Theory and Practice Guide, from the Archdiocesan School of Byzantine Music, of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

greek487

Tasos N.
(From http://www.goarch.org/archdiocese/departments/byzantinemusic/inquiry-form)

Product Description

$40

This book is currently being used in the Archdiocesan Byzantine Music School and thus far has been very successful. The book contains a brief introduction to the history of Byzantine music, 107 exercises with analysis of the various characters, a page devoted to the theory of each mode, and a CD containing around 120 mp3's covering all of the material found in the book.

The book is full color, 80 pages of thick gloss paper with a plastic spiral binding. It is very easy to read and follows the traditional methodology used in most Byzantine music books accepted by the conservatory of Athens. However, this book is unique because of its bilingual use (Greek and English). The text is written in the English language while all of the original Greek terms are preserved with an English transliteration for those not able to read Greek.

To order, go to . . . http://www.goarch.org/archdiocese/departments/byzantinemusic/inquiry-form


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GabrielCremeens

Music Director at St. George, Albuquerque, NM
We use this here at the school, and Dr. Karanos recommends it highly. It's a great little book. :)
 

greek487

Tasos N.
See the article "School of Byzantine Music Publishes Guide" by Archdeacon Panteleimon on page 3 of the January 2012 edition of the Orthodox Observer for more information regarding this publication. http://www.goarch.org/news/observer

Quite an interesting and informational article overall! Thank you!

With respect, the only bold claim that I would question comes in the first paragraph: "Prior to the guide's publication, the only sufficient Byzantine music textbooks were available in Greek."

Byzantine Ecclesiastical Music and Learning Greek Orthodox Hymns
both by Basilios Psilacos, and published in Australia I believe, are both quite good and most definitely 'sufficient'.

I am also familiar with at least one excellent Byzantine Music theory book in Romanian.

Yes, the U.S. may have a strong America-centric perspective (just look at American news), but let's not neglect the contributions of those from other countries.

Thank you and congratulations on this useful publication!

Kali Sarakosti 2012!

P.S. I also remembered "Reading Psalmodia" by (Englishman?) David Melling of blessed memory, a booklet I enjoyed reading.


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greek487

Tasos N.

From http://www.byzantinechant.org/resources.html

"This is not a text book, but a very nicely colored guide with exercises. The musical examples are in Greek, but the explanations are in English; I'm hoping they come out with a newer version with English examples. It's a little expensive, however, it comes with a CD of examples. I have been told that the written exercises have some mistakes, but I have not looked through the book in-depth myself."


I've been told that in some of the exercises the petaste is followed by the ison or an ascending character. But as we know, the petaste is ALWAYS followed by a descending character.


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π. Ρωμανός Καράνος

Παλαιό Μέλος
See the article "School of Byzantine Music Publishes Guide" by Archdeacon Panteleimon on page 3 of the January 2012 edition of the Orthodox Observer for more information regarding this publication. http://www.goarch.org/news/observer

Quite an interesting and informational article overall! Thank you!

With respect, the only bold claim that I would question comes in the first paragraph: "Prior to the guide's publication, the only sufficient Byzantine music textbooks were available in Greek."

Byzantine Ecclesiastical Music and Learning Greek Orthodox Hymns
both by Basilios Psilacos, and published in Australia I believe, are both quite good and most definitely 'sufficient'.

I am also familiar with at least one excellent Byzantine Music theory book in Romanian.

Yes, the U.S. may have a strong America-centric perspective (just look at American news), but let's not neglect the contributions of those from other countries.

Thank you and congratulations on this useful publication!

Kali Sarakosti 2012!

P.S. I also remembered "Reading Psalmodia" by (Englishman?) David Melling of blessed memory, a booklet I enjoyed reading.


. . .


Of course, you are absolutely right. Then again, I don't know how many people in the US even knew of the existence of Basilios Psilacos' book (which I have been using at Holy Cross, in fact).

Kali Sarakosti kai Kali Anastasi!
 

π. Ρωμανός Καράνος

Παλαιό Μέλος

From http://www.byzantinechant.org/resources.html

"This is not a text book, but a very nicely colored guide with exercises. The musical examples are in Greek, but the explanations are in English; I'm hoping they come out with a newer version with English examples. It's a little expensive, however, it comes with a CD of examples. I have been told that the written exercises have some mistakes, but I have not looked through the book in-depth myself."


I've been told that in some of the exercises the petaste is followed by the ison or an ascending character. But as we know, the petaste is ALWAYS followed by a descending character.


. . .

Indeed, there are still quite a few typos as well as mistakes copied from other books (as most of the exercises were taken from Margaziotis, Eliopoulos, et al). I only had 3-4 days to write an introduction and go through the book to check for mistakes, so naturally the editorial process was not as thorough as I would have liked it to be. So, even though I am not the book's author, my name is listed as the person responsible for its "academic oversight," so I will gladly accept the blame for the remaining mistakes.:) Hopefully, the second edition will be free of errors.
 

greek487

Tasos N.
Many (belated) thanks Dr. Karanos for your responses!

As you well know, it isn't unheard of for books on byzantine music to have errors. I've noticed many Greek books with an insert, usually in the back of the book with a list of corrections. I was wondering if, at some point, a similar 'Corrections' page could be generated for the Archdiocesan Byzantine Choir's worthwhile efforts. Perhaps the readers themselves may assist with feedback and/or ideas for corrections and improvements.

Kali Anastasi!


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