Everyone who has ever been to an Orthodox service has more than once heard the deacon proclaim the name of the hymn to be sung by the choir and indicate the number of the voice. If the first is generally understandable and does not raise questions, then not everyone knows what a voice is. Let's try to figure it out and understand how it affects the character of the piece being performed.
Feature of church singing
Church singing and reading are the most important components of worship, and the difference between them lies only in melodic breadth. This is quite obvious, since Orthodox singing is nothing more than reading - expanded and put on a certain musical basis. At the same time, the reading itself is a chant - melodically abbreviated in accordance with its content and the requirements of the Charter of the Church.
In church singing, the task of the melody is not the aesthetic decoration of the text, but a more in-depth transmission of its inner contentand revealing many features that cannot be expressed in words. In itself, it is the fruit of the inspired labors of the holy fathers, for whom hymns were not an exercise in art, but a sincere expression of their spiritual state. They own the creation of the Charter of chants, which regulates not only the sequence of performance, but also the nature of certain melodies.
The meaning of the word "voice" as applied to church singing
In the Russian Orthodox Church, liturgical singing is based on the principle of "octagon", the author of which is St. John of Damascus. According to this rule, all chants are divided into eight tones in accordance with their content and the semantic load contained in them. Each of them is characterized by a strictly defined tune and emotional color.
The law of octoxios came to the Russian Orthodox Church from Greece and received a certain creative revision from us. This was expressed in the fact that, unlike the Greek original, where church tones serve only to designate mode and tonality, in Russia they mainly designate a certain melody assigned to them and not subject to change. As already mentioned, there are only eight voices. Of these, the first four are the main (atentic), and the subsequent ones are auxiliary (plagal), whose task is to complete and deepen the main ones. Let's take a closer look at them.
Voices of the Bright Resurrection and Holy Saturday
At Easter services, where all the hymns have a luminous, majesticcolor, the service is built in the first voice and an auxiliary fifth parallel to it. This gives the overall sound the character of an appeal to Heaven and allows you to tune the soul in a sublime way. Being a reflection of heavenly beauty, these chants inspire spiritual joy in us. This example clearly shows what a voice that gives a feeling of celebration is.
On Holy Saturday before Easter, when everything in the world froze in anticipation of the miracle of the Resurrection of Christ, and the souls of people are filled with tenderness and love, gentle and touching tunes sound in the temples of God, reflecting the subtlest nuances of the inner state of those who pray. On this day, the church service is built entirely on the second tone and the sixth that complements it. What is the second voice is also illustrated by the funeral services, where all the chants are built on its emotional color. It is like a reflection of the transitional state of the soul from the mortal world to eternal life.
Two voices, very different in frequency of performance
Of the relative third voice, it should be noted that very few chants are built on its basis. In terms of the frequency of its use in worship, it occupies the penultimate place. Powerful, but at the same time firm, full of courageous sound, it seems to introduce listeners into reflections on the secrets of the Mountain World and the frailty of earthly existence. The most striking example is the well-known Sunday kontakion "The Resurrection of Christ".
The sound of chants built on the fourth voice is very characteristic. They are distinguishedsolemnity and speed, prompting to fun and joy. They fill the content of the melody and emphasize the meaning of the word. The fourth tone is one of the most popular in Orthodox services. The shade of repentance inherent in it invariably reminds us of the sins committed.
Fifth and sixth plagal (auxiliary) voices
The fifth is a plagal voice. Its significance is very great: it serves to give greater depth and completeness to chants performed on the basis of the first voice. His intonations are filled with a call to worship. To be convinced of this, it is enough to listen to the Sunday troparion to the Resurrection of Christ or the greeting "Rejoice." Both of these works carry shades of sadness and joy at the same time.
The sixth tone is auxiliary to the second and emphasizes the sadness that disposes to repentance for the sins committed and at the same time overwhelms the soul with tenderness and hope for the Lord's forgiveness. It is sorrow dissolved by consolation. As already mentioned, the second voice gives a feeling of transition to another world, and therefore is filled with light, while the sixth is more associated with burial. For this reason, chants of the second half of Great Week are performed on its basis.
Completion of the list of octo-moments
Least of all in Orthodox churches you can hear chants set to the seventh tone. The Greeks - the authors of the law of octagon - called it "heavy". The nature of the chants performed on its basis is important and courageous, which fully explains the name given to it. Behind the outward simplicity of thesemelodies hides a whole world - deep, great and incomprehensible. This is a kind of story about the Heavenly Jerusalem and the Age to Come.
Having listened to such high examples of church singing as “Rejoices in You…” and “Oh glorious miracle…”, one can easily get an idea of what a voice is. The eighth voice is the last one, it completes the list of elements that make up the octal voice. He is full of royal heights, perfection, and calls to hope in the Beginningless Father, who created the visible and invisible world. At the same time, listening to him, it is impossible not to notice a certain shade of sadness caused by the thought of one's own sinfulness.
