Music for the Feast of the Annunciation
The Annunciation (March 25), on which we celebrate the Incarnation of the Son of God, is one of the great feasts of the liturgical year, and the ONLY feast which is always celebrated with the Divine Liturgy even when it falls on a Lenten weekday.
This year, the Annunciation is on a Monday, and the appointed services are as follows. (Sheet music can be found on the Liturgical Calendar to the right. )
- Great Vespers on Saturday evening
- Matins on Monday mornng (still a fast day)
- Vespers with Divine Liturgy on Monday evening
The hymns of Vespers and Matins for the feast were recorded several years ago by the Schola Cantorum of Saint Peter, led by the first director of the MCI, Professor J. Michael Thompson. This service is available fron the Byzantine Seminary Press (currently on sale!). Here are some excerpts:
- Stichera at the Lamp-lighting Psalms
- Hymns of the Litija
- Canon of the Annunciation, Tone 1
- Canon of the Annunciation, Tone 9
Choral setting of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
Several years ago, the MCI prepared two harmonizations of the ordinary parts of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, one for men's voices (TTB) and one for mixed voices (SATB).
The SATB setting has been revised to fix some mistakes, and to add the B version of the Hymn of Thanksgiving. The TTB version is also being revised and should be available shortly.
Both are set up for printing on letter size (8.5 by 11 inch paper)
Hymns for the Great Fast and Holy Week
We have been busy over on the Hymnal Project, and the collection for the Great Fast and Holy Week is now ready for review:
Please take a look and let me know what you think! Send your comments to mci@archpitt.org, or post them on the blog.
Online course: The Great Fast and Holy Week
We are just finishing up the paid online class on the services of the Great Fast and Holy Week (with quizzes, learning exercises, and instructor feedback). But if you'd like to look over the material as a guest, just go to the Classes page and click on The Great Fast and Holy Week to log in as a guest. (You will need an MCI Online user ID, but they're free; just follow the instructions on the Classes page to get one).
This c lass covers:
- Lenten Sunday services
- The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
- Special services of Holy Week
The following classes will be starting next week:
- Introduction to the Divine Liturgy (basic course, learn one version of each hymn)
- The Divine Liturgy (intermediate course, learn all versions of each hymn)
- From Pascha to All Saints
See the Classes page for details and registration forms.
New book for the Great Fast: Lenten Hours and Typika
The MCI has prepared a 60-page book with the texts and rubrics for the daytime Hours and the service of Typika on "days of Alleluia" (that is, on all weekdays of the Great Fast, and the aliturgical days of the minor fasts). This book uses translations from our Inter-Eparchial Liturgical Commission, and includes rubrics to allow for celebration without a priest.
Note that this booklet is set up for printing in two colors (red and black) on LETTER SIZE paper (8.5 by 11 inch). I hope to be able to make both this book and the "regular" Hours book available through the Byzantine Seminary Press. In the meantime, please let me know if you see any errors or omissions, or have suggestions for formatting!
New books for Lenten Sunday Vespers!
I am pleased to announce updates versions of two books from the Metropolitan Cantor Institute:
- The Order of Vespers on the Sunday of Forgiveness (Cheesefare Sunday) and the Sundays of the Great Fast
This book (88 pages) contains the complete service of Vespers on Cheesefare Sunday afternoon and on the five Sundays of the Great Fast - everything but the saints' stichera, which change from you to year.
- The Order of Vespers for the Sunday of Forgiveness (Cheesefare Sunday)
This book (28 pages) contains ONLY the service for Vespers on the afternoon of Cheesefare Sunday, along with the service of mutual forgiveness (which is also in the larger book for the entire Fast). This smaller book does not include the stichera of repentance in the Eight Tones, or any saints' stichera, so it is exactly the same from one year to the next.
What's new about these books?
- They use more current translations of Vespers, matching the Divine Liturgies and Presanctified books wherever appropriate - both text and music.
- Music is provided for all psalm verses at the Lamp-lighting Psalms and aposticha, so there is no need for a second book, or large leaflets with this music.
- The formatting has been vastly improved, and I intend to use the same style (perhaps with further improvements) for the other MCI Vespers books as they are revised.
- Music has been smoothed out where necessary, and typos have been corrected.
For parishes that celebrate Sunday afternoon Vespers several times during the Great Fast, I recommend the larger book, while parishes that celebrate ONLY Forgiveness Vespers might want to stick to the smaller one. Both books are intended for printing in booklet form on legal size paper. Here the the prepared booklet versions:
- The Order of Vespers on the Sunday of Forgiveness (Cheesefare Sunday) and the Sundays of the Great Fast - camera ready version
- The Order of Vespers for the Sunday of Forgiveness (Cheesefare Sunday) - camera ready version
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. For these, see below!
All questions, corrections, and suggestions should go to mci@archpitt.org. Thank you!
Clergy Book for Vespers
In the process of updating the MCI Vespers books, we determined that there was a real need for a separate book for priests and deacons, with the priest's silent prayers, and detailed rubrics and guidelines for celebration. This (unofficial) book is now available:
This book is set up for printing in two colors, on letter (not legal) size paper. If you have problems getting one printed for your own use, feel free to contact me for assistance. A similar book for Matins is in preparation, For background details, see this blog post - and leave you comments if you like!
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.