The Divine Music Project
Download a PDF of The Introduction to the Divine Music Project in Greek (Eισαγωγή)
This website contains more than 6000 pages of Byzantine music in Western and Byzantine notation in the style of chanting used on the Holy Mountain. The scope of this project covers the liturgies of St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, St. James, and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, as well as various doxologies, and hymns for Vespers, Orthros the Mysteries, and the Menaion. The words of the hymns are provided in Elizabethan English, Modern English, and Greek.
"St. Anthony’s has done a great service for the church musicians of our Archdiocese! The Divine Liturgies Music Project is a wonderful and comprehensive resource that belongs in every chanter’s and choir director’s library! It opens windows into the ancient hymnology of our Church, and shows us its beauty and breadth. Its innovative formatting makes the music, the translations, and the reference materials easily accessible."
—Dr. Vicki Pappas, National Chairman
National Forum of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians
"This is undoubtedly a very important work with great historical significance. This fine book preserves the living, unbroken, 1000-year tradition of Athonite psalmody, which is a steadfast guide to interpreting Byzantine chant. Another great accomplishment of this book is that the genuine melody is written, not just the dry metrophonia."
—Dr. Gregorios Stathis
Professor of Byzantine Musicology and the Art of Chant, University of Athens
"What a wonderful collection of transcriptions! This book will be completely accessible to the uninitiated, and a wealth of hymnography for the established cantor. This is truly a good work for the Orthodox Church!"
—Dr. Stephen Butler
Professor of Music, Westmont College, California
"In this prodigious compilation, St. Anthony’s Monastery has succeeded in bringing the glory of Byzantine hymnology to the English-speaking world. Previously inaccessible treasures of Byzantine chant have been meticulously translated and transcribed so that they may become the precious currency of English-speaking Orthodox parishes, enabling worshipers to partake of its mystical power. This volume will leave a lasting legacy to the Orthodox world."
—Dr. Constantine Kokenes
Chanter, Atlanta, Georgia
"What a rich blessing for the Eastern Orthodox Church! This tremendous spiritual and musicological work, diligently spearheaded by Father Ephraim, is a monumental labor of love nothing short of a masterpiece, and we recommend it to all for use in the parishes."
+Father Nicholas Kastanas
Professor of Byzantine Music, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Boston
"The growing need for English in the Church services has created a heartfelt desire to hear and understand the beautiful and meaningful hymnography of the Holy Orthodox Church, while preserving its Byzantine musical splendor. Heretofore, the full magnificence of the Byzantine Tradition of hymnal composition has been inaccessible in its most inspired forms; thus, it has not been readily available to the choir masters of America, to convey and share its fullest expression with their choirs and congregations. Both the translational acuity and its harmoniously metered accompaniment have been non-existent in any uniform and consistent form. By providing for both of these aspects, St. Anthony’s Monastery has accomplished a monumental work. Moreover, it has bridged the Western notation with the Byzantine Tradition of hymnal composition in its finest forms of expression, musically uniting the American Church with the Holy Liturgical Tradition of the Great Church of Christ. By far, this work offers the most complete spectrum of Ecclesiastical music, thus enhancing the musical library of any choir master."
+V. Rev. Protopresbyter George Passias
Former Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
"I would like to congratulate you for the excellent idea you had to write this very important scholarly work in Western notation. I believe this book will enable people to interpret Byzantine ecclesiastical hymns with the necessary analyses of Byzantine psalmody. Thus it will be a treasured aid for all who do not know Byzantine music but are interested in chanting its sacred hymns."
—Professor Photios Ketsetzis
The Archon Protopsaltis of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
"St. Anthony’s has produced here a massive work of great scholarship. Their great love for the subject matter is evident in every page. A great variety of styles and every important exponent of this sacred art are well represented here, making the present volume a very useful tool. Our faithful, especially our youth, need to be exposed to authentic Orthodox liturgical arts, such as iconography and traditional Byzantine chant. The present much-needed work comes to fill this gap. I endorse it wholeheartedly. I pray that our churches in this country make extensive use of this veritable treasure of Orthodox liturgical music to the glory of our Triune God."
+Archimandrite Ignatios (Apostolopoulos)
Farrell, Pennsylvania
"For the Orthodox, prayer and teaching find their best expression in the Church’s liturgical worship. Byzantine services invite the faithful to assemble in community and to venerate God through word, gesture and song. And it is for the song of the Church that this CD has been produced. The hymns here, set to English, constitute a treasure of the most authentic tradition of Orthodox music. Their availability in staff notation makes these venerable melodies available to congregations and choirs throughout the western world. These age-old chants, especially preserved on Mount Athos, bear a relevance and a beauty that is unmatched by other, later productions."
—Dr. Dimitri E. Conomos
Byzantine Musicologist, Oxford University, England
"The Divine Liturgies Music Project is an incredible effort to facilitate the use of Byzantine Music in the English context. You are to be congratulated for your insight and for a crucial and pivotal contribution that is timely and of high importance to Orthodoxy."
—Dr. Nick Giannoukakis
Protopsaltis of the Metropolis of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
"This collection of Byzantine liturgical music represents a great accomplishment in the young life of the Orthodox Church in America. The metered English translations, set to melodies from the greatest masters of Byzantine hymnology, make the inaccessible obtainable and the cryptic readable. This work, an outstanding effort by St. Anthony’s Monastery and one undoubtedly blessed by God, will bear marvelous spiritual fruits in our country and possibly beyond."
—Dr. Gregory Esper
Chanter, Boston, Massachusetts
"This book is a welcome contribution to our liturgical landscape 'in sound.' It will doubtless serve to remind us of the many core concerns that should help chart a future for sacred music in our midst. Practitioners, theoreticians, and historians of all backgrounds—whether unison 'Byzantine' or harmonized 'Russian'—will find the publication useful in their search for a better command of the riches of age-old Orthodox church melos."
—Dr. Nicolas Schidlovsky
Professor of Music at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey
"If Orthodoxy is ‘the best kept secret in America,’ then what shall we say of Byzantine chant? Particularly for converts to Orthodoxy, who are so zealous to embrace the fullness of the Christian faith in all its sublimeness and intoxicating beauty, Byzantine music has until now remained imprisoned in elusive little books full of unfathomable symbols. All who treasure the preservation and proliferation of traditional Orthodox music owe a profound debt of gratitude to St. Anthony’s Monastery for unlocking the gates of Byzantine chant to our Western mind."
—Rachel Van Camp
Choir Director, Richmond, Virginia
"A truly impressive and most useful book of Post-Byzantine chant in Western notation. I most enthusiastically recommend this very user-friendly collection to all church musicians in the Orthodox Church."
—Dr. Tikey Zes
Professor Emeritus, San Jose; Author of Liturgy, Unison Liturgy and Bilingual Liturgy
"We applaud and are indebted to St. Anthony’s Monastery for transcribing this magnificent, liturgical gold mine of Byzantine hymnology for the English-speaking world. It will certainly be a treasure not only for chanters and choirs of our Holy Orthodox Church, but also for the faithful whose worship-life will be enriched and deepened."
—Presvytera Stacey Dorrance
of the EIKONA Chanting Trio, Portland, Oregon
(EIKONA has produced a Divine Liturgy CD using music from our website)
"This presentation of a stylistically broad range of 'classic' and recently composed Byzantine chants is particularly valuable, providing those acquainted only with staff notation a 'snapshot' of liturgical singing in contemporary Greece."
—Dr. Alexander Lingas
Artistic Director of Capella Romana, Phoenix, Arizona
"This Divine Liturgy Hymnal is an inspired effort that will serve as a wonderful resource for church musicians to learn and incorporate Byzantine Chant into their Church services."
—Andriana Kolendrianos
Professor of Music, Santa Barbara, California
"As someone without formal training in either Byzantine or Western music, I find this music easier to read than other publications. I also appreciate this work, because having the hymns written out analytically in Western notation is teaching me more about the implied intricacies of Byzantine notation. Now I can interpret Byzantine notation better, because I am putting the embellishments that I hear into practice."
—Reader Vasileios Tomaras
Downey, California
"The Divine Liturgies Project is a significant and monumental production, authored by dedicated professionals who have made it their vocation to serve the body of the church through ecclesiastical music." (Quote taken from his book review of this project in PHRONEMA)
—Fr. Gerasimos Koutsouras
Former Protopsaltis, St. Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College, Australia
Website last modified: July 2021
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