The Tone 8 Samohlasen Melody
This is the common melody for singing stichera in tone 8. It consists of two parts, one for the psalm verse and one for the sticheron itself.
Please note: This article assumes that you are familiar with the material taught in the MCI Online course, Introduction to Church Singing. If you have difficulty reading the music notation, please review the MCI website articles on musicianship.
A Sunday sticheron in Tone 8
At Vespers on Saturday evening, while the church is incensed and the lamps are lit, we sing a number of hymns called stichera in honor of the Resurrection; these are inserted after the last few verses of the Lamplighting Psalms (Psalms 141, 129 and 116), and are sung in the Tone of the Week.
Here is the first Sunday sticheron in Tone 8:
The melody consists of three parts (A, B, and C) which are repeated in order as many times as necessary, and a final phrase (F).
This is the samohlasen sticheron melody in Tone 8. It is used for singing any sticheron in Tone 8 that is not marked with a special melody (podoben)
The sticheron melody
The A phrase:
is followed by a B phrase
which is followed by a C phrase
After any of these, we can go to the final (F) phrase, which is sung as follows:
In order to fit the music to a particular text, half notes are sometimes split into quarter notes, or the initial quarter note may be repeated to put an accent in the right place. The B phase also has a "short" version to be used when the phrase starts with an accent:
Whether the groups of quarters notes are sung slurred together or separately (depending on the text), they should always be sung smoothly and at tempo.
The verse melody
Here is the samohlasen verse melody in Tone 8.
The four ascending half notes are particularly memorable:
Here are two examples, from the Lamplighting Psalms of Vespers:
Notice that the sticheron melody and the verse melody end with the same notes (mi - re - do - ti - la).
Putting the two parts together - the Sunday dogmatikon in Tone 8
The last sticheron at the Lamplighting Psalms on an ordinary Saturday evening is called a dogmatikon, because it highlights the dogma or teaching of the Incarnation. Here is the tone 8 dogmatikon, set to the Tone 8 samohlasen melody. The verse is given, followed by the sticheron. Notice how each phrase flows into the next.
Sticheron:
As an exercise, identify the A, B, and C phrases in this stiicheron.
Learning the melody
To learn the melody, practice singing the material on the examples page.