Prokeimenon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Prokimenon)
Jump to: navigation, search

In the liturgical practice of the Orthodox Church, a Prokeimenon (Greek Προκειμενον, plural prokeimena; sometimes prokimenon/prokimena) is a psalm or canticle refrain sung responsorially at certain specified points of the Divine Liturgy or the Divine Office, usually to introduce a scripture reading.

It corresponds to the Gradual of the Roman Mass.

Prokeimena are not selected based on the personal preference of the priest, reader, or choir director. Rather, the Sunday and weekday prokeimena are taken from the Octoechos, using the particular tone of the day. Many feasts also have their own prokeimena.

The basic pattern of a prokeimenon is for the reader to chant a single verse of the psalm or canticle (often announcing the tone as well). This is repeated as a refrain by the choir, as the Reader chants additional verses (exactly how many depends on local practice). The Reader concludes the prokeimenon by chanting the first half of the first verse, and the choir then sings the second half. Alternately, if a feast is being celebrated together with a Sunday liturgy, a verse of that feast's prokeimenon will often replace the final verse of the Sunday prokeimenon.

The example given is the Sunday prokeimenon in Tone 8, assuming no additional feast. The verses are taken from Psalm 75 (Septuagint numbering).


Reader: "The prokeimenon is in the eighth tone: Pray and make your vows before the Lord our God!"

Choir: "Pray and make your vows before the Lord our God!"

Reader: "In Judah, God is known; His name is great in Israel!"

Choir: "Pray and make your vows before the Lord our God!"

Reader: "Pray and make your vows!"

Choir: "Before the Lord our God!"

In the Divine Liturgy, the prokeimenon always proceeds the Epistle reading, after the singing of the Trisagion.

At Vespers, the prokeimenon always follows the Entrance, whether or not there is an Old Testament reading to follow. Whenever there is a Gospel reading, whether at Matins or during a Moleben, it will be preceded by a prokeimenon. In Lent and Holy Week, at the Sixth Hour, a prokeimenon is also sung before and after a reading from the books of Isaiah or Jeremiah.

Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.