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Vespers & Orthros Hymns
Orthodox worship services are much more complex than they seem at Holy Cross, but that is because of the many hours that the clergy and musicians spend on preparation! While certain elements of the services are fixed, meaning they remain the same all year round, many more are variable, and change according to the current feast day or season. There are numerous volumes of texts for variable hymns, and overlapping sets of rules for using them. We depend mostly on a publication called the Chanter’s Guide, which is put out by the Archdiocese, and even it contains numerous mistakes. We often consult other choir directors and chanters, or online resources and newsgroups, in determining how our services are put together.
The reason we continue to operate in this manner, service after service, is twofold: firstly, we have a love for the “Right Doctrine” that is our Church’s foundation, and believe that should translate to “Right Worship” — everything done, as closely as possible, according to the traditions of the Church. For this reason, when we discover that we have been singing something the wrong way, we do our best to change it. Secondly, we have a real love for the hymnography of the Church, which is not only beautiful for its poetic qualities, but is rich with layer after layer of meaning. The teachings and doctrine of the Church are embedded in its music, and we are continually amazed at how much we learn about Orthodox theology through our ministries of song.
The unfortunate side of this rich, complex worship is that it prevents ordinary lay people from having access to the texts that comprise a service. We were thrilled when the Archdiocese began online publication of variable texts in their entirety (cutting out the need to shuffle multiple books at the chanter’s stand) and immediately wanted to make these hymns available to our parishioners and visitors. Our hope is that you will use them to follow the service more closely (though we chant almost completely in English, the Byzantine melodies make it difficult at times to understand the words) and take them home to meditate on the teachings contained there. Unfortunately, there are sometimes differences in translation between the hymns we use and the hymns in the bulletin. We ask for your prayers for a unified American Orthodox Church, one benefit of which would be a single English translation of the Church’s hymnography. Until then, we ask for your patience!
You can find the current bulletin on the Liturgics page of the Antiochian Archdiocese web site, which contains more hymns and more detailed rubrics than we are able to publish each week. Their publications are available in PDF format (for standard letter-sized paper) and text-only HTML format.