Cappella Romana performed
yesterday at St. Bartholomew-the-Great, London. Cappella Romana is a vocal
chamber ensemble dedicated to combining passion with scholarship in its
exploration of the musical traditions of the Christian East and West, with
emphasis on early and contemporary music. Founded in 1991, Cappella Romana’s
name refers to the Medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene, which
embraces Rome and Western Europe, as well as the Byzantine Empire of
Constantinople (New Rome) and its Slavic commonwealth. Each program in some way
reflects the musical, cultural, and spiritual heritage of this ecumenical
vision.
The concert, entitled “Desert and
City: Medieval Byzantine Chant”, was an intriguing and beautiful performance of
a collection of hymns from Great and Holy Friday in Jerusalem and the Vespers
of St. Catherine, transporting us to an ancient time, where the ecclesiastical
music had a different form and sound in respect to the hymns chanted in
Orthodox Churches today. The pieces chanted during this concert took us all
back to the ancient Church, reminding us of the evolution of Byzantine music.
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