Formation of the Singing Component of Modern Orthodox Worship in China
Formation of the Singing Component of Modern Orthodox Worship in China

Summary/Abstract: Analyzes the musical material used for worship in Orthodox churches in China. The authors considers the conservative tendency, which is followed by Nina Starostina, and the renewal tendency, which is worked on by Nikolay Lebedev. The specifics of N. Starostina's work on new vowels, based on the well-known Chinese songs and means of musical expression, used by the composer in her compositions on canonical liturgical texts are outlined.The article compares the interpretation of substantive aspects of the canonical osmoglavya by Archpriest Boris Nikolaev and the tunes underlying the "Chinese Glas" by Nina Borisovna Starostina, a Moscow composer and researcher of guqin playing who has lived in China and is deeply familiar with the musical culture of China. The emphasis is placed on the means of musical expression peculiar to Chinese musical poetics used in Nina Starostina's works on canonical liturgical texts, as well as on the traditional stylistics of the works of Nikolai Lebedev, an adherent of the Holy Trinity Masterpieces school. It is hypothetically suggested that there is a great difference between these "extremes," but that these are two cardinally opposite paths, outlined today, that the choral tradition in China might follow.As a result, the following varieties of chants are identified in Chinese Orthodox churches: retexts of traditional vowels and chants of later origin (Greek, Yaroslavl, etc.) without modification; retexts of traditional vowels and chants of later origin adapted because of the difference in phonetics of the Chinese and Slavonic languages, and in order to bring them closer to the angelic ones. The following are some of the chants that can be heard in Chinese Orthodox churches: retexts of traditional vowels and chants of later origin, adapted to suit the phonetics of the Chinese and Slavonic languages and to bring them closer to the angemite pentatonic keys of China; new chants composed in the Chinese style to canonical liturgical texts and chants composed in the tradition of Rask spiritual music, and also taken from chant books that are widely available in Orthodox parishes.

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