Religious Music in Eastern European Churches

Transcription

1 不 來 禮 禮 樂 類 不 不 了 臘 樂 來 不 切 蘭 樂 樂 Religious Music in Eastern European Churches Dr. Broecker, Marianne University of Bamberg Abstract All the different Orthodox Christian Churches in Eastern European countries have one common basic feature: that is the structure of the church services according to the Byzantine rite. The kind and performance of music however, used for the services have various characteristic features depending on the country or region, where it is practiced. Besides the monophonic chant during the Middle Ages and the style of Greek-Byzantine music performance, a special church music developed later on in many countries in close interrelation to folk music and in the part singing influenced by Western art music. With emphasis on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church music some of the special features of these musical traditions shall be represented

2 Religious Music in Eastern European Churches Dr. Broecker, Marianne University of Bamberg Concerning the musical cultures of the orthodox religion in Eastern Europe the terms tradition and change have a special meaning. In most of the Eastern European countries under the socialistic government the practice of religion was strictly forbidden since about It was not allowed to hold services in the churches anymore, they were closed or transformed in warehouses. In this way any public presentation of belief was suppressed. The result of this political line was the abrupt end of the church music. The people, however, didn t loose their belief and immediately after the end of the Socialistic Soviet Union religious practices began again. Today there can be observed a very intensive spiritual life in these Eastern European countries, visible also in and outside the churches. During the last decade the old churches were carefully restored or reconstructed, for instance in Kiev, or, as in Rumania, many big new churches are constructed, even in very small villages. As I learnt there, these churches are used by different religious communities like the Roman catholic church and the Rumanian orthodox church. In the Ukraine the result of this political situation was on the one hand that the oral tradition of polyphonic singing in the church has been lost and on the other hand that the research of Ukrainian religious music was possible only from outside the country without having the chance to study the sources. This interruption is particularly regrettable from the ethnomusicological point of view, because the oral tradition to sing in improvised polyphony, for which for instance the priests and monks of the Lavra-cavemonastery in Kiev were famous for centuries in whole Europe, is only known from writings today. Today the musical practice in Ukrainian churches is partly very simple, here the tradition of improvised singing is lost, but some churches and cathedrals have newly founded choirs, and the repertory they sing is taken from the music written by composers from the 16th century on. The city of Kiev has been a cultural centre in Eastern Europe for many centuries, with a great influence on other countries, especially Russia. Kiev had been the capital of the first Russian Empire, the so called Kiev Rus, which existed from the 9th until the 13th century, when the Mongolian invasion destroyed the empire. Christianity came to the Ukraine when the great prince Wladimir evangelized his country in the year 988. He took over the Greek orthodox religion with the Byzantine rite. Although the Byzantine rite is homogeneous in all orthodox Christian churches, the musical practice is different. A common feature is the total absence of any musical instruments, only the human voice, given by God, can serve to praise God. Therefore we find several

3 traditions of singing, besides the singing in unisono there is the wide spread practice of singing with a vocal drone. That means one or more singers perform the melody above a drone, sung by other singers. This drone is not always on the same pitch, it changes according to the melodic line. This practice is common in the Greek-Byzantine orthodox church, from where it came into the other orthodox churches, like that of Rumania or of Bjelorussia, where today after the restoration of the religious music practice even two different voices are sung above the drone. This singing practice was also used in the Ukraine until the 16th century. It is not known, when part singing was introduced, but it is well known, that already in the 16th century, part singing was widely used in the folk singing of the Ukrainian population part singing was practiced already in Ukrainian monasteries and was officially accepted by the East-Ukrainian patriach Meletius Pigas (Antonowycz 1990: 140). The development of vocal polyphony has been created under the influence of Western European music. This happened in two different ways: many Ukrainians visited or studied in different Western European countries, and brought back the newest musical knowledges, and on the other hand the Ukraine was part of the Polish Kingdom in that time, and the Polish Roman catholic church tried to find ways and means to convert the orthodox Ukrainian population to the Roman catholic religion. Part singing became very popular in the Ukraine and soon many choirs were founded, also professional choirs came into existence and again Kiev was the important centre of this movement. From the 17th century on numerous compositions of church music were written, thought to be performed by the choirs during the services. Singing accompanies the liturgy of the orthdox church and in addition there are more extensive compositions for the horary prayers (Officium), which contain music for psalms, hymns or laudes (praise songs). In their works the Ukrainian composers connected traditional musical elements with features of Western European art music. The compositions are written for choirs with 8 to 48 parts, the most common technique is four voices. The most important feature is the harmonic-homophonic setting of the voices, which is contrasted to solo parts or parts of smaller groups of voices. These works have been written for choirs with a fixed structure of singers (Antonowyz 1974). The other part of the church songs has been an oral tradition of part singing. When the members of the community sang together with the choir, they added several improvised parts, so that in former times the singing in Ukrainian churches had very different and local traditional features (Antonowycz 1990: 77). Very famous for this tradition were the monks and priests of the above mentioned Lavra-cavemonastery in Kiev, which was founded in the 11th century and liquidated in There existed for a long time an art of part singing, based on improvisation. It was a common practice to write down the melodies, but only the melodies, so that this tradition of improvisation is lost (Antonowycz 1990: 82). But part singing is

4 extensively used in the vocal folk tradtion, also for religious songs, so a very brief example from a psalm, sung by folk singers today perhaps can give us an impression of the sound, in which these songs wer performed, though this of course is a reconstruction. Now I would like to consider another musical tradition, which was not connected with church services, but which played a very important role in the spiritual life of the people. In addition this tradition has to be regarded as a unique phenomenon of the Ukrainian religious culture, which did nt exist anywhere else. The kobsari, named after the kobsa, one of the instruments they played, were singers, who handed down the oral history of the people and who sang religious songs, stories from the bible, psalms or hymns. Since at least the 17th century there existed two different kind of kobsari, who performed in general the same repertory but for a different audience. One group were professional musicians on a very high social level, mostly living and working at the different courts of the country, including the Russian courts. They were regarded as special artists and their music was highly estimated. Besides the courtly music for dance and entertainment they sang the old epic stories and transmitted the mostly tragical, oral history of the Ukrainians. The other group of kobsari were wandering musicians, mostly organized in brotherhoods, which were connected to churches, cathedrals or monasteries. For several reasons these singers had a high reputation in the population, not only for the songs they sang but also for the life they lived. They usually were blind (Lysenko 1955: 36), and to join a guild they were obliged to live after high moral principles. There were a lot of blind people in former centuries, not only in the Ukraine. One of the reasons to loose the sight was the result of an illness like smallpox. The reputation, a poor wandering kobsar got, can be seen from the fact, that when men became blind, even very rich people left their family and went into a monastery to become a kobsar (Privalov 1905: 13-16). They were trained by the monks and years later they started to wander around, singing religious songs. They performed in market places, in front of monasteries and churches, i. e. in any kind of public place. The repertory of these singers consisted in epic songs called duma. These dumy are a special feature of Ukrainian art and folk music. The term duma is used for the original epic-historical folk song, but also for art poems imitating the words of the folk duma, for art songs composed as accompanied solo songs or as choir songs and since the 19th century for instrumental compositions. The folk duma is based on stories about famous cosacks and their fate, but also on tragical episodes in families or on religious topics. Because the content of the dumy the style is often near to laments. Characteristic for the duma is a short plaintive introduction, a kind of sobbing invocation like Ej, Hej or similar. The performance of dumy could last hours or even days (Elschekova 1995).

5 Besides the dumy which also told sacred stories, the religious part of their repertory consisted in hymns, in psalms or in so called kanty. This term derived from the latin cantus and was originally the term to designate three part singing of religious songs, performed outside the church (Antonwycz 1990: 122). The authors of these compositions, mostly anonymous, were priests or members of the Academy in Kiev (Gerasymova-Persyds ka 1998: 1106). The kobsari took over the themes of these songs and sang them as soloist accompanying themselves on one of their instruments. The instruments of the kobsari have always been string instruments. One of them, the kobsa, is a unique Ukrainian instrument, known from the 16th century on, although the name is used in different regions for various instruments. The kobsa is a short necked lute with normally six melody strings and several bass strings, which are used for producing bass tones and chords. The second plucked string instrument is the bandura, in this form only known in the Ukraine, but the name again is used for various string instruments in different European regions. The Ukrainian bandura is a short necked lute with several melody strings and many bass strings, arranged on the table like a fan, which are accompanying the melody as bass strings or as chords. Even arpeggios are produced. The difference betweeen the kobsa and the bandura is especially in the shape, the bandura has an asymmetric shape, the side of the instrument, where the bass strings are fixed is more arched than the other side. The third instrument, from which the kobsari are also called lirniki, is a bowed instrument, but instead of the bow there is a wooden wheel inside the body of the instrument, which let sound the strings, when turned around. This is a very old form of the hurdy gurdy, widespread in Western Europe. The Ukrainian lira or lera has only three strings, one melody and two drone strings (Privalov 1905). This instrument is used by the kobsari especially for those of the religious songs which have a mournful character. The kobsari were not only interpreter, but many of them were famous text writers and composers of dumy, psalms and hymns. So even if they were poor and looked like beggars they were real folk artists not only interpreting but also creating and varying their repertory. For at least three centuries these kobsari were itinerant musicians performing in the Ukraine as well as in Bjelorussia and Russia. Whereever they sang they were appreciated by the people in a special way. The reason for this reputation was their repertory of religious songs and the intensity of their performance. Because of their blindness and their interpretation of the religious words, they were extremely respected by the people, even in

6 that way, that they were regarded and names as Holy Men or as Men of God. People believed that they were sent by God, they asked them for blessing (benediction) and prayers and they even attributed to them healing power. After the foundation of the Sovjet Union the public practice of the Kobsari was forbidden, but they didn t disappear totally. Their activites were stopped however, when in the the 1930th Stalin invited all the kobsari of the country to participate in a first pan-ukrainian congress of the kobsari and lirniki. Those who followed this invitation, paid it with their lives. By order of Stalin all of them were assassinated, so that hundreds of kobsari lost their life at this event, and as Schostakowitsch wrote, hundreds came together, it was a living museum, the living history of the country, all its songs, the complete poetry and music (Wolkolw 2003: 324 f.). After this time the kobsari disappeared from the streets and their musical-religious art got lost. But secretly parts of their song repertory was written down, so that today many of these written sources can be related to certain very well known kobsari, whose names are still in the memory of people. After the end of the Sovjet Union with its restricted policy against religion, the first guild of kobsari was refounded in Kiev in 1991, and today the guild has 26 members. This new union of kobsari tries to follow the old tradition but with some changes. They perform in the same way and they use the same instruments as before, but they are no longer a guild in connection to a church or monastery and they also are no longer blind singers. Some of them also have other professions, some of them are professional kobsari. For this new generation the only reason to become a kobsar is a deeply felt belief, which they want to express musically. They sing the old songs but they started already to create new hymns, kants or psalms. Today they often sing and perform in concerts, not in the streets, but when they sing and play in the streets, peopble again regard them with the same respect and some of them are today already named Men of God.

7 References Antonowycz, Myroslaw: The Chants from Ukrainian Heirmologia. Bilthoven Antonowycz, Myroslaw: Ukrainische geistliche Musik. Ein Beitrag zur Kirchenmusik Osteuropas, München Elschekova, Alica: Article Duma und Dumka, in: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. 2. neubearbeitete Auflage, hrsg. von Ludwig Finscher, Sachteil, Band 2, Kassel 1995, Gerasymova-Persyds ka, Nina: Article Ukraine, in: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. 2. neubearbeitete Auflage, hrsg. von Ludwig Finscher, Sachteil, Band 9, Kassel 1998: Jasynovs kyj, Jurij: Article: Orthodoxe Kirchemusik. VII. Orthodoxe Kirchenmusik der Westukraine und der Ostlsowakei, in: Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. 2. neubearbeitete Auflage, hrsg. von Ludwig Finscher, Sachteil, Band 7, Kassel 1997, Lysenko, Mycola: Narodni Muzycni Instrumenty na Ukrajini [Volksmusikinstrumente in der Ukraine], Kiew Privalov, N. I.: Lira (lira, ryle, rele). Russkij Narodnyj Muzykal nyj Instrument. Istorico-Etnograficeskoe Izsledovanie [Lira (lira, ryle, rele). Das russische Volksmusikinstrument. Historisch-ethnographische Untersuchung], in: Zapisok Russkago Otdelenija Imperatorskago Russkago Archeologiceskago Obscestva [Schriften der Russischen Abteilung der Kaiserlich Russischen Archäologischen Gesellschaft], Band 2, St. Petersburg Wolkow, Salomon (Ed.): Die Memoiren des Dmitri Schostakowitsch, Muenchen

8 Discussion 來 數 禮 歷 留 Broecker 來 樂 了 臘 樂 folk music 羅 樂 歷 不 蘭 例 蘭 了 羅 不流 羅 樂 Broecker 了 羅 樂 臘 不 1 了 17 羅 樂 力 樂 禮 樂 了 洛 了 裂 了 znamenny 了 18 利 量 更 了 律 律 禮 樂 蘭 樂 Duma 類 蘭 樂 kobsabandura lirniki 靈 了 了 聯 樂 樂 了 年 見 樂 了 kobsari 不 Broecker 蘭 樂 了 臘 1 羅 老 臘 律 樂 臘 拉 禮 znamenny raspev 2 禮 離 不 禮 znamenny

9 不 度 不 Broecker 歷 若 樂 了 不 不 略 不 烈 禮 聯 見 樂 了 離了 度 立 Broecker 見 禮 羅 羅 不 臘 參 了 歷 禮 說 切 若 朗讀 領 樂 兩 兩 輪 樂 兩 輪 更 落 領 律 留 類 說 17 Question & Answer Q1 什 留 羅里 立 立 A1 立 練 錄 來 了 樂 16 樂 不 Q2 蘭 蘭 樂 復 利 勒 不 裡 蘭 不 來 蘭 蘭 不 易