Organ music in Prague. A brief history of the orchestra, from ancient times to Beethoven. Musician in the church

Fans of live organ music experience a special thrill when they find themselves in Prague, because where else, if not in the capital of the Czech Republic, can they fully enjoy the sounds of this powerful, awe-inspiring instrument. Prague is famous for its beautiful cathedrals and churches, and many have their own organ. Attending the concert will be a real event.

Sacred organ music

You can get into one of the cathedrals during a service and hear organ music and the singing of a church choir absolutely free. However, this will be exclusively spiritual music - masses, services, prayers, sequences, requiems, hymns. It is beautiful and unique in its own way, adds solemnity to religious rituals, gives a person a special mood of peace, or, conversely, makes one think about something deeply personal.

Daily services are held in the majestic Gothic cathedral, which is located on the premises. On weekdays, it is best to attend the seven o'clock morning service, and on weekends those who want to listen to the church choir accompanied by an organ are invited to evening services.

You can also get great pleasure by visiting services in. It is located in the Old Town, its pointed towers - a bold combination of Gothic and Baroque - are visible from afar.

No less memorable will be an excursion to the most ancient church of the Old City - the Church of St. Martin. The beginning of its construction dates back to the time of Charles IV, so its appearance is dominated by Romanesque solidity. Later, elements of Gothic, Baroque and even pseudo-Renaissance appeared. The schedule of services can be found at the entrance to these churches.

The beauty of the sound of the organ and the richness of the decoration of Prague cathedrals is a truly stunning combination that everyone should appreciate.

Prague organs and classical music

For those who are not so close to sacred music and who find it too strict and regulated, we recommend attending one of the organ concerts of classical and chamber music. They are held in the evening in the churches of Prague, and each has its own specifics.

It is proud of the organ, which is covered with gold leaf and is considered one of the oldest in the city. The Cathedral of St. Francis, according to professionals, has the best acoustics. Concerts also take place in other churches - the Basilica of St. George, the Cathedral of St. Elias, and the Church of St. Bartholomew.

Tickets for such concerts are sold directly at the entrance to the cathedral, purchased through Internet sites or through advertising agents. Here are some of the most popular places for organ lovers to visit.

Church of St. Salvator in Clementium

- the most important historical and architectural complex of Prague, which is a major center of culture, education and religious life of the city. There are two organ halls on the territory of the Clementium. The first is located inside the Church of St. Salvator, built in the mid-17th century during the early Czech Baroque period.

Quite unusual is that there are two organs installed in this temple. One, a small one, is located in the lower tier, not far from the altar, and next to it is a chamber ensemble. The second organ, a large one, is located on the upper level, above the entrance to the temple. The temple organs are very popular among the world's leading virtuosos, who regularly organize concerts here.

Mirror Chapel in the Clementium

The second organ hall of the Clementium is the so-called Mirror Chapel, also decorated in the Baroque style. It got its name thanks to the abundance of mirrors skillfully built into the lush stucco walls and ceilings. Wall mirrors located opposite each other create an amazing illusion of infinity of space.

Just like the Church of St. Salvator, the Mirror Chapel has two organs. The old organ located in the choir is widely known for having been played by the young Mozart. And the second large organ was installed in the altar in the 20s of the 20th century. The acoustics of the chapel allow us to simultaneously play both instruments, and now we enjoy listening to the polyphonies of Bach and Handel, the light and fast-paced symphonies of Mozart, and the works of the famous Czechs Dvorak and Smetana performed by equally famous organists.

Cathedral of St. Nicholas (Mala Strana)

Dedicated to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, this is another favorite place for fans of organ music. The interior of the temple looks impressive, decorated with a grandiose dome fresco “Feast of the Holy Trinity” at a height of seventy meters, a gilded statue of St. Nicholas above the main altar and an abundance of stucco.

The hand of the brilliant Mozart also touched the keys of the organ of this church, and perhaps that is why St. Nicholas Cathedral is so attractive for those who want to hear the eternal classics - works by Albinioni and Debussy, Bach and Vivaldi, Haydn and Myslivicek.

Spirituality
06.06.2012
Irina Anninskaya

On Saturday, May 26, the debut organ concert of students of the Berdyansk children's music school was held in the Catholic church.

Young musicians who were only 10-12 years old: Diana Smirnova, Lilya Logvinenko (violin), Sergey Pivovarov and Kirill Eliseev - gathered an almost full hall of listeners. The concert became a magnificent musical celebration both for the audience who came to the church and for the little artists themselves. They performed classical works of varying complexity and mood. The concert’s highlight was also the vocals of music school teacher Inna Prokofieva. The initiator of this event, a teacher at a children's music school, Victoria Zagudaeva, rejoiced at the success no less than her students, because playing such, in her words, a wise and grandiose instrument like an organ, and teaching children this, was the teacher’s long-standing dream.

This idea came to me when the temple was just being built, and I found out that there would be an organ here,” said Victoria Alexandrovna. - I teach musical literature at a music school; this subject requires familiarity with various musical instruments, including the organ. Therefore, I was sure that one day I would bring my students to the church. Having met the rector of the church, Zdzislaw Zajonc, Victoria shared her dreams with him, and the priest gladly met her halfway, not only inviting children to the church, but even organizing a special organ concert for students of the music school, performed by the world-famous organ master Jerzy Kukli. Then there were two more concerts, after which the children wanted to get to know the amazing instrument better, they went up to the choir and had the opportunity to touch the organ keys for the first time in their lives. Victoria Zagudaeva, together with her students, has been mastering this amazing instrument for just about a month, and the first concert showed that the time was not wasted. The success inspired the children, and many of those who came to the concert as spectators, Victoria Zagudaeva is sure, will also express a desire to learn to play the organ. The teacher’s plans include organizing organ concerts for children and youth, schoolchildren, and students with the goal of introducing Berdyansk residents to the wonderful world of organ music and introducing them to musical classics.

In addition,” Victoria Alexandrovna admitted, “I want to organize a choir at the church. Perhaps a choir is a strong word, for starters a vocal ensemble. Father Zdzislaw Zajonc, who warmly thanked the young artists and their teachers, admitted that he dreams that one day the newly created choir will sing together with the children's choir from his hometown of Poniatow, Poland.

• Background
• Orchestral genres and forms
• Mannheim Chapel
• Court musicians

Background

Since ancient times, people have known about the impact of the sound of musical instruments on human mood: the quiet but melodious play of a harp, lyre, cithara, kamancha or flute made of reeds awakened feelings of joy, love or peace, and the sound of animal horns (for example, Hebrew shofars ) or metal pipes contributed to the emergence of solemn and religious feelings. Drums and other percussion, added to the horns and trumpets, helped cope with fear and aroused aggressiveness and belligerence. It has long been noted that the joint playing of several similar instruments enhances not only the brightness of the sound, but also the psychological impact on the listener - the same effect that occurs when a large number of people sing the same melody together. Therefore, wherever people settled, associations of musicians gradually began to emerge, accompanying battles or public ceremonial events with their playing: rituals in the temple, marriages, burials, coronations, military parades, entertainment in palaces.

The very first written mentions of such associations can be found in the Pentateuch of Moses and in the Psalms of David: at the beginning of some psalms there is an appeal to the leader of the choir with an explanation of which instruments should be used to accompany a particular text. Mesopotamia and the Egyptian pharaohs, Ancient China and India, Greece and Rome had their own groups of musicians. In the ancient Greek tradition of performing tragedies, there were special platforms on which musicians sat, accompanying the performances of actors and dancers by playing instruments. Such elevated platforms were called “orchestra”. So the patent for the invention of the word “orchestra” remains with the ancient Greeks, although in fact orchestras already existed much earlier.

In Western European culture, the association of musicians as an orchestra did not immediately begin to be called. At first, in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, it was called a chapel. This name was associated with belonging to a specific place where the music was performed. Such chapels were at first church chapels, and then court chapels. And there were also village chapels, consisting of amateur musicians. These chapels were practically a mass phenomenon. And although the level of village performers and their instruments could not be compared with professional court and temple chapels, the influence of the tradition of village, and later urban folk instrumental music on the great composers and European musical culture as a whole should not be underestimated. The music of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Weber, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner, Mahler, Bartok, Stravinsky, Ravel, Ligeti is literally fertilized by the traditions of folk instrumental music-making.

As in more ancient cultures, in Europe there was no original division between vocal and instrumental music. Starting from the early Middle Ages, the Christian church ruled over everything, and instrumental music in the church developed as an accompaniment, support for the gospel word, which always prevailed - after all, “in the beginning was the Word.” Therefore, the early chapels are both people who sing and people who accompany the singers.

At some point the word “orchestra” appears. Although not everywhere at the same time. In Germany, for example, this word established itself much later than in the Romance countries. In Italy, orchestra always meant the instrumental, not the vocal part of the music. The word orchestra was borrowed directly from the Greek tradition. Italian orchestras arose at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, along with the advent of the opera genre. And because of the extraordinary popularity of this genre, the word quickly conquered the whole world. Thus, it is safe to say that modern orchestral music has two sources: the temple and the theater.

And in Germany for a long time they stuck to the medieval-Renaissance name “chapel”. Until the twentieth century, many German court orchestras were called chapels. One of the oldest existing orchestras in the world is the Saxon State (and in the past - the Saxon Court) Chapel in Dresden. Its history goes back more than 400 years. She appeared at the court of the Saxon electors, who always appreciated beauty and were ahead of all their neighbors in this regard. There are also the Berlin and Weimar State Chapels, as well as the famous Meiningen Court Chapel, in which Richard Strauss began as Kapellmeister (currently conductor). By the way, the German word “kapellmeister” (choir master) today is still sometimes used by musicians as an equivalent to the word “conductor,” but more often in an ironic, sometimes even negative sense (in the sense of a craftsman, not an artist). And in those days this word was pronounced with respect, as the name of a complex profession: “the director of a choir or orchestra who also composes music.” True, in some orchestras in Germany this word has been preserved as a designation of position - for example, in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the chief conductor is still called “Gewandhaus Kapellmeister”.

XVII-XVIII centuries: orchestra as a court decoration

The orchestras of the Renaissance and later the Baroque orchestras were mainly court or church orchestras. Their purpose was to accompany worship or to please and entertain the powers that be. However, many feudal rulers had a fairly developed aesthetic sense, and in addition, they loved to show off to each other. Some boasted of their army, some of their fancy architecture, some laid out gardens, and some ran a court theater or orchestra.

The French king Louis XIV, for example, had two such orchestras: the Ensemble of the Royal Stable, consisting of wind and percussion instruments, and the so-called “24 Violins of the King,” led by the famous composer Jean Baptiste Lully, who also collaborated with Moliere and went down in history as the creator of French opera and the first professional conductor. Later, the English king Charles II (son of the executed Charles I), returning from France during the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, also created his “24 King’s Violins” in the Royal Chapel based on the French model. The Chapel Royal itself existed since the 14th century and reached its peak during the reign of Elizabeth I - its court organists were William Bird and Thomas Tallis. And at the court of Charles II, the brilliant English composer Henry Purcell served, combining the position of organist in Westminster Abbey and in the Royal Chapel. In the 16th-17th centuries in England there was another specific name for an orchestra, usually a small one, “consort”. In the later Baroque era, the word “consort” fell out of use, and in its place the concept of chamber music, that is, “room” music, appeared.

Baroque forms of entertainment became more and more luxurious towards the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. And it was no longer possible to get by with a small number of tools—customers wanted “more and more expensive ones.” Although, of course, everything depended on the generosity of the “illustrious patron.” If Bach was forced to write letters to his masters, persuading them to allocate at least two or three violins per instrumental part, then at Handel, at the same time, 24 oboists, 12 bassoonists, 9 horn players took part in the first performance of “Music for the Royal Fireworks” , 9 trumpeters and 3 timpanists (that is, 57 musicians for 13 prescribed parts). And 525 people took part in the performance of Handel’s “Messia” in London in 1784 (however, this event dates back to a later era, when the author of the music was no longer alive). Most Baroque authors wrote operas, and the theater opera orchestra was always a kind of creative laboratory for composers - a place for all kinds of experiments, including with unusual instruments. For example, at the beginning of the 17th century, Monteverdi introduced a trombone part to the orchestra of his opera “Orpheus,” one of the very first operas in history, to depict the hellish furies.

Since the time of the Florentine Camerata (the turn of the 16th-17th centuries), any orchestra has had a basso continuo part, which was played by a whole group of musicians and recorded on one line in the bass clef. The numbers under the bass line indicated certain harmonic sequences - and the performers had to improvise all the musical texture and decorations, that is, create anew with each performance. And the composition varied depending on what instruments were available to a particular chapel. The presence of one keyboard instrument was mandatory, most often a harpsichord; in church music, such an instrument was most often an organ; one bowed string instrument - cello, viola da gamba or violone (the predecessor of the modern double bass); one plucked string - lute or theorbo. But it happened that in the basso continuo group six or seven people played at the same time, including several harpsichords (Purcell and Rameau had three or four of them). In the 19th century, keyboards and plucked instruments disappeared from orchestras, but reappeared in the 20th century. And since the 1960s, it has become possible for a symphony orchestra to use almost any instrument in existence—an almost baroque flexibility in approach to instrumentation. Thus, we can consider that the Baroque gave birth to the modern orchestra.

Instrumentation, tuning, notation

The modern listener most likely associates the word “orchestra” with excerpts from the music of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky or Shostakovich; with that massively monumental and at the same time smoothed sound that is imprinted in our memory from listening to modern orchestras - live and in recordings. But orchestras did not always sound like this. Among the many differences between ancient orchestras and modern ones, the main thing is the instruments that the musicians used. In particular, all instruments sounded much quieter than modern ones, since the rooms in which the music was performed were (in general) significantly smaller than modern concert halls. And there were no factory whistles, no nuclear turbines, no internal combustion engines, no supersonic aircraft - the overall sound of human life was several times quieter than today. Its volume was still measured by natural phenomena: the roar of wild animals, the clap of thunder during a thunderstorm, the roar of waterfalls, the crash of falling trees or the rumble of a landslide in the mountains, and the roar of a crowd in a town square on a fair day. Therefore, music could compete in brightness only with nature itself.

The strings that pulled stringed instruments were made from ox sinew (today's are made from metal), and the bows were smaller, lighter, and slightly different in shape. Due to this, the sound of the strings was “warmer”, but less “smooth” than today’s. Woodwind instruments did not have all the modern valves and other technical devices that allow them to play more confidently and accurately. The woodwinds of that time sounded more individually in timbre, sometimes somewhat false (everything depended on the skill of the performer) and several times quieter than modern ones. The brass instruments were all natural, that is, they could only produce sounds of a natural scale, which most often were only enough to perform a short fanfare, but not an extended melody. Animal skin was stretched over drums and kettledrums (this practice still exists today, although percussion instruments with plastic membranes have long since appeared).

The tuning of the orchestra was generally lower than today - on average by a half tone, and sometimes by a whole tone. But even here there was no single rule: the scale of the A tone of the first octave (by which the orchestra is traditionally tuned) at the court of Louis XIV was 392 on the Hertz scale. At the court of Charles II, A was tuned from 400 to 408 hertz. At the same time, the organs in the temples were often tuned to a tone higher than the harpsichords that stood in the palace chambers (perhaps this was due to heating, since dry heat causes string instruments to rise in tuning, and cold, on the contrary, lowers them; in wind instruments, this is often observed reverse trend). Therefore, in Bach’s time, there were two main systems: the so-called kammer tone (the modern “tuning fork” is a derivative word from it), that is, “room tone,” and the orgel tone, that is, “organ system” (also known as “choral tone”) "). And the room tuning of A was 415 hertz, and the organ tuning was always higher and sometimes reached 465 hertz. And if we compare them with the modern concert scale (440 hertz), then the first one turns out to be half a tone lower, and the second one half a tone higher than the modern one. Therefore, in some of Bach's cantatas, written with an organ system in mind, the parts of the wind instruments were written by the author immediately in transposition, that is, half a step higher than the parts of the choir and basso continuo. This was due to the fact that the wind instruments, mainly used in court chamber music, were not adapted to the higher tuning of the organ (flutes and oboes could even be slightly lower than the cummer tone, and therefore there was also a third - low cummertone). tone). And if, without knowing this, today you try to play such a cantata literally from the notes, you will end up with a cacophony that was not intended by the author.

This situation with “floating” systems persisted in the world until the Second World War, that is, not only in different countries, but also in different cities of the same country, systems could differ significantly from each other. In 1859, the French government made the first attempt to standardize the tuning by passing a law approving the tuning of A - 435 hertz, but in other countries the tunings continued to be extremely different. It was only in 1955 that the International Organization for Standardization adopted the law on 440 hertz concert pitch, which is still in force today.

Baroque and classical authors also carried out other operations in the field of structure related to music for string instruments. We are talking about a technique called “scordatura”, that is, “rearrangement of strings”. At the same time, some strings, say, of a violin or viola, were tuned to a different, atypical interval for the instrument. Thanks to this, the composer was able to use, depending on the key of the composition, a larger number of open strings, which led to better resonance of the instrument. But this scordatura was often recorded not in real sound, but in transposition. Therefore, without preliminary preparation of the instrument (and the performer), it is impossible to perform such a composition properly. A famous example of scordatura is the cycle of violin sonatas “Rosary (Mysteries)” by Heinrich Ignaz Biber (1676).

During the Renaissance and early Baroque periods, the range of modes, and later keys, in which composers could write was limited by a natural barrier. The name of this barrier is the Pythagorean comma. The great Greek scientist Pythagoras was the first to propose tuning instruments in perfect fifths - one of the first intervals of the natural scale. But it turned out that if you tune string instruments in this way, then after passing through the full circle of fifths (four octaves), the B sharp note sounds much higher than C. And since ancient times, musicians and scientists have tried to find an ideal system for tuning instruments, in which this natural flaw in the natural scale - its unevenness - could be overcome, which would allow equal use of all tonalities.

Each era had its own systems of construction. And each of the systems had its own characteristics, which seemed false to our ears, accustomed to the sound of modern pianos. Since the beginning of the 19th century, all keyboard instruments have been tuned in a uniform scale, dividing the octave into 12 perfectly equal semitones. Uniform tuning is a compromise very close to the modern spirit, which made it possible to solve the problem of the Pythagorean comma once and for all, but sacrificed the natural beauty of the sound of pure thirds and fifths. That is, none of the intervals (except the octave) played by a modern piano correspond to the natural scale. And in all the numerous tuning systems that existed since the late Middle Ages, a certain number of pure intervals were preserved, due to which all tones received a sharply individual sound. Even after the invention of good temperament (see Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier), which made it possible to use all keys on the harpsichord or organ, the keys themselves still retained their individual coloring. Hence the emergence of the theory of affects, fundamental to baroque music, according to which all musical means of expression - melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo, texture and the choice of tonality itself - are inherently associated with specific emotional states. Moreover, the same tonality could, depending on the system used at the moment, sound pastoral, innocent or sensual, solemnly mournful or demonically terrifying.

For the composer, the choice of a particular tonality was inextricably linked with a certain set of emotions until the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. Moreover, if for Haydn D major sounded like “majestic thanksgiving, belligerence,” then for Beethoven it sounded like “pain, melancholy or march.” Haydn associated E major with “thoughts of death,” and for Mozart it meant “solemn, sublime supermundaneness” (all these epithets are quotes from the composers themselves). Therefore, among the obligatory virtues of musicians performing ancient music is a multidimensional system of musical and general cultural knowledge, which allows one to recognize the emotional structure and “codes” of different works by different authors, and at the same time the ability to technically implement this in the game.

In addition, there are also problems with notation: composers of the 17th-18th centuries deliberately wrote down only part of the information related to the upcoming performance of the work; phrasing, nuance, articulation and especially exquisite decoration - an integral part of the Baroque aesthetic - were all left to the free choice of the musicians, who thus became co-creators of the composer, and not simply obedient executors of his will. Therefore, truly masterful performance of baroque and early classical music on ancient instruments is a task no less (if not more) difficult than the virtuoso mastery of later music on modern instruments. When the first enthusiasts of performing ancient instruments (“authentists”) appeared over 60 years ago, they were often met with hostility among their colleagues. This was partly due to the inertia of the musicians of the traditional school, and partly to the insufficient skill of the pioneers of musical authenticism themselves. In musicians' circles there was a kind of condescendingly ironic attitude towards them as losers who could not find a better use for themselves than to make plaintive false bleats on “dried wood” (woodwinds) or “rusty scrap metal” (brass). And this (certainly regrettable) attitude persisted until recently, until it became clear that the level of playing on ancient instruments has increased in recent decades so much that, at least in the field of Baroque and early classics, authenticists have long since caught up and surpassed the more monotonous and ponderous-sounding modern orchestras.

Orchestral genres and forms

Just as the word “orchestra” did not always mean what we mean by it today, so the words “symphony” and “concert” initially had slightly different meanings, and only gradually, over time, did they acquire their modern meanings.

Concert

The word "concert" has several possible origins. Modern etymology tends to translate “to come to agreement” from the Italian concertare or “to sing together, to praise” from the Latin concinere, concino. Another possible translation is “dispute, competition” from the Latin concertare: individual performers (soloists or a group of soloists) compete in music with a group (orchestra). In the early Baroque era, a concerto was often called a vocal-instrumental work; later it became known as a cantata - from the Latin canto, cantare (“to sing”). Over time, concertos became a purely instrumental genre (although among works of the 20th century one can also find such a rarity as the Concerto for Voice and Orchestra by Reinhold Gliere). The Baroque era made a distinction between a solo concert (one instrument and an accompanying orchestra) and a "grand concerto" (concerto grosso), where the music was passed between a small group of soloists (concertino) and a group with more instruments (ripieno, that is, "stuffing", "filling"). The musicians of the Ripieno group were called Ripienistas. It was these ripienists who became the predecessors of modern orchestral players. The ripieno used exclusively string instruments, as well as basso continuo. And the soloists could be very different: violin, cello, oboe, recorder, bassoon, viola d'amore, lute, mandolin, etc.

There were two types of concerto grosso: concerto da chiesa (“church concert”) and concerto da camera (“chamber concert”). Both of them came into use mainly thanks to Arcangelo Corelli, who composed a cycle of 12 concertos (1714). This cycle had a strong influence on Handel, who left us two whole cycles of concerto grosso, recognized as masterpieces of this genre. Bach's Brandenburg concertos also bear clear features of concerto grosso.

The heyday of the Baroque recital is associated with the name of Antonio Vivaldi, who during his life composed more than 500 concertos for various instruments accompanied by strings and basso continuo (although he also wrote over 40 operas, a huge amount of church choral music and instrumental symphonies). As a rule, solo concerts were in three parts with alternating tempos: fast - slow - fast; this structure became dominant in later examples of the instrumental concert, until the beginning of the 21st century. Vivaldi’s most famous creation was the cycle “The Seasons” (1725) for violin and string orchestra, in which each concert is preceded by a poem (possibly written by Vivaldi himself). The poems describe the main moods and events of a particular season, which are then embodied in the music itself. These four concerts, part of a larger series of 12 concerts called "A Contest of Harmony and Invention", are considered today to be among the first examples of program music.

Handel and Bach continued and developed this tradition. Moreover, Handel composed, among others, 16 organ concertos, and Bach, in addition to the traditional concerts for one and two violins at that time, also wrote concerts for the harpsichord, which until now was exclusively an instrument of the basso continuo group. So Bach can be considered the progenitor of the modern piano concerto.

Symphony

Symphony translated from Greek means “consonance”, “joint sound”. In the ancient Greek and medieval traditions, a symphony was the name given to the euphony of harmony (in today's musical language - consonance), and in later times, various musical instruments began to be called a symphony, such as a dulcimer, a hurdy-gurdy, a spinet or a virginal. And only at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries the word “symphony” began to be used as the name of a composition for voices and instruments. The earliest examples of such symphonies include the Musical Symphonies of Lodovico Grossi da Viadana (1610), the Sacred Symphonies of Giovanni Gabrieli (1615) and the Sacred Symphonies (op. 6, 1629, and op. 10, 1649) by Heinrich Schütz. In general, throughout the entire Baroque period, a variety of compositions were called symphonies - both church and secular content. Most often the symphonies were part of a larger cycle. With the advent of the genre of Italian opera seria (“serious opera”), associated primarily with the name of Scarlatti, a symphony began to be called the instrumental introduction to an opera, also called an overture, usually in three sections: fast - slow - fast. That is, “symphony” and “overture” for a long time meant approximately the same thing. By the way, in Italian opera the tradition of calling an overture a symphony survived until the mid-19th century (see Verdi’s early operas, for example “Nebuchadnezzar”).

Since the 18th century, a fashion for instrumental multi-movement symphonies has emerged throughout Europe. They played an important role both in public life and in church services. However, the main place where symphonies originated and were performed were the estates of aristocrats. By the middle of the 18th century (the time of the appearance of Haydn's first symphonies), there were three main centers for composing symphonies in Europe - Milan, Vienna and Mannheim. It was thanks to the activities of these three centers, but especially the Mannheim Court Chapel and its composers, as well as the work of Joseph Haydn, that the symphony genre experienced its first flowering in Europe at that time.

Mannheim Chapel

The chapel, which arose under Elector Charles III Philip in Heidelberg, and after 1720 continued to exist in Mannheim, can be considered the first prototype of the modern orchestra. Even before moving to Mannheim, the chapel was more numerous than any other in the surrounding principalities. In Mannheim it grew even more, and by attracting the most talented musicians of that time to cooperation, the quality of performance improved significantly. Since 1741, the chapel was headed by the Czech violinist and composer Jan Stamitz. It was from this time that we can talk about the creation of the Mannheim school. The orchestra included 30 string instruments, paired wind instruments: two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets (then still rare guests in orchestras), two bassoons, from two to four horns, two trumpets and timpani - a huge composition for those times. For example, in the chapel of Prince Esterhazy, where Haydn served for almost 30 years as conductor, at the beginning of his career the number of musicians did not exceed 13-16 people; Count Morcin, for whom Haydn served for several years before Esterhazy and wrote his first symphonies, had even more musicians less - judging by Haydn’s scores of those years, there weren’t even flutes. In the late 1760s, the Esterhazy Chapel grew to 16-18 musicians and by the mid-1780s reached its maximum number of 24 musicians. And in Mannheim there were 30 string players alone.

But the main virtue of the Mannheim virtuosos was not their quantity, but the incredible quality and coherence of collective performance at that time. Jan Stamitz, and after him other composers who wrote music for this orchestra, found more and more sophisticated, hitherto unheard of effects, which have since become associated with the name of the Mannheim Chapel: a joint increase in sound (crescendo), decay of sound (diminuendo), sudden joint interruption of the game (general pause), as well as various kinds of musical figures, such as: the Mannheim rocket (the rapid rise of a melody according to the sounds of a broken chord), the Mannheim birds (imitation of the chirping of birds in solo passages) or the Mannheim climax (preparing a crescendo, and then in The decisive moment is the cessation of the playing of all wind instruments and the active and energetic playing of the strings alone). Many of these effects found their second life in the works of Mannheim's younger contemporaries - Mozart and Beethoven, and some still exist today.

In addition, Stamitz and his colleagues gradually found the ideal type of four-movement symphony, derived from the Baroque prototypes of the church sonata and chamber sonata, as well as the Italian operatic overture. Haydn also came to the same four-part cycle as a result of his many years of experiments. The young Mozart visited Mannheim in 1777 and was deeply impressed by the music and orchestral playing he heard there. Mozart had a personal friendship with Christian Kannabich, who led the orchestra after Stamitz's death, from the time of his visit to Mannheim.

Court musicians

The position of the court musicians, who were paid a salary, was very profitable at that time, but, of course, it also required a lot. They worked very hard and had to fulfill every musical whim of their masters. They could be woken up at three or four o'clock in the morning and told that the owner wanted some entertainment music - to listen to some kind of serenade. The poor musicians had to go into the hall, set up lamps and play. Very often, musicians worked seven days a week - such concepts as production standards or an 8-hour working day, of course, did not exist for them (by modern standards, an orchestral musician cannot work more than 6 hours a day when it comes to rehearsals for a concert or theatrical performance). We had to play all day, so we played all day. However, owners who loved music most often understood that a musician could not play for several hours without a break - he needed both food and rest.

Haydn and the Chapel of Prince Esterhazy

Legend has it that Haydn, having written the famous Farewell Symphony, thus hinted to his master Esterhazy about a promised but forgotten rest. At its finale, the musicians all got up in turn, put out the candles and left - the hint is quite clear. And the owner understood them and let them go on vacation - which speaks of him as an insightful person with a sense of humor. Even if this is fiction, it wonderfully conveys the spirit of that era - in other times, such hints about the mistakes of the authorities could have cost the composer quite dearly.

Since Haydn's patrons were quite educated people with a keen sense of music, he could count on the fact that any of his experiments - be it a symphony in six or seven movements or some incredible tonal complications in the so-called development episode - would not be perceived with condemnation. It seems even the other way around: the more complex and unusual the form, the more I liked it.
Nevertheless, Haydn became the first outstanding composer to free himself from this seemingly comfortable, but generally slavish existence of a courtier. When Nikolaus Esterhazy died, his heir disbanded the orchestra, although he retained Haydn's title and (reduced) salary as conductor. Thus, Haydn involuntarily received an indefinite leave and, taking advantage of the invitation of the impresario Johann Peter Salomon, at a fairly old age he went to London. There he actually created a new orchestral style. His music has become more solid and simpler. The experiments were cancelled. This was due to commercial necessity: he discovered that the general English public was much less educated than the sophisticated listeners at the Esterhazy estate - for them it was necessary to write shorter, clearer and more lapidary. While each symphony written by Esterhazy is unique, the London symphonies are of the same type. All of them were written exclusively in four movements (at that time this was the most common form of symphony, which was already widely used by composers of the Mannheim school and Mozart): the obligatory sonata allegro in the first movement, a more or less slow second movement, a minuet and a fast finale. The type of orchestra and musical form, as well as the type of technical development of themes used in Haydn's last symphonies, became a model for Beethoven.

The end of the 18th - 19th centuries: the Viennese school and Beethoven

It so happened that Haydn outlived Mozart, who was 24 years younger than him, and witnessed the beginning of Beethoven’s creative path. Haydn worked most of his life in what is now Hungary, and towards the end of his life he had great success in London, Mozart was from Salzburg, and Beethoven was a Flemish born in Bonn. But the creative paths of all three music giants were connected with the city that, during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa and then her son Emperor Joseph II, took the position of the musical capital of the world - with Vienna. Thus, the work of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven went down in history as the “Viennese classical style”. It should, however, be noted that the authors themselves did not consider themselves “classics” at all, and Beethoven considered himself a revolutionary, a pioneer and even a subverter of traditions. The very concept of “classical style” is an invention of a much later time (mid-19th century). The main features of this style are the harmonious unity of form and content, balanced sound in the absence of baroque excesses and antique harmony of musical architectonics.

The crown of the Viennese classical style in the field of orchestral music is considered to be Haydn's London symphonies, Mozart's last symphonies and all Beethoven's symphonies. In the later symphonies of Haydn and Mozart, the musical vocabulary and syntax of the classical style were finally established, as well as the composition of the orchestra, which crystallized already in the Mannheim school and is still considered classical: string group (divided into first and second violins, violas, cellos and double basses), doubles woodwinds - usually two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons. However, starting from Mozart’s last works, clarinets also firmly entered and established themselves in the orchestra. Mozart's passion for the clarinet largely contributed to the widespread dissemination of this instrument as part of the brass section of the orchestra. Mozart heard clarinets in 1778 in Mannheim in Stamitz's symphonies and wrote admiringly in a letter to his father: “Oh, if only we had clarinets!” - meaning by “us” the Salzburg Court Chapel, which introduced clarinets into use only in 1804. It should be noted, however, that already from 1769 clarinets were regularly used in princely-archiepiscopal military bands.

To the already mentioned woodwinds, two horns were usually added, as well as sometimes two trumpets and timpani, which came into symphonic music from the military. But these instruments were used only in symphonies whose keys allowed the use of natural trumpets, which existed in only a few tunings, usually in D or C major; Sometimes trumpets were also used in symphonies written in G major, but never timpani. An example of such a symphony with trumpets but without timpani is Mozart's Symphony No. 32. The timpani part was added to the score later by an unidentified person and is considered inauthentic. It can be assumed that this dislike of 18th century authors for G major in connection with timpani is explained by the fact that for baroque timpani (which were tuned not with convenient modern pedals, but with manual tension screws) they traditionally wrote music consisting of only two notes - the tonic (1 -th degree of tonality) and dominants (5th degree of tonality), which were designed to support the trumpets playing these notes, but the main note of the key G major in the upper octave on the timpani sounded too sharp, and in the lower - too dull. Therefore, timpani in G major were avoided due to their cacophony.

All other instruments were considered acceptable only in operas and ballets, and some of them were sounded in the church (for example, trombones and basset horns in the Requiem, trombones, basset horns and piccolo in The Magic Flute, drums of “Janissary” music in The Abduction from Seraglio" or mandolin in Mozart's "Don Giovanni", basset horn and harp in Beethoven's ballet "The Works of Prometheus").

The basso continuo gradually fell into disuse, first disappearing from orchestral music, but remaining for some time in opera to accompany recitatives (see The Marriage of Figaro, So All Women Do and Don Giovanni by Mozart, but also later - at the beginning of the 19th century, in some comic operas by Rossini and Donizetti).

While Haydn went down in history as the greatest inventor in the field of symphonic music, Mozart experimented much more with the orchestra in his operas than in his symphonies. The latter are incomparably more strict in their compliance with the standards of that time. Although there are, of course, exceptions: for example, in the Prague or Paris symphonies there is no minuet, that is, they consist of only three movements. There is even a one-movement symphony - No. 32 in G major (however, it is built on the model of the Italian overture in three sections, fast - slow - fast, that is, it corresponds to older, pre-Haydn standards). But this symphony uses as many as four horns (as, by the way, in Symphony No. 25 in G minor, as well as in the opera “Idomeneo”). Symphony No. 39 includes clarinets (Mozart’s love for these instruments has already been mentioned), but there are no traditional oboes. And Symphony No. 40 even exists in two versions - with and without clarinets.

In terms of formal parameters, Mozart moves in most of his symphonies according to Mannheim and Haydn schemes - of course, deepening and refining them with the power of his genius, but without changing anything significant at the level of structures or compositions. However, in the last years of his life, Mozart began to study in detail and deeply the work of the great polyphonists of the past - Handel and Bach. Thanks to this, the texture of his music is increasingly enriched with various kinds of polyphonic tricks. A brilliant example of a combination of the homophonic structure typical of a symphony of the late 18th century with a fugue of the Bach type is Mozart’s last, 41st symphony “Jupiter”. It marks the beginning of the revival of polyphony as the most important development method in the symphonic genre. True, Mozart here too followed a path trodden by others before him: the finales of Michael Haydn’s two symphonies, No. 39 (1788) and 41 (1789), certainly known to Mozart, were also written in the form of a fugue.

Beethoven's role in the development of the orchestra is special. His music is a colossal combination of two eras: classical and romantic. If in the First Symphony (1800) Beethoven is a faithful student and follower of Haydn, and in the ballet “The Works of Prometheus” (1801) he is a successor to the traditions of Gluck, then in the Third, Heroic Symphony (1804) there is a final and irrevocable rethinking of the Haydn-Mozart tradition in a more in a modern way. The second symphony (1802) outwardly still follows classical models, but there are a lot of innovations in it, and the main one is the replacement of the traditional minuet with a rude peasant scherzo (“joke” in Italian). Since then, minuets are no longer found in Beethoven’s symphonies, with the exception of the ironic and nostalgic use of the word “minuet” in the title of the third movement of the Eighth Symphony - “At the Tempo of a Minuet” (by the time the Eighth was composed - 1812 - minuets had already fallen out of use everywhere, and Beethoven here clearly uses this reference to the genre as a sign of a “nice but distant past”). But there is also an abundance of dynamic contrasts, and the conscious transfer of the main theme of the first movement to cellos and double basses, while the violins play the unusual role of accompanists for them, and the frequent division of the functions of cellos and double basses (that is, the emancipation of double basses as an independent voice), and extended, developing the codas in the extreme parts (practically turning into second developments) are all traces of a new style, which found its stunning development in the next - the Third Symphony.

At the same time, the Second Symphony contains the beginnings of almost all subsequent Beethoven symphonies, especially the Third and Sixth, as well as the Ninth. In the introduction to the first part of the Second, there is a D-minor motif, very similar to the main theme of the first part of the Ninth, and the connecting part of the finale of the Second is practically a sketch of “Ode to Joy” from the finale of the same Ninth, even with identical instrumentation.

The third symphony is both the longest and the most complex of all symphonies written so far, both in terms of musical language and the most intensive elaboration of the material. It contains dynamic contrasts unprecedented at that time (from three pianos to three fortes!) and equally unprecedented, even in comparison with Mozart, work on the “cellular transformation” of the original motives, which is not only present in each individual movement, but also, as it were, permeates the entire four-part cycle, creating a feeling of a single and indivisible narrative. The heroic symphony is no longer a harmonious sequence of contrasting parts of an instrumental cycle, but a completely new genre, in fact, the first symphony-romance in the history of music!

Beethoven's use of the orchestra is not just virtuosic - it forces instrumentalists to push themselves to the limits, and often beyond, the conceivable technical limitations of each instrument. Beethoven’s famous phrase addressed to Ignaz Schuppanzig, violinist and leader of the Count Lichnowsky quartet, the first performer of many Beethoven quartets, in response to his critical remark about the “impossibility” of one Beethoven passage, remarkably characterizes the composer’s attitude to technical problems in music: “What do I care?” to his unfortunate violin, when the Spirit speaks to me?!” The musical idea always comes first, and only after it should there be ways to realize it. But at the same time, Beethoven knew very well the capabilities of the orchestra of his time. By the way, the widely held opinion about the negative consequences of Beethoven's deafness, supposedly reflected in his later compositions and therefore justifying later intrusions into his scores in the form of various retouches, is just a myth. It is enough to listen to a good performance of his late symphonies or quartets on authentic instruments to be convinced that there are no flaws in them, but only a highly idealistic, uncompromising attitude towards his art, based on a detailed knowledge of the instruments of his time and their capabilities. If Beethoven had had a modern orchestra with modern technical capabilities at his disposal, he would probably have written completely differently.

In terms of instrumentation, in his first four symphonies Beethoven remains faithful to the standards of the later symphonies of Haydn and Mozart. Although the Eroica Symphony uses three horns instead of the traditional two or the rare but traditionally acceptable four. That is, Beethoven questions the very sacred principle of following any traditions: he needs a third horn voice in the orchestra - and he introduces it.

And already in the Fifth Symphony (1808), Beethoven introduced in the finale the instruments of a military (or theatrical) orchestra - a piccolo flute, a contrabassoon and trombones. By the way, a year before Beethoven, the Swedish composer Joachim Nicholas Eggert used trombones in his Symphony in E-flat major (1807), and in all three movements, and not just in the finale, as Beethoven did. So in the case of trombones, the palm goes not to the great composer, but to his much less famous colleague.

The Sixth Symphony (Pastoral) is the first program cycle in the history of the symphony, in which not only the symphony itself, but also each movement is preceded by a description of a certain internal program - a description of the feelings of a city dweller who finds himself in nature. Actually, descriptions of nature in music have not been new since Baroque times. But, unlike Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” and other baroque examples of program music, Beethoven does not engage in sound recording as an end in itself; the Sixth Symphony, in his own words, “is more an expression of feelings than painting.” The pastoral symphony is the only one in Beethoven’s work in which the four-movement symphonic cycle is violated: the scherzo is followed without interruption by a free-form fourth movement, entitled “The Thunderstorm,” and this is followed, also without interruption, by the finale. Thus, this symphony has five movements.

Beethoven's approach to the orchestration of this symphony is extremely interesting: in the first and second movements he strictly uses only strings, woodwinds and two horns. In the scherzo, two trumpets are connected to them, in the “Thunderstorm” timpani, a piccolo flute and two trombones join, and in the finale the timpani and piccolo fall silent again, and the trumpets and trombones cease to perform the traditional fanfare function and join the general brass choir of pantheistic doxology.

The crowning achievement of Beethoven's experiment in the field of orchestration was the Ninth Symphony: its finale uses not only the already mentioned trombones, piccolo flute and contrabassoon, but also a whole set of “Turkish” percussion - a bass drum, a cymbal and a triangle, and most importantly - a choir and soloists! By the way, the trombones in the finale of the Ninth are most often used to enhance the choral part, and this is already a reference to the tradition of church and secular oratorio music, especially in its Haydn-Mozart refraction (see “The Creation of the World” or “The Seasons” by Haydn, Mass before minor or Mozart's Requiem), which means that this symphony is a fusion of the genre of symphony and spiritual oratorio, only written to a poetic, secular text by Schiller. Another major formal innovation of the Ninth Symphony was the interchange of the slow movement and the scherzo. The Scherzo Ninth, being in second place, no longer plays the role of a cheerful contrast that sets off the finale, but turns into a stern and quite “militaristic” continuation of the tragic first movement. And the slow third movement becomes the philosophical center of the symphony, falling precisely in the golden section zone - the first, but by no means the last case in the history of symphonic music.

With the Ninth Symphony (1824), Beethoven makes a leap into a new era. This coincides with a period of major social transformations - with the final transition from the Age of Enlightenment to the new, industrial age, the first event of which occurred 11 years before the end of the previous century; an event witnessed by all three representatives of the Viennese classical school. We are talking, of course, about the Great French Revolution.

And although the building at first seemed to me like a typical remodel, it was nevertheless built a century ago. By the end of the 19th century, the number of Catholics (mostly Poles) in Moscow exceeded thirty thousand people. Believers managed to collect about 300 thousand rubles in gold for the new temple - a significant amount at that time, but by no means astronomical.
Malaya Gruzinskaya Street was not chosen for construction by chance: the authorities ordered that the Catholic Church be built away from the city center and away from significant Orthodox churches.

The architect was Foma Iosifovich Bogdanovich-Dvorzhetsky, a teacher at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. I read that the main façade was based on the Gothic Westminster Cathedral in London. In my opinion, the similarities are not too obvious.

An unusual multifaceted dome topped with a high spire is a nod to the Milan Cathedral.
Construction took a long time - from 1899 to 1911. However, it was not possible to completely complete the work planned according to the plan even by the beginning of the revolution. There were no turrets built on the main facade, the interior decoration was very ascetic, even the floor remained simple concrete.

The revolution did not spare the temple. The modest church property was partly looted, partly destroyed, and the cathedral itself was mutilated beyond recognition, both inside and out. The church was turned into a dormitory, for which additional walls and even ceilings were built, turning three spacious naves into a four-story human birdhouse.
The church was also damaged by the bombing of the Great Patriotic War. However, it suffered more from its new owners: in the late 40s the main spire was dismantled, and in 1956 there was a severe fire that caused the collapse of the dome. After this, the hostel was resettled, and the mutilated building was given over to the Mosspetspromproekt Research Institute.
The first divine service after a sixty-year break took place here in May 1991, but the mass was celebrated not inside, but on the steps of the wounded church.
And then the struggle for the return of the temple began. It was conducted according to all the rules of the domestic genre: with squatters, riot police, negotiations with officials. Ultimately, the parishioners (officially the parish of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was restored back in April 1991) defeated Mosspetspromproekt. The restoration of the temple began. The general design and author's support of the restoration work was undertaken by a Polish construction company. On December 12, 1999, the church was consecrated by the Roman legate.

The internal space is divided into three longitudinal naves. The side ones are equal in size, and the central one is wider and higher. The transept has the same width and height as the middle nave. The pointed vaults of the temple are devoid of ribs. The thrust of the vaults is transmitted to five pairs of internal massive pylons and to external stepped buttresses typical of Gothic churches. The interior is illuminated by large window openings with figured wooden and reinforced concrete frames.

The church has excellent acoustics. Wonderful organ concerts are often held here.

The atmosphere of the church only enhances the magic of music. The sound of the organ here is much more captivating than even in the concert hall. P.I. Tchaikovsky.

This spring, the fifth album of the popular children's ensemble “Arka Noego” (“Noah's Ark”), performing both traditional and original religious songs, appeared on the shelves of Polish music stores. Five years ago, the group made a splash on the Polish popular music market: Noah's Ark CDs outsold the recordings of Pope John Paul II himself. Within a few months, the ensemble turned into a pop phenomenon. The ensemble gave concerts during which donations were collected for the Catholic mission in Africa, as well as for the construction of shelters for sick children.

The artistic director of Noah's Ark, Robert Friedrich, nicknamed Litza, is one of the most prominent Polish rock musicians of recent decades. For a long time he was a member and ideological inspirer of the cult Polish group “Acid Drinkers”, known not only for its original musical ideas, but also for its penchant for buffoonery, profanity, drinking and brawls. Friedrich himself first ended up in a sobering-up center at the age of 15. Now he is 37, he has seven children, he does not drink, goes to church, writes and performs Christian songs.

In 1994, Robert Friedrich underwent two complex heart surgeries. Being on the verge of life and death, he reconsidered his attitude towards God and Christianity. Having survived his conversion, Friedrich began to regularly attend church, but at the same time continued his musical activities and in the same 1994, together with Acid Drinkers, he released the uncompromising, aggressive album “Infernal Connection”.

It is interesting that the leitmotif of most of the texts on the disc, according to the musicians themselves, was the opposition of true evil - violence, drug addiction and drug trafficking - to imaginary evil, namely the “Satanism” of hard rock. Robert Friedrich, in an interview with one of the newspapers, said that inverted crosses, skulls, bones, common among metalheads, as well as the mention of the prince of darkness in the lyrics of songs, are often nothing more than shocking, devoid of any religious meaning.

The booklet of the "Infernal Connection" CD features a cross of St. Benedict of Nursia, symbolizing the triumph of Christ over Satan and death. Thus, Friedrich tried to combine the seemingly incompatible: hard rock and Christianity.

The rock guitarist's conversion in 1994 was not a conversion of an atheist, but rather a transition to active life in the church, a new understanding of Catholic values. Back in the early 1990s, the vibrant rock and roll life did not stop Friedrich from calling himself a Catholic and even creating Christian rock bands. The Creation of Death project, which combined the aggressive aesthetics of heavy metal with Christian lyrics (the group, for example, performed the 69th Psalm), suffered a commercial fiasco, the reason for which, according to Friedrich, was precisely the religious engagement of the ensemble.

It should be said that in Poland, almost all attempts to Christianize modern music, be it rock or art songs, from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s, were non-commercial. This applies to the rock opera “The Lord is My Friend” written in 1968 by composer Katarzyna Gertner, performed by the popular group “Red-Blacks”, and to the original songs of Zofia Jasnota, and to the emergence of Polish pop music in the early 1990s years in the direction of "katopolo". In fact, one of the first profitable Christian rock projects in Poland was the ensemble “2 TM 2,3”, among the founders of which was the same Robert Friedrich.

The name of the group “2 TM 2,3” is nothing more than a reference to the 3rd verse of the 2nd chapter of the Second Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Timothy (in a simplified way the ensemble is called “Timothy”). It says, in part, “Endure suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

The musicians of the group are united by belonging to the so-called charismatic movement in modern Catholicism. Its basis is the idea of ​​charisms - special gifts of the Holy Spirit, including the gift of healing and the gift of “speaking in tongues.” The musicians of “2 TM 2.3” constantly emphasize in their numerous interviews that they are primarily engaged in preaching Christianity.

The Catholic Church has long been skeptical of rock music. After all, the aesthetics of rock largely contradicts Christian ideas about spirituality, and the ethics of rock musicians (the famous slogan “sex, drugs, rock and roll”) have nothing to do with Christian morality. Representatives of all Christian denominations have long labeled heavy metal as “Satanism” and “demonicism.” Until quite recently, hard rock for Catholics was an integral part of the Western “culture of death”, which John Paul II repeatedly spoke about.

Nevertheless, in the “Protestant West” attempts to cross Christianity and rock music have long ceased to be perceived as something new, but for conservative Catholic Poland such a phenomenon seems quite unusual and even paradoxical. In this regard, it may seem doubly interesting that the Catholic Church in Poland, with a general negative attitude towards rock culture, is gradually beginning to treat rock music as a possible means of preaching among informal youth.

Specialized recording studios are appearing in the country; rock and reggae are heard on the waves of the rather conservative Radio Maria. Catholics hold their own rock festivals, one of which even received the biblical name “Song of Songs.” The performers of the Timofey group believe that a compromise with the Church does not limit the creative freedom of musicians. On the contrary, it is precisely such a union that can become an expression of real freedom and real protest in the conditions of Western neo-pagan civilization.

In one of his last interviews, Robert Friedrich noted that, in trying to convey biblical truths to young people, he is forced to use a language they understand, and this language is rock music. Hard rock performed by Catholic musicians is a kind of Goliath's sword in the hands of King David, a powerful destructive weapon, however, used for good purposes. Polish “rock Catholics” believe that King David’s dance in front of the ark, described in the Bible, is a kind of sacred parallel to that rock frenzy at a concert when a musician breaks the strings of a guitar.

As a result, the Catholic Church in Poland blessed musicians who chose hard rock as a form of Christian preaching. Time will tell whether the “new Davids” will live up to the hopes placed on them.

Stanislav Aleksandrovich Minin - religious scholar, publicist