Saint Spyridon and the Proud Deacon

On the island of Cyprus there was a village called Erytra. This village was not far from the Metropolis of Constantia. Saint Spyridon went there one time to see to some affairs and, while there, went into the church. It was the season of the harvest, the weather was extremely hot and the bishop was very tired from the journey. During the service which was taking place, he told one of the serving deacons to abbreviate one of the prayers. The deacon not only ignored what he had been told to do, but instead he prolonged the prayer, chanting and singing with pride, full of vain glory because he knew he had a good voice.

Saint Spyridon is known for being kind and gentle when dealing with people, but disobedience and pride in oneself were simply not to be tolerated. The bishop became very angry with the deacon and reprimanded him for his disobedience, saying sternly, "Be quiet!"

The Psychotherapeutic Value of Byzantine Ecclesiastical Music

 

 

By Stavros Balogiannis,
Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Thessaloniki

Byzantine Ecclesiastical music is a peaceful, spiritual chanting, which aims to elevate the human soul from the earthly world to the heavenly. Invoking the spirit of peace, dispassion, tranquility, effective introspection, real insight and self-knowledge, Byzantine music, in a harmonious interweaving with the Byzantine iconography of our temples, becomes a way of purifying the psychosomatic state of man.

In the human mind, which suffers from the constant interference of contemporary secular music and the aggression, restlessness, sadness, competition, dominance, demanding and inevitable impasses of contemporary society, Byzantine music is the ideal remedy for restoration of internal homeostasis and the harmonization of the higher mental processes with the spiritual aspirations and ascents of the soul.

The Poetic and Musical Works of Saint John of Damascus

 

 By George Papadopoulos

The works of Saint John of Damascus fall into five categories: the purely philosophical or dialectical, the theological, the hermeneutical or critical, the poetic, and the musical. As a hymn-writer and musician, he transferred the simpler form of psalmody that existed prior to him, and regulated and arranged it by composing the Octoechos set to eight tones or modes. He thus reconciled the modest and sacred feelings of the Church with the Greek form of music at the time, to solemnly glorify God, without the sounds and tones that were used to arouse feelings that were obscene and indecent, enthusiastic, and war-friendly.

Protopsaltis Sotirios Tattis and the Musical Tradition of the Orthodox Church (2 of 2)

 ...continued from part one.

3. The Decalogue of the Unwritten Typikon of the Church for the Chanter

The Apostle Paul, referring to the way of worship that took place in Corinth, and the disorder that was observed between the gifts of prophecy and tongues and defining an order in which the manifestations of these gifts took place, said: "Let all things be done decently and in order" (1 Cor. 14:40).

It is within this perspective that our entire ecclesiastical tradition operates. The 75th Canon of the Penthekti Ecumenical Synod (692) states:

"We will that those whose office it is to sing in the churches do not use undisciplined vociferations, nor force nature to shouting, nor adopt any of those modes which are incongruous and unsuitable for the church: but that they offer the psalmody to God, who is the observer of secrets, with great attention and compunction. For the Sacred Oracle taught that the Sons of Israel were to be pious."

Protopsaltis Sotirios Tattis and the Musical Tradition of the Orthodox Church (1 of 2)

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

On the 6th of August, the feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, I always remember the Protopsaltis of the Metropolitan Church of Ioannina, Sotirios Tattis, who celebrated this day, and because of this I will submit some things I remember in his memory and present the value of a chanter in the worship of our Orthodox Church who has a beautiful voice that befits sanctity. At the end, the reader will have the opportunity to hear his voice from a live recording inside the Sacred Metropolitan Church of Ioannina, which was made by the late pastor Fr. Athanasios Papathanasiou.

Protopsaltis Sotirios Tattis was considered an important figure in the ecclesiastical and social life of the City of Ioannina. This is because the Protopsaltis of the Metropolitan Church knew all the great ecclesiastical moments of the City of his time. He met the Metropolitans who passed through these years, in fact two of them were elected Archbishops of Athens and all of Greece, such as Spyridon Vlachos and Seraphim Tikas, and he served them as the Protopsaltis during the Divine Liturgy. He also chanted for receptions of Patriarchs and Archbishops, Kings and Presidents of the Democracy, Prime Ministers and other officials. He was always considered modest, majestic, a connoisseur of ecclesiastical music and one who passed on his knowledge to others who were interested in it.

Saint Germanos of Constantinople as a Model for our Lives

By Protopresbyter Fr. George Papavarnavas

Saint Germanos was born in Constantinople in 640 AD. His father was the patrician Justinian, a man worthy of mention and famous for his virtue, who during the reign of Emperor Heraclius administered much public authority. His colleagues, but also others who knew him, admired him for his learning and especially for his piety and virtue. However, this caused him to be envied by the grandson of Heraclius, Constantine Pogonatos, who killed him, saying that Justinian thought of revolting against his empire. "For envy does not know where there is profit," and thus the Saint was orphaned at the age of twenty.

How the Greatest and Most Prolific Hymnographer of the Orthodox Church in the 20th Century Received His Talent

Elder Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis as a young monk.

 

Elder Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis, who would become renowned as the Great Hymnographer of the Holy and Great Church of Christ under the Ecumenical Patriarchate, was a young monk of around 22 years of age, when he had been left alone in the Cell of the Honorable Forerunner, in the then forbidding Skete of Little Saint Anna on the Holy Mountain. He had been abandoned by his Elder of four years, Hieromonk Meletios Ioannidis, who, around the year 1927, out of unbridled fervor, joined the Zealots and left the Holy Mountain to fight on the side of the Old Calendarists in Athens. Elder Meletios had asked Monk Gerasimos to leave the Holy Mountain and join him in the world, but the young monk recognized that his Elder had been deluded by the Zealots to leave the place of his repentance to serve as a priest in the world for a cause that was leading towards schism, and not wishing to go back into the world, which he had already forsaken, Gerasimos remained behind alone. 

 

Protopsaltis Harilaos Taliadoros Has Reposed

It has been reported that Harilaos Taliadoros, one of the great performers and teachers of Byzantine music in our times, has reposed at the age of 95, due to infection with the coronavirus. Those who ever had the opportunity to hear him live know what a master of Byzantine music he really was. If I were to list my own personal ten best worship experiences in an Orthodox church in my life, one of them would certainly be when I had the unique opportunity to hear him chant in the mid-1990's an expanded (because no one wanted it to end) Great Vespers for the feast of Saint Methodios of Constantinople at Holy Cross Chapel in Brookline, Massachusetts, with him as the Protopsaltis and Photios Ketsetzis as the Lampadarios. It may have been the closest to heaven I've ever been in my life. May his memory be eternal!

One of the Most Beloved and Most Beautiful Hymns of Holy Week That is Rarely Chanted

George Akropolites (1217-1282) was a Roman statesman born in Constantinople. Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes of Nicaea entrusted George with important state missions, as did his successors (Theodore II Laskaris and Michael VIII Palaiologos). The office of Grand Logothete, or chancellor, was bestowed upon him in 1244.

As commander in the field in 1257 against Michael II, despot of Epirus, he showed little military ability. George was captured and kept for two years in prison, from which he was released by Michael Palaiologos. Meanwhile, Michael Palaiologos was proclaimed emperor of Nicaea, afterwards expelling the Latins from Constantinople, and became emperor of the restored Roman Empire. From this moment Akropolites becomes known in the history of the eastern empire as one of its greatest diplomats. After having discharged the function of ambassador at the court of the Bulgarian Tsar Constantine, he became the first head of the University of Constantinople, where he lectured on mathematics and philosophy. His students included George of Cyprus and George Pachymeres.

A 1930 Recording of the Hymn "Today is Hung Upon the Cross" by a Chanter from Smyrna

Petros Maneas

Below is a recording from 1930 of the well-known hymn "Today is Hung Upon the Cross" ("Simeron Krematai Epi Xylou") from Matins of Great Friday which is chanted during the procession of the Holy Cross on Holy Thursday evening. Although it is normally done in Plagal of the Sixth Mode, this version is done in Plagal of the First. The recording comes from a protopsaltis from Smyrna named Petros Maneas. He had first started recording hymns in 1911 in Smyrna, and although he was an important chanter of the time, he had managed to form a polyphonic choir of men and women which was rare for the time. This recording was done in Athens, from which time we also have three other recordings of his - "Ti Ypermacho", "Erchomenos o Kyrios" and "Axion Estin". It was in 1931 that he became the protopsalti at the Church of the Zoodochos Pege in Akadimias of Athens, where he chanted until his death. These recordings come from the disc "Μουσική της Ελληνικής Ορθόδοξης Εκκλησίας" 1924-1930, of the series ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ ΑΡΧΕΙΟΝ.

One of the Greatest Byzantine Music Moments of the 20th Century

In 1970, when Protopsaltis Photios Ketsetzis was in his early 20's, before he was drafted into the army and before he was married, after recently completing his academic studies in Byzantine Music, and residing in Athens where he was slowly making a name for himself in the world of Byzantine Music, he joined the fifty-plus member choir of Protopsaltis Thrasyvoulos Stanitsas, as one of its youngest members. Stanitsas was most noteworthy as being the Protopsaltis of the Great Church of Constantinople from 1960 until 1964, when he was expelled from Turkey by the Turkish authorities, along with many other Greeks living in Constantinople. He lived and chanted on the island of Chios for a year, moved to Beirut, and finally chanted in Athens in the Church of Saint Demetrios from 1966 until his retirement in 1981. Along with Konstantinos Pringos before him, Thrasyvoulos Stanitsas is known for bringing the Patriarchal style of chanting to Greece and because of his many recordings he is still known as its primary teacher. When Ketsetzis joined his choir in 1970, it was this Patriarchal style of chanting and choir directing from Constantinople that he credits as a major part of his own personal education in the art of Byzantine Music.

Homily on the Resurrection Apolytikion in the First Tone

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The incarnation of the Son and Word of God is a great mystery, which in theological language is characterized as a mystery of the Divine Economy.

It is called a mystery of the Divine Economy, because it clearly shows God economized to save humanity. He did not do it to punish humanity nor to satisfy divine justice as western theologians call it, but with His love and philanthropy. He received a body subject to mortality and suffering, without sin, and He became a spiritual physician, spiritual medicine and spiritual hospital.

Homily on the Resurrection Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

In the Resurrection Apolytikia we are interpreting this year for the eucharistic sermons, the entire meaning of the event of the Resurrection of Christ is encompassed. This is also evident in the Apolytikion in the plagal of the fourth tone we chanted today, which is as follows:

Ἐξ ὕψους κατῆλθες ὁ Εὔσπλαγχνος, ταφήν κατεδέξω τριήμερον, ἵνα ἡμᾶς ἐλευθερώσῃς τῶν παθῶν. Ἡ ζωή καί ἡ ἀνάστασις ἡμῶν, Κύριε, δόξα σοι.

From on high didst Thou descend, O Compassionate One; to burial of three days hast Thou submitted that Thou mightest free us from our passions. O our Life and Resurrection, O Lord, glory be to Thee.

Homily on the Resurrection Apolytikion in the Grave Tone

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Every meeting between people is rewarding because it brings forth fruit. When people meet they give and receive gifts. This is true even more with the Resurrection of Christ. The Risen Christ offered many gifts to people, and these are recorded in the Resurrection Apolytikion in the grave tone that we chanted today, which is as follows:

Κατέλυσας τῷ Σταυρῷ σου τόν θάνατον, ἠνέωξας τῷ ληστῇ τόν Παράδεισον, τῶν Μυροφόρων τόν θρῆνον μετέβαλες, καί τοῖς σοῖς Ἀποστόλοις κηρύττειν ἐπέταξας, ὅτι ἀνέστης Χριστέ ὁ Θεός, παρέχων τῷ κόσμῳ τό μέγα ἔλεος.

Thou didst destroy death by Thy Cross, Thou didst open Paradise to the thief. Thou didst change the lamentation of the Myrrhbearers, and Thou didst command Thine Apostles to proclaim that Thou didst arise, O Christ God, and grantest to the world great mercy.

The Meaning and Character of the Eight Modes or Tones of Byzantine Music

In the Byzantine liturgical system, each week is assigned to one of the eight modes or tones. Modes 1-4 in Byzantine music, are each a unique scale, while modes 5-8 are a derivation of such, being called Plagal modes. Most often the modes are called 1st-4th mode, and then Plagal First mode, Plagal Second mode, Grave Mode, and Plagal Fourth mode.

"The Admonition to Pupils" of Chrysaphes the New (for those who wish to learn the science of ecclesiastical music)

Panagiotes the New Chrysaphes (+ 1685) was the Protopsaltis of the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople from 1655 to 1682. He initiated the first great period in the development of Byzantine music after the Fall of Constantinople, from 1650 to 1720, and he was among the most important and gifted Byzantine music teachers of the period of the Turkish occupation. His approach was based on the recomposition of the late medieval sticherarion as it was described by Manuel Chrysaphes in his treatise about psaltic art, and the recomposition of the Byzantine Anastasimatarion was based on the simple psalmody according to the Octoechos. Several manuscripts of the latter have survived since the 17th century and they were usually introduced by a Papadike treatise, the basic introduction (protheoria) into psaltic art. For these works he was called "the New Chrysaphes".

A Brief Survey of the History of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Chant

By Dimitri E. Conomos (Oxford University)

1. Overview

Byzantine music is the medieval sacred chant of all Christian churches following the Eastern Orthodox rite. This tradition, principally encompassing the Greek-speaking world, developed in Byzantium from the establishment of its capital, Constantinople, in 330 until its conquest in 1453. It is undeniably of composite origin, drawing on the artistic and technical productions of the classical age and on Jewish music, and inspired by the plainsong that evolved in the early Christian cities of Alexandria, Antioch, and Ephesus. In common with other dialects in the East and West, Byzantine music is purely vocal and exclusively monodic. Apart from the acclamations (polychronia), the texts are solely designed for the several Eastern liturgies and offices. The most ancient evidence suggests that hymns and Psalms were originally syllabic or near-syllabic in style, stemming, as they did, from pre-oktoēch congregational recitatives. Later, with the development of monasticism, at first in Palestine and then in Constantinople, and with the augmentation of rites and ceremonies in new and magnificent edifices (such as Hagia Sophia), trained choirs, each with its own leader (the protopsáltes for the right choir; the lampadários for the left) and soloist (the domestikos or kanonarch), assumed full musical responsibilities. Consequently after ca. 850 there began a tendency to elaborate and to ornament, and this produced a radically new melismatic and ultimately kalophonic style.

Saint John Koukouzelis (+ 1360)

St. John koukouzelis (Feast Day - October 1)

Saint John Koukouzelis, a native of Dyrrhachion in Bulgaria (now Durres in Albania), was born in 1280 to an Albanian father and Bulgarian mother, and was orphaned in childhood. Endowed with a very fine voice, he entered the Constantinople court school. He found favor with the emperor and became a chief court singer. The sumptuousness and luxury of the imperial court bothered the pious youth. Once, when asked what he had eaten for dinner, he replied, “Beans and cabbage.” The name Koukouzelis (Greek koukia for beans and Slavic zele for cabbage) stuck with him ever after.

Homily on the Resurrection Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Second Tone

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The day Christ resurrected was a great, unprecedented and triumphantly unique day in history, because Christ after His death on the Cross, the entombment of His immaculate body, the descent of His soul with His divinity into Hades, rose from the dead, since His soul and body once again reunited, even though both are united with His divinity. This was followed with significant events, as described in the Apolytikion in the plagal of the second tone we chanted today:

Homily on the Resurrection Apolytikion in the Plagal of the First Tone

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

The troparia of the Church, especially those composed by the great Father and foremost theologian, Saint John of Damascus, contain the entire theology of the Church. They are not emotional troparia, but theological. This is also the case with the Resurrection Apolytikion in plagal of the first tone which we chanted today, and it is as follows:

Τόν συνάναρχον Λόγον Πατρί καί Πνεύματι, τόν ἐκ Παρθένου τεχθέντα εἰς σωτηρίαν ἡμῶν, ἀνυμνήσωμεν πιστοί καί προσκυνήσωμεν, ὅτι ηὐδόκησε σαρκί, ἀνελθεῖν ἐν τῷ Σταυρῷ, καί θάνατον ὑπομεῖναι, καί ἐγεῖραι τούς τεθνεῶτας, ἐν τῇ ἐνδόξῳ ἀναστάσει αὐτοῦ.

Let us, O faithful, praise and worship the Word Who is co-unorignate with the Father and the Spirit, and Who was born of the Virgin for our salvation; for He was pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh and to endure death, and to raise the dead by His glorious Resurrection.