Welcome back to Psaltologion ByzOldSchool!! I love your ID! Rock on!
I gather you are Romanian from your other posts. I love the Romanian chanters in general. They seem very disciplined and ecclesiastical, avoiding theatrical vocal acrobatics simply for the sake of show like some Greek chanters do.
I whole-heartedly agree with the spirit of your comments above. Byzantine chant is an art form. And sometimes practitioners of this art form use the terms of science in order to develop an organized system and a disciplined approach to the music. But this isn't always necessary. Our discipline in musical matters should follow from the 'best practices' of tradition, both written and oral, not 'science'.
I don't believe any university or any institution of higher learning places music within the science department. We know of the hard sciences (natural sciences such as biology, chemistry, and physics) and the soft sciences (social sciences such as psychology, sociology, and economics). And you will never see music taught alongside any of these subjects. And rightfully so!
I believe that we should use the term 'science' in this strict sense as often as possible. And therefore, we respect the rightful place of true science and avoid distorting our music into something that it isn't. Of course, I don't think it's wrong to teach a broad notion of 'science' when working with youngsters. This can often help them understand that we all must conform to certain immutable musical principles in order to achieve our goals. I think that it is within this spirit that Dr. Karanos employs what he calls "Chanting Labs" in his teaching practice. I don't really see any problem with that.
But that doesn't mean that we confuse 'science' with ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY in order to force our colleagues to agree with us on more advanced topics, or to coerce fellow practitioners to follow our practices, or to monopolize what can be called 'traditional' and seek to marginalize entire groups of respected individuals. ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY and UNIVERSAL AGREEMENT is not typically found in more advanced scientific matters. We ought not pretend that they should always be present.
Conversely, the fact that music is not science, does not mean that we can therefore be sloppy in our scholarship, or dismissive of musicology as a whole. We are not completely free to do whatever we want whenever we want and call it authentic, traditional, correct byzantine chant. Poetic license has its limits if we wish to remain traditional.
Centuries ago, the term 'science' (episteme in Greek) used to have a broader meaning where philosophy, ethics, and even theology may have been included. Modern science has forever changed that and we ought to accept it.
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