Prostopinije Introduction and Resources

Prostopinije is the name for the Capatho-Rusyn chant tradition.  Roughly translated “plain chant” is a system of relatively simple music for the congregational singing of the divine services.  These are typically lead by a single or small group of cantors with the entire congregation joining in the chant.  This section has a brief discussion of the chant system and a reprint of the history of prostopinije by Dr. Stephen Reynolds.

In this collection I also present a scanned collection of some important printed sources for the Church Slavonic music of the tradition.  These are each accompanied by a description and the pdf download.  The pdf files are linked up with bookmarks for the major sections that will assist in locating particular pieces of interest.  These files also have their pdf page numbers correctly coorelated with the physical page numbers.  And the files are tagged with all of the bibliographic information on the books.  I hope to expand this collection over time.

The majority of these works were scanned from the reference and rare book collection at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril & Methodius in Pittsburgh.  I am grateful for the access to the collection and copier services.  This is an important center for printed books and material from the tradition.  And they are very open and welcoming to researchers.  I am probably biased, as I am an alumnus as both a full-time seminarian for two years in college and later as a graduate of the joint masters degree program with Duquesne University.

Please do comment on additional original sources of the chant tradition in slavonic, I’d love to hear about them.

Originally Posted June 06, 2010
Last Revised on December 02, 2010