4.50 €
Preview
We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
Byzantine music has deep roots in the Romanian culture and writing music in the spirit of Byzantine tradition has been a constant activity of the servants of the Orthodox Church in the Romanian areal. This genre of music continued to flourish in the second half of the 20th century, and Archdeacon Dr. Sebastian Barbu-Bucur, author of many hymns and services for the Romanian Saints, is one of the most prolific contemporary composers of psaltic music. As a constituent part of the ritual, liturgical music is subject to precise rules that are also reflected in the conditions imposed by the compliance with the melodic patterns of the eight church modes. The purpose of the comparative analysis of the Vespers hymns is to highlight their alignment with psaltic tradition, as well as to point out features of a musical discourse sprinkled with touches of modernity. In these hymns we find common features with the psaltic melos of the last two hundred years, as featured in the Anastasimatarion edited by Hieromonk Makarios in 1823, but also well crafted and original melodic turns, skillfully integrated in tradition by the composer who is also one of the most competent scholars of Byzantine musical manuscripts in our country.
More...
The system of ideas pertaining to the Enlightenment and democracy began to adjust the standard of natural selection on an ever lower level, and this process has not yet ended. From the viewpoint of linguistics and the psychology of creation we can determine those somehow tectonic movements that have gradually distanced art music from the world of everyday thinking and tastes. For the composers at the end of the 20th century, it became increasingly obvious that music history and the heritage of musical language are not processes in linear development, but rather the history of a multitude of parallel metamorphoses, along which simpler or more complicated structures interchange periodically or rhapsodically. A particular importance belongs to how sacred genres can synthesize those intonations (and here I understand the term intonation in all its complexity, in order to stress the character and its various modalities) of very different origins, whose source is to be found in the medieval world of the tropes (Gregorian), in the layers of ancient folklore, in the coded forms of the Renaissance and early Baroque, but also in the tradition of the nineteenth century (Schumann, Berlioz, Verdi, Liszt). A new epoch of transformations has been taking shape for the past two decades. Starting from under the protecting umbrella of vocality, more and more composers dare claim the right to existence of the “organic” musical language in the instrumental world of chamber music as well.
More...
The ism is like a cupola accommodating the various artistic trends and fundamental styles, or sheltering certain manners, all being related to the specificity of certain attitudes derived from the diverse aesthetic approaches. The ism groups, parcels out, catalogues and systematizes what in artistic practice is often difficult or even impossible to grasp. Viewed from the perspective of a desideratum, the ism can be nothing but a preconceived idea imposed a priori upon an aesthetic attitude. Hence, a confusing reversal of values occurred right in the yard of those interested in the articulation of some systemic visions. Instead of being presented with the object of creation, we are presented with the tools with which the object was shaped. The negative spirit of the "anti" realm has shaped itself by tenaciously producing a series of aesthetic categories pompously called anti-categories. The fickleness of the taste governed by the subjective we like has insinuated itself legitimizing a genuine antimetaphoric mannerism. And from here to the opportunism of it is in, or it is out, born from the arbitrariness of the ephemeral fashion, there was only one step to go; as to fashion and its insinuation in art, we will leave that for some other occasion.
More...
Defining the differentiated semantics of new and novelty, reversing the dictum non nova sed nove into non nove sed nova, the author of the chamber cantata „Give me Aladdin’s lamp” is based on the rich experience of leading myriad of mid-century modernism. The investigation of the paradigms of new relationships between vocal and instrumental in creation of Dora Cojocaru, is directed in present at the chamber cantata for mezzo-soprano, brass quintet and percussion on lyrics by Emil & Dan Botta, Georg Trakl, Rainer Maria Rilke and Ady Endre (1998). The relations text - melody by their phenomenological reduction to fruitful combinations between poetic word - musical sound in Dora Cojocaru’s cantatas represent a stylistic-rhetorical subsumption of autochthonous and foreign experiences in promoting new compositional and interpretive skills meant for adaptation of appropriate musical expression in portraying contemporary aesthetic message. They are designed on the wide range of contemporary aesthetic values from the grotesque in nascendi to the absurd in morendi. As long as the Cantata Galgenlieder in der Nacht with lyrics by Christian Morgenstern (1995) is conceived at the grotesquely pole on the axis of the field of contemporary aesthetics, the Cantata Give me Aladdin’s lamp is designed in the sphere of the tragic. In the composer’s vocal and instrumental creation (and not only in them) the experiences of today’s musical composition and interpretation are rethought creatively, suggesting in perspective the permanence of modern horizons.
More...
Axiologically acknowledged as a blend of tradition and modernity, the Cluj school of composition has designed an original stylistic matrix that proves its resonance with Baroque music thinking. Sigismund Toduţă and later his disciples, Hans Peter Türk and Dan Voiculescu, integrated their works within the confines of a musical language that recovers a historical musical era through the aesthetic filter of the present. Through logical derivations, artistic values of the past take on new semantic weight, while a neo-Baroque atmosphere penetrates the music of the late 20th century Cluj. Fantasia e Fuga sulle pedale per organo by Dan Voiculescu represents an ideal case of stylistic fusion that requires a simultaneous reading through the grid of the Baroque and of modernity. The analysis reveals intertextual connections with the works of Bach or Froberger, as well as references to the art of Hindemith. The stylistic bivalence of the entire piece is also reflected in the type of grammar used in modelling this novel opus; while the author applies a traditional grammar to shape the form, by designing the discourse according to an early Baroque formula, he resorts to a generative grammar for the elaboration of the content. The two levels of the text overlap and demonstrate Dan Voiculescu’s commitment to the Baroque paradigm, advancing the thesis of a reconfiguration of the diachronic and synchronic perspective in the musical creation.
More...
This article addresses neumatic signs in the Chrysantine system of musical notation (from 1814), which are part of the class of aphona neumes (great hypostasis), according to late Byzantine neumatic classification. In the neumatic system created by Chrysantos of Madytos, the reformer of Byzantine notation during the Balkan National Revival, out of the nearly 60 aphona neumes only seven were preserved, which functioned as “decorative” signs. They showed “how to ornament the voice and what variations to make in order to introduce beauty into singing” (according to Petur Dinev in his “Handbook for Modern Byzantine Neumatic Notation,” published in Sofia in 1964). Definitions by Bulgarian and Greek publishers from the 19th and 20th centuries are studied regarding the meaning of neumatic signs such as bareia, psefiston, homalon, antikenoma, heteron, entophonon, and stavros. The author concludes that the performative aspect of monophonic liturgical singing from the Revival period onward was not precisely defined, but rather varied according to knowledge about the oral chant tradition. In the author’s opinion, the publications consulted represent only a small fraction of performative possibilities, with the remainder being filled in by Psaltes themselves according to the singing school where there were educated or according to their personal knowledge and preference with regards to tradition. It is this that constitutes the richness and beauty of that “unique art form inspired by God in its very essence,” which has been preserved in Balkan Eastern Orthodox churches.
More...
St. John Koukouzeles is one of the most famous medieval musicians of Bulgarian origin. According to sources, he lived approximately from 1280-1341. Koukouzeles’ reformative work adapted Orthodox music to the rituals of the revised Jerusalem liturgical order, which started to be introduced in the Balkan Orthodox countries during the 13th century. This paper argues that Koukouzeles participated actively in the establishment of the new resurrectional worship: the great Master succeeded in “reading” the tradition of Orthodox music in its depth, richness, and variety. He also succeeded in generalizing much of the past theory and practice of Orthodox music, shifting it onto the level necessary for the needs of the time. Indoing so, Koukouzeles made the theory and practice of Orthodox music viable for centuries to come. His activity is linked to the great spiritual movement of the 14th-century Orthodox East - isychasm. The isychast circle of musicians around him is outlined: Philothei Kokinos, Grigorios Pa lamas, Theoleptos of Philadelphia, Irina Agiopetritis, etc. At the end, one of Koukouzeles’s pieces is analyzed: “Alleluia” from the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostomos. The version studied is found in the 18th-century manuscript D.gr.327 from the library of the Center for Slavo-Byzantine Studies at the University “St. Clement of Ohrid” in Sofia. The piece reveals the musical “vocabulary” used by the great medieval Master.
More...
This paper traces the understanding of the concept “singing schools” during the Bulgarian Revival Period, taking into account the definition offered by the prominent Bulgarian authority on liturgical singing Petur Dinev (1889-1980). According to his definition, a liturgical singing school refers to a clearly local but Churchill song practice that can be distinguished by its particular manner of interpretation. The author traces the development of the Balkan liturgical singing tradition from the second half of the 17th century, when the process of so-called “musical exegesis”, which was, in the author’s opinion, a process of decoding the previously encoded system of knowledge within the realm of a turtle music. The goal of this decoding was to preserve the tradition. The major schools are identified, i.e. the centers of Bulgarian Orthodox music: Rila Monastery, which played a fundamental role in the founding of contemporary Bulgarian monophonic but Churchill singing in the Church Slavic language; Bachkovo Monastery; and the Zograf and Hilendar monasteries on Mount Athas. The author also adds to the list of monasterial schools for Bulgarian singing the Ukrainian Great Skit monastery (in the village of Manyavsky, Lvov Region) in eastern Carpathians, which was the center of a song style called “Bolgarskij rospev”.Urban liturgical singing schools are also examined, including those in Veliko Tumovo, Sliven, Koprivshtitsa, Ohrid, Struga, Thessaloniki, and Odrin. He also lists the names of the most prominent figures in the singing schools and briefly outlines their activities. The author concludes that despite the tendency toward stylistic unification in liturgical singing after the appearance of printed songbooks, even in the 20th century individual performances of specific regional musical expressions still have a place. This conclusion reinforces the basic principle that the strength of national unity is founded on the richness of regional variety.
More...
Bulgaria’s acceptance of Christianity in 864 marked the beginning of its monasteries, which are a basic form of the organization ofreligious life. After the advent of Slavic literacy, they became centers and active distributors of medieval culture. During the Ottoman period and up until the beginning of the 19th century, they were the only cultural institutions that had libraries and that preserved Bulgarian linguistic and spiritual traditions. In a number of monasteries literary and Damaskin homily schools arose, creating conditions conducive to the development of various types of art, including wood carving, icon painting, fresco painting and miniatures. Music as a specific kind of art, in that it is temporal rather than spatial, was primarily developed inland the large monastic centers. Over the centuries the rich usual life and vigorous literary activity of Rila Monastery led to the formation of an impressive manuscript collection, which also eventually included printed books. The monasteries singing school adapted late Byzantine musical models, judging from the numerous Greek musical manuscripts from the second half of the 18th century that are preserved in the library and which are notable for their rich song repertoire. Church Slavic musical manuscripts are important evidence of the historical role played by monks at Rila, as well as being a valuable source of information about the Revival-era musico-historical process. The carefully selected collection of printed Greek anthologies bears witness to the fact that the acceptance of new elements in the development of Eastern Orthodox church music (the New Method system) led to specialized and deliberately selected musical activity. During the 19th century the Rila song school was an important musical and creative center which gave rise to chance that is notable for its unique characteristics.
More...
This article observes fundamental problems linked to the liturgical, musical and hymnographical tradition of Saints Cyril and Methodius, as they have reflected in a number of musical and hymnographical codices. An analysis is undertaken of the most important medieval theological and liturgical evidences from the 9th to the 12th centuries when the liturgical practice of the Eastern Slavs became established as part of the practice of the Byzantine Church. It was time when the new liturgical language-the Old-Bulgarian evolved and disseminated due to the prestige of the Holy brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius and their disciples.
More...
Intrigued by the thematic motif in the Vita of St. John Koukouzeles telling about the creation of the work Polyeleos of the Bulgarian Woman, which is said to have been inspired by his mother’s lamentations, Professor M. Velimirovich discovered in the Polyeleos repertory of late Byzantine manuscripts three melodies whose headings are connected with Bulgaria: the melody “e boulgara” (The Bulgarian Woman) in the first authentic mode (in the repertoire associated with Psalm 134) and two melodies called “boulgarikon” (Bulgarian) in the fourth and the second plagal modes (between the melodies for Psalm 135). In the first half of this report the melody “e boulgara” is traced in manuscripts from the 14th and 15th to the 17th 18th centuries, with comments about its various attributions: it was originally attributed to John Glykys, but from the end of the 16th century on was attributed to John Koukouzeles. The phonetic variants of the headings are also discussed. The melody used to sing various verses from Psalm 134, and it is especially frequently connected with verse 13b. The analysis in the context of the late Byzantine polyeleos repertoire reveals the periodic repetition of melodic sections in both of its parts. Special attention is given to development of the repeating melodic episode that modulates within the second authentic mode (through a corresponding sign for modal change phtora). The hypothesis is suggested that the appearance of the heading “The Bulgarian Woman” is due to this unusual episode in melodic development that adds a crying intonation and most probably “imitates Bulgarian lament” (which corresponds to Dokeian’s heading written above a kratema): thus, the “e boulgara” melody falls under the practice of intonational mimesis, characteristic for the period when musical manuscripts included headings connected with intonational realia (such as instrumental sounds or natural sounds). On the basis of this analysis, a melodic connection is sought between the Renaissance version Polyeleos of the Bulgarian Woman by John Koukouzeles (which underwentthe changes of musical “exegesis” in the post-Byzantine period) and the medieval melody “e boulgara.” The existence of a link between the heading and the thematic motif in the life of St. loan Kukuzel is accepted. The second half of this report traces in manuscripts from the same time the two others “Bulgarian” (boulgarikon) melodies. An analysis of these melodies in the context of polyeleos repertoire of Psalm 135 once again reveals the same compositional peculiarity: the existence of periodic repetition in the ordering of combined melodic episodes; this repetition is particularly clear in the “boulgarikon” melody in the second plagal mode, in which the series of melodic episodes is repeated four times. The definitions that also frequently accompanied these two melodies, dysikon “western” are also analyzed, as they also most probably refer to the region of the Balkans. The hypothesis is suggested..
More...
This article presents connections between palaeography of the textual ductus (stylistic tendencies) and the writing of the notation in the 12th and 13th centuries. A number of identifications of the sources that are the work of only one scribe are discussed, and the links between groups of manuscripts are established. In the first part of the paper the connections between several groups of manuscripts are pointed out: the sticherarion Rizov F1650k/op4/3 and the heirmologion Lavra Beta 32; the catenas on Paul’s Epistles Oxford Magd. MS. Gr. 7 and the praxapostol Dujcev gr. 369; the sticherarion Sinai gr. 1218, the psaltikon Patmos 201 and the tipikon Patmos 265. The newly discovered source (Sticherarion Rizov F 1650k/op4/3) containing the earliest stages of both types of Palaeo Byzantine notation (Coislin I and Chartres I) is presented. A hypothesis uniting the sources on the basis of the medieval scribe’s notion to prepare a standardized service corpus is suggested.
More...
From the end of the 16th and throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, in Ukrainian and Belarusian manuscripts (and in Russian sources beginning in the middle of the 17th century), a large repertoire was notated using the Kievan quadratic staff notation; this repertoire was long associated with the ethnonym “Bulgarian,” i.e. Bolgarskij napel and Bolgarskij rospev - “Bulgarian chant”. This so-called “Bulgarian chant” became known in Bulgaria during the transition to the New Era (the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries) with the introduction of Russian choral liturgical singing in Bulgaria. A public discussion arose about what authentic old Bulgarian liturgical singing was: Bolgarskij rospev or the traditional Balkan monophonic chant from the revival era (after the Chrysanthos Reform of 1814). The paper briefly traces the opinions of the most prominent Bulgarian composer of that time, Dobri Hristov (1875-1941), about “Bolgarskij rospev,” and also discusses the results of research on this type of chant in the context of Russian liturgical singing by Ivan Boznesenski (according to his 1891 publication). Both authors accept that this singing comes from Bulgaria, having been produced in the oral tradition and possessing very specific stylistic characteristics. Elena Toncheva’s important discovery is also noted: three Hiermologia with such repertoire from the Great Skit Monastery located near Manyava village in the Lvov Region in the eastern Carpathians, which was the center of what the Skit Hiermologia call “Old Bulgarian chant.” A short history of the monastery is presented, as well as an explanation of its connections with the Balkan region. Initial studies of the “Bolgarskij rospev” from Skit revealed a specific psalmodic style of an early kind: the construction of the entire composition through the periodic repetition of a melodic period with a psalmodic appearance, which supports I. Boznesenski’s conclusions. Thus, we arrived at the opinion that Bolgarskij rospev which we find in the Ukrainian liturgical chant tradition, originates from the Balkans, in particular from Bulgaria as early as the time of the acceptance of Christianity (9th century). It was passed on in the oral tradition (only with the use of the so-called short or melisma theta notation). With the establishment of the Revised Jerusalem liturgical order in bilingual Greek-Slavic sources from the 15th century, the transition from oral to written practice was begun. This process can be observed in bi-lingual musical manuscripts notated with late Byzantine notation, such as the so-called Rila Musical Marginal Notes, the Skopje Papadika manuscript (MS Belgrade 93), the Zegligovo Anthology (Athens manuscript № 928), and the manuscript family from the Putna Monastery in Moldova (16th century). The idea occurred to conduct comparative research between chants with parallel Slavic-language texts from the Balkan Greek Slavic late Byzantine notational sources on the...
More...
One demand runs through the whole of musical history like a red thread: the demand for music appropriate to its place in the church. The origins of this can be traced back at least to St. Augustine (Confessions), who passed on two words to the following centuries: the profit and the pleasure of singing. The pleasure should not outweigh the profit, while the senses should be guided by reason. These two words were seized upon by the Council of Trent, which, in its “Canon on Music to be used in the Mass”, promulgated in 1562, connected them in the idea of the religious musical ethos. Not to “the empty pleasure of the ear,” but to the lifting of hearts “in the desire for heavenly harmonies and in contemplation of the joy of the Blessed” - this should be the intention of singing in the church. It is musicology as a modern scientific discipline that connects the idea of appropriate church music with the means of expression of music, or with its musical particularities. According to this discipline these elements that are common for church and secular music, when they are used in a church work, will have to be adapted in an appropriate way to fit the aims of the liturgical service. Here two possible approaches to research present themselves. The first of them, leaving the discussion of the musical sense to other disciplines beside musicology, focuses on an analysis of the melodic, rhythmic, structural, notational, and repertoire-related characteristics of church music. The second approach is one that holds open the horizon toward the theological foundations of that music. This paper focuses on a concrete example: “Chants on the All-Night Vigil” by Dobri Hristov. In an attempt to utilize the second approach outlined above, the author has chosen a definite point of departure, situating chants in the context of the theological idea of the all-night service, which is based on Christ’s exhortation :”Be always on the watch,” Luke 21:36. Examining two types of manuscripts from Dobri Hristov’s archives (“Notes on the Order of the Chants” and “Chants for the All-Night Vigil”) in their mutual interconnectedness, this paper attempts to find an adequate way of reading “Chants,” which represents the composer’s most fervent effort to realize his idea of appropriate church music.
More...