Week of the Elevation of the Cross

Dear Choir,

It's been quite a while since anything has been posted here, but I think it's good for many different reasons to start blogging again.

As in the past, I hope that what's blogged here can not only provide information to choir members about upcoming events, but also serve as a platform for distributing music and important details about Sunday liturgies and other important services at St. Mary's.

This coming week's schedule.

1. Wednesday, September 12. Choir rehearsal at 7 pm.
2. Wednesday, September 12. Choir meeting at 8 pm. This meeting will be important for many reasons: it's our first meeting of the new ecclesiastical new year; we'll discuss important dates in the fall schedule such as 1) Byzantine Festival concert 2) TMORA concert 3) Advent concert; upcoming recording project and repertoire. Concerning the last point, I'm very interested to know what each of you think concerning repertoire. 
3. Thursday, September 13. Vigil for the Elevation of the Cross at 6:15 pm.
4. Friday, September 14. Divine Liturgy for the Elevation of the Cross at 9 am.
5. Saturday, September 15. Wedding for Joni Venusek and Andrew Hinton. Meet at 2:45 pm the in loft.

If you weren't at rehearsal last Wednesday, I'm sure you noticed that we sang one new piece (Beatitudes) at liturgy this past Sunday. We also pulled out an oldie but goodie - Blessed be the Name of the Lord composed by Dmitri Bortniansky. At upcoming rehearsals we are going to continue to introduce new pieces as well as reintroduce pieces already in our binders. One of these pieces I'd like to reintroduce is Bortniansky's Cherubikon No. 6. It's a lovely composition that is inspiring and fits the liturgical moment in a way that resonates with St. Mary's Cathedral. Here's a link (of course we will sing it in English, though; the score is copy righted, so it won't be posted).

Since we will be within the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross this Sunday, we will most likely sing the feastal antiphons. Here is music for these.

See you on Wednesday evening.

Deacon Gregory

Our 125th Anniversary and Beyond

This past Sunday we celebrated our choir's 125th anniversary, culminating with a hierarchical divine liturgy on Saturday for our feast day and a banquet at Jax Cafe on Sunday afternoon. Thank you to all the people who helped make this past weekend a success!

This Sunday we celebrate the glorification (or canonization) of St. Tikhon of Moscow. You can read about his life here. Here's a nice biography, too, about St. Tikhon. His Troparion and Kontakion that we will sing this Sunday at liturgy is here.

Protection of the Theotokos

Celebrating a parish's feast day is an important part of the community's life. It's so important that the services surrounding the feast are elevated to the rank of a major feast. One of my professors used to say that there are 17 Twelve Major Feast Days. What he simply meant is that in the liturgical life of any given parish, in addition to the twelve major feasts of the Church, there are three more feasts that are celebrated as if they were a major feast day. For us here at St. Mary's one of these feasts is October 1, the Protection of the Theotokos. 

This evening at St. Mary's Cathedral we will celebrate the vigil service for our parish's feast day.Vigil is not something that we serve often here at the cathedral. Instead, on Sundays and on feasts, we normally serve Great Vespers in the evening and Matins in the morning. But, don't be afraid of its length. If you can only come for an hour, then please do! Personally, the vigil service is one of my favorites when done properly.

A highlight of the this evening's vigil service is the hymnography and special melodies. Some of these melodies we've incorporated into our Advent/Christmas concert - so they should be familiar to you. One of them we even sing to It is Truly Meet - so this one you should definitely know.

At Saturday's Divine Liturgy we will meet the bishop at 8:30. Please be prompt. It's our feast day!
 

Rehearsal Tomorrow and an Ordination to the Priesthood

Tomorrow's rehearsal will focus on our feast day's liturgy this Saturday with Bishop Paul. In addition to His Grace visiting us, at Saturday's liturgy we will have an ordination. Deacon Herman Klarr from Three Hierarch's Mission in North Field, MN will be ordained to the priesthood.

Just to remind you (as well as me), an ordination to the priesthood happens immediately after the Great Entrance. The deacon who is to be ordained is led into the altar by two other deacons, each of whom, at the appropriate time exclaims "command" and then gestures for the candidate to prostrate. The soon-to-be-ordained is met at the royal doors by a priest, who leads him around the holy table singing "You holy martyrs, who fought the good fight and had received your crowns..." (one of the same troparia that is sung at a wedding). The choir then repeats this same troparion. Two more times a priest leads the candidate around the holy table, each time singing "Glory to Thee, O Christ our God...." and "Rejoice, O Isaiah! A virgin is with child..." Then choir, then, each time repeats the troparion.

Then, the bishop chants the prayer, "The Grace Divine, which heals that which is infirm...", followed by the clergy singing, "Lord, have mercy." The choir then repeats in a very solemn and contemplative way, "Kirye Eleison."

Next there is a litany, and another prayer by the bishop. After this the bishop exclaims "Axios," and begins to vest the new priest. As the bishop is vesting him, the clergy in the altar repeat "Axios" three times, and then the choir as well.

The ordination goes rather quickly actually, maybe only lasting about 10 or 15 minutes.

So, at Wednesday's rehearsal we will review some of these points mentioned above, as well as the more "normal" elements of a hierarchical liturgy: entrance, vesting pslams, Ton Dhespotin, Eis Polla, Come Let us Worship, the Trisagion, etc.

It's a big weekend a head, not only because of Saturday's liturgy, but also because of our choir's 125th anniversary celebration, and our banquet on Sunday at Jax Cafe (I hear there's already 147 tickets sold for the banquet!).

Concert at Taste of Northeast

What a very productive rehearsal this evening! I feel that we are well prepared for Saturday's concert. We sang Musicescu's Cherubikon with energy and a good liturgical sensibility. Impressive. Thank you for your work.

This Saturday's concert will start at 4:15. We'll meet at 3:30 in St. Andrew's Chapel (basement) to warmup and quickly review the concert material. A reminder of what we'll sing:

1) Our Father, N. Kedrov
2) Cherubikon, G. Musicescu
3) Anaphra, N. Kedrov
4) Rejoice O Virgin, G. Lapayev
5) We Have no Help, B. Ledkovsky
6) What Shall We Call You Mary, S. Glagolev
7) Rejoice O Virgin, S. Rachmaninoff
8) Many Years, Turchaninoff

Concert attire: choir robes. Please wear black slacks and black shoes underneath the robes. Many of you might be working at a booth or in the kitchen before the concert, so please bring slacks and shoes to change into for the concert.

At this Sunday's liturgy we will be back to the normal routine (so to speak) for the antiphons. Please remember that the second antiphon will no longer begin with "Glory...", but rather start right away with the psalm (Praise the Lord, O my soul!). The "Glory..." will now be sung together with the troparion "Only Begotten Son"  at the end of the antiphon. At this Sunday's liturgy we will sing the Krasnostovsky second antiphon followed by Dinev's arrangement of Only Begotten Son (Bulgarian Melody). See music here.

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you this Saturday for the concert!

September 17

This past Wednesday we had a very productive rehearsal. Thank you to everyone who came and for putting forth such a good effort. I don't recall hearing us sing Kedrov's anaphora sung so beautifully; with energy, singing in phrases, and making the text alive. Thank you, again!

At this Sunday's liturgy, since we are still within the feast of the Elevation of the Cross, we will sing festal antiphons instead of the typical psalms. Again, similar to last Sunday's Second Antiphon, we will not sing the refrain in the music "O Son of God, crucified in the flesh..." but the resurrection refrain "O Son of God, who rose from the dead, save us who sing to Thee. Alleluia." I will remind everyone about this at Sunday's liturgy.

The Troparia and Kontakia are the following (festal music here):

Resurrection Troparion, Tone 4
Festal Troparion, Tone 1
Glory...Resurrection Kontakion, Tone 4
Now...Festal Troparion, Tone 4

Only one Prokeimenon this Sunday (Tone 7), "Extol the Lord our God! Worship at His footstool for He is holy!"

I'm looking forward to this Wednesday's rehearsal. Since we'd like to promote our recent recording, one of the pieces we'll sing at the September 24th concert will be Fr. Sergei Glagolev's "What Shall We Call You, Mary?" Also, we will sing Rachmaninoff's "Rejoice, O Virgin," Musicescu's Cherubikon (which we rehearsed very well this past Wednesday), Turchaninoff's "Many Years," Ledkovsky's "We Have no Help," and more.

I'll leave you with an interesting youtube video I came across yesterday. The video is of a Russian choir (apparently on tour in Spain?) singing Rachmaninoff's "Rejoice, O Virgin" at a museum in Barcelona. As you'll be able to see, their performance is complete impromptu, and I assume they did it solely because of the space they were in and wanted to hear how it sounded. The recording is not the best I've heard (although it is very good!), but it really touched me because of its simplicity and setting.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBkbQ7K497U

Dear St. Mary's Choir Members!

I hope to begin using this forum to give you updates on important information about our choir. Don't worry, I will still send emails to make sure that everyone receives necessary and pertinent information.

This Sunday is the first Sunday that we're back to a normal schedule at St. Mary's. Only one Divine Liturgy at the cathedral at 9 am, and one Divine Liturgy at the cemetery chapel at 9 am. It's also the first Sunday of Church School. In addition to this, we are in post feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos (September 8) and, in some ways, preparing for the great feast of the Elevation of the Cross on September 14. As is the tradition here at St. Mary's, since we're in post feast period, we will sing festal antiphons instead of the typical psalms (103 and 148) and Beatitudes. I will prepare a outline for all this in hopes to make it easier for everyone.

At the singing of the second antiphon, we will sing the refrain "O Son of God, who rose from the dead, save us who sing to Thee! Alleluia!" instead of what is written in the music (O Son of God who art wonderful in Thy saints, save us who sing to Thee! Alleluia!). I will remind everyone about this on Sunday.

The Troparia and Kontakia at Sunday's liturgy will be as follows:

Resurrection Troparion, Tone 3
Festal Troparion, Tone 4
St. Theodora Troparion, Tone 8
Resurrection Kontakion, Tone 3
Glory...St. Theodora Kontakion, Tone 2
Now...Festal Kontakion, Tone 4

Here's a link to music of the above troparia and kontakia (with the exception of the ones for the Resurrection).

Two Prokeimena. The first for the feast (My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, Tone 3) and the second for the Sunday before the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross (O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, Tone 6).

I felt we had a wonderful first-back rehearsal this past Wednesday. I'm very much eager and looking forward to working with all of you again.

Deacon Gregory Ealy