Vespers of Holy Friday

Sung Friday morning.  This is the service where we take Christ's body from the cross and place it in a tomb.

Practice list:

• The Apostikha has special melodies, and is sung tenderly.  We begin with the Optina melody and then switch to the Pskov melody at the end for the Doxastichon.  The two youtube videos linked have the exact same arrangement we will use.

• The Noble Joseph - this is one you should review, if nothing else in this service, as we sing it multiple times.  This version is pointed slightly differently but is very close.  We will sing it very slowly as they process with the shroud.  I've included two versions as the melody line is a bit hard to hear in the St. Symeon's video (they have a lot of altos and basses!)

• Come, Let Us Bless Joseph..... is sung at the very end of the service as people venerate the shroud on the tomb.  We sing it slowly as this takes a long time.  This uses the same Pskov melody as the Doxastichon.

UPDATE FOR 2025:  Please find below the page number sheet, which goes with the purple Holy Week Vol 2.  A pdf of the book can be found here.