Search - Ioannis Arvanitis, Alexander Lingas Cappella Romana :: Byzantium in Rome - Medieval Byzantine Chant from Grottaferrata

Cappella Romana offers two CDs in its latest release, a vibrant windo into the ancient culture of Byzantium as practiced by the Abbey of Grottaferrata, founded 1004 hear Rome. Led by virtysos cantor Ioannis Arvanitis, Cappella Romana recaptures the artistic vibrancy of medieval Italy's Greek minority with 13th-century chants for St. Benedict and Pentecost. The Byzantine chants on this recording are drawn from manuscripts made in the monastery's medieval scrptorium, bearing witness to Byzantine Roman culture that antedates the upheaval fo the Fourth Crusade's sack of Constantinople in 1204. Cappella Romana is a Portland, Oregon based vocal ensemble dedicated to the musical traditions of the Christian East and West, whose name refers to the medieval Greek concept of the Roman oikoumene(inhabited world), which embraced Rome and Western Europe, as well as the Byzantine Empire of Constantinople, ('New Rome') and its Slavic commonwealth.