The Singer in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy

The Singer in the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy The Early History of the Order Kaija Ravolainen STUDIA MUSICA 59 2014 © Kaija Ravolainen 2014 Doctoral dissertation University of the Arts Helsinki Sibelius Academy DocMus Doctoral School Studia Musica 59 Juvenes Print – Suomen Yliopistopaino Oy Tampere 2014 ISBN 978-952-5959-77-2 ISSN 0788-3757 Abstract The present study examines the origin and the early phases of the ecclesiastical order of the singer, nowadays generally called cantor. The constitutive regulations concerning the order derive from the late fourth century in the canons of the Synod of Laodicea and the Apostolic Constitutions. The order of the singer was established in eastern Christendom, while in the West, it never was added to the ranks of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. There, the members of other ecclesiastical grades answered for the psalmody, although allusions to singers occasionally appear. The study period extends to the seventh century CE. The development of both ecclesiastical singing and the hierarchy is treated from the beginning of the history of the Church. This is necessary for identifying the standing and the role of the singer, whose order emerges rather late in comparison with other ecclesiastical orders. One of the earlier orders belongs to the reader, who is considered to have preceded the singer, but also to have been one, as all reading was performed in recitation. The study also aims to define why a separate order of the singer was needed, if the reader was able to execute these duties as well. The materials include both normative – the canons of ecclesiastical councils and synods, and church orders – and descriptive sources, the latter consisting primarily of the texts of the patristic authors. In the interpretation of the materials, some Greek and Latin expressions, simple in appearance, cause problems as their unambiguous meaning is difficult to define. The sources do not furnish a direct answer to the study question, which is solved with the aid of circumstantial evidence and secondary sources. The orders of the reader and the singer did not share a similar standing in the hierarchy. The order of the reader formed the lowest rank of the ecclesiastical hierarchy; thus, every member of the higher orders had served as a reader. The singer remained in his rank, which, eventually, established a hierarchy of its own, in the manner of a trade guild. The Christian Church emerged among an abundance of religions and cults, which also appear in the materials of this study. The issue of how far these cults influenced the practices adopted by the Church, or its singing and singers, is addressed in a brief survey appended to the introduction and commented on in the conclusions of the study. The instrumental music of the heathen cults was rejected, but natural similarities appear in the vocabulary and the hierarchy. The inheritance of Judaism is evident, not only in the use of the Psalter and other Holy Scriptures, but also in the references to the Old Covenant elements as models for the ranks of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The study systematically introduces the essential documents relating to the topic, thus serving also as a work of reference. Acknowledgements On the completion of this doctoral thesis, I wish to express my gratitude to all the persons and other bodies that have contributed to its successful realisation. I gratefully acknowledge financial support for this research from the Finnish Concordia Fund. As this dissertation is an extension of my graduate and licentiate theses, I first want to thank professors Reijo Pajamo and Pentti Pelto for their support in these earlier studies. During the years of writing the present work, I participated in the postgraduate seminars held in both Helsinki and Kuopio, led by Jorma Hannikainen and Erkki Tuppurainen. I am grateful for their patience, as also for the interest shown in my work by all the other seminar participants. I am much obliged to Sibelius Academy for nominating Professor Paavo Castrén (HY) as my supervisor. With great erudition and experience, he has guided me through numerous difficult and time-consuming phases. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to him, not only for the personal instruction I have received, but also for the invitation to the Finnish Symposium of Late Antiquity at Tvärminne in the mid-1990's. Since then, I have attended these annual seminars whenever possible, and remember with gratitude all the Finnish and foreign scholars I have been privileged to meet there. In the final revision of the manuscript, both its form and contents were enhanced by the constructive comments of the pre-examiners, Professor Gunnar af Hällström (ÅA) and Docent Juhani Forsberg (HY). Michael Freeman (JYU) carried out the language revision with great proficiency. I am very grateful to each of them. During the years of my studies, use of the Internet has replaced much of the work which used to be done in the library. Despite the ease of browsing on the net at home, I miss the peaceful atmosphere of the National Library and other Helsinki University libraries – the Antiquitas, the Library of the Department of Asian and African Culture, and the Theological Library, none of which can any longer be visited in their earlier locations – and wish specially to thank the personnel of the National Library for the excellent service I have received there. Notwithstanding, some problems were not solved with the help of printed or digital sources but with that of individual scholars, favourably disposed towards my work: my thanks go to Erkki Sironen, PhD, for assistance with Greek inscriptions and the details of Greek orthography; to Professor Hannu Juusola and Riikka Tuori, PhD, for help with an enigmatic detail in the Arabic Canons of Basil, and to Heikki Leppä, ThD, who has irreplaceably acted as my IT support. Sincere thanks are due also to the persons closest to me: Klaus, ich danke Dir. Sis Eija, and all my friends: thank you for never ceasing to support me. I dedicate this work to my parents, who did not live to see it completed. Sulkava, September 2014 Kaija Ravolainen Contents Abbreviations................................................................................................10 1 Introduction.....................................................................................................11 1.1 Definition of the subject..........................................................................11 1.1.1 Background of the study and earlier research..................................11 1.1.2 Materials and method......................................................................17 1.2 Music and hierarchy in other cults .........................................................21 1.2.1 Heathen cults...................................................................................21 The role of musicians in the Roman state cult.....................................21 Roman priestly colleges......................................................................24 Features of some Hellenistic and Egyptian cults.................................28 The professional musicians of theatre and entertainment ...................32 1.2.2 Music and hierarchy in Judaism......................................................34 The service in the Temple of Jerusalem .............................................34 The hierarchy of the Temple...............................................................38 The ancient synagogue service............................................................40 Musical practices of some Jewish communities in the first century CE ........................................................................45 The organization of the public synagogue...........................................46 The establishment of the singer of the synagogue ............................49 2 The first three Christian centuries ..................................................................53 2.1 The biblical basis of ecclesiastical singing .............................................53 2.1.1 Singing in the Pauline writings .......................................................53 2.1.2 An outside attestation of Christian worship: the letter of Pliny ......57 2.2 Offices and functions in the early Church .............................................59 2.2.1 Spiritual and practical offices .........................................................59 2.2.2 The office of reading.......................................................................63 2.2.3 Divine service and ecclesiastical ranks in the writings of Tertullian ....................................................................66 2.2.4 The offices in the Apostolic Tradition ...........................................70 2.2.5 The reader in the Didascalia Apostolorum and the Apostolic Church Order .....................................................................74 2.2.6 Readers in the letters of Cyprian of Carthage and Cornelius of Rome .................................................................................77 2.2.7 Two documents from the time of the Diocletian persecution..........80 2.3 References to ecclesiastical singing in the first centuries .......................83 2.4 Summary.................................................................................................87 3 The fourth century...........................................................................................91 3.1 The establishment of ecclesiastical life...................................................91

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