It's here! Byzantine chant in western notation

Theophorus · Apr 26, 2006

My spiritual father just sent this to me today!

It was done at St. Anthony's in Arizona. It figures, I have been there, and the services are other worldy. Mattins is something else.

It is a 700 page book on disc that has the liturgies of St. Basil, St. James and St. John Chrysostom in english with the Byzantine style as practiced on Mt. Athos, plus the doxologies. It has all of the tones for each hymn, plus one tone in each hymn is in Greek, both in Greek alphabet and phonetically in western letters.

It can be viewed in two ways; either in .pdf or in Finales Notepad (you can listen to them midi style in Notepad).

It also has some good essays on the history of Byzantine chant, and music in the early Church, plus some appendixes covering things such as the difference between the well tempered scale of the west with the soft chromatic scale used in some of the tones.

Here is a screenshot of the .pdf format.

"St. Anthonys has produced here a massive work of great scholarship. Their great love for the subject matter is evident in every page. A great variety of styles and every important exponent of this sacred art are well represented here, making the present volume a very useful tool. Our faithful, especially our youth, need to be exposed to authentic Orthodox liturgical arts, such as iconography and traditional Byzantine chant. The present much-needed work comes to fill this gap. I endorse it wholeheartedly. I pray that our churches in this country make extensive use of this veritable treasure of Orthodox liturgical music to the glory of our Triune God."
+Archimandrite Ignatios (Apostolopoulos)
Farrell, Pennsylvania

Matrona · Apr 26, 2006

/me DROOLS

Theophorus · Apr 26, 2006

Oh, I forgot to mention you can pick between two styles of english. Elizabethan and modern.

Jebediah · Apr 26, 2006

Dude, you have to get this to me! I need it, my priest is trying to train me to be a reader (actually, he is just having me read; His version of "training" is similar to my father's style of teching me to swim...throw me in).

Llauralin · Apr 26, 2006

Oh yeah, I saw that - I asked my friend about it, who had also looked through the music, and his main comment was that it was nearly as difficult as in the origonal, and very much not for beginners. But I guess it's good for people very much more advanced in music than myself.

Theophorus · Apr 27, 2006

Llauralin said:
Oh yeah, I saw that - I asked my friend about it, who had also looked through the music, and his main comment was that it was nearly as difficult as in the origonal, and very much not for beginners. But I guess it's good for people very much more advanced in music than myself.

It can't be harder than this!

Theophorus · Apr 27, 2006

I just found it online. It's offered free by St. Anthony's at this link.

http://www.stanthonysmonastery.org/music/NotationB.htm

The Prokeimenon! · Apr 27, 2006

This is the best! I think on their website they're working on music for Vespers and Orthros too. It's very much authentic, and I love the way you can choose modern English or Elizabethan English.

Rdr Moses

Jebediah · Apr 27, 2006

I wish they had mp3s for everything. MIDI is just not the same...I need to spend some serious time with the green book. Last Tuesday we did a Liturgy for Sts. Nicholas, Raphael, and Irene (we have their primary relics) and I was the only reader. It was brutal. Come next Sunday of forgiveness I will have plenty to ask forgiveness for...

Dewi Sant · Apr 27, 2006

Looks wonderful!
At my church, we have the entire music for everything in western notation anyway but I have been looking for the melodies and such online so it is useful for me too.

I am guessing by looking at the byzantine notation that they don't really beleive in "keys". Everything is relative, intervals etc.

I am most likely to be wrong, that was just my initial reaction to seeing the byzantine notation.

I should learn the byzantine notation and write my entire A-level music composition in it ...that would really annoy the examiners. And to my knowledge, it doesn't say that it has to be written in western notation .

Unified in Christ · Apr 27, 2006

Indeed, St.Anthony's from what I see, has done an impressive job. I have one minor objection though...how is it possible to reproduce in the western notation the chromatic scales with the microtones of the Byzantine Music? Well, the Turks have achieved it (you know they use western notation for their Ottoman Classical Music) by using the commas:
http://www.kairarecords.com/oudpage/theory.htm
...just a thought.
Christ is Risen

Dewi Sant · Apr 27, 2006

I am a composer and sometimes I have to put ugly dissonances into my work because the tone that I desire simply isn't available in the 12 tones of the western scale.

I don't write my music in the standard blockety block style most western people do, that is why I want more tones.

I must learn how to write in that Turkish style.

Unfortunatly I am heaped in coursework at the moment but when I have time I'll look at that link you've posted.

BTW, I just wrote a melody for psalm II and it sounds too anglican. I mean really really Church of England Anglican. I think I'll change it.

Dewi Sant · Apr 27, 2006

Jebediah said:
I wish they had mp3s for everything. MIDI is just not the same...I need to spend some serious time with the green book. Last Tuesday we did a Liturgy for Sts. Nicholas, Raphael, and Irene (we have their primary relics) and I was the only reader. It was brutal. Come next Sunday of forgiveness I will have plenty to ask forgiveness for...

I quite like MIDI because it is so crisp and clear....and musically speaking it is infallable. But it is ugly to listen to.

If I wanted to learn a tune to sing I would prefer to learn it from a MIDI then sing it to an MP3.....but I'm just awkward.

Unified in Christ · Apr 27, 2006

ramesses said:
I am a composer and sometimes I have to put ugly dissonances into my work because the tone that I desire simply isn't available in the 12 tones of the western scale.

I don't write my music in the standard blockety block style most western people do, that is why I want more tones.

I must learn how to write in that Turkish style.

Unfortunatly I am heaped in coursework at the moment but when I have time I'll look at that link you've posted.

BTW, I just wrote a melody for psalm II and it sounds too anglican. I mean really really Church of England Anglican. I think I'll change it.

Sorry, it's not the entire page that's interesting (all these makams are difficult to coprehend), just scroll down to the middle of the page & you'll see the commas. Each one represents a microtone of two morias (intervals. Those familiar with Byz.Mus. will understand). It's not so difficult to write music in western notation & use these commas! (I guess, I'm not familiar with the western notation)

It's here! Byzantine chant in western notation

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