/ Leitourgika in Patriarchal Tradition
/ A study
Leitourgika in Kliton
Scores according to the Patriarchate
(kindly offered by B. Zacharis)
Scores and recordings by G.K. Michalakis
and his teacher S. Tsolakidis
Recording by the late Constantinopolitan
Protopsaltis A. Moutaoglous
Recording by B. Zacharis
(Tripolis, Greece)
L. Asteris, live at the Patriarchate
Patera Yion [rm]
Eleon Eirinis [rm]
(from cmkon.org)
Fr Constantine Terzopoulos wrote:
The fact remains: a) we have no music manuscripts
in the hellenic
psaltic tradition witnessing to 'leitourgika' for the liturgy of st
john chrysostom and b) it is not until Pringos and Stanitsas leave the
patriarchal church that we begin to see any such developments, baring
the attempts by some patriarchs to introduce more 'musical' leitourgika
as concessions either moving toward western-influence ecclesiastical
music, or as a kind of guard against its taking root.
I. Arvanitis wrote:
a) Maybe this needs a small correction. There is also ''Agapiso se
Kyrie'' by Iakovos Protopsaltis (two papadic versions, one longer, the other
a little shorter), and ''Patera Yion'' by Ioannis Trapezountios in papadic
style and small terrirem, Mode II. In the oldest published books, ''Agapiso
se Kyrie'' in Varys Mode (the same music as the corresponding Prokeimenon of
the Lord's Feasts, ascribed to Gregorios Protopsaltis), another in
sticheraric (short melismatic) style, in Mode II from Di, called ''Palaion''
(anyway, it does not seem to be very old ), as well as ''Patera Yion'' in
Varys Mode of the short melismatic style. All these were chanted in the
Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, I suppose, but, of course, on the occasion of
a celebration with bishops. But these are some Leitourgika for this Liturgy,
aren't they? (Of course, we must admit, they are not the brief responses to
the priest).
b) There were also older Leitourgika by Georgios Redaistinos and Onoufrios
Vyzantios (19th cent) in the Mode II before Pringos and Stanitsas. These
Leitourgika were not sung in the Patriarchate. But if this is a reason to
exclude them from the Church, we should also exclude a lot of chants:
Anoiksantaria, Theotoke Parthene by Bereketis, Koinonika of the older
composers etc etc because they are forbidden or not mentioned in the
encyclicals of the Patriarchate (eg. the one of 1880 by Gr. Stathis and
found also in G. Papadopoulos) or exclude later compositions by composers
who really follow the tradition and produce true liturgical music (eg. the
Cherouvika by K.Psachos et al) .
Fr Constantine Terzopoulos wrote:
Regarding point a), as far as is normally observed, Iakobos'
compositions are often 'syntmeseis' of the older, Byzantine, ones—most
often Chrysaphes the New. I would venture that the same holds true for
the Ioannis Trapezountios composition. Nevertheless, as ancient
melodies, and by ancient we could extend all the way up to the Fall for
our purposes here, they would nevertheless have been composed for the
liturgy of St Basil and then, by extension, when the liturgy was
replaced by that of st John Chrysostom on most Sundays, compositions
such as those of Io. Trap. would have imitated the older style,
condensing it to fit the new needs. As I know you well know, Io.
Trapezountios marks the beginning of the New Sticheraric style, still
with us today.
In any event, in using the term 'litourgika' I think I am looking more
so at the Kyrie eleeson, Soi Kyrie, Axion kai dikaion, in other words,
the short responses, not so much hymnic content points.
On point b), again, I'm not considering hymnic content as leitourgika
in my comments. I'm referring specifically to the response elements,
that are not dealt with in the ms tradition of the liturgies until just
recently. Neither, am I suggesting that the Patriarchal practice is our
only benchmark, although it is probably one of the most important, if
not the most important, along with the Athos mss. This is so mostly
just because they are the two traditions we have sufficient material
about which to study.
Fr Constantine Terzopoulos wrote:
Of course, the main reason for having only litourgika
for the st basil
liturgy is that in byzantium the liturgy of st basil
was not used only
ten times a year, but for every sunday and great feast.
The liturgy of
st john chrysostom was the weekday liturgy, so to
speak.
I. Arvanitis wrote:
Could you give more information on this, Father, and the sources where
this can be found? It is very interesting.
Fr Constantine Terzopoulos wrote:
Ioannou M. Phountoule, _Leitourgika Themata IV, 16-20_ (Thessalonike 1979) 25-52.
I. Arvanitis wrote:
I have sung the 'Chyma' Leitourgika from Di with the Kliton (the common
style of melodic recitation) many times as they were sung in the
Patriarchate and of course I agree that they are modest and prayerful
(though, according to my sense, they should be sung by the whole choir and
not only by a 'Diavastis') and solve many problems arising from not
musically apt and learned priests, but I had always a question: are not
''Agios, Agios'' and ''Se ymnoumen''
_hymns_? Why should then they
be simply
recited and not sung, as it is done in St Basil's Liturgy?(Only these chants
are transmitted in the Mss, the other used probably to be simple responses).
But, if the Sunday Liturgy is now that of St Chrysostom, why not
_sing_
Leitourgika (at least the above mentioned hymns) on Sundays? The 'Chyma'
Leitourgika can be reserved for weekdays.
The problem, I think, is not to sing or not to sing Leitourgika, but how
much we respect the whole tradition of Byzantine Chant and its
_ethos_
when
composing new music in general or Leitourgika in particular. Unfortunately,
this has not happened with most compositions for Leitourgika. The 'need' for
their composition came in a time when Byzantine Chant began to incorporate
influences from the secular music, especially from the Ottoman music (we
must admit this for this period. The titles of some compositions, like
''Typika in Maqam Tahir Buselic by Vasileios Zagliverinos'', ''Leitourgika
in Adjem Kiurdi by K.Pringos'' etc etc, speak by themselves), influences
that very seldom were fruitfully incorporated in Byz. Chant (remember, that
only Petros Bereketis, an older composer of course, was considered by his
contemporaries as doing this with success). Other hymns, like Cherouvika,
were more 'happy' to fall in the hands of composers like Kladas, Chrysaphes
etc when passing from the one mode-tradition (II or Pl II) to the eight
modes tradition. So, it became a tour de force for a psaltis to show his
knowledge in maqams and to compose Leitourgika or othes chants in their
scales or using melodic formulas influenced by secular music. And the
Protopsaltai of the Patriarchate, like Pringos, were, unfortunately the
first to do that (to be honest, Pringos did not want them to be published,
saying that they used to be sung in ''panigyria''- with a negative tone of
the word- where he used to go for money, but the bad thing had already been
done: the psaltai thought that this was the true tradition of the
Patriarchate). So, now Leitourgika in various modes (and maybe maqams) are
normally sung in the patriarchate.
I think that it is now very difficult or impossible to revert the direction
or the river (and , of course, one could argue, why should we). I think that
we must simply try not to eliminate but to improve this situation. There are
already compositions of the Leiturgika in a classical heirmologic or short
papadic style (even a Constantinopolitan, Alexandros Kehayiopoulos reacted
to the extreme use of maqams, or of westernized melodies, and composed
Leitourgika in the heirmologic style) which can be preferred instead of such
extravagant compositions as that by Pringos or Stanitsas or other later
composers (not all but most of them are, I think, beyond what can be called
a continuation of the tradition of Byz. Chant or appropriate for the moment
of the Anaphora) . I have also composed Leitourgika (unpublished but some
circulate among the psaltai) based on heirmologic or other genres of the
traditional Byz, Chant but let others speak about them (anyone who knows
them). But even a greater problem are the priests. Not musically untrained
priests, but they who are musically apt or trained. Because they very often
recite- or should we say 'sing' ?- in a much more secularized style than the
psaltai themselves. Instead of reciting basically on a dominant tone of a
mode and with a restricted ambitus, they 'chop' the text in small bits to be
able to make many phrases and use the whole scale, something that makes the
text lose its power and that brings another _ethos_,
much more than the
singing of 'maqamized' Leitourgika. The formation of a new tradition for
reciting in various modes and be inside the traditional ethos can be based,
according to my view, on the traditional way of reciting the stichoi before
the Stichera. I have found simple motives that can be used for the cadences
of such a reciting (sometimes it can be the same motive with various
intervals for each mode, eg. Ke, di ga di KE zo(b) Ke, with ga natural for
Pl. I and III modes, with ga # for Pl. II, the same motive Zo Ke# DI kE# ZO
NI Zo for Varys etc). That can be a simple solution but, let the priests in
the list forgive me, how and how many priests can be persuaded to do so? (I
leave the question open. Anyway, it has more to do with Greek priests!). It
seems, finally, that the various problems about music in Church are not
problems concerning only the psaltai but the whole Church (clergy and laity;
the laity also because the admiration, very often at the level of a star
system, without discretion and deeper sense or 'fear of God' of whatever has
been sung by eminent psaltai, has led the latter to abandon very often the
tradition and sing everything else but liturgical music).
Fr Constantine Terzopoulos wrote:
You just reminded me of two more examples of di compositions with long
music manuscript traditions: the Eidomen to phos, you mention, and the
Eie to onoma (blessed is the name).
I. Arvanitis wrote:
There are long compositions , not for ''Eidomen to phos'' (as it was not
originally the hymn after Koinonikon) but for ''Plerotheto'' in Pl. II
Nenano in the Old Asmatikon, as well as for ''Eulogiso ton Kyrion'' in the
Presanctified Liturgy, the latter also in a ''Thessalokian'' version. There
is also the kalophonic setting of ''Eie to onoma'' by some Andreas, I think.
We can also add some long compositions for the Antiphona, at the beginning,
found in Asmatikon etc etc.So, the music of the Liturgy does not seem to
have been always modest.
Fr Constantine Terzopoulos wrote:
These, too, I consider as hymnic, not response elements.