New books for Lenten Sunday Vespers!
In a recent blog post, I reported:
Vespers – the current MCI Vespers books were prepared in 2005-2006, and don’t always match the texts, music and rubrics in our 2007 Divine Liturgies book and 2010 Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts book. In the coming year, ALL the MCI Vespers books will be getting a much needed revision to match official texts and correct various typos and infelicities which have been noted over the years. Stay tuned!
This week, you can take a look at the first of the revised books: The Order of Vespers for Cheesefare Sunday and the Sundays of the Great Fast. Here is what has changed:
- Updated texts for Vespers are used, matching the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
- Music is provided for ALL psalm verses (pripivy) at the Lamp-lighting Psalms, so it is not necessary to refer to another book
- Corrections have been made throughout, and some musical settings are now smoother
- Rubrics for celebration without a priest have been added
Here is the DRAFT book, along with a shorter DRAFT book just for Vespers on Cheesefare Sunday:
- The Order of Vespers for Cheesefare Sunday and the Sundays of the Great Fast
- The Order of Vespers for Cheesefare Sunday
One thing these books do not include is the text of the prayers said privately by the priest, such as the Prayers of Light, as well as detailed rubrics for celebration. Rather than putting these in every single MCI book for Vespers (and having the cantor and congregation have to leaf past them), we have created a NEW book containing the priest's and deacon's parts of Vespers - both Great and daily Vespers, AND the rubrics for Vespers with the Divine Liturgy, the All-Night Vigil, and Great and Holy Friday.
NOTE: these books are available FOR REVIEW. I hope to be able to publish the final versions by February 15, at which point congregations may want to use them during this Great Fast. But they are very likely to change in some details, so please do not print off copies for your congregation quite yet.
All questions, corrections, and suggestions should go to mci@archpitt.org. Thank you!
The Feast of the Meeting with Simeon and Anna
This feast is the final celebration of the winter cycle that began with Simeon and Anna. Read more about this feast here.
Typikon for 2019
The Typikon for 2019 (which shows how to set up the services for each day of the year) can be ordered from the Byzantine Seminary Press:
http://www.byzantineseminarypress.com/2019-typicon/
The MCI Online program also has a free course on how to use the annual typikon to set up music and Sunday and weekday Divine Liturgies.
New on the MCI Blog!
The Month of February
As part of the MCI Online class, The Liturgical Year, we prepared a series of articles on the feasts of the year, month by month.
The Liturgical Year (8 week online course) is offered every January and July. With a free MCI Online ID, you can also view the course materials as a guest. See the classes page for details.
Registration forms for 2019 MCI Online classes
Mailing List for Cantors
We have migrated the old MCI mailing lists to single list, cantors@groups.io. This new list should be more reliable than the one we have been using, and does NOT require the creation of a Yahoo ID. It also has more options for collaboration, including a wiki and post tagging.
This list will be used for both announcements, and general (moderated) discussion. If you wish to receive email ONLY for announcements, you can set your subscription options to "Special Notices Only."
To subscribe to the list, just go to https://groups.io/g/cantors
Documenting the history of our church music - how you can help
The Metropolitan Cantor Institute is working with the Byzantine Catholic Seminary Library to put together material to document the history of the liturgical music of the Byzantine Catholic Church, both plain chant and choral music. Please consider contributing to these two efforts:
In early 2018, we will also be distributing images of particular pieces of music or other memorabilia we would like to find or identify.
What is the Metropolitan Cantor Institute?
The Metropolitan Cantor Institute exists to support and foster liturgical singing in the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh. At the direction of our bishops, and in cooperation with our clergy and experienced cantors, the Institute trains and certifies cantors for the service of the church, prepares music and educational materials, and provides workshops and seminars in church singing.
The mission of the Metropolitan Cantor Institute:
To ensure that each parish in the Byzantine Catholic Church has a cantor who can lead the liturgical singing of the parish well, to the glory of God and in support of the prayer of the faithful.
For more information, click on Cantor Institute in the left-hand navigation bar on this page.