Reflections on Orthodox Hymnody — Archpriest John Breck
The hymns of the Church are verbal images or “icons” by which we affirm, proclaim, and celebrate our faith. Using the unique yet universal language of music, they enable us to express personally and communally the saving truth of the gospel message, to bear witness to that truth to others, and to offer praise and thanksgiving to the One who renders that truth forever accessible to us. Orthodox hymnody, then, has an essential “soteriological” or “saving” function. Like the proclamation of the gospel itself, it actualizes and communicates its content within the Christian community through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
If we look at church singing in this way, however, it becomes clear that we have to accept certain canons or norms, laid down by Tradition, regarding both the words and the music of our hymns. Authentic hymns are “theology in music,” just as an authentic icon is “theology in color.” This means that inappropriate music, even if well sung, distorts the message of the hymn. Like “bad” iconography, it feeds us with deception rather than nourishing us with the truth. But the converse is true as well. The purest Znamenny chant is incapable of communicating grace and truth if the message it transmits is not centered upon the saving work of God fulfilled in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Musical form is an essential vehicle that conveys the Christ—that conveys the substance of our faith. While it needs to be continually adapted to changing cultural situations by an ongoing process of creation and translation, the music of the Church, like the words it bears, must express divine reality in human language. And it can express this divine reality only insofar as it reflects the living and life-giving content of Tradition. <…>
