Mind you, I mean actually Orthodox music, so none of the old Evangelical Orthodox stuff slipping under the radar. To me, it is a tight competition between aspects of the Lvov-Bakhmetev project and the Karam project. The stichera in the latter, however, can possibly be defended as being really more a type of recitative for the propers than "real" music. I think that is wrong, but it is some kind of defense. Karam's 4-part harmonizations of Byzantine chant, though, are really almost indefensible, and as done in America with the most horribly stilted translations ever conceived, are truly horrid.
EDIT: It has been brought to my attention there are a few pieces of Karam that do sound nice and aren't too heavy-handed, to be sure. What brought this up, however, is the "To thee, our champion leader," as arranged for the Antiochians. The project as a whole is problematic.
2 comments:
Not to nitpick, but isn't it called the Kazan project after Fr. Basil Kazan?
There is the Kazan project, but I'm thinking about the music of Dr Frederick Karam. I suppose it's not an entire "project", though, like Kazan's is. Though Kazan is generally simplified and westernized Byzantine chant - melody and ison, not four-part harmony.
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