Sacred music, chanting, and reading are essential activities to the life of the parish and possibly some of the most important a layperson can contribute to. The Divine Liturgy, which means “work of the people”, canonically must be celebrated with one other person besides the priest. Therefore, chanting or lay participation are necessary prerequisites to our corporate worship.
We need your help!
The choir is completely made up of volunteers. If you are a Baptized member of Christ the Savior please consider joining with Father’s blessing.
Even though chanting can be complex, anybody who helps will be onboarded and only made to chant or read to whatever degree they feel comfortable. Nobody will be put on the spot. In this manner it is very approachable, low-stress and unembarassing.
The roles of the choir are, unofficially and in no particular order:
- Observer: watch the service be ran while standing at the chanter’s stand
- Unordained Reader: read various prayers and scriptures without singing
- Untrained Chanter: willing to sing at Liturgy or in a group but not able to solo
- Ison Chanter: able to chant the drone note for each tone properly
- Chanter: able to proficiently assist a chant leader, in a duo, but not able to lead themselves
- Chant Leader-in-Training: purposefully learning the services in order to be able to lead them
- Chant Leader or Protos: able to proficiently lead an entire service
- Ordained Reader
- Choir Director or Cantor
Context and Terminology
Traditionally, those laypeople that sang in the choir were known as chanters. Historically, this was a highly trained position but due to the realities of Orthodox parishes in Western lands many if not all of our chanters are self-taught.
Anybody can lead a service, with Father’s blessing, even if they are not a chanter. Hymns don’t always have to be melodically sung, they may be intoned or read plainly oftentimes.
Terminology
- At Christ the Savior, “choir” specifically refers to the entire music team and/or those that help to sing during the Liturgy. This is because those coming from other Christian backgrounds associate the chanters at Liturgy with their concept of a Western choir.
- The term “chanter” can apply to anybody at the chanter’s stand or, more specifically, to those who know enough about the services to lead them.
- The “protos” or chant leader is whoever is in charge of a particular service
- A “reader” refers to anybody who reads, not an ordained reader necessarily
- “Ison” is the drone note you often hear people hum in the background
- “Intoned” or “intonation” refers to singing a prayer or hymn in a single note.
Improvisation
Many are unaware that much of the music is improvised. Even if sheet music exists for a particular hymn, the fact that some hymns are only sung once a year or seasonally means chanters must improvise the melodies to the written words. This is especially true during Vespers and Orthros.