There is no Divine service, neither public, nor private, which would not contain singing, regardless of whether this singing is done by one singer, or two professional choirs, or even everybody present at the service. Certainly, some parts of service (for example, compline) are not sung in the actual sense of the word, but rather they are psalmoded (read in a singsong) at one pitch.

Therefore, the service singing is not viewed as music background of the service, but one of the forms of the service itself. It’s no accident that in former days the Divine service was called “singing”. “It’s time to sing and to pray! Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us”, were the words a monk-awakener woke the brothers of the monastery for a morning service with.

There was a strict difference between singing and music in the Russian language up to the seventeenth century. The words “singing”, “to sing” were used only towards the divine songs and singing in the church. The words “playing”, “to play” were used to denote singing in the secular sense. That is why people never said “sing a song”, but “play a song” (that is how the phrase “to play the wedding” appeared). The essence of worship singing is prayer.

The Saint Prince Vladimir after his baptism in Korsun took with him, according to Joachim chronicle, “the first Metropolitan Mikhail who was a Bulgarian and other bishops, priests and singers”, and another group of Greek singers called “royal choir” came with Queen Anne. Thus, the first who taught the Russians church singing were the Bulgarians and the Greeks. This singing was exceptionally monophonic, so called “melodical”, and it was taught by word of mouth. We have practically no information about what the original Russian church singing was like. However, it is beyond doubt that our Church did not invent the church singing herself, but she received it quite mature in its structure.

The principle of eight tones lies in the foundation of church singing. These eight tones are the frameworks within which all the church singing is constructed. The eight-tone singing, first established by John the Chrysostom in the fourth century, was thoroughly elaborated by many great hymnists, among which were St. Ambrosius of Mediolanum, St. Roman the Melodist, St. Sophronius of Jerusalem and finally found its place in the practice of church in the seventh century in the God-inspired works of St. John of Damascus. The preservation of these sanctities is the merit and heritage of the Orthodox Church. All the order of the service, all the hymnographic material (texts), and the eight-tone system were created by the saints and are sacrosanct.

According to the ordinary, one of the eight tones is used during service throughout a week. These tones are canonized by the church authorities, i.e. acknowledged as right and exemplary for the divine service, and they are called “bylaws”.

Every singer knows these tones by heart and must be able to sing any needed text in whatever mood.

The znamenny chant is an invaluable treasure of Old Russian singing system. It can be found, perhaps, only in a monastery nowadays. But there are few monasteries where all the service is sung with the ancient chant.

Restoring the traditions of the znamenny chant, the sisters of St. Elisabeth Convent are trying to restore the unity of prayer, life and singing the Old Russian singing system presented. A person lived, prayed and sung simultaneously, and what he sung gained a foothold in his spiritual and prayer experience, and was examined as to its purity and truthfulness.

…Voices of nuns sound pure, profound and strict… The most important is not to represent anything, not to change the tone of voice, to sing quietly, monotonously, not willing to feel anything, but articulate the words of prayer. Unlike music that is characterized with representativeness and variety, the church singing is characterized with prayerfulness and reserve.

Day by day, year by year, century by century one and the same Kievan “Milost mira” and Valaam “Svete tikhii” are sung in ancient monasteries, reminding us that times do change, but not for the Church, which remains the same today, yesterday and a hundred years ago…