Strannoye Rozhdestvo Videvshe - Shenandoah Christian Music Camp

The text is Kontakion 8 from the Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos, a Byzantine hymn of uncertain authorship often associated with the early medieval Greek tradition. Its words meditate on the mystery of the Incarnation, calling worshipers to lift their minds from the world to heaven because God has appeared on earth as a humble man. Georgy Sviridov set the Church Slavonic text for unaccompanied choir as part of his late sacred choral output, commonly associated with his cycle Chants and Prayers.