Serbian Chant

At the beginning of the motion picture, The Peacemaker, we see an Orthodox Church in Serbia, and a small choir of men singing the service of Baptism (A YouTube clip of that scene can be found here). They are singing Serbian Chant, a chant that harks back to the Byzantine Chant of the Church that brought Serbia to the Faith. After seeing that motion picture, I was fascinated by the beauty of the chant sung there, and had wanted to learn more of it.

Thus, I would like to introduce you to the website of Nikola Resanovic, which may be found here. One of the chief treasures which can be found there (other than his own excellent compositions) is an extensive set of chant texts, in modern musical notation, in English translation, and on PDF, with many MP3s, of just about the entire Orthodox music in Serbian chant, which can be found here.

In addition, Mr. Resanovic has provided a complete set of PDFs of the Eight Tones of Serbian Chant, here, and instructional material as regards the nature and expression of those eight tones, here. These resources would reward any liturgical musician, whether Catholic or Orthodox, who wanted to examine (or perhaps to make liturgical use of) this musical tradition. And for those who would want to read or hear Serbian Chant in its original Slavonic, Mr. Resanovic is also beginning a new resource, which may be found here.

But Mr. Resanovic has done more than providing Serbian Chant: he has also continued the process of harmonizing Serbian Chant, which has been a tradition of the Serbian Orthodox Church for the last four or so centuries. PDFs and MIDIs of his work on liturgical harmonizations can be found here. Harmonized troparia and kontakia (hymns used in the Divine Liturgy, Vespers and Matins) can be found here. Hymns to Mary, Theotokos and Ever Virgin, can be found here. And paraliturgical hymns, including Christmas carols, can be found here.

For any one who wishes to sample the riches in Serbian Chant and harmonized hymns, I can think of no better beginning. Enjoy.