13 Jun 2016

Latin chants celebrating saints in both the Eastern and Western Churches (SS Cyril and Methodius, St Nicholas of Myra, St George and SS Cosmas and Damian)

The book provides a study on the Latin liturgical repertory of the services for saints, whose cults though originating from the Orthodox East have spread to the West ever since the medieval period. Gregorian plainchants about St Nicholas of Myra, St George and SS Cosmas and Damian that have gained popularity are examined putting a special focus on the Gregorian and Ambrosian repertories of SS Cyril and Methodius. Gregorian choral has been a subject of a number of extensive studies in the West ever since the late nineteenth century, but for various cultural and historical reasons it has remained outside the academic research context in Bulgaria. This study introduces and exposes an almost unknown to Bulgarian audiences domain, that of the mediaeval European culture fitting in the recently very topical subject of the cultural and spiritual convergence and interplay between the western and the eastern halves of the European continent. The work inevitably broaches general historical, liturgical and palaeographical subjects. Apart from just research, it has also educational dimensions to it by introducing and shedding light on major points related to the Western liturgical plainchant and placing it in the Bulgarian musical and general cultural domain and offering concrete terminology in Bulgarian.