This episode features two beautiful recordings of Orthodox sacred music from Russia. Click here or listen below.
Episode No. 5 - Christ is risen!
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. Program notes for this episode are available here. Click here or listen below.
This program showcases an extraordinary and unique work of Orthodox-inspired non-liturgical art: Fr. Ivan Moody's Passion and Resurrection. Written in the genre of the choral "Passion," made famous by such composers as Heinrich Shutz, J.S. Bach, and Krysztof Penderecki, and re-casts it with the Orthodox liturgical aesthetic. Program notes for this episode are available here. Click here or listen below.
