I have an unorthodox approach for orthodox music.
These hymns are rather easy and might be a good try to use in a mainstream latin church, especially where any semblance of tradition is somewhat confused.
Some of these hymns are as easy as the so-called "praise and worship" but 1000 times theologically richer and probablly more beautiful.
Coming from one of the worlds remarkable heritages of orthodox catholic ecclesiastical music, you ought to hear two pristine examples of byzantine chant sung in english, I recommend these two videos, which have .pdf files of notation and words to sing along with the recording.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttXyYzXKLUQ
http://www.newbyz.org/lamentations_music_chant.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rju5GyVtfnQ
http://www.antiochianladiocese.org/files/sheet_music/RejoiceOBethany.pdf
Now, don't accuse me of byzantinizing the latin rite, I'm only saying, some of this would be a fine supplement to the regular hymns and 1970s era material thats still lingering about, not a total replacement for the graduale romanum etc.
For the record hearing these sung in Melkite Greek Catholic Churches (and once an Orthodox) was always a great highlight of my holy week.
This prosomia book also has interesting material, which is in a semi-metrical style, easier for beginners.
http://www.homb.org/resources/music/sheet-music/docs/prosomiabook.pdf
(I was told however that the melodies to it are not as traditional and beautiful as those preserved in some other book in greek, not sure how that happened or how you'll find it without consulting the folks at anaologion.org)
These hymns are rather easy and might be a good try to use in a mainstream latin church, especially where any semblance of tradition is somewhat confused.
Some of these hymns are as easy as the so-called "praise and worship" but 1000 times theologically richer and probablly more beautiful.
Coming from one of the worlds remarkable heritages of orthodox catholic ecclesiastical music, you ought to hear two pristine examples of byzantine chant sung in english, I recommend these two videos, which have .pdf files of notation and words to sing along with the recording.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttXyYzXKLUQ
http://www.newbyz.org/lamentations_music_chant.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rju5GyVtfnQ
http://www.antiochianladiocese.org/files/sheet_music/RejoiceOBethany.pdf
Now, don't accuse me of byzantinizing the latin rite, I'm only saying, some of this would be a fine supplement to the regular hymns and 1970s era material thats still lingering about, not a total replacement for the graduale romanum etc.
For the record hearing these sung in Melkite Greek Catholic Churches (and once an Orthodox) was always a great highlight of my holy week.
This prosomia book also has interesting material, which is in a semi-metrical style, easier for beginners.
http://www.homb.org/resources/music/sheet-music/docs/prosomiabook.pdf
(I was told however that the melodies to it are not as traditional and beautiful as those preserved in some other book in greek, not sure how that happened or how you'll find it without consulting the folks at anaologion.org)