www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology hymns for Sundays and feasts before Christmas

The Sunday of the Righteous Ancestors
(the two Sundays prior to December 25)
sung to the tune, St. Lewis (�O Little Town of Bethlehem�)

O come, you lovers of the feasts!
With gladness let us raise
For Patriarchs and Prophets blest
A hymn of thankful praise!
For Abraham and Isaac
And Jacob and his seed
Whose covenant with God endured,
We give You praise, indeed!

Believers, let us praise this day
The fathers on faith�s trek;
For Adam, Enoch, Noah and
The great Melchizedek!
For prophets like Isaiah,
For Daniel and the youths
Who, in the face of evil, still
Proclaimed Your holy truths.

For Miriam, Sarah, Rachel fair,
For Hannah and for Eve,
For all the mothers who conceived
And bore those to believe
That God would keep His promise,
We give You thanks this day;
So give us grace, in all our deeds,
To serve you, as did they!

O Bethlehem, prepare yourself,
O Ephrathah, rejoice!
The gate of Eden�s open wide!
Cry out with joy-filled voice:
Our Christ makes haste to come now
And brings us back to grace.
Prepare your hearts, your homes, your lives!
Give Christ the finest place!


The Holy Prophet Daniel
and the Three Holy Youths Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael
December 17

(to be sung to the tune, �Prizri, O Marije�)

As a star, resplendent,
announces the break of day,
We praise you, O Daniel,
who prophecied Messiah�s way.
As the feast approaches,
we are filled with gladness!
Hear Your saints, O Master,
who join us as we pray.

Through the firey furnace,
O youths, you blessed your fathers� God.
Heedless of temptation,
in purity God�s path you trod!
As the feast approaches,
we are filled with gladness!
Hear Your saints, O Master,
who join us as we pray.

Fortified by fasting,
you holy ones were bold and brave,
Kept safe by You, Lord God,
who show yourself as strong to save!
As the feast approaches,
we are filled with gladness!
Hear Your saints, O Master,
who join us as we pray.

(These texts are based on the stichera
of Vespers for December 17 from the Menaion.)

The Sunday after Christmas:
Commemoration of the holy and just Joseph,
David the King, and James, Brother of the Lord

to be sung to the tune, �Mendelssohn� (i.e., Hark! the Herald Angels Sing)

Glory to the Lord of all,
Born in cave to save us all,
He, the sole-begotten One,
Born the Virgin�s only Son!
Changeless God a Man is made,
Saving us, the sore afraid!
Glory to Your birth, O Lord!
By Your Church be e�er adored!
Hark! the herald angels sing:
�Glory to the new-born King!�

For Saint Joseph, righteous one,
Guardian of the Virgin�s Son;
For King David, bold and strong,
Singer of the Lord�s new song;
For the brother of the Lord,
James, the preacher of the Word:
Thanks and praise Your Church shall bring
To Your throne, O infant King!
Hark! the herald angels sing:
�Glory to the new-born King!�

Hail, O Christ, our Savior-Lord!
Ev�ry praise let us afford
For Your coming as a man
To fulfill the Father�s plan!
By Your birth, You set us free,
Newborn souls in You to be!
Guard us, keep us free from fear;
Grant us peace, a glad new year!
Hark! the herald angels sing:
�Glory to the new-born King!�

The Sunday before Theophany
Epistle: II Timothy 4: 5-8
Gospel: Mark 1: 1-8
tune: Kol slaven nas

Thus says the Lord: �I send before you
My messenger, your way to prepare!�
Now hear the voice of someone shouting:
�Make for the Lord a path straight and fair!
For One is coming, greater than I�
Come and repent!� was John the Baptist�s cry!

�For after me, Another is coming,
Mightier than I, our God�s only Son;
He will baptize with God�s Holy Spirit,
And with Them both is truly One!
For One is coming, greater than I�
Come and repent!� was John the Baptist�s cry!

For those who wait the manifestation
Of Jesus Christ, that day will shine
And crowns of righteousness and glory
Wait there for all of Abraham�s line!
�For One is coming, greater than I�
Come and repent!� was John the Baptist�s cry!

The Sunday after Theophany
Epistle: Ephesians 4: 7-12
Gospel: Matthew 4: 12-17
tune: Kol slaven nas

When John was placed in prison by Herod,
Jesus then left for Galilee,
Forsaking Nazareth, he dwelt in
Capernaum, beside the sea:
�All those who walked in darkness and shadow
Now by the light of God�s own glory see!�

The gospel preached by Jesus the Savior
Stirs still the hearts of those who hear:
�Repent! the reign of God is coming!
God�s love and care for all is clear!�
�All those who walked in darkness and shadow
Now by the light of God�s own glory see!�

For each of us by God has been given
Grace in the gen�rous measure of Christ!
The same Lord Christ whose presence is filling
heaven and earth, who paid sin�s dread price.
�All those who walked in darkness and shadow
Now by the light of God�s own glory see!�

Dear Professor,

If these texts and melodies are intended for latins or for singing at home or something, then forgive me. But if your intentions are for these to be sung in byzantine churches then I would have a major problem with that.
If the structure and basis of these 'hymns' are based on stichira, then why not just sing the true stikhira in their appointed tone?
Why must we resort to "o little town of bethlehem" and "hark the herald angels sing". It is un-canonical for this type of stuff to be sung in church especially to non-church tunes. There have been many articles written by orthodox hierarchs on the troubles of "Our Father" and other liturgical texts being sung to various classical composers. Even Baroque Church music is not pure and the orthodox are moving away from that too. Why then are we intoducing it? You may be opening pandora's box that will set back proper church singing in byzantine churches for decades.
We should be rediscovering our traditional church music and building off that.
This is not a matter of taste, it is a matter of pinije vs muzika. In slavonic there is a distinction made in the language between church music and secular music. Music of the church is seen as being on a completely other level than artistic, worldly music.

I am sure you are aware of what galician melodies are capable of sounding like (the harmonizations of Fr. Conrad Dachuk come to mind). Kievan melodies are out of this world. Podobens, Bulgarski, Znamenni (leser and greater), what an undiscovered wealth of beauty. Give Daniil and myself another couple of years of working at it and we will have some real gems.

Ilya

Ilya,

I can only say AMEN!

Andrij
(wannabe pivets)

With all due respect to the work that you are doing with plainchant Professor, I have to agree. Why not encourage singing portions of Matins or Vespers proper to the feast or in the tone of the Sunday, rather than re-creating the wheel. We've been doing this alot at our church, especially singing the exaltation of matins on special feasts, ie. "We extol you, O Christ the giver of life, and we..." with the proper verses. This seems to work, especially since it's refrain and verse. This is usually repeated during the communion as well.

Again, no offense intended, but using music from matins and vespers would help to teach this un-sung treasury and hopefully, one day aid in the restoration of the divine praises more widely on a parish level.

John.

Amin, Illya. I regularly lament the loss of podobni, samopodobni, etc. that our musical tradition was once so rich. You are not alone in your observations and feelings, believe me.

But as my spiritual father told me when I was explaining one of my laments to him, you have to do something about it, and not just lament it. You have to learn the music and not only learn it but use it. We have regular Vespers and I have found that people pick up pretty quick, actually, on Samohlasni for the stikhera.

I too have to wholeheartedly give kudos to Fr. Conrad's work on Tranquil Light and other English settings of stikhera and troparia. They are good texts and extremely singeable.

Drillock and others also have some very singeable settings of Obikhod, Znamenny, Carpatho-Russian and various other chant traditions. I think it is not much harder to learn the Samohlasni and Bulharski as it is to force fit a text to a set melody outside of the tradition.

When I was at St. Basil's Joe Roll would give us a text and make us sing it in any tone Samohlasni that he threw at us as a sort of "quiz". But anyone can do it if I can do it.

Daniil and I work on music constantly.
Frankly, I didn't know stuff like this was even going on (besides St. Demetrius in T.O.).
But then again its too easy to lose touch in Brampton, you take what you have for granted. Moving to Ottawa has been a sobering experience. Needless to say, the only place where I feel at home is at the OCA and Saint Xenia's. My sister does her best with trying to help with the singing at the shrine, but it is difficult even for her.

Oh, by the way there is only one 'l' in my name

Ilya

Hey Ilya:

What do you have in the way of written out galician chants? We at V&O's have a lot written out by your uncle but I myself am always on the lookout for additional stuff. We might be able to do some business. Thanks!

Yours,

hal

I only have a few things of father Conrads, there is a lot more that he has stashed away. Most of my stuff is still stashed in my head. I will ask Daniil tonight what he has (I know he has been writing some stuff recently).

Ilya

I remeber it's only one "l", my keyboard has had too much coffee spilt on it and some if not most of the keys stick now.

Most if not all of what I have of Fr. Conrad's your father passed to me. I suppose someone could run to Welland somtime and dig some more out?

Well, Professor, here is one guy that likes your hymns! I find these and all your newly composed hymn lyrics to be perfectly in line with the para-liturgical hymnography of Carpatho-Rus' and surrounding areas.

Dave

It'll be very tough to beat your revised version of "Kumbaya", when it comes to liturgical hymn adaptations, Dave...

Geez, you are NEVER going to let me live that one down, eh? :p

Dave

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Gentlemen who have posted:

Would it not be a tad more prudent, and in line with Christian charity, to ask questions before making condemnations?

First of all, at the seminary, we are singing the very podobni you are talking about, and making them available in whole services to parishes and cantors that wish to establish/re-establish the singing of Vespers and Matins according to the fullness of the prostopinije traditions.

Secondly, at our Cathedral in Munhall, we sing the Praises from Matins before the Divine Liturgy every Sunday, so that people are getting more exposed to these tones as well.

However, in many of our Byzantine Catholic parishes, that which is sung before the Divine Liturgy has no sense of being part of the liturgical year. The provision of texts composed in the spirit of the proper hymnody of Vespers and Matins, sung to familiar tunes (mostly Rusyn melodies, but at Christmas with other quite well-established "western" melodies) is introducing some people for the first time that para-liturgical hymnody can be sung that isn't only connected with the Theotokos or the Most Holy Mystery of the Eucharist.

If they are of no use to you, ignore them. But they are far from being illegal or immoral or even fattening. And, Ilya, I am profoundly aware that in your father's parish in Brampton you sing para-liturgical hymnody, even things completely western (i.e., NOT inspired by Byzantine hymnody), so I find this rather strident comment both out of character for you and a little unkind. Nonetheless, I wish for you and for all posters a blessed Philip's Fast, with whatever you are singing---and for a deepening of the observance of the Divine Praises in all parishes of the Byzantine and Ukrainian Catholic Churches.

In Christ,
(Prof.) J. Michael Thompson
Byzantine Catholic Seminary
Pittsburgh, PA

Ilya,


I myself tend to cringe at the singing of "western" hymns and Christmas carols in paraliturgical settings, though I hardly think of them as "un-canonical". Inappropriate is the word that comes more to my mind. If we have a treasury of hymnody we should endeavour to restore it. I have been going through some Ukranian kolady books and discovering some beautiful melodies in there. Though they are not necessarily of the tradition of my parish and my church.

You wrote:

"Why must we resort to "o little town of bethlehem" and "hark the herald angels
sing". It is un-canonical for this type of stuff to be sung in church especially to
non-church tunes."
Do you have a reference in the canon law that would back up your case?

Travel to other parishes within your eparchy as well as outside before you condemn what goes on in other parishes. Brampton is NOT the center of OUR universe, though it may be for your own. While in your view your parish is the norm by which all else shall follow, I don't know what your parish does as a norm except by what truth you choose to print here. I see by Prof. Thompson's reply that you may not be telling us the truth as it should be.

You also wrote:
"We should be rediscovering our traditional church music and building off that.
This is not a matter of taste, it is a matter of pinije vs muzika. In slavonic there is a
distinction made in the language between church music and secular music. Music
of the church is seen as being on a completely other level than artistic, worldly
music."

So "Nebo I Zemlya" (excuse the lack of cyrillic character usage) can't be used since it is worldly music? Look at the structure of the music. "Kol Slaven Nas" is definitely too western as Bortnianski had a western music influence through his travel in Europe. I don't think the Slavonic language has any say in what is and is not church music. I would suppose the "Da Ispolnjatsja" in it's many musical incarnations is not liturgical. Do you have a true liturgical, ie pinije vs muzika, music arrangement/setting for "Da ispolnjatsja" that is used exclusively for church?

I think sometime we all do get hung up on how to do things 'right' and forget that the words of prayer are more important by far than the music accompanying them.
If a parish sings "Ize cheruvimy" to the tune of "Koly Jasna Zvisda" and understands the beauty of the words of the hymn, sings from the heart, does that mean they will be forsaken because it isn't 'canonical'?

Back to preparing for tomorrow's liturgy,


Steve Petach

Well said, Professor.

I would hazard a guess, by the way, that Galician/Kievan/Znammeny tones in our particular church would be more controversial than most hymn tunes that are well-established in the American culture.