AKATHIST | ALLMUSIC - REVIEW

Benedict Sheehan: Akathist Review

by: James Manheim | October, 2024

As both conductor and composer, Benedict Sheehan is known as an exponent of Eastern Orthodox musical styles. The title Akathist on this 2024 release would lead one to expect more of the same; an akathist, one learns from Wikipedia, is "a type of hymn usually recited by Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Christians, dedicated to a saint, holy event, or one of the persons of the Holy Trinity." The sections of the work are marked kontakion, a hymn form, and ikos, a strophe of these. Yet, although Sheehan's Akathist here has the shape of Orthodox choral music, the musical content is different; Sheehan has stated that he avoided Orthodox musical materials in search of a more universal appeal. He draws on chant, English sacred music (the work is an oratorio of sorts, and the classic English tradition provides overall inspiration), and various regional traditions, including gospel and jazz. The text of the work has a remarkable background; it was found on the body of an Orthodox priest murdered during Joseph Stalin's purges in the late '30s and consists of 27 stanzas expressing gratitude to God for the natural world, human works such as science, art, and music, for family and friends, and even for suffering and death. Sheehan's setting is quite a powerful thing, not precisely comparable to any other choral work. Signs that it may have achieved the composer's universalist ambitions are that this performance brings together an impressive range of New York musicians, from the conservative (the Choir of Trinity Wall Street) to the avant-garde-leaning (the Artefact Ensemble) and that the recording was issued by the experimentalist label Bright Shiny Things. This is unique music, absolutely worth the listener's attention, and it was recorded beautifully at the Trinity Wall Street church.