{"id":1655,"date":"2026-06-25T20:24:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T00:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/?p=1655"},"modified":"2026-06-25T20:24:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T00:24:58","slug":"chant-works-tone-3-prokeimenon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/chant-works-tone-3-prokeimenon\/","title":{"rendered":"Chant Works: Tone 3 Prokeimenon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

The Tone 3 prostopinije melody for prokeimena and Alleluia is one of the easiest, so this week we will take a quick look at it, and also discover why mi mi mi <\/em>can give cantors heartburn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Tone 3 prokeimenon melody in the 1906 Prostopinije<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Here are the Sunday prokeimenon and Alleluia from the 1906 Tserkovnoje Prostopinije <\/em><\/a>or \u201cChurch Plain Chant\u201d of Bok\u0161ai and Malini\u010d:<\/p>\n\n\n

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We’ve noted before that the prokeimenon melody in prostopinije, which is also used for the Alleluia, is generally in three parts. But here, much of the initial phrase of the prokeimenon is omitted in the Alleluia, running straight into the second phrase; the final phrase of each is identical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, it is a simple scalewise melody, until the jump down to the final note – but it begins on the third degree of the scale, or mi<\/em>, which is sometimes hard for cantors to hit squarely. When singing mi<\/em>, one should generally think “high” to avoid going flat. The only accidental occurs in the last phrase, there the natural sign raises do <\/em>by a half step, and temporarily prevents us from landing on the tonic. (We saw the same thing happen in the Tone 2 prokeimenon melody<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tone 3 prokeimenon melody in English<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Here are the first official settings of the Tone 3 prokeimenon and Alleluia in English, from 1970 collection Byzantine Liturgical Chant<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have a family resemblance to the Slavonic version, but their resemblance to each other is somewhat hidden by the fact that they are notated in different keys!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the settings from our 2006 Divine Liturgies book:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"\/<\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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\"\"\/<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Remember to think “high” when singing mi <\/em>at the start of the repeat of the prokeimenon or Alleluia, so you don’t go flat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find more Tone 3 prokeimena and Alleluia to practice on here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One more thing…<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When we looked at Tones 1 and 2, I mentioned that the prokeimenon melody is also used for singing “Let everything that lives and that breathes” and “Holy is the Lord” at Matins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Tone 3 is a strange exception: here we sing those hymns, AND the prokeimenon of Matins, to the Tone 3 samohlasen <\/strong>instead. (We will cover the samohlasen melodies later this year in Chant Works.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ah, the wild and wooly ways of prostopinije…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tone 3 prostopinije melody for prokeimena and Alleluia is one of the easiest, so this week we will take a quick look at it, and also discover why mi mi mi can give cantors heartburn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[41],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1658,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions\/1658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}