Cappella Romana's Peter Michaelides: The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is a recording of an amazing, latter-day manuscript discovery: a complete Greek liturgy in the English language from 1960 by Greek-born American composer Peter Michaelides. Michaelides had studied with Ingolf Dahl and Halsey Stevens at USC and had composed his Liturgy using simple, quartal-, or quintal-based harmonies and long stretches of Byzantine chant translated into English. This manuscript had lain unpublished, and apparently unperformed, ...
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Cappella Romana's Peter Michaelides: The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom is a recording of an amazing, latter-day manuscript discovery: a complete Greek liturgy in the English language from 1960 by Greek-born American composer Peter Michaelides. Michaelides had studied with Ingolf Dahl and Halsey Stevens at USC and had composed his Liturgy using simple, quartal-, or quintal-based harmonies and long stretches of Byzantine chant translated into English. This manuscript had lain unpublished, and apparently unperformed, in the attic of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Portland, OR, when it was discovered in the early '90s by the leader of Cappella Romana, Alexander Lingas. Lingas discovered that the composer was still living in New Mexico in retirement after a long career spent in teaching; this disc, released on Cappella Romana's own label, is tangible fruit of this rediscovery. Although superficially Michaelides' Divine Liturgy might sound like an obvious forerunner of high holy minimalism...
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