Hello,
I am a Catholic who is inquiring into Orthodoxy.
I am very involved in my Choir at my Latin-rite parish in the Catholic Church and should I convert, where could I learn the basics of Eastern Christian chanting?
Do parishes generally offer music instruction, or are there schools to study the ways of chanting?
Thanks,
Tom K.
If you're interested in the basics of Byzantine chant (as opposed to the Russian type stuff) I can point you at some podcasts on Ancient Faith Radio which are helpful for learning the tones (search AFR for 'Glory to thee') and some streaming lessons (which are recorded as well) for learning how the notation works. They're both from the Antiochians (and our parish is Romanian) but I've found them both useful, even if they aren't a substitute for actually listening to and singing with a choir. I've also found a useful Romanian site, which is great for me but less useful for anyone who doesn't speak the language. I'm currently learning myself (it's slow going) and I'm singing ison (or trying at least) in our choir, if you can call four people a choir.
This site is useful and contains the links to the streaming lessons I mentioned:
http://www.byzantinechant.org/I've also just recently acquired a copy of an English translation of traditional chant from the Romanian Divine Liturgy, including a CD, produced by our parish in Northampton and the seminary in Cluj (I forget the names of the priests, unfortunately). In this case the music is written in western notation as it's more familiar to the English its aimed at. I can't promise anything but I may be able to get further copies if anyone's interested.
James
