From Adam Unto Joseph

From Adam Unto Joseph
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Artist: Romeiko Ensemble
Item number: AB079
Category: Byzantine
Chant Type: Byzantine
Language: Greek
Label: Melodiko Karavi
Period: Medieval
Length: 114'06
Release date: 2002
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Price: $39.99 USD
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1. CD1, Track 1: As we the faithful observe

2. CD1, Track 2: Let us celebrate

3. CD1, Track 3: O Bethlehem in the land

4. CD1, Track 4: Tell us, O Joseph

5. CD1, Track 5: Dance, O Esaias

6. CD1, Track 6: Be not downcast, O Joseph

7. CD1, Track 7: Make ready, O cave

8. CD1, Track 8: Come, with faith

9. CD1, Track 9: In Bethlehem

10. CD1, Track 10: The Lord said the following - For a child is born to us

11. CD1, Track 11: Shining with the lightning-flashes

12. CD1, Track 12: Rejoice, O honourable Prophets

13. CD1, Track 13: Behold, the time of salvation

14. CD1, Track 14: When Daniel, the man of desires

15. CD1, Track 15: Terirem, kratema, And Savior of our souls

16. CD2, Track 1: The song the shepherds played

17. CD2, Track 2: A selection of foretestal canons in the eight modes

18. CD2, Track 3: On the day the Virgin cometh

19. CD2, Track 4: A hand-wrought image

20. CD2, Track 5: O Bethlehem, rejoice

21. CD2, Track 6: On December 20 - On Sunday before Christ

22. CD2, Track 7: In the town of Bethlehem, Katabasiae Mode 1-Old Byzantine Melody

23. CD2, Track 8: Make thou ready, Bethlehem, Before the Lord

24. CD2, Track 9: Forefestal praises, stichera

25. CD2, Track 10: Lo, now she hath appeared

26. CD2, Track 11: The collection of the Law

27. CD2, Track 12: Great are the achievements of faith, Be thou ready Bethlehem

28. CD2, Track 13: In the town of Bethlehem, Katabasiae Mode 1


From Adam Unto Joseph is an astonishing project: a 2-CD recording of the music of the Forefeast of the Nativity within a full color book treating the subject of Christ's Nativity and its associated chant. Given the theological emphasis on the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Forefeast and the Feast of the Nativity are among the most significant periods of the liturgical year, ones often reduced to simply "Christmas" for all too many people. This production offers a collection of some of the most important chant selections out of an extremely rich heritage that spans a millennia of Byzantine chant composition. It is a magnificent hard cover volume in full color in Greek and English, containing Patristic writings and hymns, commentary, the entire hymn text, etc. all in Greek and English. The entire performance text with Byzantine notation is reproduced in full color. Chanted in Greek; book in Greek and English, including complete hymn text. 138 pp. Cloth bound hard cover.

By: Benjamin Williams

If you like and appreciate the hard cover productions of Festal Byzantine chant produced by the Vatopedi Monastery on Mt. Athos, then get ready for a production which is an order of magnitude beyond them. By that I mean two things. First, the production itself is a 9 x 9 inch hard cover book in both Greek and English, which includes Patristic text, commentary by Fr. Maximos Lavriotes, hynm text, iconography & calligraphy, and reproduction of the entire score in Byzantine notation -- and the quality is superlative. Second, the hymn selection that comprises the CDs is primarily comprised of arrangements never before recorded. These include the Katabasiae (Katavasia) for the Forefeast (In the town of Bethlehem) sung in an early medieval Old Byzantine Melody and a 17th century Byzantine arrangement by Petros Bereketis. Other arrangements by Lampadarios, Georgiades and others make it an auditory tour of Byzantium 's greatest composers. Isn't that enough to make it worth purchasing? Then you have a hymn selection that spans this fundamentally overlooked festal period, chant seldom performed or heard, but theologically potent. The quality of the performance, as is always the case with the Romeiko Ensemble, is top notch. This is a production of stunning beauty -- beauty to the eye and to the ear.