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Great and Holy Week is the most liturgically intense period in the entire yearly calendar of the Orthodox Church. It precedes and prepares for the greatest, most cosmic event in all of salvation history, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The services of Holy Week, each with its own particular theme and subject matter, commemorate the events in the last week of the Savior’s life and by their deep poetic and spiritual content prepare the faithful for the celebration of Pascha. One of the ways this preparation occurs is by means of unique musical settings, heard only at this time, which, heard year after year, evoke a cognitive and prayerful response from the worshippers.

The program begins with the special “Alleluia” in the Eighth Tone, heard at the beginning of Bridegroom Matins. This is followed by the Troparion “Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight,” which recalls the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, told by Christ while he was teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem, following his triumphant entry into the city on Palm Sunday. Regarding this hymn, the rubrics contain a rare instruction, which tells the singers to sing “slowly and sweetly.” The Byzantine Chant setting is sung by Protopsaltis Vassilii Hadjinicolau.

The first three Matins services of Holy Week focus, among other things, on the theme of Christ as the Bridegroom of the Church. Nowhere is this conjugal theme expressed more directly than in the Exaposteilarion “Thy Bridal Chamber I see adorned, O my Savior” which is sung at the end of Matins, as the entire worshipping assembly kneels in prayer. This hymn, in the form of a harmonized Kievan Chant, is sung by Archangel Voices on their CD, “With the Voice of the Archangel” (CD I-60).

Sincere, wholehearted repentance and deliverance is one of the themes that permeates all of Great Lent, but especially the Matins of Holy Wednesday, when the hymnography recalls the sinful woman, sometimes identified as Mary Magdalene, who came and annointed Christ’s feet and wiped them with her hair. One of the hymns, known as the Hymn of Kassiane, is sung to the poetic text composed in the ninth century by Kassiane the Nun. This particular melody, composed by Symeon Froyshov in the style of Byzatine Chant, is sung by Archangel Voices.

The theme of Great and Holy Thursday is the Mystical Supper, at which the Lord Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion. We hear two of the most important hymns from the Liturgy of Holy Thursday are “Of Thy Mystical Supper,” sung to a Carpatho Rusyn plainchant, and the hymn that replaces the Hymn to the Theotokos, “Come, O faithful, let us partake of the Master’s hospitality,” in a harmonized znamenny chant setting. Both are sung by the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter’s, under the direction of J. Michael Thompson.

The Matins of Holy Friday are centered around twelve Gospel readings that recount the Lord’s Passion--his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. Each of the readings is punctuated by eloquent poetic hymns that elaborate upon the Gospel events and offer the faithful’s response to them. The first hymn of the Fifteenth Antiphon, “Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon a tree” is one of the most prominent hymns of this service: in many churches it accompanies a procession in which the icon of the crucified Christ is brought out by the priest and affixed upon the cross in the center of the church. This hymn sung in a Byzantine Chant setting by St. Vladimir’s Liturgical Chorale, under the direction of Deacon Kevin Smith, on their CD entitled “Chant” (CD I-67).

The two thieves crucified on Christ’s right and left are held up in the Gospels as an image of the Last Judgment: the wise thief on Christ’s right hand repented and received the promise of salvation, while the unrepentant one on the left was condemned. This deliverance of the repentant sinner “in a single moment” is the central theme of the Exposteilarion of Great and Holy Friday “The Wise Thief,” which is sung by Archangel Voices (CD I-60) in a setting by Russian composer Staritsky..

Holy Friday is the day of Christ’s death and burial, while Holy Saturday is the “great Sabbath rest.” when in his body Christ rested in the tomb even while spiritually He descended into Hades to liberate the souls of the righteous who had been held there since the fall of Adam. During the Matins of Holy Saturday, which serve as the model for every Orthodox burial service, the Church laments Christ’s suffering and death even as it offers praises to his saving work The verses called the Praises (Encomia), sometimes referred to as “Lamentations,” are sung interspersed with verses of Psalm 118, “Blessed are they whose ways are blameless...” and “Blessed are You, O Lord, teach me Your statutes.” We hear two short excerpts from this lengthy set of hymns--the beginning of Stasis I and the very end of Stasis III as set by Bulgarian composer Dobri Christov (1875-1941), and sung by a Bulgarian choir under the direction of Mikhail Popsavov, on a CD entitled “Good Friday.”

The text of the verses heard is as follows:

In a tomb they laid You,
O Christ the Life;
the angelic hosts were overcome with awe
and glorified Your condescension.

O Life, how can You die?
How can You dwell in a tomb?
Yet by Your death You have destroyed the reign of death
and raised all the dead from Hades.

We magnify You,
O Jesus, our King.
We worship Your passion and Your burial,
for by them, You have saved us from death.

(from Stasis III):

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

O God in Trinity,

Father, Son, and Spirit,

grant Your mercy to the world.

Now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Grant us, your servants,

to behold, O Virgin,

the Resurrection of Your Son!

The complete text of the Praises (Lamentations) is found here.

The program closes with the Troparion of Great and Holy Friday and Saturday, “The Noble Joseph,” sung in remembrance of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who took Christ’s body down from the Cross, wrapped it in fine linen, anointed it with spices, and laid it in a tomb, as the text of the hymn describes:

The noble Joseph,

when he had taken down Thy most pure body from the Tree,

wrapped it in fine linen and anointed it with spices,

and placed it in a new tomb.

On behalf of the everyone at the Orthodox Christian Network, we wish you a blessed Holy Week and joyous upcoming celebration of Our Lord’s Resurrection.

If you are interested in acquiring some of the CDs heard on this program, or any of the other music you hear on the Rudder, please visit www.musicarussica.com.