Seminar on Byzantine - Eastern Orthodox Music & Early Medieval (Dark Ages)

Part 1 - 3 Heritage of Church Music - © Gillian Lander, 2008

Before we embark on a musical exploration of the period CE400-1000 it is worth considering the overall view of what happened to the church outlined in the diagram below.These years were also the time when the Creeds were established, and heresies abounded.

The Oriental Orthodox church parted company with our Orthodox Catholic tradition at the Council of Chalcedon in CE451, really as the Roman Empire was failing.  (At issue was the primacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople with the older Eastern sees, and Monophysitism) Many of those churches have remained to themselves until recently, and until the recent influx of migrants here we have had little personal contact with them as churchgoers. Our present musical consideration cannot include much of Oriental Orthodoxy / Non-Chalcedonian Church because my/our musical and liturgical knowledge of them is negligible, but growing. However, I can say that the chant of the Armenian Church in Jersualem is available on CD along with the Syrians we heard last session, and is wonderful listening. Translations of their liturgy are online now. These churches have a proud presence online, and are clearly explaining themselves to the world. There are congregations of some in Auckland now - Copts in Beachhaven, Syrians at St Johns Anglican in Northcote, Serbians at St Albans Balmoral, Mar Thoma in Avondale, plus independent Russian and Greek congregations.

This chart makes Anglicanism seem very small.... and new.

The Chalcedonian Church / Catholic Orthodoxy is the western (pre-schism) church during our period, with the primacy of the Bishop of Rome.and we will be looking at

Above - Charlemagne is crowned king of Holy Roman Empire

The political and artistic background is most simply discussed by reference to various maps of the time and works of art. This was a rich period for timeless architecture, its decoration, and the ecclesiastical arts, and vast movements of populations and opportunistic invasions. We can but surmise the music of the time and await the results of scholarship, but in the past fifty years light is being cast on this.

Above we see the spread of the empires of Justinian and the Frankish conquests.

Justinian

Above we see the Arabic (Muslim) invasion of the north of Africa, the east and the Mediterranean, (and they are clearly on the move again) and below, the last invasions - Nordic (Vikings), Hungarian (east Europe), and Muslim from Africa, largely attacking the Carolingian (Charlemagne/Holy Roman Empire) and Byzantine empires.

This last below is the world of Gregory the Great, St John of Damascus, Paul the Deacon, St Joseph Hymnographer, St Anatolius, St Germanus, and in UK, Ven Bede, St Augustine of Canterbury, St Aidan, St Oswald, St Cuthbert, St Columba, Abbot John the Benedictine singer, and much of the plainsong we have in hymnbooks still, and wonderful illuminated manuscripts, and priceless golden/jewelled/ivory Bibles and altar ware.

Learning and the finer things of life had a hard time in this world. We must be grateful that the rise of monasticism in these centuries, led to the building of hilltop, fortress-like monasteries - (walled self sufficient church villages) where Classical literature, Arabic science, medicine, and Biblical and church arts were housed and treasured, and worked upon.. see Cluny below..

Above - A reconstruction of Cluny	Above Cluny today. The building in the foregtound is recent. The ancient east end / crossing towers are behind
	Left - A model of St Gall I cannot but comment that this looks similar to a concentration camp, but serving to protect civilisation and keep barbarism out.
Ravenna mosaic in apse	Carolingian Gospel
Illuminated Gospel - St Matthew	Sarcophagus
	Note the forbidding, indestructible stone architecture, squat base, small lancet windows and doors, rounded apse, and inside, barrel vaulting. Interiorly, nothing was spared in adornment of a glorious space, with gilded mosaics.
Apse mosaic at Montreal Sicily - Byzantine Christ Pantocrator (ruler of the world)	Romanesque features

So far, this has been a visual experience of the Dark Ages.

Now to look at the Liturgies of the time.  - St James, St Basil and St John Chrysostom.

St James	St Basil	St John Chrysostom

There are textbooks looking at these from a liturgics aspect - e.g Gregory Dix The Shape of the Liturgy - and it is treated very simply in Wilson-Dickson and worth consulting, but the musical aspect is our issue. The Byzantine liturgy differs markedly in structure from the Roman, our own (the origin of which is Hippolytus). St James was the earliest liturgy, and St Basil is used for major festivals. It would appear that St John Chrysostom provides the most used form. All the liturgies are rich in hymnody (their term) at every point. These are not usually in strophic metrical verse as ours are. There does not seem to be the equivalent of our five movement sung Mass (Kyries, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei, Gloria) though Kyries and Sanctus abound. The immensity of this special repertoire, almost all unknown to us, is daunting. Its has a thousand years of growth largely in a conservative style. Composers are bound by hundreds of conventions and there is no place for personal freedom of expression. We can but open a door on it.

The Byzantine Orthodox Churches have a notable presence online, texts of the various liturgies can be downloaded, and we have CDs and soundfiles of their beloved choral work to demonstrate. For millenia this music has had it own notation - ecphonetic notation which indicates progress up or down by steps for the singer. It is complex, and has defied translation into modern music notation until recently. There are modes of interpretation and embellishment which still defy western systems. It has been an oral tradition, using simple signs to indicate vocal steps, and these have their ancient roots in punctuation marks found in Hebrew texts to aid the cantor. There are of course no instruments, not even a ponderous organ, and no hope of drumkit and amplifiers. (Though I note in some recordings to follow there is an instrumental drone) This music is very seriously intended to parallel that of the Cherubim and Seraphim of the next world, and no quarter is given to modernism.

For a more detailed introduction to this music there are valuable online resources. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America  has an informative site outlining the history of the chant through clearly explained discussion of it in Early Christian / Medieval /Later Byazantine times   http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article7069.asp   

St Romanos, the Melodist  (491-518) 6th cent, is a beloved musician considered the greatest writer of kontakia. We have a transcript of his strophic hymn He Parthenos semeron ( H parqenos shmeron / The virgin today gives birth to the Almighty) which is a Kontakion for Christmas Day. The Kontakion is a short poetic sermon constructed of a series of similarly constructed stanzas or troparia, (10 in this case) - or in a Kanon, 9 kontakia or Odes.  Is was a gift for creating fine religious poetry AND music in the author that enabled their creation. There is noticeable musical "form" in the balance of musical phrases, and pattern of melody. The English Hymnal includes the Kontakion for the Dead - used annually in our parish at All Saintstide/All Souls, and we will sing that in class.

Here is a CD recorded example a Kontakion of St Romanos - Kontakion for Theophany.... (CD Music of Byzantium) taken from a 15th century manuscript of the melody that had by then been in circulation for nigh a thousand years ! Note the drone remains as in the earlier eastern music. MP3 is on http://www.liturgica.com/cart/musicInfo.jsp?catNo=AB060   It is worth listening to several MP3 tracks on this CD -

These medieval settings are the closest we can get to the original.

Icon of St Romanos the Melodist

See my detailed analysis of St Romanos the Melodist's He Parthenos Semeron... I have decided it is only of interest to musos and people with a fascination for pattern and mathematics. It is of interest to me as it is amazing that a work 1500 years old, has such a sophisticated musical design. He virtually uses Classical ternary form with a contrasting middle section, authentic and plagal modes as did Palestrina a thousand year later, and attempted modulation, and preceded Brahms in Bogen form ...ABABCDCDAA/B. ... but I cannot find a recording ! Go HERE

INSERT MUP

Byzantine Chant developed traditions for the Greek Church, the Russian and others in the east including Arabic. There is now a presence in the USA and UK and there are efforts to provide English versions of all kinds of works.

From the same CD - Byzas (6th cent) Sticheron Apostichon Idiomelon for St Basil - note the drone, and cantillation of unison voices

Kyrie - Byzantine notation of the 15th century mss. Here is a copy of A krie of the time in both Byzantine and western scripts.

Troparia of the First, Third and Ninth Hours of the Royal Hours of Great Friday (in Engish) (CD Gates of Repentance)

CD Ancient Hymns for Modern Times - The Cherubic Hymn

CD Sacred Treasures - Hymn of the Cherubim....  more fully choral writing - of a later period

Not all Byzantine/Orthodox singing then is by massive deep-throated choirs. The parish priest and a few worthies as we have heard are more likely.

From this point we leave Byzantine Chant and the Eastern Orthodox Church for over a thousand years - since the Great Schism. We know that chant was a treasure to be kept intact, and that there was no hope of a life as a priest if the chant was not learned fully and sung well. The liturgy was a fully lyrical event. It was / is taught as part of the syllabus in theological colleges. There was/is no such thing as a "said" service.  Over the centuries works have been added - all keeping the same style, working to rule, (much in the same conservative prayerful way icons have been painted) - works by Bortniansky, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff... and in our own time Tavener.

Worth pondering....  Recollect the diagram at the outset of this session. The Eastern Orthodox church has clung steadfastly to Patriarchy and Tradition even more so than the Roman. We see it in the art (ikons) and music, and of course theologically. The Enlightenment passed them by. They struggle now with feminism, and modern living. The ultimate development of musical forms (motet / symphony / concerto etc) passed them by too as we will see when considering later plainsong.

We will catch up with the east in the 20th century. At the Vancouver World Council of Churches convention in the late 70s, the Eastern Orthodox churches had their first presence, and they offered the world their two simple works Kyrie Eleison, and Hagios O Theos in common use in orthodoxy in Russia. (works to sing in class and keep as resources) Byzantine works are creeping into the western repertoire. Hear the choir of Selwyn Chapel Cambridge sing Blazhen muzh by Kedrov.. (CD)

So, now to look at metrical hymn/liturgical texts remaining to us in the west from the period. You may like to search them out in standard full music hymnals in translation, and test their theological relevance and use today. You will discover some gems...

Liturgy of St James (b 392), the earliest liturgy in the east.

from the middle years of our period:

Anon of the 6th century:

St Germanus (634-734 )

Bp Venantius Fortunatus (c530-600 )

The Latin texts above all have plainsong to them as well by the same name.

And from the later years of this period:

Venerable Bede (673-735)7/8th cent

Pentecostarion 8th cent

St John of Damascus (8th cent)

Paul the Deacon (8th cent)

St Joseph Hymnographer ( d883) 9th century

St Anatolius 9th cent

Commenting on music in this world after the fall of Rome:

Cassiodorus, a Roman senator (485-580). An educated man, he wrote on musical theory of the day (remote from our concept of this) a branch of mathematics, and was a devout Christian. Consider these few quotes which point to it becoming a High Art...

If we live virtuously we are constantly proved to be under its (music's) influence, but when we commit injustice we are without music..

The heavens and the earth, indeed all things in them which are directed by a higher power, share in this discipline of music, for Pythagoras attests that this universe was founded by and can be governed by music.

Music is closley bound up with religion...

Briefly now, to conclude, in the years around the first millenium, we consider western musical notation. Their problems were the same as the Byzantine Greeks, but they found a solution - in large part that enabled our world of modern music to develop. Neumes, as above, punctuation-like marks above the text were a guide to intonation for centuries, but unsatisfactory for finer remembering and performance. Musical scholarship in recent years is beginning to decipher the intentions of neumes above texts. The Vatican Library houses thousands of such manuscripts. Princeton University has a project to make scholarly study of them outside the church possible. Now began the thin red line... a guide to pitch.

Guido d'Arezzo (plus seagull) - statue in Arezzo

Guido d'Arezzo, Benedictine monk (c980-1050)  effectively gave us Do Re Mi.... based on the Guidonian hand - finger signs for steps of pitch. We have mentioned the hymn Ut Quaeunt Laxis. Each line of this, beginning with the first word Ut/Do, steps up one tone, and the first syllable is in turn Re, Me, Fa Sol, La..

It only remains for the pitches to be designated more specifically about four lines rather than one.. Next session on plainsong looks at this.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Reese, Gustave.  "Music in the Middle Ages" Norton
Strunk, Oliver "Source Readings in Music History" Norton
Paul H Lang, "Music in Western Civilisation" Dent
Eric Werner, "The Sacred Bridge" Dobson 1959
Edward Foley  "Foundations of Christian Music: the music of Pre-constantine Christianity"Alcuin  1992
Marrocco and Sandon "The Oxford Anthology of Music - Medieval Music" OUP 1977

FOLLOW-UP - VITAL...

www.saintromanosrecords.com contains a selection of all kinds of music (CDs, sheetmusic) for todays Orthodoxy - pop, liturgical, secular...
www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org is a source of wide information about modern and patristic orthodoxy
www.saintromanos.org is a society and part of a Baltimore parish devoted to publication of music for English audiences (worth a visit) - I have had personal contact and support from Fr George.
http://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/music/Index.html A great coverage of all three liturgies and music http://www.liturgica.com/  A huge resource on Orthodox, Roman and Jewish, Medieval materials including music and MP3   
http://www.liturgica.com/html/res.jsp resources - books etc of use. http://www.grkat.nfo.sk/eng/music.html - Slovak choirs sing Byzantine music