www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship The Kliros Ensuring Beautiful Liturgies

Dear Fellow Byzantines (at least I think most of you are)

My desire in sending this post is to initiate a conversation which I believe needs to happen on a broader plane in the Ruthenian Church, at least. I can't speak for the other Eastern Churches, as I don't know how things are going musically in other Eastern Churches.

I do want to hear what you think about these ideas below, and to have this conversation in your own parishes. I would like to know how possible these ideas are, how far off the mark I may be, or if you think I am barking up the wrong tree altogether. So with no further delay:

Using yesterday's Epistle (Tuesday of the 26th Week) as a jumping off point, I believe as many of our parishes as possible need to hire a professional cantor. As Paul said, the laborer deserves his wage. He also said priests who preach and teach should be paid double. So head cantors should be paid at least half of what pastors make. But let me explain.

The revered story that has St. Vladimir sending his men to all parts of the civilized world to discover the religion he would have his people adopt is well known. When his representatives found Constantinople, they experienced a liturgy where heaven met earth, or so they described. It must have been very beautiful. That is all this post is about. I believe our Divine Liturgies should be musically beautiful every Sunday, at least. While a few parishes are blessed with very good volunteer cantors and choirs, by and large, I do not think this is the case with most of our parishes. I have heard priests say that a poorly sung Divine Liturgy can actually drive people away. If that is true, we are too small a church to be doing that. It's true that many of our people have grown content with whomever is cantoring at their parish. But if the cantoring could be markedly improved at many of our parishes, I believe attendance would increase. Good attendance is not necessarily a sign of spiritual health, but we should be offering our best to God, regardless. I believe that parishes who could afford to pay a professionally trained and spiritually formed cantor on a per service basis, should do so.

By professionally trained, ideally we would be talking about someone who is degreed in music. Another possibility would be someone who has all the skills and motivation to get a degree in music, but has chosen another field as their major means of making a living.
By spiritually formed, I mean someone who has either grown up in the Byzantine church, or someone who has come to the Byzantine tradition and made it their own. Contrary to some traditionally held views, I do believe that Eastern Spiritually can be taught to those who are not born into it.

You may ask if there is any history for what I am proposing. There most certainly is, which is why no one can take credit for such a tried and true idea. Many of you know that even today, Byzantine cantors are often offered a stipend to sing for weddings and funerals.
"In the day", when the head cantor was also the religious instructor of the children, he was also paid a small salary for his work. Again, going back to St. Paul, the church has always paid there own, from their own resources, for the gifts offered.

Not to take anything away from the dedicated volunteers. If a volunteer is willing to work, to learn, and to improve at his own pace, by all means these people should be allowed to cantor, hopefully under the guidance and supervision of the a paid professional. This "head cantor" for each parish could train the volunteers, schedule cantors, and sing with the volunteers at every Sunday liturgy. The goal would be singing the chants accurately and beautifully and in a way that allows and encourages the people to participate musically, beautifully, and prayerfully. This of course would take a commitment from each parish, both financial and spiritual. The financial commitment should be seen as the parishes gift, her 'first fruits' offered to God in the liturgy. The benefit of a spiritual commitment for the good of the parish should be obvious.

The reasons why I see the need for this action as being so chronic in our church are these: regardless of whether the liturgy is celebrated in Church Slavonic or in the vernacular, there are less and less cantors who know the tones from memory. There are also less cantors who can read music. Given that more and more of our music is being set to standard modern notation, this becomes a growing concern. The beauty of our chant depends on our cantors singing accurately, but also beautifully. A beautiful vocal tone is rarely acquired simply be showing up. For volunteers to acquire such a tone, they usually need an example. A trained professional would provide that example.

Often times, chant in our church is sung too quickly, or too slowly, and almost always too loudly. We need to desire a higher quality of musicianship from and for our cantors, not only to aid the prayer of the faithful, but mostly to offered our best, which is the only gift worthy of giving to God. In the Old Country, in the days of the village parishes, when we had so many more people attending holy services, and so many more people singing the tones so often, and with fine voices leading the assemblies, it may not have been necessary to go looking for trained professional voices. But still, even then, they paid their cantors. Today, when we have less than 10% of the Byzantines we should have coming to church, we need to begin recruiting professionals even more than we ever have before.

It wouldn't have to be a living wage. We don't have to hire people full-time and pay health benefits or anything like that. But to pay a good cantor by the service, so that he will come, he will come prepared, and volunteers will sing with him learning the art well, and perhaps even aspiring to more serious study themselves, such consistency in our services could promise many benefits.

Our brothers an sisters in the Roman church have learned this lesson better than we. While we have remained more faithful in preserving the musical treasures of our liturgy, they have actually taken the necessary step of hiring people who will tend there music in a much more beautiful way. In short, we have simple, beautiful chant, but it is generally not sung well at all. I'm not talking about the RDL or how music is written. If the people have the notation in front of them, the notation should be followed. But regardless of how it has or is being written, it needs to be sung more beautifully, with more finesse and thoughtfulness. Musically speaking, I am still in search of that place where heaven and earth meet. In the Ruthenian church, I've yet to find it.

So that's it. Do you agree? Disagree? Have another suggestion? Please let me know what you think. My focus is on singing our services beautifully, regardless of what language we use, or what books we sing out of. I haven't written much about how choirs can contribute to all this, but that too needs to be explored and encouraged. In fact, I have come to the conclusion that the most beautiful Ruthenian liturgy would always have both choral settings AND prostopinije chant. Again, please let me know what you think.

Many Years
Tim Woods

I disagree. The centuries-old Plain Chant tradition, Subcarpathian-Rus' Prostopinije (and Samoilka as well), is what has sustained the authenic and unique liturgical express of the "Ruthenian Recension" Churches. The Choral tradition was brought into the "Ruthenian Recension" Churches from the outside. East Slavic choral music was mostly used for the Cathedral parishes, whether it was L'viv, Peremyshyl, or Uzhorod. I would place the most importance on the Plain Chant tradition, as it is used on a daily basis by all the faithful.

Ung

Very much agree. Distinct practices, from my infrequent study on the matter, continue when there is a bright line of division respected and acknowledged in practice.

I agree; the participatory aspect of the people in the rite itself, by way of responses and hymns integral to the form of the liturgy, is of immeasurable value -- in fact it is in a sense essential. This to me is most authentic, especially when it is accomplished as sung prayer. (And yes, simple but beautifully sung.)

I regard the initial post as a legitimate proposal for exploration. The laborer is certainly worthy of his hire. To me it is necessary here, however, to also equate the sense of profession with vocation, recalling that the church has the so-called minor orders, that they need to be recovered, and that our present combined ("ordination") service of tonsure-candlebearer-lector embraces the function of the cantor (the singing of the troparia). The professional, no matter how well credentialed, should not also be just the hireling.

We have, I believe, for better or for worse, the work of the professional in the form of the "Teal Tyrant." It is or is supposed to be all-embracing for chant in English. We are living with it, it is ours, like it or not. But (and this is purely a rhetorical question) where is the professional?

The centuries-old Plain Chant tradition, Subcarpathian-Rus' Prostopinije (and Samoilka as well), is what has sustained the authenic and unique liturgical express of the "Ruthenian Recension" Churches. The Choral tradition was brought into the "Ruthenian Recension" Churches from the outside. East Slavic choral music was mostly used for the Cathedral parishes, whether it was L'viv, Peremyshyl, or Uzhorod. I would place the most importance on the Plain Chant tradition, as it is used on a daily basis by all the faithful.

Ung

My concern is for music done beautifully. If you want to stick to the chant only, and have it done well by a trained musician, that's fine. In my experience, combining chant with choral music, though not AS authentic as just prostopinije alone, is still a beautiful experience of worship. People can participate internally while a choir sings, but I would not want to go the route of the Russian tradition and have the choir sing everything.
Tim Woods

To ajk

If you believe the idea itself to be worthy of further consideration, I'm grateful for that. We can deal with choirs later. I'm not quite sure I understand your question "where is the professional"? I agree he should be formed spiritually, not simply hired, but this can be done in tandem with his service as a cantor.
I would be willing to wait until a hired cantor is spiritually formed, but most parishes cannot wait. They need good help and they need it now.

Can you see this happening in your parish?
Tim Woods

I continue to ponder. Two additional points though:

1. the role and vision of the MCI [metropolitancantorinstitute.org]

2. St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church in Hillsborough NJ [stmarysbcc.org] which employs, I believe, a "full time" cantor along the lines described

Shouldn't he be a "professional from within the musical tradition", so that he, the professional, would understand the original Church Slavonic settings and nuances?

Ung

TIM:

I think you meant "to make sure" not to take out an insurance policy for beautiful liturgies. I changed your thread topic.

BOB

Actually,
link [merriam-webster.com]

Regarding the professional cantor in NJ, please tell us more.
Tim

Ideally, of course, we would want trained musicians who also come from the Byzantine tradition, but often this cannot happen. Many of the best cantors in our church today came from the Roman or protestant traditions. They have a trained voice, and also have taken care to learn the Divine Liturgy, not only technically (what comes next) but spiritually. In some of our parishes, the need for a good cantor is so great, that I believe we should hire a professional now, and teach him/her the Eastern spirituality "on the job", so to speak, which includes teaching him/her that this is not just a job, but a calling

Yes, but if a monthly premium would "insure" that the cantor sings musically, accurately, with a steady tempo the people can follow, but who also is expressive and can teach Byzantine congregations that chant does not always need to be too slow or too fast, or too loud, I would pay that premium before my car insurance. Someone once pointed out to me that paying trained cantors would give us a kind of "insurance" because, if they were not meeting expectations, they could be dismissed. As it is, it is very difficult to dismiss a good-hearted cantor whose best days are behind him. Meanwhile, younger and more capable cantors are being drawn to other opportunities for service. But will we admit that we need to address this issue in our church in time?
Tim

We just completed a cantor class that was well attended. A cantor from a church south of us gave an all day class in the history, organization, and method for good cantor-ing. It was followed the next day by a class for children on the role of reader. It piqued interest in some of them and made that part of the liturgy more understandable/approachable so that next Sunday they will hopefully be more connected with the epistles when they are intoned. Before I am asked, the goal was _not_ to have small or adolescent children reading, but to bring them closer to that moment in the liturgy.

So you are "reading" the Epistles and not chanting the Epistles? If so, why not make an effort to learn to chant the Epistle readings? I think reading the Epistles and reciting the Nicene Creed, which has become the norm in the "Sui Juris Metropolitan Byzantine Church in America", is done to ensure the Divine Liturgy does not last longer than one hour, and that's a shame.

Ung