www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology The 8 tones . . . . .

I am posting here in the hope that I will be blessed with someone who can point me in the direction of where I can learn the 8 tones.

I have akathists but instead of praying them just in words would like to do it properly and sing them. How do I do this? Where can I learn the 8 tones?

God bless
Stephen

The Metropolitan Cantor Institute (Ruthenian Tradition) offers this:

http://www.metropolitancantorinstitute.org/liturgy/EightTones.html

I need something to teach me how to sing them though but thank you for your help.

Many jurisdictions, even parishes themselves, offer annual cantor workshops/chant workshops. Does your church offer this in Ireland or the U.K.? It might be your best opportunity.

As I was writing this post, I found one that takes place online. Perhaps it will help you:

http://orthodoxbeacon.com/nation/new-online-byzantine-chant-class/

Stephen,

Part of the answer is that every church has its own set of music for the eight tones, and there are different melodies also for the different KINDS of liturgical hymns. So a given chant tradition (say, Greek) might have a Tone 1 melody for psalms, a Tone 1 melody for troparia, another for stichera (hymns sung in alternation with psalm verses), and so on.

So to start with, you would have to decide which church's musical tradition you want to learn (Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Georgian, etc.)

For example, for the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church in the US, you can look at the Handouts page [metropolitancantorinstitute.org] from the Metropolitan Cantor Institute for printable tutorials for most of the eight tone melodies. Recordings of all eight tones are on the Recorded music [metropolitancantorinstitute.org] page in both English and Slavonic.

But for the Ukrainian churches, you would need to learn a different set of melodies, and so on.

In Christ,
Jeff Mierzejewski

P.S. For akathists, our church uses a melody from the Pochaiv monastery; for example, here is music for the Akathist to the Mother of God [metropolitancantorinstitute.org].

The version replaces the repeated familiar "Hail" with "Rejoice": “Rejoice, O Bride and maiden ever pure!” While rejoice is a possible translation for the Greek Chaire and the Slav Radujsja, context strongly favors the rendering in English here as the former (and again familiar) Hail of the Levkulic version. The Foreward of the linked pdf says:

The RDL (indirectly) strikes again, it seems, and in a too familiar fashion: an unnecessary change based on a questionable, poorer translation. Who is responsible for, who puts into effect, these changes?

Thank you. I would like to learn Ukrainian chant as I like the Ukrainian the best but I also love it all and hold Ruthenian close to my heart too.

But I need to focus on the Ukrainian. I don't see any workshops on the www.ugcc.ie [ugcc.ie] website in Dublin but would love to see it happen someday.

I am also learning Russian at the moment, hopefully when I become proficient in this language I will become proficient in Ukrainian and so on and be able to join in the Liturgy. Most of the congregation is Ukrainian so it makes sense that they would do DL in their wonderful native tongue.

At the moment I am just doing the Akathists without focusing too much on the official tones/melodies that would take place in Church.

Recordings of the eight tones and the DL here [saintelias.com], courtesy of St. Elias - Brampton, Ontario, Canada.

In addition to the excellent advice of St. Elias, the Anthology has an accompanying two CD set called "The Divine Liturgy for Congregational Singing" that you might find very helpful that has not only the "usual" Galician chant, but several variants of Kyivan and related chant also used in UGCC parishes. If you want liturgical resources in Ukrainian, Svichado is probably the best source. The Studite Fathers have made some very nice recordings of Divine Liturgy chants in Ukrainian.

Thank you curious Joe. A friend had just yesterday given me this link.

Thank you

LOL, I was certainly thrown off by this during the Vigil DL this afternoon, since I was used to singing the ordinary tone that would normally be sung, but it seemed like I had to get used to singing in a tone outside of the norm.