Sariah Toronto

SARIAH TORONTO {[email protected]} is not Canadian but would happily accept citizenship if offered. A nomad by birth, she grew up in Latin America but has lived longest in Manhattan. After a West Coast stint, she is now living the landlocked life in Salt Lake City, where she consults on strategy, measurement, and evaluation in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, and hikes whenever she possibly can. She also plays the organ whenever possible; in deciding where to live in SLC, Sariah’s family employed the chapel-must-contain-a-pipeorgan litmus test, which the Yale Ward handily passed.

The Song of the Righteous is a Prayer unto Me

Articles/Essays – Volume 50, No. 3

One of my favorite types of sacred music is the music of the Russian Orthodox church. It has its origins in Byzantine chant, but developed its own distinct style called Znamenny Chant. It is sung in Old Slavonic, so I cannot understand it with the exception of a word here or there that is similar in modern Russian, but I find it incredibly beautiful. Sung in resonant sacred spaces as part of worship services, you hear the devotion in the music. Not only are the sounds and attitudes of the singers imbued with beauty, the music is part of a rich symbolism, together with candles and incense, that help the worshipper to look upward to the divine. Other religious traditions have similarly beautiful elements involving music. For example, a muezzin calls out the adhan, or call to prayer, from the mosque five times during the day; a hazzan, or cantor, is a trained musician who sings prayers in the synagogue.