Ratsin Prostopinije Description

August 13, 2017
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Published in Wilkes Barre, PA in 1925

Ratsin sought to provide the same chant collection for cantors as the Bokshai 1906 collection with some supplements. At the time in the USA the Bokshai volume was difficult to obtain. The book is in Cyrillic Church Slavonic but uses a typescript face from a typewriter instead of real typesetting.

Ratsin Prostopinije Full Download 57 Megs
The title pages and contents:
Eight Tones
Matins
Vespers
Great Fast
Pentecostarion
Holy Days
Funeral
Divine Liturgy

Chant Material in Ratsin’s 1925 Prostopinije which is not in 1906 Bokshai

Complied by J. Michael Thompson

  • Tone 4 samohlasen stichera melody (!) (missing in Bokshai)
  • Tone 4 podoben “Skoro predvar'”
  • Tone 6 bolhar melody (!)
  • Tone 8 podoben ttPremud.ost”‘
  • Tone indications for ALL canons (usually omitted in Bokshai)
  • Sunday of the Prodigal Son – katavasia canon
  • MANY weekday Lenten triodia and tetraodia
  • Sunday of the Cross – katavasia canon
  • Thursday of the Great Canon – two triodia of the Apostles
  • Lazarus Saturday – katavasia canon
  • Great and Holy Monday – triodion for Bridegroom Matins
  • Great and Holy Tuesday – duodion for Bridegroom Matins
  • Great and Holy Wednesday – triodion for Bridegroom Matins
  • Great and Holy Thursday – canon
  • Great and Holy Friday – Alleluia, Tropar, Beatitudes, Triodion
  • Pentecost – first canon (Bokshai gives only the second)
  • Exaltation of the Holy Cross – svitilen
  • Christmas – second canon (Bokshai gives first); svitilen (!)
  • Theophany – second canon (Bokshai gives first)

Ratsin includes three hymns –

  • “eucharistic hymn” which looks like a Slavonic “0 Salutaris Hostia”
  • “Pisn Blahatetnija” (sp.? the printing is poor) which invokes the Trinity, the Son, the Virgin Mary and Saint Basil the Great
  • Complete Slavonic setting of the Te Deum Laudamus of St. Ambrose, according to the Gregorian melody, with some harmonization.

Ratsin also moves some material around, mostly because he gives it under the first location in the book where it would appear.

  • The Great Canon of St Andrew is given under Meatfare Sunday;
  • The 9th Ode for the Nativity of the Theotokos is given under Mid-Pentecost Wednesday.
  • A generic magnification (“Magnify, magnify, 0 my soul”) at the beginning of the fixed calendar, under the Nativity of the Theotokos.

Bibliographic Information

Ratsin, Theodore. Prostopinije. Wilkes Barre, PA: Privately Published, 1925.
Hard cover 9.5″ wide 12.25″ tall 276 pages of main music in western notation with Cyrillic text. Text is by typewriter style ball and not typeset
Library of Saint Cyril & Methodius — M2160.79 P94 R189 1925— Not yet entered into on-line Catalog

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