Byzantine music

Byzantine music (Greek: Βυζαντινή μουσική, romanized: Vyzantini mousiki) was the music made for special events in the Byzantine Empire. It included songs and hymns used in important ceremonies. Even after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, this kind of music continued as part of Eastern Orthodox church services.

Today, people still sing Byzantine chant in many Eastern Orthodox churches. Cantors sing from old books like the Sticherarion and the Irmologion. After the Ottoman Empire took over, the Patriarch of Constantinople helped keep these traditions alive. As new nations formed in the Balkans, they created their own church music based on these old Byzantine roots.

In 2019, UNESCO named Byzantine chant as part of the world’s important cultural traditions. They recognized it as a special and old way of making music that has lasted almost 2,000 years. It is a key part of the musical history from the time of the Byzantine Empire and continues to be practiced today.

Imperial age

Byzantine music started as songs and hymns for the court and religious events in the Byzantine Empire. After Constantinople fell in 1453, this tradition continued in Eastern Orthodox liturgy. Today, we know Byzantine music mainly through its ecclesiastical forms, as different Orthodox traditions still use these ancient chants in their services.

The tradition of eastern liturgical chant developed before Constantinople became the new Roman capital in 330 and continued until the city's fall in 1453. Byzantine music was shaped by Hellenistic, classic Greek, and religious music from Syriac and Hebrew cultures. A key feature was the octoechos system, which classified melodies into eight modes. This system likely came from Syria in the 6th century and was later linked to the work of the monk John of Damascus.

The term "Byzantine music" often refers to the medieval sacred chants used in Christian Churches following the Constantinopolitan Rite. This connection grew from monastic reforms, like the Octoechos reform of the Quinisext Council in 692 and later reforms at the Stoudios Monastery. These reforms helped shape the musical traditions still used today in Orthodox services.

The monastic reform of the Stoudites and their notated chant books

During reforms at the Stoudios Monastery in the 9th century, new books of songs were created. These included the heirmologion and the sticherarion. The reforms also added parts to the tropologion and reorganized special days and their songs, especially during Lent, called the triodion.

The new books contained detailed songs for different days of the year, including Sundays and weekdays during Lent, and the eight-week cycle starting with Easter. These songs were originally kept in the tropologion. Later, two new books were made: the sticherarion and the heirmologion. These books had more detailed songs and included traditions from different places.

The old way of organizing songs can be seen in a 9th-century book from Saint Catherine's Monastery. The new way, started by reformers, arranged songs so that each part of the service used the same music for different verses. This mixed traditions from Constantinople and Palestine.

The reformers faced challenges during times of political trouble, but their work helped shape the music used in services. Women also played a role in supporting these changes by founding their own communities. The reforms continued under later leaders, creating cycles of songs for special days and weekly services.

The Slavic reception

The Slavic reception helped shape how Byzantine music evolved. During the 9th and 10th centuries, new empires like Great Moravia and the Kievan Rus' formed in the north. These Slavic groups wanted to adopt Byzantine religious traditions. The Bulgarian Empire, which had recently become Christian, created new centers for learning and asked for religious texts and services.

This Slavic interest included wanting to understand and use the music and rituals from places like the Hagia Sophia. The manuscripts from this time show early examples of Slavic languages and provide insight into Byzantine church music, even though they used their own notation systems. These manuscripts are important for learning about both Slavic literature and Byzantine religious practices.

The literary schools of the first Bulgarian empire

Unfortunately, we do not have many early Slavic religious books written in the Glagolitic script by Cyril and Methodius. However, we do have some later books, like the Kiev Missal, which show influences from Western Christian traditions. Other important books include the Codex Assemanius and a euchologion compiled by Cyril, Clement, Naum, and Constantine of Preslav. These books helped organize religious readings and services.

Researchers have found books like "Iliya's book," which dates to around 1100 and includes music notes. These notes show connections between Slavic writers and those from places like Sinai or Mar Saba.

Znamennaya notation in the stichirar and the irmolog

In the Kievan Rus', people were very interested in the organization of church music, including special books called tropologion and oktoich. These books contained music for different parts of the service.

From the 12th century, some Slavic books started using a special notation called znamennaya. This helped musicians understand the melodies better. The music showed steps and intervals, helping singers perform the songs correctly.

The Kievan Rus' and the earliest manuscripts of the cathedral rite

In the Kievan Rus', there was great interest in the grand ceremonies performed at the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Russian leaders even sent representatives to observe these ceremonies. The accounts from these visits describe the beautiful music and rituals that deeply impressed the Russians.

There are several important old books called kondakars from this time. These books record the music and ceremonies used in services. They were created in different places in Kievan Rus' between the 12th and 13th centuries.

Reception of the cathedral rite

The Primary Chronicle tells the story of Russian representatives who visited Constantinople. They were amazed by the beauty of the services in the Hagia Sophia and reported this to their leaders, Vladimir the Great. This experience helped influence the decision to adopt Christianity in Kievan Rus'.

Kondakarian notation of the asmatikon part

The people of Kievan Rus' were especially interested in a special way of directing music using hand signs, called cheironomia. They developed their own way of writing music called "kondakarian notation," which mixed different styles of notation.

One interesting example is a special song called a Polyeleos from the Blagoveščensky kondakar'. This song was divided into eight parts, each in a different musical mode. The song included refrains that were likely sung by different parts of the choir, showing how these early musicians worked together.

The end of the cathedral rite in Constantinople

In 1207, the traditional cathedral rite in Constantinople ended because the court and patriarchate moved to Nikaia after Western crusaders made it hard to keep the old ways alive. The Greek books used for singing, like the asmatikon for choirs and the psaltikon for solo singers, were written outside Constantinople. These books were created on islands like Patmos and Mount Athos, and in places such as Saint Catherine's monastery and Italy. They used a new way of writing music called Middle Byzantine round notation, found in books like the sticherarion and heirmologion.

The psaltikon books were called "kontakarion" because most parts of a kontakion, except the refrain, were sung by a solo singer from a special place in the church. These books included many kontakia, which are special songs, usually about 60 in number. They were often shortened to just the beginning parts. These kontakia were mixed with other songs like prokeimena and alleluiaria for important church services. Because these Greek books were written after the old cathedral rite ended, they show how the music was kept alive elsewhere.

The kontakarion-psaltikon books had sections like prokeimena, alleluiaria, hypakoai anastasimai, and kontakia anastasima. There were also books just for choirs, called asmatika, which had refrains and other parts of the service. In Southern Italy, there were mixed books that had both solo and choir parts arranged in different orders.

The era of psaltic art and the new mixed rite of Constantinople

There was a discussion led by Christian Troelsgård about whether Middle Byzantine notation should be separated from Late Byzantine notation. The idea was that when the court and patriarchate returned from Nikaia in 1261, creating a mixed rite didn’t really change the signs used in Middle Byzantine notation. The change might have happened earlier in monasteries outside Constantinople, where scribes combined different old notation styles.

This idea came mostly from the Papadike, a type of book that existed continuously from the 13th to the 19th centuries. Troelsgård and Maria Alexandru found that the Papadike could serve many purposes. Originally, it introduced a changed version of the sticherarion, but it also covered other books like mathemataria, akolouthiai, and Ottoman anthologies.

As creative poetry ended, Byzantine chant entered a phase focused on making more detailed musical versions of old songs. This included adding fancy decorations to older, simpler tunes or creating new, very ornamental music. This work was done by the Maïstores, or “masters,” with St. John Koukouzeles from the 14th century being one of the most famous for developing chant.

Ottoman era

Byzantine music still had an effect even after the Byzantine Empire ended. Some music from the Ottoman court showed ideas from Byzantine traditions. For example, a composer named Prince Cantemir from Romania learned music from a Greek musician named Angelos. This shows that Greek people kept sharing their musical traditions. The music of Turkey also took some ideas from Byzantine music, especially between 1640 and 1712. Ottoman music mixed many cultures, including Greek and Armenian Christian chants, creating a rich blend of sounds from different places and times.

The Orthodox reformulation according to the New Method

Chrysanthos of Madytos (c. 1770–1846), Gregory the Protopsaltes (c. 1778 – c. 1821), and Chourmouzios the Archivist helped change how Greek church music was written down. They made the old music symbols simpler because they were too hard for most people to understand. Their work created a new way of making music that is still used today in the Greek Orthodox Church. Sadly, some people have misunderstood their work, and some old ways of singing have been forgotten.

The Ison (music) is a low, slow note that helps support the main tune in Byzantine chant. People started using it in the 16th century. Terirem is a way of making up songs on the spot using special sounds like "te ri rem" or "te ne na," sometimes adding words from religious teachings. It's common for a choir or a singer to begin a song by softly singing "ne-ne" to find the right note.

The Simon Karas school at Athens

Simon Karas (1905–1999) worked hard to collect materials to bring back a lost musical tradition. His students, Lycourgos Angelopoulos and Ioannis Arvanitis, continued his work in their own special ways.

Lycourgos Angelopoulos saw himself as a student even though he taught many people. He worked with Georgios Konstantinou to create new guides for his school. He also studied old music styles and worked with traditional singers from places like Constantinople and Athonite monasteries. Today, Orthodox churches have schools to train new singers, and each area has a main singer called a protopsaltes who leads the music.

Ioannis Arvanitis studied older music writings and created his own way of understanding them. He started music groups that perform ancient Byzantine music, working with singers from different places around the world.