Growth of Liturgical Music in the Iakovian Era 1
Little has been written about the considerable changes in Greek Orthodox sacred music in America. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the two most common types of Greek music performed were Byzantine and demotika. Byzantine chants were performed as part of the Greek Orthodox Liturgy. However, in America priests and others began to compose new liturgical music, some of which abandoned the traditional Byzantine modes and single vocal line. The new music with European scales was often presented in a westernized style through choirs accompanied by organs. Based at St. Sophia Cathedral in Los Angeles, author Frank Desby (1922-1992) was part of a second generation of academically trained Greek Orthodox Church musicians who created the westernized body of liturgical music.