Paraliturgical music of the Orthodox Church

[dzheremi]

Some years ago, upon first realizing that my interest in Orthodoxy was more than passing, one of the things that most fascinated me about the OO Church, coming from an RC background as I do, is the wealth and depth of its expressions as found in its paraliturgical music (songs sung or performed outside of a liturgical setting -- may be carols or some other type of seasonal song, or just expressions of popular devotion for any time). The "official" hymns of the various liturgies are, of course, to be given priority (as you would expect), but I suppose my experience in RCism had somewhat colored my view about the use of music in worship also outside of the liturgy. The RCC, it should be said, is no less diverse than the OO communion in this respect (in fact, in many cases you can find RCs and OOs appreciating and performing the same paraliturgical music, and there are some well known singers -- such as Lebanese artist Ghada Shbeir -- who perform according to the traditions of both communions without prejudice), but I was impressed with what I saw as a more stringent and simultaneously often more organic approach to paraliturgical music among OO than among their RC friends, even or perhaps especially those whose rites descend directly from OO churches (that is to say, Coptic Catholics, Syriac Catholics, and so forth). This is not meant to demean the OO-turned-Catholic Christians or their churches in the least, just to note the difference among people who are culturally, linguistically, and often ethnically of the same origin (so what else could explain this sometimes quite striking difference if not a difference in the way each confession approaches paraliturgical music? I don't know, but it's an interesting thing to think about, and a popular topic of discussion for me and my Oriental Catholic friends, who often lament the popularity of Latin/Western music that they say has replaced their own traditions; I even saw recently the "Hava Nagila", music from a different religion, performed by a Coptic Catholic choir of some kind! Oy vey! I bet most Catholics would scratch their heads at that one). I found that, for instance, Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox paraliturgical songs tend to sound like Ethiopian and Eritrean folk music, while the same produced by Catholic or Protestant artists or choirs sounded more like the modern, secular music popular today with those same people -- in instrumentation, at least (not being a speaker of their languages, I can't say anything about their lyrical content, though I have found some translations of Ethiopian Orthodox paraliturgical songs and found them to be...well...Orthodox! Thanks be to God). This is also somewhat the case in my own Coptic Orthodox Church, where the average "Coptic taraneem" you might find on YouTube is in fact in Arabic and uses modern instruments (though there are also those that use the traditional Coptic instrumentation instead, and some that mix the two, e.g., electric keyboard for the melody, but including the cymbal and triangle as percussion). There have even been bishops (like HG Bishop Suriel of Australia, IIRC) who have spoken out against this attraction to popular Arabic-language musical forms among Coptic youth, though not being an ethnic Copt myself I keep my mouth shut and simply enjoy what I can.

So let us appreciate now our unique paraliturgical music with a few videos. Hopefully someone can add more from the traditions that I do not know (Armenians must have their own paraliturgical music, but I don't know that I'd be able to identify it based on its sound, as I usually can for Coptic, Syriac, and Tewahedo music), or others from the same traditions as below that they enjoy.

The above is an example of Coptic Orthodox "Taraneem" in the popular style: electrified and with a melody that parallels Egyptian popular music (I even played this for a Lebanese friend who is a native Arabic speaker of a certain age who remarked that it reminded him strongly of the works of the immensely popular Egyptian composer of the last century, Mohammed Abdelwahab). Yet it is also distinctly "Coptic", or at least can be recognized as such by anyone who knows the Coptic Church by its use of triangle for percussion. I don't personally care for this style much (as a non-Egyptian, I guess it just doesn't resonate with me, usually), though the lyrics and melody won me over for this particular song. In case anyone doesn't want to turn on the closed captions (recommended), it is called "O, my fathers of the wilderness" (Ya Aba'i rohbban al-bariya), and is about the lives of the Desert Fathers and the desire of their children of today to follow in their footsteps.

This paraliturgical song is from the midnight praises sung during the Coptic month of Kiahk (popularly known as St. Mary's month), sung here in English. It has more traditional instrumentation than the other song (though it should be noted that the cymbal was not originally used in Coptic Church music), like what you would find in an actual liturgical hymn, but isn't one.

The Orthodox Christians of Ethiopia and Eritrea call songs like this "Mezmur" (though there are now Protestant and Catholic takes on Mezmur, and have been for quite some time), and putting "Orthodox Mezmur" into YouTube (always the most scientific way of doing things!) yields so many results, I have to wonder if they're easier to find, at least for people who cannot type in Amharic (like me), than actual liturgical hymns of the Church! This one is by one of my favorite singers of mezmur, Mirtinesh Tilahun. Some of the instruments you hear here, such as the flute and the lyre, are what you'd also hear in secular Ethiopian and Eritrean folk music, though I'm not sure about that type of two-headed drum (it is my understanding that it has religious connotations and hence would not be used for secular music, but I could be misunderstanding my Ethiopian friend's explanation of it; something about the heads representing the divinity and humanity of Christ that I don't remember or understand the specifics of). There are also mezmur performed with other folk instruments not found here, such as the masenqo (one-string lute).

Finally (due to limitations on the amount of media allowed in one post), from the Syriac Orthodox, we have this very interesting example of what the uploader termed "Syriac Orthodox Gospel Music"! (I've seen other paraliturgical music uploaded by Ethiopian Orthodox labeled "Orthodox Gospel Music", too...I suppose it takes all kinds, and besides, who doesn't like Gospel music?!) The group is Gudo d'Mor Afrem [Mar Ephrem group/band], and the song is simply called "Hit Suryoyto", or in some transliterations "'It Suryoyto", meaning "Syriac [Orthodox] Church". Friends of mine from the Middle Eastern Syriac churches (both Orthodox and non) have told me that this melody and instrumentation is typical of what you would hear in folk music of northern Iraq and Syria/southeastern Turkey (all places where ethnic Syriac/Assyrian people live, but also others like the more numerous Kurds), and that is very evident when listening to popular folkloric Assyrian singers, who sound essentially just like this but while singing love songs instead of church songs (and plenty do both; some, like the great Jalil Maiilo, were even priests, and arguably the most famous arranger of modern Syriac folk music, Nouri Iskandar of Syria, has directed several church choirs in addition to composing the most beloved Syriac folk songs of the 1960s and 70s for artists like Wadih El Safi and Habib Moussa).