Guide to the Divine Liturgy

Beloved in the Lord, Christ is in our midst! I have attached for you a pdf file for the book you see depicted here. This excellent little book is available fromwww.ellinasmultimedia.com and is a very clear and accessible guide to the Divine Liturgy. For those of you who attended our beautiful teaching liturgy last evening it was quite apparent that even beginning to plumb the depths of meaning in the Divine Liturgy is a lifetime’s pursuit. We must be very intentional in our worship  [Read more...]

Tone 3 Audio Files

Dear St. George Chanters and Musicians, Please note the three audio files I have attached for our Tone 3 lesson this Saturday. This tone is one that, like the 4th tone, has 11 different “prosomia” settings or different melodic thoughts. However, unlike tone 4 in which many of the prosomia are but minor variations, tone 3 has a great deal of variety as the three attached files indicate. And as we discussed last Saturday, the “martyria” of the 3rd tone, based on the  [Read more...]

Tone 1 Audio Files

Here is the first of the tone one files I will be sending you this week. This is the file for the troparion for the tone which, as we discussed Saturday, is the first setting one should learn in each of the tones. Again, this preliminary cycle through the 8 tones is merely to introduce them and to acquaint your ears to the way the tones sound and how they behave in the services. Subsequent cycles will introduce more nuances of the tones  [Read more...]

Tone 2 Audio Files

Beloved in the Lord, Please note the two attached audio files from two of my audio recordings. As I have stated in the Saturday afternoon class, the purpose of this first 8-week run through the Byzantine tonal system is merely to expose your ears to the music of the Orthodox Church. We will begin learning to sing and to apply them in subsequent passes. For now, please invest some time into simply listening to the tones. Tone two is perhaps the most nuanced  [Read more...]