The newest album from the Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary Choir
Conductor: Nicholas Kotar
One of the more fascinating aspects of life at Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary is the transformation of time. In the world, we are dominated by the clock – harried and in a constant rush. In Jordanville, everything revolves around “church time.” This is manifested most explicitly in the services of the Church, structured around the cycles of day, week, and year. Instead of being conquered by time, we are given the opportunity of sanctifying it through our worship of God in the Church, as part of a life that is pleasing to Him. This recording explores the sanctification of time through the particular lens of the rich musical tradition of the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY. The hymns are taken from all the cycles of church services – the daily cycle from the midnight office to compline, the weekly cycle of the Octoechos, the yearly cycle of the Menaion, and the moveable cycle of the Triodion and Pentecostarion, which revolves around the feast of feasts – Pascha. These hymns serve to demonstrate the range and breadth of the musical tradition in Jordanville as it is sung today.
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Posted by Stu on 6th Feb 2016
This was my first purchase of an Orthodox music CD. I bought this hoping to sing/chant along with it, as many of the titles were familiar. My affiliation is with the OCA, where my worship/singing is in English. It turns out that "All hymns except track 15 are sung in the Church Slavonic language." Quote is from the back of the CD. So, I don't know for sure what is being sung. And the melodies were unfamiliar to me. There is an included booklet that describes (in English) what each of the hymns is about. But even the translation for the singular English hymn is not entirely correct, so I cannot be sure that the write-ups are accurate for the Church Slavonic hymns. This whole "not being able to understand" thing was initially off-putting. I have since listened to it several times and find that I really enjoy it. The music is beautiful and the monastery choir does a wonderful job in sharing that beauty.