Grece

Recording information: La Maison De Radio France (12/09/1982); Maison De Radio France (12/09/1982).
Translator: Michael Vogel .
In the 18th century Greece began the process of throwing off the domination of the Ottoman Empire, a process that culminated with the founding of the modern Greek state in 1830. Part of this process was a rediscovery of the music of the Byzantine Greeks from the time before the Ottoman conquest in 1453. Petros Bereketis, head cantor of the Church of Saint Constantine in Istanbul in the middle 1700s (no one knows his exact dates) fused 13th and 14th century Byzantine music with some more modern ideas to form a gorgeous chant to the Virgin Mary.
The chant is in eight parts, each one based on a different mode of Byzantine music. The lyrics are meaningless syllables. The chorus is all male, with the basses providing a quasi-drone. Despite the occasional dramatic moment, the music is inherently static, like much chant. The fascination is not so much in the melody as in listening for the chord changes and the shimmering, atmospheric blending of the voices. Occasionally, a tenor has a solo part (as in the chant in the first plagal mode) and his vibrato and stylized quavering can be interesting to follow, seemingly the only improvisation allowed in a strictly defined form.
The overall effect is a bit like Russian chorus, but more slowed down. The other, more obscure but more accurate, comparison is to the music of the era immediately after the Ottoman conquest revived by Christodoulos Halaris. Obviously this disc is for a specialized, even scholarly audience, but fans of chant or trance music might find it of interest. ~ Kurt Keefner