Byzantine chant CD recommendations

[Ryan]

Can anyone recommend some good CD's of Byzantine chant, that are readily available? Currently I have The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by the Greek Byzantine Choir.

[Panagiotis]

Byzantine Music of the Greek Orthodox Church by Costas Zorbas. I do believe they are up to or past vol. XI but I have his early ones. Last one I know was Hyms to the Virgin Mary but I digress. I enjoy them. Beware of getting one track though sometimes from the company when playing them. Their quality is not up to par on their track systems, but the quality of the recording is good.

Blessings,
Panagiotis

[Kris]

Can anyone recommend some good CD's of Byzantine chant, that are readily available? Currently I have The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by the Greek Byzantine Choir.

Anything by Petros Gaitanos is good; particularly his Holy Week album.

[Ryan]

Thank you. Where could I purchase these?

[Antonios]

http://www.greektownimports.com/acatalog/Ora_Enati.html

[Antonios]

I found the Holy Week CD here...

http://www.greektownimports.com/acatalog/Ora_Enati.html

[Panagiotis]

I found Volume IX right here (http://www.amazon.com/Byzantine-Music-greek-Orthodox-Church/dp/B000003YFJ/ref=sr_11_1/102-6698978-6376904?ie=UTF8) on Virgin Music. This one contains David's Psalms.

Blessings,
Panagiotis

[Ryan]

Thanks everyone, I'll check these out.

[Olga]

You might also like to check out recordings of the Greek Byzantine Choir, conducted by Lykourgos Angelopoulos. I have the CDs of the Divine Liturgy, and of selections from the Dormition vigil, and there are other recordings available of this choir. Superb work.

Also I have a CD transcribed from a 35-year old vinyl record called "Byzantine Hymns of the Greek Orthodox Church". It contains selections from feasts covering Christmas, the Akathist to the Mother of God, Great Lent, Holy Week and Easter. The recording was made at the Athens Cathedral, with Spyridon Peristeris the protopsaltis (chief chanter). This recording, and the others in the series have never been remastered or otherwise released on CD as far as I know. More's the pity, because this recording is a real treasure. If you, or anyone on the forum would like a copy, please email me privately.

[Antonios]

I found a great deal on a multi disc set of Petros Gaitanos on this site in New York

link (http://www.greekmusic.com/itemdesc~CartId~{81104706-9DAD-40AA-9858-B6B0EVERESTC14A359D}~ic~9878%2D341%2D4~eq~~Tp~.htm )

[Kris]

Just to add, the monks of Simonopetra monastery on Mount Athos have produced many excellent recordings.

In XC,
Kris

[Patrick Lee]

Can anyone recommend some good CD's of Byzantine chant, that are readily available? Currently I have The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by the Greek Byzantine Choir.

If you're looking for English, here (http://www.kelfar.net/orthodoxiaradio/Catalog/CD_Eng1.html) is an excellent one.

[Dimitris]

Hallo!

Actually it is a little bit off topic, but I tought you could be interested in. You can find two examples of Orthodox chanting as practiced in Kerkyra (Corfu), Greece. I like this way of chanting very much since it is very much influenced by the local way of traditional singing, which means that is is very Italian Belcanto-like.

http://www.imcorfu.gr/download/01%20Track%201.wma
http://www.imcorfu.gr/download/02%20Track%202.wma

(Frontpage: http://www.imcorfu.gr/)

I hope you like it,
Dimitris

[Chris]

You might also like to check out recordings of the Greek Byzantine Choir, conducted by Lykourgos Angelopoulos. I have the CDs of the Divine Liturgy, and of selections from the Dormition vigil, and there are other recordings available of this choir. Superb work.

Also I have a CD transcribed from a 35-year old vinyl record called "Byzantine Hymns of the Greek Orthodox Church". It contains selections from feasts covering Christmas, the Akathist to the Mother of God, Great Lent, Holy Week and Easter. The recording was made at the Athens Cathedral, with Spyridon Peristeris the protopsaltis (chief chanter). This recording, and the others in the series have never been remastered or otherwise released on CD as far as I know. More's the pity, because this recording is a real treasure. If you, or anyone on the forum would like a copy, please email me privately.

I recently got a copy of Petros Gaitanos' Byzantium liturgies, and am getting into it..Alrhough I would like to be able to translate them though..You mentioned you may have a copy of the 'Byzantine Hymns of the Greek Orthodox church" How do I go about getting a copy?
Chris.

[Olga]

Hello Chris

Email me privately (through the Profile section on this forum), and I would be happy to send you a copy of this recording. (The same goes for anyone else on the forum!)

[M. Rallis]

There is a wealth of audio files of traditional Byzantine Ecclesiastical Chant, available online at www.cmkon.org. Although the site is mostly in Greek. You will see "Multimedia" click on that, then you will see "Sound Clips" click on that and you will be at the music files. There you will find a gold mine of our traditional music. Enjoy!

[Simon Mountford]

I found a marvellous piece of Greek Byzantine music whilst browsing the winmx community. Here is a link http://www.mediafire.com/?ewtt1amgmjh where you can download it.
I've tried to find a source of the Album but without success.

[Macrina Lewis]

No one has mentioned these fine recordings, yet. I love their CDs.

Macrina

[John Wood]

There are also some fine recordings by the fathers at Vatopaidi, Mount Athos. I don't know how to obtain them, as my copies were brought to me from Mount Athos by one of my sons. The CD gives an e-mail address of pek@physics.uoc.gr and a URL of www.pek.uoc.gr. Perhaps an inquiry there would give the necessary information.
- John Wood

[Michael Stickles]

Some CD recordings from the choir of Vatopaidi Monastery are available through St. Nektarios Press (http://www.orthodoxpress.org/catalog/multi-media.htm) (page down to the heading "Chanting entirely in Greek").

[John King]

Dear All,

Don't overlook i Tunes. If you type 'orthodox' into the search-box there is some excellent stuff there.

I recently downloaded the Divine Liturgy, in Church Slavonic, by the monks of Novopassky Monastery for GBP4.75

[Andrew]

Saint Anthony's Monastery has a few really good cd's... I've been playing The Vigil of Saint Anthony in my car for the past week or two. Their English Divine Liturgy is great too.

[Nina]

The Vigil of Saint Anthony in my car for the past week or two.

I play that in my car too and love it.

Vatopaidi that Mike recommends has a reputation for having some of the most beautiful Orthodox chanting.

And again Simonopetra's chanting highly recommended.

[Kris]

The Mount Lebanon Choir of the School of Ecclesiastical Music (SEM) have produced some great recordings in Arabic, particularly for Holy Week.

They've also done a recording of The Divine Liturgy (http://www.liturgica.com/cart/musicInfo.jsp?catNo=AB068) in English that I would highly recommend.

[Vasileios Kouroumalis]

http://patrologia.ct.aegean.gr/mousiki.htm

Enjoy!

[Macrina Lewis]

Anaphora Press, a new Orthodox publisher, just released our first album, entitled "Cherubika". It is a collection of 11 Cherubic Hymns (and their substitutues: Now the Powers, Of Thy Mystical Supper, and Let All Mortal Flesh) in a variety of traditional chant genres: Serbian, Romanian, Georgian, Znamenny, Russian, and Bulgarian. This is a group of semi-professional singers, all Orthodox. Our main goal was to produce a prayerful album. The typeset music for all tracks will also be available by mid-January. You can learn more about the CD and order it or the music at anaphorapress.com


Here are a couple of sample tracks:

Serbian Cherubic Hymn (http://anaphorapress.com/music/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/nicholas-the-serb-cherubic-hymn-clip-1.mp3)
Sophronievskaya Cherubic Hymn (http://anaphorapress.com/music/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/sophron-clip.mp3)
Of Thy Mystical Supper (http://anaphorapress.com/music/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/of-thy-mystical-clip-1.mp3)
Georgian Cherubic Hymn (http://anaphorapress.com/music/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/georgian-cherubic-hymn-women-clip.mp3)

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

Anaphora Press, a new Orthodox publisher, just released our first album, entitled "Cherubika". It is a collection of 11 Cherubic Hymns (and their substitutues: Now the Powers, Of Thy Mystical Supper, and Let All Mortal Flesh) in a variety of traditional chant genres: Serbian, Romanian, Georgian, Znamenny, Russian, and Bulgarian. This is a group of semi-professional singers, all Orthodox. Our main goal was to produce a prayerful album. The typeset music for all tracks will also be available by mid-January. You can learn more about the CD and order it or the music at anaphorapress.com


Here are a couple of sample tracks:

Serbian Cherubic Hymn (http://anaphorapress.com/music/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/nicholas-the-serb-cherubic-hymn-clip-1.mp3)
Sophronievskaya Cherubic Hymn (http://anaphorapress.com/music/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/sophron-clip.mp3)
Of Thy Mystical Supper (http://anaphorapress.com/music/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/of-thy-mystical-clip-1.mp3)
Georgian Cherubic Hymn (http://anaphorapress.com/music/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/georgian-cherubic-hymn-women-clip.mp3)

Very beautiful! Very well done!

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[Rick H.]

Beautiful is the word. What a great thread--thanks to all who contribute here.

In Christ,
Rick

[Macrina Lewis]

Thanks for the encouragement!

Please pray for us to speedily finish up our second album – it will be "Dogmatika" and will have the "Lord, I Have Cried" and all 8 Dogmatik hymns in Znamenny chant. Just a little more to go...

Thanks again,
In Christ,
Macrina Lewis, for Cherubika

[Mary James]

Can anyone recommend some good CD's of Byzantine chant, that are readily available? Currently I have The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by the Greek Byzantine Choir.

Here are some good Byzantine CD's i would recommend:

-Byzantine chant in English of Divine Liturgy by St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monastery
http://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/ccp6/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=2BYZCHTEN01
(This CD comes with a PDF file so you can view western and byzantine notation and sing along)

-Magnify O my Soul by Abouna's Angels: Byzantine Hymns during Great Lent and Pascha in English
http://ancientfaith.com/notes/abouna
(Cd comes with booklet of text for each track)

-Paraklesis by Abouna's Angels: English Byzantine
http://www.stspress.com/detail.aspx?ID=2271
(Cd comes with booklet of text for each track)

[Michael Astley]

Here are some good Byzantine CD's i would recommend:

...(snip)...

-Magnify O my Soul by Abouna's Angels: Byzantine Hymns during Great Lent and Pascha in English
http://ancientfaith.com/notes/abouna
(Cd comes with booklet of text for each track)

-Paraklesis by Abouna's Angels: English Byzantine
http://www.stspress.com/detail.aspx?ID=2271
(Cd comes with booklet of text for each track)

Does anybody know how I might be able to get these CDs? The music of Abouna's Angels is played frequently on the Rudder and I would love to own this and perhaps get hold of some of the sheet music. However, I seem unable to find their CDs on sale anywhere and, although the website of Ancient Faith Radio does give an e-mail address, I have had no reply yet. Perhaps the e-mail address is no longer active.

Does anybody know who they actually are and how I can contact them? Perhaps you remember when their performances began to be broadcast or maybe you have one of their CDs and the cover gives details about them.

It would be a great help to me.

Thank you so much.

In Christ,
Michael

[Anthony Stokes]

Does anybody know how I might be able to get these CDs? The music of Abouna's Angels is played frequently on the Rudder and I would love to own this and perhaps get hold of some of the sheet music. However, I seem unable to find their CDs on sale anywhere and, although the website of Ancient Faith Radio does give an e-mail address, I have had no reply yet. Perhaps the e-mail address is no longer active.

Did you try ordering the CD from STS?



Does anybody know who they actually are and how I can contact them? Perhaps you remember when their performances began to be broadcast or maybe you have one of their CDs and the cover gives details about them.


The only information that I could find is that they are from Toronto, but I have no idea what parish or jurisdiction.

Sbdn. Anthony

[Michael Astley]

Did you try ordering the CD from STS?



The only information that I could find is that they are from Toronto, but I have no idea what parish or jurisdiction.

Sbdn. Anthony

Thank you, Subdeacon Anthony.

As it happens, I did try to order from STS as I found one of the CDs there when I googled "Abouna's Angels". However, I got an error message when I tried to add it to my basket, and when I searched for it through the main STS site, it didn't show up on the results. I just assumed that the CD was no longer available and that it was an old page that I found through Google.

Now I have tried again and it seems to let me add it. Wahey! Thank you.

In Christ,
Michael

[Michael Astley]

Well, it's been ordered. If the order fails, I shall cry.

[Niko T.]

I agree that the CDs from the Monastery of Vatopedi are excellent, and in my opinion, their chanting is definitely some of best available. Their chanting is very traditional, with the proper taxis and phronyma, very festal yet compunctionate, and very well-organized and executed. Especially their more recent recordings come very highly recommended. They have recorded many of the services in Holy Week (their Paschal recordings are truly a treasure, in my opinion) as long as Parakleses to Panagia Pantanassa and Paramythia.

And I agree that the nuns of Ormylia have some of the best female monastic chanting available, for the same reasons above. They also are very well organized, and have many excellent CDs.

They are available in many places online and in stores (e.g. http://liturgica.com/ has many of them, and other Byzantine chant CDs).

[Michael Astley]

Well, it's been ordered. If the order fails, I shall cry.

The sobbing begins.

Can anybody help further?

[Christophoros]

Byzantine Choir of Odigitria:

Now Are The Prophesies Fulfilled
http://liturgica.com/cart/musicInfo.jsp?catNo=AB093

Paraklesis to St. Nektarios of Pentapolis
http://liturgica.com/cart/musicInfo.jsp?catNo=AB083

O Taste and See: Hymns from the Presanctified Liturgy
http://liturgica.com/cart/musicInfo.jsp?catNo=AB084

[Thomas Carroll]

The best English-language recording I have heard is Cappella Romana's "The Divine Liturgy in English in Byzantine Chant": http://www.capellaromana.org/index.php?page=music
This recording is distinguished by its use of musical scores correctly composed and by the chanting of John Michael Boyer.

[Thomas Carroll]

Many valuable recordings of important cantors can be heard at Analogion (Αναλόγιον): www.analogion.com.

[Denise King]

I can really recommend CDs from Valaam monastery in Russia. It took a while for me to get them (I'm in Germany), but they are among the most beautiful chants I have ever heard. Most CDs are in Russian, but they do have one or two in English. http://valaam.ru/en/cd/?page=1. The monastery does not mail CDs. I got mine from another source in Moscow which does not seem to exist anymore. But it seems you can download MP3 files from the Valaam site.
Denise