Akathist and Supplicatory Canons to our Most Holy Lady, Mother of God

[Matthew]

Christ is Risen!

Hello, I have a two questions I have wanted to know the answer to regarding the Akathist to our Most Holy Lady, Mother of God:

1) Does anyone know which English translation is best?

2) Which melody is the best for memorising this beautiful Akathist? And where can I buy it or find it online?

Thanks and with much gratitude to anyone who can help me with this.

Symeon

[Ephrem]

We use the Jordanville translation. Whenever there is a question of translations, it seems like the old ROCOR versions are always the best. They always used good, traditional English, and there was never a question about innovation in their doctrine (as with, perhaps, the OCA, which produced its own translations of all the Church hymns).

There are several styles for singing it. I know people in the Greek tradition will sing it differently than people in the Russian tradition, as with anything. For the Russian way, there is a recording you can buy online at this website: http://www.ocrb.org/products/akathist-t ... 3-download. If you can read music, the Book of Akathists that Jordanville puts out has sheet music for two styles of singing akathists. Also, it's just a really great book.

[Matthew]

Thank You, Ephrem, I downloaded the file. It is excellent.

Symeon

[Maria]

Re: Supplicatory Canon to the Most Holy Theotokos.

Here is a pdf file of byzantine music in Western notation

http://www.kiilehua.com/services/Small_Paraklesis.pdf

I like this translation much better than HTM's

[Agios_Irineos]

Maria, thank you for posting this beautiful service with notation.

What jurisdiction is the website that hosts that file associated with?

[Maria]

I am not sure, but the translation linked above is devout and has been used by the Antiochians for many decades, probably before the 1950s. Notice that it uses the "thee" and "thou" and is not written in today's vernacular English. I think the Antiochians got it from the Greeks or it was translated and put to music by Father Kazan of the Antiochians.