Post Description

There are a number extant recordings of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom available in North America, and quite a few more in Greece and Slavic countries where Byzantine chant or Russian choral music is the dominant form of liturgical music. What most share, whether they are good quality performances and recordings, or not, is a presentation of the "common" or "local" liturgical music form which has grown up and come to be accepted as the normative expression in the local metropolia, country or culture. That is to say, there is little, if any, historical or musicological lineage under-girding the liturgical music that is typically heard and sung in the local parish.  Most recordings, therefore, are expressions of this same understanding.

Some notable exceptions to this norm do exist. Among them are the recordings of the Divine Liturgy from medieval manuscripts by Anatoly Grindenko and The Russian Patriarchate choir including Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom [OPS 30-120] and Divine Liturgy: Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul [OPS 30-161]