Singing is Central in Orthodox Services. Here's Why

It’s hard to find anything in Orthodox worship which isn’t sung. This is because traditional Jewish services were (and are) sung.

Originally appeared at: The Catalogue of Good Deeds

Why do we sing so much?

It’s hard to find anything in Orthodox worship which isn’t sung. This is because traditional Jewish services were (and are) sung.

The Apostles were Jewish, and that’s how they grew up worshipping, so naturally that’s how early Christians worshiped. Orthodox Byzantine chant must have developed out of Hebrew chant. (The notion that the early Christians had simple free-form services is made up out of “whole cloth”. Where does it say that in the Bible?) Orthodox worship was naturally simplified when services were held secretly during persecution, but as soon as Christians were free again they returned to normal.

So far as we know, no ancient religion had “simple said services”. It never occurred to anyone to just stand before God or the gods and talk as to an ordinary person. God is holy. God is wonderful. God is awesome. Music expresses the mystery, the wonder, the holy fear, the joy of being in his presence.

Maybe I shouldn’t add this, but I think it’s worth saying. Once I attended a contemporary “Bible church” service where the pastor delivered a superb sermon about the holiness of God – only to be followed by a sentimental “twang twang twang” guitar song. I wanted to cry out “Ichabod!”, “the glory has departed!”  But I didn’t.

Here is a video about the significance of Orthodox Church music. It refers to Byzantine chant – which may seem strange to non-Orthodox, and maybe even to some Orthodox, as it did to me at the beginning, but now I love it. The video could just as easily be about Russian or Serbian or Romanian or some other Orthodox music. I just think this is a particularly good explanation. At the conclusion, use your return arrow above to get back to the Post.

https://www.goarch.org/-/why-do-we-sing-in-church-

In the Apostolic Church and up till at least the Fourth Century, the people did much of the singing. The parts of our Liturgy books which direct the “choir” to sing originally belonged to the people. This changed after the “establishment” of the Church, when music was allowed to develop and it became more complicated – it’s the nature of everything to get more complex as time goes on – but very hard for ordinary folks to sing, so the choir or cantors took over.

Much of Orthodox choir music is very lovely – as above which I think is the very best of it. Continue on to the next video – Saint Nektarios’ popular hymn which many Orthodox people love to sing. It troubles me in Greece when people now stand there totally silent during worship.

In recent times, the ancient tradition of congregational singing is being revived in some places, especially in the New World. Our late Antiochian Metropolitan Philip promoted it. We at Saint Nicholas, Cedarburg, followed his direction. Our people sing well, even some simple basic Byzantine chant. I think this is good: “How we worship is what we believe.” And so the teachings of the Church enter not only into our ears and souls but also into our minds – for if you sing something you easily remember the words.

Why no pipe organs in Orthodox churches? 

Actually, I have seen a couple of Orthodox churches with little Hammond organs, about which the less said the better. Their purpose is to support the choir in singing multi-part harmony. I don’t think choirs need it. And it’s certainly not much help with traditional Orthodox music, whether Byzantine or the more modern Russian. They had simple pipe organs in ancient Greece, but they were never used in Orthodox church. In the West they soon were used in worship.

Let’s ask it positively: Why only a cappella singing in the Orthodox Church? My theory is that this reflects the Orthodox understanding of Church authority. (Who would have guessed?) In Western Christianity, the Faith is generally “imposed” externally – whether from the Papacy or from the Scriptures – and is something to be obeyed and followed. In the East the Holy Spirit dwells within each of us Acts 1:14-17 so there is no need for the Faith to be imposed from outside.

So it is natural in the West to sing following an external “control”, the organ.

While we Orthodox naturally sing a cappella, from within us, all of us “tuning” to each other. This is the only explanation I can imagine.

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