OCA Department of Liturgical Music pursues numerous projects

The Orthodox Liturgical Music Chatroom is only one of the several new features offered by the OCA Department of Liturgical Music and Translations. Any church musician or interested person may enter the chatroom and participate in a discussion relating to Church music, hymnology, vocal technique, rubrics, etc. on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month at 8:30 PM [EST].

SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications] — In a recent report on its activities, the Department of Liturgical Music and Translations outlined an ambitious plan spanning 2005 through 2008.

Mr. David Drillock, former provost and music professor at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, Crestwood, NY, heads the growing Department.

Since January, 2002, the Orthodox Church in America Department of Liturgical Music and Translations has produced sheet music on a weekly and seasonal basis for the “Liturgical Music Downloads” section of the OCA web site. This has provided to our parishes music for troparia and kontakia for the commemorations that fall on Sundays in the given year. A variety of chant traditions are represented, including the Russian Common Chant (Bakhmetev-Lvov Obikhod), Kievan, Greek (Russo), Galician, Carpatho-Russian, and Bulgarian. Special Pattern melodies (Podoben) have also been provided as called for in the Typikon. Thus far, of the 365 days in our calendar, troparia and kontakia have been provided for at least one saint on 203 days of the year, comprising approximately 750 individual musical pieces. This work has been coordinated in the past by Mr. Walter Obleschuk and Dr. Paul Meyendorff. This project has been very well received and is used not only by pastors, choir directors, and singers of churches in the Orthodox Church in America, but also by those responsible for church singing in churches of Orthodox jurisdictions here in North America.

In addition to the Troparia and Kontakia project, selected hymns for Lent, Pascha, and the Pentecostarion period have occasionally been posted to the web site. The plan for the next three years is to make available all “ordinary” hymns for the liturgical services of Vespers and Matins including the Lord I call stikhera in all 8 tones, the Apostikha stikhera (8 tones) for Resurrection Vespers and the Kanons (8 tones) for Resurrection Matins (i.e., Saturday evening Vigil).

The music for the new Akathist to All Saints of North America was prepared for use at the 14th All-American Council. As this draft text is eventually approved for publication, the music and text will be posted on the web site.

The Department has also prepared the music for the Akathist to Our Lady of Sitka, which was posted on the OCA website for use by choirs when the icon of Our Lady of Sitka visited parishes in the lower States during September and October, 2005.

Many of our liturgical services, especially those for special feast days, include hymns that are to be sung not according to the regular Obikhod chant, but to special “pattern-melodies”, the so-called podobni. Music for these special festive chants in the appointed “pattern-melody will be set and posted on the web site. Such pattern-melodies will be available in a number of chant traditions.

A new translation for the Feast of Theophany has been completed. The Department was charged with preparing the music with this new translation and making it available to all parishes via the web site. This text has been posted and music for Theophany will also be posted in time for the feast in January 2006. The text for the feast of Pentecost has also been newly-translated and also should be made available.

While there is an abundance of musical settings available for Resurrection (Sunday) Vespers, Matins, and the Liturgy, very little is available for feast days, both major and minor. The goal of the Department is to prepare and post to the website during the next three years musical settings of the propers for (at least) Vespers of major feast days, such as Transfiguration, Dormition, Elevation of the Cross, Meeting of the Lord, etc. The Department has been asked to take on the project of completing the series of books for these feast days originally published by the former Department of Religious Education.

In an effort to provide examples of Church music sung in a good and liturgically appropriate style, audio files of various hymns have been recorded by selected choirs and posted on the web. Thus, not only will a choir director be able to download a specific sheet of music for use by his/her choir, but the choir director will be able to listen via the audio file and hear how the music should be sung. Currently being posted are the “Lord I call” tones in both Obikhod and Kievan chant arrangements.

The Department recently initiated its Orthodox Liturgical Music Chatroom, scheduled the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month at 8:30 pm ET. Any church musician or interested person may enter the chatroom and participate in a discussion relating to Church music, hymnology, vocal technique, rubrics, etc. This is not only an educational endeavor, but it also provides inspiration and new ideas for choir development and growth.

Most Orthodox living in America today probably are not aware of the great liturgical treasure of our Church—the hymns of the Oktoechos, Meneion and Triodion—and are also unaware that the texts of these hymns are addressed not to monks only, but to every Christian. Making available to all Orthodox Christians the texts of the so-called propers, the hymns that change daily according to either the day of the week or the particular day of the month, will be a goal of the Department. The propers of the liturgical services, at first limited to Saturday and Feast-day Vespers, will be posted in a special section of the web site. This will not only be a service to the general layperson but will also make available in an easy format the texts of the stikhera and other hymns for use by the choir director and singers. As progress is made, the propers for Matins will be added. A complete collection of all services for each of the North American saints is still not available and should be accomplished during the next three years.

The order for liturgical services in outline form will soon be added to the web site. This will include Daily Vespers, Great Vespers at Vigil, Great Vespers without Vigil, Daily Matins, Festal Matins with the Polyeleion, Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, etc. This should enable choir directors and singers to gain a better understanding of the order and structural form of the liturgical services.

Even though our Church is very young in America, we already have music written for liturgical services that has been “created” by American composers. Written specially for the “English” text, such compositions bear the mark of true “Church music.” The Department will set up a panel of Church music specialists in composition that will assist composers in the creation of good Orthodox Church music in English.

For years pastors of small and mission parishes have requested that more simple choral music be made available for use by their small choirs, many of which are lacking the voices required to adequately sing the traditional 4-part choral music currently available. The Department has as one of its goals the writing and publication of a Liturgy and a Vespers that will be newly-composed and/or arranged so that a small choir of limited voices will be able to sing these services in a manner that will be both liturgically proper and musically beautiful. At the same time the music must be “congregational friendly.”

The Department has been asked by the Chancery office to make plans for a national OCA music Symposium/Workshop to be held in summer, 2007.

For more information about the Department of Liturgical Music and Translations and its work, visit their web page on the web site of The Orthodox Church in America or contact the department at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).