The Liturgy of St John Chrysostom: a work of ecclesiastical or concert character?

When a composer intends to write a setting of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (“Liturgy”, for short), he or she needs to be sure what the character of the work to be composed would be: ecclesiastical in character, to be performed in church during a service, or of a concert character to be performed in a concert hall?
What are the differences between the works of ecclesiastical character and works of concert character? To answer the question, we need to compare a performance of a musical work in church during a service and at a concert hall during a concert, i.e., using the method of oppositions. We need to consider the opposition “service/church – concert/concert hall” in the context of a musical performance.

The Liturgy of St John Chrysostom: a work of ecclesiastical or concert character?
Oleh Vyacheslavovich Harkavyy oleh.harkavyy@hotmail.com W hen a composer intends to write a setting of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom ("Liturgy", for short), he or she needs to be sure what the character of the work to be composed would be: ecclesiastical in character, to be performed in church during a service, or of a concert character to be performed in a concert hall?
What are the differences between the works of ecclesiastical character and works of concert character? To answer the question, we need to compare a performance of a musical work in church during a service and at a concert hall during a concert, i.e., using the method of oppositions. We need to consider the opposition "service/church -concert/concert hall" in the context of a musical performance.
Let us consider the row as follows: Scheme 1 Creation  performance  perception I I I Composer performer listener Methodologically, before answering questions connected with the creation of a musical Liturgy (first link of Scheme 1), one should consider its further supposed performance (second link) and perception (third link) -and then to consider their feed back to the first link: "perception  creation" and "performance  creation". As for "performance/performer", as a rule, a church choir, which participates in services on a regular basis, is a group of musicians of not too high a professional level, especially the choir of a parish church in a small town or a village. Most of the choristers of such a choir not only do not have higher musical education, but generally no musical education at all. Mass settings; which is, of course, more than enough for any chamber choir or ensemble over many years of activity. The same could be said about any composer whose output consists of exclusively or mostly of choral works -for example, Dmitry Bortnyansky (1751-1825): his output includes some 100 choral works with thirty-five sacred choral concertos among them.
In this article, I will concentrate on the common rules, but not on their exceptions.

Scheme 2
Performance  perception I I Performer listener I I Repertoire experience Believers participating regularly in services in a parish church, accustom themselves to the quite limited repertoire of their parish choir, which sings the same liturgical works in every service. That is why, having quite limited musical experience, such a listener will note -with extreme conservatism and skepticism -any new musical composition unknown for them, especially if it is not similar to the well-known music to which they are accustomed, which is an indisputable model. And, on the contrary, choral music lovers, visiting a concert hall regularly and listening to concerts by different professional chamber choirs with their extensive repertoires and thus having a wide musical experience, will be open to listening to a new sacred work that is unknown to them, because they are accustomed to experience something new every time at every concert.
As for the aim, a believer visits a parish church regularly with the aim of participating in a service and of receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion to eternal life, personal salvation. Thus the believer's aim is to achieve personal salvation at church, but not to listen to music there, though music is an integral part of Divine Worship (all the integral parts of the latter will be considered below).
Of course, there are some exceptions, such as when a person visits a church with the aim of listening to a musical work, which is performed only at that church and nowhere else.
Let me illustrate the exceptions with an example. At the beginning of the 1990s, being a student at the St Petersburg State Marine Technical University (before going to the Odessa State Music Academy "A. V. Nezhdanova" in Summer 1992), I came to know that the All-Night Vigil (1915) by Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943 would be performed at the Cathedral of the Transfiguration during a service, as an integral part, for the first time after the long years of its oblivion in Soviet Union.
I went to the Cathedral, but with the aim of listen to Rachmaninov's work. The Cathedral was extremely crowded. I was crushed from all the sides, not being able to move backwards or forwards, and it was very stuffy. In addition, I was tormented by my osteochondrosis, which is why I was physically not able to be standing for a long time. So I felt very uncomfortable and unhappy! Possibly because of the strong discomfort, or possibly because I was not ready to understand the work, having no "key" to it, I was not impressed by Rachmaninov's work, in the sense that I had not received the impression that I had imagined before the performance. I was really disappointed with the work.
The above-mentioned example is an exception to the rule in the sense that believers visit a church with the aim of participating in a service but not to listen to a musical setting there, which attracts, first of all, musicians, independently from their confession or world view. Thus, though music is used in church during a service, being an integral part of it, it has a subordinate character in the service, not being its principal aim.
One can imagine a service without music. If all the singers, as well as their conductor, fell suddenly sick, and there was no one who could sing, the service -in this extreme case -could be taken without music: all the prayers, sung usually by a choir, would be declaimed by a priest or a deacon -the sacred service would not suffer. In this case, my argument is as follows: if one element of a system can be removed from it without any damage, it means that it is not a principal element of the system. And, vice versa, if an element cannot be removed from a system without damage to it, it is a principal element in the system.
There is a quite different situation in the concert hall. Music lovers visit a concert hall with the principal aim of listening to music -and it is impossible to imagine a musical concert without music! In an extreme case, if an advertised performer falls suddenly sick, the concert will be cancelled or re-scheduled for later, until the performer's recovery, or the performer will be replaced by another.
Thus, music has different characters depending on the system: it has a subordinate character in a service and a dominant one in a musical concert. A service could take place without music, while a concert could not take place without music.
Let us consider both the auditors (the listeners) of a musical setting of the Liturgy: the believers (at church) and music lovers (at a concert hall).
Those who come to a parish church regularly to participate in services there are mostly the believers of a definite confession (Orthodox, Catholic, etc.) from a specific parish. And it is the main criterion for such a category that the listeners to belong to a definite confession and a specific parish. Those who go to a concert hall regularly to attend concerts as listeners may be believers from any Christian confession, any non-Christian religion, as well as nonbelievers with any world view. It is generally not a criterion for such a category of listeners to belong to any particular confession or religion.
Obviously, there are more believers -who participate in services regularly and thus know well the order of the service, its language (for example, Church Slavonic), the sacred meaning of all the prayers and rites, etc. -among the parishioners of a church than among the visitors to a concert hall. And, correspondingly, there are more music lovers -who have some kind of musical education, as well as enough experience as listeners, and thus understand music well -among the visitors of a concert hall than among the parishioners of a church.
So, one set of listeners (the parishioners) is better trained to perceive the sacred aspect of a musical setting of the Liturgy, while the auditory (the music-lovers) is better trained to perceive the aesthetic (artistic) aspect:

Scheme 3
Parishioner  church  sacred } musical Liturgy Music-lover  concert hall  aesthetic I am not considering the situation in which a parishioner of is also a music lover and, moreover, when a priest is a professional musician (conductor and /or composer). In such infrequent cases, the listener is well trained to perceive both the sacred and aesthetic aspects of a musical setting of the Liturgy. But such cases are exceptions from the common rule: depending on their aim and training, a parishioner of a church perceives better the sacred element of a musical setting of the Liturgy, while a visitor to a concert hall perceives better its aesthetic aspect.
As mentioned above, music is an integral part of a service. Let us consider its other integral parts.
It needs to begin from the exterior of the church; its interior, richly decorated by icons in golden frames (оклады); dim light, streaming through the small windows; a semi-darkness, which is dispersed by the burning candles and lampadas by the icons; the specific vestments of the clergy, which differ from their everyday dress; the smell of the beeswax candles and smoking incense; the sacred/ritual actions of priest and deacon… all these integral parts of a service could be considered as a synthesis of the interaction of different arts: • architecture: the exterior and interior of a church, • painting: the icons, frescos, mosaic, 3 • sculpture (in Catholic and Lutheran churches), 4 • drama: the sacred/ritual actions of clergy and laymen, which have their own order (dramaturgy), • literature: the texts of the prayers, • lighting (illumination): a light, streaming through the windows, especially the stained glass in Catholic and Lutheran churches; the light of burning candles and lampadas, reflected by the golden frames of the icons, as well as the church vessels, • vestments: the special clothes of the clergy, embroidered with golden thread, etc. 3 There are unique data about the icons and icon-painting in the novel "Запечатленный ангел" (1873) by the Russian writer Nikolai Leskov (1831-1895): Н. С. Лесков, Собрание сочинений в двенадцати томах, Том 1 (Москва: Правда, 1989), 397-456. 4 One can find very interesting and original thinking about the oppositions icon -sculpture and vocal music -instrumental music (in the Russian Orthodox Church and Catholic Church respectively) in: о. В. В. Зеньковский, История русской философии, Том 1 (Ленинград: Эго, 1991), 41.
Of course, to the list needs to be added music too. A service uses not only the solo intonations of priest and/or deacon and choral singing, but also metal percussion instruments: a bell (or bells) and the censer. The ringing of the church bell callsbelievers to the beginning of the service. The bell towers of some cathedrals and lavras have many bells of different sizes, which give an artistic peal (перезвон -трезвон) with different melodies. The censer has its own original sound, caused by shaking it and is like little bells (of silver timbre, in my own perception). All these sounds are integrated into the harmonious sounding "palette" of Divine Worship.
My unpublished poem Оркестр / An Orchestra (2002)  Such characteristics of an interior of a church or a concert hall as its acoustics need to be mentioned particularly, because these are very important both for a performance of a musical work (second link of Scheme 1) and its perception (third link of the Scheme) and thus for its objective evaluation by listeners, including reviewers. A musical work must be performed in a space with suitable acoustics for the specifics of the work. As a rule, a church has excellent acoustics, ideal for a performance of a choral a cappella work, including a setting of the Liturgy. Obviously, it will have more favourable conditions for its performance and perception in a church than in a large concert hall, suitable only for symphonic concerts. Perhaps this was one of the reasons for Tchaikovsky's negative evaluation of the Bortnyansky's choral concerto -merely the fact of its performance at a large concert hall at a symphonic concert.
Thus, the same musical setting of the Liturgy will be performed better (by the same performer) and understood better (by the same listener) at a church, than in a concert hall. It seems to be one of the objective reasons why Orthodox church music is still a cappella: the best acoustics of a church make it sound beautiful without any instrumental accompaniment.
Every kind of art has an influence upon a parishioner during a service, but all kinds of art, being integrated with one another, interacting each other, reinforce their total influence -as is described, for example, in the novel Тысяча душ (1858) by the Russian writer Alexei Pisemsky (1821-1881). Describing an Easter service at the church of a poor monastery, he writes: Церковь была довольно большая, но величина ее казалась решительно громадною от слабого освещения: горели только лампадки да тонкие восковые свечи перед местными иконами, которые, вследствие этого, как бы выступали из иконостаса, и тем поразительнее было впечатление, что они ничего не говорили об искусстве, а напоминали мощи… В углублении правого клироса стояло человек пять певчих монахов. В своих черных клобуках и широких рясах, освещенные сумеречным дневным светом, падавшим на них из узкого, затемненного железною решеткою окна, они были в каком-то полумраке и пели складными, тихими басами, как бы напоминая собой первобытных христиан, таинственно совершавших свое молебствие в мрачных пещерах. Все это не яркое, но полное таинственного смысла благолепие храма охватило моих богомольцев… 5 The church was rather big, but it seemed really huge because of the faint light: only the lampadas and thin wax candles were burning near the local icons, which seemed therefore to be jutting out from the iconostasis, and the impression was so much the more striking that the icons said nothing about art, but resembled relics… There were standing about five monk-singers in a niche of the right choir. In their black cowls and wide cassocks, illuminated by the crepuscular light which fell on them through a narrow window, darkened by an iron lattice, they were in semi-darkness, the harmonious quiet basses singing, resembling to a certain degree the earliest Christians, who prayed in secret in dark caves. All this splendour of the church, not bright but full of mysterious sense, has taken ver my prayers…" (Author's translation) Obviously, Pisemsky emphasizes the interaction of the light of the lampadas and wax candles and icons, where the light becomes a symbol of the ranscendent light which transfigures an icon -a work of art (icon painting) -into a relic of a saint. The same can be said about the interaction of the twilight and music, where the latter becomes the Transcendent One. All the above-mentioned kinds of art, interacting with each other, excite, maintain and deepen a religious sense in the believers during the service. One can try to differentiate this sense, enumerating all the emotions which arise in the believers at one or another point in aservice according to its dramaturgy. Self-denial, awe, trepidation, repentance, tenderness, reverence, veneration, rapture… The list could be continued with many other generic emotions with their specific nuances. What a richness of emotions at a believer's soul during Divine Worship! For example, Metropolitan Antony of Sourozh describes the emotions both of a parishioner and a priest at the mystery of Confession: Каждая исповедь может быть последней исповедью человека; каждую исповедь человек должен приносить Богу, словно настал его предсмертный час; и каждую исповедь должен принимать священник с таким же благоговением, с таким же сознанием ответственности, с таким же трепетным ужасом и любовью, с которыми шел бы на суд Божий вместе с человеком, который у него исповедуется. 6 Every confession of a man can become his last confession; a man must bring his every confession to God, as if it is his dying hour; and a priest must take every confession with the same reverence, with the same understanding of his responsibility, with the same awe and veneration, with which he would come before the Judgement of God together with a man who is confessed by him. (Author's translation) Thus, the perception of a musical Liturgy by believers during a service will differ from the perception of the Liturgy by musiclovers at a concert hall: the believers are listening to a musical Liturgy being in special "prepared" state of their mind -in the religious sense. One can say about the situation, that a "seed" (a musical Liturgy) falls on a well-cultivated ground.
That is why a composer, creating his or her musical Liturgy as a primarily ecclesiastical work, intended to be performedin church during a service, can suppose that the religious character, contained in his music objectively, will be deepened subjectively by the religious sense of the believers' perception. This additional subjective factor will be absent from a performance of the Liturgy in a concert hall -even if the Liturgy is performed there by the same performers for the same listeners (the parishioners of the church). Being in a concert hall, the religious sense will not be present.
Of course, in listening to a musical Liturgy in church during a service, one can try to listen only to the music, excluding all the extra-musical factors which influence perception of the music -to obtain an unalloyed/pure perception only of the music, independently from any other influences.
But in what the way could we except the special state of a soul, known to integrate a "religious sense", which arises in the believers during a service? On the one hand, this sense is objectively deepened in a believer's soul by sounding music, but on the other hand, it reinforces subjectively the emotional influence of the music upon him/her. Thanks to the sum of both the objective and subjective factors, which reinforce one another, sacred music has an extremely strong influence upon the believers during the service.
That is why sacred music "fades", becoming dim, colourless, duller, in a concert performance in a hall -it loses its subjective factor (the religious sense of perception). Is this sense impossible at a concert hall? To answer the question, we need to analyse all the kinds of art which interact during a concert in a hall.
A concert in a hall is also a synthetic action, in which different kinds of art interact, being inseparably linked one with another: the concert hall's exterior and interior are, as a rule, of an interesting architecture (with white marble stairs and massive pillars, etc.); the hall is also decorated with portraits of great musicians (composers) instead of icons; a stage also has its own decoration -a curtain of rich material; the performers have their specific concert dress (a dress suite for a man, an evening dress for a woman), which differ from their everyday clothes; a concert has also its own dramaturgy (the programme, i.e., the order of the pieces performed, with a supposed culmination and an encore at the conclusion); if a lecturer participates in a concert, the musical numbers are changed by his or her words (a lecture), which adds a marked contrast to a concert's dramaturgy; lighting engineering is used too: as a rule, the stage is brightly lit, while the hall is plunged into a semi-darkness (as an exception, some musicians perform by the light of burning candles in darkness). All these factors, being integrated, "alloyed" together, excite some emotional state in the listeners, which differs from their everyday psychological state -although it is not a religious sense.
Some indefinite sensation of a transcendent character can arise during a concert through a performance of some works (not only sacred pieces) -but in such cases, the transcendent character is connected not with the religious sense, but rather with a philosophical perception of a musical process as a temporal continuity, which has neither beginning nor end. What is this "temporal continuity"? The composers of the past, long dead, of the present, living now, and of the future, not yet born yet, are "plunged" into an endless continuity. As a good illustration of the idea, there is a moving French engraving (1774), entitled "Orfeo greets Lully and Rameau at Elysium". 7 This indefinite sensation can be to a certain degree described as a "mystical revelation", with understanding of the "mystics" not in its specifically religious aspect, but in its generic, wider aspect as an intersection of the immanent life and the transcendent life -at one point of time and space.
I have my own experience of such a mystical sensation at a musical concert. There was a recital of the pianist Valery Afanasiev (b. 1947) at the Great Hall of the Odessa Philharmonic Society on 18 May 2007. The programme of the recital consisted of the works by Franz Schubert. The first part of the concert passed without leaving any trace in my memory.
But the second part was quite different, as a compensation for the first. It consisted only of the Sonata in B flat minor (op. post.). Suddenly, I was caught away from the stuffy Philharmonic Hall, crowded by the listeners, and transposed to a homely visiting-room with some close friends by Schubert. And not Valery Afanasiev, but Schubert himself was sitting at a piano. He was playing the Sonata, and at the same time it seemed, that he was speaking -and his every word was understandable for me without atranslation from German! During the entire performance I was in temporal continuity and replaced into the stuffy Philharmonic Hall by the applause. It was really a great ovation, well earned by the pianist. It needs to be added, that my wifethe musicologist and poetess Rita (Margarita) Dmitrievna Ocheretnaya  -participated in this remarkable concert as a lecturer (she worked as a lecturer in musicology at the Odessa Philharmonic Society from 1994 until her untimely death in 2008).
Just as a great saint is not higher than an angel, so a great performer is not higher than a composer, whose music s/he plays. But in some very infrequent cases, such as the above-mentioned one, a performer rises to the composer's transcendental level. In these cases, the performer becomes a mediating link between the immanent and thetranscendent life -i.e., a point (medium) of intersection of both levels, and thus can be compared with a prophet (in the religious meaning of the word). He becomes a guide to the other world -as Vergil (70-19 b. C.) was a guide for Dante

in his Divina Commedia.
Some questions arise in connection with the recital.
• Did all the listeners in the hall have the same sensation of the transcendent level as me, or wasI the only one? In other words, did the sensation have an objective character, the pianist exciting the minds/souls of all the listeners, or an extremely subjective character, exciting only my mind? It seems that it had both the subjectiveobjective character, in the same way that a prophet says to all the people, but only some of them understand him: "He who has ears, let him hear". • Under what the conditions/circumstances is a performer able to reach the transcendent level through a performance of a composer's work, becoming a mediating link between the immanent level of the listeners and the transcendent level of the composer? The recital enlightens the problem of extra-musical content of a musical work. It seems that the content of a musical work has a three-level structure, i.e., three different sub-contents of three different levels, which interact in thework. But this topic needs to be scrupulously researched separately.
Returning to the musical Liturgy, as we have seen, a musical Liturgy of a primarily cultic character, intended to be performed in a church during a service, loses something, very important for its perception, through being performed at a concert -it loses the religious sense of its listeners (= parishioners). It needs to emphasize that the religious sense is excited in the believers' souls by an interaction of all the integral parts (all the arts) of a service, while the above-described indefinite sensation of the transcendent level was excited only by music sounding in the recital.
A musical Liturgy has a subordinate character in a service, being defined by many extra-musical factors (other kinds of art): • First, the literary texts of the prayers define both its qualitative aspect: the imaginative content and character of a sounding of each movement (different for petitions and glorifying prayers) -and the quantitative aspect: the duration of each movement, as well as a complete musical Liturgy (usually less than 70'), which is limited by the total duration of the ceremony. • Second, as for the dramaturgy of the ceremony, both the prayerssung by the choir and read by the priest and/or deacon -change one another. Thus, the movements of a musical Liturgy do not follow in a row but separate one from another and "dissolve" into the complete texture of the service. Such an "insertion" of a musical Liturgy into the wider structure of a service leads to the subordination of musical dramaturgy to the dramaturgy of the service. By such non-concentrated, dispersed performance of the movements -when they are separate one from another by a declamation (of priest and/or deacon) -an attention of the understanding listener also becomes non-concentrated, dispersed: it follows from the preceding movement (1) first to the declamation (a) and then to the next movement (2), then to the next declamation (b) again, and so on: Thus, in the structure of a complete service, movements 1, 2, 3… have a non-direct (paradigmatic) connection: movement 2 is not the nearest one to movement 1 (1  2), but there is a mediating link (declamation "a") between them (1  a  2); in addition, movement 3 is not the nearest to movement 2 (2  3), but there is a mediating link (declamation "b") between them (2  b  3), etc. And while declamation (a) is sounding, the preceding movement (1) becomes somewhat forgotten before the next movement (2) begins.
Furthermore, some movements (of a musical Liturgy) accompany the sacred actions of priest and/or deacon: censing, the kissing of the Cross, reading the Gospel and so on. For example, The Communion Hymn is sung during the communion of both priest and deacon. Such sacred actions distract the attention of the worshipper moving it from the music to the ritual.
Thus, in the structure of a service, a contrast arises not so much between the movements of a musical Liturgy (intra-specific contrast between music and music), as between music and declamation, between music and ritual, i.e., inter-specific contrast -between different kinds of art (music and literature, music and drama). Obviously, the inter-specific contrast is more marked than the intra-specific one. It gives an opportunity for the composer, creating a musical Liturgy of a primarily cultic character, intended to be performed in a service, to use less contrast between the movements, as well as less development of material inside a movement, as a principal contrast will be reached not in the musical Liturgy (intra-specific contrast), but in the structure of the complete service (inter-specific contrast).
• Third, it needs to remarked that in listening to the movements of a musical Liturgy in a service, the believers concentrate their attention on text, rather than onmusic. And even if music is objectively predominant over text in one or another movement, the believer's perception will "correct" this predominance -transferring the most of his or her attention from music to text. What happens when a musical Liturgy of a cultic character, intended to be performed in a service, is performed at a concert?
By its performance at a concert hall, a musical Liturgy is not yet inserted into the wider structure of a service, but, being extracted from the latter, becomes a purely musical cyclic work, in which all the movements follow in a row directly, without any mediating links between them: Movements: 1  2  3  … The movements have direct (syntagmatic)connections: the next movement (2) is the nearest to the preceding movement (1), and the next movement (3) is the nearest to the preceding movement (2), etc.
Besides, the movements do not accompany any sacred actions, which distract the attention of the listeners. That is why an audience listens to music in a more concentrated way, with due attention, and the preceding movement (1) does not become slightly forgotten as the next movement (2) begins. It gives an opportunity to an audience to compare the near movements between them.
And, as noted earlier, an understanding listener (even the believers) does not have his religious sense active in a concert hall. That is why they will not concentrate their attention on text, transferring most of it from music to a text. And, under such conditions of perception, both the features of a musical Liturgy of a cultic character, still hidden, will be discovered: the absence of its own, specifically musical, dramaturgy and not enough contrast in the movements and between them.
Both the features are merits of a musical Liturgy of cultic character, when performed in a service, where the principal contrast was inter-specific (between music and other kinds of art); but when it is performed in a concert hall, where the principal contrast is intra-specific (between music and music), these features become its demerits.
This shows clearly that the perception and evaluation of one and the same musical Liturgy (and wider -a musical work) depends upon the contexts of its performance: its merits in one system become its demerits in another.
A performance of a musical Liturgy of a cult character in a concert hall during a concert is the same that a performance of a musical Liturgy of a concert character in church during a service: both works, being repositioned in systems alien to them, will lose their merits. The perception of the listeners of both systems -church and concert hall -will "correct" the character of the works: a liturgical work will lose its religious character through concert performance, whilst a concert work will lose its aesthetic (artistic) meaning through its performance in a service.
But if a musical Liturgy of a cultic character, through its performance in a concert, loses its religious character -its main merit at a system of worship, -does it mean that it will obtain an aesthetic meaning -the main merit in the concert? In other words, will it become a work of concert instead of liturgical character?
And vice versa, if a musical Liturgy of concert character, being repositioned from a concert hall into a church, loses its aesthetic meaning -its main merit in the concert system -does it mean that it will obtain a religious character -the main merit in the worship? In other words, will it become a work of a cultic rather than concert character?
In summary, the question could be asked in the words: does the character of a musical Liturgy depend upon the place of its performance because the place defines in this case both the performers (an amateur parish choir in a church and a professional chamber choir in a concert hall) and a listener (the believers in a church and the music lovers in a concert hall)?
The question is somewhat rhetorical. Let us consider Scheme 4: In Scheme 4, both the sub-systems (1) and (2) are interpreted as vertical rows: (1) "Liturgy -cult -church -believers" means: a musical Liturgy of a cult character is performed in a church (during a service) and heard by the believers.
(2) "Liturgy -concert -concert hall -music lovers" means: a musical Liturgy of concert character is performed in a concert hall (during a concert) and heard by the music lovers.
Both sub-systems are correct, in the sense that all four of their elements: "work -character -place -listeners" (the left vertical row at the Scheme 4)correspond to one another.
If a musical Liturgy of liturgical character is performed in a concert hall during a concert and heard by music-lovers, it means that graphically we have a new sub-system [1-2], produced by the intersection of the initial two: [1-2]: (1) Liturgy -cult -(2) concert hall -music lovers (Scheme 5).
And if a musical Liturgy of concert character is performed in a church during a service and heard by the believers, it means that graphically we have another new sub-system [2-1], produced also by the intersection of the initial two: [2-1]: (2) Liturgy -concert -(1) church -believers (Scheme 5): believers music-lovers 1 2 These "intersecting" sub-systems, produced from the initial two, are not correct, because their four elements: "work -character -place -listeners" -do not correspond to one another: the characters do not correspond with both place and listeners. As for the sub-system [1-2], the character (cult) does not correspond with the place (concert hall) or listeners (music lovers); as for the sub-system [2-1], the character (concert) does not correspond with the place (church) or listeners (believers). There are two other sub-systems, produced from the initial two subsystems (1) and (2)  [1-2-1]: "(1) Liturgy -cult -(2) concert hall -(1) believers" means: a Liturgy of a liturgical character is performed in a concert hall and heard by the believers.
[2-1-2]: "(2) Liturgy -concert -(1) church -(2) music lovers" means: a Liturgy of concert character is performed in a church and heard by the music lovers. Such a case was described by Sergei Prokofiev  in his Autobiography -in connection with a performance of Tchaikovsky's Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (a work of non-liturgical character) at one of the churches of Alexander-Nevsky's Lavra and heard by musicians from all over St Petersburg. 8 Finally, we have other four sub-systems, based on the Schemes 4 and 5, which differ from them by virtue of a mixed audience, consisting of both believers and music lovers: (1) Liturgy -cult -church -believers + (2) music lovers.
Thus, in this brief article, I have considered two links of my initial Scheme 1: "performance/performer" (second link) and "perception/listener" (third link) -in connection with a musical Liturgy, which was interpreted by me as a system with two its sub-systems of quite different characterscult and concert.
All possible cases: of the intra-system approach (Scheme 4) and intersystem approach (the Schemes 5 and 6) to the performance and perception of both sub-systems -were considered.
The approaches were interpreted graphically: the intra-system approach was interpreted as vertical rows (Scheme 4), while the inter-system approach was interpreted as intersecting vertical rows -with one intersection of rows (Scheme 5) and their double intersections (Scheme 6).
The question of a musical Liturgy of a probably synthetic character, which would integrate features of both liturgical and concert works, has not yet been asked. But it is a question worthy of an answer.
Having considered the second and third links of Scheme 1, I need to return to its first link -"creation/composer". Some questions arise in connection with the link: • What is a content merely of music in a musical Liturgy (i.e., only music, without text)? What is the extra-musical content and the purely/directly musical one? • What character does a connection between text and music in a musical Liturgy have: is it "correspondence of arts", "synthesis of arts", "musical ekphrasis"? Is there any argument for consider such a connection as a translation from a literary text into a musical one? The limited space of this article does not give me the opportunity to consider these and other questions connected with the first link of the Scheme 1.
In addition, another link needs to be added to the Scheme. Not all the potential listeners to a musical Liturgy have an opportunity to visit a concert hall regularly. Most of them listen to music thanks to recordings (CDs, DVDs), radio and tv broadcasts, internet links. This additional link -medianeeds to be inserted into Scheme 1 between the second link "performance/ performer" and third link "perception/listener":

Scheme 7
Creation  performance  media  perception Composer performer CD, DVD listener Radio, TV Internet The link needs to be properly considered in connection with a musical setting of the Liturgy.
In the meantime, in conclusion, I would like to express the wish that, independent of the character of the Liturgy -cultic, concert or perhaps synthetic -it will be performed by angelic voices only, without a "hoarse baritone," as described in my unpublished poem Видение/A Vision (2015):