Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains, Serbia, and Bulgaria, both in an area called Rumelia by the Turkish sultans, a remnant of Roman colonization, are some of the other local Orthodox churches surrounding Russia. They share some history together in this area bordering Europe and Asia. The Ottoman Empire once not too long ago controlled the Balkan peninsula. The Georgian monarchy, anciently called the Kingdom of the Iberians, fought off the Seljuq Turks after the Byzantines were drained of power in Asia Minor. From Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Bulgaria inherited the Byzantine “one-voiced” kind of chanting while later an ‘ison’ drone was added. Russia incorporated the harmonized four-voiced, “part” singing from Latin Christians, which predominates in Slavic countries. Georgia has maintained a unique three-voiced chant from the 11th c. apparently derived from its own folk melodies. Orthodox singing has varied the arrangement of voices, whether the voices are harmonized in parts or in unison – the one-voiced singing. But all these churches have used neume notation and the eight tones in some way coming from Byzantium.
Like znamenny chant, Serbian chanting borrowed some folkloric elements along with its Byzantine musical heritage. Bulgaria can lay claim to the origins of the “Old Slavonic” liturgical language, and it has a very ancient musical beginning in the 9th -10th c. as old as the Kievan Rus’. Amazingly, during the Ottoman rule over Bulgaria, although it was an intense struggle, the Bulgarian Christians still held onto their Orthodox music. Georgia’s unique chant survived a period of struggle against the Muslim Seljuqs and later Russification in the 19th c. just as Russia held onto pieces of znamenny chant after a time of heavy Latinization, largely welcomed by certain ideological groups. The development of Orthodox singing has both an ethnic and a common tradition. The music could be described as ethno-tonic, not ethnocentric. The mode of each country differs from the next and each culture has its own tone so to speak. But they follow the eight-tone system and neume notation to guide their liturgical worship toward Christ. In this way, each local Orthodox church remains in communion with the other so that liturgical music finds its common inspiration, foundation, and union in Christo-centric singing. There is no need for coercion or a cultural “rebirth” in the Orthodox Church. A large part of the changes and rapid developments of Orthodox music have come with political upheavals and policies of the worldly-minded ethos of state or imperial governments. American Protestantism in the 18th c. produced its own kind of church music that often rallies revival movements as well as riots. Methodist hymnody became the backbone of spreading the evangelical message of “new birth” in God among Anglican clergy like John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield. That traditional approach has continued today in many Protestant denominations.
Russia is a prime example for Orthodox countries because they have shown the way of struggle under different political circumstances like the Rurik dynasty, the Muslim Tatar rule, the Russian empire, and lastly secularism under Peter the Great and then the Soviets. They are now seeking to revive their unique traditions. Unlike Russia and Serbia, Bulgaria doesn’t seem to have undergone as much western musical influence, and they may not have as much western layers to unravel but maybe some Ottoman influence to undo. America has not been subjugated by other religious forces like Russia, Serbia, and Bulgaria. The closest military ground invasion of the United States came during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 when Mexico attacked Brownsville in the Thorton Affair, and nearly again between 1916-1917 by Mexico involving the revolutionary, Pancho Villa, called the Punitive Expedition. But President Carranza and Wilson dissolved the conflict before war could break out. America, a culturally Protestant nation, unlike these Orthodox countries, has not been under direct, foreign oppression and rule that would impose another language and law upon generations of Christian people here. Our culture is used to spreading its peculiar gospel of freedom in a missionary kind of manner from both a secular and Christianized perspective. The Orthodox peopling of America seems to be in progress because of the freedom we have been given and most importantly the saints we’ve been given. Our Orthodox heritage in this land began with saints from Alaska, Syria, Russia, and Serbia like St. Peter the Aleut, St. Innocent, St. Herman, St. Raphael Bishop of Brooklyn, and the “Serbian John Chrysostom,” St. Nicholas of Zhicha. Although the United States hasn’t undergone something like Turkification or Russification in its history, we have been experiencing an aggressive and growing secularization. Music is part of human nature, and it is also a part of the liturgical life of Orthodox Christians, not an accidental aspect of worship. Like architecture and iconography, liturgical chant can help Christians through persecution and in times of peace.