Search - Byzantine Chant, Romanos the Melodist, Xenos Koronis :: Metropolitan Museum of Art: Music of Byzantium

Amen, Amen, Amen

zonaras | Jimbo's House of Pie | 01/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of the few CDs of Byzantine Music on the market. Its release was prompted by a large display of Byzantine art at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2004. This captures the mystical, otherworldly spirit of Greek Orthodox ecclesial music at its finest. Although the Byzantine Empire and Eastern Orthodox Christianity are synonymous, the music in this collection reflects the political and ecclesiastical climate of the 1400s when the Byzantine government signed a reunion with the Roman Catholic Church at the repudiated Council of Florence. The songs also contain references to various Emperors and the Fall of Constantionople to the hated Turks in 1453.



The songs:



1) Kontakion ("To you my Champion")

2) Imperial Acclamations for Constantine XI Palaiologos (1449-1453)

3) Kontakion for Theophany

4) Festal Trisagion ("As many of you as have been baptized")

5) Anagrammatismos for Theophany

6) Sticheron Apostichon Idiomelon for St. Basil

7) Kalophonic Coda for St. Basil/A New Addition

8) Kyrie Cunctpotens genitor

9) Kanon in Honor of St. Thomas Aquinas: Ode 1

10) Communion for Mid-Pentecost

11) Lament for the Fall of Constantinople

12) Lamentatio Sanctae Matris Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae

13) `O great and most sacred Pascha'

"

A Triad of Beauty

Jeff Farrow | 01/17/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the second in a series of 3 related reviews: THE GLORY OF BYZANTIUM, MUSIC OF BYZANTIUM, and THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. I see that these same CD's are being offered as a special triad set. I gave THE GLORY OF BYZANTIUM a "rave" review.



MUSIC OF BYZANTIUM gets another one.



This CD is produced by The Metropolitan Museum of Art & performed by Cappella Romano. The music is somewhat more austere than GLORY OF BYZANTIUM, but certainly no less beautiful. It is a sampler of Byzantine music from 1261 to 1557.



#1 Kantakion ("To you, my champion") is a remakable song, its text indicating possible allusions to various theological sources: "To you my Champion and Commander/I your city saved from disasters dedicate/O Mother of God, hymns of victory and thanksgiving/but as you have unassailable might from every kind of danger/ now deliver me, that I may cry to you/ Hail Bride without bridegroom."



The opening salutation could be seen as representing remnants of the Mithra Military Cult that at one time was the main competitor to Early Christianity. The invocation to "Mother of God" emphasizes the close, almost Pagan veneration of the Feminine Principle in the Eastern and Orthodox Christian traditions. The phrase "Hail Bride without bridegroom" is intriguing. Not only does it again accent the concept of Female Divinity, but also suggests a possible Gnostic coloration, with its central image of The Sacred Marriage.



Another aspect of the CD that is really lovely is its very subtle "wall of vocal background sound." You can almost miss it, it is that delicate. To me it sounds like an almost Byzantine form of Tibetan chant. Cappella Romano is obviously a superlative vocal group.



This second CD in the triad is definitely as worthy as the first.



Well, 2 down & 1 to go!"