This is considerably simplified and <\/em>changed from the melody in Bok\u0161ai and Papp, but it does have the traditional three phrases, and may represent either a local tradition of how the original melody is interpreted, or else some cantor’s attempt to remember how it was supposed to go. (Needless to say, when this simpler melody was applied to other prokeimena, it became a tradition of its own.)<\/p>\n\n\n\nHere is the version in our 2006 Divine Liturgies book:<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThis is clearly an attempt at a restoration of much of the original Slavonic melody; it follows the division into three parts hinted at in the 1970 Irmologion<\/em>, and resembles the earlier English version.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTwo parts or three?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Many of the Tone 4 prokeimena in the Divine Liturgies book closely follow the Sunday prokeimenon above, with its three-part structure. Here are some examples:<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
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But some follow the original, two-part melody instead. <\/strong>Here is the prokeimenon for the Transfiguration (August 6), which has the same Tone and text as the Sunday prokeimenon in Tone 4:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt seems clear to me that having the same prokeimenon sung two different ways was an oversight. Furthermore, there is a missing “O” in the psalm verse at the Transfiguration, and if I were doing this from scratch, I would put “Lord” on the final half note before the bar line rather than that “bridging” the accent over six beats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in any case, a fair number of the Tone 4 prokeimenon in our current official English settings us the earlier two-part prokeimenon melody rather than trying to adapt it to three parts. Here are some examples, from the Annunciation, the common of prophets (including Elijah on July 20), and the common of martyrs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Now there is nothing WRONG with either the two-part or the three-part melody. But it is very helpful for cantors to know that prokeimena in Tone 4 can be sung in two different ways, and be able to adjust as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Alleluia in Tone 4<\/h3>\n\n\n\n We saw above that Alleluia in Tone from the 1906 Prostopinije <\/em>was a rgeatly shortened version of the two-part prokeimenon in Slavonic, and the 1970 Irmologion <\/em>gave the same version.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe first official setting in English, from the 1970 Byzantine Liturgical Chant<\/em>, tried instead to turn it into a three-part melody by slowing the first Alleluia to half speed and adding a bar line:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The setting in the 2006 Divine Liturgies book is much close to the Slavonic original, but keeps the bar line from the earlier English version:<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\nI have had numerous cantors who wanted to sing the half notes and quarter notes in the second and third Alleluias as being the same duration as the quarter notes and eighth notes in the first Alleluia. It’s a good idea to WATCH the rhythm here. (In my own opinion, I think the first bar line should be largely ignored, to keep the music going.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the way, this graphic shows where the pitches in the Alleluia come from in the prokeimenon melody.<\/p>\n\n\n
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I almost forgot!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Here is the MCI cheat sheet how the Tone 4 prokeimenon and Alleluia relate to their psalm verse(s).<\/p>\n\n\n
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From the end of the prokeimenon, go up a half step for the verse, and at the end of the verse, stay on the same pitch to repeat the prokeimenon; the same applies to the Alleluia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(This procedure is the same for both the two-part and three-part prokeimenon melody.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I mentioned early that prokeimenon melodies generally have three musical phrases or “parts”, since they are based on how we sing the triple Alleluia. Tone 4 is the exception, and in this installment of Chant Works we’ll look at why that makes a difference.<\/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\/1668"}],"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=1668"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1678,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions\/1678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"\/](\"http:\/\/mci.archpitt.org\/images\/music\/misc\/Tone_4_prokeimenon_Bokshai.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n