Singing the Services
To assist new cantors with understanding the services - and to acquaint experienced cantors with the available materials - we are adding pages on "Singing the services". Each article points to tutorial recordings and other helps.
- Singing the Vespers and Divine Liturgy of Great and Holy Saturday
- Singing the Service of Paschal Matins
Stichera
In the Byzantine Rite, stichera are hymns sung with psalm verses. In most cases, each sticheron follows a psalm verse. These hymns (along with the poetic hymns called canons) make up the bulk of the variable parts of Vespers and Matins, and are often rich in theological content. (read more)
The Eight Tones
In ancient times in the Mediterranean world, it was common to organize sung or chanted music into groups of melodies called "modes" or "tones", each with its own distinctive flavor or characteristics. These tones (often eight in number) sometimes influenced the chant used in each part of the early Christian Church. (read more)
Samohlasen Tone Tutorial
In 2006, the Metropolitan Cantor Institute prepared a 40-page tutorial to singing the eight samohlasen tones - the common melodies for stichera at Vespers, Matins and other services. This tutorial is now available online; a new and expanded version is in preparation, so please send any comments or suggestions you may have!
New Page for Draft and Pre-Release Music
To help ensure the quality of MCI publications, we are now making music and web pages available before official release, on the For Review page. Please take a look periodically, and send any comments of questions you may have!
Looking for Local Recordings of Prostopinije!
We would like to expand our archival collection of recorded prostopinije, old and new, in order to provide a record of prostopinje use in Europe and in the New World, to prevent any further loss of melodies, and to support the process of setting texts in English to the Church's plainchant.
Parishes or individuals with recorded prostopinije who are willing to grant non-exclusive webcast rights to the Metropolitan Cantor Institute are asked to contact the webmaster, Jeff Mierzejewski, at ByzKat@stny.rr.com. Along with the recordings themselves, please provide a description of where and when they were recorded, and the names of the cantor(s) if known.