27 November – An Advent Workshop of Traditional Slavic Spiritual Chants – Igor ANGELOV (CZ)
An Advent Workshop of Traditional Slavic Spiritual Chants
with Igor Angelov (Czech Republic)
Sunday, November 27 (the first Advent Sunday)
Just like every year, we would like to invite you to join us in filling the Advent season with spiritual music - this time, with Igor Angelov.
In the lecturer's own words:
"The dawn of Christianity in Bohemia and Czech literature is connected with the saints and scholars Cyril and Methodius. Around 870AD, the Bohemian Duke Bořivoj and his wife Ludmila were baptized by bishop Methodius in Great Moravia. After the bishop fully educated the Duke in the faith, he gave him a gift and let him return home. The gift Duke Bořivoj brought back to Bohemia was a priest of chaste life named Kaich whom he subsequently established at a small castle named Hradec, where a temple in the honor of the Pope and martyr St. Clement was founded - as the legend of Christian has it. The Moravian priest Kaich might have also been the first teacher of young prince Wenceslaus.
After the students of Cyrial and Methodius were expelled from Great Moravia, a group of priest headed by St. Clement and St. Naum saved the text of the Slavic-Byzantine Liturgy taking it with them through Serbia and Bulgaria to the White Lake, today known as Lake Ohrid, in Macedonia. In 893, the most prominent center of Slavic culture and learning was established there and started spreading Slavic literature, liturgy and music to Eastern Europe. In Macedonia and Bulgaria, these thousand-years-old chants and the corresponding liturgy are still preserved in their traditional form. Thanks to this fact, we still know what the sound of the Slavic chants as it once filled also the oldest Czech churches might have been like.
Our encounter will be based on singing the original chants of the Cyril and Methodius tradition.
We will learn the easier parts of the liturgy, the responses and the "iso€ infinite tone and celebrate the beginning of the Advent with a short evening prayer with an Orthodox priest from Bulgaria in the Budeč rotund.
I am looking forward to our meeting inside spiritual music.€
Igor Angelov is a choirmaster, conductor and lecturer. You can read more about him HERE.
The workshop is open to everybody who wishes to participate regardless of their experience. You don't need to be able to read music.
Schedule:
From 9:15am to 9:30am, the participants arrive. From 9:30am to 4pm, singing and a lunch break. The lunch is included in the price of the workshop and the chef will bring it to as at the school. At 4:30pm, we will quietly walk up the hill (around 20 minutes) where the rotund of St. Peter and Paul in Budeč (which will be open for us) is located. Inside the rotund, we will sing together and conclude the day.
You can download the registration form HERE.
The workshop will take place at the Pod Budčí Elementary School and Kindergarten in Zákolany. The address is Zákolany 50. From Prague, you can get to Zákolany by train. By car, the drive takes about 25-30 minutes from Vítězné square. We will try to arrange car pooling for Prague-based participants.
Price: 680 CZK. Students, seniors, persons on parental leave and family discount: 550CZK. The price includes an excellent vegetarian lunch buffet.