Byzantine music

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The Byzantine music has its origins in the Byzantine Empire , but also acted after his demise on.

The church music in Byzantium is relatively well preserved. Little is known of secular music, however.

singing

Singing has its origins in different singing traditions ( Greek , Syrian and Hebrew ), Byzantine church music itself is pure vocal music . The entire liturgy was sung, not a word in the speaking voice .

Old song

The epoch from the beginnings to the 14th century is called the old song.

In the epoch of ancient singing, the following forms of hymn were created :

  • The Troparion - a single-trophic piece that was created in the 5th century
  • The Kontakion - a polyphonic piece from the 6th century
  • The Canon - a piece consisting of the nine cantica and tropi sung on the same melody in between , which was composed in the 7th to 9th centuries.

The singing was syllabic and had few melisms .

A 12th century heirmologion from the Sinai Peninsula

After the Byzantine Iconoclasm (726-843), these pieces were recorded with the help of neumes and recorded in liturgical books such as the Heirmologion , the Sticherarion or the Kontakarion . At the same time, the Byzantine liturgy was established.

Important hymn poets

Many of the early hymn poets were anonymous, here is a selection of the few known:

Medium vocals

The epoch of middle Byzantine chant spanned the 14th to 19th centuries and was very much influenced by the hymn poet Johannes Kukuzeles . During this time the melisms in the chants increased.

New chant

From the reform of the three teachers - Bishop Chrysanthos of Madytos , Chartophylax Churmuzios and Protopsaltes Gregorios - in 1821 there was talk of the new song. The notation was specified and the existing scripts analyzed. However, it is disputed whether the reformers analyzed the old records in a timely manner.

theory

The tone system of the Byzantines is divided into eight octo echoes , which correspond to the modes in Western music , but have differences. John of Damascus is considered to be the inventor . Almost every hymn was given a key. There are four authentic and four plagal "echoes":

Authentic echoes ( ambitus ; keynote )
  1. Echoes ( Doric ): d-d '; G
  2. Echoes ( Phrygian ): e-e '; H
  3. Echoes ( Lydian ): f-f '; c '
  4. Echoes ( Mixolydian ): g-g '; d '
Plagal echoes (ambitus; keynote)
  1. Echoes ( hypodoric ): Aa; d
  2. Echoes ( hypophrygic ): Hh; e
  3. Echoes ( hypolydian ): c-c '; f
  4. Echoes ( hypomixolydic ): d-d '; G

These echoes can also be modulated to create a guiding tone .

In addition, the Byzantines also knew the pentatonic scale under the name τροχός ( trochós ; Greek for wheel ).

Instruments

Instruments were only used in secular music. Among other things, the organ was played, which first came as a gift from Byzantium to the Frankish Empire , where it later became the main instrument in Western church music.

Neumes

Byzantine neumes from the 14th century with modern transcription

The Byzantine neum script only existed since the 9th century. The early neumes (10th century to 1200) were only intended as a memory aid and are therefore difficult to read for today's readers. They developed from the middle neumes (up to the 15th century) and the late neumes to the modern neumes established during the reform of the Three Teachers , which are not so large in size.

Liturgy and rite

literature

Web links

Commons : Byzantine Music  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Michels, Gunter Vogel: dtv-Atlas Music . 4th edition. dtv Verlagsgesellschaft , 2015, ISBN 978-3-423-08599-1 , p. 59 .