Orthodox Church Music

Complete music and text for the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. With rubrics and two appendices containing all the necessary texts from the Triodion and the Octoechos in new translation.

A study of the musical discourse among Ottoman Greek Orthodox Christians during a complicated time for them in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the late Ottoman period (1856–1922), a time of contestation about imperial policy toward minority groups, music helped the Ottoman Greeks in Istanbul define themselves as a distinct cultural group. A part of the largest non-Muslim minority within a multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire, the Greek Orthodox educated elite engaged in heated discussions about their cultural identity, Byzantine heritage, and prospects for the future, at the heart of which were debates about the place of traditional liturgical music in a community that was confronting modernity and westernization. Merih Erol draws on archival evidence from ecclesiastical and lay sources dealing with understandings of Byzantine music and history, forms of religious chanting, the life stories of individual cantors, and other popular and scholarly sources of the period. Audio examples keyed to the text are available online. “Merih Erol’s careful examination of the prominent church cantors of this period, their opinions on Byzantine, Ottoman and European musics as well as their relationship with both the Patriarchate and wealthy Greeks of Istanbul presents a detailed picture of a community trying to define their national identity during a transition. . . . Her study is unique and detailed, and her call to pluralism is timely.” —Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, author of The Musician Mehters “Overall, the book impresses me as a sophisticated work that avoids the standard nationalist views on the history of the Ottoman Greeks.” —Risto Pekka Pennanen, University of Tampere, Finland “This book is a great contribution to the fields of historical ethnomusicology, religious studies, ethnic studies, and Ottoman and Greek studies. It offers timely research during a critical period for ethnic minorities in the Middle East in general and Christians in particular as they undergo persecution and forced migration.” —Journal of the American Academy of Religion

An excellent book for English-speaking students and teachers of Byzantine Music Notation. Its principles are according to referenced traditional teachers. Context includes practical exercises and theory in text book format.

Orthodox Liturgical music, as well as other church arts such as architecture or iconography, is part of the dogmatic tradition of the Orthodox Church and thus of its Holy Tradition, and a consequence of man's creativity as a son of God made unto His image. Orthodoxy is a singing and praying culture. When Orthodox believers gather to pray, they sing, and much of the theology of the Orthodox Church is passed on through sacred song in the liturgical services. Singing and praying are two elements intrinsically joined in Orthodox worship, and when the Orthodox faithful sing the goal is not only to acknowledge the meaning and content of the hymns they sing, but to know, to experience what they are singing. Music makes their praying come alive, whatever be the style of music they sing. It is from this historical dimension that I will attempt to address three main topics of Orthodox Church Music related to Church music in Byzantium, Church Music in Russia, and Theology of Church Music: development of byzantine hymnody, the arrival of church singing and its early development in Russia, and the role of music in the holy services. (Ángel F. Sánchez-Escobar, MA, PhD, ThD)

This book focuses on the compilation of the different practices of Eastern Orthodox Chant, looking at the subject through various languages, practices, and liturgical books and letters. The subject of this book is also analysed through newly found, unique material, to provide the entire history of Eastern Orthodox Chant, from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries and approached through a number of different disciplines. The book consists of sixteen topics, grouped in four parts: Studies on Genre, Studies on Liturgical Books, Studies on Distinguished Men of Letters, and Studies on Bulgarian Orthodox Church Chant. The aim of the book is to present the Eastern chant as a phase in the evolution of Mediterranean art, which is the cradle of Graeco-Roman heritage. This complex study brings in a variety of sources to show the purpose of Eastern Orthodox Chant as strengthening the Christian faith during the Middle Ages and the revival of Balkan nationalism in the nineteenth century. This book will appeal to students and scholars alike, interested in liturgical musical books, liturgy, and chant repertory. Likewise, it will be of interest to those engaged in medieval and early modern history, music, and culture.