CAPPELLA ROMANA Desert and City: Medieval Byzantine Music of the Holy Land Thursday, March 29, 2012 Lecture: 2:30 p.m. at the Maliotis Cultural Center 50 Goddard Avenue, Brookline, MA 02445 Concert: 7:30 p.m. at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of New England 514 Parker Street, Boston, MA 02120 From Jerusalem to Constantinople: Byzantine Music for St. Catherine and Epiphany II. From the Services of Theophany Kontakion of Theophany: St. Romanos the Melodist (6th c.), MS Konstamonitou 86 (15th c.) First Kanon for Theophany: Odes 1 & 5, St. Kosmas of Maïouma (8th c.): MS Grottaferrata Ε.γ. II Festal Trisagion (“As many of you as have been baptized”), Xenos Korones (14th c), MSS Athens 2456 (15th c.) Dynamis, John Kladas the Lampadarios (fl. ca. 1400) Troparia for the Blessing of the Waters, St. Sophronios, Patriarch of Jerusalem (d. 638) MSS Vienna Theol. gr. 181(13th c.) and Ambrosianus A 139 sup. Anagrammatismos, St. John Koukouzeles (14th c.): MS Sinai 1566 (15th c.) 2 CAPPELLA ROMANA Alexander Lingas, artistic director Program I. Great and Holy Friday in Jerusalem Processional Sticheron: “The Paradise in Eden,” Mode Plagal 4 Three-Ode Kanon (Triodion): Kosmas the Melodist (8th c.),Mode Plagal 2 Ode 5 Kontakion on Mary at the Cross (Psaltikon melody): Romanos the Melodist (6th c.) Ode 8 Ode 9 Lauds (initial verses), Mode 4 Sticheron Prosomoion: “When all creation saw you crucified,”Mode 4 Sticheron Idiomelon: Theophanes Protothronos (9th c.), “All creation was changed,” Mode 1 Sticheron Idiomelon: Leo VI the Wise (866–912), “When she saw you, O Christ,” Mode 2 Sticheron Idiomelon: Stoudites, “Each member of your holy flesh,” Mode 3 From Jerusalem to Constantinople: Byzantine Music for St. Catherine and Epiphany II. The Vespers of St. Catherine Invitatorium: Traditional, MS Sinai 1257 (dated 1332), Mode plagal 4 II. From the Services of Theophany Proemium: Excerpts from Psalm 103 (Septuagint), Traditional, Mode plagal 4 Anoixantaria: St. John Koukouzeles (late 13th–early 14th c.) Kontakion of Theophany: St. Romanos the Melodist (6th c.), MS Konstamonitou 86 (15th c.) MSS Sinai 1257, Sinai 1527 (late 15th c.), Athens 2458 (dated 1336), Mode Plagal 4 First Kanon for Theophany: Odes 1 & 5, Doxology of the Anoixantaria: Traditional, MS Sinai 1257, Mode 2 St. Kosmas of Maïouma (8th c.): MS Grottaferrata Ε.γ. II From the Lamplighting Psalms, the Kekragarion: Traditional, MS Sinai 1255 (15th c.), Festal Trisagion (“As many of you as have been baptized”), Mode 1 Psalm 140: 1, 2 & 3-5 Xenos Korones (14th c), MSS Athens 2456 (15th c.) Dynamis, John Kladas the Lampadarios (fl. ca. 1400) Three Stichera Prosomoia for St. Catherine: Traditional, MS Sinai 1250 (15th c.), Mode 1 Troparia for the Blessing of the Waters, St. Sophronios, Patriarch of Jerusalem (d. 638) Doxastikon: Sticheron Idiomelon, Mode 2 MSS Vienna Theol. gr. 181(13th c.) and Ambrosianus A 139 sup. Part 1, Traditional, MS Ambrosianus 139 A sup. (14th c.) Part 2, Manuel Chrysaphes the Lampadarios (mid-15th c.) Anagrammatismos, St. John Koukouzeles (14th c.): MS Sinai 1566 (15th c.) MS Sinai 1234 (autograph of John Plousiadenos, dated 1469), Mode Plagal 2 All performing editions by Ioannis Arvanitis 3 NOTES between the secular and monastic singers of Jerusalem and those of other Great and Holy Friday in Jerusalem ecclesiastical centers. Monks from the monastery founded by St. Sabas (439–532) In the year 637 A.D. the orthodox in the desert southeast of Jerusalem Christian Patriarch Sophronios (d. 638) became active participants in worship at surrendered Byzantine Jerusalem to the the Holy Sepulchre, which maintained a Arab Caliph Umar, inaugurating a period resident colony of ascetics later known of Muslim rule in the Holy City that would as the spoudaioi. Responsorial and last until its conquest by Latin Crusaders antiphonal settings of biblical psalms and in 1099. Although subject to tribute, canticles formed the base of cathedral and Jerusalem’s Christian inhabitants retained monastic liturgical repertories. Palestinian the right to continue celebrating both poet-singers subsequently increased the for themselves and for visiting pilgrims number, length and musical complexity their distinctive forms of worship. These of the refrains sung between the biblical services made extensive use of the shrines verses, leading by the sixth century (and associated with life, death and resurrection possibly earlier) to the creation of hymnals of Jesus Christ that had been created organized according to a system of eight with imperial patronage in the years that musical modes (the Octoechos). These followed the legalization of Christianity by early hymnbooks from Jerusalem exist the Emperor Constantine in 313. today only in Armenian and Georgian translations. Constantine and his mother Helen had sponsored the most important of these The earliest surviving Greek witness to edifices: the cathedral complex of the cathedral worship in the Holy City is the Holy Sepulchre built on the accepted site so-called Typikon of the Anastasis. Copied of Jesus’ crucifixion and entombment. in 1122, this manuscript (Hagios Stauros Its major components were a large 43) contains services for the seasons of basilica (the Martyrium), an inner atrium Lent and Easter as celebrated prior to the incorporating the hill of Golgotha, the destruction of the Holy Sepulchre complex Rotunda of the Anastasis (Resurrection) by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim in 1009. over Christ’s tomb, and a baptistry. Egeria, Older and newer chants presented without a Spanish pilgrim of the late fourth musical notation coexist in the Typikon of century, describes in her diary how every the Anastasis. Thus works from the apogee week the clergy, monastics and laity of late of Christian Palestinian hymnody—a fourth-century Jerusalem would gather on period initiated by the liturgical works Saturday evening and Sunday morning to of Sophronios and continued by the remember the Passion and Resurrection of eighth-century poet-composers Andrew Jesus with readings, prayers and psalmody of Crete, John of Damascus and Kosmas performed at historically appropriate the Melodist—are integrated with hymns locations within the cathedral compound. by writers working within the traditions These same events of sacred history of the Constantinopolitan monastery of were commemorated annually in a more Stoudios. The latter had, at the behest elaborate fashion during Great and Holy of its abbot Theodore, adopted a variant Week, which climaxed with Easter Sunday of the monastic liturgy of St. Sabas at (Pascha). Holy Week services in Jerusalem the beginning of the ninth century. The incorporated the buildings on Golgotha resulting Stoudite synthesis of Palestinian into a larger system of stational liturgy and Constantinopolitan traditions was that made full use of the city’s sacred a crucial stage in the formation of the topography. cycles of worship employed in the modern Byzantine rite. The musical repertories created for worship in the Holy City developed gradually over The first half of today’s concert features the centuries out of patterns of interaction excerpts from the “Service of the Holy 4 Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ” as it Beirut who settled in Constantinople would have been celebrated in Jerusalem during the early sixth century. There on Holy Friday morning during the tenth he distinguished himself as the greatest century. The texts and rubrics of the composer of the multi-stanza hymns that Typikon of the Anastasis are supplemented came to be known, after the scrolls on by notated musical settings for its chants which they were copied, as kontakia. By transmitted in later manuscripts. Extant the tenth century two melodic traditions sources with Byzantine melodic notation had been developed for kontakia: a simple date from the tenth century, with readily one consigned mainly to oral tradition, and decipherable versions available in a florid one transmitted in the Psaltikon, a chantbooks copied from in the late twelfth musical collection created for the soloists century onwards. Dr. Ioannis Arvanitis, a of Justinian’s Great Church of Hagia leading authority on medieval Byzantine Sophia. On the present concert we sing musical rhythm and performance practice, the Psaltikon version of the kontakion’s edited the scores used today by Cappella prologue. Romana. In both Palestine and Constantinople Morning prayer on Holy Friday began the arrival of dawn was marked in daily on the Mount of Olives and featured a prayer by the singing of Psalms 148–150, series of processions taking worshippers known collectively as Lauds. Whereas the to shrines at Gethsemane and other sites Late Antique custom of chanting these associated with the betrayal, trial and psalms throughout with simple refrains crucifixion of Jesus. Our concert joins the was retained in the Constantinopolitan service near its climax with “The Paradise cathedral rite, churches associated in Eden,” a chant sung on the way to the with Jerusalem began interpolating Place of the Skull. Upon arrival at Golgotha hymns known as stichera between their there was a reading from the Gospel of concluding verses (stichoi). From the ten Luke (omitted), followed by the Three- hymns appointed by the Typikon of the Ode Kanon by Kosmas the Melodist. Each Anastasis for Lauds on Holy Friday we ode consists of a model stanza (heirmos), select four. The first is an anonymous a series of metrically and melodically hymn sung to a standard model melody identical stanzas (troparia), and a reprise and assigned in modern