Music of the Monastery

At the Monastery of Saint John of San Francisco, our activity revolves around the services. In the early days of our brotherhood, we only had enough voices in our choir to keep a simple melody going. Gradually, as more members joined the choir, we were able to add other parts. Still, in the spirit of monastic simplicity, we often keep it to two- or three-part harmony.

Many Orthodox parishes and missions have the issue of not having enough voices to sing all the parts presented in much of the music available. Although our inherited tradition at the monastery is Russian, we have tried to get away from the chord-progression driven Church music of the 19th Century Imperial Court and into a more melodic chant-like repertoire, based on the ancient Traditions of the Church. The links below will lead you to English settings we use, derived from Znammeny, Valaam, Kievan, Byzantine, and Carpatho-Russian chant.

In addition, we've posted some original pieces, composed for English. Orthodox music has always taken a supporting role in relation to the liturgical text. When working with borrowed melodies of foreign traditions (e.g. Greek or Slavonic) and translated texts, one can run into many difficulties and usually the text suffers unnatural delivery. Our hope is that with time, an organic American Orthodox musical tradition will emerge that is rooted in the richness and variety that has been passed on to us.

NOTE: Most of the arrangements here were done for our small choir, and therefore reflect this in the voicing and staff arrangment. Some have been modified for SATB and other mixed voices.

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