Reading Psalmodia III introduction to modern byzantine notation.pdf

Reading Psalmodia

Part III

Sections 13 through 19 of the Text

David J. Melling

©David J Melling, January 17 th 2000

Contents

1. Notes and Scales

2. The Types of Scale

3. The Three Systems

4. The Interval Signs

5. Time Signs

6. Qualifying Signs

7. The Types of Hymns & Melodies

8. Isokratima

Part II

9. Tones, Modes & Scales

Tone 1

Tone 2

Tone 3

Tone 4

Tone 5

Tone 6

Tone 7: Varys

Tone 8

10. Marks, Tokens & Accidentals

11. Rhythm & Tempo

12. Psalmodia in Practice

The Voice

The Forms of Chant

Part III

13. Pitch

Modulation Tone to Tone

14. Theory & Practice

15. Diatonic & Enharmonic

16. Hard & Soft Chromatic

17. Melodic Accents

18. Transcribing Psalmodia into European Notation

19. The Microtones of the Scales of the Eight Echoi

Part IV

Notes and Bibliography

Part I

Introduction

13. PITCH.

Modern Psaltai tend to regard the pitch of the written notes as entirely relative. The

nineteenth century Patriarchal authorities, on the other hand, attempted to fix the pitch

of the written notes in relation to a precisely defined pitch for Ni. In effect, they defined

the Ni of Tone Eight as slightly flatter than the C of Concert Pitch. This attempt at exact

definition was part and parcel of an international nineteenth century culture of

numerical precision: just as the pitch of Ni was precisely defined in terms of vibrations

per second, precise (but not always the same precise) definitions were offered of the

microtonal intervals both of the two chromatic scales and of the intervals produced by

the effect of accidentals. Eventually a monstrous instrument was invented to play all the

possible notes of psaltic music – something stringed instruments can do perfectly well.

In practice, there is no possibility of giving an exact pitch to Ni or Pa as a means of

defining the exact pitch of every note of every mode. Firstly, Psaltai have different voices

with different ranges, and pitch the music differently in order to sing it well and

reverently. Secondly, the priest and the deacon have also voices with a particular range

that leads them to prefer to sing their own parts of the service at a particular pitch.

Indeed, considerations of vocal range can lead to conflict between clergy and singers as

to the pitch at which a service should be sung. On the whole, peace seems to be attained

most easily if the priest makes clear the note on which he prefers to chant, and the

Protopsaltes organises the Psalmodia in such a way as to accommodate him. (This may

mean singing at a higher or lower pitch than he would otherwise prefer, or, in extreme cases,

where, for example, the priest sings Ni=G or Ni=F, by basing the Psalmodia on the tetrachord

below the base note of the mode or on the upper tetrachord of the modal scale - e.g. singing Tone

VIII based on the G below Ni or on the G above, or in the case of Tone I, basing the scale on the

Ke below Pa or basing the melodies in the tetrachord on the Di above. &c.)

If both clergy and Psaltai have a good vocal range, then a pitch can be chosen that

approximates to that officially laid down by the Patriarchal Epitropoi, i.e., the Ni of Tone

VIII can be pitched somewhere between B flat and C.

During a service it is not appropriate for the tuning of the Psalmodia to be shifted,

unless it is absolutely essential. Where such changes occur they should reflect the

structural divisions of the Liturgy.

In an extreme case it is possible for priest and psaltes, or even for protopsaltes and

lampadarios, to sing at different pitches, the result is bizarre and undesirable but

perhaps better than a diet of screeching and groaning.

MODULATION from TONE to TONE :

Within a single service, and sometimes even within a single piece, the chant will move

amongst the different Tones, and from one mode to another within a single Tone.

Normally the modulation is accomplished without transposition of pitch. In the case of

the diatonic modes this is easy to understand: the Pa of Tone I becomes the Pa of Tone

VII or of Tone V, the Vu of Tone IV becomes the Vu of Tone I or of Tone VIII. The

Enharmonic and Chromatic modes require more careful attention: modulation without

transposition is easy to achieve once the identity or non-identity of the corresponding

notes of different modes is established. For example, it should be clear that the notes Pa

and Vu of Tone I cannot both be identical with the corresponding notes of Tone VI: the

note Vu of Tone I is a minor diatonic tone above the note Pa of Tone I, whereas the note

Vu of Tone VI (Plagal II) is a small chromatic semitone above the Pa of Tone VI. Nor can

the Pa and Vu of Tone I both be identical with the Pa and Vu of Tone III: the Vu of Tone

III is an enharmonic semitone above Pa.

Traditionally, teachers of Psalmodia taught their students the scale (Pa-Pa') of the First

Tone before they learned any other. More recent teachers, influenced by the importance

of the major scale in European music, often begin by teaching students the diatonic scale

Ni-Ni' of Tone VIII. It is possible to create a stable base for Tone to Tone modulation by

treating Ni or Pa as a fixed note, and defining all other tones of all other scales in

relation to that note. The note Di , however, has a greater stability across the different

Tones than either Ni or Pa. In addition, the Musical Range of Psalmodia is defined in

terms of a two octave di -Di -Di ' scale. For these reasons, the note Di provides the best

fulcrum for Tone to Tone transposition.

A simple diagram will make the problem clearer.

If we assume that the note Di has the identical pitch in the different modes, then the pitch of

other notes will differ approximately as follows:

Diagram A

|----------|--------|------------|------------|----------|--------|

PA VU GA DI KE ZO NI

II(s.c) -----------|--------|------------|--------|--------------|--------|

VU GA DI KE ZO NI

III

|------------|------|------------|------------|------|------------|

PA VU GA DI KE ZO NI

VI(h.c.) |------|--------------------|----|------------|------|--------------------|

PA VU GA DI KE ZO NI

VII (dia) |----------|------------|--------|----------------|------|

PA VU GA DI KE ZO

From the diagram it is easy to see that if the note Di remains constant in the scales

illustrated, i.e. Tones I, II (soft chromatic,) III (enharmonic) VI (Plagal II, hard chromatic)

and VII (diatonic with microtonal sharpening of Ke,) then in most scales the note Pa is

also constant.

The most serious problem of transposition occurs in moving from Tone II to other scales.

The soft chromatic scale uses a range of intervals that means it has very few notes in

common with certain other scales. One might be tempted to infer that this problem has

been caused precisely because we have chosen to treat Di as a fixed note. This problem

is not solved if instead of accepting Di as a fixed note we accept Pa. As the diagram

below illustrates, the soft chromatic scale still has very few notes in common with other

scales even if we accept Pa rather than Di as having a constant pitch across scales. The

problem arises from the nature of the soft chromatic scale and the specific notes it uses,

rather than from the choice of Pa or Di as a constant pitch across modes.

D IAGRAM B

I |----------|--------|------------|------------|----------|--------|

PA V U G A DI K E ZO N I

II ( S . C ) |--------------|--------|------------|--------|--------------|--------|

PA V U G A DI K E ZO N I

III ( ENH )|------------|------|------------|------------|------|------------|

PA V U G A DI K E ZO N I

VI ( H . C .)|------|--------------------|----|------------|------|--------------------|

PA V U G A DI K E ZO N I

VII ( DIA )|----------|------------|--------|----------------|------|

PA V U G A DI K E ZO

Apart from not solving the problem of the relation of Tone II to other Tones, as the

above Diagram B illustrates, taking Pa as a constant offers no advantage over the choice

of Di .

Two radical solutions have, however, been proposed to the problem of the relation

between Tone II and the other Tones.

The great Protopsaltes Georgios Raidestinos (1833-89) attempted to persuade his

colleagues that Tone II should take Ke as its basic note, not Di , i.e. that we should sing

melodies in II as they are now sung, but thinking the note we now write as Di as Ke,

the note we write as Pa as Vou. His reasons for arguing this are to do with the relation

we should normally expect to exist between an Authentic Tone and its corresponding

Plagal Tone, but quite different reasons for taking his thesis seriously will emerge from

an inspection of the relation between different Echoi that becomes visible if we consider

them side by side both in his system and in the more conventional. If his arguments

were to be accepted, then the two diagrams would have to be redrawn as illustrated

below.

The first diagram shows the effect of accepting Raidestinos's account of Tone II on the

diagram that illustrates the relation of notes in the different Tones which holds if we

assume the note Di to have a constant value. The result, Diagram C, is, to say the least,

a convincing argument in favour of Raidestinos's thesis: suddenly, Tone II ceases to look

like an unhappy anomaly within a well-ordered and intelligible system of Tones, and its

notes now have a much more intelligible relation to the notes of other scales. Diagram C

should make this clear. Diagram D confirms what Diagram C has already shown:

Raidestinos's version of Tone II makes much more sense than the conventional account.

Both diagrams yield a set of scales where the pitch of both Pa and Di remains constant in

every Tone. Indeed, as the reader may have noticed, the two diagrams C and D are

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