On September 14, the Orthodox Church celebrates the great and solemn feast of the Exaltation or Elevation of the Holy and Life-Giving Cross. The feast commemorates the finding of Christ's Cross by Saint Helen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century; and, then, after it was taken by the Persians, of its recovery by the Emperor Heraclius in the seventh century at which time it was "elevated" in the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem.
The intention of Orthodox hymnographers has always been two-fold--to praise God and His wondrous works for our salvation with the finest musical offerings we humans are capable of, and to edify and educate the faithful in a language that is understandable. Both of these intentions are admirably fulfilled on the featured CD, “Life-Giving Wood” by the St. Lawrence Orthodox Chorale, under the direction of Alice Hughes and Anne Schoepp. On this program we are able to sample only 10 of the 28 tracks, taken from Vespers, Matins, and Divine Liturgy of the feast.
The variety of musical styles on this CD is representative of the musical practice in many Orthodox parishes in North America and elsewhere, where a number of different ethnic traditions are harmoniously blended together to speak effectively both to descendants of ethnic immigrants and to converts.
To open the program, the troparion of the feast heard in Byzantine Chant and then in the common Russian chant. Both of these melodies would have functioned as a type of “national anthem” in the Byzantine and Russian Empires, respectively. The great Russian composer, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky used the Russian melody as the opening of his famous “1812 Overture.”
The musical richness of an Orthodox feast is greatly enhanced by the used of “pattern melodies” (prosomoia or podobny). They greatly enhance the range of melodic choices within the system of Eight Tones (the Octoechos). The feast of the Exaltation of the Cross is replete with these pattern melodies: we hear three stichera at “Lord, I have Cried” from Vespers, sung to the Slavic pattern melody “Having set all their hope on Thee.” After that we hear a Lity sticheron sung to a Carpatho-Rusyn melody in Tone 1. In the chant books this melody is called “Bolgar” or “Bulgarian,” but it is not clear whether the melody actually comes from Bulgaria or not.
The Stichera Aposticha of the Elevation of the Cross have their own unique special melody, “Hail, O Life-Giving Cross” (idiómelon or samoglasen) which then functions as a pattern for the hymns of other feasts.
Selections from the hymns of Matins for the Exaltation of the Cross are heard in the following examples: the festal Magnification, as sung in the Slavic tradition; the two festal Exaposteilaria -- the first, an arrangement of the melody “Hearken, ye women,” by the Russian composer Ivan Alexeevich (Johann von) Gardner and the second, the melody (“You covered the heavens with stars,” arranged by Anne Schoepp; and two stichera at the Praises, sung to the melody “Oh, most strange wonder.”
The central tenet of the feast of the Cross--that the Cross is the only sign or symbol worthy of our total allegiance--is summarized in the special hymn that replaces the Trisagion at Divine Liturgy on this day -- “Before Your Cross we bow down in worship, O Master, and Your holy Resurrection we glorify.” This hymn is sung to a Byzantine chant melody adapted and arranged by Fr. James C. Meena.
The program closes with yet another special melody, used here for the hymn sung during the veneration of the Cross in the center of the church by the faithful at the end of divine services--“Come, O faithful, and let us venerate the Life-giving wood.” As one can see even from the title, the point of this hymn is self-evident from the text.
NOTE: Portions of the commentary for this program were adapted from Fr. Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith, published by the Department of Religious Education - Orthodox Church in America.
