Giver”: the first is from the CD entitled “The Eyes of All Look to Thee with Hope” (CD I-80) by the monks of the Monastery of St. John of San Francisco, in Manton, California--an English adaptation of a Russian Valaam chant--originating from the same monastery where Hierodeacon Gherman spent a number of years. This is followed by two more early Russian chant versions--by the Sirin Ensemble for early Russian sacred music, and by the Russian Patriarchate Choir under the direction of Anatoly Grindenko.
The latter two selections literally allow us to “hear” history unfold before our eyes and ears through pioneering recordings produced only within the last ten years. The Sirin Ensemble sang a version of the Church Slavonic text that pre-dates the textual and liturgical reforms of Patriarch Nikon in the mid-seventeenth century. The Russian Patriarchate Choir sang a version of Putevoi (or Put’) chant, a particuarly elaborate form of chant from medieval Russia that has lain silent for over three centuries. Unfortunately, these last two pioneering recordings are out of print.
Open to me the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver,
for my spirit rises early to pray towards Your holy Temple,
bearing the temple of my body all defiled;
but in Your compassion
purify me by the loving-kindness of Your mercy.
Lead me on the paths of salvation, O Mother of God,
for I have profaned my soul with shameful sins,
and have wasted my life in laziness;
but by your intercessions
deliver me from all impurity.
When I think of the many evil things I have done,
wretch that I am,
I tremble at the fearful day of judgment;
but trusting in Your loving-kindness,
like David I cry to You:
“Have mercy on me, O God,
according to Your great mercy!”
The next version of “Open to me the doors of repentance” comes from Romania, sung by the Bucharest Madrigal Choir, a melody that originated from around the year 1850.
While St. John of the Ladder was a great ascetic and wrote a famous treatise on repentance, the saint that is held up by the Church as the very icon of repentance is St. Mary of Egypt, who is commemorated on the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent. A harlot who underwent an amazing conversion experience, St. Mary lived out the rest of her life in the desert, repenting of her sins. Her life story, which is read at this time in many churches, serves as a reminder that no amount of sin is so great that it cannot be forgiven by Christ, once He sees sincere repentance. Likewise, it is a reminder that it is never too late in life, (or in Lent) to repent. The Dismissal Troparion for St. Mary of Egypt is sung in znamenny chant by Hierodeacon Gherman. The text reads as follows:
The image of God was truly preserved in you, O Mother,
for you took up the Cross and followed Christ.
By so doing, you taught us to disregard the flesh for it passes away;
but to care instead for the soul, for it is immortal.
Therefore your spirit, O holy Mother Mary, rejoices with the angels.
During the fifth week of Lent the Church intensifies its regimen of Lenten Services. At Matins on Thursday of the fifth week, it is customary in many churches to chant the entire Great Canon of Repentance by St. Andrew of Crete--the very same canon that is served in four “installments” during the first week of Lent. The first ode of this canon is sung by the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter’s under the direction of J. Michael Thompson. The musical setting is a Carpatho-Rusyn chant, adapted into English by Bishop Job of the OCA Diocese of the Midwest.
This program featured a number of examples of chant melodies that would not have been heard just 10 or 15 years ago, but which are representative of a world-wide revival of traditional chant in the Orthodox Church. The listener may have noticed how unison znamenny chant or Carpatho-Rusyn chant, when it is supplied with an ison, begins to sound remarkably similar to Greek Byzantine Chant, showing a common underlying aesthetic in the Orthodox Church. The program concludes with another such chant example, this one coming from another center of chant revival in Russia--the Novo-Tikhvinsky Women’s Monastery in Ekaterinburg. Although CDs by this remarkable choir of women monastics are very difficult to come by, their singing can be heard on the monastery website: http://www.sestry.ru/church/content/life/masterskie/singing/sing The program ends with their rendition of the Kontakion from the Great Penitential Canon (CD E16 "Let Us Sing to the Lord").
My Soul, my soul arise, why are you sleeping. The end is drawing near, and you will be confounded. Awake, therefore, so that you may be spared by Christ our God, who is everywhere present and filling all things.
.png){kind=small}
.png){kind=small}
Subscribe iTunes
Subscribe to this comment's feed
