New Album With Byzantine Church Hymns.
“Shën Joan Kukuzeli” Byzantine Chanting Choir of the Resurrection of Christ Cathedral in Tirana made a special gift to all the faithful and art-loving people: it is about a musical album with Byzantine hymns of resurrection that is titled “Glory to Your Resurrection.” The release of this album was made possible with the support and blessing of Archbishop Anastasios and it will serve the spiritual growth of the orthodox faithful of our Church and every admirer of Byzantine music.
This album is the result of a twelve year – chanting experience both at church services in the Cathedral and at various activities of the choir in Albania and abroad. It is also the result of a consolidated teaching work at the School of Byzantine Music, and of the broad musical variety of publications. Due to the inspiration and major support of Archbishop Anastasios, the Art of Chanting in Albania evolved to a higher professional level. Ph.D.c Theodhor Peci, the director of the Byzantine Music School and also the choir director has had a significant role in these achievements.
The musical album contains fifteen hymns which last one hour and ten minutes. These hymns involve all forms of chanting at various time periods, compositional types and modes starting from those that were made by anonymous composers, and of St. John of Damascus, St. John Koukouzelis from Durresi, Manuel Krisafi, Petro Lambadhari, Gjergji from Crete, John the Arch-Chanter and Mr. Theodhor Peci. Through musical sounds, all the hymns describe a general picture of Byzantine Music throughout the centuries and the priceless values of it which make it a part of UNESCO Non Material Cultural Heritage.
This album or (CD) is found at the last part of a booklet which has illustrations of codices miniatures, icons of Albanian Iconographers like Onufri, Shpataraku and Zografi, photos of the Albanian Byzantine Choir through the years as well as some manuscripts of the hymns. The booklet is in three languages: Albanian, Greek and English. It starts with a presentation of the hymns, an introduction by Archbishop Anastasios, and it continues with brief information about the choir and its director. It also provides a brief summary of the history of Byzantine Music in Albania. His Beatitude highlights that, “These superb hymns are excellent summaries of the doctrinal teachings of our Church. They are valuable resources which enrich our mind and heart and which transmit their expressive power, dogmatic content and ecumenical horizon.”
The chanters of the choir and their director, along with those who technically supported this album did a professional and hard work for the realization of this album. Finally, we would like to extend our thanks to Ms. Fjoralba Prifti, the Director of National Museum of Medieval Art in Korca, who made available three icons from the archive of the museum.
