School of Byzantine Music of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Launches New Podcast
With much enthusiasm, beginning on the evening of St. Thomas Sunday, the School of Byzantine Music (SBM) is launching its new podcast called, “Foundations of Hymnology.” New episodes will premiere on the evening of the last Sunday of each month. The SBM Podcast will be available on the school’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@goarchsbm/podcasts.
The SBM Podcast is aimed to deeply-dive into musical, musicological, typikon, and - as appropriate - the theology of the hymnology of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church. The SBM Podcast aims at practicing as well as beginning cantors, as well as anyone interested in the Orthodox hymnological traditions.
Among our topics, we will cover Psaltae of Old-Time who are “lesser-known” but who were instrumental in preserving the authentic received tradition, matters of the Typikon and clarifications of aspects that are not completely or comprehensively described inside the Typikon of the Great Church of Christ (the Violakis Typikon), the theological basis of hymns representative of the ecclesiastic period, or certain feasts, matters on the historical development of hymnologic structures, stylistic development of hymnodic tradition, and even hymnologic matters that are of interest to the clergy.
From time to time, we will have invited guests from different areas of the world who can share their experiences, lessons, and insights on all matters of Orthodox hymnology and hymnody. An important aspect of the podcasts is the section where we will respond to questions submitted to us by the listeners.
The “kickoff” features one of our faculty and instructors, Dr. Nick Giannoukakis, the Director of the Byzantine Choir of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh and its Protopsaltis. Inside the Paschal theme, he will discuss the hymnology of the Sunday of the Paralytic Man, and he will also address two typikon matters that many cantors frequently ask about. The podcast will also present Lykourgos Petridis as one of the lesser-known Psaltai of Old-Time, yet highly instrumental in the preservation and education of the authentic received tradition of Byzantine ecclesiastic chant as established in the Mother Church, the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
The School of Byzantine Music is funded in part by the generous support of Leadership 100.
