A CD recording of Orthodox church music by living composers has been issued.
Called "O King and Lord" (Finnish title "Oi Kuningas ja Herra"), it is sung by the Orthodox Choir of Joensuu University and conducted by Petri Nykänen.
I am represented by the piece "Turn not away Thy face", the Great Prokeimenon for Vespers on Forgiveness Sunday.
To hear this piece on MP3 (not the same recording as on the above-mentioned CD, but the same choir) visit:
Orthodoxy is spread very thinly in several regions of western Europe and the Americas, with the result that many parishes are small if not miniscule. This can make it difficult to muster enough singers to fill the traditional complement of soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Tenors are especially hard to come by. There is nothing wrong with using only one, two or three singers, but often choirs perform music designed for SATB with some of the voices omitted, resulting in a bare, thin sound.
Rather than perform this "gapped" music, choirs with few voices should turn to other repertoires that were designed for one, two or three voices in the first place. These include Byzantine chant, which requires a melody voice and an optional ison bassline, or the two-voice pieces in the Russian tradition.
To further enrich the repertoire for small choirs, I will shortly be launching "Operation Micro-choir". This will consist of my church compositions for one, two or three voices, allowing choirs without tenor to perform interesting polyphonic repertoire.
