{"id":127,"date":"2018-10-24T13:21:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T13:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.smallpage.online\/2018\/10\/24\/listening-is-one-thing-youve-got-to\/"},"modified":"2019-02-19T06:47:36","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T06:47:36","slug":"listening-is-one-thing-youve-got-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catalog.obitel-minsk.com\/blog\/2018\/10\/listening-is-one-thing-youve-got-to","title":{"rendered":"“Listening Is One Thing. You\u2019ve Got to Think and Feel”: Nun Juliania (Denisova) on “The Royal Voice” Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Church in honour of the Reigning icon of the Mother of God in St Elisabeth Convent was filled with a very special devotional atmosphere on October 20. We enjoyed heartfelt singing by choirs from various countries. It was on that day that the 18th Royal Voice International Festival of Orthodox Church Music was held.<\/em><\/div>\n
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How did this unique festival emerge? What has changed in the Royal Voice format over the years? What\u2019s unique about the festival this year and what\u00a0were\u00a0the surprises that\u00a0it brought to\u00a0its guests? We\u00a0interviewed\u00a0Nun Juliania (Denisova), the precentor of the Festive Choir of\u00a0St\u00a0Elisabeth\u00a0Convent and the organiser of the Festival.<\/em><\/div>\n
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How did the Royal Voice Festival come to be?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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This year, it\u00a0was\u00a0the eighteenth Royal Voice<\/em> already, and I can say that it hasn\u2019t changed even a little bit in the course of its history.<\/div>\n
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How did it come to be?.. It was suddenly and unexpectedly, in fact. One day, a choir from\u00a0St. Sophia\u00a0of Slutsk Church (Minsk) visited our Church in honour of the Reigning icon of the Mother of God and started singing. A sister of ours heard their singing and thought, \u201cSo nice! I\u2019d like to hear other choirs in our church! We never hear them, only our own choirs.\u201d She shared her idea with Father Andrew and the senior sisters, and they said, \u201cWhy not?\u201d They called me, because I\u2019m responsible for all choirs of the Convent, and told me, \u201cLet\u2019s try!\u201d The Most Reverend Philaret gave his blessing, and\u2026 that was how\u00a0The\u00a0<\/em>Royal Voice<\/em>\u00a0was born.<\/div>\n
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How often is the festival held?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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At first, we held it three times a year: on Christmas, on Easter, and on the Holy Protection Day. That was how it happened in 2010. Later, we realised that it\u00a0was too much: people hardly manage to recover from one festival when they already have to start\u00a0preparations for\u00a0a new one. So we left out the Christmas festival. During the last three years, we have this festival only on the Holy Protection Day because there has been a big Easter concert of a different format, which also appeared spontaneously. These two events shared the same dates, and it was too\u00a0burdensome: we had to choose and focus on one or the other. That is why the Royal Voice Festival<\/em> is held only on the Holy Protection Day.<\/div>\n
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What does the Festival consist of?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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The Festival consists of a concert of five choirs, each with a 20-30 minute programme. It\u2019s the traditional format since the very beginning.<\/div>\n
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How do we select the music? It has to be godly, I mean, it should have God as its source. The rest of musical culture, which you can listen to in your homes, cars, or rock and pop concerts, is okay but not here.<\/div>\n
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Our format is restrictive, of course. We are open about it and we don\u2019t claim to be an all-encompassing festival. Choirs in Orthodox churches sing\u00a0a cappella<\/em>, that is, without\u00a0instrumental accompaniment. People sometimes ask, \u201cWhy not?\u201d Here is my answer to this: I\u2019m not opposed to instrumental music\u00a0per se\u00a0but there are other festivals and other collectives for it. Ours is\u00a0for\u00a0a cappella<\/em>\u00a0singing. With that said, we indeed invited some priests and other people who sing and play the guitar to participate in several festivals. The audience was totally sure that this singing is godly and suitable for the church.<\/div>\n
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Of course, we never choose blindly, we listen to the tracks in advance and approve the repertoire. Sometimes we reject certain songs that the choir directors suggest because we don\u2019t want them to contrast with\u00a0the atmosphere of the concert. It\u2019s a church, there are saints who look at us. All icons in our church contain reliquaries with the holy relics, so this presence of sacred objects must not conflict with\u00a0the music that is being sung. You can\u2019t sing \u201cKorobeiniki\u201d (aka Tetris theme Type A) here! It\u2019s a well-known Russian folk song but when someone suggested it, I said, \u201cNo, that\u2019s not the spirit that we would like to have here. Let\u2019s replace it with another song.\u201d There are songs about the human soul, repentance, and inner life of a human being among the rich repertoire of folk music.<\/div>\n
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I have to say that we have a very home-like format. If a precentor or a singer wants to say something, they get to say it. Sometimes participants want to\u00a0present\u00a0a gift\u00a0to\u00a0the Convent, sometimes they sing encore, and sometimes a priest takes the floor. Generally, our concert is opened by a priest who comes with one of the choirs, or a priest from our Convent, if no one\u00a0comes. This opening turns everything in the right direction. People feel relaxed and at home, and that\u2019s great.<\/div>\n
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What is the chief purpose of the Festival?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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We find it important to emphasise that God penetrates our lives. He is with us at all times and He acts not only during worship, when we come to the church, pray and light up some candles. Things worked differently in Russia in old times: God penetrated every moment of the life of a human, his daily routines, and his labour. Baptisms, weddings, and funerals were always accompanied by singing. People wanted to continue singing about God outside of the church, in their daily lives. That is why we have a rich folklore\u00a0heritage\u00a0related to the saints, the Mother of God, feasts, ruminations of a Russian person about his soul, about his connection to the Heavenly Kingdom, the spiritual domain. Nowadays, it continues, and that is why our concert features not only church chants but also songs with the lyrics written by Russian poets, folk songs that are in\u00a0harmony\u00a0with the Orthodox faith, works by contemporary authors with lyrics by Orthodox poets, e.g., Father Andrei Logvinov or Hieromonk Roman (Matyushin). Not long ago, a choir from Novgorod performed a song composed by Alexandra Pakhmutova with lyrics by Dobronravov. They were famous Soviet songwriters but if you look at their songs, you\u2019ll guess that they were believers even in those times, and now we find the topics of spirituality, morality, kindness, and love in their songs. That is why pieces like those can also be performed at our Royal Voice<\/em> concerts.<\/div>\n
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What kinds of choirs can participate in the Festival?<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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There are various choirs among our participants: professional and amateur ones; secular and church choirs; male, female, and children\u2019s choirs. All kinds of choirs. We select our participants and build the programme of the Festival to be as diverse as possible. As I\u2019ve already mentioned, there have been several individual singers who appeared in the programme in the last three years. It often depends on subjective factors, e.g., who happens to be close to the Convent at the moment. For instance, Father Anatoly Pershin from Saint Petersburg visited our Convent, and we were so excited! He sang his\u00a0brilliant songs and played the guitar. Or take for example Father Sergius Kisel, or Father Seraphim from Serbia: we invited them to participate in the Royal Voice<\/em> as soon as we met them and heard their songs. All that to say that the selection process is often spontaneous. Nonetheless, there are many collectives who send us their applications first. They write to us, we \u2014 and I mean the organising committee that consists of professional church musicians \u2014 listen to them to verify that they sing well and their repertoire suits us well, and we invite them.<\/div>\n
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As a rule, there are choirs that don\u2019t sing in church among our participants. It can be a children\u2019s choir, a student choir or a\u00a0government-funded collective. We had Belarusian Broadcasting Company Choir, National Chamber Choir of the Republic of Belarus, Academy of Music Students\u2019 Choir, Belarusian State University Students\u2019 Choir, and choirs from other universities. They don\u2019t sing in church as a choir but they have church music in their repertoire. As far as I can tell, church music is a formidable part of the repertoire of many secular choirs, sometimes\u00a0to the extent that they can\u00a0do a full concert of\u00a0church chants. Why does it happen? Because it\u2019s beautiful, and people are drawn to the beauty, and young people are fond of this spiritual component where it isn\u2019t the earthly\u00a0and\u00a0physical emotion that is stressed but something more exalted, something that lies deep within\u2026 Profoundness and sublimity: that\u2019s what our audiences and our performers are interested in. That\u2019s what attracts them to church vocal music.<\/div>\n
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How did your Festival go international?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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It became clear that the Festival was about to attain international scope (though it\u2019s not exactly the case with us, honestly). Choirs from Russia and Serbia started coming. We\u00a0welcomed\u00a0Valaam Monastery Choir, Divna Ljubojevic, a big Serbian choir from Belgrade,\u00a0and\u00a0some choirs from Ukraine. That\u2019s how we gather all the Holy Russia \u2014 Russia, Ukraine, Belarus \u2014 and our sister country of Serbia. That\u2019s where our participants come from. This Festival was no exception.<\/div>\n
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How are this year\u2019s participants\u00a0different from the previous years?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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It turned out that all our participants this year were active church choirs. There\u00a0weren\u2019t children\u2019s, students\u2019, or secular choirs\u00a0among them. All the choirs sing in churches. Imagine how\u00a0pleasant it was to listen to them!<\/div>\n
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Each choir is unique.<\/div>\n
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First, there is the choir of clergy of the Diocese of Hrodna. It\u2019s an amazing achievement to bring this choir together! To cut the long story short, this choir consists of priests and deacons. There isn\u2019t anyone else, as it is often the case in our churches. There isn\u2019t any altar server in this choir: all singers wear pectoral crosses! It\u2019s impressive!<\/div>\n
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A similar choir came from Ukraine: the Choir of Kharkov Theological Seminary, which also includes its alumni who have become priests by now but who continue to sing in this choir. Add to it some girls who study to be precentors in church choirs, and you\u2019ll get the impression of their mixed choir. It\u2019s great and interesting. When church chants are performed by people whose life is filled with worship, whose life actually\u00a0is\u00a0worship, permanently and not from time to time \u2014 when everybody knows what they\u2019re singing about and what part of the divine office this or that chant belongs to, and what its deep meaning is \u2014 you can really hear that they\u2019re being serious. In fact, all church choirs take everything\u00a0seriously. For example, there was a choir from\u00a0Saint\u00a0Petersburg, from a remarkable huge\u00a0St. Theodore\u00a0Cathedral, which was rebuilt after\u00a0having\u00a0been\u00a0demolished in Soviet times. There are several choirs in that cathedral. They submitted an application, and we invited the so-called amateur choir, although there are professional musicians in that choir, too. It is a mixed choir, which consists of the parishioners of the cathedral and frequently takes part in divine offices. Their rector, Father Alexander Sorokin,\u00a0came\u00a0to Minsk with them, too. It\u2019s their ministry, and they find it very important. Well, and we\u00a0were\u00a0excited\u00a0to listen to a cathedral choir from Saint Petersburg!<\/div>\n
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It turned out that there is the so-called Belarusian Byzantine Choir here in Minsk, and that it sings in the Church in honour of the Resurrection of Christ. Why is it called \u201cBelarusian\u201d? Because it\u2019s from Minsk. Why is it called \u201cByzantine\u201d? Because they always use Byzantine chant, and that\u2019s hard to come by nowadays. As far as our Convent is concerned, the Monastic Choir, the Festive Choir, and the Male Choir\u00a0all\u00a0include Byzantine chants in their repertoire but don\u2019t sing them exclusively. Our services in their entirety don\u2019t consist of Byzantine chant, while theirs do, and that is why the atmosphere is well-defined and interesting to listen to.<\/div>\n
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Well, our Festive Choir also decided to participate in the Festival (smiles). We took part in the very first\u00a0Royal Voice\u00a0Festival<\/em>.\u00a0We\u00a0didn\u2019t participate in the\u00a0Festival\u00a0until this year, and that\u2019s not accidental: our parishioners have the chance to hear our singing every week, on Sundays and feasts, whilst this Festival allows our guests to perform in the Church in honour of the Reigning icon of the Mother of God, so that our parishioners could enjoy the singing of other choirs from other cities and countries.<\/div>\n
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Why did the Festive Choir decide to take part in the Festival this year, then?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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People were always asking us: When are you going to sing at the Festival at last? I\u00a0dealt with\u00a0their requests for several years, and I tried to explain it as well as I could but this year, I made up my mind that we\u2019d\u00a0have to participate in the Festival. The members of our choir were also eager to perform in the Church in honour of the Reigning icon in front of our listeners. Of course, you could listen to a record on your PC or\u00a0a\u00a0multimedia player but here you\u00a0could\u00a0listen to us live! Furthermore, it\u2019s different from how we sing during worship: there\u2019s a difference between the sound of a choir during worship and during a concert. This difference is important and it doesn\u2019t imply any opposition: rather, it\u2019s mutual enrichment.<\/div>\n
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Why do people need concerts of church music, after all? Isn\u2019t church worship enough? What do you think?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Why people need concerts of church music\u2026 Why do people need concerts of classical music? Why do people need concerts of any kind?\u00a0All kinds of concerts and performers\u00a0find\u00a0their\u00a0audience. They help people to explore the hidden parts of their souls. There are concerts that are intended to be a background noise for relaxation and recreation, like concerts of pop music. Perhaps, they are not bad, it\u2019s just that their purpose is different: the background noise, entertainment, and fun. This kind of pastime can and should exist, if it\u2019s morally\u00a0appropriate. As far as a concert of church music is concerned\u2026 It changes a person\u2019s soul, like concerts of classical music: people come to these concerts not just to listen to some music but also to think and feel. People have tears in their eyes. They listen to the music with such unwavering attention! They are fully engulfed\u00a0by\u00a0the\u00a0music.\u00a0That\u2019s a mutual process that goes on between the performer and the listener. When there\u2019s no such process, the concert goes in vain. When the audience makes noise, when people move from one place to another, when they turn their heads, cough, or look at their smartphones\u2026 I\u2019ve noticed that people don\u2019t dare move during our concerts because they are afraid of breaking the pious atmosphere. The intensification of this pious atmosphere is one of the reasons why we hold our concert in the church. We have a small hall in the Sunday School (you can seat 200 people there), where we held concerts of solo performers who sang and
\nplayed the guitar. However, the nave of the Church in honour of the Reigning icon of the Mother of God is our primary venue. That is where the name\u00a0Royal Voice<\/em>\u00a0came from: it\u2019s the voice of the Royal church. This voice is transmitted outside\u00a0with the help of loudspeakers: wherever you go, you will hear\u00a0the singing.<\/div>\n
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What\u00a0were\u00a0the differences between the 18th\u00a0Royal Voice Festival and the previous festivals?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Usually, one of the choirs sings the liturgy in the Church in honour of the Reigning icon of the Mother of God on the following day after the concert. This year, it was even better. We have three liturgies every Sunday, one for each of our three choirs (the Monastic Choir, the Male Choir, and the Festive Choir). This year, our guests sang during all three Sunday liturgies: the Byzantine Choir sang in the Reigning church during the first liturgy; the choir from St.\u00a0Petersburg sang the second liturgy in St. Elisabeth Church; and the Choir of Kharkov Seminary together with our Festive Choir sang the third liturgy in the Church in honour of the Reigning icon of the Mother of God.<\/div>\n
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Interview by Alexandra Ursalova<\/em><\/div>\n
St. Elisabeth Convent, 2018<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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