www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship The Kliros A Female Cantor

Dear Friends,

If you ever have the chance, please visit St. Sophia's Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, D.C. for a Divine Liturgy. It is only a block away from the National Cathedral and a block up from the OCA Cathedral of St. Nicholas.

The head cantor (or 'chantress'and 'enchantress' as the priest referred to her) is a female with the most beautiful and heavenly voice capable of true Byzantine chant I have ever heard.

Even my husband who is quite traditional when it comes to his Byzantine chant, was 'enchanted' by her incredible voice. I initially did not know what his reaction to her being a woman would be, but he was as speechless about the beauty of what we heard as I was...

The chanting was mostly in Greek. I generally *don't* like that, but in this case, the beauty of her voice transcended any language difficulties one might have in understanding the words.

The priest briefly mentioned that she was Catholic and that she credits her grandfather for her love of church and chant, since she accompanied him to church every Sunday when she was a child. Her last name sounded Slavic. I was hoping to see her at the coffee hour downstairs to talk to her and find out more about her, but she wasn't there.

The Cathedral is quite beautiful and is worth a trip, not only to hear her voice, but for the aesthetic beauty of the church. The DL is chanted in English and Greek...and for a surprise treat, you may see George Stephanopoulos taking his baby daughter up for Holy Communion!

In Christ,
Alice

A newbie question, but i'll ask it anyway.

Are women not suppose to be cantors?

I honestly do not know, and i'm very curious.

In female monastic communities, the nuns are also the cantors.

I don't know if this is traditional, and I am sure there are some die hard traditionalists here who are probably seeing red right now...

However, in my jurisdiction, while it is certainly not the norm, I am proud to see that we can retain all the tradition and liturgical beauty of our faith and our church, while allowing for some small deviations. We live in the West, and Greek-Americans, who comprise my church, have by and large, assimilated to American culture quite well, while never abandoning their Greek ecclesiastical and secular culture completely.
We call this the little 't' traditions vs. the big 't' traditions (matters of faith and doctrine). I would say that chanting would fall under the little 't' tradition.

Another group of female cantors that come to my mind are the presvyteres (priest's wives) who go by the name of 'EIKONA' and have recorded the Akathist, the Resurrection, and the Supplication services to the Mother of God, with their heavenly voices. Their CD's are pretty big ecclesiastical sellers. I know of no man or woman who has heard them, Greek Orthodox or otherwise, that does not acknowledge the beauty of their music. Infact, I find it a most pleasant change from the sometimes elderly and 'nasaly' Greek men that one often hears in our American churches and who are definitely not getting it right. I must admit that it makes enjoying the liturgical experience a bit challenging when these men chant, though I do honor the time and commitment they are putting into the Church.

Infact, there is an old joke about an interfaith couple: a Greek Orthodox and a non-Orthodox. The Greek Orthodox man brings his bride to his church for Divine Liturgy for the first time, when she exclaims, "oh my, is someone having a kidney stone attack?!?"...He respondes, "no dear, that is just the chanter!".


Ofcourse, on the other hand, when my young priest and his young friend (a visiting cantor) chant our Byzantine style, I think that I am in heaven...so beautiful are their voices.

Ditto for the St. Vladimir's seminarian choir....

I do welcome the knowledge anyone has on the history (if any) of female cantors in the East.

In Christ,
Alice

Technically, yes. Given the often less than exulted status of cantors, this leads to a Shortage of cantors , thus often necessitating women as cantors when men don't step up to the task.

Personally, I do not see a problem with women as cantors. If the minor orders had been retained, then perhaps the situation would be different. After all I am just a cantor, an unpaid volunteer, with no actual standing in parochial (clerical) affairs.

Steve

Personally, I love the female voice in contrast with the male voice in the Liturgy. It always sounds beautiful when the two are together in the Liturgy, especially the female Arabic voice.

I cannot speak for any other byzantine's here. I will say though, that for the Melkite's, the answer is no.

This has only to do with tradition. In the Melkite church, the style of chant is designed for a single cantor and at time a low 'drone'. Choirs are not part of the Melkite Church tradition.

Now. of course, there have been allowances for others in the Melkite Church, such as a 'choir'. But the tradition is a trained cantor (or several trained cantors). Cantors who are ordained (institued) and who know the Chant (thus being men only).

Another factor that hinders this besides not knowing the chant is that the chant when tranferred to English also used Western style notation and does not lend itself to the Oriental-Arabic style which is microtonal like most Arabic.

God willing, we will be Blessed.

While you are in Washington, be sure to go to the Icon and Book store on 1217 Quincy Street, NE. It's a wonderful little store with lots of obscure books of interest to byzantophiles. Elaine, the proprietor, is also worth meeting, and rather tenacious; I wasn't able to leave the shop until I had spent 100$ on the Melkite Octoechos!

Do go visit. The website is here: http://www.iconbook.org/