Adapted from an article in Basic Chant: A Manual for the Student of Chant, written and published by Andrew Sokol and available from the Byzantine Seminary Press.
I. ORIGIN
The rite with which the greater part of the Slavs adore God is none other than that of Byzantine Church of the ancient Greeks translated into the Old-Slavonic language; since the liturgical books we use are an exact translation of the liturgical books used by the ancient Greeks.
The early Rusyn Church (from whom come the spiritual ancestors of the Byzantine Catholic Church in America - Ruthenian) did not invent its own chant, but adopted the chant of the Greek church from whom she received the Christian Faith. When King Vladimir the Great was baptized he brought to the Metropolitan Church of Kiev, the capitol of Rus, bishops, priests and cantors together with the rite and chant of the Greek Church of Constantinople. It is also known that Princess Anna, the sister of Basil the emperor of Constantinople, brought many members of the clergy and a choir of cantors with her to Kiev when she married King Vladimir. Thus the chant of the Greek Church together with the faith that was brought to Kiev was spread throughout the entire kingdom of Russia.
II. EARLY DOCUMENTS
The earliest documents of our liturgical chant are from the eleventh century. The music in these documents is expressed by symbols above the text (see number one on page 55 below). It should be noted that the symbols used differ from those used by the Greek Church. This means that at this time the Russian Church had its own proper symbols.
III. SCHOOLS OF CHANT
Between the years 1052 and 1130 cantors came from Constantinople and opened schools in the monasteries and cathedral churches for the express purpose of teaching liturgical chant. Lacking textbooks, the students had to rely principally on their ability to memorize the basic tones of the various groups that made up the total chant. This method of learning by ear gave rise to differences in the interpretation of the chant. This lack of textbooks, for all practical purposes, exits today; making it necessary for our cantors to Learn our chant by ear with the same results, viz., individual interpretation or rendition of our liturgical chant.
The original chant that was brought into Russia was equipped, of course, with the Greek text. In order to adapt it for our use, the Slavonic text was substituted wherever possible. Where such substitution was difficult, they continued to use the Greek text. In fact, on occasions, one choir sang in Greek while the other sang in Slavonic. In the 13th century Greek words were often mixed in with the Slavonic.
Another custom of this era, that would sound strange to us today, was the custom of repeating vowels or syllables or even introducing syllables that didn't belong to the text at all. This was deemed necessary where there was music left over because the Slavonic text was shorter than the Greek. A classical example of such repetition can be found in a 12th century "Alleluja", in which the first vowel "a" is repeated thirty-two times. Syllables that didn't belong to the text at all were usually variations of the following: ne, ne, na; te, te, ren; to, to, to, ren;, or gel, gei, gel. This was also practiced whenever the cantor got through singing a given hymn but the priest was not yet ready to continue.
IV. FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF OUR CHANT The next notable progressive step of our chant was in the closing years of the 16th century when the South Russian metropolitan See of Kiev began using the European system of writing music with notes and lines not too different from the method in use today. This method was already in use at the time of the first Union (Brest) with the Holy See in the year 1595. See I6th century cut on page 55 below.
NOTE: Both the Historical Synopsis and the System of Liturgical music are for the greater part free translations of a book very well written on this subject by JUAN DE CASTRO called "Methodus cantus ecclesiastici Graeco-Slavici" and printed by the Vatican Polyglot Press.
In 1658 Prince Alexander of Moldavia asked for and got four cantors from the Lemberg (L'vov, Galicia) Confraternity of Cantors to teach this linear method of musical notation. In this fashion this system came into use in the second half of the 16th century practically throughout entire Rus. Only the Raskolniki (Russian Old Believers), which was at odds with both the Catholic and Orthodox church, continued to use the over-text symbolic system.
In the 17th century many of the bishops set up commissions that were charged with correcting the liturgical chant on the basis of old documents and then writing it down in an orderly fashion using the linear method with musical notes. These hand written books, however, had little effect on the standarization of the liturgical chant; since they were very scarce and could be acquired only at great cost. In order to obviate this difficulty, a great step forward was made when the first IRMOLOGION was printed in the year 1700 at Lemberg. Since that time other editions, corrected and revised, have gone to press.
For us of the Byzantine Catholic Metropolia of Pittsburgh, however, the most noteworthy publication was the PROSTOPINIJE of BOKSAJ in Uzhorod (presently on the Western edge of Ukraine); since we follow the liturgical chant as sung in the Uzhorod-Presov diocese.
SYSTEM OF LITURGICAL MUSIC of Byzantine-Slavonic Chant
I. In Particular
The liturgical chant of the Byzantine-Ruthenian (Rusyn or Carpathian) can be divided into two large groups:
1. STICHERICAL
This class is made up of rather short compositions that make up the greater part of the Vesper service, a fairly large portion of the Matin service as well as other parts of the liturgical office. This composition is referred to as a STICHIRA (long verse) because it is preceded more often than not by a STICH (short verse) taken from the psalms. Quite often the short verse (stich) is sung in a tone different than that prescribed for the long verse (stichira) which it precedes.
This class is subdivided into four types:
2. -- TROPARICAL
These are very brief compositions that usually express the character of the particular office at hand. Its counterpart among the Latins is the oremus. This class has the simplest melody of all and is, therefore, not only the easiest to memorize but also the easiest to apply to some other text.
3. -- SESSIONAL or SIDALEN are a species of troparic verses that are sung after a group of psalms in the Matin service. They take their name from a rubric permitting a rest (to sit) at that time.
4. -- GRADUAL or STEPENNA is yet another series of troparic verses divided into three antiphons, each of which contains three verses. The first of these three verses refers to God in general, the second refers to the Word or God the Son and the third refers to God the Holy Ghost. The name for these verses is taken from the 12 GRADUAL Psalms (119-130) on which they are based.
5. -- HIRMICAL or CANONICAL are those troparic verses based on certain definite scriptural hymns and are divided into nine orders or odes (pistil), which in turn are made up of several (more or less depending on the solemnity of the Feast) verses called HIRMI (IRMOSY). While in present day usage the first Hirmos of each ode is sung and the others are recited, we still retain the ancient custom of singing all Hirmi of each ode in the Canon of the Resurrection Matin service.
6. -- PROKIMENICAL are those short verses that are sting immediately before the epistle (shortly before Gospel reading in the Matin service). In the liturgical office they are sung principally in the Divine Liturgy and in the Matin service, hence the subdivision: liturgical and matutinal.
II. In General.
All of the above mentioned classes, even in their subdivisions are further subdivided into EIGHT TONES. The divine Office (Vespers, Matins etc.) of the entire week follows the tone prescribed for the preceding Sunday. The tones prescribed follow consecutively from the first to the eighth and then start all over again. In other services that tone is sung which the composer prefixed to his composition.
All texts, however, in and out of the divine Office are sung according to the tone prescribed immediately above the text. Since it would be impractical to print the entire Office together with the music of each hymn or verse, only one verse of each class in all eight tones is set to music. Once these basic tones are well committed to memory, it is relatively simple to apply any given tone to whatever text calls for that tone. This process of applying a given tone to any text, for lack of better word, is here referred to as APPLICATION.
III. Application.
I have stated above that once the basic tones of each class have been well impressed upon the cantor's memory, it is relatively simple to apply these tones to other texts. Difficulties will arise, however, because there will be more or less words in the new text than there were in the text used in learning the basic tone. The application is less difficult with troparic or stieheric tones than it is with hirmical tones, because the melody is less complex and consequently clings to the memory of the cantor more tenaciously.
In order to minimize this difficulty of the process of application, the texts are printed with (*) placed in the most opportune places for stops or pauses. The cantor that heeds these asterisks stands a much better chance of singing the tone prescribed than he who makes his pauses wherever he pleases.
Once the student has mastered this form of application, with a little more diligence and using the same method he will be able to master the most difficult of all forms of application, viz. applying one melody to a stich (short verse) and applying a different melody to the stich-ira (long verse) that follows.
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