What is your favorite type of Orthodox Christian chanting?

[Seraphim Reeves]

Mary,

Don't feel bad - in my opinion, Gregorian Chant (which is pre-schism - hence Orthodox - after all) is a close, a very close, second to Greek-Byzantine chant. The Agnus Dei is simply Heavenly.

Seraphim

[Mary Kissel]

ahhh ok thankyou seraphim I do feel better now... I never thought of it that way... in that case, I'm glad I posted what I did and Father Deacon Nikolai, thankyou for posting all that history about the Russian Zn. chant! I find that very interesting! I love reading/learning about types of Church music

[Sean]

Thank you very much for bringing up this subject, as it is one of my favorites. I feel truly alienated as one who loves the liturgical chants which are based on ancient forms, and it is always refreshing to come across others of a like mind. The people who have done the most work in reviving the use of Znamenney Chant in non-Old Believer services are the monks of the Valaam Monastery, and here in America, Fr. Laurence Margitich and the monks of Holy Cross Monastery in Wayne, WV.
I see this revival much along the same lines as the revival of traditional iconography. The ancient forms of our sacred music and art have an entire theology that simply isn't present in the gaudy western forms of music and art that were imported into the Church from heterodox cultures. Keep in mind, I'm not speaking about Gregorian Chant here, which is truly Orthodox, as it was composed by an Orthodox saint. I'm speaking of the crypto-pagan aesthetic principles of the Renaissance Era.
As the monks in WV taught me, the theology behind monophonic chant, with an ison is this: the monophonic melody symbolizes our oneness of mind, while the ison symbolizes the Unwaning Light. In other words, God guides us when we stand together with oneness of mind, in the Holy Orthodox Church.
Personally, it's very difficult for me to pray while I'm hearing a very theatrical, polyphonic, staccato hymn, being chanted during the services, and this is what virtually all of the Russian parishes have been doing for two hundred years. Unfortunately, Greek Old Calendar parishes are few and far between, so I have to just stand through the Divine Services and say the Prayer; trying not to let the temptations of hearing a cross between a typewriter and a barbershop quartet make me forget why I'm there.

--Sean

[romiosini]

Wait... Weren't the Serbs chanting byzantine? (If anyone has seen the site of Kosovo.com, of the monastery of Dechani, there is a page of their chanting of the Supplicatory Canon to Saint Stephen of Dechani, and it is very byzantine. To all Hellenic, Serb, and Arab churches (the arab churches that still use arabic of course..) use byzantine according to my memory. I never knew the Serbs or the Arabs had their own style. That is really nice to know

[Mor Ephrem]

The people who have done the most work in reviving the use of Znamenney Chant in non-Old Believer services are the monks of the Valaam Monastery...

Dear Sean,

I have a few recordings of liturgical music from Valaam Monastery...is the style of chanting they use on these predominantly Znamenny, or do they use a variety of styles in their recordings? I've always liked their CD's.

Personally, it's very difficult for me to pray while I'm hearing a very theatrical, polyphonic, staccato hymn, being chanted during the services, and this is what virtually all of the Russian parishes have been doing for two hundred years. Unfortunately, Greek Old Calendar parishes are few and far between, so I have to just stand through the Divine Services and say the Prayer; trying not to let the temptations of hearing a cross between a typewriter and a barbershop quartet make me forget why I'm there.

You're not the only one who feels this way, Sean...

[Ioannes72]

Wait... Weren't the Serbs chanting byzantine? (If anyone has seen the site of Kosovo.com, of the monastery of Dechani, there is a page of their chanting of the Supplicatory Canon to Saint Stephen of Dechani, and it is very byzantine. To all Hellenic, Serb, and Arab churches (the arab churches that still use arabic of course..) use byzantine according to my memory. I never knew the Serbs or the Arabs had their own style. That is really nice to know.

Actually, the Serbian Church has traditionally always used Byzantine Chant. At the turn of the century, through Russian influence, 4-part Russian harmony began to influence certain parts of the Serbian Church. Now, with the spiritual renaissance that is taking place in many parts of Serbia, there is a return to traditional Orthodox chant. When one listens to Serbian Byzantine Chant, one can see how perfectly Slavonic fits into the Byzantine tones.

Ioannes

[romiosini]

Wow. I never knew how Russian chanting can be synchronized with byzantine. When I heard the Paschal Canon of Valaam Monastery music (online) with the greek chanting I got surprised that it gets byzantined. I try to chant Christ is Risen in Russian (Christos Voskrese iz mertvich zmertyou smert poprav, is shyshem vo grobyech zhivot darovav. (hopefully that's it) ), but it doesn't seem to match on to the byzantine. It's really rare to hear Russian Byzantine Chanting. It'd odd, only Valaam does, most probably there are greek monks or greek educated monks. I really find it more unifying that Orthodox Chant byzantine, (personally I think, if it wasn't for Byzantium, there wouldn't be Orthodoxy. Thank God!He chose otherwise! ) Anyways, I was wondering, is Church slavonic, the ancient language for Russian/Bulgarian and Serbian? Does that mean it's all the same? (So if you have a serb, bulgarian and russian priest, they could understand eachother right?)