Do you know of any YouTube videos which present what you would consider “authentic” Maronite chant?To answer the question about chant more directly, (well, yes, I know what follows is still a little oblique, but that’s as far as I’m going to go here), the Maronite Church (which generally shares its chant heritage with the Syriac Church) does indeed have its own. So, too, do the Coptic, Armenian, Chaldean, and Ethiopian Churches. (And I might add, so do both the Syro-Malankara and Syro-Malabar Churches, and each differs somewhat from that of their “mother” Churches.) You won’t, however, find much in the way of “hymnals” etc for Syriac or Chaldean Chant.
Although it’s not in English, the “Book of Hymns” on the link posted earlier is probably closest to what you’re looking for. A lot of that stuff has been “translated” (well, at least that’s what they call it) into English, so you could also try contacting the director of music at the chancery about that.
In any case, I normally classify the stuff as “neo-Maronite” and none of it is exactly what I’d call authentic. Not quite what I was accustomed to but, whatever I may think of it, it is what it is. I’ll end there and not say more lest I get off on a rant.
Brother dzheremi would probably know more specifics, but there are some. IIRC, there’s a channel on YouTube called “Maronites” (I think) which has a few, and there may be others.Do you know of any YouTube videos which present what you would consider “authentic” Maronite chant?
Yes, in fact the piece done by the older gentleman in the video is one of the “old style” Arabic translations of a Syriac text (meaning that it was done for fidelity to the text rather than the neo-maronite way of forcing some sort of pseudo-text to fit the music which itself has been altered to make it more “modern”), and is done to a true Syriac tune. Although it has rarely been done in Syriac in some 500 years, it does exist. It’s been many years since, but I was fortunate to have heard it done once in Syriac, (in a monastic setting of course, and no, it wasn’t 500 years agoSo as to make this post somewhat useful, here is my new favorite thing in the world of YT Maronite things: Maronite Christmas Chant by Cypriot Maronite singer Solomos Agapiou
Thanks for the material in this thread and elsewhere on CAF, Dzheremi–you’re a wellspring of YouTube chant videos.Oops. Posted the link to the channel “StEphrem84” twice by accident. Sorry.
So as to make this post somewhat useful, here is my new favorite thing in the world of YT Maronite things: Maronite Christmas Chant by Cypriot Maronite singer Solomos Agapiou
Even though it’s all in Arabic, the style of chant is probably closer to Syriac Orthodox chant than what is often found under the “Maronite” tag on YT.
Hahaha. I am? You’re welcome, I guess. I don’t actually spend very much time on YT, so that’s funny to me, but I guess it’s easy to go there to find videos to illustrate whatever point I’m trying to make at the time. Usually anything you type into Google results in a bunch of YT video links before you can get to any text/page results, so…Thanks for the material in this thread and elsewhere on CAF, Dzheremi–you’re a wellspring of YouTube chant videos.