Bridegroom Matins is a form of Matins served on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week. These services have a distinctly...

Q: How are the hymns of the sixth week of Lent (this week), and also of Holy Week, different from those sung earlier in this liturgical...

The Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete (sometimes called the Great Canon of Repentance or simply the Great Canon) is a 7th-century work...

Note: This was published on the third Sunday of Great Lent (the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross), hence the references to "today"....

Colloquially, some Orthodox use the term "Triodion" to refer to Great Lent and its three preparatory weeks; choir directors, in...

The Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is a uniquely Lenten form of the Divine Liturgy that is actually not a Liturgy at all, as...

Forgiveness Vespers is a unique form of Sunday Lenten Vespers served on the Sunday of the Expulsion from Paradise, otherwise known as...

In the Divine Liturgy, the antiphons are the first three hymns. Except on great feasts, the Sunday antiphons consist of portions of Psalm...

"Alleluia" (sometimes spelled "Hallelujah") is Hebrew for "praise the Lord" (literally, "praise Yahweh"). This term appears frequently in...

Q: Why does the choir often sing the Augmented Litany responses in many different languages, and what are those languages? A:  Singing...

At our parish approximately one year ago, we began singing "Having beheld the Resurrection of Christ" and "Shine, shine, O new Jerusalem"...

At the Divine Liturgy, why does It is Truly Meet occasionally get replaced with something else? At the Divine Liturgy of St. John...

A troparion (sometimes shortened to tropar; pl. troparia), is the primary hymn of a day, saint, feast or other commemoration. On each...

It does change every week. Clergy Communion is the only point in any Orthodox service where the choir director has a large degree of...

Why don't all Orthodox choirs use Byzantine chant, which is the original chant of the Church? This is a vast topic more appropriate for a...

Orthodox liturgical music operates in a system of eight tones; most hymn texts are designated to be sung in one of them. The eight-tone...

A prokeimenon (Greek for "what is set forth") is a short series of Psalm verses that precedes a Scripture reading. At the Sunday Divine...

Having the tones memorized is a great start, but that's precisely what it is: a start. In the Orthodox tradition, the melodies serve the...

The Psalter contains many references to artificial instruments, especially stringed instruments such as the lyre and psaltery (Ps. 56:9,...

Choral Corner is a series of short articles written for my parish bulletin, with the goal of helping everyone understand what the choir...