Glory to Jesus Christ!

This year, the Metropolitan Cantor Institute program of the Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh has been restructured based on feedback from cantor school students, and our experience in teaching the program:

- The five year program has been shortened to four years. A one-year course on the Divine Liturgy is offered annually; the remaining three years (offered in rotation) cover the remaining chant material in the program.

- The music theory component has been revised to reflect the material most needed by cantors, and uses movable-do solfege for instruction in all four years.

- An additional six-evening course for readers will be offered in the Fall and Spring, covering Scripture and the role and tools of the church lector or reader. This course is open to new and prospective readers and cantors. Beginning MCI students will be expected to take this course as their schedule permits, and returning students are encouraged to take it as well.

See the MCI website (metropolitancantorinstitute.org) for more information.

We will also be offering a short course this Fall for church readers / lectors. This course will provide an orientation to Scripture and the cycle of readings in the Byzantine Rite; the role of the reader; the traditional reading tones (melodies) used in our churches, and practical instruction in applying these to the readings of the Divine Liturgy.

The first course will be held on Tuesday evenings (7-9 PM) from October 5 through November 9 at Saint Gregory Byzantine Catholic Church in Upper Saint Clair, south of Pittsburgh. Pre-registration is recommended but not required. See the MCI website home page for more information.

We are also planning a number of new tutorial articles on the website. If you will be at the annual Uniontown Pilgrimage this weekend, stop by after Matins to meet us and find out more about the upcoming programs!

Yours in Christ,
Jeff Mierzejewski

Four years? You're kidding me! Music theory? Were they having music theory in 19th century Ruthenia? No, they were not! Is outrage!

I am constantly amazed that we can take something which was learned by functionally illiterate people with little or no formal education and turn it into a major dog-and-pony show. Read Roccasalvo to see how chant was taught in the Carpathians well into the 20th century.

And, as always, the insistence that all roads lead to Pittsburgh.

Suggestion: Follow the lead of the OCA, and put together a small ensemble that travels from parish to parish giving worshops. Also, why not seek out the cooperation of groups like Chant, which are dedicated to teaching cantors and congregations how to sing the liturgy across a range of Byzantine-Orthodox traditions? Bringing the music to the cantors seems a far better approach than trying to bring the cantors (most of whom live far from Pittsburgh, and have families and day jobs) to the music.

Unless, of course, the real objective is to impose musical uniformity over the entire Metropolia, in which case, central control and indoctrination would be essential.

But totally alien to the oral spirit of the Prostopinje.

If you love something, let it go.

Stuart,

The program is taught for five Saturdays a year over four years, plus an annual retreat. I would love to see it taught weekly for a shorter period, or for one week summer sessions; the latter remains a possibility, though housing would be an issue.

Music theory consists in this case of:

- scales and basic tonality
- music notation, the staff, and memorization of the common key signatives
- rhythmic notation and recitative; the interpretation of the bar line
- sight-singing

Cantors in the Carpathians were certainy not functionally illiterate - especially since in most cases they also served as the village schoolteachers. And the printing history of the Velikij Sbornik in Europe attests to the fact that our people DID sing propers at Vespers and Matins in church, from books (though with only tone indications). Cantors continued to use the L'viv Irmologion until after the First World War, and the problem of its unavailability was noted by Theodor Ratsin in his 1925 Prostopinije collection from Wilkes-Barre.

To quote Joan Rossasalvo:

"From the 17th century, the training of cantors claimed the attention of every Ruthenian bishop in Subcarpathian Rus'. Training lasted four years so that the prospective cantors could learn the music from the eight tone system for Sundays, Matins and Vespers, the music for Lent and for Easter time, and for other services as well... Before they were assigned to a parish, they were first apprenticed to a more experienced cantor who continued his training for as long as necessary."

Thus - four years of FORMAL training (and we have school records from the Cantor School in Uzhorod to demonstrate that that consisted of, and it DID include music theory), followed by further on-the-job training.

Again, from Roccasalvo, since you invoked her name: "If the oral tradition has been notated" (and in fact, much of the "RDL music", like Bokshai, did draw from oral as well as the written tradition) "it is incumbent on church leaders not only to preserve the music, but also to use it in liturgical services. Our people should be singing these chants adopted for modern usage and not those which have been cut or watered down either through ignorance of whim. Feast day irmosy, for example, are one of the most beautiful chant types found in the southwestern Rus' tradition. Today they are rarely sung in their authentic rendition as notated in the Bokshai and Malinic Prostopinije, the main source of Ruthenian chant available to us. Perhaps this is so because cantors do not have a basic knowledge of music theory."

If you read the MCI website description, you will notice that we ARE offering to provide workshops at the parish or deanery level. We have also been providing printed and music recording through our website, and are working with the dean of the Pittsburgh seminary to expand this to formal distance learning courses.

Once more from Sister Joan Roccasalvo (1990):

"In this writer's view, the days of rote singing or singing from memory no longer serve us. While it is true that, in former days, transmission of the oral tradition was done with great care, this is not the case today."

There is certainly no requirement, Stuart, that ANYONE come to the Cantor Institute classes. But they are being made available precisely because people are asking for them. That is why, for example, the funeral services are the focus of the continuing-education part of this year: pastors and cantors have requested we teach them formally.

Yours in Christ,
Jeff

P.S. We have also announced a regular short course for church readers - which will teach and advocate precisely the sort of process you were recommending on another thread. It may be an oral tradition: but that doesn't mean that there aren't readers or prospective readers who would benefit from training.

CANTOR SCHOOL DIPLOMA
Uzhhorod: June 27, 1897

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Four years, consisting of 5 Saturdays each. Hardly a major dog and pony show. From fall of 1999 to 2005 I attended the Cantor Institute. It is a start and considering that the Eparchy of Phoenix (nee Van Nuys) doesn't have anything approaching the level of cantor education available.

Roccasalvo points out several times that various bishops sought to improve the "pathetic state of liturgical singing" (pg 52)[Bachinsky]. "Deficiencies in chant studies..."Papp commenting on [Firczak] Pg 52


Earlier in Roccasalvo, Pg 21:
" Bishop Firczak ordered every parish of the Mukachevo eparchy to buy two copies of the Prostopinije so that uniformity in liturgical chant singing would be realized"

Although I don't have a horse in this race, so to speak, I do know that the cantors were a vital part of the parish communities in the early to mid twentieth century in American Rusyn communities. My father would remember fondly the role that his cantor in Elizabeth, NJ - Prof. Molnar - played in teaching him the Prostopenije, directing the choir, running both the "Russian" school and the church school and the many Church plays. Together with Father Orestes Koman they truly inspired his vocation and his love for and knowledge of the Prostopenije. The "Prof" was one of the only folks at that time with a car and he made sure that the children towed the line. Many of the early cantors were proficient in English as well which was a vital skill at the time. Together with men like Steve Petach's grandfather in nearby Perth Amboy, NJ they truly were a vital member of their communities. To imply that they and countless other men like them were somehow illiterate is simply wrong. Most were trained, either in Uzhorod or Presov, and they had a spiritual vocation, no less worthy than that of the "Otec Duchovnyj" (the priest), dedicated to service of the Church and her people. It should be noted that ACROD, with the blessing and support of Metropolitan Nicholas, has sent men and women alike to the Cantor Institute program in Pittsburgh so that we, on the Orthodox side of the divide, can also keep alive the full cycle of Prostopenije - not just the Liturgy, but the Vesperal and Matins tones, the 'samohlasen' and 'podobens'(special variants on the basic eight tones) and all of the hymns so beloved by the Rusyn people. Finally, there has never been total uniformity from parish to parish or district to district in any of the traditional chant forms, be they Byzantine, Kievan, Rusyn or any of the many forms used within the Eastern Churches. But with a baseline of written music and knowledge, the cantors and faithful could come together at neighboring parishes and lead the combined congregations in heartfelt song, although perhaps not all in tune!

I would note that the MCI is a program of the Archeparchy although anyone is welcome to attend.

It's a big country, yet every function of any importance takes place in Pittsburgh and vicinity. Might as well live on the moon unless you want to invest a lot of time and money in traveling back and forth to the Navel of the Universe.

Of course!

Because the finest people in the world crossed the Atlantic and the Appalachians to build the best city in the country.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10124/1055313-53.stm

Stuart:

As Father Deacon pointed out, the MCI is a program of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, which has parishes in seven states. Of those seven, three states have one parish each; one has two parishes and a mission, and the director of the MCI spent Christmas to Theophany there this past year. Of the remaining three states, the Archeparchy has some seventy-five parishes and missions in western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, and southeast Ohio - making Pittsburgh about as central as you could ask.

We are certainly willing to provide classes anywhere asked. But the eparchies of Parma and Passaic have their own cantor education programs, so talk about a "big country" is rather beside the point.

If any parish within the Archeparchy wants to hold cantor classes, we could certainly help. (And I've offered here to travel to help ANY parish that wants to start celebrating Vespers.) But the MCI has neither the brief nor the interest in simply "taking over" cantor education in the whole United States.

In Christ,
Jeff Mierzejewski

Bishop John of Parma has made clear to any number of priests and cantors that the Metropolitan Cantor Institute has no standing outside Pittsburgh. The music it provides may be used but is not recommended. Even the music in the 2006 green book is not mandatory in the Eparchy of Parma.

Bishop John will openly admit that the music in the 2006 green book is problematic and should not have been promulgated. The clergy of Parma are praying that whoever replaces Archbishop Basil will rescind the RDL and undo the damage it has caused.

Has Bishop John made it clear,in writing?

In follow-up to Steve's question, I strongly suggest that folks refrain from pronouncing what Vladyka John has or has not said, unless they can point to public documentation on the subject by His Grace.

That holds true anytime anyone thinks that they have the right to publicly announce what any member of the hierarchy, the clergy, or any named individual is purported to have said on a matter that is potentially controversial. This is not the National Tattle-Tale or a religious version of a gossip column. We offer members the right to post anonymously, making it easy for folks to individually claim 'inside knowledge' without assuming the burden of proof that what they offer is gospel. However, considerations of common courtesy and respect, to say nothing of the potential legal issues involved, suggest that those who plan to continue participation here look to what they purport others to have said and be prepared to validate their claim - elsewise, keep the comment to oneself.

This thread began as an announcement of a program. That purpose has been fulfilled. The thread is closed - anyone wishing to pursue tangential topics further is welcome to do so in a separate thread, in this or another appropriate forum - with the above caveat firmly in mind.

Many years,

Neil