Association for Eastern Church Music
The Association for Eastern Church Music (VOM) is a non-profit Swiss association for the care of the church music of the Eastern Churches . It is religiously independent and not bound by any church jurisdiction.
history
The VOM was founded in 1979 by the Eastern Church musician Peter Vitovec (Basel, 1946–2012), the evang.-ref. Pastor Armin Mettler (Basel) and the christkath. Theologian Urs von Arx (Bern) founded as a self-help organization in order to satisfy the need of church choirs in German-speaking countries for sheet music and expert instructions for the liturgically correct application and interpretation of Orthodox church chants. At that time it was very difficult to get hold of notes, as the churches in most Orthodox countries could not act freely and therefore hardly any publications were available.
Since publications of Orthodox church music have become possible again in the East and appear in large numbers in the original language, the focus of the VOM has shifted to the publication of texts and notes for Orthodox worship in German. This with the intention of giving the believers in the German-speaking area access to the content and message of the liturgical texts and to reveal to them the spirituality and mysticism hidden therein directly through the word.
working area
The association is active in the following areas:
- Collect and develop (sheet music, audio documents, specialist literature)
- Editing and editing (reprints, adaptations to the German language)
- Maintain and promote (seminars, individual advice / support).
Two projects are currently in progress:
- Liturgical books of the Orthodox Church in German. Completed and revised edition of the translation by Archpriest Aleksey Mal'cev . The design and equipment are tailored to practical liturgical use.
- German choir book for the Orthodox service with all the chants necessary for the performance of the Orthodox service , in two versions: a) for mixed voices, b) for equal voices.