tones and orthodox music

[BabyLutheran]

I am new to Orthodox music and have only attended DL twice. I just had a few questions about the music during the service. Is it the same songs every week? What is the strange thing the choir director does before each song where he/she hums 4 notes? What is meant by tones, is it a different way of saying what the key is in? How many parts are there 4(SATB) or more? Why doesn't anyone beside the choir ever sing, that's what I miss most from the nondenomination churches, the chance to sing and worship God?

Thanks in advance for all the good answers I know are coming.

Mike

[choirfiend]

I am new to Orthodox music and have only attended DL twice. I just had a few questions about the music during the service. Is it the same songs every week? What is the strange thing the choir director does before each song where he/she hums 4 notes? What is meant by tones, is it a different way of saying what the key is in? How many parts are there 4(SATB) or more? Why doesn't anyone beside the choir ever sing, that's what I miss most from the nondenomination churches, the chance to sing and worship God?

Thanks in advance for all the good answers I know are coming.

Mike


The Liturgy is largely unchanging. There are a few things that (may) change weekly (Troparia, Kontakia, Communion Hymn, occasionally the Antiphons, etc). They are not mere songs, however, but are as much a part of the heavenly prayer as the litanies and priestly prayers.

The choir director is giving the starting pitches to the singers. Nothing fancy there, but since we dont typically have a piano or organ to give an intro, the choir director needs to tell the singers what key they;re singing in.

Tones (or Modes, in Greek usage) both are keys and melodic patterns. I can tell you to sing the Troparion of the Holy Cross in tone 1, and anyone would be able to sing it. Likewise, I could tell you to sing any troparion in tone 1, and the notes would follow the same pattern, tailored to the new words. There are 8 tones. They change daily/weekly.

Orthodox Church music is diverse across many cultures and musical heritages. In most Greek useage(Byzantine chant), there are two parts: melody and ison, or drone. In Slavic useage, there are a variety of types of chant and forms. Znammeny, Kievan, and Obikhod are three styles of chant (with their own 8 tones). Georgian music has three parts. Much ancient chant has been harmonized into 4 parts. The high Russian typically has 4. You're probably hearing 4 parts, SATB.

Worship happens whether one sings or not. However, each parish will be different. In some parishes there is a single cantor who chants most of the service. In the Carpatho-Russian practice, the entire congregation sings something called "plainchant." It will just depend on the parish as to whether they sing or the choir sings. It may be that no one in the congregation is comfortable singing. It may be that "this is how we have always done it" and so they dont sing. It is not everyone's role to sing all the time--it is why we have such a great participation and roles within the Liturgy, which means "common work" or shared work of the people. The priest has his role, the choir theirs, and the congregation theirs. THe congregation offers their prayers and worship, and it would be appropriate for them to make responses or sing sometimes, but not everyone likes to do that.

[Oblio]

Why doesn't anyone beside the choir ever sing, that's what I miss most from the nondenomination churches, the chance to sing and worship God?


This is a parish thing. Our parish encourages congregational singing, and we choose the relatively simple Obikhod settings to facilitate this. I've been to some parishes where nearly all the singing is done by the choir. I find this passive and prefer full participation, even if some of us can't carry a tune.

[eoe]

Click me (http://www.goarch.org/en/multimedia/audio/orthros.asp)

You can hear the different tones. Same words - different tones.

[Akathist]

I sing in the choir most of the time. The humming of the four or three notes is the note (pitch) we start at. The order of what note is what is something that is hand written (in our case) at the top of the page. Sometimes my note (Soprano) is the first "hmm" or the third or the last, etc. We have a tuning thing like a round harmonica that someone (not always the choir director because they don't come to church every week and besides they don't like the thing.) The choir director blows on the right "key" (which is one of the four notes and then from that he/she knows what the other notes are.)

I can read music and this helps but most of our choir members can not read music they only understand about the pitch going up or down by where the notes are on the staff.That is sufficient in our church anyway.

Also, in our parish, all in attendance may sing throughout the entire service (when the choir sings of course) but I find that only about 75% are singing, the rest don't want to sing.

The next time to you go, sit near the front and when the choir is singing one of the prayers sung at every DL turn your head for a second and look and you might find that others in your church are singing too. We had an inquirer who visited about five times before she noticed that the congregation where all singing, she thought the choir was just loud and the accoustics good. She always stood in the back and didn't see anyone singing that way.

[BabyLutheran]

yeah, I was in the back, so I will move up next time and look and listen!