Choir

Anne Ruth Munk, Director


As many parishioners have noticed, the Choir has begun singing portions of a new setting of the Divine Liturgy. During Great Lent, in addition to learning more of this Liturgy, the Choir will be singing for several weekday services and working to enrich the worship of our parish with a variety of new hymns.

If you have been considering joining the Choir, now would be a great time! The Choir practices on Thursdays 7:00-8:30 and warms up on Sunday mornings at 9:15. We'd love to have you join us.


One of the many advantages of singing in an orthodox choir such as we have here at Holy Trinity is the exposure to the musical styles of different cultures. While at the same time following a time-honored course developed over centuries and refined as recently as 1955 by a Greek arranger: George Anastassiou; over the years the choir has incorporated and continues to add the music of various composers. Presently we mainly use his choir-book for the Apolytikion and Kontakion along with the arrangements of Anna Gallos for most of the Liturgical Hymns.

One of the places in the Liturgy where variety is possible is in the Cherubic Hymns. These hymns are proclamations of the congregation's essential role as earthly representatives of the Angels in their acknowledgement and praise of the Lord. The musical styling of the Russian composer Bortniansky is as different from the arrangement of George Anastassiu as the piece by Maragos (another Greek composer) is from a straightforward arrangement in tone 8 (one of eight different tones which repeat, one after another, over the course of the church's liturgical year).

The selection of a particular Cherubic version made in relationship to the selections for (among others): The Hymn at the Consecration (Se Imnumen), The Thrice Holy Hymn (Trisagion), and the different Responses help to form an atmosphere in which the Divine Liturgy can be experienced differently for different times in the yearly progression of the church calendar.