Church choirs in history

[Timothy1]

Hi everyone,

I am hoping to learn more about the history of choral singing in Greek Orthodox churches.

When did choral singing cease being the norm in our worship? Was this a result of the Turkish occupation, or is the current practice of solo chanters an earlier tradition (predating the fall of Constantinople)?
If, historically, each church had a left and right choir, how big were these choirs?

If there are any historical sources addressing these, it would be great to know. Thank you!

 

[domesticus]

Something to start reading.

 

[Shota]

Something to start reading.

Thanks for the article.

I don't think the author presents any decisive evidence that the Byzantine choirs were large. The only reference she has is to the legislation by Justinian and Heraclius. But to me it seems likely that in those pieces of legislation the Hagia Sophia clergy membership was some kind of an offikion (honorary office), without necessarily implying simultaneous participation in liturgical ceremonies. What did 110 anagnostai (lectors) read? Or 100 pyloroi (gate-keepers) guard? Also I can't wrap my head around the term "semi-nun".

The iconographic evidence typically shows small choirs (which could be as few as 2-3 psaltai). The following quote from the article, that describes how the monastic choir functioned, is quite enlightening:

οὐ πᾶσαι δὲ ὀφείλετε λέγειν ἴσῃ φωνῇ, ἵνα μὴ καταβροντῶνται ὑμῶν αἱ ἀκοαὶ καὶτῶν ἀκουόντων, ἀλλὰ μία ἀρχέτω τῆς ἀκολουθίας καὶ τῆς φωνῆς, καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ ἀκολουθείτωσαν ἐπίσης χθαμαλωτέρᾳ φωνῇ.

Which is basically the modern practice, where the head chanter leads and others follow.

 

[domesticus]

It was probably the maximum number for a huge church like Agia Sophia, perhaps only during official ceremonies.
The iconography evidence derives from the late centuries of the Empire, where the conditions are different from many perspectives .

 

[Κατσίκης Κωνσταντίνος]

Moreover, the mentioned total of those serving in the temple worked in daily or weekly shifts.

 

[giorgosgoudi]

Hagia Sofia was a special case, and it is not sure what exactly function had during it's 900 year history.

It's a research topic itself.

 

[emakris]

οὐ πᾶσαι δὲ ὀφείλετε λέγειν ἴσῃ φωνῇ, ἵνα μὴ καταβροντῶνται ὑμῶν αἱ ἀκοαὶ καὶτῶν ἀκουόντων, ἀλλὰ μία ἀρχέτω τῆς ἀκολουθίας καὶ τῆς φωνῆς, καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ ἀκολουθείτωσαν ἐπίσης χθαμαλωτέρᾳ φωνῇ.

Which is basically the modern practice, where the head chanter leads and others follow.

IF there are others, IF the others can sing the melody, IF the protopsaltes allows them to sing along and IF the protopsaltes doesn't put the microphone in his mouth, so that he is the only to be heard. Yes, this is the modern practice in Greek churches...

 

[domesticus]

IF there are others, IF the others can sing the melody, IF the protopsaltes allows them to sing along and IF the protopsaltes doesn't put the microphone in his mouth, so that he is the only to be heard. Yes, this is the modern practice in Greek churches...

Shota writes about ''monastic choir'' not about the parishes. There, we don't have choirs, just single chanters with some helpers around.

 

[Shota]

It was probably the maximum number for a huge church like Agia Sophia, perhaps only during official ceremonies.
The iconography evidence derives from the late centuries of the Empire, where the conditions are different from many perspectives .

Well, the article uses indiscriminately the sources from totally different periods of the Byzantine history to present a grand narrative. I'm not interested much in musicology, but this is not how historical liturgics works, for instance. There are variations both in space (different places) and in time (different periods), and you have to keep this in mind when working with diverse sources. You can't reverse engineer how Christ celebrated the Last Supper from the order of Chrysostom's liturgy, or the modern Paschal seder.

Here is an excerpt from the Typikon of the Great Church for the Indiction, an important feast. How large were these three ascetic communities, so that they could fit on the ambo? How large was the ambo in Hagia Sophia? Elsewhere, where it has survived, it's not particularly big.

 

[domesticus]

Keep in mind that some members of the choir were on the ambo itself, as they depicted in various mss, and the others probably were around the base of the ambo, for practical reasons.

 

[Shota]

One can also refer to the organization of the Papal choir (scola). This included, in hierarchical order: primicerius (head chanter), secundicerius, tertius, quartus (also known as archiparaphonista), an unspecified but likely small number of paraphonistae (Ordo Romanus VI,16 talks of four; the term is of obvious Greek derivation), and children. Not all chanters sang in all services at all times: we know for sure that a choice was made. And these would also be divided over two choirs.

I don't expect the Hagia Sophia choir to have been massively larger than this.

 

[π. Μάξιμος]

[Ανακοίνωση] - Νέα έκδοση του ΙΒΜ: Οι Χοροί Ψαλτών κατά την Βυζαντινή Παράδοση

Αγαπητοί φίλοι, σας ενημερώνω ότι κυκλοφόρησε ήδη από το Ίδρυμα Βυζαντινής Μουσικολογίας, στη σειρά "Μελέται 14", η μελέτη της Ευαγγελίας Σπυράκου, Οι Χοροί Ψαλτών κατά την Βυζαντινή Παράδοση, Αθήνα 2008. http://www.ibyzmusic.gr/index.php/ekdosis/meletes

analogion.com

Ψάχνω το βιβλίο της Ευαγγελίας Σπυράκου "οι χοροί ψαλτών κατά την βυζαντινή παράδοση" σε pdf

Ψάχνω το βιβλίο της Ευαγγελίας Σπυράκου "οι χοροί ψαλτών κατά την βυζαντινή παράδοση" σε pdf. Ευχαριστώ!

analogion.com

 

[Timothy1]

Well, the article uses indiscriminately the sources from totally different periods of the Byzantine history to present a grand narrative.

I agree. The descriptions are from sources that may differ by a thousand years.

It’s very interesting to read about Hagia Sophia, but it seems that much of our parish practice today was inherited from the monastic typikon.
Did parishes in late Byzantium use the left/right choir system as we have it today, or was the Ambo still used to house the choir?
Perhaps a comparison of church design from different eras may provide insight.

 

[Spiros PL]

It’s very interesting to read about Hagia Sophia, but it seems that much of our parish practice today was inherited from the monastic typikon.
Did parishes in late Byzantium use the left/right choir system as we have it today, or was the Ambo still used to house the choir?
Perhaps a comparison of church design from different eras may provide insight.

The Byzantine Chorós. On the Historically Informed Performance of the Psaltic Art

Spyrakou, Evangelia. 2023. The Byzantine Chorós. On the Historically Informed Performance of the Psaltic Art. Bucureşti: Editura Universităţii Naţionale de Muzică Bucureşti.

www.academia.edu

Also, there is this one in Greek. A concert was held in Thessaloniki on December 1st, 2024, offering an opportunity to observe the choros system as documented here.

 

[Shota]

It’s very interesting to read about Hagia Sophia, but it seems that much of our parish practice today was inherited from the monastic typikon.
Did parishes in late Byzantium use the left/right choir system as we have it today, or was the Ambo still used to house the choir?
Perhaps a comparison of church design from different eras may provide insight.

What was sung from the ambo and what was sung by two choirs in alternation depended on the piece being sung. Thus, antiphonally sung psalms were performed by people divided into two choirs, who would respond to a soloist. A later evolution was disappearance of a soloist, with his functions taken over by the two choirs. Although not its main topic, such things are discussed, e.g., in Juan Mateos' book:

A History of the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom Vol I: Liturgy of the Word - ECPubs

This is an English translation of the work of Father Juan Mateos, SJ, that served as the basis for the series of books of the Byzantine Liturgy by Archimandrite Robert Taft, SJ, of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.

ecpubs.com

 

[giorgosgoudi]

The architecture of Hagia Sofia including Ambo drawings is well described in the book of Antoniadis "Εκφρασις της Αγίας Σοφίας"