St. Procopius - Doxastikon of the Aposticha

GabrielCremeens

Music Director at St. George, Albuquerque, NM
Hello everyone,

Attached is a composition for St. Procopius the Great-Martyr, who will be celebrated this coming Sunday (and Saturday night). I have written out music for this Doxastikon of the Aposticha, in Plagal Fourth Mode. There are a couple of spots where I felt perhaps some changes might be in order; if anyone has any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated. Specifically, I am wondering about the following places:

1) Page 1, line 7. On the phrase "God by adoption," I'm wondering if there should be an omalon, instead of a psefiston, under the word "God." This is how it was written in the original, but somehow it looks "wrong" to me. Perhaps someone can tell me if this hunch is correct or not.

2) Page 1, line 10. On the phrase, "Wherefore, by thine intercessions," perhaps someone can suggest a better melodic line. This is the exact thesi from the original, but I feel that it unnecessarily accentuates the word "thine."

I hope this proves helpful to some. Βοήθειά μας!

In Christ,
Gabriel

P.S. There should be a gorgon on the second oligon/kentemata combination of the word "Trinity." Thanks Anya. :)
 

Attachments

  • St. Procopius - Aposticha Doxastikon0001.pdf
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GabrielCremeens

Music Director at St. George, Albuquerque, NM
Does anyone know where I can find the Praises Idiomela for St. Procopius? They're not in Kypseli, unless I missed them.
 

GabrielCremeens

Music Director at St. George, Albuquerque, NM
Probably a bigger question than the two I have listed above is whether or not it is "valid" to begin a doxastikon in Plagal Fourth Mode with a two-beat jump to high zo-flat.

Ideas?
 

romanos4

Παλαιό Μέλος
Actually - there is a copy of Kypsele in our bookcase near the analogion at Church that had the Doxastika for Aposticha for St. Procopius - I can tell you that from what I remember the opening cadence was not Ni to Zo' :) That being said I stil enjoyed chanting your score, Tim!

Ross
 

GabrielCremeens

Music Director at St. George, Albuquerque, NM
Actually - there is a copy of Kypsele in our bookcase near the analogion at Church that had the Doxastika for Aposticha for St. Procopius - I can tell you that from what I remember the opening cadence was not Ni to Zo' :) That being said I stil enjoyed chanting your score, Tim!

Ross

Yes, I remember that the opening cadence was not ni-zo'; I'm pretty certain (if my memory serves me) that the Greek and the English texts and their patterns of accentation differed in that spot. There were several options that I considered that sounded more like the Greek, but I was trying to avoid putting undue emphasis on the secondary stressed syllable of the word illuminated ("nat") instead of the primary stressed syllable ("lu").

In fact, I looked through most of Kypseli and Papa Ephraim's formulas, and I can't find an instance of a plagal fourth piece that has that kind of opening cadence in it. (Or a two-beat cadence on zo-flat anywhere throughout the piece.) I remember a setting of a piece by John Boyer using this opening thesis, but I'm not sure what his source was. (It was a doxastikon for St. Thomas, I believe.).

I spoke with Rassem el-Massih, and he said that there is a doxastikon in Arabic that begins with this thesis, but he didn't mention which piece specifically.

I found a 1.5-beat cadence on zo-flat in Papa Ephraim's setting of "Blessed is the Man," by Manuel Protopsaltis, but that's not a doxastikon, and the thesi is not similar.

There is a varys cadence in one of the Idiomela of the Sunday night Vespers services of Great Lent, but those are kind of different, in that they contain some quotes from the long sticheraric genus... and besides, the melody moves to Ga, so it's a different kind of musical idea.

There was another 1.5- beat zo-flat cadence in Kypseli somewhere, but I forget where.

I found other two-beat cadences on zo, but it was zo-natural, and the phrases were theseis from "agia" fourth mode, which is an entirely different "animal."

Based on the above, I think we can somewhat-safely conclude that it's probably not valid to open the piece with that line. That being said, if one simply removes the first two klasmata, it should be fine, I think. Of course, this isn't to say that that kind of opening doesn't exist. But, given that I can't find one, it's probably best not to open that way.

The suggestion I have from Dr. Karanos, our Byzantine Chant teacher here at the school, is the following:

Il - ni
lu - zo (1 beat)
mi - ke (1 beat)
nat - di, with klasma, followed by ke with gorgon, then ison, followed by yporroe with gorgon
ed - di, with klasma
with - bou
the - ga
mys - di, continue as in original score.

Hope this is helpful.

In Christ,
Gabriel
 
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romanos4

Παλαιό Μέλος
Interesting- yeah of course it comes down to the accentuation.

Hope things are going well at Seminary - I'm glad Karanos is there now.

In Christ,

Ross
 
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