Sakellarides, Harmonization & Westernization of Chant: What were the reactions from the community of traditional Psaltai?

[Pappous43]

My personal preference, though, is to avoid extra-liturgical performances in general because it separates beauty from the spiritual context and becomes art for art's sake.

Well, very, very briefly, the existence of Byzantine music (just like Western music) in church is exactly for a spiritual purpose: to promote contrition of heart and bring us closer to the Lord.
The byzantine music is based on the Ancient Greek Music, in turn based on natural acoustical intervals of real physical harmony also discovered by the famous mathematician Pythagoras (also known for his math. theorem).
To make my point clearer, I 'll digress for a moment.
Experts say that Greek music was even more developed than Architecture. Now, remember that the styles of Greek (Corinthian) columns are still used in modern buildings like in the USA United States, famous buildings include the U.S. Supreme Court Building, the U.S. Capitol, and the National Archives Building, all in Washington, D.C. In New York City, buildings with these columns include the New York Stock Exchange Building.
So, if Music was more developed than Architecture, then it must have been really good.
Ecclesiastical music in the first church was based mainly on the existent Greek Music, not all of it but the decent parts for the church.
Many holy men of the Church have composed hymn music, after fasting and praying. Examples are St. John of Damascus (+750), St.John Koukouzelis etc.
Having said that, I agree with you, there is a danger that extra-liturgical performance separates beauty from the spiritual context and becomes art.
On the other hand, genuine traditional ecclesiastical byzantine music has natural/physical/mathematical harmony) and spiritual foundations by saintly composers.

 

[SergM]

This article states:

For these and many other reasons, the use of Western-style polyphony in church has been opposed in recent centuries by several saints (including St. Seraphim of Sarov; St. Philaret Drozdov, Metropolitan of Moscow; St. Ignatius Brianchaninov; St. Barsanuphius, Elder of Optina; and the New Martyr St. Andronik Archbishop of Perm) as well as by the Holy Synod of Constantinople, the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, and by many venerable hierarchs (such as Patriarch Germogen of Russia in the seventeenth century, Metropolitan Evgeny of Kiev in the eighteenth century, and Archbishop Averky of Syracuse and Holy Trinity Monastery [Jordanville] in the twentieth century).

I think that these saints spoke out against the Russian (modern) harmonization. And there are reasons for this. But there are (in the Orthodox tradition) other types of polyphony, for example: Greek, Georgian, and also early native Russian.
I know almost nothing about them, and I'm interested: in what form does there exist an eight modes in them, are they different scales or just different melodies in one scale?
What is actually sung at the services: troparia, stichera, canons, psalms?