Dean's Message: Ode to a Faithful Maestro
“Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the very ends of the world.”
Romans 10:18
By Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos
Cathedral Dean
Music is the chariot of theology! The collected wisdom of the Holy Church Fathers and great Hellenic philosophers attest to the important partnership that naturally exists between song and sacred text. As Saint Paul correctly affirms, music is one of the major tools that allowed the melodious voice of Apostolic Kerygma to reach “into all the earth . . . to the very ends of the world” (Romans 10:18).
For nearly 40 years, Dr. Constandinos (Dino) Anagnost skillfully guided the choral and instrumental chariot of the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York City. Guests, global dignitaries, and Cathedral members regularly enjoyed the worship-lifting power of psalmody directed by this talented Orthodox Christian who faithfully held the reigns of the three strong steeds of Hellenic spirituality, namely – beauty, truth, and goodness. His untimely passing on March 30, 2011 is therefore a great loss for the entire Archdiocese and strains music’s contemporary creative partnership with theology.
The Orthodox Funeral Service provides a beautiful series of hymns called the Eulogetaria. Composed by the 8th Century poet and Patriarch of Alexandria, Saint John of Damascus, the Eulogetaria provide weighty theological insights into humanity’s origin, composition, and destiny. The first of the series of these eight troparia respectively describes the earthly and heavenly affiliates of the Church as sheep and saintly choir members. The common element of both groups is their need for unwavering leadership.
Choral voices and orchestral instruments both require the prudent management and tempo of a conductor’s competent baton. Sheep, on the other hand, are guided and protected by the staff of a loving shepherd. Saint John most certainly had such powerful comparisons in mind when he composed this hymnological sermon. The ministry of Dr. Anagnost exemplifies the faithful merging of both tasks.
The blending of the theological shepherd’s staff with the creativity of an accomplished musicologist’s baton writes a magnificent icon of the syndiakonia that exists between melody and the truth conveyed in sacred text. It manifests a most valuable fusion that has been elegantly expressed in Hellenic philosophy, Jewish ritual, and Christian worship. Such usage, however, is not the result of pedagogical typologies, artistic expression, or utilitarian interests but, more importantly, for the purpose of confidently conveying the beauty of music’s high calling, namely the exaltation of creation’s Eternal Composer!
The tenure of Dr. Anagnost exemplified the judicious use of instrument and melody in Orthodox worship, education, and artistic performances. Local Orthodox parish cantors and conductors would do well to emulate such a model that seeks to expose the young to the beauty, truth and goodness reflected in the repertoires of appropriate classical as well as Byzantine musical arrangements. Contact with musical compositions, however, should strive to simultaneously acquaint students to the message of their theological texts and not just their melodies. Programs and opportunities such as the Little Orchestra Society of New York, the Archdiocesan Metropolitan Youth Choir, regional Byzantine cantor schools, workshops/conferences provided by the National Forum of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians, the award winning Chamber Music Program of the New York Youth Symphony, the Music for Youth Foundation (MFY), and the University of New York Music for Youth Foundation (MFY) all serve as possible venues for exposing new generations of music lovers to the stout steeds of truth, beauty, and goodness – the stable of three core virtues that the ancient Greeks considered the trivium of existence.
Tragically, many people today would regard the nostalgic ideas of truth, beauty, and goodness as naive or obsolete. The fact remains, however, that there are certain remarkable properties that this trivium of normative concepts require humanity to both admire and adhere to. Truth, beauty and goodness for the ancient Greek mind and wise Church Fathers were characteristics of God’s nature. They are energies of His Grace that reveal One greater than themselves! Sacred Music is therefore a pro-paideutic element of creation that leads humanity towards intimacy with its Creator.
The ancient Hellenic philosopher Plato had such a high regard for music’s divine properties that he believed it exercised intrinsic power over the soul. “Music and rhythm,” he insisted, “find their way into the secret places of the soul.” It is not surprising, therefore, to note that a teacher was once exiled from a Greek city-state because he had added another string to one of their traditional instruments. By rendering the music more complex, the innovator was accused of negatively influencing the souls of the youth, who had been entrusted to him to educate. By altering the modesty of the harmony, the teacher was guilty of hindering the development of virtue.
The collective wisdom of theologians and philosophers is correct. The Divine is the sole fountainhead of truth, beauty and goodness, the Giver of “every good and perfect gift from above” (James 1:17). Therefore, for Anagnost and others like him, music is understood as something more than a score, chorus, chord or voice. It is much more than a melody, chant or rhyme, as it seeks to both praise and manifest God, the very object of our worship.
Music never dies when it conveys such Truth. While the shepherd’s baton of Anagnost now rests on its podium, it waits patiently for an appropriate successor’s lifting hand. It is important to understand from the onset that s/he must follow in the footsteps of a long line of faithful conductors whose ultimate task is, not the all too familiar expose of personal charisma or creative genius, but rather the faithful guidance of a chariot of melody and sacred text!
Music is a universal form of worship, art, and education. The choral ministry of Maestro Dino Anagnost was a persuasive ode of someone who adhered to the respectful use of sacred music’s high calling. In the hands of such faithful men and women, the reigns of music are, indeed, most powerful – able to lift even the weightiest of sheep to the choir loft of heaven. May his memory be eternal!
