Page:Orthodox Eastern Church (Fortescue).djvu/452

410 singing. One hears the figured music almost exclusively in Slav churches, in Russia especially. It is a very dignified and ecclesiastical chant in strict counterpoint, of the type that is described as "alla cappella," and it suggests the music of the Italian masters of the 16th century. Their choirs are composed of very carefully trained men and boys, who sing in eight or sixteen parts, and who have learned to command an enormous compass. And, as all the Slav peoples are born musicians, their singing is exceedingly beautiful, probably the most beautiful Church music in the world. Even the singing of Russian sailors on a man-of-war that one hears across the water on a Sunday morning, while their chaplain is celebrating the Holy Liturgy, sounds quite heavenly. But the Greeks think even that music too secular and frivolous for churches. One can imagine the feelings of a stray Greek who goes to High Mass at Dresden or Vienna to see what the Latins are doing. In Greek churches one hears only plainsong. They ascribe their plainsong to St. John Damascene († 744), as we ours to St. Gregory the Great. They have the same eight modes as we, but they count them differently, numbering first the four authentic modes, and then the four plagal ones. The modes then correspond in this way:—