Kanon Pokojanen

As we move into Advent, it can be useful to equip ourselves with prayers and music that help us enter the particular spirit of the season. This week, I’ve found Arvo Pärt’s majestic Kanon Pokojanen (Kanon of Repentance to Our Lord Jesus Christ) to be both potent and appropriate to this time. This text follows the Eastern convention for a canon, in that it is a larger grouping of nine shorter hymns called “odes” (the second ode is normally omitted).

This canon is quite penitential, and it might be difficult to absorb it in one sitting. Pärt’s epic choral setting takes 90-110 minutes to perform! We can, therefore, be grateful that sometimes curators will present a single movement to focus our attention.

This video of the Prayer after the Canon is quite beautiful. The recording is clear and spacious, the singing is devout and respectful, and a translation of the Slavonic text underpins lovely iconographic images: Christ appearing to St. Paul, the Ladder of Divine Ascent (from St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt), the Repentant Woman, St. Peter on the Sea, St. Mary Magdalene, the Good Shepherd, the Mother of God, and a final moving depiction of the Last Judgement.

I hope this music adds some dimension to your Advent season.

Justin Appel, Director of Music