Svetlana I. Khvatova

The article attempts to assess the current state of the singing component of worship. Attention is focused on the centrifugal and centripetal tendencies of the dynamics of stylistic tendencies in composers’ creativity for the church, as well as the presence of a cyclical pattern. The events that initiated a significant increase in the number of authors writing chants for church choirs are indicated; a transition from the quantitative accumulation of the 2000s to a selective attitude to the liturgical repertoire and the quality of the created music, its stylistic correspondence to the church singing canon is observed. The relevance of the problem of mastering a special singing manner in the choir and performing interpretation in concelebration with the altar, discussed in the regent-singing environment and brought to the rostrum of international congresses held in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, is noted. The article touches upon the technology of creating new repertoire units for a church choir by following certain musical-poetic, figurative-thematic, syntactic, constructive, textural, lexical, performing and other cliches, as well as choosing a certain stylistic model, following which composers do not risk going beyond the “style of direction” and avoid secularization.

The factors contributing to the renewal of the corpus of church hymns have been identified, among which the most important is the ongoing process of creating new liturgical texts in the post-Soviet era, as well as significant signs of the localization of tradition, when sometimes it turns out to be better preserved in the Orthodox diaspora of distant countries than in Russia. The destructive trends of the 2020s, observed during the lockdown and post-Covid period, which have not been overcome to this day, are outlined. The significance of the subjective factor in the formation of the musical component of the daily service and, as a result, its significant difference even within one region is not excluded.

One of the most grandiose Buddhist festivals in China is annually celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth month according to the Chinese lunar calendar, when the Birthday of Buddha Shakyamuni or the Day of the Ablution of Buddha is celebrated. On this day, believers wash the statue of Buddha in scented water as a sign of respect. The article describes the Ablution Ceremony, which consists of six parts: monks gathering to greet the Buddha, greeting the statue, washing, blessing and circumambulating it, returning and concluding the rite. The ceremony is examined using the example of the festival in Kaifeng (Henan Province, China), the ancient capital of the Seven Dynasties, Daxiangguo Buddhist Temple was consecrated as a royal temple during the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127). It is emphasized that during large-scale festivals Daxiangguo Temple also invites more than 800 famous monk-musicians from all over the world to play together on a grand and spectacular stage a special programme called "Offering to Buddha". The article analyses the components of the programme in question and its musical poetics. Namely, it focuses on the function that music performs in the Ablution Ceremony and studies the means of musical expression delivering the emotional atmosphere that corresponds to the traditional prayerful arrangement of the ceremony. The focus is on the role of the Buddhist orchestra of Daxiangguo Temple and the performance of a special piece "Victory Festival" by Hao Yuqi and Liu Yaoting, based on a tune for the suona of Henan Province, which gives the music a bright local flavour. The culture-forming role of Daxiangguo Temple, whose ceremonies are included in the national cultural heritage of China, is emphasized.