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The Problem of Byzantine Neumes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

H. J. W. Tillyard
H. J. W. Tillyard
Affiliation:
University College, Johannesburg.
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Extract

In past numbers of the Annual of the British School at Athens and elsewhere I have tried to deal with some of the questions connected with Byzantine Music, and, having brought to a close my studies of the Round or Later Mediaeval System, I am unwilling to leave the subject without giving my views on the abstruse and difficult problem of the older notation.

The later forms of the Linear or Neume System have a visible likeness to the earlier forms of the Round System already familiar, and hence all investigators seem to have started with the idea that the general principles of decipherment could be transferred from the later to the earlier stage, or, in other words, that the task simply consisted in the interpretation of certain interval-signs possessing fixed value. But of the two scholars who have published their researches in this field, Gastoué and Riemann, neither has been able to carry this principle through, and their proposed solutions fail to give us such a chain of interval-signs as we are tempted to expect.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , 1921 , pp. 29 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1921

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References

1 Authorities: Gastoué, Am., Introduction à la Paléographie musicale byzantine. Riemann, H., Die byzantinische Notenschrift im 10Google Scholarbis 15 Jahrhundert. Thibaut, J., Origine byzantine de la Notation neumatique de ľÉglise latine. I have written on the Neumes, in Amer. Journ. Arch. 1916, p. 62Google Scholar, and I.M.G. (Monthly Mag. of Internat. Mus. Soc.) 1913, p. 31. For the Round Notation see my articles in B.S.A. vols. xviii., xix., xxi. and xxii.

As this article forms the end of the series, I should like to convey my thanks to several friends, especially to the Editor of the Annual and to the Managing Committee of the British School at Athens; and also to Mr. F. C. Nicholson, Librarian at Edinburgh University, for his valuable aid in procuring access to MS. material at a difficult time. To various gentlemen, whose services I have acknowledged in former papers, I once again express my sincere gratitude.

2 Die byz. Notenschrift, p. 57. The Latin term Finalis is here used to indicate the note on which the melody ends, being also that from which the progression starts.

3 Ibid. p. 56.

4 Ibid. p. 57. The signs are given in Fig. 1, and explained below.

5 Ibid. p. 80.

6 Gastoué, op. cit. pp. 12–16, 23–28, 32–38, and the ex. pp. 41–17. (Gaisser in a review in the Rass. Gregor. says that G.'s versions ‘have no scientific value.’) Although I differ from Gastoué on the main question, I have, like Riemann himself, found many useful suggestions and good material in his book.

7 Op. cit. Introd. pp iii–iv.

8 Ibid. p. 58. Yet in Riemann, complementary volume (Riemann-Festschrift, Leipzig, 1909Google Scholar (same date as Riemann's own book)), Oskar von Riesemann regards the Byzantine Neumes as entirely undeciphered. Riemann had already submitted his main contentions in an article published in 1907. So we may safely leave him to the verdict of his own admirers (see R.-Festschr. p. 189, and I.M.G., Sammelbände, Oct. 1907)Google Scholar.

9 Ibid. p. 35.

10 Op. cit. p. 55.

11 Piasma.

12 Fresh start from lower Finalis.

13 Fresh start from middle Finalis.

14 Parakletike.

15 Fresh start from lower Finalis: clear dot in text of Sinait.

16 Cod. some correction needed.

17 Lygisma.

18 For information as to Russian liturgy, see Neale, J. M., Hist. of Holy Eastern Church, Introd. pts. 1 and 2.

19 Op. cit. Pl. VIII. (No transcription attempted.) In the next facsimile is a specimen of the later Sematic Notation. How widely they differ will be seen at a glance. The same writer discusses the Ecphonetic Notation on pp. 17 ff.

20 von Riesemann, Oskar, Die Notationen des alt-russischen Kirchengesanges, Leipzig, 1909Google Scholar. Musicians owe a debt of gratitude to this scholar, who has set out in a concise and clear form a mass of information otherwise accessible only in Russian.

21 MSS. of this class are common all over Russia and are found, in western libraries. I bought three at the Nijni Novgorod fair in 1911; the latest may belong to the early nineteenth century.

22 Fresh start from lower Finalis.

23 B.S.A. xix. pp. 95–108. The Chartres fragment is discussed by Gastoué, op. cit. p. 96, who gives facsimiles. Any translation in the present state of knowledge is mainly guesswork.

24 For this MS. see my article, B.S.A. xix. pp. 95Google Scholar ff. and Pl. XIV. Riemann, op. cit. 73—94, also gives specimens; his reproductions are almost illegible (from bad photographs; the MS. is clear) while his versions are open to the objections already mentioned.

25 Cf. my article in Musical Antiq. 1913, 205, 220. We should probably add a Diple to the last Ison but one in the hymn reproduced from this MS. in Fig. 5, in order to secure a normal ending, as in the transcription.

26 For other exx. from this valuable MS. see B.S.A. xxi. pp. 136, 143Google Scholar; cf. ibid., xxiii, p. 201.

27 Fresh start from Finalis.

28 Argon (passim).

29 Thematismus—compendious sign.

30 Barcia.