Waymart, Pennsylvania, February 1, 2021
Photo: sainttikhonsmusic.com
A new project of St. Tikhon’s Monastery has been launched, aiming to provide Orthodox liturgical music for every choir.
The Monastery of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, located in Waymart, Pennsylvania, is the oldest Orthodox monastery in America, founded in 1905 by St. Tikhon, the future Patriarch of Moscow. With the launch of its new music resource, St. Tikhon’s continues its pivotal role in the life of Orthodoxy in America.
“Whether your choir is large or small, here you will find free standard settings and premium original content in English that will help you beautify liturgical worship at your parish… The STM Music Resource exists to serve church communities by providing quality sheet music for liturgical use. We aim to offer church choirs, both large and small, with consistent, rigorously edited, and insightfully curated music in a digital format for the purpose of printing,” reads the site.
His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of Washington and All America and Canada explains the importance of beautiful liturgical music:
Orthodox liturgical music is one of the most effective ways that we [cultivate the spiritual life], and is one of the most tangible outreach tools available to churches today. Music is often the first thing which deeply strikes people when they walk into an Orthodox church, even before they absorb the iconography, the architecture, the words of the services, or the preaching. Moreover, beautiful church music has a remarkable capacity to meet people on, as it were, neutral territory.
Where words and concepts can feel threatening to many people, beautiful sacred art—and sacred music especially—forces and threatens no one. Rather, it works to soften their hearts, preparing them to receive the things of God without their even realizing it.
The new musical library currently includes hundreds of pieces for the Divine Liturgy and Vespers, with plans for expansion.
There are pieces suitable for all voice combinations representing 52 different Orthodox musical traditions, including Greek, Bulgarian, Carpatho-Russian, Alaska, Galician, Kievan, Moscow, and many more.
The resource offers a Standard or Premium level of support, with a 20% discount for those who join before the end of March 1. The site also includes a “Build Your Service” tool that helps you assemble a service step-by-step.
Visit the new St. Tikhon’s Music Resource here.
St. Tikhon’s Monastery professional choir has been nominated for a 2021 Grammy in the Best Choral Performance category for its live recording of Alexander Kastalsky’s “Requiem for Fallen Brothers.”
In October, the Saint Tikhon Choir’s recording of Benedict Sheehan’s composition of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom was released to international critical acclaim.
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