S. Brock, "Syriac and Greek Hymnography: Problems of Origin"

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See here

http://www.scribd.com/doc/42061384/BROCK-Studies-in-Syrian-Christianity

an article by one of the foremost experts in Syriac studies on the interrelationship between the Syriac and Greek hymnography (there is a menu at the bottom of the page; go to p. 56)*. I also attach the article "The Dependence of Romanos the Melodist upon the Syriac Ephrem: Its Importance for the Origin of the Kontakion" by William L. Petersen (Vigiliae Christianae
Vol. 39, No. 2 (Jun., 1985), pp. 171-187).
 

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  • petersen.pdf
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Shota

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I attach the article "Romanos le Mélode, un poète syrien à Constantinople" by Lucas van Rompay. It deals with relationship of Romanos the Melodist's literary output with the Syrian tradition on the example of some points taken from the Genesis Book of the Bible.
 

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  • vanRompay.rar
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Here is a review of José Grosdidier de Matons' classic book "Romanos le Mélode et les origines de la poésie religieuse à Byzance" by André de Halleux. De Halleux seems to be of the opinion that Grosdidier de Matons is somewhat overzealous in diminishing Syriac traits in Romanos' work. On p. 640 he lists instances of what he thinks to be Syrian influences on Romanos' Greek.
 

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  • deHalleux.pdf
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Shota

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Here is a chapter "Bilingualism and Diglossia in Late Antique Syria and Mesopotamia" by David Taylor from the book "Bilingualism in Ancient Society" (a rather interesting book). Works like this seem important to me for understanding the cultural, linguistic etc. background of the early Christian hymnography.

Later I'll upload another paper by Brock on Romanos the Melodist.
 

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Later I'll upload another paper by Brock on Romanos the Melodist.

Here it is (From Ephrem to Romanos, Studia Patristica 20 (1989), 139-51). I accidentally forgot to copy one page, which I'll hopefully do at some later stage.
 

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  • Brock_FromEphremToRomanos.pdf
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Here (p. 311 of the pdf file or p. 285 of the printed edition) one can find a classical paper "Das Kontakion" by P. Maas. It deals with the kontakion. Maas supports the view of Syrian roots of the kontakion genre.
 

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I attach a few pages from M. Lauxtermann's book "The Spring of Rhythm. An Essay on the Political Verse and Other Byzantine Metres"*, which summarise Ephrem's influence on Byzantine verse (centering mainly on isosyllaby).

* This little, but good book is also available in Greek translation. See here.
 

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I attach the paper "Liturgie et Hymnographie: Kontakion et Canon" by José Grosdidier de Matons (Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 34/35, (1980/1981), pp. 31-43), which deals with the history of the kontakion and kanon.

Grosdidier de Matons appears to be correct in not implying that kanon as a genre was born from the kontakion (on p. 35; cf. p. 41), although his dating of the emergence of the kanon requires correction. The same can be said about the implication that kanon in essence is a "monastic" genre (p. 41). As far as the discussion on the interrelationship between the kanon and the kontakion in the Orthros is concerned, I guess it is more appropriate to say that kanon as a genre was a Palestinian event and kontakion remained long time alien to the Palestinian milieu. It is the Palestinian tradition that eventually to a degree absorbed kontakion within its already established structure of the services and not the other way around, i.e. kanon did not creep into the Orthros in the position of the kontakion.
 

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  • Grosdidier.rar
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To provide a little summary, indications of the Syrian influence on the kontakion genre appear quite plausible. There is no hard evidence as far as musical influence is concerned, but the possibility cannot be discarded (simply because a number of early hymnographers either were not Greek by birth (as Romanos and John Damascene), or were born or active in places with multiethnic and multicultural environment (Andrew of Crete, Kosmas, Sophronios of Jerusalem)). The oktoechos as a system of eight modes did not originate within the Syrian tradition (see here Cody's article). But this of course does not imply that there could be no Syrian influence on its musical side.
 
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