We, who mystically represent the cherubim : Different approaches to translating liturgical texts and music into the vernacular

Abstract

The principle that every nation should praise God in its own language is is foundational to every Byzantine church. Unlike in the Roman church, Byzantine missions to neighboring nations also carried the initiative to translate the entire rite to their respective languages. This we know, among other sources, from the zealous disputes of the Slavonic apostles Constantine and Methodius against Roman scholars who accepted only three liturgical languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. What these hagiographic stories do not relate is that with the translation of text, music should also be taken into account. Medieval Slavonic books containing musical notation reveal that translations of hymns were made alongside the translation of liturgical music. The interplay of word and music within translation of the liturgy into vernacular languages is also current nowadays. Although translation studies is a developed field, there is no branch of musicology to deal with an analogous phenomenon in music. This is one of the reasons why every church chooses a different approach.

The aim of this paper is to present three modern approaches in three different Byzantine churches-one Orthodox and two Catholic-to the translation of text and music in the liturgy: The Greek Orthodox Church in USA with English translations and Greek musical tradition, Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic Church with English translations but Slavonic musical tradition, and finally the Slovak Greek Catholic (Byzantine Catholic) Church with Slovak translations and Slavonic musical traditions.

Even though all three approaches are different, a comparison of them could offer some guidelines for creating a more elaborate method for possible future translation projects, or even for reassessing existing ones. This might help to maintain two aspects of the translation process of liturgical text and music: the ongoing tradition of both music and text, and the mutual unity between the two.