I am wondering what sources other cantors use for hymn settings (as opposed to settings of the propers).

Hymn use varies from parish to parish, but in general I see them in use for the censing of the church prior to Divine Liturgy, for processions, during communion, and sometimes at the end of a service. There are likely several other occasions that will come to others' minds.

Sources I have used include multiple musical settings of the hymns in the back of the Divine Liturgy book which have been produced by several individuals over the years, the Marian Prayers booklet from BSP, and some Christmas books, one of which came from the monastery at Butler, PA last year.

An extensive general hymnal would be a handy addition for our parishes (i.e. Ruthenian, Byzantine Catholic ones), and could help to provide more variety.

Jim--we usually use some antiphons with psalm verses, or portions of Matins or Vespers during the incensation at the start of liturgy. New Skete has some lovely new settings of the psalms with refrains that we've learned and have also set some psalms to traditional Rusyn prostopinije melodies.

We tend to sing the exaltation from Matins with psalm verses on holydays and Sundays that fall in the postfestive periods. We use Russian (Greek) tone 1 for the refrain and people can sing along very easily.

Very rarely do we use any of the hymns from the liturgy book. Pod Tvoj Pokrov is one of our favorites though--and use it on 10/1 and the following Sunday every year.

John K

I was speaking generally when I spoke of when hymns are sometimes done, not necessarily when we do them at our parish.

We currently chant the Third Hour prior to Divine Liturgy on Sundays which makes a hymn for censing unnecessary at that time. On weekday evenings when there is a Liturgy at our parish, nothing usually precedes the service except a hymn.

During communion there is a local tradition of congregational singing, and occasionally after the service, as the congregation does special reverences such as at Dormition.

We seldom use hymns from outside jurisdictions, which would include New Skete, but doing so would help enhance our choices. We do use some materials from jurisdictions that are represented within the parish, such as Roumanian Catholic, Ukrainian Catholic, etc.

I hope more will respond to this topic.

New Skete's psalm refrains work well--they are easy to sing and quite lovely--a cantor sings the verses of the psalm and the choir leads the people in the singing the refrain. And...they are the Psalms , something we don't hear or sing enough of.

As for them being an outside jurisdiction, don't forget, they were once "us" as well.

Jim,

Professor Thompson has published a hymn for every Sunday of the liturgical year and most feast days (with the archbishop's approval). In general, the lyrics are based on the epistle and gospel of the day and sung to a Marian Hymn melody. There are a few special melodies written for the Lenten and paschal seasons. For communion, the practice at the seminary and cathedral has been for the cantor to chant appropriate psalm verses with the congregation joining in on the Alleluia.

Hank Z. (Roving cantor and about to be eighth year student at MCI)

We sing either an akathist, or an Hour before Liturgy as well, but our Priest likes to say the dismissal at the end, and then we sing a hymn, out of the blue book put together by Jerry Jumba and Msgr Levkulik. For the first part of Communion (ei, the communion of the clergy) we sing the prichasten and the subsequent psalm verses (we have only a priest and a deacon, but they take their time for communion, which is very good). For the second part (communion of the faithful) we sing the hymns out of the back of the pewbook. At the veneration of the Cross and distribution of the Antidora, i read Ps 33 and the post Communion prayers, or we sing the Exaltation again, if it be a feast (in place of the prayers, after Ps 33). For processions at baptisms, we sing "Alleluia" (Tone 4 plagal Byzantine chant), for Litija, the Litija stichera, and other times, "Lord, have mercy" (the Athonite melody for 10x). OUr Temple is very small, and so it does not take long for a procession to reach its destination).

In Christ,
Adam

I hope we can still use the Mr. Jerry Jumba's and the late Monsignor Levkulic's Marian hymnal at this year's Mt. Macrina Otpust as it has been the standard form for over twenty years. Has it already been discarded already, not politically-correct enough I guess? :rolleyes:

Ungcsertezs :rolleyes:

The Marian hymnal HAS been standard fare for many years, and I have never heard anything to suggest that these hymns should NOT be sung, just perhaps not during Communion...

On the Metropolitan Cantor Institute webpage, we have some space set aside for our traditional Eucharistic, Marian and festal hymns, for use before and after the liturgy, on special occasions, etc. If anyone has a GOOD scanned copy of the Marian hymnal, please contact me privately and I will see about the possibility of putting its contents online. (Yes, Ung, in both English and Slavonic; MY parish for one uses both ).

Yours in Christ,
Jeff Mierzejewski

Jeff, maybe Professor Thompson's hymn settings, which he has at the front of Divine Liturgy settings, could be posted there as well? (If they're already there, I couldn't find them.)

Working on that too, Jim.

As a rule, we would rather put up recordings of choral versions of hymns, rather than a single voice singing the melody, and are trying to entirely avoid posting MIDI sound files and such; they are just too different from the sound of a singing voice.

TO ALL: if your parish has GOOD recordings of Marian or Eucharistic hymns that it would be willing to provide copyright permission for to the MCI website, I would be amenable to including them (with credit) along with the sheet music.

Yours in Christ,
Jeff Mierzejewski

ByzKat:
Recordings would be great (if they are good). But you really should reconsider the midi files.

If you are going to collect choral versions of hymns - like podoben.com - you will soon have a very large collection of material including a variety of settings for each piece. The utility of the midi files is that they download very fast compared, for example, to mpegs, and, ulike mpegs, they open as a score in most notation programs.

People who are looking for material to suit the needs of their parish can use midi files to sort through a lot of material very quickly. They are also likely to be able to open a score that they can adapt to their needs.

Jeff,
In 2002, The Holy Ghost Choir of Philadelphia produced CD's featuring the "Marian & Eucharistic Songs of Praise" and "The Passion & Resurrection of Christ" which give a great sampling of our traditional, para-liturgical hymns in 4-part harmony.

These recordings will soon be posted to the Choir Website: http://holyghostphila.byzcath.org/

Perhaps you could link the Metropolitan Cantor Institute Website to the Holy Ghost Website to feature these hymns?

JKF

ByzKat,

Will these hymns (Levkulic Marian Blue Book c.1985) be sung this year at Mt. Marcrina Otpust?
Will they be sung in both English and Church Slavonic?

Ungcsertezs

I would imagine that the same ones will be sung as every year - and people will sing them in Slavonic if they like. Why fret so much before you even get there?

(By the way, for the past five years Professor Thompson has been one of the cantors at Otpust, and he's always led the Marian hymns in both English AND Slavonic... )

Yours in Christ,
Jeff Mierzejewski

Keith,

I truly wish I could be at Uniontown this year just so I could sing the ENTIRE marian hymnal in Slavonic for you, since I have virtually zero opportunity to sing ANY Slavonic in my home parish save exactly one verse after all the English verses are finished!

If you want to hear authentic Slavonic hymns, hang around late Saturday night and follow the music.

Gather some friends together and sing slavonic hymns well into the night. While the Metropolia may not espouse the use of Slavonic anymore it still lives on in our hearts.

Go to Uniontown with a spirit of a pilgrim rather than the heart of a spy.

'nuf said, back to lurking i guess,

Steve,
Who also had to cancel his plans to attend the Marian pilgrimage in Olympia, WA also.