Advice for neophyte in Antiochian Archdiocese of North America?

Loukas12

Reader Luke
A little background before my questions...

I've served in Orthodox choirs before, and have been singing/chanting for years, but it's been entirely within the Orthodox Church in America, and so it's almost entirely choral, and based on the Russian compositions and tones.

Back in 2011, I spent 3 months of my college education studying in Greece, where I developed a love for Byzantine Chant that I previously did not have.

Recently I made the move over to the Antiochian Archdiocese. I'm soon to be formally made a Reader by our Bishop. For months, I've been drilling the various tones and struggling to learn them. I've made a lot of progress since I've begun, though I'm still running into practical, typical problems of chanting neophytes.

First, I really struggle with changing tones. As chanters, we mainly chant Daily Vespers, Great Vespers & Orthros, with Divine Liturgy being the entire choir. For Daily Vespers, there are only 2-3 of us in the kliros. Therefore, whenever I have to change the tone (such as from the 1st to Plagal of 2nd, as this Thursday commemorating Moses, Aaron & St. Babylas), no matter how much I drill the Apolytikion (in this case, When Mary Stood...), and even start the change with the intonation (Νεχ χε ανες), I still end up stuck on the 1st Tone when I actually chant, despite the fact I know the Plagal of the 2nd Tone.

Second, since my Priest is obviously in charge of all of us chanters, even the choir director. I've been consulting and seeking his advice. I want to be a lot more traditional in Byzantine Chant, and less the standard cut that you see from Antiochian chanters using Kazan's music. My Priest also wants me to focus on being more traditional (he's from Syria and prefers traditional chant, and although we use Kazan for everything else, we use SEM for Divine Liturgy). Therefore, I've been listening a lot to the recordings of Fr. Elias Bitar, Fr. Nicholas Malek, St. Romanos Choir, SEM, HTM, St. Anthony's Monastery, as well as various Protopsaltis from Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia & Romania. Despite this, I'm having a lot of trouble actually chanting traditionally.

Third, my natural range is up around Tenor or Second Tenor. I haven't been able to find a lot of traditional chanters, in English, Greek or otherwise, who are also up in that range. Fr. Apostolos Hill & Fr. Nikodemos Kavarnos are around that range, but I don't think they are that traditional in Byzantine Chant. Does anyone have any advice? It gets pretty painful and difficult for me when I try to chant at a lower key like most Byzantine Chant.
 

Panagiotis G.

Μέλος
Hi Loukas,

I don't have a lot of advice, except to encourage you to find a traditional teacher of byzantine music. Working alongside an experienced cantor will take you leaps and bounds beyond what you can teach yourself. Of course, living in America, it really depends on where you live if there are cantors or schools available. Perhaps some might be willing to connect with you via Skype or another internet platform.

Your observation about byzantine chant being in a "lower key" is not generally accurate. Listen to this recording of Thrasyboulos Stanitsas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdXLGr0wHM.

I would recommend adding some Greek chanters to your listening line-up like Stanitsas, Konstantinos Pringos, Chrysanthos Theodosopoulos, Manolis Xatzimarkos, and many more. All can be found in the Greek section of Psaltologion under recordings. (I wouldn't consider HTM an example of traditional chanting, by the way.)

Keep up the struggle and don't give up. Especially here in the States it can be difficult, but keep working.

Panagioits
 

apostolos

Απόστολος Κομπίτσης
Hi Loukas,

I concur with Panagiotis on his points. Learning from books, recordings and videos is one thing: learning next to a competent and classically-trained chanter is another. My response to people that ask me questions similar to yours is always the same: if you REALLY want to take a giant leap in your study of Byzantine Music, take a year off from where you are and find a competent teacher to chant next to Sunday after Sunday, major feast after major feast, vesper after vesper, and of course, Holy Week. You will need to go through at least one Liturgical cycle to even begin to get an understanding of what's going on. Of course, this advice may be impractical at times, since we all have full-time jobs, we're rooted in a particular geographical area, we have families, etc. Forums such as this one, however, are a blessing in guiding someone along their path.

Depending on where you live in the U.S., perhaps there IS someone relatively close to you who can help. You can P.M. me, if you wish.

Best of luck!

Apostolos
 

Loukas12

Reader Luke
Thank you very much!

I'll provide some links here as well. Our Priest prefers Byzantine Chant according to the Arabic tradition. But since I don't speak Arabic, I've only noticed some occasional differences between Arabic & Greek Byzantine Chant.

I've also begun to notice that a lot of Antiochian parishes seem to be switching from Basil Kazan's music to St. Anthony's Monastery. Metropolitan Joseph just recently requested all Antiochian parishes to switch from Kazan's "God is the Lord" to one by Rassem El Massih (here is a version in Tone 1: http://antiochian.org/sites/default/files/god_is_the_lord-_tone_1.mp3)

However, I'm still beginning and not in any position to really push our choir to do the same, plus we use Mount Lebanon's Divine Liturgy, and just use Kazan for Orthros & Vespers.

This is a link to my personal YouTube channel where I upload stuff from my parish and things we sing/chant:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCraMVoDL0gFNOKR8yfFxcKg

Here is a clip of our choir chanting/singing the Amomos/Evlogetaria of the Resurrection, which I think is according to Kazan's rendition: https://youtu.be/dKq2sMNI2ZM

Another example from our choir's chanting; https://youtu.be/z6DtxnYR2Ck

My current problem is trying to figure out how to be traditional in my chant, while also not being so completely different from everyone else that I stand out and potentially throw them off when they chant. The only tone I current have enough experience with to do this with is Tone 1.

I'll see if I can upload some more helpful examples to my YouTube channel at some point.
 
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