Octoechos
Encyclopedia
Oktōēchos is the name of the eight mode system used for the composition of religious chant in Syrian, Coptic, Byzantine, Armenian, Latin and Slavic churches since the middle ages. In a modified form the octoechos is still regarded as the fundament of the living tradition of monodic Orthodox chant today.
In Byzantine chant, it was also the name for a liturgical book (see Great Octoechos
), which was composed of eight parts corresponding to the eight echoi. In fact each echos subordinates various melodic models or modes than just one (in Greek those might rather be called "meloi" than "echoi"), it was more important to group chants according to its mode and to divide the year into eight-week-cycles starting in numerical order from echos protos (ἦχος πρῶτος) on Easter Sunday. This liturgical octoechos concept was the invention of monastic hymnographers at Mar Saba
in Palestine and in Constantinople, and a synode held 692 in Constantinople accepted their reform which also aimed to replace the homiletic poetry of the kontakion
and other forms sung during the morning service (Orthros) of the cathedral rite. The Hagia Sophia
and other cathedrals of the Byzantine Empire did not abandon their habits, and the eight mode system came not earlier into use than in the mixed rite of Constantinople, after the patriarchate and the court had returned from their exile in Nikaia in 1261.
The reason that another eight mode system was established by Frankish reformers during the Carolingian reform
, could be that Pope Hadrian I also accepted on the synode in 787 the seventh-century Eastern reform for the Western church. The corresponding "chant book" is the tonary
, a list of incipits of chants ordered according to the intonation formula of each church tone and its psalmody. Later also fully notated and theoretical tonaries had been written.
as the "beginning" (the inventor of the octoechos), John Kukuzelis
as the "flower" (the inventor of the psaltic art and its soloistic style called "kalophonia"), and Chrysanthos of Madytos
as the "great teacher" of the living tradition today (the translator of psaltic art into the modern neume notation).
, but the earliest sources which gives evidence of the octoechos used in Byzantine chant is a ninth-century treatise called "Hagiopolites" ("Holy Polis" after Jerusalem), which only survived in a complete form in a late copy dating back to the fourteenth century. It is supposed that it was an introduction of a book called tropologion – a chant book used during 9th century which was soon replaced by the book octoechos
. Despite that the first paragraph ascribes the treatise to John of Damascus
, it was probably written about 100 years after his death and it went through several little redactions during the following centuries. There is no doubt that the octoechos reform itself has taken place already in 692, because certain passages of the Hagiopolites are paraphrasing certain canons of the synodal decree. Eric Werner assumed that the eight mode system developed in Jerusalem since the late fifth century and that the reform by the hymnographers of Mar Saba
were already a synthesis with the Hellenic names used for the tropes, applied to a model of Syrian origin already used in the Byzantine tradition of Jerusalem. During the eighth century, long before Hellenic treatises were translated into Arabic and Persian dialects between the ninth and the tenth centuries, there was already a great interest among Arabian theorists like Abū Yūsuf al-Kindī, whose Arabic terms were obviously translated from the Greek. He adored the universality of the Greek octoechos:
Al-Kindī demonstrated the intervals on the keyboard of a simple four-stringed oud
, starting seven steps in ascending and descending direction from the third string.
According to Eckhard Neubauer, there is another Persian system of seven advār ("cycles") outside the Arabian reception of the Byzantine octoechos, which was possibly a cultural transfer from Sanskrit treatises. Persian and Hellenic sources were the main reference for the transfer of knowledge in Arabian-Islamic science.
(enriched, developed) echoi, which were all in the diatonic genus.
This Latin description about the octoechos used by Greek singers (psaltes) is very precise, when it says that each kyrios and plagios pair used the same octave, divided into a fifth (pentachord
) and a fourth (tetrachord
): D-a-d in protos, E-b-e in devteros, F-c-f in tritos, and C-G-c in tetartos. While the kyrioi had the finalis (final, and usually also base note) on the top, the plagioi had the finalis on bottom of the pentachord.
The intonation formulas, called enechema (gr. ἐνήχημα), for the authentic modes or kyrioi echoi, usually descend within the pentachord and turn back to the finalis at the end, while the plagal modes or plagioi echoi just move to the upper third. The later dialogue treatises (gr. ἐροταπωκρισεῖς) refer to the Hagiopolitan diatonic eight modes, when they use the kyrioi intonations to find those of the plagioi:
, and changes between the echos protos and the echos plagios devteros by the chromatic phthora nenano
. The theoretical concept of the Hagiopolites strongly suggested that nenano
and nana
as phthorai "destroy" some of the 7 diatonic degrees used within the octave of a certain echos, so that the chromatic and enharmonic genus was somehow subordinated and excluded from the diatonic octoechos. This raises the question whether music in the near eastern Middle Ages was entirely diatonic, before certain melodies were coloured by the other enharmonic and chromatic genoi.
The Hagiopolites also mentioned an alternative system of 16 echoi, with 4 phthorai and 4 mesoi beyond the kyrioi and plagioi of the Octoechos, and the author called this system the "echoi of the Asma":
This clearly suggests a distinction of the monastic octoechos reform and an older "sung rite" (ἀκολουθία ᾀσματική) which was the name of the Constantinopolitan cathedral rite with its own chant books asmatikon ("book of the choir"), psaltikon ("book of the soloist called 'monophonaris'"), and kontakarion
(the name of the psaltikon, if it included the huge collection of kontakia, sung during the morning service). Unfortunately no treatise about the Constantinopolitan sixteen echoi survived, so that there is only this short paragraph of the Hagiopolites which says, that the singers of Hagia Sophia and other cathedrals of the empire followed in their chant books an own modal system, which was distinct from the octoechos.
as well as Western medieval chant and Byzantine music were essentially diatonic and went so far as to challenge the capability of humans to distinguish and to sing microtonal inflections with any accuracy. However outmoded this view may seem now (see microtone), it is closely reminiscent of arguments amongst music theorists that started as early as late classical antiquity. Major Hellenistic theorists such as Ptolemy
and others stated that the enharmonic genus
was extinct since early classical times, while the chromatic genus
was only rarely mastered, and on its way to extinction. Also, early Arab theorists such Ibn al Munajjim and Ishak al Mawsili base their systems on the diatonic pythagorean scale. The struggle to accommodate microtonal inflections and non-diatonic scales in the modal system is an ongoing topic in near-eastern theory. The mathematical, theoretical and notational tools developed are often confusing and not easy to grasp. Thus on the whole one may say that the subject of non-diatonic scales and microtonal inflections is as difficult to formalize theoretically and to master in practice as it is attractive.
). Such are the works by Kiltzanidis (published in the late 19th century) and Kyrillos Marmarinos (his own original manuscript dated AD 1747, stored in the archives of the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece, Athens).
s of the Orthodox Churches in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Russia. Its melodic patterns were created by four generations of teachers at the "New Music School of the Patriarchate" (Constantinople/Istanbul), who redefined the Ottoman tradition of Byzantine chant between 1750 and 1830 and transcribed it into the notation of the New Method since 1814. Whereas in Gregorian chant a mode
referred to the classification of chant according to the local tonaries
and their psalmody, the Byzantine echoi were rather defined by an oral tradition how to do the thesis of the melos, which included melodic patterns like the base degree (ison), open or closed melodic endings or cadences (cadential degrees of the mode), and certain accentuation patterns. The melodic patterns were further distinguished according to different chant genres, which traditionally belong to certain types of chant books, often connected with various local traditions. The detailled transcription of the thesis of the melos and its various methods into the medium of the New Method redefined the genres according to parameters like tempo, rhythm, and the melodic treatment of text (between syllabic and highly melismatic). Often the strict rhythmic form of the melos was criticized as an innovation and an alternative slower style was created for the heirmologic and sticheraric melos.
The eight Byzantine Tones are:
Hymns are typically divided into four chant genres and their melodic patterns used for each echos:
This classification reflects into the structure of the hymn's melody. Hymns of the same tone belonging to different gernes are structured musically in a different way. This holds true for hymns belonging to every tone (with the possible exception of the third tone) but for some tones like the fourth or the grave tone it is apparent. There is a popular misconception that the division into gernes is based on the complexity of the melody versus the text. According to this misconception heirmologic hymns have one note per syllable, sticheraric two or more notes per syllable and papadic many notes per syllable. However one can encounter hymns of the three gernes with exactly the same notes per syllable ratio. For example "syntomoi polyeleoi" or "doxologiai", "syntoma stichera" and "katavasiai" have all typically two notes per syllable, the first two being papadic hymns (based on troparia which were originally sung as refrains within psalmodic recitation), the third sticheraric and the fourth heirmologic. That being said, typically the heirmologic hymns are faster than the sticheraric and the sticheraric faster than the papadic.
There are typically two main notes that define each of the Byzantine Tones. The base note or ison is the final note on which the hymn ends. The ison is typically droned against the melody. Any other notes different than the ison that occur more often than others during the course of a hymn are called dominant notes and also help define the Tone. The plagal (oblique) tones mentioned above employ the same scales as their counterparts, however their base notes (ison) are a fifth below that of their counterparts.
and minor scale
s, and in fact the majority of Byzantine tones, as they are practically performed in Mediterranean churches, cannot be played on a conventionally tuned piano. Byzantine music theory and its reference to Ancient Greek music theorists and their distinction between the diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic genus (gr. γένος) widely employ microtones, with intervals either narrower or wider than the Western-style diatonic interval (both equally tempered
and just
). In the early Hagiopolitan octoechos (7th-12th century) the diatonic echoi were destroyed by two phthorai nenano
and nana
, which were like two additional modes with their own melos, but subordinated to certain diatonic echoi. In the period of psaltic art (13th-17th century), changes between the diatonic, the chromatic, and the enharmonic genos became so popular in certain chant genres, that certain echoi of the papadikan Octoechos were coloured by the phthorai – not only the traditional Hagiopolitan phthorai, but also additional phthorai which introduced transition models taken from maqam
traditions. After Chrysanthos
' redefinition of Byzantine chant according to the New Method (1814), the scales of echos protos and of echos tetartos are usually soft diatonic, those of the tritos echoi and the papadikan echos plagios tetartos enharmonic (phthora nana), and those of the devteros echoi chromatic. Whereas modern Western music is ultimately based on two different scales (major
and minor
), and the Latin octoechos on eight diatonic modes, four basic scales are used in the different Orthodox traditions of monodic chant today:
In Byzantine chant, it was also the name for a liturgical book (see Great Octoechos
Octoechos (liturgy)
The Octoechos —literally, the book "of the Eight Tones"—contains an eight-week cycle, providing texts to be chanted for every day at Vespers, Matins, the Divine Liturgy, Compline and the Midnight Office...
), which was composed of eight parts corresponding to the eight echoi. In fact each echos subordinates various melodic models or modes than just one (in Greek those might rather be called "meloi" than "echoi"), it was more important to group chants according to its mode and to divide the year into eight-week-cycles starting in numerical order from echos protos (ἦχος πρῶτος) on Easter Sunday. This liturgical octoechos concept was the invention of monastic hymnographers at Mar Saba
Mar Saba
The Great Lavra of St. Sabbas the Sanctified, known in Arabic as Mar Saba , is a Greek Orthodox monastery overlooking the Kidron Valley in the West Bank east of Bethlehem. The traditional date for the founding of the monastery by Saint Sabas of Cappadocia is the year 483 and today houses around 20...
in Palestine and in Constantinople, and a synode held 692 in Constantinople accepted their reform which also aimed to replace the homiletic poetry of the kontakion
Kontakion
Kontakion is a form of hymn performed in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The word derives from the Greek word kontax , meaning pole, specifically the pole around which a scroll is wound. The term describes the way in which the words on a scroll unfurl as it is read...
and other forms sung during the morning service (Orthros) of the cathedral rite. The Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...
and other cathedrals of the Byzantine Empire did not abandon their habits, and the eight mode system came not earlier into use than in the mixed rite of Constantinople, after the patriarchate and the court had returned from their exile in Nikaia in 1261.
The reason that another eight mode system was established by Frankish reformers during the Carolingian reform
Charlemagne and church music
The Frankish emperor Charlemagne took an intense interest in church music, and its propagation and adequate performance throughout his empire. He not only caused liturgical music to flourish in his own time, throughout his empire in Western Europe, but he laid the foundations for the subsequent...
, could be that Pope Hadrian I also accepted on the synode in 787 the seventh-century Eastern reform for the Western church. The corresponding "chant book" is the tonary
Tonary
A tonary is a liturgical book in the Western Christian Church containing various chants which is organized according to the eight psalm tones of Gregorian chant. It may include antiphons from the Mass and Offices, as well as responsories and other chants...
, a list of incipits of chants ordered according to the intonation formula of each church tone and its psalmody. Later also fully notated and theoretical tonaries had been written.
The Hagiopolitan Octoechos and its Reception in the Carolingian Tonaries
Traditional singers today often memorize the history of Byzantine chant in three parts, identified with the names John of DamascusJohn of Damascus
Saint John of Damascus was a Syrian monk and priest...
as the "beginning" (the inventor of the octoechos), John Kukuzelis
John Kukuzelis
Saint John Kukuzelis or Kukuzel was a medieval Orthodox Christian composer, singer and reformer of Orthodox Church music....
as the "flower" (the inventor of the psaltic art and its soloistic style called "kalophonia"), and Chrysanthos of Madytos
Chrysanthos of Madytos
Chrysanthos of Madytos was responsible for a reform of the notation of Byzantine Greek ecclesiastical music, along with Gregory the Protopsaltes and Chourmouzios the Archivist....
as the "great teacher" of the living tradition today (the translator of psaltic art into the modern neume notation).
Origins
The fact behind this simple imagination is, that the octoechos reform was already accepted some decades ago, before John and Cosmas became monks in Mar SabaMar Saba
The Great Lavra of St. Sabbas the Sanctified, known in Arabic as Mar Saba , is a Greek Orthodox monastery overlooking the Kidron Valley in the West Bank east of Bethlehem. The traditional date for the founding of the monastery by Saint Sabas of Cappadocia is the year 483 and today houses around 20...
, but the earliest sources which gives evidence of the octoechos used in Byzantine chant is a ninth-century treatise called "Hagiopolites" ("Holy Polis" after Jerusalem), which only survived in a complete form in a late copy dating back to the fourteenth century. It is supposed that it was an introduction of a book called tropologion – a chant book used during 9th century which was soon replaced by the book octoechos
Octoechos (liturgy)
The Octoechos —literally, the book "of the Eight Tones"—contains an eight-week cycle, providing texts to be chanted for every day at Vespers, Matins, the Divine Liturgy, Compline and the Midnight Office...
. Despite that the first paragraph ascribes the treatise to John of Damascus
John of Damascus
Saint John of Damascus was a Syrian monk and priest...
, it was probably written about 100 years after his death and it went through several little redactions during the following centuries. There is no doubt that the octoechos reform itself has taken place already in 692, because certain passages of the Hagiopolites are paraphrasing certain canons of the synodal decree. Eric Werner assumed that the eight mode system developed in Jerusalem since the late fifth century and that the reform by the hymnographers of Mar Saba
Mar Saba
The Great Lavra of St. Sabbas the Sanctified, known in Arabic as Mar Saba , is a Greek Orthodox monastery overlooking the Kidron Valley in the West Bank east of Bethlehem. The traditional date for the founding of the monastery by Saint Sabas of Cappadocia is the year 483 and today houses around 20...
were already a synthesis with the Hellenic names used for the tropes, applied to a model of Syrian origin already used in the Byzantine tradition of Jerusalem. During the eighth century, long before Hellenic treatises were translated into Arabic and Persian dialects between the ninth and the tenth centuries, there was already a great interest among Arabian theorists like Abū Yūsuf al-Kindī, whose Arabic terms were obviously translated from the Greek. He adored the universality of the Greek octoechos:
Every style of any tribe takes part of the Byzantine eight tones (hiya min al-alhān at-tamāniya ar-rūmīya) which I mentioned here. Everything which can be heart, be it the the human or be it the animal voice – like the neighing of a horse, the braying of a donkey, or the carking of a cock, can be classified according to one of the eight modes, and it is impossible to find anything outside of the eight mode system.
Al-Kindī demonstrated the intervals on the keyboard of a simple four-stringed oud
Oud
The oud is a pear-shaped stringed instrument commonly used in North African and Middle Eastern music. The modern oud and the European lute both descend from a common ancestor via diverging paths...
, starting seven steps in ascending and descending direction from the third string.
According to Eckhard Neubauer, there is another Persian system of seven advār ("cycles") outside the Arabian reception of the Byzantine octoechos, which was possibly a cultural transfer from Sanskrit treatises. Persian and Hellenic sources were the main reference for the transfer of knowledge in Arabian-Islamic science.
The Monastic Reform of Mar Saba and the 16 Echoi of the Constantinopolitan Cathedral Rite
According to the Hagiopolites the eight echoi were divided in four "kyrioi" (authentic) echoi and their four respective plagalPlagal mode
A Plagal mode may mean different church chanting modes, depending on the context.-In Western Practice:A plagal mode is a musical mode, which is one of four Gregorian modes whose range includes the octave from the fourth below the tonic, or final, to the fifth above...
(enriched, developed) echoi, which were all in the diatonic genus.
The eight diatonic echoi of the Hagiopolitan octoechos
Despite the late copies of the Greek Hagiopolites treatise, the earliest Latin description of the Greek system of eight echoi is an eleventh-century treatise compilation called "alia musica". "Echos" was translated by "sonus" by the anonymous compilator, who commented with a comparison of the Byzantine octoechos:It is known about the tropes, as to say: the ἦχοι, that the Greek language call the First πρῶτος, the Second δεύτερος, the Third τρίτος, the Fourth τέταρτος. Their Finales were separated by a pentachord, that is: a falling fifth [between kyrios and plagios]. And above [the pentachord] they require a tetrachord, that is: a fourth, so that each of them has its species of diapason, in which it can move freely, rambling down and up. For the full octave another tone might be added, which is called ἐμμελῆς: “according to the melos”.
It has to be known that the “dorian” [octave species] is usually ruling in the πρῶτος, as the “phrygian” in the δεύτερος, the “lydian” in the τρίτος, or the “mixolydian” in the τέταρτος. Their πλάγιοι are derived by these ἦχοι in that way, that the formula touch them [going down a fifth]. So the πλάγιος τοῦ πρώτου touch the πρῶτος, the plagal Second [τοῦ δευτέρου] the δεύτερος, the plagal Third [βαρύς] the τρίτος, the plagal Fourth [πλάγιος τοῦ τετάρτου] the τέταρτος. And this should be proved by the melodies of the antiphonal graduals as a divine law.
This Latin description about the octoechos used by Greek singers (psaltes) is very precise, when it says that each kyrios and plagios pair used the same octave, divided into a fifth (pentachord
Pentachord
A pentachord in music theory may be either of two things. In pitch-class set theory, a pentachord is defined as any five pitch classes, regarded as an unordered collection . In other contexts, a pentachord may be any consecutive five-note section of a diatonic scale...
) and a fourth (tetrachord
Tetrachord
Traditionally, a tetrachord is a series of three intervals filling in the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion. In modern usage a tetrachord is any four-note segment of a scale or tone row. The term tetrachord derives from ancient Greek music theory...
): D-a-d in protos, E-b-e in devteros, F-c-f in tritos, and C-G-c in tetartos. While the kyrioi had the finalis (final, and usually also base note) on the top, the plagioi had the finalis on bottom of the pentachord.
The intonation formulas, called enechema (gr. ἐνήχημα), for the authentic modes or kyrioi echoi, usually descend within the pentachord and turn back to the finalis at the end, while the plagal modes or plagioi echoi just move to the upper third. The later dialogue treatises (gr. ἐροταπωκρισεῖς) refer to the Hagiopolitan diatonic eight modes, when they use the kyrioi intonations to find those of the plagioi:
About the Plagioi
You descend 4 steps [φοναὶ] from the echos protos [kyrios protos/authentic protus] and you will find again the plagios protos, this way:
You do the same way in echos devteros. If you descend 4 steps to find its plagios, i.e. πλ β', thus:
Hence, you descend four steps from echos tritos 4 steps and you will find its plagios which is called "grave" [βαρύς], this way:
Also from echos tetartos you descend 4 steps [φοναὶ] and you will find its plagios, which is πλ δ', like this way:
Phthorai and Mesoi
The Hagiopolites as "earliest" theoretical treatise says, that two additional phthorai ("destroyers") were like proper modes which did not fit into the diatonic octoechos system, so the Hagiopolitan octoechos is in fact a system of 10 modes. Changes between the echos tritos and the echos plagios tetartos were bridged by the enharmonic phthora nanaNana (echos)
In the theory and notation of byzantine music nana is the name of a special sign that denotes one of three things - depending on the historical period of the notation that it is used in or on the context:...
, and changes between the echos protos and the echos plagios devteros by the chromatic phthora nenano
Nenano
Phthora Nenano is the name of one of the two "extra" modes in the Byzantine Octoechos—an eight mode system, which was created by a reform of the Monastery Agios Sabas, near Jerusalem, during the seventh century...
. The theoretical concept of the Hagiopolites strongly suggested that nenano
Nenano
Phthora Nenano is the name of one of the two "extra" modes in the Byzantine Octoechos—an eight mode system, which was created by a reform of the Monastery Agios Sabas, near Jerusalem, during the seventh century...
and nana
Nana (echos)
In the theory and notation of byzantine music nana is the name of a special sign that denotes one of three things - depending on the historical period of the notation that it is used in or on the context:...
as phthorai "destroy" some of the 7 diatonic degrees used within the octave of a certain echos, so that the chromatic and enharmonic genus was somehow subordinated and excluded from the diatonic octoechos. This raises the question whether music in the near eastern Middle Ages was entirely diatonic, before certain melodies were coloured by the other enharmonic and chromatic genoi.
The Hagiopolites also mentioned an alternative system of 16 echoi, with 4 phthorai and 4 mesoi beyond the kyrioi and plagioi of the Octoechos, and the author called this system the "echoi of the Asma":
The 4 Echoi which come first are generated from themselves, not from others. As to the four which come next, i.e. the Plagal ones, Plagios Prōtos is derived from Prōtos, and Plagios Deuteros from Deuteros – normally Deuteros melodies end in Plagios Deuteros. Similarly, Barys from Tritos – “for in the Asma Hypobole of Barys is sung as Tritos together with its ending“. From the 4 Plagioi originate the 4 Mesoi, and from these the 4 Phthorai. This makes up the 16 Echoi which are sung in the Asma – as already mentioned, there are sung only 10 in the Hagiopolites.
This clearly suggests a distinction of the monastic octoechos reform and an older "sung rite" (ἀκολουθία ᾀσματική) which was the name of the Constantinopolitan cathedral rite with its own chant books asmatikon ("book of the choir"), psaltikon ("book of the soloist called 'monophonaris'"), and kontakarion
Kontakion
Kontakion is a form of hymn performed in the Eastern Orthodox Church. The word derives from the Greek word kontax , meaning pole, specifically the pole around which a scroll is wound. The term describes the way in which the words on a scroll unfurl as it is read...
(the name of the psaltikon, if it included the huge collection of kontakia, sung during the morning service). Unfortunately no treatise about the Constantinopolitan sixteen echoi survived, so that there is only this short paragraph of the Hagiopolites which says, that the singers of Hagia Sophia and other cathedrals of the empire followed in their chant books an own modal system, which was distinct from the octoechos.
The earliest Music Manuscript of the Carolingian Reform: the Tonary
Latin theorists who knew the Hellenic tropes only by Boethius' translation of Ptolemy, did the synthesis of the octoechos named after the tropes not earlier than during the Carolingian reform.The question of general (interval-structures of the scales)
Some 19th century and early 20th century musicologists claimed that Arab musicArab music
Arabic music or Arab music is the music of the Arab World, including several genres and styles of music ranging from Arabic classical to Arabic pop music and from secular to sacred music....
as well as Western medieval chant and Byzantine music were essentially diatonic and went so far as to challenge the capability of humans to distinguish and to sing microtonal inflections with any accuracy. However outmoded this view may seem now (see microtone), it is closely reminiscent of arguments amongst music theorists that started as early as late classical antiquity. Major Hellenistic theorists such as Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
and others stated that the enharmonic genus
Enharmonic genus
The enharmonic genus has historically been the most mysterious and controversial of the three Greek genera of tetrachords. Its characteristic interval is a major third, leaving the remainder of the tetrachord to be divided by two intervals smaller than a semitone...
was extinct since early classical times, while the chromatic genus
Chromatic genus
In Ancient Greek music theory, the chromatic genus is a genus of the tetrachord characterized by an upper interval of a minor third. The two middle notes of the tetrachord were movable while the two outer notes were immovable...
was only rarely mastered, and on its way to extinction. Also, early Arab theorists such Ibn al Munajjim and Ishak al Mawsili base their systems on the diatonic pythagorean scale. The struggle to accommodate microtonal inflections and non-diatonic scales in the modal system is an ongoing topic in near-eastern theory. The mathematical, theoretical and notational tools developed are often confusing and not easy to grasp. Thus on the whole one may say that the subject of non-diatonic scales and microtonal inflections is as difficult to formalize theoretically and to master in practice as it is attractive.
The Fanariots of the Ottoman Empire and their integrative Concept of "Exoteric Music"
The system of echoi is far more diverse and developed than a cursory look at the basics of the theory suggests. In practice, the system of echoi is complex and its details are encoded in the notation and in the nomenclature of derived echoi or of echoi variants. An interesting attempt at capturing the full extent of the modal system with a quasi-systematic nomenclature was published by Simon Karas in his multi volume work on the theory and practice of Greek music. Other valuable sources of information are treatises comparing the echoi with their corresponding Ottoman (Turkish) makamlar (see makamMakam
Makam In Turkish classical music, a system of melody types called makam provides a complex set of rules for composing and performance...
). Such are the works by Kiltzanidis (published in the late 19th century) and Kyrillos Marmarinos (his own original manuscript dated AD 1747, stored in the archives of the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece, Athens).
The eight Echoi and their Meloi
The Byzantine echoi as currently used in the monodic hymnHymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s of the Orthodox Churches in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, and Russia. Its melodic patterns were created by four generations of teachers at the "New Music School of the Patriarchate" (Constantinople/Istanbul), who redefined the Ottoman tradition of Byzantine chant between 1750 and 1830 and transcribed it into the notation of the New Method since 1814. Whereas in Gregorian chant a mode
Musical mode
In the theory of Western music since the ninth century, mode generally refers to a type of scale. This usage, still the most common in recent years, reflects a tradition dating to the middle ages, itself inspired by the theory of ancient Greek music.The word encompasses several additional...
referred to the classification of chant according to the local tonaries
Tonary
A tonary is a liturgical book in the Western Christian Church containing various chants which is organized according to the eight psalm tones of Gregorian chant. It may include antiphons from the Mass and Offices, as well as responsories and other chants...
and their psalmody, the Byzantine echoi were rather defined by an oral tradition how to do the thesis of the melos, which included melodic patterns like the base degree (ison), open or closed melodic endings or cadences (cadential degrees of the mode), and certain accentuation patterns. The melodic patterns were further distinguished according to different chant genres, which traditionally belong to certain types of chant books, often connected with various local traditions. The detailled transcription of the thesis of the melos and its various methods into the medium of the New Method redefined the genres according to parameters like tempo, rhythm, and the melodic treatment of text (between syllabic and highly melismatic). Often the strict rhythmic form of the melos was criticized as an innovation and an alternative slower style was created for the heirmologic and sticheraric melos.
The eight Byzantine Tones are:
- First Tone (ἦχος πρῶτος)
- Second Tone (ἦχος δεύτερος)
- Third Tone (ἦχος τρίτος)
- Fourth Tone (ἦχος τέταρτος)
- PlagalPlagal modeA Plagal mode may mean different church chanting modes, depending on the context.-In Western Practice:A plagal mode is a musical mode, which is one of four Gregorian modes whose range includes the octave from the fourth below the tonic, or final, to the fifth above...
First Tone (Tone Five) (ἦχος πλάγιος τοῦ πρώτου) - Plagal Second Tone (Tone Six) (ἦχος πλάγιος τοῦ δευτέρου)
- Grave Tone (or Barys) (ἦχος βαρύς)
- Plagal Fourth Tone (Tone Eight) (ἦχος πλάγιος τοῦ τετάρτου)
Hymns are typically divided into four chant genres and their melodic patterns used for each echos:
- Papadic hymns are melismatic tropariaTroparionA troparion in Byzantine music and in the religious music of Eastern Orthodox Christianity is a short hymn of one stanza, or one of a series of stanzas. The word probably derives from a diminutive of the Greek tropos...
sung during the divine liturgy (Cherouvikon, Koinonikon, etc.), according to the New Method slow in tempo, and fast in Teretismoi (sections using abstract syllables); the name "papadic" refers to the treatise of psaltic art called "papadike" (παπαδική) and its elaborated form is based on kalophonic compositions (between the 14th and the 17th century). - Sticheraric hymns are taken from the book sticherarion (στιχηραριὸν), its text is composed in hexameter, today called Doxastarion, according to the New Method there is a slow (Doxastarion argon) and a fast way (Doxastarion syntomon) of singing its melos; the tempo is 2 times faster than that of the papadic melos.
- Heirmologic hymns are taken from the heirmologion (εἰρμολογιὸν), their meter is defined by the odes of the canon, their content according to the first 9 biblical odes, in the poetic composition is based on melodic models called "heirmos" (εἴρμος); according to the New Method there is a slow (Katavaseion) and a fast way (Heirmologion syntomon) of singing it; the tempo is up to two times faster than that of the sticheraric melos. The melos follows strict melodic pattern which are also applied to texts sung from the text book menaion.
- Troparic hymns are taken from the book of the Great OctoechosOctoechos (liturgy)The Octoechos —literally, the book "of the Eight Tones"—contains an eight-week cycle, providing texts to be chanted for every day at Vespers, Matins, the Divine Liturgy, Compline and the Midnight Office...
or Osmoglasnik and its melos is memorized by the most frequently sung resurrection hymns (apolytikia anastasima) and Theotokia (troparic hymns dedicated to the Mother of God); according to the Anastasimatarion neon of the New Method the troparic melos has the same tempo than the fast heirmologic melos, but in certain modes different melodic patterns and genus.
This classification reflects into the structure of the hymn's melody. Hymns of the same tone belonging to different gernes are structured musically in a different way. This holds true for hymns belonging to every tone (with the possible exception of the third tone) but for some tones like the fourth or the grave tone it is apparent. There is a popular misconception that the division into gernes is based on the complexity of the melody versus the text. According to this misconception heirmologic hymns have one note per syllable, sticheraric two or more notes per syllable and papadic many notes per syllable. However one can encounter hymns of the three gernes with exactly the same notes per syllable ratio. For example "syntomoi polyeleoi" or "doxologiai", "syntoma stichera" and "katavasiai" have all typically two notes per syllable, the first two being papadic hymns (based on troparia which were originally sung as refrains within psalmodic recitation), the third sticheraric and the fourth heirmologic. That being said, typically the heirmologic hymns are faster than the sticheraric and the sticheraric faster than the papadic.
There are typically two main notes that define each of the Byzantine Tones. The base note or ison is the final note on which the hymn ends. The ison is typically droned against the melody. Any other notes different than the ison that occur more often than others during the course of a hymn are called dominant notes and also help define the Tone. The plagal (oblique) tones mentioned above employ the same scales as their counterparts, however their base notes (ison) are a fifth below that of their counterparts.
Genos and Phthora
Byzantine music does not distinguish between majorMajor scale
In music theory, the major scale or Ionian scale is one of the diatonic scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, ", the "Do" in the parenthesis at...
and minor scale
Minor scale
A minor scale in Western music theory includes any scale that contains, in its tonic triad, at least three essential scale degrees: 1) the tonic , 2) a minor-third, or an interval of a minor third above the tonic, and 3) a perfect-fifth, or an interval of a perfect fifth above the tonic, altogether...
s, and in fact the majority of Byzantine tones, as they are practically performed in Mediterranean churches, cannot be played on a conventionally tuned piano. Byzantine music theory and its reference to Ancient Greek music theorists and their distinction between the diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic genus (gr. γένος) widely employ microtones, with intervals either narrower or wider than the Western-style diatonic interval (both equally tempered
Equal temperament
An equal temperament is a musical temperament, or a system of tuning, in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratio. As pitch is perceived roughly as the logarithm of frequency, this means that the perceived "distance" from every note to its nearest neighbor is the same for...
and just
Just intonation
In music, just intonation is any musical tuning in which the frequencies of notes are related by ratios of small whole numbers. Any interval tuned in this way is called a just interval. The two notes in any just interval are members of the same harmonic series...
). In the early Hagiopolitan octoechos (7th-12th century) the diatonic echoi were destroyed by two phthorai nenano
Nenano
Phthora Nenano is the name of one of the two "extra" modes in the Byzantine Octoechos—an eight mode system, which was created by a reform of the Monastery Agios Sabas, near Jerusalem, during the seventh century...
and nana
Nana (echos)
In the theory and notation of byzantine music nana is the name of a special sign that denotes one of three things - depending on the historical period of the notation that it is used in or on the context:...
, which were like two additional modes with their own melos, but subordinated to certain diatonic echoi. In the period of psaltic art (13th-17th century), changes between the diatonic, the chromatic, and the enharmonic genos became so popular in certain chant genres, that certain echoi of the papadikan Octoechos were coloured by the phthorai – not only the traditional Hagiopolitan phthorai, but also additional phthorai which introduced transition models taken from maqam
Maqam
- Musical structures :* Arabic maqam, melodic modes* Mugam genre of Azeri-speaking cultures* Maqam al-iraqi genre of Iraq* Weekly Maqam prayer services of Sephardic Jewish culture* Makam, melody types of Turkey* Muqam, melody type of Uyghur culture...
traditions. After Chrysanthos
Chrysanthos of Madytos
Chrysanthos of Madytos was responsible for a reform of the notation of Byzantine Greek ecclesiastical music, along with Gregory the Protopsaltes and Chourmouzios the Archivist....
' redefinition of Byzantine chant according to the New Method (1814), the scales of echos protos and of echos tetartos are usually soft diatonic, those of the tritos echoi and the papadikan echos plagios tetartos enharmonic (phthora nana), and those of the devteros echoi chromatic. Whereas modern Western music is ultimately based on two different scales (major
Major scale
In music theory, the major scale or Ionian scale is one of the diatonic scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, ", the "Do" in the parenthesis at...
and minor
Minor scale
A minor scale in Western music theory includes any scale that contains, in its tonic triad, at least three essential scale degrees: 1) the tonic , 2) a minor-third, or an interval of a minor third above the tonic, and 3) a perfect-fifth, or an interval of a perfect fifth above the tonic, altogether...
), and the Latin octoechos on eight diatonic modes, four basic scales are used in the different Orthodox traditions of monodic chant today:
- The diatonic scale begins and ends on C, with the exception that the E and the B are slightly flatter, micro-tonally, than in 12-equal temperamentEqual temperamentAn equal temperament is a musical temperament, or a system of tuning, in which every pair of adjacent notes has an identical frequency ratio. As pitch is perceived roughly as the logarithm of frequency, this means that the perceived "distance" from every note to its nearest neighbor is the same for...
. Furthermore if the melody of a hymn in the diatonic scale is ascending, the B is natural, while for the descending melody B is flatted. The diatonic scale is the most common scale for the First, First Plagal, Fourth and Fourth Plagal Tones. To western ears, the diatonic scale sounds similar to the Western natural minor scale or the Aeolian modeAeolian modeThe Aeolian mode is a musical mode or, in modern usage, a diatonic scale called the natural minor scale.The word "Aeolian" in the music theory of ancient Greece was an alternative name for what Aristoxenus called the Low Lydian tonos , nine semitones...
.
- The enharmonicEnharmonicIn modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note , interval , or key signature which is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature, but "spelled", or named, differently...
scale is tuned exactly like the Western major scale with the main note (ison) on F. The enharmonic scale is the only Byzantine scale that can be played relatively accurately on the 12-equally tuned piano or other keyboard instrument. The Third and Grave Tones are enharmonic, except for a papadic variant of the Grave Tone, which is diatonic.
- The hard chromatic scale is usually based on D of the lower tetrachord with the second step slightly flatter and the third step slightly sharper (micro-tonally) than the flat and sharps of Western music. The longer rhythmic styles of the Second Plagal and some Second Tones use the hard chromatic scale.
- The soft chromatic scale also uses the lower tetrachordTetrachordTraditionally, a tetrachord is a series of three intervals filling in the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion. In modern usage a tetrachord is any four-note segment of a scale or tone row. The term tetrachord derives from ancient Greek music theory...
but is based on C instead of D. There is some controversy about how much the second note of the lower tetrachord (D-flat) should be flattened as compared to the second note of the upper tetrachord (A-flat) in the soft chromatic scale. Traditionally, the D is flatted more than the A. Currently, however, the argument is that both should be flatted the same, making both the upper and lower tetrachords equal, and thus identical to the hard chromatic scale. The Second, Fourth and Second Plagal Tones all use the soft chromatic scale.
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