Saturday, December 17, 2016

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Nativity Vigil

Clean up Canon:
     1. Add cue for Reader's verses
     2. Add cue for Katavasia at Odes 3, 6, 8 & 9
     3. Add Little Litany after Ode 9

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Misc

Fix wording error on page 27 of Theophany Vigil Music (at top "and have mercy on us.")

Change "thy" to "your" on page 2 of Wednesday Evening Tone 7 Aposticha stichera

Add lower dual bass part in Evening Prayer "Vouchsafe..." in misc Vespers Music folder.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Entrance of the Theotokos Vigil

Fix an error in the bass part in Ode 4 of the Canon for the Entrance of the Theotokos Vigil music.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Friday, October 28, 2016

Misc Postings - 10/28/16

Posted minor fix to the Entrance of the Theotokos Vigil PDF - on page 40, changed "your" to "thy"

Vespers music for October 3rd & 4th 2016 has been posted

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Misc

Vespers music for Wednesday night (Oct 27) has been posted.

Add to the Vespers/Matins Misc Music:
  • Vigil Beginning PDF with music for "Come Let Us Worship"
  • PDF of Psalm 103 Music
For Entrance of the Theotokos:
  • Added easier version of Ode 9 Refrain at Vigil
  • Added matching version of Ode 9 (Hymn to the Theotokos) for Liturgy

Friday, October 14, 2016

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

September 18, 2016

Music for this weekend, Vespers and Liturgy, have been posted.

Elevation of the Cross Vigil

Moved "We praise, bless and worship" to after Ode 8 and before the Katavasia in the Vigil Canon for Elevation of the Cross

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Nativity of the Theotokos Vigil

Modified the PDF for the Vigil for the Nativity of the Theotokos, pages 18, 19 & 61 to fix minor issues.

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Monday, August 29, 2016

Friday, August 19, 2016

Elevation of the Cross

All music for Elevation of the Cross has been reviewed and updated. A new vigil PDF was created from the Vespers & Matins documents with no major changes in music except for that used during the veneration of the Cross at the end of matins. We use "Come Ye Faithful" in a special melody. The old music is still in the old Matins PDF.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

August 21, 2016 & Misc

Music for Great Vespers & Liturgy have been posted for this Sunday, 8/21/16.

A link for Dormition Afterfeast Music is now available

Nativity of the Theotokos Vigil PDF document is now posted.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Feasts & Misc

Prophet Micah - Lord I Call 2 - fix word "Prophesy"  in phrase 2
Liturgy - It is Truly Meet Tone 6 - fix melody in for word "Mother" in phrase 2
Resurrection Troparion Tone 7 - fix melody in for word "Great" in last phrase
Vigils - fix outline on first pages of all Vigil PDFs

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Transfiguration & Dormition Vigil Documents

Transfiguration Vigil PDF:
  1. Lord I Call & Litya Music has been re-typeset to match more standard patterns
  2. The Katavasia for the Canon has been added
  3. Note calling for an Augmented Litany before Litany of Matins has been added (per requested of Fr John)
Dormition Vigil PDF:
  1. Note calling for an Augmented Litany before Litany of Matins has been added (per requested of Fr John)

Friday, August 5, 2016

August 7 2016 & Misc

Vespers & Liturgy Music for Martyr Dometius (Aug 7) has now been posted.

Also posted a minor correction to the first page of the Wednesday Octoechos, Tone 5, changing an incorrect use of thy to your.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Dormition Vigil

The Vigil service for the Dormition of the Theotokos has been posted. Note: the Exapostilarion may be modified before this upcoming feast.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Friday, July 15, 2016

Friday, July 1, 2016

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Vespers - July 7

Vespers Music has been posted for next Wednesday Evening (7/7/16)

Updates - 6/29/16

  • After singing the Vigil for Ss Peter and Paul last night, several corrections to the Vigil document have been made:
    • The "Lord I Call" Now verse is now the Theotokion Dogmaticon in Tone 4
    • Two sections of the Magnification (O Apostles...) were incorrect
    • An "Amen" was added after the blessing of the bread & after the last verse of the Post-Gospel stichera
    • Added "We Praise, Bless and Worship..." after Canon Ode 8 (before the Katavasia)
    • Added a  note that the Magnificat should be sung before Canon Ode 9
    • Fixed wording on Praises vs 4/3 & Glory/Now stichera
    • Changed dismissal "More honorable..." wording from "defilement" to "corruption"
  • In Vespers and Matins - Misc section:
    • added a cleaned up version of the Traditional Magnificat

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Great Compline & Theophany updates

  • Added New Link for Great Compline Music
  • Updated Theophany Vigil document containing Great Vespers & Matins - previously this document contained Great Compline & Matins
  • Added Theophany Great Compline for Vigil document

Monday, June 27, 2016

All Saints of North America

  • The variable Vespers Music for All Saints of North America has been posted in one PDF file.
  • The variable Vespers Music for next Tuesday evening, July 6 (St Sisoes),
    has been posted in one PDF file.

Ss Peter & Paul Music

New Music
  1. Added complete Vigil service for the Feast of Ss Peter and Paul
  2. Vespers & Liturgy music for the Feast of Ss Peter and Paul has been reviewed and updated

Welcome!



Welcome to the blog of the choir at St John of Chicago Orthodox Church in Rogers, Arkansas. We've been producing sheet music and comprehensive service documents for several years now. The purpose of this blog is to post notes & updates about the new music we've completed and to document changes to existing music and service documents.

As a new mission, we struggled to learn to sing from the text that we downloaded from the OCA website. This led us to develop software that we use to transform "pointed text" in these documents to sheet music in PDF format. This music is then posted on our website. All of our music is worded according to the formal liturgical language convention: "Thee/Thou" for all individuals commemorated; "You/Your" for more than one persons. Most of the music that we generate is done in the common "Obikhod" melodies.

Our music web page is: http://www.ocanwa.org/#!liturgical-resources/c1gg1. The following is a brief overview of what you will find on this page:

  • Daily Sheet Music - currently we produce the "variable" music for Vespers on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday evenings as well as for selected feast days. We also supplement the Liturgy music as needed. As the years go by, music for various saints become permanently available (we should have the whole Menaion done in a few more years). We also produce a single PDF file containing all the Vespers music for each upcoming date during the year (these are usually available at least one day in advance).
  • Vespers and Matins - everything needed for Great Vespers as well as Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday Daily Vespers is available here.
  • Liturgy - the sheet music here is arranged in the order it is sung during the Liturgy. Different arrangements (or variations) are coded by number and more than one variation is available for most sections of the Liturgy - we hope to add to those available as we add music that our choir sings.
  • Lenten Triodian - Vespers and Liturgy music available to for all Sundays of Lent (including the Sundays leading up to Lent). Certain complete services are available  as well as different litanies in lenten tones.
  • Holy Week & Pascha - complete Bridegroom Matins services for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings are available. Certain complete services are also available as well as misc music needed for Vespers, Matins and Liturgy.
  • Pentecostarion - Vespers and Liturgy music is available for all Sundays after Pascha through the second Sunday after Pentecost as well as Mid-feast.
  • Major & Other Feasts - in our parish, we usually do a vigil on the evenings of major feasts. A complete vigil service will be posted in one PDF document. If the Vigil directory is empty, this simply means we have not had a change to complete the service yet. We also provide the Vespers & Liturgy music as well. Other services related to a feast may also be found here.
  • St John of Chicago - music and service texts are available for the patron saint of our parish, St John Kuchorev.
  • Miscellaneous - other sheet music & service documents are available on this page as well.  
Questions and comments are welcome. And, if you have non-copyrighted music that you would like us to consider making available on this site, please send an email to our general email address.