Dear Beloved Listener, the One clothed in Song,
We used to sing You praise and glory with our feeble voice. We do so no more, for reasons known to You, and we dream of one day returning to this sacred act. But we are willing to share what we have encountered and found about the hymns we used to chant to You, to proclaim Your holiness and pristineness. We, as every faithful catholic of Yours, belong to all the rites of Your congregation, but also, we specifically belong to two - the Roman and the Armenian rites. About the latter we shall speak in greater detail.
Before we proceed, we must paint a picture of the tradition of the Armenian chant. The scale of the Armenian chant differs from the usual Roman one. It bears more resemblance to the Byzantine harmonic scale, which gives it a very specific and rather unique, Eastern-Oriental tone. Its uniqueness is conditioned by the fact that St Mesrop Mashtots wanted the Armenian Liturgy to differ in its musical composition from the neighbouring Christians, including the Greeks. He and Catholicos Sahak A. Partev - the last direct descendant of St Grigor the Illuminator were the ones to compose the chants, which are now known as sharaknots, occasionally drawing inspiration from pre-Christian melodies. Vardapet Komitas, a 19th century Armenian priest and composer, later contributed to the development of the sharaknots and Armenian Liturgy, for at that point it has already assimilated various surrounding cultures in itself. Komitas’ goal was to discover the pure form of Armenian chant, however, his work remained unfinished due to the Armenian genocide. Despite this, many of his works have survived and are now an essential part of the Armenian Liturgy. For the sake of being concise and not bore the reader, we shall speak only of a few chosen hymns, the ones we preferred to sing most.
Music is the beginning. It precedes the Liturgy itself, and is tightly woven into it, becoming the core, fundamental aspect of it. The sounds of the bell and ripidon, so traditional in Eastern Christian rites, break the silence and are followed by the voices of the choir. The hymn they chant is called Խորհուրդ խորին (Khorurd Khorin - O mystery deep), which is the usual commencing chant of the Liturgy. It refers, in a traditional mystical way, to the heavenly Kingdom as to the nuptial chamber, anticipating the Bridegroom and the Bride, waiting for them to come and join each other after the wedding feast. This is called the Mystery deep, alongside with Christ Himself - the Incarnation, the Salvation, the Ascension and other aspects of Your life, death and resurrection remain the greatest, deepest mysteries, incomprehensible and, due to this and their glory and light, infinitely admirable.
O mystery deep, inscrutable, without beginning, you have decked your supernal realm as a nuptial chamber to the light unapproachable and adorned with splendid glory the ranks of the fiery spirits. With ineffably wondrous power you created Adam, the lordly image, and clothed him with gracious glory in the paradise of Eden, the place of delights. Through the passion of your holy Only-begotten all creation has been renewed, and man has again been made immortal, adorned in an indespoilable raiment. O rain-born cup, fiery stream, which you poured upon the apostles in the holy Upper Room, pour also upon us, O Holy Spirit God, your wisdom clothed in your robe. Holiness befits your house, which you adorned with beauty; the holiness of glory established in your midst—envelop us within with your truth. You who stretched out your creative arms against the stars, strengthen our arms with might, that with uplifted hands we may intercede toward you. With hope, crown my mind and senses, and with the sign of the cross adorn us, as Aaron blossomed in gold, to beautify the altar. By your all-sovereign, God-befitting and fatherly love, clothe us in your holy mystery, that we may be ministers of your altar. Heavenly King, preserve your Church unshaken, and keep in peace those who worship your holy name.
And, as the priest and the servers enter the chambers, he joins in with the choir, bringing the chant closer to the altar - closer to You. The following public confession of sins might be familiar to those accustomed to the Roman Rite, and it is done in complete musical absence, said by the priest only, with the parishioners following his lead in silence. Afterwards, the choir, accompanied by the organ, chants the hymn of intercession/censing - Բարեխօսութեամբ (Parekhosootyamp - Hymn of Censing), whilst the parishioners remain in silence once more. The standing position in the Armenian Church is such of an utmost respect, so, instead of kneeling, as it is usually seen in the Roman Rite, almost the entirety of the Liturgy is spent with the parishioners standing.
Since the very beginning of the Liturgy, Your holiness is proclaimed - Սուրբ Աստված (Sourp Astvać - Holy God) which is also known as the Trisagion - with the Gospel being carried around the altar and the priest saying ‘Proschume/Be Attentive’. This is, obviously, to speak of the holiness of the Lord, as it is literally translated as ‘holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal, who rose from the dead, have mercy upon us’, but also it is to indicate, that the Word incarnate is dwelling in the altar, and amongst Your people, speaking to Your people as You did in the times of the Early Church. During the proclamation the parishioners make the sign of the cross each time ‘Sourp Astvać’ is sung.
During the rite of Peace, the handshake is being passed from the priest - acting in persona Christi - to the altar servers and then to the entirety of faithful: as a huge ocean wave it follows from the front rows to the very back of the church with the parishioners either embracing or shaking each other’s hands. The literal translation is direct, not just inviting to, rather ordering the fulfilment of Christ’s repeated command to forgive one another and spread peace amongst one another before approaching the altar:
Christ in our midst has been revealed; He Who Is, God, is here seated. The voice of peace has resounded; Holy greeting is commanded. This Church has now become one soul, The kiss is given for a full bond. The enmity has been removed; And love is spread over us all. Now, Ministers, raise your voices, And give blessings with one accord To the Godhead consubstantial, While angels sing: “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Miain Sourp (The One Holy) and Amen. Hayr Sourp (Amen, Holy Father) come one after another, with the priest proclaiming: ‘Orhnyal Hayr Sourp Astvac chishtmarit, orhnyal Vorti Sourp Astvac chishtmarit, orhnyal Hoki Sourp Astvac chishtmarit […]’ (Blessed be the Holy Father, true God, blessed be the Holy Son, true God, blessed be the Holy Spirit, true God […]). Their dramatic, slow melody, the words that sound wordless, rather like a cry out to You, the pinnacle of Miain Sourp in Hisus Christos i parz Astutzo Hor (The one Lord, Jesus Christ, in the glory of God the Father), and in ‘[…] Orhnutyun Hor yev Vordvo yev Surpo Hokvuyn, ayzhm yev misht yev havidyans havidenits […]’ (Blessed be the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages)… they all feel like the stream of fresh, cold water in our mind, cleansing our heart, cleansing our Soul, lifting her up to Your blessed bridal chambers, in preparation for final unity.
There are many other sharaknots that are sung during the Patarag, however, these are the ones that stand out most to our heart and mind, the ones we used to chant not with our rational faculties or out of duty, rather with and through our Soul. Like a weeping maiden, we used to weep for ourselves during hymning of Your glory, blessing You, praising You, adoring You, for we believed in You and believe in You still.
We would like to attempt to explain, what happens here and why our Soul is so responsive to this and other ministrations. Grace operates in and through materiality. Grace also points to the idea that everything material has its spiritual counterpart. So is with the music and the ritual, in our case one following from and supporting the other and vice versa. Human communication is deeply embodied, and through the Incarnation this bond between materiality, embodiment, and the realm spiritual has been tightened. The experience of Yours is radically bodily, for ‘Christ has no body but yours’1, which, in one sense, usually means the corporeal acts of mercy - the embodiment of Your work in humanity - but also can mean the deep connection between the Lord and the embodied soul of the believer. When the bodies and voices engage in the Liturgy - the main and the most important part of the Church’s life - they engage in the most important means of transporting grace, of touching the transcendent. During the Liturgy, the body of every participant is always engaged - either through standing in the silent proclamation of respect towards the Divine, or through gentle cupping of each other’s hands during the Rite of Peace, or through the oranta during the Lord’s prayer, or others. The sign of the cross is the most common sign of bodily engagement one will see during the Liturgy, one of the most ancient and most important signs for Christians - the sign of their belonging to You, of their faith in Jesus and His resurrection, and the voicing of His praise. ‘Human vocation, as God’s image bearers in the world, to ‘voice creation’s praise’2, but we also must add, that it is in voicing the Creator’s praise.
But the relationship is not one-sided. It is not just us, humans, who sing to You seeking Your presence through its means. You, too, participates in the Liturgy, and Your angels are bearing witness to it:
You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the judge of all men, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
You descend into the midst of the faithful in the Eucharist, as the priest bows and quietly sings the words of institution, which, in the Eastern Rite, are only small portions of the Anaphora. The veil is torn at that very moment, and the trembling, gentleness and awe with which the priest holds the host and the wine - the Body and Blood - inspires the faithful. The Divine acts upon Its subjects not just through the Eucharist alone, but through the entirety of the Liturgy, that is so intertwined with its music, that they are almost inseparable. One cannot go without the other, just as Christ’s humanity - paralleled by the embodiment of the Liturgy in the material realm - cannot go without His Divinity - paralleled by the spiritual, transcendent reality of the events transpiring. The entire Liturgy is, as we have mentioned through the image of the veil, akin to the tear in time and space, the direct communication with the Divine, and music plays a crucial role in it, for without it the Liturgy simply cannot exist. You use it - the music - as the means to influence His subjects, to draw them closer to Himself. In this case ‘music can be a vehicle of healing and harmony’3. It, just as it is clearly seen in the process of Armenian Liturgy, is ‘a distinctive way of returning praise to God’4. The art of the liturgical music is not simply observed - all of the participants are ‘possessed by it’.5 All of the parish, servers, the choir, the priest are invited into the heart of Yours through the liturgical music, through singing praise to You and receiving grace back from it.
May we keep receiving grace from You ceaselessly and keep returning into Your heart now, and tomorrow, and forever till the end of ages. And may the blessing of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit remain with us all.
Օրհնութիւն Հօր և Որդւոյ և սրբոյ Հոգւոյն, այժմ և միշտ և յաւիտեանս յաւիտենից. ամէն:
27 November 2025
Grubb, The British Friend, 1:15
J. Begbie, definitely somewhere
Ford and Muers, The Modern Theologians, p. 721
Ibid
Prickett, Edinburgh Companion to the Bible and the Arts, p. 20