Alexander Lingas’s Cappella Romana Playlist: Music for Easter Sunday

Welcome to the fourth playlist from the archives of Cappella Romana, we turn to music celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, a feast called ‘Pascha’ in Greek and Slavonic. As a way of offering you my own seasonal greetings, I am concluding this week’s list with a choral setting of this hymn that I wrote in 1986 for the Portland State University Chamber Choir.

If you have enjoyed these tracks, I encourage you to purchase them as individual downloads or full albums.

Thank you for your attention and, especially, for supporting the unique musical work of Cappella Romana.

Maximilian Steinberg (1883–1946), ‘Arise, O God’ from Passion Week, Op. 13, Based on Early Russian Chants

‘Lift up your gates’ (‘Attolite portas’ / ‘Ἄρατε πύλας’) according to the Latin rite of Venice and the Byzantine rite of Cyprus (15^th/16^th-c.) from Venice in the East

Premiere performance at the Utrecht Early Music Festival (September 2016):

And Now available on Cappella Romana 419-CD:

Tikey Zes (b. 1927), ‘Receive the Body of Christ (Communion Verse for Easter), from Tikey Zes: Choral Works (Gagliano CD 501, 1999)

Alexander Lingas (b. 1965), Easter Troparion ‘Christ Is Risen’ from Great Vespers (1986) – Live recording (Seattle, 2007)

Further Reading

The first three musical selections are discussed in my essays for the booklets accompanying the following Cappella Romana recordings: Maximillian Steinberg: Passion Week (CR414-CD), Venice in the East: Renaissance Crete and Cyprus (CR419-CD); and Tikey Zes: Choral Works (Gagliano CD 501, 1999).

For an extended discussion of Steinberg’s Passion Week with full bibliography, see my essay ‘An Introduction to Passion Week, Opus 13 by Maximilian Steinberg (1883–1946)’ in Vladimir Morosan, ed. [and Alexander Lingas, ed.], Maximilian Steinberg, Opus 13, Based on Early Russian Chants (San Diego: Musica Russica, 2015), vii–xviii.

Tikey Zes reflects on the composition, publication and reception of Soma Christou in this video:

A general overview of the development of Byzantine Easter services is:

Bertonière, Gabriel (1972), The Historical Development of the Easter Vigil and Related Services in the Greek Church (Orientalia Christiana Analecta 193; Rome: Pontificio Istituto Orientale).