Byzantine Melodies in the Greek Catholic Museum (3rd event of the series)

Easter Joy – Byzantine Melodies in the Greek Catholic Museum

Every month, the Greek Catholic Museum’s free event series called Byzantine Melodies takes visitors on a journey into the world of Byzantine music, the program is lead by Liszt Prize conductor Tamás Bubnó and the St. Atanaz Choir.

On Monday, the April leg of the series focused on the glorification of Christ’s resurrection. As Tamás Bubnó explained, the Eastern Church proclaims the joy of the Resurrection until the feast of the Ascension, it even has become our daily greeting. All over the world, Eastern Christians – Catholics, Orthodox – greet each other in all languages when they meet and say goodbye: Christ is risen! – and they respond: He is risen indeed!

First, we listened to the monks of Mount Athos singing the Easter troparion on one of the oldest Byzantine melodies, and then the participants learned it with a sheet music and lead by the choir of St. Atanaz.

Then the Resurrected Christ was sung in Hungarian, in 3 voices, and then the ancient version of the tune was sung in Slavonic which was preserved in the Boksay-Malinics irmologion.

The audience also learned a special song that proclaimed the resurrection in the language of Jesus Christ, the Western Aramaic language. This ancient language is now spoken in only two villages in Syria and is one of the most endangered ancient languages on earth.

Text: Király András

Photo: Görögkatolikus Múzeum