“Chants of the Roman Church of the 7th and 8th Centuries: Byzantine Period (Chants de l’Eglise de Rome des VIIe et VIIIe siècles: Période byzantine)” is an album that attempted to re-create the melodies of “Old Roman chant”, which had been sung in the Roman Church of the 7th and 8th centuries before the establishment of the Gregorian chant, being based on the decoding of the manuscript (neumatic notation) found in the late 19th century, and referring to the singing methods of Byzantine chant.
The album was recorded in 1985 and was released in 1986 by harmonia mundi.
Performed by French musicologist, Marcel Pérès (conductor) and his early-music performing group, Ensemble Organum.
It includes eight chants sung in the Easter Week. Sung in Greek and Latin.
It is sacred vocal music of monophonic male voices with the heavy use of melismas, featuring oriental flavor, like middle-Eastern folk music.
