- Nov 26, 2019
- 14,990
- 7,895
- 50
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Generic Orthodox Christian
- Marital Status
- Celibate
Opposition to CCM combined with liberal theologically poorly trained clergy in the mainline churches (I knew one who was a closet homosexual and openly Arian) is literally why I became Orthodox, because the choice where I lived was between conservative Protestant churches using horrible praise and worship music and other “contemporary worship” forms which I regard as liturgical heresy, and liberal churches which had traditional music but engaged in dogmatic heresy.
In the Orthodox Churches I can breathe easily knowing that I am in a church that will never perform gay marriages and where I will never have to even see, let alone hear, an electric guitar and drum kit. Indeed even organs are rare in Orthodox Churches. Now I myself don’t have a problem with some of the Greek Orthodox music by composers like Tikey Zes that uses the organ, but that is only because I know that the traditional Byzantine Chant is zealously guarded, and also the history of organ music in the Greek churches dates back several hundred years to the Venetian Republic, and even back to the Byzantine Empire, where there was an organ in the narthex of the Hagia Sophia )albeit not one used for liturgical purposes, in that it did not accompany the choir in the nave of the church, which was truly massive and glorious and needed no accompaniment; rather my understanding is the idea of the organ in the Narthex was to prepare persons waiting to enter the nave for worship, and I can’t object to that. It is also worth noting that the Hagia Sophia and certain large cathedrals like those in Thessaloniki and Athens used a somewhat different typikon than the monastic typikon that was adopted in most parishes, one which has been restored to a large extent by the brilliant musicologist Dr. Alexander Lingas, whose Capella Romana is widely regarded as among the finest performers of Byzantine Chant (and they also recorded Tikey Zes, with the organ).
However in the majority of Orthodox churches, the organ would be a hugely unwelcome intrusion, for example, it could not do anything but spoil the music of those churches that use music originally written in Russia and Ukraine, which include also the Bulgarian and Finnish churches and the Orthodox Church of America, whose English language hymnal consists largely of English language adoptions of traditional Russian Orthodox music (which makes sense given the OCA, along with ROCOR, took over most of the Russian Orthodox Church in the US, with the OCA getting all of Alaska and also most of the converts from the Ruthenian Catholic Churches, who have their own distinct form of church music and congregational singing known as Prostopinije, which I also love, when its done well. ROCOR embraces a liturgical maximalism which results in absolutely magnificent services at many of their parishes. Additionally, the Georgian Orthodox Church uses a gorgeous tradition of three part harmony which can be astonishingly beautiful when done right (some of the monasteries sing it in a manner that is inaccessible to me, but there are other ensembles which sing it in a manner I very much enjoy).
I would also note that the introduction of the organ has been a total disaster in one of the Oriental Orthodox churches, the Syriac Orthodox Church, where the permission for organ music was seen as approval for use of an electronic keyboard synthesizer, which is a different animal altogether, and this has resulted in some absolute disasters, except in those parishes and cathedrals that made the correct decision and banned their use, and adhered to the a capella traditions of that church. On the other hand, it did not have an adverse effect among the Armenians, probably because Yekmalian and Komitas had the presence of mind to anticipate its usage.
EDIT: I changed this post because I inadvertently caused great offense to another member by referring to CCM / Praise as “trash”, which was wrong, and mean-spirited, and in this manner I sinned because I neglected to apply the Golden Rule and to follow the principle of charity. Rather, I allowed by passions to take hold, and made a crass, insensitive and stupid off-the-cuff remark, for which I apologize.
Last edited:
Upvote
0
