Now playing: Meet it is – 17th Century Valaam Chant
The Cycle of the
Eight Tones
Performance Practice in the Eastern
Orthodox Church
Brief History of Orthodoxy
• Founded at Pentecost (Acts Ch. 2)
• Church of the Seven Ecumenical Councils
– 1st in Nicea (325 AD) – Nicene Creed
– 7th in Nicea (787 AD) – Confirmation of Icons
• Originally governed by five patriarchs
– Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch,
Alexandria
– 1054 marks the Great Schism – Rome
separates from Eastern Church
Brief History of Orthodoxy
• 988 – Baptism of Russia
• Moscow becomes 5th Patriarchate in 16th century
• Orthodoxy is official religion of the Byzantine and
Russian Empires
• There are now 15 autocephalous Orthodox Churches
world-wide
• 2nd Largest Christian Denomination in the World
Role of Music
• Singing is an integral part of every service
• Every part of the service is chanted or
sung, with the exception of the sermon
– When texts are “read”, they are chanted
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All music is a cappella
Text is most important aspect of music
All participate in singing
Clergy – chanter – choir – congregation
Services
• Orthodox Church is Liturgical
• Three types of services
– Daily Services
– Liturgies (Eucharist services)
– Other offices
• Wedding, Baptism, Unction, Akathist, Molieben, etc.
Liturgies
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Divine Liturgy of St. James (c. 60 AD)
Divine Liturgy of St. Basil (4th century)
Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
Typica (read in place of liturgy)
• Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
– By St. Gregory Dialogus
– Used only during Great Lent
Daily Services
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Nocturnes (Midnight Office)
Matins (Morning Service)
1st Hour (6am)
3rd Hour (9am)
6th Hour (Noon)
9th Hour (3pm)
Vespers (Evening Service)
Compline
Cycle of Services
• Books that prescribe hymns
– Horologion (Book of the Hours)
– Octoechos (Book of Eight Tones)
– Menaion (Daily services)
– Triodion (Lenten services)
– Pentecostarion (Easter and Pentecost)
Types of Hymns
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Troparion
Kontakion
Sticheron
Prokeimenon
Irmos
The Octoechos
• Book of the Eight Tones
• Contains Hymns for each day of the week
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Sunday – Resurrection
Monday – Angels
Tuesday – John the Baptist and other Prophets
Wednesday – The Cross and Christ’s Betrayal
Thursday – Apostles
Friday – Crucifixion
Saturday – Saints and Martyrs/Commemoration of the
Dead
The Octoechos
• Byzantine Chant
– Each tone is a
different mode (scale)
– Troparia & Stichera
tones are similar
– In contemporary
Greek practice, there
are no tones for
prokeimena, as they
are read
• Russian Chant
– Now, several tones are
in the same mode
– Troparia & Stichera
tones are different
– There are several
melodies for
prokeimena
Octoechos
• Byzantine Chant
– There is only one set
of Tones in all
Byzantine traditions
– Tones 1-4 are related
to tones 5-8
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Tone 5 = Plagal 1st
Tone 6 = Plagal 2nd
Tone 7 = Grave Tone
Tone 8 = Plagal 4th
• Russian Chant
– There are several sets
of Tones from Russia;
Kievan, Znameny, etc.
– There is no correlation
between the eight
tones
How does the Octoechos Work?
• The Eight Tones rotate on an eight week cycle,
beginning with the 2nd Sunday of Pentecost
• The “Tone of the Week” is used for all daily hymns in
each service
• Hymns from other books, such as the Menaion, are also
added into the daily services, depending on the time of
year
• These hymns are also assigned a specific tone, but not
necessarily the tone of the week
• Set hymns for each service, from the Horologion, can
also be assigned a different tone
Daily Vespers: an outline
• Usual Beginning – set of prayers for opening
most services
• Psalm 103 – Read by chanter
• Great Litany – Priest/Deacon & Choir
• Kathisma – Reading from Psalter
• Little Litany – Priest/Deacon & Choir
• Lord, I have cried – Psalms 140, 141, 129, 116;
sung in tone of the week
– Contains hymns from the octoechos and possibly the
Menaion or other book, depending on the time of year
Daily Vespers (cont.)
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Gladsome Light – Choir
Prokeimenon – Priest/Deacon & Choir
Prayer read by chanter
Litany of Supplication – Priest/Deacon & Choir
Aposticha – Sung in tone of the week
Prayer of St. Simeon – read or sung in Tone 6
Trisagion prayers read by chanter
Troparia of the day – Sung in different tones
Augmented Litany – Priest/Deacon & Choir
Dismissal – Priest & Choir
Byzantine Chant
• Basis for all forms of Orthodox music
• Stems from chant of the synagogue
• Until 16th century, Byzantine Chant was
monophonic
• The ison, or drone, was added in the midsixteenth century
• There are two ways to chant and two
centers for Byzantine Chant throughout
history
Constantinople
•Seat of Orthodoxy during Byzantine Empire
•There was a distinct “Grand Cathedral” style of worship
•Chant was performed by “professional” chanters that also composed many
of the hymns that have been passed down.
Mount Athos
Athonite Tradition
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There are Twenty monasteries on Mount Athos
Monastic life includes all daily services
Each monastery has it’s own style of chanting
Monastic style of worship was different from the
Constantinopolitan worship
• Today, the Greek Church still follows
Constantinopolitan practice to some degree,
while the Russian Church has mostly adopted
the Athonite style of worship
Two styles of Byzantine Chant
• 1) One chanter sings the melody, while
the others all chant the ison
• 2) Half of the chanters sing the melody,
and the others all chant the ison
• Style 1 allows for more ornamentation
• Both styles involve two choirs singing
antiphonally
Style 1
Monks of St. Anthony’s Monastery
“Rich men have become poor”
Grave Tone (Tone 7)
Style 2
Monks of Simonopetra Monastery
“Rich men have become poor”
Grave Tone (Tone 7)
Byzantine Notation
• Uses signs to indicate intervals, dynamics,
accents, pace, ornamentation, voice inflections
• Cannot be accurately transferred to Western
notation
• At first, symbols were just added to texts to show
the tones, and chanters would have them
memorized
• To conserve lost melodies, Byzantine notation
was created to be as specific as possible
Two Samples
• Sticheron to St. Anthony at Lord, I have
cried – Tone 1
• Troparion to St. Anthony – Plagal 1st Tone
(Tone 8)
Russian Chant
• Inherited from Constantinople in 10th
Century
• Was mostly monophonic until 17th Century
• Early chant – Znameny (neumes or signs)
– Simple melodies
– Evolved in 17th Century to include parts
– Demestveny Chant – used for feasts
• More complicated melodies
Russian Chant
• Reforms by Patriarch Nikon in 17th
Century caused split in the church
– Western harmony was introduced
– “Old Belivers” split off and use only single part
Znameny melodies
Znameny Notation
• Similar to Byzantine notation
• Signs are mostly vertical, as opposed to
Byzantine notation
• Square note notation was introduced as
well, and manuscripts represent both
styles
Znameny Samples
• Troparion of the Cross – Tone 1
– 15th Century Znameny Chant
• Troparion of the Cross – Tone 1
– 17th Century Znameny Chant
Other forms of Russian Chant
• Monastic communities in Russia compose
their own chant melodies
– Valaam Chant – island monastery on Lake
Ladoga
– Trinity-Sergius Chant – Patriarchal Monastery
near Moscow
– Kievan Chant – Monastery of the Kiev Caves
• From Kievan Chant comes Obikhod (Common)
Obikhod Chant
• Developed by Bakhmetev and L’vov
– “court composers”
– against “classical” composers writing church music in
Western style
• 4 part harmony
• Sticheron tones in Obikhod chant are based on
Kievan chant melodies
• Troparion tones are based on “Greek” Chant
• Prokeimena tones are based on Znameny chant
• Irmos Tones are combination of all three styles
Troparion – Obikhod Tone 1
Based on Greek chant
Best known Russian melody
Used by Tchaikovsky for 1812 Overture
Two Listening Examples
• Kievan Chant – Tone 6
– “Having Beheld the Resurrection of Christ”
– St. Vladimir’s Seminary Male Chorus
• Obikhod Chant – Tone 6
– “Thy Resurrection, O Christ our Savior”
– St. Vladimir’s Seminary Clergy
Other Russian Traditions
• Many feasts for saints or events are written to special
melodies, or podoben
• Peter the Great and the Westernization of Russia
– Brought in Italian architects and musicians
– Italian opera was performed in the Russian court
– Giuseppe Sarti become the official court music director Dmitri
Bortniansky takes over and adds Italian techniques to Russian
traditions
• Becomes one of the most prolific composers of Russian church
music
• Develops the Sacred Concerto – non-liturgical piece sung during
clergy communion
Other Russian Traditions
• Composers of “art” music begin to write
sacred music
• Imperial Chapel censors much of it
• Settings of the Divine Liturgy and All-Night
Vigil start appearing from Tchaikovsky and
others
– Many of these are not used in Liturgical
worship
– Condemned as “too Western”
“Golden Age” of
Russian Choral Music
• From late 19th Century until 1917
• Between 15-20 composers write settings
of the Divine Liturgy and All-Night Vigil
• Pavel Chesnokov composes almost 200
pieces of Sacred music
• Others are Kastalsky, Archangelsky,
Gretchaninoff, Rachmaninoff, Kalinnikov
• Ends with Bolshevik Revolution
– Sacred music is practically banned
In America
• Due to multiple ethnic groups in the U.S.,
Orthodox churches now combine musical
aspects of both traditions into their
services
• A typical service might feature hymns in
Byzantine, Kievan, Obikhod, Znameny,
and other chant systems
Listening Examples
• Paschal Canon – Ode 1
– Byzantine Chant
– Performed by Eikona
• Paschal Canon – Ode 1
– Russian “Greek” Chant
– Performed by St. Vladimir’s Male Chorus
Exit Music
Psalm 103
Russian “Greek” Chant
Arr. by Kedrov