8/6/2019 Old Byzantine and Russian Liturgical Chant

1/3

Old Byzantine and Russian Liturgical ChantAuthor(s): Alfred J. SwanSource: Bulletin of the American Musicological Society, No. 8 (Oct., 1945), pp. 22-23Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/829391 .

Accessed: 12/02/2011 13:11

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you

may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal. .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

University of California Press andAmerican Musicological Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,

preserve and extend access toBulletin of the American Musicological Society.

http://www.jstor.org

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=amusochttp://www.jstor.org/stable/829391?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucalhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/829391?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=amusochttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal

8/6/2019 Old Byzantine and Russian Liturgical Chant

2/3

22 BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETYRestoration expressive style recalls the old techniques of "madrigal-ism", but the emphasis is less pictorial and more dramatic. A guide tothe contemporary esthetic on this subject is found in a passage inChristopher Simpson's Compendium of Musick (first edition, 1667),enjoining the apt expression of the "sense and humour" of the words.Blow's practice coincides with Simpson's theory in his appropriate treat-ment of "grave" and "light" words and in his use of chromatics andsuspensions for passions of "love, sorrow, and anguish", of "strenuous"movements for "anger, courage, and revenge", of dissonances for "cruel,bitter, and harsh"sentiments, of rising or falling lines for words imply-ing "high" or "low", and of rests for "sighs and sobbs". Simpson was apoor prophet, however, in stating that the use of many notes to a syllablewas going out of fashion. Both Blow's and Purcell's songs became in-creasingly melismatic and paved the way for the luxuriant coloraturadisplay affected by Italian prima donnas in the i8th-century Englishpleasure-gardens.In the declamatory style Blow and his pupils, following Lawes' soundprinciples of "just note and accent", set down punctiliously the exactnote-values desired; but they broke away from his more mechanical

declamation by avoiding regular periods, rests at the beginning of suc-cessive lines, and regular line-endings, and added not only the expres-sive melismas already mentioned, but numerous verbal repetitions. Moregenerally, they departed from the balance and literary nicety of thetransition period to a display of florid asymmetry, verging on distortionand virtuosity, which brought them into step with similar tendenciesthroughout Western Europe and throughout all the arts.[Illustrations of the various styles employed in Blow's songs were sung by

Miss Amelia Tataronis.]

PHILADELPHIA CHAPTER(All the meetingsof thischapterwereheld in Merion,Pa.)

Old Byzantine and RussianLiturgical ChantAlfred J. Swan

(JANUARY I ITH, 1942)THE LINEconnecting the Byzantine Chant with the Russian is clearlyevident. The so-called Paleobyzantine Chant, in use from the 9th cen-tury to the 12th, was introduced into Russia at the end of the iothcentury, and the earliest Russian monumenta are noted down in what is,

8/6/2019 Old Byzantine and Russian Liturgical Chant

3/3

PHILADELPHIA CHAPTER 23to all intents and purposes, the Paleobyzantine notation. But while inByzantium this notation was replaced by the Neobyzantine towardsthe end of the 12th century, in Russia it was altered by slow degreesto suit the Russian need. With the notation, the Chant itself also under-went profound changes on Russian soil. It remained in general use inRussia until the end of the i 7th century, and was transcribed onto thestaff in 1772. The transcriptions are easily verified through the practiceof the Old Believers, who have steadily clung to the tradition that pre-vailed before the adoption of the staff notation.The problem now before musicologists is to trace this tradition backto the earliest times (this has already been attempted by the Russianscholar, Smoliensky) and thus discover the true nature of both Paleo-byzantine notation and Chant. On the Byzantine side this has been onlysuperficially attempted in the recent book of Dom Lorenzo Tardo(1938). A further most important problem is to try to establish themethod of performance of these chants. On the Russian side a closeconnection with folk-song has already been established (see A. J. Swan,The Musical Quarterly, XXVI [1940], No. 3). On the Byzantine sidea similar attempt is being made by A. Papadopoulou, an assistant ofWellesz in the transcription of Byzantine melodies; and Tardo uncoversa clue in the folk-songs of the Greco-Albanian colonies in Sicily (estab-lished before the conquest of Constantinople). If a closer relation istraced between the Chant and the folk-song, we may establish thatunison and harmonized performances are equally justified; this wouldleave the way open to wider use of harmonizations and heighten thechances that the old melodies might have of appealing to present-dayaudiences. No unison performance is likely to satisfy them. But if thechants are harmonized, as the folk-songs have been, modern audiences,in church or concert hall, will discover in them a vastly important andbeautiful body of music.

Viennese Dance Music in the BaroquePeriodPaul Nettl

(FEBRUARY 15TH, 1942)[THE LECTURER based his talk on his book, "Die Wiener Tanz-komposition in der zweiten Hilfte des 17. Jahrhunderts", published asVol. VIII of Adler's Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, as well as onrecently completed research.]In the early part of the century, opera remained in the hands ofVenetian composers living at the Viennese court; the dances that