I had written this a while ago in the byzantinechant forum. I post it here too.
Hi all, I often hear people claiming how well Byzantine Chant uses music to support the meanings of the text and how this is really according to the definition of the word "chant". I spent some time pondering this the other day and really it seems to be true only sometimes (for certain types of compositions). A vast number of other Byzantine hymns are actually written the other way around: text to fit the music. For instance take the thousands of Prosomoia, Kathismata, Polyelaioi, Exaposteilaria, Prokeimena, Ancient Mathemata, Canon troparia etc. Sometimes, accented syllables are not emphasised, non-accented syllables are emphasised, sentences are broken into parts, joyous modes are chosen for non-joyous texts, etc. A paradise for the potential "correcters" of our chant out there..
What's going on? Were our (music) fathers crazy or lacking common sense or literary knowledge? Or do we have something to learn from their example?
Probably the main reason why they chose "text to fit the music" instead of "music to fit the text" is that they wanted repetitiveness which leads to easy learning by the people and eventually achieves the goal of transmitting the text better than the other way. It also hinders improvisation and personal aesthetics in the presentation of the hymns.
The music becomes "well known" and approachable to the congregation, easy to learn and predictable, easy to preserve and transmit in the generations to come. I would not be surprised if such pieces are some of the most ancient melodies we use. A psaltis who knows 30-40 prosomoia melodies can chant about half the Church year repertoire!
Note that the negative effects of the (not so common) case of misrepresenting the text trying to fit it to music can often be avoided by an experienced psaltis who can adjust their performance locally preserving both text and music. Something that Iakovos Protopsaltis seemed to have done in excess to the point of annoying his Lambadarios Petros Byzantios. Other times it just shows incompetence of the hymn's poet.
Other times the text is so well-known that it doesn't matter if it is misrepresented by the music in one or two places. Other times, the misrepresentation becomes a musical "game" of the composer (like in Bereketis's slow Doxology where the "soi" of "Doxa soi" is emphasised more than "Do") who wants to surprise the listeners and draw their attention to the piece being chanted in a different way.
I will leave to you the potential extensions of the above reasoning to transcription of Byzantine Chant to other languages.
Hi all, I often hear people claiming how well Byzantine Chant uses music to support the meanings of the text and how this is really according to the definition of the word "chant". I spent some time pondering this the other day and really it seems to be true only sometimes (for certain types of compositions). A vast number of other Byzantine hymns are actually written the other way around: text to fit the music. For instance take the thousands of Prosomoia, Kathismata, Polyelaioi, Exaposteilaria, Prokeimena, Ancient Mathemata, Canon troparia etc. Sometimes, accented syllables are not emphasised, non-accented syllables are emphasised, sentences are broken into parts, joyous modes are chosen for non-joyous texts, etc. A paradise for the potential "correcters" of our chant out there..
What's going on? Were our (music) fathers crazy or lacking common sense or literary knowledge? Or do we have something to learn from their example?
Probably the main reason why they chose "text to fit the music" instead of "music to fit the text" is that they wanted repetitiveness which leads to easy learning by the people and eventually achieves the goal of transmitting the text better than the other way. It also hinders improvisation and personal aesthetics in the presentation of the hymns.
The music becomes "well known" and approachable to the congregation, easy to learn and predictable, easy to preserve and transmit in the generations to come. I would not be surprised if such pieces are some of the most ancient melodies we use. A psaltis who knows 30-40 prosomoia melodies can chant about half the Church year repertoire!
Note that the negative effects of the (not so common) case of misrepresenting the text trying to fit it to music can often be avoided by an experienced psaltis who can adjust their performance locally preserving both text and music. Something that Iakovos Protopsaltis seemed to have done in excess to the point of annoying his Lambadarios Petros Byzantios. Other times it just shows incompetence of the hymn's poet.
Other times the text is so well-known that it doesn't matter if it is misrepresented by the music in one or two places. Other times, the misrepresentation becomes a musical "game" of the composer (like in Bereketis's slow Doxology where the "soi" of "Doxa soi" is emphasised more than "Do") who wants to surprise the listeners and draw their attention to the piece being chanted in a different way.
I will leave to you the potential extensions of the above reasoning to transcription of Byzantine Chant to other languages.