Chants D'Eglise De Rome - Période Byzantine (2003)

"This performance, based on two graduals from St Peter's in Rome, illustrates the form of chant believed to have been sung in Rome between the seventh and eighth centuries, that is, before its replacement by the better-known Gregorian chant. If Old Roman was sung in the Roman basilicas in the seventh century it was the chant heard by Benedict Biscop during his many visits to the holy City. In the context, therefore, of an undivided Church and bearing in mind a huge earlier influx of Greek monks to Southern Italy, it is not difficult to imagine the existence of powerful Greek influences on the liturgy of the Latins and some degree of cross-fertilization between East and West, Thus, a strong case might be made for performing this Old Roman music, even from such late sources (earlier ones seem not to have survived), with reference to the style of present-day Greek chanting. Which is, in fact, exactly what Marcel Pérés and the Ensemble Organum have attempted. The result is entirety convincing." (Gramophone)