Great Vespers – Eve of St. Nicholas

Eve of St. Nicholas

Vespers with seminarians @ 5:30 p.m.

All are welcome

About Saint Nicholas
The great veneration with which this saint has been honored for many years are testimonials to his holiness and of the glory which he enjoys with God. He is said to have been born in Patara in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor. Myra, the capital, was an Episcopal See, and Nicholas was chosen its bishop. As bishop, he was renowned for his extraordinary piety and zeal and many astonishing miracles—to such an extent that he is listed in the calendar as “the wonderworker.” The Greek histories of his life agree that he suffered imprisonment for the faith, and made a glorious confession in the latter part of the persecution of Diocletian, and that he was present at the First Ecumenical Council (at Nicaea, AD 325) which condemned Arius and his heresy. He died at Myra and was buried in his cathedral. Many of the miracles and events of the life of Saint Nicholas are related in the hymnody of his feast, some of which is recorded here.

About the service
The service of Great Vespers begins almost all feast days in the Byzantine Church. All days start with Vespers, since the account of creation in Genesis 1 says, “And there was evening, and there was morning . . . .” The service consists of the singing of psalms and hymns, and the praying of intercessory litanies. On more important feast days, the service is augmented with hymnody connected with the subject of the feast, as well as readings and an intercessory procession (litija).

About the music
Most of the local churches which make up the Byzantine liturgical family have their own set of melodies called ‘chant.’ The chant which is utilized on this recording is prostopinije, the plain chant of the people of Carpatho-Rus’ (divided in current geography between Slovakia and Ukraine). Prostopinije is derived in part from the plainchant tradition called Znammeny chant, and part from the local creativity of the people of Carpatho-Rus’. Melodies which are used more rarely tend to have forms which are easily traceable back to Znammeny sources; melodies used every day are more likely to have evolved and changed. The music of this service falls into four distinct groups:

1. The music of the unchanging portions of the service. This would include
   1. the melodies of the responses to the litanies;
   2. the ‘psalm tone’ used to chant the portions of the service not governed by the cycle of eight tones;
   3. the melodies sung to the Proemial Psalm, the First Kathisma, the Prayer of Saint Simeon and to the ‘Blessed be the Name of the Lord.’
2. The music of the changing portions of the service involves three organizational units:
   1. those sung to samohlasen melodies;
   2. those sung to resurrectional melodies;
   3. those sung prokeimenon melodies;
   4. those sung to bolhar melodies; and
   5. those sung to podoben melodies. Samohlasen melodies are used to sing the introductory verses of the Lamplighting Psalms and the hymns which trope them, and the hymns of the Aposticha. There are eight melodies (tones) for the samohlasen. Resurrectional melodies are used at Vespers for the Troparion of the Day and the Theotokion associated with it. There are eight melodies of the Resurrectional tones. Prokeimenon melodies are sung with the Prokeimenon of the Day. There are eight melodies of the Prokeimenon tones. Bolhar melodies, at Vespers, are sung with the hymns sung in the procession of the Litija. In Carpatho-Rus’ian prostopinije, there are only four (in some countings, five) Bolhar melodies, for Tones I, II, IV, V (and, in one source, VI). Podoben melodies are used by the Church as a form of increased musical solemnity. The melodies were written to go with one particular text, and have an association with one of the Eight Tones. When one of these melodies is intended by the Typikon (the book which orders the conduct of services), it is indicated by its tone designation, and the text for which it was written. On this recording, there are three podoben melodies: a, Tone II podoben, Jehda of dreva; b, Tone II podoben, Kiimi pochval’nimi; and c, Tone V podoben, Radujsja zhivonosnyj Kreste.