The Liturgy of St John Chrysostom: a work of ecclesiastical or concert character?

Abstract

When a composer intends to write a setting of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (“Liturgy”, for short), he or she needs to be sure what the character of the work to be composed would be: ecclesiastical in character, to be performed in church during a service, or of a concert character to be performed in a concert hall? What are the differences between the works of ecclesiastical character and works of concert character? To answer the question, we need to compare a performance of a musical work in church during a service and at a concert hall during a concert, i.e., using the method of oppositions. We need to consider the opposition “service/church – concert/concert hall” in the context of a musical performance.