I have created a new set of resource pages encompassing Church Slavonic books from the Carpatho-Rusyn prostopinije chant system.

In this collection I also present a scanned collection of some important printed sources for the Church Slavonic music of the tradition. These are each accompanied by a description and the pdf download. The pdf files are linked up with bookmarks for the major sections that will assist in locating particular pieces of interest. These files also have their pdf page numbers correctly correlated with the physical page numbers. And the files are tagged with all of the bibliographic information on the books. I hope to expand this collection over time.

I also include an overview of the chant system itself and where the various melodies are applied. I am particularly interested in comments on this very brief overview. I look on this essay as what I wish I had been given in one handy document when I started down the road of becoming a cantor.

Enjoy and please do suggest updates, improvements and further books I should consider working on.

http://puluka.com/home/LiturgicalChant/Prostopinije.html

Steve Puluka
MA, Theology Duquesne University
Cantor Holy Ghost Church
Carpatho-Rusyn tradition
Mckees Rocks, PA

The Timko/Krizhevachke collection is a real eye opener. Alot of feels stylistically a lot closer to some of the Serbian and Romanian chants I've seen, and not apparently related to Prostopinije per se, and then you find items such as Sviti Tikhii and the Slavoslovije that are almost right out of Bokshaj. Another fun venture was the Bokshaj/Kochan volume: the troparia and kontakia are slightly different, but the big surprise was how different the music for Presanctified is. I do have a question-when I downloaded that one, I got 114 pages-it stops in the middle of the 12th Izhe Cherubimy-is that correct? Is there more I did not download correctly, or is that where the file stops?

In Christ,
Adam

Steve, thank you for making this all available on one page, especially the books that have not been available on other sites (like Hungarian Boksaj and Timko).

Adam, you are correct--the chant in the Timko edition is not related to Sub-Carpathian Prostopinije at all. It is essentially the same as the Serbian Pojanje, with a few additions from the Sub-Carpathian Prostopinije (like Svjite Tichij, as you mentioned). I would say we can be safe in assuming that the Great Doxology also came from the North and not vice versa--it ends with the typical "Rusnak drop" of a fourth, which doesn't mesh with the rest of the "Balkan"-style chant.

Cool, huh?!

Dn. David

Yeah, I'm totally geeked...did you happen to notice the fourth drop in Tone 1 (instead of the minor third you'd see up North...)? That stands out a bit...

Steve, Have you thought about giving a shout out to David Pancza'a site? http://irmologion.nfo.sk/ It is definitely my favorite for Prostopinije study...

In Christ,
Adam

Google Chrome can't seem to translate this link into English. Any geeks have alternative translator? Thanks!

DMD,

Use the original google translate feature, it seems to work better. http://translate.google.com

I did a google search of the http://irmologion.nfo.sk/ page and clicked on the translate link and came up with this:

Irmologion page translated

Adam,

That final cadence is found in Tone 1 in the Serbian pojanje, like in Mokranjac--if not in the Tropar, in other hymns.

Dn. David

Well done!

Thanks! That is an odd glitch!

Sorry for the delay in getting back to this. Our annual St. Nicholas celebration and the surrounding holy days have been keeping me busy.

Thank you everyone for your responses. I'm off to do some updates to the pages based on these responses. I'll note a few things here.

Timko

I really appreciate Adam and Deacon David's notes on the Timko text. You can tell from my original comments that I had some doubts based on the transliteration chosen. Our people just don't generally ready Church Slavonic that way. But my knowledge of other chant traditions is sparse, and of Serbian non-existent. I've added Deacon David's comments to the introduction page. Please let me know if you have a preference on the posted credit for these observations.

More comments would be welcome on any of the volumes too.


Bokshai/Kochan
Yes, this seems to be missing one page based on the table of contents. My master photo copy is also missing that page. I'll need t check the original book again at the library. Hopefully the page is there and I can get it.

David Pancza's Site

This is wonderful. I'll need to pull together a cross link page with other sites having prostopinije material. Thanks for the reference.

Future work

I am still planning on looking for more music in the seminary rare book room. But these really are the mainstay of what is there. I may be able to get some material for yet uncataloged material that has been donated and was in boxes still while I pulled these out for copying.

If anyone has other original material I am willing to scan and load it if you can loan the book to me. I will return it once scanned for upload.

My goal in this section is to provide original chant reference material for researchers and those setting prostopinije to new languages. We all know there are lots of variants out there that deserve to be sung.

Steve Puluka
MA, Theology Duquesne University
Cantor Holy Ghost Church
Carpatho-Rusyn tradition
Mckees Rocks, PA