Byzantine Chant: The Received Tradition, A Lesson Book by John Michael Boyer now available for pre-order

[RichardRBarrett]

Friends - καλή χρονιά! Χρόνια πολλά for Ss. Athanasios and Cyril.

I'm pleased to announce that John Michael Boyer's Byzantine Chant: The Received Tradition, A Lesson Book is now available for pre-order from Cappella Romana Publishing. Order now for the early bird price of $74.99, discounted from $89.99. Pre-orders will ship on the book's release date, February 24, 2023. (US orders only at this time; details on international fulfillment coming soon.)

John's book includes thorough, systematic instruction on notation and modal theory. It is also an excellent reference on historical development, style, repertoire, genres, and bibliography.

Includes a letter of blessing from His Eminence, Metropolitan Gerasimos of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco. Forewords by the Rev. Fr. Dr. Romanos Karanos, Professor of Byzantine Music at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, and Dr. Achilléas Chaldæákis, Professor of Byzantine Music and the Psaltic Art at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

For book details, including preview pages, as well as to pre-order, click here: https://cappellaromana.org/announci...tradition-a-lesson-book-by-john-michael-boyer

Byzantine Chant: The Received Tradition launches Cappella Romana Publishing, Cappella Romana's new imprint for high quality publications of scores, scholarship, and pastoral materials related to and celebrating the ecclesiastical music of the Greek Orthodox Church in all of its richness and variety.

For all questions related to Cappella Romana Publishing, including wholesale inquiries, please contact me any time at richard@cappellaromana.org.

Many thanks!

Richard

 

[tudorvolcano]

From what I see, this book is more or less the same type of content as Georgios Konstantinou's Theoretikon.

I still find it strange that Georgios Konstantinou's book wasn't translated in English as of yet , but was translated in Romanian, my native language, over 10 years ago.

There is still GKM and the Partriarchal School's content that should be discussed, especially that concerning chronos.

 

[RichardRBarrett]

From what I see, this book is more or less the same type of content as Georgios Konstantinou's Theoretikon.

I still find it strange that Georgios Konstantinou's book wasn't translated in English as of yet , but was translated in Romanian, my native language, over 10 years ago.

There is still GKM and the Partriarchal School's content that should be discussed, especially that concerning chronos.

John discusses this at some length in the book. He started intending to produce a translation of Konstantinou; he quickly realized that for an Anglophone audience, something different was needed, and he expanded the scope of the project considerably. A handful of spots that are Konstantinou's text remain, principally in the early lessons; John credits and cites Konstantinou, and clearly differentiates them from his own text.

 

[brucewayne]

If possible, would you please share the table of contents? In particular, I am wondering how extensive the non-theoretical material is. That is, the "historical development, style, repertoire, genres, and bibliography" that was mentioned.

 

[RichardRBarrett]

Certainly. Much of that material is incorporated into the theoretical discussion rather than separated out; let me know if I can help clarify anything.
View attachment JMB TOC_Page_1.jpgView attachment JMB TOC_Page_2.jpgView attachment JMB TOC_Page_3.jpgView attachment JMB TOC_Page_4.jpgView attachment JMB TOC_Page_5.jpg

 

[RichardRBarrett]

For those who may be interested -- the Maliotis Cultural Center on the campus of Hellenic College Holy Cross hosted a book launch for Byzantine Chant: The Received Tradition this evening. Fr. Romanos Karanos, Professor of Byzantine Music at HCHC, was one of the speakers, as was Fr. Ivan Moody, Chairman of the International Society for Orthodox Church Music. John gave a walkthrough of his approach, something of a sample lesson with members of Cappella Romana, and answered audience questions. You can see the video of the evening here:

More on the book here: ByzChantLessonBook.com

 

[RichardRBarrett]

For all to whom this may be of interest -- the $74.99 pre-order price for Byzantine Chant: The Received Tradition, A Lesson Book expires on the street date, February 24, at which point the full SRP of $89.99 will be in effect. Order before then for the 20% discount: ByzChantLessonBook.com

(This does not apply to the 30% wholesale discount. Contact me at richard@cappellaromana.org for details.)

 

[MakariosC]

Thank you Richard for announcing this (and of course to John Michael Boyer for writing this!)

As a beginner, this is very valuable to me because it gives me a reference I can flip through when I inevitably have questions when I am going through my work in my chant program - or especially when I am listening to something or otherwise looking at a score and don't understand something. (it can't answer everything of course. Nor for that matter is it really possible, of course, to learn Byzantine chant solely from reading a book because it's an oral tradition. But again, for me at least it will be an critical supplement).


A few notes that might be helpful for other potential buyers:

- It's much thicker and thus inevitably goes in more depth than Basil Psilacos' book (which does not seem to be available outside Australia, and which is the only [ETA: other English] full-up printed book I'm aware of. It's also more thorough than the various ebooks out there, though IMO those also have their place).

- I'm quite happy that it goes over each (and as far as I'm aware every) variant of each mode (at least used in current received tradition -as an aside, the author is almost certainly as familiar with the pre-Chrysanthine repetoire as anyone else in the English speaking world, and sometimes uses that, very usefully, in the book to help explain something).

- It also has loads of exercises - a few like those in Margaziotis' book, and many more snippets from real Byzantine chant repertoire (generally one in Greek and then immediately a comparable one in English). These exercises have audio on his website.

- It uses a lot of Greek words - not phrases in Greek, but the original Greek words for specific chant terms - and while a translation/transliteration is also given, I'd still highly recommend the reader at least know the Greek alphabet and be able to pronounce words from it. (he also asserts, probably correctly, that - it's "vital to become grounded in the classical repertoire in Greek" in addition to the available English repertoire)