Orthodox Hymns of Christmas

Orthodox Hymns of Christmas

Artist: St. Vladimir's Seminary Choir
Item number: AJ013
Category: Russian
Chant Type: Russian
Language: English
Label: SVS Press
Period: Mixed
Length: 46'52
Release date: 1988
Read a description or review of this item.

Price: $16.95 USD
This product usually ships on the next business day.

You may need RealPlayer or Windows Media Player to listen to the music samples below.

1. O House of Ephratha (Valaam Chant)

2. Lord I Call Upon Thee - Tone 21 (Kievan Chant)

3. What Shall We Off Thee (Kievan Chant)

4. When Augustus Ruled the Earth (Znamenny Chant)

5. God Is With Us (Znamenny Chant)

6. Troparion of Nativity (Serbian Chant)

7. Kontakion of Nativity (Znamenny Chant)

8. Prayer of St. Simeon

9. Praise the Name of the Lord (Znamenny Chant)

10. The Magnification (Znamenny Chant)

11. From My Youth

12. Nativity Prokeimenon (Znamenny Chant)

13. Glory to God in the Highest (Znamenny Chant)

14. Nativity Canon (Odes 1,3, & 6)

15. Hymn to the Theotokos (Romanian Chant)

16. Nativity Kontakion (Bulgarian Chant)

17. Colinda (Romanian carol)

18. Heaven and Earth (Slavic carol)

19. Christ is Born Today (Greek carol)


To understand and to enjoy spiritually the hymns presented here, one must remember that the Feast of Christ's Nativity, as in fact all major feasts of the Orthodox Church, constitutes a cycle which includes a period of preparation, the celebration of the feast itself, and a period of post-feast. It is during the forty days of advent that the Church reveals, little by little, the various dimensions of that unique event; the coming to us, the entrance into the world and history, the incarnation in the flesh of God Himself. This recording features hymns from the season of Advent in the Russian Orthodox musical tradition as performed by the St. Vladimir's Seminary Liturgical Chorale.

By: Fr. Apostolos Hill

This is another classic that will be instantly familiar to collectors of Russian Orthodox liturgical music in English over the last 20 years. The solo voices on this piece are very strong and the chorale is exceptional as the joy of these festal hymns fairly explodes off the CD in some places. Listeners with a Slavic Orthodox background will no doubt be reminded of Christmases past in hearing these much-beloved and familiar hymns so beautifully rendered. Though primarily rendered in English, some of the hymns are sung in Russian, Romanian, Greek, and old Slavonic for a very effective Pan-Orthodox feel.