www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship The Kliros The pitch

Dear Cantores,

I've been wondering if you think there might be some correlation between the quality of liturgy and the pitch at which the chant is taken. I know quite often the cantor and the clergy (especially at the Presanctified) tend to go lower and lower in pitch, and it gets very difficult for me to sing with any clarity. Moreover, the sound of the whole congregation gets muddy the lower we go. When I cantor, I usually make a point of singing higher, and, although this is self-serving, I think liturgy goes better. After all, the expression is "Raise your voices!" I pray better when the music is a bit higher.

What do you think? Does this fit your experience?

Can I post even if I am not a cantor but would someday like to be one?

Dear Pseudo Athanasius,
I think you're on to something. Sometimes it is hard to sing that low, especially for a girl, but sometimes it is equally as difficult for the congregation to sing really really high too. Did I make any sense? I guess I am jsut wondering if there is a happy medium.

-Katie g, a cantor wannabe but is happy now to sing loud in the congregation.

I'm a baritone with about a 2 octave plus range. If I go high enough to please the sopranos, I will lose many male voices as a rule. It also appears that sopranos can more easily accomodate lower pitches for a while than the men can tolerate the higher ones. That is how it is where I am. It could be different in many different congregations, because of the general mix of people.

As to the Presanctified Liturgy, the prevailing tone in use for that particular service (in the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic churches that use the Levkulic edition at least) is rather chromatic, and different on the way up versus the way down. Some folks have never been able to catch on to it no matter how high or how low the pitch is.

Ultimately, I try to defer to the pitch that my priest can be most comfortable singing, but sometimes will change when I see a potential "train wreck" coming, especially during some of the litanies. Gotta be flexible.

I get into more trouble when we "top out" and get the base pitch too high. I actually prefer it lower, as I can sing with more volume and better intonation as can our main cantor.

As a deacon, I have to do the first invocation, so I try to get with the cantor and give him a note before Liturgy begins and see what he thinks - will he shake off the pitch or take it (little pun, there - OK, not so good...)

With both the Prostopinje and Samoylka Lenten chants there are naturals when one thinks intuitively it will be a sharp/flat. It can be tricky.
FDD

Interesting issue!

I would say when the pitch is too low, or too high, for most parishioners, they stop singing and the liturgy "degenerates" into a performance by Priest and cantor. In this sense finding "the right pitch" is part of "good liturgy," but I would be wary of a generalization such as "low pitch = bad liturgy, high pitch = good liturgy."

I generally try to "take the pitch" from the celebrant [I've never been the main cantor with a Deacon], and sometimes this takes my voice places it cannot go!

There are also some chants where there is a tendency for the pitch to lower over time. I have noticed this with some of the psalm chants, which are also used for the Creed at times.

A specific example is the first Creed melody used in the Levkulik Green books [which I believe is a Russian psalm chant?]. If I just take the tone from the Priest, I end up too low for myself and most in the congregation. Now I self-consciously raise the pitch.

"A specific example is the first Creed melody used in the Levkulik Green books [which I believe is a Russian psalm chant?]."

The "green book" was created, not by Msgr. Levkulik (may his memory be eternal!) but by the Inter-eparchial Music Commission (which, at that time, was Pittsburgh and Passaic <G>). The chant given as "Creed number one" is definitely NOT a Russian psalm chant; it is the melody from the Pochaiv monastery (i.e., Ukrainian) which is commonly used with the Akathistos Hymn to the Theotokos; it is also used to sing the Profession of Faith in Galician churches. It came into common use among Rusyns through the Eparchy of Preshov, probably first brought by the Basilian monks from Galicia who worked in that Eparchy.

Prof. J. Michael Thompson
Byzantine Catholic Seminary
Pittsburgh, PA

I have great difficulty attempting to "sing" during the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil because the Cantor sings so high. It is basically a Solo.

I'm a Basso Profondo (that's Double Bass/Oktavist/Basse Noble/Schwarzerba�) with range of slightly more than two octaves, from the D above middle C down to the Bb below the bass clef.

I find that if I'm not careful, my 'comfortable' starting note will be awfully low for a congregation. On the other hand, if a pitch is chosen well in conjunction with the other chanters and choirmembers, I find I'm usually able to double basslines at the lower octave - awfully useful since I sing a lot of the Russian stuff.

Sometimes, when I'm working with a particular Ukrainian chanter trained in Galician chant, I find the depth of my pitch useful as he's a baritone, so I'm always able to sing bass to his melody even if his starting pitch is low.

I am curious - does anyone have a letter name of frequency for the pitch that works. My range is like Edward's except as I've aged I've lost the upper register. With a little group - all basses and altos - we sing Russian obikhod usually scored in F or G, in keys somewhere from Bflat to D, dependng on Father's intonation. The congregation probably does better in the higher of these keys, but I think that F,G would be a real stretch.

Prostopinije is harder because of the range. And the Basil anaphora - spanning an octave and a third IIRC, that does require thoughtful key selection. Do you all use a pitch pipe or just wing it?

Dear DJS,

The music as Prof. Thompson pitches it usually works pretty well. It is all written in F or close to F, and that's a pretty good key for our music. Our pastor and deacons are pretty good at keeping that pitch, for the usual music. The problems come in during Lent, at least for me. I'm not the most tenory of tenors, but when we slip down to Eb or D, I can't sing the low notes loud enough (c's and Bb's below the staff). I think there are lots of the congregation in the same boat as I am; at least it seems that way.

Also problematic are the alternate cherubic hymns in the old Cantor book, which start on F, but have a range that runs from D above middle C down to the A below the lower C. To make the high parts comfortable for people makes the low parts muddy.