CIX!

There I was, minding my own business, surfing the Russian liturgical music fora and websites, when I noticed kliros.ru had a ' Audio' page. Tempted, I clicked on it, to find a load of recordings. Whee!

When I saw Архиепископ Ионафан (Елецких): "Литургия Мира" (на мелодии григорианского обихода), I nearly fell over. 'Na melodii grigorianskago obikhoda' is not something I expect to see on a Russian liturgical music website. So, in disbelief, I start loading the tracks.

The Trisagion is based on the Agnus Dei from the Missa de Angelis.

The Creed is Gregorian Credo III, but with some extra syllables (and with a certain word omitted, naturally).

The Anaphora is based on the Sanctus from the Missa de Angelis.

The Hymn to the Mother of God is the Salve Regina simplex.

The Our Father is the normal Gregorian melody.

It's just so odd, the Gregorian (ok, NEO-Gregorian) melodies I know, being sung in Church-Slavonic and with Russian-style choir and harmonies. Quite, quite fascinating. I decided to Google it, and found that the bishop who did this is the UOC-MP archbishop of Kherson (which explains the Ruthenian pronunciation of the Church-Slavonic). An MP guy doing this???

One web forum discussing this had a Russian ask "P.S. Что такое "григорианский обиход"?" and was horrified to hear the answer!

I now have it on my mp3 player, and am sharing it with all my Latin trad friends who think the stuff to be gorgeous.

Hee hee hee!

Edward

Ed,
This link is WONDERFUL. :-) It is the whole Byzantine Liturgy! Thank you for sharing! When you think about it, it is a natural fit. And it is according to our pronunciation of Church Slavonic also! This musical author - Fr. Ioanafan Yelitzky was in the Leningrad Theological Academy when a priest friend of mine studied there also.

Ray

It's so, so weird, but so pretty at the same time. I wasn't aware Kherson was mainly Ukrainophone, I was expecting a Muscovite pronunciation of Church-Slavonic. Does most of Ukraine use this pronunciation?

It's great fun, If I ever get the sheet music for this, I might turn it into English or back into Latin, ha!

Perhaps the choir was from western Ukraine?

Dave

Edward,

What do you mean by "neo-Gregorian?" Just curious.

Alexis

Alexis,

the melodies used there aren't real Gregorian chant (i.e. from the first millennium). They're not even from the period 1000-1500. The melodies used therein are from the 1700s and later. The Missa de Angelis (Mass Regarding the Angels?), for a start, dates from about that period. The simple Salve Regina is from the early 1800s, iirc. It's all pretty, but far too major-key to be real Gregorian. It's even remotely modal, which of course makes for easier harmonisation.

Edward

Edward,

This is fascinating. Thank you for bringing this to the forum.
It brings up some questions that I have for our Church historians.

It has caused me to reflect on some unusual Liturgical customs in unexpected places. I read somewhere, perhaps on this forum, that in Croatia, the Tridentine Rite had been celebrated in Slavonic on some occasions before Vatican II.

I Know that there are Byzantine Churches in Italy that have been part of the western Church. I guess that they used Greek as their Liturgical language, with Italian in some places?

Did the Italian Byzantines ever celebrate the Divine Liturgy in Latin? Was Latin used anywhere else in the Eastern Churches?

John,

That would be the (mis-nomered) Glagolitic Mass, celebrated under Indult principally in Croatia. There are a couple of old threads here and here and a reference here to a US parish in which the indult is utilized on Slovak feasts.



Yes. See Our Lady of Grace Society's website



I don't believe so, Vito might be able to answer with more certitude (or Andrew Rubis, if he still reads here).



I'm unaware of any instances, that I recollect, but Father Serge?

Many years,

Neil

Yeah, the Liturgy of Peace is very interesting but I find that it would not be pleasant to do a whole liturgy using Archbp. Ionafan's setting. The best solution I heard was when the choir which recorded it (Kyiv Chamber Choir) was in Toronto at St. Nicholas Church (UGCC) and sang this seeting from the Lord's Prayer to the priests' communion. In small quantities it is very, very nice.

My one big problem with it is that it ignores the Oktoikh. (Unless the Prokeimenon and Alleluia are actually in Gregorian Chant tone 4 and 5? That would be pretty crazy if it were.)

There are only a few UOC-MP parishes that use the Ukrainian pronunciation, and Kherson probably does not have any. It might have been the preference of the Kyiv Chamber Choir, since the score on his website has the Russian transliteration of Church Slavonic: http://www.jonathan.org.ua/music4.htm

Overall, this seems like a pretty crazy idea that only crazy geniuses would work on.

On an unrelated note, there is a priest in the Toronto Eparchy (UGCC) that is doing a setting of the Liturgy of St. Peter (or something like that) in Church Slavonic.

Thank you, Neil.

I thought I had read about the Slavonic Mass celebrated in Croatia on this Forum, but I could not recall with certainty.

The Our Lady of Grace Society's website was very informative.

http://www.byzantines.net/OurLadyofGrace/