PHILIPPOPOLIS
reviewed by Oxana Dudina
A group of men dressed as monks, each with a lit candle, came out into the church harmoniously singing the traditional orthodox prayer “Lord, have mercy upon us!”
They immediately made an unforgettable impression, not only because of their enigmatic, mysterious, and religious exterior, but and for the most part, because of the sacred, divine and miraculous harmony of their interlaced voices.
The concert took place in the Jesus Christ church in the Dahlem section of Berlin, Germany. This church is known for its good acoustic qualities and in the past has been used for many recordings.
The group was founded in 1987 in Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria, and is officially named the Philippopolis Chamber Ensemble. The group’s name is derived from the ancient name of the city of Plovdiv which was Philippopolis, after Philip II of Macedonia, in 343 BC.
The 12 members of the group all have a musical education. One of them, Evstafi Dimitrov, even sang in the famous Komische Oper in Berlin, and many of them have an additional higher education in other fields.
Although singing devotional chants and wearing religious clothes, they are not all very religious, Petar Kouzmanov said nevertheless, that none of them is completely atheistic.
They have performed in many festivals in Bulgaria, Europe and around the world. Some of these concerts have been broadcast on radio and television.
The evening repertoire of the group consisted of Orthodox religious chants sung in the old church Slavonic language, which has been used since the 9th century in liturgical ceremonies in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, and other Slavic countries. This concert, as is every Orthodox mass, was given without any musical instruments - only voices, symbolizing the purity of the union between the believers and God.
Celebratory invocation of God, Eucharistic canons, Orthodox hymns, psalms, prayers, and famous Orthodox songs belonged to the evening’s program. All these sacred songs have elaborate texts resulting in lengthy and ornamental repetition of certain passages. Sometimes the singers seemed not to be singing, but rather praying; praying in a recitative manner.
Harmonious, emotional and spiritual, the singing of the group was warmly acknowledged by the audience with a standing ovation.
The effect of the music is meditative, reflective and contemplative, because the sacred music itself is very intimate, personal, innermost, touching, and easily accepted as one’s own.
Orthodox liturgical music can be a means of sacred transcendental experience, as this orchestra-less oratorio showed.
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