Two useful resources for Eastern Liturgical Music

In an earlier post, I ventured to give a link to the music that was sung at my church, St. Andrew Russian Catholic Church, for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. Ben was kind enough to say regarding this music:

I was thinking about my own Latin Rite church, and the droll songs we sing every Sunday, and I cannot help but be jealous

For the sake of charity and the maintenance of my now beautifully low blood pressure, I will refrain from expatiating upon the sort of "droll" songs sung in most American RC churches these days. Instead, upon the principle that 'it is better to light one small stick of dynamite than to curse the silence' (or something like that), I would like to introduce you, dear reader, to two resources which would enable the discerning (either RC or EC (eastern catholic) or orthodox) to produce liturgies that don't suck.

The first is www.podoben.com. This excellent website was started by several American Orthodox choirdirectors and clergy, and has a wealth of resources available to it.

For those prefering male choral music (and I have been known at times to lead such reprehensible groups, and even to sing in them), there is a wealth of music (in pdf and midi format) here One note in looking at the menu here: podoben and its plural term podobni is the Russian word for "special melodies". These melodies (and their harmonizations) are used in the Byzantine hours for special hymns throughout the year. There has been a growing movement among American and British Orthodox to make greater use of these melodies in the singing of these hymns in English. The section called podobni has a number of melodies of great beauty, which alone are worth the price of admission. The section called Folk Songs also contains a number of Russian showstoppers, including Ei Ukhnem (also known as The Volga Boatman's song. I'm currently setting this to the text of the Viking's Birthday Song)

The section of www.podoben devoted to Mixed Chorus contains far more music, all of which is far more worth singing than the Mess of Creation or the Mass of Cremation or whatever that wretched, over-simplistic piece of poo is called. (Sorry, pause for five minutes to get that pesky blood pressure back down.) www.podoben.com's Links section contains a wealth of Orthodox music from various traditions (Greek, Russian, Serbian, etc.) both in English and in the original languages, both in sheet music and midi, and in MP3 and wav. files. All of it is worth reading and/or listening to.

POSTSCRIPT:

I am given to understand that due to the viral plague of spam, fraud, and hackers that is afflicting the internet, www.podoben.com is currently off line, and will be for the next month or so. However, I am informed that the site may also be found here. So, for the next month or so, this is the place to get it.

The second resource is www.metropolitancantorinstitute.org. Normally, I have found Eastern Catholic music, particularly carpatho-rusyn, to be disappointing in its setting of music to English, or in its butchering of the original melodies (which are themselves quite lovely) into something that even Messrs. Haagen and Haas wouldn't touch with a ten foot Pole (or a nine foot Hungarian). This website is a welcome exception to that finding. The music is set beautifully by Professor J. Michael Thompson (late of the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter in the Loop in Chicago). I invite the reader to look at and listen to the music. The section for the Great Canon of St. Andrew alone is worth the price of admission.

Enjoy.