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 In this episode of Icons in Sound, Dr. Vladimir Morosan, a leading expert in Orthodox sacred music, focuses on liturgical music in English for Pascha from both the Byzantine and Russian traditions. Direct File Link or listen below.
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In his Epistle to the Galatians (3:28), St. Paul tells us that in the Church "there is neither Jew nor Greek...," nor, we might add, Slav or Arab or American, "for are all one in Christ Jesus." As true as this saying is, in our parishes here in America, every leader of church singing or choir director has to make concrete choices about the style of liturgical singing that is used in the community: will it be "Greek," or "Russian," or of some other Old-World nationality? As more and more Orthodox missions spread out across the North American landscape, the likelihood is great that any given parish will include people of many different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds, including converts. In the first part of this program we feature a CD, entitled Resurrection! by Archangel Voices (I-70), that explores how two different musical traditions -- the Byzantine chant tradition and the tradition of harmonized choral singing that came to this country from Russia and other Eastern Slavic lands -- can both be adapted into English and integrated within a single liturgical service, in this instance, the Matins of Pascha.
While the one or the other musical style may at first be unfamiliar to a certain percentage of worshippers, with time, the beauty and spiritual depth contained in all traditions of Orthodox liturgical singing can be discerned and come to be appreciated as a genuine carrier of liturgical worship. It is important, however, that our learning of different traditions comes from well-informed and authentic sources. In the second half of the program we feature a number of authentic renditions of traditional settings of the Paschal troparion "Christ is risen" from various national sources, as well as some examples of national and cultural "crossovers."
Unfortunately, several of the following CDs are out of print and no longer available.The robust and energetic rendition of "Christos anesti" is from a recording made in 1929, on a fascinating CD of archival recordings entitled Music of Greek Orthodox Church 1924-30. The Romanian setting, by I. Podoleanu, is from a beautiful recording entitled Passion and Resurrection of Jesus, by the Madrigal Choir of Bucharest, Marin Constantin, conductor. Also discontinued and available in very few remaining copies is the recording by the Novospassky Monastery Choir (B049) that features the "Christos anesti-Christus resurrexit-Hristos voskrese" triptych by Astafyev, a Russian composer of the early 20th century, whose setting remains very popular in Russia to this day.
The selections that are from currently available recordings include the Georgian "Kriste amsdgah," as sung by the Russian monks of Valaam on their CD The Day of Resurrection (B072); and an Arabic version and a Japanese version adapted to the traditional Russian harmonized melody, on a popular CD entitled This is the Day (I-56) by the St. Nicholas Cathedral Choir of Washington, which, in addition to a Paschal Divine Liturgy, also includes a number of settings of "Christ is risen" in a variety of languages.
Finally, at the closing of the program we return to the Resurrection! CD for Alexander Kastalsky's setting of "Christ is risen," adapted into English. The magnificent bells heard at the very end were recently installed at the St. Nicholas Church in San Anselmo, California, and were imported from Russia by Blagovest Bells, the leading supplier of church bells to Orthodox churches in America.
Vlad Morosan
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