Music: Otche Nash, Lord's Prayer in Old Church Slavonic

[sonia]

The Balkan choir I sing with performed at a center for adults with disabilities on Friday, and we were vocally and enthusiastically received by the audience in their power and manual wheelchairs. It was stressful to prepare the songs for it, but fun once we were there, and I hope we'll do more like that.

One of the songs we sang is Otche Nash, a 4-part setting of the Lord's Prayer in Old Church Slavonic, which is like a mix of Bulgarian and Russian.

When someone proposed learning the song at the ad hoc monthly group a year ago, I was grumpy about having something so fundamentally Christian shoved down my throat, and we put it aside. In this weekly choir we learn whatever the teacher gives us, so I had to make my peace with it. Another singer said she doesn't mind it because it's asking the Universe for good things. I guess so...

Eva Quartet recorded it, and here's a live performance.

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[viggorlijah]

one way i deal with religious songs and rituals of other faiths is to think of them as unbroken chains going back long long times to earlier humans who composed and sang them and being like, a voice in a song cycle. like this is art for faith, the way say the buddhist embroideries are - very beautiful and worthwhile even if i am not part of that faith.

i cannot sing but i love listening to the clips and hearing about your choir stuff - it's as mysterious as f1 racing!

[thistleingrey]

The harmonies are lovely!

[panisdead]

What a gorgeous performance!

[sonia]

That's a good way to think about religious practices! I'll have to keep that in mind. What bugs me is when people assume that Christian things are neutral or universal.

F1 racing is definitely mysterious to me! I'm glad you enjoy the posts.

[sonia]

Glad you enjoyed! It's interesting to sing - each part stays on the same note a lot of the time, and yet the chords keep changing.

[sonia]

Eva Quartet is amazing!