Chant Works: Introducing a New Series

This December will mark twenty years since the official release of new texts and music for the Divine Liturgy for our church. In my work as director of our Metropolitan Cantor Institute, I’ve taught several hundred students the ins and outs of our prostopinije, or church plain chant. As parishes increasingly adopt Vespers and Matins, add new cantors (sometimes from other religions traditions), and move into new parts of the country, this is perhaps a good time to take a serious look at the details of our chant and how we use it.

In this series, Chant Works, I’d like to explore:

• our melodies – where they come from, how they fit together, and how to apply them
• our singing – why it works well, how to improve it, and what can go wrong
• our resources – books and other tools for liturgical singing in our church

Why Chant Works?

1. Because our system of chant melodies and how we use them IS effective in fostering and deepening congregational worship in the Byzantine Rite.
   
   
2. To suggest the idea of a foundry or studio, where the history and practice of our chant can be explored, sharpened, debated, and built up, to the glory of God.

I believe that a particular chant is “good” if it worthily clothes the liturgical text in the appropriate prostopinije melody (or one of them, if there are several choices), without surprises or awkwardness. Very often, there can be several good settings of a particular chant. Sometimes looking at the different ways a chant MIGHT be sung in our tradition is the best way to really learn prostopinije, and that is one of the things we will explore in this series.

Occasionally I will point out places where our prostopinije settings are inconsistent, or might be improved. This is almost inevitable, since so much work had to be done in a few years for the 2006 Divine Liturgies book. My intent here – and yours, I hope, if you participate in the discusson! – is not to tear down, or to change any of the official music, but to build up and prepare for the future.

Today is the Sunday of All Saints, and next Sunday we begin once more the annual cycle of Eight Tones, one per week, starting with Tone 1. Over the next eight weeks I plan to explore the eight tones melodies used for troparia, kontakia, and prokeimena, and we’ll proceed from there. Stay tuned!