Lesson 23 - Vespers Doxastikon - September 17

GabrielCremeens

Music Director at St. George, Albuquerque, NM
Regarding the phrase "they stood boldly," which I changed - I encountered a piece of music last night, which I think uses the kind of modal transition which I did.

In the Doxastikon for St. Sophia, I used a transition which has been discussed previously in this topic. Namely, the piece had a martyria of ke, from which the melody begins. The melody proceeded as follows:

ke _ they

di-ke _ stood

zo-ni-zo-ke _ bold -

di - ly

In Mousiki Kypseli, Volume III, we find on p. 105, the Aposticha Doxastikon of Sts. Eustratios, Auxentios. Eugenios, Mardarios, and Orestos.

On the fifth line of the piece, we find the following melody:

di - ke_ Ευ

zo-ni_ γε

zo-ke_ νι

di_ ε

Except for the petaste at the beginning of the melody in my composition, this is essentially the same melodic line. The same can be said for the melody found only one line below the one I have just mentioned; it occurs on the words "και ένδοξε".

Is this identical to what I have done, except for the petaste? Or am I missing a difference here? Please correct me if I am wrong.

In Christ,
Gabriel

EDIT: I have attached a jpg of the piece in question.
 

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GabrielCremeens

Music Director at St. George, Albuquerque, NM
Hello all,

I've tried to rephrase the above to reflect more clearly (I hope!) what I am asking in the post above.

Given that the pattern of notes is melodically identical in the three phrases (the two in the "Vespers Doxastikon of St. Eustratios and those with him", and the one musical phrase "they stood boldly" in my own composition), both in terms of pitch and rhythm, with the single melodic exception being the petaste in my own composition that precedes this particular thesis, is this a possible justification for my own use of the thesis in the "Vespers Doxastikon of St. Sophia and Her Three Daughters"?

I am aware that there is a syllabic difference between the two formulas; namely, that the English "stood boldly" is 3 syllables, having the pattern 110, while the Greek "Ευγένιε" and "και ένδοξε" are both 0100.

However, given that there are many "agia" fourth mode formulas similar to this one with variable numbers of syllables, I thought that perhaps the melodic movement might be more important than the number of syllables, due to the fact that (to my understanding) the original objection to my use of this formula here was that I could not transition between modes in a manner such as I did.

However, given that I only started learning Byzantine music "officially" a little over a year ago when I started at Hellenic College, I wanted to see if this was a valid hypothesis or not.

So, my essential question is: since the melodic movement of the formula in this Greek Doxastikon is identical to the melodic movement in my own composition (with the exception of the petaste that precedes the formula in my own work), is this a possible justification for my use of the formula as I did?

In Christ,
Gabriel
 
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