We experience various tones throughout our services.
As of now (Sept 2023) we have 3 Major Services: Vespers (Weds evening), Matins (Before Liturgy) and Divine Liturgy (10am Sunday)
Click here to see upcoming services (Helpful for Vespers especially… check with Rebekah before printing out since some of the days may be off or different than what we sing on Weds) https://www.oca.org/liturgics/service-texts
Divine Liturgy and Matins Tones
Our parish uses Slavic Obikhod Ressurecitonal tones for Matins and Divine Liturgy.
Here are tones 1-8. Note, Tropar and Kontakion are extremely similar. These are sang AFTER the Antiphons.
Look at your parish calendar, or this site, to know the tone we do for the week. The week starts Sunday and ends Saturday, so if it were tone 1 for Divine Liturgy, the Weds service of vespers after will be tone 1.
Prokeimenon is sang AFTER the reader/chanter intones the first words.
Vespers tones
These are called Stichera tones. Every week will be the “Lord I call” in the tone of the week. Depending on which feast or Saint we are honouring, it could be different for that week.
The Stichera tones, “Lord I call” use the same melody for the censing of the building and the apostika.
Here is how all 8 sound
Lord I Call Tones
https://www.archdiocese.ca/content/lord-i-call
https://www.archdiocese.ca/content/lord-i-call-stikhera-tone-1
https://www.archdiocese.ca/content/lord-i-call-stikhera-tone-2
https://www.archdiocese.ca/content/lord-i-call-stikhera-tone-3
https://www.archdiocese.ca/content/lord-i-call-stikhera-tone-4
https://www.archdiocese.ca/content/lord-i-call-stikhera-tone-5
https://www.archdiocese.ca/content/lord-i-call-stikhera-tone-6
https://www.archdiocese.ca/content/lord-i-call-stikhera-tone-7
https://www.archdiocese.ca/content/lord-i-call-stikhera-tone-8
https://www.oca.org/liturgics/service-texts
There is a different text each week for the tones. When it’s vespers, its always those “Lord I call Tones” above. Whether it’s the Lord I call or Apostika, it’s these Stichera tones, not the Ressurectional Obikhod tones!
Personally, I think memorizing each tone of the week is best because then you dont have to flip between the sheet music and transcribe words to the notes on the fly. Also the documents we will be given on Weds night will have underlines, so stretch out the letters there. Once you do it a few times you can intuitively guess properly – Josh