Cappella Romana - Tikey Zes - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

With over 14,000 copies sold, this album was released for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 2004 exhibit InchByzantium Faith and Power.Inch It features Byzantine music from 1261 to 1557, including two laments, one in Green, and one in Latin and Old French, for the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. Vocal ensemble Cappella Romana combines passion with scholarship in it's exploration of early and contemporary music of the Christian East and West. It's name refers to the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which embraced Rome and Western Europe as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople (InchNew RomeInch) and it's Slavic commonwealth.

Dr. Tikey Zes (b. 1927) is the most prolific composer of Greek Orthodox liturgical music in America. This highly original Liturgy, which Zes dedicated to Cappella Romana, bears the marks of a composer long engaged with the traditions of Orthodox worship. Cumulatively opulent in it's variety, level of musical difficulty, and ecstatic polyphonic climaxes, this Liturgy achieves a balance of splendor with restraint that is, in an inculturated and dignified musical idiom, thoroughly Byzantine. Vocal ensemble Cappella Romana combines passion with scholarship in it's exploration of early and contemporary music of the Christian East and West. It's name refers to the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which embraced Rome and Western Europe as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople (InchNew RomeInch) and it's Slavic Commonwealth.

Led by Greek psaltis Dr. Ioannis Arvanitis, acclaimed scholar and performer of medieval Byzantine chant, the men of Cappella Romana perform music for the feasts of January 1st (St. Basil and the Circumcision of Christ) and of January 6th (Epiphany, or Theophany, as it is known in the East). This collection of chants reflects the urban practice of the Great Church of Christ of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople as well as the monastic traditions that developed in Palestine. Vocal ensemble Cappella Romana combines passion with scholarship in it's exploration of early and contemporary music of the Christian East and West. It's name refers to the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene (inhabited world), which embraced Rome and Western Europe as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople (InchNew RomeInch) and it's Slavic Commonwealth.