25th Sunday after Pentecost / Prophet Habakuk / Eph. 4.1-6; Luke 18.18-27
F/S/HS. Brothers and sisters, nearly always my morning homily is a reflection on the Gospel assigned that day, or the Epistle reading. This morning I want to depart from that practice and instead focus on a wholly different subject, namely the power and beauty and meaning of sacred church hymnology and its music.
During my very first experiences in Orthodox Church services, back in the early and mid-1990s, something immediately stood out to me. Nearly the entire service–except for the homily–was sung or chanted, rather than spoken. Never before had I witnessed an entire church service being sung or chanted, until I encountered Orthodox Christianity. Whether an evening vespers, Divine Liturgy, a wedding, or a funeral … always sung and chanted.
No musical instruments. The human voice alone glorifying God, not measured by any regular or contrived meter. Liturgical poetry composed by liturgical poets whose basic task was neither music nor poetry, but prayer. Prayerful hymns and chant whose nature is to give us humans a very real experience of heaven and heavenly worship.
The sublime beauty of this sung hymnology struck me like a thunder bolt, the more Orthodox services I attended. And then when I finally came into the fullness of this beautiful Faith, particular songs seemed to elevate me a few feet off the ground. Or left me a puddle of tears on the ground.
Particular hymns became so dear to my heart, and still are. The Angel Cried, from our Paschal services; The Noble Joseph, leading up to Pascha; or this same music when we honor the Dormition of the Mother of our Lord. The Hymn of St. Simeon near the end of Great Vespers, especially the version we sing here at St. Silouans. It Is Truly Meet … I can never get enough of this beautiful hymn! These, and so many other hymns, elevated me and left me feeling transfigured.
But why, I repeatedly asked myself back in the day? Why do Orthodox Christians sing or chant the entire service? What is the history of sung hymnology and chant? What is its undergirding theology? How far back in history does sung chant go? Is it found in the Bible?
This morning, then, I want to answer some of these questions. A worthy subject given that we are more and more immersing ourselves in the season of Nativity: A season full of not just ancient church hymnology related to Christ’s birth, but sung beautiful Christmas carols as well.
If you hear anything from this homily, hear this. Orthodox liturgical singing is modeled after what happens in the heavens; is modeled after angelic singing, which is exclusively vocal and arises from genuine worship and devotion to God. In the words of our illustrative choir mistress, Christine, sent me a few days ago: We are joining with the angels in singing the perpetual liturgy before the throne of God. At the conclusion of that sentence, Christine ended with the single word: Wow!
In other words, the origin of sung chant–its music and tones–is not human but rather divine, in the category of God’s creative wisdom revealed to us humans; not unlike the category of holy Scripture, whose origin is also divine revelation.
Those composing our ancient church hymns, men and women such as St. Romanos the Melodist, St. John of Damascus, St. Andrew of Crete, St. Cosmas of Jerusalem, St. Kasia, St. Joseph the Hymnographer: Each of these composers were caught up in heaven, where they heard angelic singing. Which is why our Orthodox church services are said to be a reenactment of heavenly worship. Especially our Divine Liturgy.
Notice sisters and brothers how much our scriptures references singing to God, a fact that I so easily overlooked during my years as a protestant Christian. Ps. 47: Sing praises to God, sing praises: Sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: Sing ye praises with understanding. Ps. 68: Sing to God, sing praises to His name; lift up a song to Him who rides through the deserts; His name is the Lord; exult before Him! Ps. 96: Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day after day. Ps. 100: Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Ps. 147: Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
Each of these quotes is from the Psalms, dear ones, from our Psalter. Which is why the early Christians continued the Judaic heritage of chanting the psalter, gradually adding new hymns which were more specifically Christian in content.
Notice also the frequent references to singing hymns in the New Testament. At the Lord’s Supper, when Jesus instituted the Mystery of His Precious Body and Blood, He and His Disciples sang a hymn together before they departed to the Mount of Olives (Mt. 26.30).
From the book of Acts, we find Paul and Silas praying and singing at midnight while imprisoned (Acts 16.25-34). From 1 Cor. 14:15, the Apostle Paul says I will sing with the spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. And from the book of James (5.13): Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.
Is it any wonder then that in the year 988, when Prince Vladimir of the Kievan Rus empire sent his emissaries around the known world to look for a form of Christian worship that the empire could adopt, those emissaries arrived in Constantinople, at the church of Hagia Sophia, heard its sung worship, and wrote back to Prince Vladimir those now famous and timeless words: We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendor or beauty anywhere upon earth. We cannot describe it to you; only this we know, that God dwells there among humans, and that their service surpasses the worship of all other places. For we cannot forget that beauty.
What is the spiritual and theological purpose and intent of this beautiful sung hymnology and chant? One answer is that such hymnology and chant is an expression of our deepest gratitude to God; gratitude for who God is in His many manifestations. We sing in order to worship God, to give thanks for His presence in this world and His provision and providence in our lives.
Another answer is that sacred hymnology and chant teaches us the deepest theological truths of our faith; teaches us objective declarations of Orthodox doctrine. Each verse, each tropar, each stichera is a marvelous poetic statement of our Orthodox Faith, strung together with Glorias and Now and evers and broken verses, like pearls on a string.
Yet another answer is that the music and words of sung hymnology elevates our spirit, our emotions, our feelings. It refreshes and recreates our soul. It helps us suffer the sufferings of this life. And inspires hope in the Age to Come. In the magnificent words of St. John Chrysostom: Nothing uplifts the soul so much and gives it wings and liberates it from the earth and releases it from the fetters of the body and makes it aspire after wisdom and deride all the cares of this life as the melody of unison and rhythm-possessing sacred songs.
I’d like to close with an extension of where I began this morning. I began by saying how deeply touched I was back when I first heard Orthodox sung hymnology and chant, back when I wasn’t even Orthodox. Apparently there were, and are, quite a few others like me.
In 1998 a popular secular record label, Hearts of Space, released an album titled Choral Masterworks From Russia. The album features a series of hymns straight out of our Orthodox Church services, a sort of greatest hits from the Slavonic and Russian tradition. The album was a smash success. Request after request came in on public radio stations to play its selections.
Hearts Of Space had stumbled upon a good thing, that they wanted to keep going. So they published a second volume, Vol. 2, only this time of western sacred church music. The album did not sell so well. Vol. 3 returned to sacred Russian chant. It too was a smash success. Vol. 4 tried once more at sacred western church music. Like Vol. 2, it too sold poorly. Having learned their lesson, Hearts Of Space returned in Vol. 5 to sacred Russian chant and church music. Again, like volumes 1 and 3, a smash success.
Said one of the founders of Hearts of Space in an interview: We cannot pretend to entirely understand the appeal of Vols. 1,3, and 5 of sacred Russian church hymnology. Whatever the appeal, these hymns and their musical score are apparently touching the public soul with a sense of the divine and sacred, unlike any other church music that we are aware of.
This same phenomenon then happened again when, in 2019, the acapella group Cappella Romana, singing mainly in ancient Byzantine tones, published their album titled Lost Voices Of Hagia Sophia. Another smash success! The secular public purchased it at such a clip that its first pressing sold out nearly immediately. And this to a largely secular public!
Dear ones, the sublime power of ancient church hymnology and chant, and its music. While even the secular world is deeply drawn to such hymnology for reasons they cannot name or explain, we Orthodox Christians know well how to account for that sublime power. A power that filled the Apostle Paul when he wrote to the faithful in the church of Ephesus, Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart (Eph. 5.18-19). F/S/HS
