An offering to the Orthodox Church that combines mainly Georgian and Russian liturgical music structures with a strand of American Folk – liturgical music meant to be singable by average parish choirs
All music is free to download, and permission is granted for Liturgical use.
This project springs from an encounter with Orthodox liturgical music and is my attempt to weave it together with some strand of American folk music.
That encounter with Orthodox music is primarily with the Georgian tradition. When I first traveled to Georgia and learned music there, I was struck that the table songs, the weddings songs, the ballads, and the chants all exist in one spectrum of musical style: three-part polyphony with consistently similar harmonies and intervals. In other words, Georgian music has a sound. It has a way of moving through musical space. (Of course, there is much musical variation within Georgia, and each region has its own particular way of moving through musical space. They still keep continuity between each other: sounds within a sound.)
Georgian liturgical music is clearly integrated with Georgian music at large. Tracing exactly how this came to be is not the purpose here; suffice it to say that Georgian music is emplaced and encultured. Just as the scriptures and liturgical texts were translated into Georgian, just as Georgian iconography has taken on its own particular substyle, and just as Georgian churches have their own peculiar shape, so also the chant is particular to and expressive of its place. This is not surprising and is in fact the norm of mission work – like the missions to Russia and Alaska, to name a couple. It just happens over time.
After witnessing this continuity of culture, I turned back to various bits of American folk music and started to see similarities between them and Georgian, Russian, and Greek Orthodox music, and I began to weave them together and experiment with singing liturgical texts. I used the structure of Znamenny, Byzantine, Obikhod, and various Georgian hymn styles but moved through musical space in a way similar to the American folk music I knew.
Naming this music proved difficult, as there are many different strands of American folk music, and what I am working with is only one of those strands. So, taking the precedent of Vladimir Morosan’s arrangement of the Paschal troparion, these Orthodox hymns are “in an American Folk Style.” I have more often than not heard his composition called the Appalachian Paschal Troparion. While this is not its official name, it is a fair slip in nomenclature, as its (primarily) pentatonic melody rings of Shape Note singing and Appalachian ballads. My music is roughly within the same strand of American Folk music.
There are a few particular ways in which this music partakes in an American Folk tradition. First and foremost, it moves through musical space in a way similar to the abovementioned traditions. It is hard to define this in concrete terms and perhaps even best not to. You know it when you hear it.
Second, this music is meant to be singable. In Russian and Georgian Orthodox Churches, the choir sings and the laity remains quiet (primarily). In American Orthodox churches, it is not uncommon for the parish to sing all together as the choir leads. This is not always the case, but it is more of a trend in American churches than elsewhere. On account of this, this music is meant to be singable by the general laity (and by inexperienced choir members). Here, ‘singable’ means that each part has a limited range and moves primarily in simple intervals.
Third, this music is meant to fit the diction of American English as (at least the writer but hopefully also) a fair number of Americans speak it. As a common but articulate example for this, English arrangements from Greek and Russian litanies give three beats to “Lord” (Ky-ri-e or Go-spo-di). This is meet and right. However, the English word “Lord” is short and punchy and does not naturally fit this musical diction. Moreover, it sits on what is essentially a diphthong of a lazy ‘oh’ with the liquid consonantal sound, ‘er.’ Choirs (understandably) flee such a sound and rather rest on something in between a deep ‘uh’ or ‘aw’ and only hit the final two consonants at the end of the word. This is not how English is spoken. The sound ‘or’ is powerful, and it is, though not uniquely, infamously American. (All that being said, while I still stand by this as an example of American English diction, I myself have composed a litany giving three beats to “Lord.” I suppose that is a sign of the limited nature of such stylistic insights.)
It would be easy to belabor what constitutes American diction and pronunciation, but a little anecdote may be telling. Russian and Church Slavonic have very round vowels, and Russian speakers often seem to be frowning when they speak, because they are constantly working with their lower jaws to create deep and spacious sounds. Georgians do not move their mouths very much as they sing. This is counter-intuitive, as Georgian often has long strings of consonants which require great effort for foreigners. Georgians slide through them easily and focus their singing and speaking power not in their mouths or throats but deep within their chests.
These are two small and non-universal insights, but they correlate to how Russian and Georgian music move and where they find resonance. American English of the Midwestern Newscaster variety (among others) has wide vowels and comes out of loose mouths. Appalachian folk music is one compelling expression of singing within this speaking style. It leans into its particular dialect and finds resonance and diction within it and not in spite of it.
This last thought brings us to style. Ultimately, if these arrangements of Orthodox Liturgical music are sung in parishes, they should be sung in a reverent way fitting to the parish. However, if people want to pay attention to the style in which it is written, I would say this. Like Georgian chant, the tone is full and solid (no vibrato). Similar to (but not quite as extreme as) Sacred Harp, the tone is forward. One should not try too hard to adopt “wide vowels” or “loose mouths” but should rather sing steadily and clearly. These natural attributes come on their own. In general, the vowels and consonants should be pronounced as they are spoken.
As one final note, these are arrangements in an American Folk Style (one out of many). Moreover, Orthodox liturgical music in America takes on many forms, whether they are arrangements, translations, or new compositions of any sort. This is one very particular offering to the world of Orthodox Liturgical music.
An American Orthodox Liturgy 