Byzantine Chant

Byzantine Chant

Byzantine chant is the liturgical music form used by the Eastern Christian churches that follow the Byzantine rite. This chant form had its origins in the monophonic vocal music of the Early Christian Church, itself drawing on Jewish & Semitic music and worship forms, and in the 4th to 6th centuries became formalized at Byzantium and across the Byzantine Empire. Byzantine chant has developed overtime through the incorporation of early Greek music forms, the development of a formal and structured chant tradition, the development of a unique notation, and a continuity into modern times as the liturgical music form of the Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, Cyprus, Greece, Jerusalem, Romania and parts of Serbia.

OVERVIEW

Byzantine Chant is based on a modal system of eight tones. In the Byzantine tradition, these eight tones are based on established patterns, some of which are developments of pre-Christian Greek musical traditions, the others being later developments based on the same basic principles. Each is melodically constructed to convey a certain ephos or feel. Over time the modal structure of Greek music developed, was expanded with new forms of composition correlating to liturgical practices in the Byzantine rite, and over time grew into the full body of liturgical music.

The eight modes have taken their names from the ancient Greek modes nomenclature; they are Mode I, II, III, IV as have their correspondent plagal modes, namely Plagal I, Plagal II, Barys (or Plagal III) and Plagal IV. Each mode has a distinctive formulaic structure and musical scale so that it delivers a different feeling or expression, and thus gives a different listening experience to the audience. Further, each mode has a separate poetic text completely different from the others.

Chant music was transmitted with a neumatic notation, parasemantiki, from the late Byzantine period (12th century) forward. Parasemantiki underwent different developmental changes as far as musical neumes and interpretation from the late Byzantine and post-Byzantine era until early 19th century. In 1814, a three member committee appointed from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople (Ottoman Empire) systematized parasemantiki into a new music notation, New Analytical Method (a.k.a. chrysanthine notation); this notational system is still in use today by cantors and composers in Byzantine rite churches. Chourmouzios (†1840) the archvist, a prominent member of the committee, transcribed a vast repertory of Byzantine and post-Byzantine composers using the New Analytical Method. Byzantine chant is performed antiphonally by two choirs that seat in the right and left side of the solea. The right choir soloist is called Protopsaltes and the left one Lampadarios.

The development of hymnody in the early and mid Byzantine period was then, both a significant musical achievement in its beauty and complexity, and a significant theological accomplishment in its content. In much the same way as the efforts of the Seven Ecumenical Councils and (among others) the Cappadocian Fathers defined the theological and doctrinal foundations of the Church, the work of the hymnographers naturally incorporated this teaching into the liturgical life of the church for the purpose of edifying the faithful and building up the faith.

This understanding of liturgical music closely parallels the understanding of the sacramentality of the liturgy itself as re-presenting the reality of the faith and as an entering into the reality of the Kingdom of God, an ascent to an invisible reality. The Church’s hymns are proclaimed by the angels, and therefore the Church’s hymnographers must follow the established types of heavenly origin, and thus there is a “model” or structure in Byzantine hymnography that is understood as a metaphysical concept rather than a rigid structure or an object of simple imitation.

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Liturgica.com offers the following additional content on this subject:

1. Early Western Liturgics

2. Heavenly Worship

3. Early Eastern Orthodox Liturgics

4. The Byzantine Synthesis

5. The Byzantine Typikon

6. Chant Development: Byzantine Music History

7. Musicological Notes on a new recording of The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom – Mode 1 by George Bilalis.

8. Chant Development: Early Orthodox Chant and Music

9. Development of manuscript notation

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