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Fragment of a Byzantine Musical Handbook in the Monastery of Laura on Mt. Athos
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 October 2013
Extract
The musical Notation of the Greek Church is decipherable as far back as the beginning of the Round System in the thirteenth century. Some examples of this were given in my article in last year's Annual. But before the invention of the Round System another kind of notation was in use, called for convenience the Linear System, the rules of which are very obscure. The reading of the Round System was made easy by the familiar little treatise called the Papadike, which occurs in many MSS., and explains the main principles of the notation. Nothing of the kind seems to have been known dealing with the Linear System. But the fragment which I am now to place before the reader may be expected to throw some light upon it. I photographed this fragment on my visit to the Monastery of Laura in 1912: and so far as I know, this is the first time that anything has been written about it.
The fragment is a single leaf of parchment bound up with the MS. Laura Γ 67, a small quarto codex containing some of the Stichera of the Triodium and Pentescostarium, i.e. the original hymns (excluding Canons and words set to tunes not specially composed for them) sung at the movable days in Lent, Holy Week and Eastertide. The manuscript is written in a bold well-formed hand, the text in black, the notes in red.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1913
References
page 95 note 1 My journey was facilitated by grants from the Hort Fund and from the Carnegie Trust, to which I have elsewhere expressed my great obligations. My thanks are also due to the British Embassy at Constantinople, whose energy in securing me the necessary introductions to the Ecclesiastical authorities cannot be too much praised.
page 95 note 2 I heard that a Russian expedition had been photographing musical MSS. at Mt. Athos, but so far as I know, their results have not yet appeared.
page 96 note 1 The Chartres fragment (Gastoué, , Am. Introd. à la Paléogr. mus. byz. p. 96Google Scholar) seems to be a portion of this very MS. The date of ‘export’ is unknown.
page 96 note 2 Although MSS. of this system are not so common as those written in the Round Notation a fair amount of material is available in western Europe; the National Library at Paris among others having a good collection. I have a number of photographs of MSS. taken at Sinai and Athos, and should be pleased to supply prints to anyone who cares to order them. I take this opportunity of expressing my sincerest thanks to His Blessedness the Archbishop of Sinai for the generous hospitality that I enjoyed at the Monastery, where every facility was afforded to me for studying the MSS.
page 96 note 3 Thibaut, P. J., Origine Byzantine de la Notation Neumatique de l'Église latine (Paris 1907)Google Scholar, c. iii. I make what use I can of Hagiopolites below. A few of his notes are given in Du Cange Gloss. med. et inf. Graec.
page 96 note 4 Cf. Thibaut, op. cit. p. 29.
page 97 note 1 Op. cit. c. ii.; cf. Gastoué, op. cit. pp. 4 ff.
page 97 note 2 The MS. Laura Δ 11 has passages of Scripture with ecphonetic signs and also hymns in the Linear Notation.
page 97 note 3 Cf. Riesemann, O. v., d. Notation d. alt-russ. Kirchengesanges, c. ii. and Pl. I.Google Scholar
page 99 note 1 Gaisser, U., Le système mus. de L'Église gr. etc. (I have summed up his views in the articles referred to below). For opposite views v. Riemann H. Die byz. Notenschrift, and Gastoué, op. cit.
page 100 note 1 I have corrected a few obvious spelling mistakes in the MS. Dr. Rendel Harris very kindly revised my copy and made several valuable suggestions.
page 101 note 1 Cf. ᾿Ελλην. Φιλ. Συλλ.τόμ. ΚΑ´, p. 167; Gastoué, op. cit. p. 31.
page 101 note 2 Cf. Riemann, op. cit. pp. 2 ff.
page 102 note 1 Gastoué, op. cit. pp. 35–7, in his list of Hypostases, regards as inventions of Cucuzeles many signs appearing in our fragment: they will now be recognised as of earlier date. His spelling of some of the names is faulty and can easily be emended from the data now before us. Fleischer, O., Neumenstudien, Pt. i. p. 72Google Scholar also discusses some of these symbols.
page 104 note 1 Thibaut, op. cit. p. 54.
page 105 note 1 Thibaut, op. cit. p. 53.
page 108 note 1 Cf. Riemann, H., Zeitschr. d. internat. Musikgesellsch. 1913, p. 273.Google Scholar
page 109 note 1 Riemann, op. cit. Pls. I.–III. gives six pages of this MS. in facsimile. But, as there is considerable scope for variety of reading, a discussion of them would take us too far. Riemann's method of transcription seems to me erroneous and usually lands him on a wrong cadential note. (His suggestion on p. 57 that the final Ison or dot may have a special value, i.e. a mere return to the starting note, cannot, I think, be accepted.)
page 110 note 1 See my articles Byz. Zeitschr. xx. 433–440: Musical Antiquary, 1911, 90, 156 ff.
page 110 note 2 Les Heirmoi de Pâques (Rome, 1905). This important work contains a full discussion of the rhythm and tonality of this very Canon according to the Round System.
page 110 note 3 Anthologia, 218 (Text) and CXXX (melody): my version is given with one flat to match theirs.
page 110 note 4 Text in Christ-Paranikas, Anthol. 213.
page 114 note 1 The MS. is rather blurred just here; so that my view of it cannot claim to be at all certain.
page 114 note 2 For these hymns and their place in the service, cf. Neale, J. M., History of the Holy Eastern Church, vol. ii. pp. 915 ff.Google Scholar
page 117 note 1 Modern version, Georgiou, N., Doxastikarion, p. 629.Google Scholar
page 117 note 2 Modern version, ibid. p. 682.