My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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ORTHODOX BYZANTINE MUSIC
By Dimitri Conomos, Ph.D.
Strictly speaking, Byzantine music is the medieval sacred chant of Christian Churches following the Orthodox rite. This tradition, encompassing the Greek-speaking world, developed in Byzantium from the establishment of its capital, Constantinople, in 330 A.D. until its fall in 1453. It is undeniably of composite origin, drawing on the artistic and technical productions of the classical age, on Jewish music, and inspired by the monophonic vocal music that evolved in the early Christian cities of Alexandria, Antioch and Ephesus.
Early Christian Period
Byzantine chant manuscripts date from the 9th century, while lectionaries of biblical readings in Ekphonetic Notation (a primitive graphic system designed to indicate the manner of reciting lessons from Scripture) begin about a century earlier and continue in use until the 12th century or 13th century. Our knowledge of the older period is derived from Church service books Typika, Patristic writings and medieval histories. Scattered examples of hymn texts from the early centuries of Greek Christianity still exist. Some of these employ the metrical schemes of classical Greek poetry; but the change of pronunciation had rendered those meters largely meaningless, and, except when classical forms were imitated. Byzantine hymns of the following centuries are prose-poetry, unrhymed verses of irregular length and accentual patterns. The common term for a short hymn of one stanza, or one of a series of stanzas, is troparion (this may carry the further connotation of a hymn interpolated between psalm and verses). A famous example, whose existence is attested as early as the 4th century, is the Vesper hymn, Phos Hilaron, "Gladsome Light"; another, O Monogenes Yios, "Only Begotten Son," ascribed to Justinian I (527-565 A.D.), figures in the introductory portion of the Divine Liturgy. Perhaps the earliest set of troparia of known authorship are those of the monk Auxentios (first half of the 5th century), attested in his biography but not preserved in any later Byzantine order of service.
Medieval Period
Two concepts must be understood if we are to appreciate fully the function of music in Byzantine worship. The first, which retained currency in Greek theological and mystical speculation until the dissolution of the Empire, was the belief in the Angelic transmission of sacred chant: the assumption that the early Church united men in the prayer of the Angelic choirs. This notion is certainly older than the Apocalypse account (Revelation 4:8-11), for the musical function of Angels as conceived in the Old Testament is brought out dearly by Prophet Isaiah (6:1-4) and Prophet Ezekiel (3:12). Most significant in the fact, outlined in Exodus 25, that the pattern for the earthly worship of Israel was derived from heaven. The allusion is perpetuated in the writings of the early Holy Fathers, such as Saint Clement of Rome, Saint Justin, Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Saint Athenagoras of Athens, and Pseudo-Dionysios the Areopagite. It receives acknowledgment later in the Liturgical treatises of St. Nicolas Kavasilas and Saint Symeon of Thessaloniki (Patrologia Graeca, Cl. 368-492 and CLV, 536-699, respectively).
(To be continued)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things! - Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George