Our first session explored some of the music that must have been familiar to Jesus, the faithful young Jew. There were of course other sources of music that he may well have heard besides that of the Temple, the Arab world and Helenised Judaism. And in his adulthood, he would have been familiar with synagogue worship, while critical of the Temple of the day.  He would have known the congregational responses (Amen, Hosanna, Halleluia etc..) and would have known the priestly texts of sacrificial liturgy at the Temple, the synagogue's daily prayers, the household prayers and rabbinical school where he would have learned psalms, everything BY HEART... and so useful for his later allusions.

It is possible, according to some scholars, that Joseph and Mary, and perhaps before them John the Baptist, were members of the Essenes - the strict Jewish sect based at Qum'ran by the Dead Sea. One of their scrolls salvaged in 1945 offers musical clues that give us this chant - 'Sing with Joy' "Rannanu" [CD 2] It uses vv 36-37 of the scroll 4Q403. - "Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice" or "Angelic Liturgy" - ( www.savae.com/echoes1.html for MP3) plainly a weekly Sabbath sacrifice of incense was practised, a window of time they believed when prayer was particularly efficacious, close to the company of heaven. (Luke 1.10) A set of 13 songs existed in the community, which may have been sung in a repeated cycle each quarter. These songs could have a had a wider usage in Jewish-Christian mystic circles. A fragment remains from Masada, maybe Paul knew them, probably the writer of Revelations knew them. And in passing you may like to consider the "new" psalms found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Clearly it was not a dead art to compose such. Read more detail on them in the edition of "Dead Sea Scrolls- a new translation and commentary " by Wise and others.. This song then uses fragments of Hebrew melody in circulation then. (CD2)

What do we hear in this? As with several of these examples, the music is in two sections - a binary form. A first section that is a simple monophonic musical statement, and a second that re-works the material and becomes increasingly complex and tempestuous. 

The first section here is prefaced by plucked strings (oud/kinnor) and lutes answering each other - call and response. Then a persistent drone is established of male voices and cymbals. Over this a female voice incants a part that is answered by or in dialogue with, simple flutes or lute. (See kinnor below - plucked strings) Recollect the music of ancient Mesopotamia?

The second section begins with a patterned drumming that establishes an ostinato, joined by a more developed male voice drone. But this time an ensemble of female voices  sings the incantation counter to a solo voice, and there is an accumulation of volume and intensity, and instrumental participation, and the whole becomes pulsating and almost hynotically repetitive. The underlying rhythm is a reconstruction of a thaquil, a Middle Eastern rhythm first documented by  a 13th century monk, Safi-al-Din, in sufficient detail for musicologists. (QUOTE MUSIC)And suddenly there is an end to the piece.

As the new-born Christianity developed its own core texts, markings on scrolls, as with OT texts, have also enabled interpretations of possible songs. Listen to the Aramaic version of the Lord's Prayer - "Abwoon" - (O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos) set in the ancient Dorian mode - (that is D-d, with no black notes - only white) and derived from such markings. This work probably would date from some time after the Crucifixion, developed as song surely to aid recollection, during the period of formation of the Gospels, as the young church of Christian Jews treated its texts like any other in their synagogue. (Ref [ CD Echoes -3]

As you listen note the basic form - again an underlying sustained drone on one note, the incantation or modal chanting as opposed to full singing, and well developed rhythmic percussion backing. And the binary, or two-sections design. Note the number of works so far in binary form. This may have been a feature noted by Josephus of the Temple music, and described as I have to non musicians. Binary form is the most basic of musical designs, and surely reflects the antiphonal practise of singing and psalmody.

The first section begins with very  slow male voices in unison intonation, setting up a mantra-like breathing in and out rhythm. Note the occasional movement up / down in microtones dissonant against the sustained tone. A spoken voice enters above this.

The second section draws the voices in again with a drumming rhythm, making a stronger mantra-like effect. Gradually other instrumental rhythmic patterns are added above and below the voices.  Instead of spoken words, a female voice incants the song using microtones, coming to a sudden Amen, and the mantra dispels.

Aramaic of course was the  native language of Jesus. Like all Semitic languages,  it uses a verbal root system that gives each word multiple meanings, and thus the text can be interpreted prophetically on many levels. Having lived for millenia with a very patriarchal version of the Lord's Prayer, we have been astounded at the recent circulation of this seemingly very modern (even New Age) text, translation of the Aramaic attributed to Neil Douglas-Klotz in his "Desert Wisdom" - see the Study Circle on http://www.abwoon.org

O Birther,  Father-Mother of the Universe, focus your light within us. Create your reign of unity now. Your one desire then acts with ours, as in all light so in all forms. Grant  what we need each day in bread and insight. Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others guilt. Don't let surface things delude us but free us from what holds us back. From You is born all  ruling Will, the power and the life to do, the song that beautifies all,  from age to age it renews. Truly - power to these statements -  may they be the ground from which all our actions grow. AMEN

Just as the older Jewish usage made songs of sacred texts, so the new Christians would have sung important sayings such as the texts we call 'The Beatitudes', being some of the sayings Jesus. This was surely a way of commiting them to memory in a time when written material was not readily available and never to be depended upon, and perhaps there was no sense yet of reliance on texts at all. The tradition was oral. And maybe the source of Luke and Matthew we know as "Q" - the Sayings Gospel which does not exist on a scroll (compiled in The Complete Gospels ed Robert J Miller 1994), existed in fact as song...

This is a reconstruction of "Blessed are the Peacemakers" - "Tubwayhun l'ahbvday sh'lama "  It is a melody composed of Hebrew motives in the ancient dorian mode, collected by Idelsohn and worked into melody by Christopher  Moroney.  It is in Aramaic, which offers a more close to the earth understanding. ( text Attrib  Neil Douglas-Klotz from Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus 1990 Harper Collins )

In harmony with the  world are those who are commited to planting peace: they shall become the channels for fulfilling God's will

Thus we can assume that the music of the very early church (as was the liturgical calendar) was simply an adoption and re-working of that current in the synaogues, and a tool for remembering, as well as worship.  Probably this remained the case for centuries.  And using some of the insights we have now, the ancient hymn texts of the early church embedded in the some of the Epistles could come to life. viz:

• Col 1:15-17  - Hymn of Christ in Creation
• Eph 5:14  - Hymn in praise of Christ
• 1 Tim 3.16 - Hymn or simple Credo
• Heb 7:26 - Hymn in praise of Christ

But we must remember that the term "hymn" suggests metrical text, a gift to us of the Greeks, not the Hebrews - perhaps this is another hellenisation of the day. Gustave Reese (musicologist) sees three separate periods in the Christian music of the time. 

a. The first two centuries - (cAD30-199) little organisation in practices. The Gnostics used music as a means proselytising, likewise Marcionites, and Manicheans. We know that psalmody continued as a core music with tunes familiar from the synagogue, (indeed we will explore this issue more closely in session 4) and that newly composed hymns were added (Psalmi idioci), as well as the "Alleluia", a peoples refrain in psalms which would in centuries become the 'Antiphon'.  Melodies may have been borrowed from secular music. (Probably were!) To these were added canticles drawn from the lyrical parts of the Old Testament - all sung as an aid-memoire. It eventually became a requirement of early clergy to know and sing the psalter BY HEART - and I would imagine also the Sayings and other important texts, paper being  in short supply, and not yet vital. ( The task may not have seemed so daunting in its day when memory was well exercised).

We have only the examples we have heard so far as evidence of this time, depending much upon "centonisation" - creation of music from pre-existing motives.  Listen to a work from the ancient Maronite repertoire dating perhaps from this era. [ tape - Sr ]

L. Synagogue / House church at Dura Europos. Very suitable for sing in tongues, and more intimate music making. (refer to Spong - synagogue and corelation of liturgical calendar)

Reese's next period for examination is:

b. End of 2nd cent to beginning of 4th - (cAD190-310) a growth time despite Roman persecutions - with a concern to combat the transfer of pagan associations into the faith, remembering that the church developed earliest at the edges or beyond of the Roman world. The Greek Oxyrychus papyrus is of this time, (claimed by the Coptic Church as its own) and shows though that melodies of an artistic nature were developed.

It was inescapable that the art of music in the early church, being central to Christian culture, was closely linked to the development of the liturgy, its Jewish roots, and also to architecture, religious writing and poetry, and to a lesser extent, other fine arts. So we will refer to these as we proceed. Each will inform the other.

In exploring what we can of these early times, you will find the first Christians traversed all the now threadbare issues that still surround music in the church, (raised in the paper by Copeland) and which have been aired periodically by  Popes, and reformers, and opinionated parishioners in countless parishes - so not much has changed as you will see.

We know from Philo of Alexandria (20BC-c CE50) that the Therapeutae  (a pre-Christian monastic sect like the Essenes of ascetic Egyptian Jews) based near Alexandria used "antiphonal" singing as we know it -  two bodies of singers answering each other in unison. So we can assume it was soon a general practice. And we have heard plenty of music so far that falls into two sections. Notice the term "hymn" and its metrical implications.

They all stand up togther...and two choruses are formed... the one of men and the other of women, and for each there is a leader... selected who is the most honourable and excellent of the band.  Then they sing hymns which have been composed in honour of God  in many metres and tunes, at one time all singing together, and at another answering one another in a skillful manner... The chorus of male and female worshippers makes .... a truly musical symphony, the shrill voies of the women mingling with the deep toned voice of the men.  (Reese p60 Ref Younge 1854.)

We need to divest ourselves of the sound of seraphic Abbey choirs, large organs, and cultivated voices, and fine tonal harmony. This instead would have been raucous to our ears. More in the line of auctioneers calling, street cries, rap singers, polynesian kapahaka. The notion of a "said" service was foreign to them. All worship was "lyrical" in its noisy way - but energetic and heartfelt and democratic. Readers of scripture would declame or incant their verse. Everyone responding loudly.

Clement of Alexandria (c150-216) , and his student Origen (c185-254), both comment on the musical activity of their day, the time of persecutions under the Roman Empire. (The oldest hymn text is attributed to Clement - "Hymn of the Saviour". ) Remembering that all through this period Greek arts persisted, Clement of Alexandria, a Greek ecclesiastical scholar, was deeply familiar with the epic, lyric poetry, Greek tragedy and comedy (risqué as may be), and as a Christian convert, he berates the pagan music of lyre and kithara. Yet, theorists suggest that the Greek text Kyrie Eleison originates in the pagan cult Helios-Mithraism - a threefold greeting of the Sun taken on board as useful to Christians in their rite of penitence.... Unawares, in his stylistic view he says...

Under  cover of music they have outraged human life, being influenced by daemons, through some artful sorcery, to compass man's ruin. By commemorating deeds of violence in their religious rites, and by bringing stories of sorrow into worship, they were the first to lead men by the hand to idolatry...

Does this suggest that no mention was or should be made in the early Agape eucharist of the suffering of Christ? Note that at this time, the Cross, far less the crucifix, was barely a symbol of Christianity - images were of Christ the Good Shepherd, and oblique symbols like fish and anchors abounded. The Crucifixion was too horrible, shameful and recent a memory. The Creeds and related controversies were some centuries to come.

	Above- Roman Sarcophagus relief panel, Christ the Good Shepherd (centre), with the twelve, plus the sheep being the churches, and two more shepherds at work. Left - catacombs wall painting / fresco

And obscurely, in consideration of Christian music, and condemning instrumental music, Clement says...:

He makes music to God and sings to the human instrument "For thou art my harp and my pipe and my temple"- my harp by reason of the music, my pipe by reason of the breath of the spirit, my temple by reason of the Word - God's purpose.   (Maybe the italics are from an early hymn - source unknown)

There seems to have been a continuing controversy over the place of instruments in Christian worship, and note, the church in the East today still uses solely vocal music. No organ repertoire. The concern is clearly in differentiating from the Pagan world rather than Judaism.  Judaism was/is still on instrumentalist silent strike in protest at the destruction of the Temple.

Clement's student, Origen, (CE185-254) also in Alexandria, reports a wide use of song in worship, notably in each mother tongue.  He does not have Clement's scruples over the use of instruments. He gives them various symbolic functions - e.g. the tympanon (drum) a destroyer of lust, cymbals -eager souls for Christ. Consider how this might sound in a circular, domed building, or the confines of catacombs.

The Lords Supper was originally held in the evening in conjunction with the Agape meal. Songs and prayers were interspersed. In the 2nd century the Eucharist became separated from the Agape, but was still preceded by nightlong watches / vigils especially at the major feasts. Certainly then there was always psalm singing all night until the dawn and the liturgy. This became routine as well as highly entertaining on Saturday nights, (St Jerome, perhaps with personal experience, was to advise virgins, "Budge ye not a span of a finger from your mother's elbow at these vigils!") and its routine became the foundation for the Canonical Hours, the Daily Office, itself rooted in the daily prayer practises of Judaism.

By the end of the second century - around 200, the first texts of the Eucharistic Prayer were in circulation.  These became more developed at the hands of St James, Basil, and John Chrystostom.  Patterns for the use of psalms in worship developed, as opposed to spontaneity.

Tertullian tells of Lauds and Vespers in the Carthaginian church c200. And Clement of Alexandria also in his region. A psalm, antiphon, hymn, lection responds and collects became standard for each. By 385 in Jerusalem daily vigils, lauds, terce, sext, none and vespers were reported in ascetic communities.

St Augustine of Hippo had his people in the North African region sing psalms in connection with gifts as offerings, and thereby giving us the Offertory.  St Augustine indeed wrote concerning music - De Musica - but this is a work largely on musical mathematics, though the last part is an attempt at the psychology of music.

The early church necessarily operated under cover of darkness. At dusk routinely, the "hora incensi", the lamps were lit - in the catacombs or private houses. Our strophic hymn Phos Hilaron dates from this time - the text only remains. Stainer has set its 19th century chant, Sebaste. (AMR 18) But we have it now in Byzantine Chant... (CD) closer to the real sound. In translation..

Hail gladdening light, of his pure glory poured, who is the immortal Father heavenly blest, holiest of holies, Jesus Christ Our Lord. 
Now we are come to the sun's hour of rest, the lights of evening round us shine, we hymn the Father, Son and Holy Spirit divine.
Worthiest art thou at all times to be sung with undefiled tongue, Son of Our God, giver of life alone, therefore with all the world thy glory Lord, they own.

We have no further detail of what might have been sung in the catacombs during the period of persecutions. Perhaps, since they are rich with visual art, Cecilia, in some leadership role there in the art of music, sustained and deepened worship and courage there with singing. Perhaps this is close to the truth, and the cause of her martyrdom and musical fame. 

What we do know is that St Cecilia (c 2nd/3rd cent) was a signficant martyr and was a renowned musician becoming the patron saint of church music. There is a body of apocryphal stories about her, but few facts.  Her body was apparently left to rest in the catacombs in Rome, and did not decay. (Though it seems to have disappeared now. ) Here we have her crypt, on the tourist routes below Rome today.

Reese's last period to explore:

c.    From early 4th century - (313) onward to the collapse of Rome

There are various hymn texts remaining from these years. Check these out in major full music editions of hymnbooks.

St Ambrose, from the Pre-Constantine period, has left us these texts:

• Splendor paternae gloriae / O Splendour of Gods glory - set to Mode 1 tune of that name
• Nunc Sancte nobis Spiritus / Come Holy Ghost who ever one
• Rector potens, verax Deus / O God of truth
• Rerum Deus tenax vigor / O God the worlds sustaining force / O strength and stay
• O Lux beata Trinitas / O Trinity most blessed light (much set to music later)

Bp Synesius of Cyrene (365-414 )

• muweo xriste / Lord Jesus think on me

The Emperor Constantine - Constantinople his legacy.

Constantine the Great through the Edict of Milan assured toleration of Christians in the Roman world, leading to the state religion. This was a fortuitous time for the young church to establish its power base and inner framework before the onslaught of the 500 years Dark Ages. Eventually spacious Romanesque churches, or Basilicas, built first like Roman public halls, required suitable music to meet the new situation. (Christians from this time on had to understand the difference public and private location and architectural setting necessarily makes to musical style and worship. [cf. catacombs / cafe church / house group / house church as at Dura Europos / rural parish / cathedral / urban church] Suitable music in one setting can fail worship in an another. )

	(L) An Armenian church of 4th-5th century - rectangular stone box with barrel roof and very small doors and windows. Very resonant, so complex music is lost. Simple antiphony best. Mostly, early churches were essentially large stone boxes with a rounded roof, and a semi-circular apse at one end for the president and altar. Acoustically they are very resonant
Below - Hagia Georgios at Thessalonika. c300. The circular design and dome and relatively small scale would have made it acoustically impossible inside. Sound would reflect from all interior surfaces, and nothing would be absorbed. Singing would need to be unaccompanied and simple, (unless they enjoyed a frenetic melee). If there was glossalalia, this would have created a constant hum, painful to the ears. Later ground plans of the Greek Cross plus domed ceilings militate against polyphony, locking sound within each dome or quadrant.  Simplicity is necessary. Antiphonal music can succeed.

Eusebius ( CE 260-340) however, disapproves of all instruments, notwithstanding King David ! Perhaps given the architecture this is understandable.

We sing God's praises with living psaltery... for more pleasant and dear to God than any instrument is the harmony of the Christian people... Our kithara is the whole body, by whose movements and action the soul sings a fitting hymn to God, and our  ten-stringed psaltery is the veneration of the Holy Ghost by the five senses of the body and the five virtues of the spirit.

He tells us that they sang psalms at length as well as hymns.

A little later  St Athanasius (CE 296-373) Bishop and Patriarch of Alexandria, started to worry that the singing of psalms was becoming far too elaborate.        ( Remember this was all memorised singing. ) - a worry that we will see regularly reappears in history. He too saw symbolism in instruments. The ecstatic "Alleluia" became expecially problematic. It was highly melismatic / ornate,  and the last syllable even extended into what was called the "Jubilus". And this became wildy popular in all settings - among soldiers, sailors, in households and workplaces - and no doubt became profane. This same Jubilus became the seed from from which grew the Motet - but more in later sessions on that. This period saw the first texts of the eucharist - the liturgies of St Basil (CE330-378) and St James, and later St John Chrysostom (CE 345-407). Sts James, Basil and John Chysostom have given the Russian and Greek orthodox churches the whole of their liturgy. The musical tradition is called Byzantine Chant and will be explored next session.

We can hear echoes of this time when we listen to the music of the Syrian Orthodox Church - according to their historians, first worshipping and working out of young Mark's home in the now Armenian quarter of Jerusalem - maybe the real secret site of the Upper Room.  St Mark's Monastery today is on the site, and dates from early days. Founded by St Peter out of Damascus, it was the earliest church, and has purposely retained its long heritage of music through rote learning, unaffected by Western influence, largely because ts music has been impossible to notate until the last few years because of its use of 24 tones to the octave. New notation has been devised for the "in between" notes. (Singing exercise from notated score) [CD Morning Liturgy - Syrian Orthodox St Marks Jerusalem - 1st century Mass]