Friday, March 13, 2015

What is the worst of all possible Orthodox music?

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.