theology and devotion
The ancient Christian liturgies of Jerusalem and Byzantium (Constantinople) which, in time, became the Byzantine Rite are noted for their beauty and profundity. Drawing from the Scriptures and the Church Fathers, monastic hymn-writers and imperial tradition, the worship of the Byzantine Rite provides a theologically rich experience of God. Even the traditional prayers of the lay faithful are taken from the liturgical services, so that monks and nuns, ordinary men and women, bishops and penitents, share a common treasury of prayers and hymns directed to God.
sung by the Christian faithful
The services of the Byzantine Rite have always had popular elements: processions, incense, and litanies to which all the faithful responded fervently. But the bulk of these services, with their complex structure and elegant chants, were sung by trained soloists and experienced choirs. Musical instruments were not used, since the Church Fathers taught that living voices were more suitable for the worship of God than non-living matter. Instead, the stately sounds of Byzantine chant and Slavic znammeny chant caused churches to resound with God’s praise.
(Alleluia in Tone 1, except, from the CD, Byzantium in Rome, by Capella Romana)
(“In You, O Woman Full of Grace”, except, from the CD, Chants from Valaam)
But not all churches assigned the sung services to trained singers. In the 16th and 17th century, several Christian communities in the Carpathian mountains, on the borderland between East and West, came into communion with the Catholic Church from Russian Orthodoxy. These churches were materially poor – but in the 19th century, provided by their pastors with printed books with the words of the Byzantine Rite liturgy in their own language, they began the custom of singing entire liturgical services themselves, under the guidance of knowledgeable singers called cantors.
(Troparia sung at a Pontifical Liturgy of Thanksgiving at St. Michael’s Cathedral, Passaic, NJ in 1966)
using a traditional chant
The music they employed, and employ to this very day, is a form of Carpathian chant called prostopinije, a Slavic word meaning “plain singing.” This chant evolved from ancient Byzantine chant and early Slavic chant, supplemented by liturgical melodies from southern Europe, and the sound of folk songs of the Slavs and Hungarians who made up the Greek Catholic communities in the Austro-Hungarian empire. This chant, sung by entire congregations and harmonized by ear, became a precious cultural treasure of communities.
(Hymn to the Theotokos, in Slavonic, sung at a Pontifical Liturgy of Thanksgiving at St. Michael’s Cathedral, Passaic, NJ in 1966)
When these Catholics emigrated to the United States and Canada at the end of the 19th century, they sent back to Europe for priests and cantors to help their carry out their religious obligations in the New World. In the 1950’s, they began to celebrate services in English, using the same basic prostopinije chants.
(Hymn to the Theotokos, in English, sung at the creation of the Byzantine Metropolitan Province. Pittsburgh, PA in 1969)
In time, as these new churches grew, their bishops continued to emphasize the importance of plain chant, and the participation of the people in the worship of God. Many churches formed choirs, some of which became famous for their singing of Russian church music – but other continued to harmonize the old chants, allowing the people to sing according to their traditional custom.
(Creed, excerpt, from the album Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by St. Mary’s Choir, Jersey City, NJ)
in a hierarchical assembly
These services also contained a rich assortment of liturgical roles, from the priest who blessed the congregation and chanted the principal prayers; the deacon who intoned the petitions for prayer and directed the order of worship; the readers who chanted the Scriptures; and the bishop who presided at pastoral visitations and major events. But in each service the role of the people in the singing of the services continued to be vital.
(Beginning of the Divine Liturgy for the priestly ordination of Andrew Nagrant, Cleveland, OH in 2014)
In all this complexity, the singing of these “Greek Catholic” Christian faithful wove a dialog of sung prayer with the clergy, singing the services from beginning to end.
(Conclusion of the Divine Liturgy for the priestly ordination of Andrew Nagrant, Cleveland, OH in 2014)
so that prayer and song are one
The faithful of the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church – the descendents of these so-called “Greek Catholics” – continue to keep the tradition of full congregational singing of the liturgical services of the Byzantine Rite. In this way, they truly “sing their prayers” to God.
Through its classes and this website, the Metropolitan Cantor Institute fosters this tradition, training cantors to lead the congregational singing of the services of the Byzantine Rite, using Carpathian prostopinije.