Christian music in scripture and tradition

Religious music has always been man's attempt to express the relationship between the Divine and the human. Through it, human nature takes part in the love of the Holy Trinity, participating in power, in prayer and in spirit, in the immanence of God. Divine revelation is easily revealed to man through theology expressed in religious music, and man, regardless of his theological knowledge, begins to feel and live in the love of God.

The catechetical value of Byzantine hymnography

This paper is dedicated to the catechetical vocation of Byzantine hymnography, the author analyzing, on the one hand, the theological “matter” that nourishes it, and on the other - the way in which it is presented to the recipient. Thus, the dogma of the Holy Trinity (including that of trinity unity and intra-Trinitarian perichoresis) animates a series of liturgical songs and is also found in the ekfonises of prayers. No less fertile for Orthodox hymnography is the Christological dimension intimately associated with that of the trinity. To the extent that Byzantine sacred music has Christological and soteriological relevance, it is also the bearer of mariological meanings. Mariological images amplify the sacrificial, eschatological, and epiphanic resonances of Christian liturgy, in general, and of religious music in particular. In conclusion, we will state that, on its catechetical side, Byzantine hymnography has a higher efficiency than discursive theology. Due to the doxological form in which it presents its teachings, it manages to evade sterile didacticism, it communicates vividly with the heart and mind of the believers, fully involving them in the hierophantic exercise.

Te Deum for mixed choir a cappella by Dmytro Stetsiuk in the context of Ukrainian religious music

The purpose of the article is the insert to the scientific research the complete analysis of masterpiece by known Ukrainian composer Dmytro Stetsiuk Te Deum for mixed choir a capella and draw the attention of the choir conductors, who would like to insert to their music collectives a masterpiece, written in the tendencies of modern music and that can be performed either in the liturgy or in concerts. The methodology of the exploration is based on the combination of the general scientific (historical and comparative) and special musicological( of the genre, general and the dramaturgical-intonational analysis), that gives the opportunity to regard the historical basics of the Catholic liturgic tradition, and from another side-see the ways of its development and renovation. Scientific Novelty. The research is the first analysis of Te Deum for the mixed choir in the context of the modern tendencies of Ukrainian composers. Conclusions. The analysis of Te Deum for the mixed choir a capeella by Dmytro Stetsiuk in the context of religious music and in the sphere of the creative search of the modern Ukrainian composers proves the fact, that this masterpiece is written in the liturgic tradition and develops it in the intonational side. Componist completely uses the canonic text, but gives his own regard for it, also understanding of the main idea. The traditional melody of Te Deum from one side gives the unity of the composition, from another gives the basics for the modern stylization, because of intonation, voice tembre (the unity of the different groups of the choir), harmonical, factual (harmony and polyphony). This way are revealed individual traits of the composer and also the modern regard on the medieval liturgic text. The exploration of the masterpiece`s score gives the reason to be sure, that it is not only in the liturgical tradition, but also can be performed in the concert hall.

The Trocadéro

This chapter takes for its focus the high point of the Parisian musical season in 1900: the ten state-sponsored concerts officiels of the 1900 Exposition Universelle de Paris. As had been the case in 1878 and 1889, the goal of these concerts was to promote specifically Republican ideals through music. Yet in 1900, these ideals had transformed into a secular construction of Frenchness that absorbed Catholicism as a foundational trait of national identity. Although the Church was not represented in any official capacity either on the musical planning commission or on the concert programs themselves, the repertoire performed throughout these concerts created a narrative that centered around a sense of reconciliation between Church State. The carefully crafted vision put forth by the State relied heavily on transformations of the Church for the formation of a cohesive Republican identity such that the Church was present in its displays, theaters, and concerts in a way not seen in any previous Exposition. In the heart of Paris, the Trocadéro hosted a significant amount of explicitly religious music that, when mediated through actors deployed through the state apparatus on an international stage, transformed the Church into an integrated facet of French Republicanism that could be proudly displayed to the Exposition’s international audiences. These concerts functioned not as nostalgic emblems of a Revolutionary past nor as attacks against the political and religious right, but, rather, as a site of transformation at which the Republic co-opted Catholicism as an indispensable aspect of its own French identity.

The Catholic Church in Republican Musical Aesthetics

Debates concerning the appropriate nature of sacred music in France persisted throughout the nineteenth century. While many figures within the Catholic Church took the more traditional stance in their proclamation of plainchant as the genre of sacred music par excellence, other priests and church musicians insisted that more modern styles of composition were not only appropriate but necessary for French Catholics. This debate was not limited to the confines of the Church: Republican composers, for their part, also contributed their views on the matter, which largely stated that the realms of sacred and secular were not mutually exclusive. This chapter outlines the debate on both sides in order to reveal how Republican composers absorbed the numerous criteria involved in the composition of sacred music into their secular constructions of French music. It also reveals the discursive slippages between Catholic denigrations of “modern” religious music and “secular” compositional styles: more often than not, modern religious music was strikingly close to the Catholic ideal, even when it was written by a decidedly secular composer for non-liturgical use. A study of Contes mystiques, a collection of twelve mélodies written by such composers as Gabriel Fauré, Théodore Dubois, Henri Maréchal, and Pauline Viardot, reveals how Republican composers absorbed the numerous criteria involved in the composition of sacred music and how this modern music was strikingly similar to the Catholic ideal, even when written by “secular” composers for non-liturgical use.

The historical trajectory of Byzantine religious music in the Romanian space: volutes and milestones

The trajectory of the Romanian cult music is intertwined with the trajectory of the Byzantine cult music, the mega-phenomenon and its zonal manifestation conditioning and enhancing each other. Respectively, any attempt to stage the evolution of sacred singing in the reference area refers to the transformations supported by Byzantine music as a whole. In the historiography of the field, we found several variants of systematization of the Byzantine ecclesiastical music on the Romanian territories: according to historical epochs, according to the stages of consolidation of the national Church, according to the linguistic factor (succession of sacred languages), according to stylistic manifestations. Based on the way in which the studies are structured, it is observed that historians do not consistently follow one way or another, but opt for summing them up. Thus, a milestone with generalizing value is outlined, in which the first Christian centuries mark the penetration and spread of Proto-Byzantine and Byzantine song in the Romanian space, the IX-X centuries – the enrollment of Romanianism in the Byzantine-Slavic religious front, the XIV century – the inauguration of the period of cultural effervescence related to the constitution of the Romanian medieval states, the end of the XVI century – the XVIII century – the Romanianization of the liturgical melody, the beginning of the XIX century – the XXI century – the passage of the Byzantine chant through the avatars of modernity and contemporaneity.

Music: Sacred Genres From the Renaissance to Modern

Prior to the 16th-century Reformation, sacred music was defined by its role in Catholic liturgical and devotional practice. The liturgy of the Renaissance and early modern Mass and canonical hours (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, Nones, Vespers, and Compline) was delivered largely in plainchant but was ornamented with improvised and composed polyphony. Although such polyphony took a variety of forms, the dominant genres comprised polyphonic settings of liturgical texts from the Mass, as well as other liturgical, paraliturgical, and biblical texts, many of them taken from the canonical hours. In these compositions, both musical and extramusical devices were appropriated for their symbolic or rhetorical potential to convey meaning, resulting in a complex intersection of the sacred and secular in terms of not only content, but also performance venue. Efforts to educate the laity, especially during the post-Tridentine era, resulted in the development of repertoire associated with the Triduum, including Lamentation cycles and dramatic music, as well new genres for performance at Vespers and in private devotions. They further led to the proliferation of simple, easily memorized songs that served to reinforce the teaching of doctrine. Although polyphony associated with the Catholic tradition and the practice of psalm singing traversed confessional boundaries, the Calvinist emphasis on the metrical psalm, the Lutheran reliance on congregational singing, and the Anglican adoption of the Book of Common Prayer gave rise to the distinctive repertoire of the Reformation. With the advent of the public concert in the 18th century, sacred genres that had dominated the Renaissance and early modern era were adapted to the concert hall and stage. There they were received within the theoretical, philosophical, and political contexts of the Cecilian movement, the Tudor revival, the French Schola Cantorum tradition, and 19th-century nationalist strains. Catholic and Protestant religious music, including cathedral music in the New Spain and psalm singing in New England, was redefined through transatlantic interaction during the European colonization of the Americas. It further was defined by musical genres such as the spiritual and gospel that emerged through the worship of Black communities.

“The influence of Melody upon man in the wild state of nature”: Enslaved Parishioners, Anglican Violence, and Racialized Listening in a Jamaica Parish

In 1827, George Wilson Bridges, the outspoken proslavery rector of the parish of St. Ann, Jamaica, published a pamphlet of music that he had written to be used as the choral service at his church. The Bishop of Jamaica condemned Bridges's musical innovations on the grounds that they were not suitable to be heard by “a congregation chiefly composed by people of colour & negroes.” On the Bishop's orders, Bridges's music stopped, and by 1828 he reported that his pews were once more empty. The congregation of St. Ann parish church was almost entirely enslaved Africans and Afro-descendants who could choose their place of worship. However, in Bridges's own household, the people he claimed as property had little opportunity to escape his ministering. In 1829 Bridges came to the attention of British abolitionists for his brutal flogging of Kitty Hylton, a woman he claimed to own. This article uses Black feminist approaches to archival materials to explore the relationship between the music promoted by Bridges, conflicting views held by white religious leaders about what music was appropriate for African and African-descended people to listen to, and Bridges's violence towards enslaved people; in so doing exploring the inescapable entanglement of religious music, race, and violence in colonial Jamaica.

Musical Exegesis in the Transylvanian Style, Composed by Dimitrie Cuntanu, at Our Lord’s Birth Catavasia

"The Orthodox religious music in Transylvanian tradition has a unique history. It gained an important place in the Romanian musical heritage, by the way it managed to adapt to Romanian, in its own style, the psaltic musical repertoire, of Byzantine tradition. Build from the oral tradition, which, in its turn blended with folklore, cult music, and the other co-existing cults, and from psaltic tradition, Dimitrie Cuntanu’s work fairly represents, the first Transylvanian religious musical monument of Romanian root. The Byzantine musical origin of this paper can be detected, together with other works, from the musical structures of the first Katavasia established by Cuntanu, at Lord’s Birth Feast. Transformed to Romanian by different anonymous protagonists of the Transylvanian music, the Lord’s Birth Catavasia represents a Hrysantic exegesis reference of Byzantine music, in a Transylvanian style. Keywords: Catavasia, Byzantine music, Anton Pann, Cuntanu, Romanian adaptation "

The Representation of Social Changes in Indonesian Muslim Society: A Semiotic Analysis of ‘Ketika Mas Gagah Pergi’

This research investigates the social changes concerning Islam's revitalisation, which was constructed by the movie Ketika Mas Gagah Pergi (KMGP). The research criticises structuration theory, which does not accommodate religion as part of social changes, especially in making new social changes. The researcher utilised semiotic logic by using the process of meaning or signification, which comprises signs or representation, object, and interpretant. The researcher also conducted in-depth interviews with filmmakers to understand the context from which the texts were produced. As a result, it was discovered that KMGP utilised signs to construct social changes through the act of wearing a veil, Islamic religious music, and the prohibition of shaking someone's hands which is not his/her mahram (legal spouse or guardian based on Islamic law), the separation of men and women in a wedding occasion, and other new rules which were previously not familiar in society. Nevertheless, to legitimise the new rules in these particular social practices, KMGP often used structure resources. For example, Gagah legitimated his action by referring to the tradition of Sundanese (one of the Indonesian tribes) to the prohibition of shaking a non-mahram’s hands. This is supported by hadith (speech, attitude, and behaviour of Prophet Muhammad) about this particular action. This movie also proved that the rules of Islamic religion became an important element that changed social order, especially in Indonesia. Keywords: Movie, Indonesian Muslim Society, social changes, structuration, representation.