Traditional instruments of your Liturgy?

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I’m curious to know what instruments if any are used during the liturgy of your particular church? In the Syro Malabar Church it used to be the traditional base drum, violins, bells, accordion, and the triangle. When these were used in the Holy Qurbana I thought it was very beautiful and gave the Qurbana a robust, energetic feel. Today the traditional instruments are only used if the Holy Qurbana is said in Syriac. The regular Malayalam Holy Qurbana now a day uses the electronic key board. Both are beautiful in my opinion but I do miss the live instruments.

Traditional Instruments: youtube.com/watch?v=rACyNMX4LS8 or youtube.com/watch?v=8WVp-eM4jyI
The Key Board: youtube.com/watch?v=hIdwapPYsUM
 
When I went to an Orthodox church, the only thing they had was an electric piano.
 
Used to be guitar and still is occasionally.
Right now it is just electric piano.
 
The Oriental Churches in general normally used (and note well the tense of the verb) some percussion to help keep time for the chant. These include the liturgical fans, triangle, sistrum, sometimes a gong, etc, and which differed somewhat among the various Traditions. Of course these days, a lot of that has changed. I believe the Alexandrenes (well, at least the ORTHODOX Alexandrenes) are the most faithful to that little tradition. Most of the others have, over the past hundred or so years, gradually introduced melodic instruments (in some cases “native” ones, in other cases modern Western-style ones, and sometimes a combination of the two) to varying degrees, to support the melody as well. For the most part, though, even those instruments are played sparingly. When used in that way, i.e, to support the vocal chant and not either dominate, overpower, or replace it, I personally don’t find such instrumentation too objectionable, particularly when used together with the traditional percussion “time keeping” devices. Unfortunately, though, there are more exceptions to this than I care to see, and those I most certainly do find to be highly objectionable. By this point, I’m sure it’s clear that my personal preference is for the traditional and authentic, percussion-only style. 😉

NB: I’m not sure how the Armenian Apostolic Church handles any of this. Perhaps the elusive Ghosty could help with that. 🙂
 
Used to be just the voice, and bells/liturgical fans, possible strings and percussion if needed. Today, the electric keyboard has unfortunately taken over, it’s not the keyboard itself that is grating on the ears, it’s the beats that musicians interject with an easy press of the button. The Indian “musicians” tend to over reverb and put in unnecessary notes, as well as bollywoodize. Abysmal. When played traditionally, by people in the know, it sounds heavenly.
 
SyroMalankara said:
Used to be just the voice, and bells/liturgical fans, possible strings and percussion if needed. Today, the electric keyboard has unfortunately taken over, it’s not the keyboard itself that is grating on the ears, it’s the beats that musicians interject with an easy press of the button. The Indian “musicians” tend to over reverb and put in unnecessary notes, as well as bollywoodize. Abysmal. When played traditionally, by people in the know, it sounds heavenly.
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Trust me, it’s not only the Malayali that do that. :mad: And “grating on the ears” is far too mild a criticism. 😉 We have the reverb issue too, and to top it off, they have this vile habit of setting the thing to do its piano imitation. Ah … tinkling ivories … it’s just so “artistic” … isn’t it??? :rolleyes: Anyone else care for a gin and tonic? :eek:
 
SyroMalankara said:
Used to be just the voice, and bells/liturgical fans, possible strings and percussion if needed. Today, the electric keyboard has unfortunately taken over, it’s not the keyboard itself that is grating on the ears, it’s the beats that musicians interject with an easy press of the button. The Indian “musicians” tend to over reverb and put in unnecessary notes, as well as bollywoodize. Abysmal. When played traditionally, by people in the know, it sounds heavenly.
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Tell me about it SyroMalankara… sometimes the beats in the Syro Malabar Holy Qurbana sound like we’re hearing a childrens show… I kid you not one time the key boardist played the beat of a Micheal Jackson song to the words of a Holy Song and to make it even worse he did this on Palm Sunday.

Honestly the traditional live instruments that accompanied the Syriac Qurbana sounded soo much better :(, only sometimes can the key boardist make his beats match up with liturgy.
 
Aramis said:
Except for the bells on the censor and saccos.

Noting that the Greeks and Antiochians sometimes permit instruments, mostly pipe organ… And pews…
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I realize that some Byzantines have this virulent and inexplicable (to me, at least) aversion to pews, (and yeah, I know all about the tradition) but since when are pews instruments? :confused: Do people stand there and bang things against them? :confused:
 
malphono said:
I realize that some Byzantines have this virulent and inexplicable (to me, at least) aversion to pews, (and yeah, I know all about the tradition) but since when are pews instruments? :confused: Do people stand there and bang things against them? :confused:
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:rotfl: LOL
 
malphono said:
I realize that some Byzantines have this virulent and inexplicable (to me, at least) aversion to pews, (and yeah, I know all about the tradition) but since when are pews instruments? :confused: Do people stand there and bang things against them? :confused:
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Pews inhibit the proper liturgical praxis far more than organs do.
 
malphono said:
I realize that some Byzantines have this virulent and inexplicable (to me, at least) aversion to pews, (and yeah, I know all about the tradition) but since when are pews instruments? :confused: Do people stand there and bang things against them? :confused:
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People can’t make their metanoias (profound bows) when there are pews in front of them. 🙂
 
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