Orthodox Liturgical Chant Traditions and Their Development in Lithuania Today

Authors

• Margarita Moisejeva Phd student

Keywords:

orthodox liturgical chanting, orthodox chanting, Lithuania, Lithuanian language, contemporary chanting

Abstract

Research on contemporary Orthodox church music has shown that there is a number of specific Orthodox chant traditions in Lithuania, which differ from the general model of Orthodox chanting in the country. Musical tradition is a quite rare term in ecclesiastical music research, and thus the author presents her perception of the term of Orthodox liturgical chant tradition in the context of her particular study. There are several specific liturgical chant traditions existing in Lithuania. The first is the chanting tradition of the first Lithuanian parish (established in 2005). In this case, we witness the development process of Orthodox chanting particularly within European Catholic culture, and we can see the development of a specific Lithuanian chanting tradition. The second specific tradition is noticeable in the Monastery of The Holy Spirit in Vilnius as a model of the chanting of an Orthodox cultural administrative centre. The monastery’s chanting is mainly inseparable from the chant of the Diocesan choir. This kind of tradition must have appeared in the 19th century, and continues to this day. The tendency to revive old chant appears infrequently in different parishes in Lithuania. However, with a lack of knowledge and education there is no possibility for development in this area across the country, but there is notable exception in the Parish of Sts Constantine and Michael in Vilnius. This choir’s is the typical chanting model across Lithuania: old Russian chant melodies and music by the Lithuanian Orthodox composer Deacon Victor Miniotas. The author has been conducting fieldwork related to Orthodox chanting in Lithuania for the past ten years; the topic of interest is also, therefore, the processes of changes in tradition and their causes.