Resources for Church Bell Ringers

Here is a great resource for bell ringers, a complete Typicon for Church Bell Ringing.

"Church bell-ringing has the same value as any of the Church's other sacramental actions - and as such, it begins and ends the divine services.  Interacting with our hearing and internal states, it awakens us from spiritual sleep, cleanses our souls, and reminds us of the Lord and his judgment, the shortness of life on earth, and the length of life eternal in Heaven.  Functioning in the beginning mostly as a [mere] signal, church bell ringing came step by step to be used not only for indicating the commencement and the completion of the divine services, but also their most important parts, and to signify the joy or sorrow or triumph of the events marked.  From that point, different types of ringing have appeared, each of which has its own name and purpose."    - Typicon for Church Bell Ringing, 2.4.1

Some rubrics about bell ringing from Blagovest Bells.  Be sure to explore the links in the upper left corner.

A brief bell-ringer's typicon from Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco.

And, and entire website devoted to Russian Orthodox bell ringing - lots of good stuff here.

For your listening pleasure, a short peal from St. John Chrysostom Church in Missouri.

Lenten Rubrics 2012

February 5: (Publican and Pharisee) (Presentation of Christ in the Temple observed) Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion. 

February 12: (Prodigal Son) By the Waters of Babylon after the Polieley, and Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Thy Fatherly Embrace for priest's communion.

February 19: (Meatfare) By the Waters of Babylon after the Polieley, and Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. By the Waters of Babylon for priest's communion.

February 26: (Cheesefare/Forgiveness Sunday) By the Waters of Babylon after the Polieley, and Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. By the Waters of Babylon for priest's communion.

March 4: Sunday of Orthodoxy @ St. Paul's Orthodox Church this year. (Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion)

March 11: (St. Gregory Palamas) Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion

March 18: (Veneration of the Cross) Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion.

March 25: (St. John of the Ladder) (Annunciation) I need to study the rubrics for 2012. Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion.

April 1: (St. Mary of Egypt) Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion.

April 8: (Palm Sunday) - Yay!

The Oldest Hymn to the Theotokos

The oldest prayer we know of dedicated to the Virgin Mary is known as "Beneath thy compassion" (Greek: Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν εὐσπλαγχνίαν; Latin: Sub tuum praesidium). The earliest text of this hymn was found in a Coptic Christmas liturgy of the third century. It is written in Greek and dates to approximately 250 A.D. It is used in the Coptic liturgy to this day, as well as in the Orthodox, Ambrosian, and Latin liturgies.

For Orthodox, the hymn is sung as the last dismissal hymn of daily Vespers during Great Lent.

The entire hymn in Greek reads:

Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν εὐσπλαγχνίαν,
καταφεύγομεν, Θεοτόκε.
Τὰς ἡμῶν ἱκεσίας,
μὴ παρίδῃς ἐν περιστάσει,
ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ κινδύνων λύτρωσαι ἡμᾶς,
μόνη Ἁγνή, μόνη εὐλογημένη.

In English:

Beneath thy compassion,
We take refuge, O Mother of God:
do not despise our petitions in time of trouble,
but rescue us from dangers,
only pure one, only blessed one.

Read more about this hymn http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2011/02/sub-tuum-praesidium.html.

The link includes a You Tube video of Bortniansky's beautiful setting of this hymn, which we sing here at St. Mary Magdalene Church.

Beauty and Music

This, from Fr. Stephen Freeman's blog, absolutely takes my breath away:

There is a theology of beauty, which harkens back to the language of the Old Testament when Moses desires to see God “face to face.” Such a vision is not granted to Moses, but many other visions which foreshadowed the vision of St. Paul are indeed given to Moses-the-God-seer. This is not the language of abstract religious thought but the language of the whole of art and its inner desire. We long for beauty, regardless of how poorly we often define it. True beauty takes our breath away and confounds our ability to describe it.

Much the same can be said of music. “God has made man to be the singer of His radiance,” St. Gregory the Theologian has said (PG, 38, 1327). We sing and we love to sing because at its very heart, we are singers of the radiance of God. It is certainly true that we sing many things that resemble in no way the radiance of God – and yet the drive towards song has its roots in God’s radiance. Perhaps the most essential writing in all of Scripture is the book of Psalms. At best, we moderns read it like poetry, though it was always meant to be sung. God, rendered as prose, is perhaps the deepest misrepresentation of all.

This itself is the problem found in many modern expressions of Christianity – they are prosaic. This is not to say that they are without music – though they are often without good music (let the arguments begin…). Liturgical expression (particularly of the ever-changing make-it-up-as-you-go-variety) fails to rise to the level of mystery. Sacraments, even where underpinned with relatively sound doctrine, still collapse into the prosaic life of modernity. In very few cases would emissaries from a strange land return from modern Christian worship and declare, “We knew not whether we were on earth or in heaven. But of a truth we know that God is with them” (the report of St. Vladimir’s emissaries to Constantinople in the 10th century).

Far more to the point is the prosaic character of Christian lives. Beauty and poetic wonder are not only missing in our relationship with God – they are missing from our lives. My experience is that Byzantine worship is no guarantee of beauty within its participants. However, it does not underwrite the banality of modern culture.

Several years back I was speaking with a small Russian choir, touring the United States from St. Petersburg. They were all Church singers, but also singers from various opera companies in St. Petersburg as well. Needless to say they were an exceedingly talented group. One of the hymns they had sung that night was a particularly difficult and moving piece by the Russian composer, Chesnokov. In the course of the conversation I noted the great beauty with which it was written and with which it had been sung that night. One of the choral members told that that it required careful spiritual preparation (“that all needed to be without anger and at peace with one another”) before this hymn could be properly sung.

Of course, this is not only true of the exquisite music of Chesnokov or other stellar writers – it is also true of a small four-member choir offering the most simple tunes of Obikhod chant on a Sunday morning. Four average voices will never sound like the trained voices of the Russian opera – but they can find beauty – first within and then as an offering of song. In that offering, other lives are transformed and lifted to realm of beauty that is Christ among us.

I do not wish to be foolish or dishonest: beauty, transcendant beauty is and transforming beauty is not the peculiar property of Orthodox Christianity.. God is indeed everywhere present and filling all things. And he desires that all participate in His life (which is also a participation in Beauty). I do not offer this as an observation of ecumenism – merely as a resurrection that God is free and “does whatsover He pleases.”

I do, however, offer this in order to encourage Christians to consider such things as Beauty and music – and many other aspects of our lives when considering devotion to God and the presentation of the Gospel. The world in which we live (much of it, anyway) is hungry less for a careful presentation of the Christian doctrine of the atonement than for an encounter with the true and living God.

Lenten Rubrical Notes 2011

March 13: Sunday of Orthodoxy @ St. Mary Magdalene Church this year. Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Rejoice in the Lord, O You Righteous for Priest's Communion

March 20: (St. Gregory Palamas) Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion

March 27: (Veneration of the Cross) Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion.

April 3: (St. John of the Ladder) Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion.

April 10: (St. Mary of Egypt) Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion.

April 17: (Palm Sunday) - Yay!

The Lenten Spring has almost Sprung!

If it seems way too early for me to post my annual Lenten Rubrical Notes, it's because we are still in Theophany mode, but it's not too early! Really! Pascha is very early this year and yesterday was Zaccheus Sunday, so that means that Great Lent is right around the corner. Indeed, the Lenten Triodion begins this coming Sunday.

This year we will practice a slightly revised (and therefore easier to sing) By the Waters of Babylon, a new Now the Powers for Presanctified (Drevni Chant as found on Podoben.com), and will learn two new Christ is Risen's: one is a lovely Serbian one (in English and Serbian) that sounds kind of like bells pealing, and the other is a well-known Romanian one (in English and Romanian). Also, please keep in mind that we will be visiting St. Paul's in Savannah for Sunday of Orthodoxy this year, and I am attempting to split the service up so that we will sing for either priests' communion or communion of the faithful (By the Waters of Babylon and Open to Me).

January 24: (Publican and Pharisee) Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion.

January 31: (Prodigal Son) By the Waters of Babylon after the Polieley, and Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Thy Fatherly Embrace for priest's communion.

February 7: (Meatfare) By the Waters of Babylon after the Polieley, and Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. By the Waters of Babylon for priest's communion.

February 14: (Cheesefare/Forgiveness Sunday) By the Waters of Babylon after the Polieley, and Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. By the Waters of Babylon for priest's communion.

February 21: Sunday of Orthodoxy @ St. Paul's Orthodox Church this year. (Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion)

February 28: (St. Gregory Palamas) Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion

March 7: (Veneration of the Cross) Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion.

March 14: (St. John of the Ladder) Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion.

March 21: (St. Mary of Egypt) Polieley is not sung, and neither is By the Waters of Babylon. Sing Open to Me after Psalm 50; the rest as usual. Open to Me for Priest's Communion.

March 28: (Palm Sunday) - Yay!

What Makes a Prokeimenon "Great"?

This is currently being discussed on the choir director's list. Contrary to some people's opinions, a Great Prokeimenon (as opposed to a "prokeimenon" without the "great"), is not when the sopranos are all on the same note and the basses are not lagging a half-beat behind, though that would certainly make any choir director pretty happy.

The distinguishing characteristic of a Great Prokeimenon is multiple stichoi as opposed to a single stichos for a "regular" or "common" prokeimenon. Also, Great Prokeimena are found during Vespers only, and not during Divine Liturgy.

Although most people mean the Great Prokeimenon of Pentecost when they refer to the Great Prokeimenon (Who is so great a God as our God?), there are several other instances of Great Prokeimena during the liturgical year.

Great Prokeimena are found during the following Vespers:
Saturday Evening Vespers on Christmas Day, Dec. 25
on Theophany Day, Jan. 6
on Cheesefare Sunday
on the Sundays of the Great Fast (exclusive of Palm Sunday)
on Pascha & all the days of Bright Week
on Ascension Day
on Pentecost
on August 6, Transfiguration Day
on September 14, Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Although we classify Great Prokeimena as having multiple verses, there is also a hymnographic difference, particularly noticeable in Znamenny chant. The standard Prokeimena are sung to melodies that are generally formulaic, either according to the 8 Tones or according to a specific motif. However, the Great Prokeimena have more elaborate melodies which are more or less "unique" melodies for each text, and are written out individually in the traditional chant books. (One can almost say that Great Prokeimena are "Idiomela/Samoglasny" and standard Prokeimena are "Prosomoia/Podobny".)