St. Romanos the Melodist Society

NEW!!! This devotional book to the Mother of God is 63 pages long, and includes the Akathist by St. Romanos the Melodist, arranged with pointed text so that it can be sung congregationally, along with musical settings of O Heavenly King, Troparion to the Iveron Icon, Refrains to the Mother of God, To Thee, the Champion Leader (two settings), It is Truly Meet (three settings), O My most Blessed Queen (the prayer sung at the end of the akathist), O Theotokos and Virgin (four settings), Ode 9 Irmos for the Nativity of the Theotokos, the Magnification for the Theotokos; Rejoice Thou O Queen, Thou art the True Vine (Georgian melody), Beneath thy Mercy, and In Thee Rejoiceth.

To order your copy, send a check for $15.00, made out to "St. Romanos the Melodist Society," to:
Holy Apostles Orthodox Church
PO Box 594
Beltsville, MD 20704

For multiple copies or more information, email apostlebird@aol.com.

When, indeed, the Holy Spirit saw that the human race was guided only with difficulty toward virtue, what did He do? The delight of melody He mingled with the doctrines so that by the pleasantness and softness of the sound heard we might receive without perceiving it the benefit of the words.

~ St. Basil the Great, Exegetic Homilies, Homily 10

“I shall never forget,” — recalls one observer, “how, once the hymns of praise (stikhera) were being sung. Father John had by that time almost finished vesting, so as to celebrate Divine Liturgy. Only the chasuble was not on him. Quickly, in a swift movement, more running than walking, he came out of the altar to the choir, joined the singers and began to sing together with them. He sang animatedly, with deep faith, himself acting as choirmaster, again stressing individual words and slowing the tempo where that was required by the logical meaning of what was being sung. Experienced singers instinctively guessed these words, this tempo and rhythm, and followed him with no small skill and animation. The singing, not very harmonious at first, quickly became melodious, strong, sonorous, mighty, animating, flowing over the whole church, wholly filling the hearts of those who were praying. It was touching to look at the singers at that moment. It was as if some holy early Christian family, with its father at the head, were singing, singing its victorious, holy and great hymns.”

~ from A Spiritual Portrait of St. John of Kronstadt, by Bishop Alexander Mileant

Welcome to the St. Romanos the Melodist Society!

The St. Romanos the Melodist Society produces and publishes English language music of the Russian Orthodox Church. This website is the online extension of A Church Singer's Companion, a project started in 1998 with the blessing of Metropolitan (then Archbishop) Laurus. Inspired by the Russian Sputnik Psalomshchika, the Companion is envisioned to contain the music necessary for every service a parish choir might need to sing, while staying simple enough so that any parish choir can sing it.

The St. Romanos Society produces music in both printed and recorded formats, and conducts seminars and workshops on the proper performance of that music. The Society is a sodality of Holy Apostles Orthodox Church, an English mission parish currently worshipping in Beltsville, Maryland.

To get started looking at music, click on one of the links to the left. In addition to the music for the Companion, there are a few more challenging settings mixed in, marked "difficult" or "very difficult". Audio or video examples accompany some of the music. In addition, the Introduction provides valuable advice about proper church singing and related topics. And please help support us by clicking on "Support Our Work" to the left or going straight to the "Donate" button to leave a donation.

06/29/11	Fixed Cycle - Troparion for Apostles Peter and Paul
06/09/11	Matins - The verse "We praise, we bless...", from the 8th Ode of the Canon, is now available in a set containing all tones
04/02/11	Paschal Cycle - Triodion "Lord I Have Cried" Stichera for the 5th Sunday of Lent
03/04/11	Paschal Cycle - Katavasia for the 3rd Sunday of Lent available
03/01/11	Paschal Cycle - The Doors of Repentance corrected
02/27/11	Liturgy - Sets of Alleluias and the Prokeimena for liturgy are available
02/21/11	Paschal Cycle - We are inaugurating the Paschal Cycle page with "Open unto Me the Doors of Repentance" and "By the Waters of Babylon"
02/12/11	Fixed Cycle - Katavasia for the Meeting of the Lord are available
01/10/11	Fixed Cycle - The kontakion for Theophany is available
12/31/10	Liturgy - Jerusalem melody Anaphora and Greek Chant "It is Truly Meet" are now available
12/27/10	Fixed Cycle - The Troparion and Kontakion for Christmas and the Lesser Doxology are available. Theophany music coming soon, God willing.
12/24/10	Fixed Cycle - Christmas is coming! The Irmoi and Zadostoinik (sung instead of "It is Truly Meet") for Christmas are now available (sorry if you're on the New Calendar)
12/23/10	Fixed Cycle - A hymn for women of the Old Testament is available just in time for the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers
11/30/10	Matins - New Greek Chant and Znamenny Chant sets of the Irmoi of the Mother of God are available
11/27/10	Matins - Moscow Chant "From my youth" available
10/27/10	Liturgy - Resurrectional Troparia have been added to the Liturgy page
10/21/10	Fixed Cycle - Material for the feast of the Optina Elders now available
10/19/10	Liturgy - Now you can hear our Streletskaya Cherubic Hymn.
10/08/10	Support Our Work - Please help support the work of the St. Romanos Society by clicking "Support Our Work" and leaving a donation.
09/01/10	Introduction - Visit the new Introduction page. It includes useful information about church music and church singing, among other things. The Introduction is taken from the Vespers volume of A Church Singer's Companion.
08/26/10	Liturgy - Streletskaya Cherubic Hymn revised
08/26/10	Liturgy - New Znamenny Chant Trisagion available
08/14/10	Liturgy - Have a look at the new Liturgy page.
08/13/10	Vespers - Psalm Verses to Lord, I Have Cried fixed
08/02/10	Vespers - Now you can hear a recording of Psalm 33.
08/01/10	Vespers - All of the music from the revised Vespers volume of A Church Singer's Companion, published in book form in 2003, is now available on the Vespers page.
06/09/10	Matins, Vespers - Lots of new music has been posted in the last month. In the future, all new additions will be noted here under Updates.
05/13/10	Matins - On the feast of the Ascension of our Lord, this website is being revived with the posting of the 1st Tone Resurrectional Irmoi. Really this time.
10/14/08	Vespers - On the feast day of St. Romanos, this website is being restarted, with the posting of the first ten verses of Psalm 33, composed by Fr. George Johnson.