Christ In The City of Bethlehem

Christ In The City of Bethlehem
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Artist: Romeiko Ensemble
Item number: AB088
Category: Byzantine
Chant Type: Byzantine
Language: Greek
Label: Melodiko Karavi
Period: Contemporary
Length: 114'06
Release date: 2002
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Price: $24.99 USD
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You may need RealPlayer or Windows Media Player to listen to the music samples below.

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


This is the 2-CD set of the music of the Forefeast of Nativity found in ?From Adam unto Joseph? in a smaller, more affordable format. The Byzantine chant offers a collection of some of the most important selections of this festal period with a reduced commentary and limited examples of original texts in full color. Printed in full color in Greek and English, with limited Patristic writings, commentary, the entire hymn text, etc. Chanted in Greek; book in Greek and English, including complete hymn text. 47 pp. Cloth bound hard cover.

By: Benjamin Williams

For a "scaled down, cost effective version" of the original "From Adam Unto Joseph," this is still a superb production. It is a small hard back book with 2 CDs, printed in full color with examples of icons, manuscripts, commentary on the production by Dr. George Bilalis, and complete hymn text in Greek and English. In addition, like the larger, original production, 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. The result is a product that certainly can't be called "budget," but is a superb value, and which includes a hynm selection that spans this fundamentally ovelooked 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.