Nativity Services and Doxastichon at Vespers

As many of you know we have a slightly adjusted schedule this year for our Nativity services. On Christmas Eve we will not have Compline as we normally do at 8 or 9 pm. Rather, starting at 10 pm we'll serve Matins and then segue in to Divine Liturgy for the feast. I imagine that Divine Liturgy will start no later than 11 pm, which means we'll be receiving communion right around midnight and finishing liturgy sometime between 12:15 and 12:30 (at the very latest). Of course there are unknown variables, such as how many people will be there, the number of communicants and how many clergy distributing communion. For those who are curious and planning things around this new midnight service, I think it's safe to say we'll be done no later than 12:30 am. And, yes, there will still be the normal 10 am liturgy on Tuesday, December 25.

Thank you to everyone who attended last evening's rehearsal. For both those who were there and those who were not, we reviewed a new piece, a znamenny arrangement of the Dogmatikon at Lord I Call for Christmas Eve Vespers. It's a piece sung in unison, a style similar to what you would have heard in the medieval period in Eastern Europe. I think it adds a nice element to the service, juxtaposing the old (this piece) with the new (harmonized Kievan Chant, arr. by Boris Ledkovsky; not to mention the eight-part Kontakion by Dmitri Bortniansky, too). When we rehearsed it last evening, for the most part, everyone was able to sing it well except for a few places where there's unanticipated leaps of fourths, or when a phrase begins on the leading tone. A link to a copy of this music is here. Please take a moment to look over the music, especially at those places where potential problems might arise. Last evening we seem to have the most problem with the last three lines of the first page and the first two lines of the second page. Specifically, there were problems with:

1. The leap from "rule" to "and" (page one, line seven)
2. Melisma on "nations" (page one, line seven)
3. The leap from "believe" to "in" (page one, line eight)
4. "in one sovereign" (page one, line eight)
5. The leap from "enrolled" to "by" (page two, line one to two) 

I apologize that there's no recording of this that's exactly the same, but there is a very similar one on the St. Vladimir's Christmas recording from the late 70's or early 80's.

Also, please remember that we are planning caroling on Sunday, December 30. Times and places are TBD, but I'm hoping to go to Catholic Eldercare, Chandler, and condominiums in the "coal yard."