Eastern Music for Good Friday

Today is Good Friday on the Julian calendar, and so here are two interesting pieces of music for the day, one Byzantine and one Coptic, brought to my attention by the YouTube suggestion algorithm.

The first is a chant for the Ninth Hour in the Byzantine Rite when it is sung as part of the Good Friday service known as the Royal Hours; I have previously described this service in full. The channel which posted it includes a link to an album by the Chronos Ensemble, which describes it as an older kind of Slavonic polyphony from the 16th to 18th centuries, i.e., predating the very strong influence which Austrian and Italian music would later come to exercise on liturgical music in the Russian empire. The fellow who runs this channel, Evgeny Skurat, a member of the ensemble, posts a great deal of older music from both the Greek and Slavonic traditions, much of it with cleverly designed computer generated images of churches as the background. I have to confess that for me personally, a lot of this is really not to my taste, but I find this piece very beautiful indeed.

- Today, He that hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon the tree. (thrice)
- The king of angels is arrayed with a crown of thorns.
- He that girdeth heaven with clouds is girt with purple in mockery.
- He that freed Adam in the Jordan received a slap.
- The Bridegroom of the Church is fixed with nails.
- The Son of the Virgin is pierced with a lance.
- We adore Thy sufferings, o Christ. (thrice)
- Show us also Thy glorious Resurrection.

The second piece comes from the Twelfth Hour on Good Friday in the Coptic Rite, a tradition about which I know almost nothing. According to a video which I stumbled across (included below), which is based on an article published 14 years ago in First Things, this chant consists of a single Psalm verse, 44, 7, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness.” But these eight words (in Coptic) can be drawn out, in the very particular style of Egyptian liturgical chants, to over 20 minutes. This is also not much to my personal music taste, but one can only admire the intensity of devotion that would produce such a thing. Here is a somewhat more restrained version that clocks in at a bit over 15 minutes.

An explanation of the chant from a Coptic Church channel, reproducing the aforementioned article from First Things.