Mention of Greek religious music more often than not conjures up liturgical music–singing to be precise, chanting, monophonic or in unison, neumes, modes, an archaic idiom and, its raison d’être, the Word of God. Parallel to liturgical music but independent from it, flourished for centuries an equally rich and long tradition of popular religious songs. Their composition, transmission, orchestration, musical and poetics meters, linguistic idiom as well as the lyrics themselves, are consonant with the Cypriot oral tradition of music and singing. Performed almost exclusively to mark seasonally occurring rituals or rites of passage, they provide the soundtrack of saint’s feasts, wedding, funerals, harvests, and the major religious feasts of Easter, Christmas, New Year/Saint Vassilis, Epiphany, and the Advent of Lent. We are happy to bring to our audience a repertoire of feast songs from Cyprus that are rarely performed outside their ritual context or for the general public.
The Activities of the Hellenic Studies Program are generously funded by the Stavros Niarchos Center for Hellenic Studies at Yale University.