Every Day Will I Bless Thee

From St. Vladimir’s Seminary, long known for its traveling Seminarians’ Octets and recordings of all-men’s choirs, comes this lovely album sung by an all-women’s ensemble, comprised of six fine voices—faculty, students, and community members—who fortuitously assembled and were able to record together before going on to other life’s destinations and ministries.

Superb blend, ensemble balance, and beautifully sensitive phrasing are just some of the musical qualities that serve to recommend this recording. Its other remarkable feature is the breadth and scope of the repertoire: spanning a multitude of styles—ranging from chant with ison to choral polyphony, and national origins—including Russian, Serbian, Georgian, British, and American, the roster of composers represented, most of them still living, reads like a Who’s Who of contemporary Orthodox liturgical music: composers from the Ecumenical, Moscow, and Serbian Patriarchates, the Antiochian Archdiocese, the OCA, and ROCOR. The musical diversity of the 23 tracks is, nonetheless, integrated by a remarkable consistency and adherence to a liturgically faithful aesthetic—whereby musical sounds serve as a vehicle for the sacred text, always intensifying and beautifying, never overshadowing or distracting from the spiritual and prayerful content.

There are two additional reasons why everyone interested or directly involved in Orthodox church singing would want to listen to this album frequently: 1) It offers a worthy model of how a small ensemble of good voices, particularly women’s voices, is capable of offering beautiful singing appropriate for Orthodox worship; and 2) It demonstrates the vibrant creativity, within the bounds of various traditions, that will surely shape the future face of liturgical singing in Orthodox North America and other English-speaking lands, where the focus is on mission and growth, rather than merely on preservation and survival.—V.M.