www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship The Kliros Reader Training in Pittsburgh Area

Chris Singel and I will be running another Reader Training class this Great Lent sponsored by the Metropolitan Cantor Institute.

Steve Puluka
MA, Theology Duquesne University
Cantor Holy Ghost Church
Carpatho-Rusyn tradition
Mckees Rocks, PA
http://puluka.com

Epistle Reader's Short Course

Steve Puluka and Chris Singel will again be teaching a short course for church readers. This time, it will be held on three consecutive Saturdays - February 9, 16, and 23 - at St. Gregory Nanianzen Byzantine Catholic Church in Upper Saint Clair. The program will cover the role of the church reader or lector; the use of the Scriptures in our church tradition; and the melodies and techniques used for singing of Epistles and Old Testament readings.

Classes begin at 10 AM and end at 3 PM; lunch and all materials are included in the $15 course fee, which can be paid at the door. Please register in advance by calling (412) 735-1676, or writing to Plainchanter@gmail.com.

Any chance of something like this on the West Coast? Is this sort of thing covered at all in your archives at puluka.com? I'm a convert from protestantism to the Latin rite, and from there into the UGCC and am trying to make sense of chanting the epistles and OT readings. Thanks.

We shared this on our Facebook, and someone responded that those dates are Sundays not Saturdays.

These classes are organized by the Pittsburgh eparchy based Metropolitan Cantors Institute. They don't have any authority to organize classes outside the Pittsburgh eparchy. Chris and I would be open to discussing classes in other areas.

I don't have any material posted on these sessions yet. But I am working with the Cantors Institute on possible on-line or distance formats. These are still pretty preliminary at this point.

As far as the dates are concerned, these are last years session in 2013. Sorry for the confusion, when I posted this I should have included the year for the sake of the archives.

Steve Puluka
MA, Theology Duquesne University
Cantor Holy Ghost Church
Carpatho-Rusyn tradition
Mckees Rocks, PA
http://puluka.com

Thanks for your reply. I look forward to the online/distance formats. In the meantime, is the Epistle chant usually done according to a tune, or does it stay mainly on one pitch, with variations from that based on punctuation?
Would one chant the Epistle according to the tone of the day?

Thanks,
Glenn Campbell

The epistle chant does not vary by tone of the week. And there is not a formal musical rubric for the chant used. So there is some degree of variation in the tradition.

The chant I learned is a simple A phrase followed by B phrase chant in documented use for the creed by the reader for hundreds of years. There is then a concluding phrase. The introductory incipit on the reading, usually "brothers and sisters" is taken separately.

When chanting the reader must pay close attention to the sense of the text when using the alternating phrases to insure clarity for the congregation.

I'll try to put together a blog page on the topic for my site over the next week or so with some of the musical documentation I've collected.

Steve Puluka
MA, Theology Duquesne University
Cantor Holy Ghost Church
Carpatho-Rusyn tradition
Mckees Rocks, PA
http://puluka.com

Thanks

Thank you for doing this. I have been chanting the epistles at services where the normal reader is not there. Only being in the UGCC for over a year I have been relying on underlining where the reader was making his inflection, and trying to duplicate
that.

Hi. Couldn't find blog entry on puluka.com, but managed to unpack your last post. Makes sense. Seems likely that some of the Gregorian Modal Psalm Tones will work as well. Thanks.