Liturgy in Orthodox Christian churches during the Holy Week is particularly solemn and the chants sung are among the most beautiful works of composers who have written church music.

It is known that every Orthodox Christian feast goes with definite lyrics performed on melodies from various Orthodox styles. Our attempt to present the music sung in Bulgarian churches in the days preceding Orthodox Easter is assisted by Yulian Perikliev. He has graduated the National High School of Ancient Languages and Cultures Constantine Cyril the Philosopher and after that the Faculty of Theology at St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, and is co-founder and soloist of Yulangelo, a vocal group performing works from liturgical practice. Yulian is also co-founder of Anonym ensemble and in the recent years has been chorister at the Mixed Choir of the Bulgarian National Radio:

„Liturgical services during Lent, during this bright sadness we experience again and again in our Christian lives, have a certain specificity. This shows very clearly in the liturgical service during the Holy Week when we empathize and remember the last days in the earthly life of our Savior - from His entry into Jerusalem to His capture, crucifixion and glorious resurrection. In this sense we have to mention the Bridegroom Service held on the night before Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday. On Holy Thursday the morning service presents I See Thy Bridal Chamber Adorned, O My Savior. Holy Thursday is characterized by the Service of the Holy Passion held in the evening. The evening Liturgy is also known as Twelve Gospel Readings. The name suggests that this service includes reading of 12 excerpts from the four evangelists (Matthew, John, Luke and Mark) which provide a narrative of the time of Jesus Christ’s last earthly week. Chants sung at this liturgy are only performed on this day. One of them is The Wise Thief and it is about a wise thief crucified together with Christ who repented for his sins. Witnessing his genuine repentance the Son of God told him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise'”.  

On Good Friday the morning liturgy presents another popular chant, Noble Joseph. It is about Joseph of Arimathea who pleaded before Pontius Pilate to permit taking Christ’s body away from the cross. The body was consequently anointed with aromatic oils as the Jewish tradition required, wrapped in a shroud and placed in the family tomb. It was there that the great miracle of the Resurrection of Christ took place.

„The evening liturgy service on Good Friday is focused on the Good Friday Lamentations, It has three stasis sung only on this day. The Lamentations express the feelings and thoughts of those who escorted the body of Jesus Christ to the tomb and laid Him there. It is not accidental that in Eastern Orthodox churches a solemn burial procession is held outside the church building symbolically involving the shroud in which the body of Jesus Christ was wrapped. There is a venerated tradition under which following the procession and the symbolic burial as Christians reenter the church they pass under the shroud. This way they symbolically enter the tomb of Jesus Christ dying for sin. This is in fact our mission – to kill sin in us, because for our sake He defeated death.”

In our day the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil is served on Holy Saturday. St. Basil the Great is called the pillar of the Holy Church, a great theological mind and church builder who laid out the integral order of the liturgy in a concise way bas it used to be in the era of the apostles and added to it some prayers of his own. The Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil is served 12 times a year on great feasts. Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence in the St. Basil liturgy is performed instead of the Cherubic Hymn. Both the lyrics and the message of this chant inspire us to imagine how the disciples of Christ felt on that day – the Saturday before Pascha when the body was already laid in the tomb. They were not aware of what was in store for them. This is what the chant Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence is about – the day of silence, of full silence and anticipation. For us who are aware this anticipation is full of joy.

English Daniela Konstantinova

Audio: The Holy Week: orthodox chants

.  I See Thy Bridal Chamber Adorned, O My Savior performed by His Holiness the Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte

.  Noble Joseph in the rendition of Yulangelo vocal group

.  The Lamentation at the Tomb sung by a mixed choir, conductor Miroslav Popsavov

.  Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence in the rendition of the Kant ensemble for orthodox music from Russia