North of the Shire

I listen to this first because I love the sound of Russian sacred music and I can stand shoulder to shoulder with our Orthodox brothers in praying the prayer our Lord taught us to pray. So much almost goes without saying.

But I notice this video in particular has a quality almost of the old days of the Soviet Union, such that it has been done surreptitiously, and even the singing of the Lord’s Prayer would be dangerous to those participating. The church itself seems almost barren and the videographer takes time to show the pipe organ, not being used for this musical selection.

This seems to me almost symbolic in the sense that under oppression the Christians are tested and survive and they have become very good at singing a cappella, so good in fact that it has its own quality that surpasses the instrument supported music. And indeed, there is something so beautiful about human voices in chorale sans instruments when it is well done that in my own mind it is really the highest form of music and liturgically speaking the highest form of praise to God.