Music for all the Apolytikia in English

frephraim

Παλαιό Μέλος
We are setting to music in English all the apolytikia and some kontakia for the entire year. As of now (Nov. 22, 2007) we have finished the apolytikia in Byzantine notation for September through December, and in Western notation for September through January. God willing, for the next eight months, we will finish each new month a week or two before that month begins. You can download this music for free from our website at: http://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/music/Menaion.htm
 

Dimitri

Δημήτρης Κουμπαρούλης, Administrator
Staff member
Thanks Father, this is really useful work for every English-speaking psaltis. Looking at your notation I see that you choose to use the simplest bar notation to record the rhythmic changes and you do not put numbers 2, 3, 4 etc. on top. I personally have absolutely no problem with this (on the contrary) but I am interested to hear your ideas on why you chose to notate rhythm simply like that?

Thank you.
 

frephraim

Παλαιό Μέλος
I'm glad you like my work, Dimitri.

As for marking the rhythm, I must admit that I am at a loss as to what method is optimal. In my first two books (Liturgies and Vespers) I used vertical lines as well as the numbers 3 and 4 for all troparia, regardless if they were papadic, sticheraric, or heirmologic. In other words, at the beginning of a measure with 3 beats, I would place a 3 over the first note in that measure, and then put a vertical line after the final note in that measure. This is the same strategy Hieromonk Gregorios of Simonos Petras uses in his series "Angelikos Choros". Even though I am aware that some people criticize his works as being "Western" due to their very mobile ison (and because of the famous "Agne Parthene" he composed), I still feel that his method of marking the rhythm is the most practical.

But when I started writing music for the (heirmologic) apolytikia, I noticed that some of them (especially the ones using the soft chromatic modal genre) had so many irregularities in the rhythm that the apolytikion would be literally full of 3's. (For example, take a look at my Apolytikion and Kontakion for the Birth of the Theotokos.) It occurred to me that having so many 3's all over the place not only becomes distracting, but also I doubted that they would really be helping anybody, because in heirmologic melodies, the quick tempo makes it impractical for the head chanter to keep time with his hand by tapping the analogion every other beat (and certainly impossible to tap the analogion at every beat, if that is his preference). Since I assumed that the primary purpose of having those 3's was to help the head chanter conduct with his hands, I drew the conclusion that they were pointless in quick, heirmologic melodies. Therefore, I eliminated all those 3's in such melodies. Instead, I placed vertical lines at the beginning of a measure with 3 beats, while still keeping a vertical line at the end of such a measure. This method of marking the rhythm is what the new editions of the Zoe Anastasimatarion has. Although it also has its drawbacks, I think it is a much neater way of marking the rhythm. But to avoid confusion between upcoming measures of 4 and 3, I decided to keep the number 4 in 4-beat measures even for heirmologic troparia.

So that is my reasoning on this matter. But if anyone can convince me that there is a better way to mark the rhythm, I will gladly follow his advice.

+Papa Ephraim
 
Top