The 'Bulgarian Chant'

1 of 26 The ‘Bulgarian Chant’: The Generic Melodies for Stichera Just as the Lesser Znamenny Chant consists primarily of the samoglasen melodies of the Eight modes, the Kievan Chant has a similar set of eight ‘samohlasen melodies, and the ‘!"i#hod chant provides a set "ased on a simplified Kievan Chant, so the $ulgarian Chant has its o%n set of simple melodies for stichera& 'hether these had any circulation in (uscovite )us is not certain* so far, + have seen no evidence of it& +n 'estern )us they %ere no dou"t used more or less daily in ,espers and (attins in those churches that adopted the $ulgarian Chant as their primary system of church singing* some manuscript +rmologia of the seventeenth century include these melodies %ith te-ts from ‘Lord, + cry & +n the ma.ority of churches of 'estern )us , ho%ever, the local variant of the Kievan Chant %as the %or#horse, and the ‘$olhar melodies %ere used mostly for stichera of the Lit/ and for the eight funeral stichera of 0t John of 1amascus& +n the latter function, they have fallen out of use in 2alicia, "ut continue in 0u"3Carpathian )us & 4his situation is reflected in the chant "oo#s of the nineteenth and t%entieth centuries5 the 2alician "oo#s supplementary to the +rmologion, and the late editions of the +rmologion itself, provide these melodies %ith te-ts dra%n mostly from the Lit/, %hereas the Carpatho3)usyn "oo#s present them %ith the te-ts of the stichera of 0t John of 1amascus& 4hese later "oo#s also reflect a loss of some of the melodies in 6uestion5 since there are no stichera ap3 pointed for the Lit/ in the 0eventh (ode, this melody has fallen into desuetude in 2ali3 cia, and is omitted in some "oo#s, although it still appears in others& 4he Carpatho3 )usyn "oo#s have the melodies for modes 1, 2, 7, and 8 only* and for these they do not provide melodies for the preceding versicles& 0ince in most cases the versicles use mate3 rial from the melodies for stichera, these may "e reconstructed %ith little difficulty, "ut to restore the $ulgarian melodies for modes 9, 6, :, and ;, the 2alician versions must "e adopted& +n lesser3chant melodies in general, the melody consists of a small num"er of simple phrases recurring in a more or less fi-ed order& 4hese phrases are chiefly defined "y a reciting note or tenor, %hich allo%s the musical phrase to e-pand or contract to accom3 modate a te-t phrase of any length& (elodic movement is found mostly in an introducto3 ry figure <intonation= and in the cadence to the final& In the following examples, the sources for the Galician version will be Doľnyc’kyj’s Гласопѣснець (1894), Polotňuk’s Напѣвникъ церковный (1902), and Fedoriv’s collection containing the version of the Basilian order, published in Winnipeg as Василіянський Гласопіснець (1955) and in Rome as Василіянські церковні напіви (1961); and for the Carpatho-Rusyn tradition the Простопѣніе of Bokšaj and Ma yny! (19"6)# representin$ the tradition of the %athedra of &'horod# and that of (oakim Choma ()*+,) (19-")# representin$ the tradition of the Monastery of .t /i%ho as at Muka!e0o#1 2he 0ersions appearin$ in o d manus%ript irmo o$ia# 3hi%h 3ou d 4e of indispensa4 e importan%e for a thorou$h in0esti$ation# 3i not 4e in% uded here1 5hrases of the me odies 3i 4e desi$nated a pha4eti%a y1 ( 3i transpose e0erythin$ to the tre4 e % ef# ha 0e or dou4 e note 0a ues 3here ne%essary for %onsisten%y# and 6 of 26 s%hemati7e the e8amp es in the sour%es# to keep the presentation as simp e and 4rief as possi4 e1 2he usua y more e a4orate 0ersion of the (rmo o$ion of 90:0 of 19"; ( 3i not in- % ude here# e8%ept for some short me odies for 0ersi% es# and the e8tended %on% udin$ phrase (here desi$nated <<)1 2his atter is no3 $enera y ne$ e%ted# 4ut is sti the norm in By7antine %hant and former y 3as %ommon in the =Bu $arian Chant> as 3e ? at the end of series of sti%hera (or troparia# for that matter)# the ast phrase of the ast sti%heron is $i0en a me ismati% treatment that si$na s the %on% usion of the entire series1 2his pra%- ti%e %ou d easi y 4e re0i0ed in our o3n day1 2hese me odies a emp oy the %ustomary <namenny s%a e# 3hi%h in the @ie0an nota- tion of more re%ent %enturies is 3ritten in the a to % ef1 (n the tre4 e % ef# this may 4e rep- resented 4y a si$nature of one f at or t3o f ats# 3hi%h permits the notes to remain in the same positions on the staff1 2he s%a e in Auestion differs from Bestern diatoni% s%a es in that the upper e is f at# 4ut the o3er e is natura 1 ( ha0e f atted the e in the si$nature on y in modes in 3hi%h the me ody rises to the upper e; proper y# the si$nature shou d ha0e a f at on the upper e and a natura on the o3er# 4ut ( am diffident a4out introdu%in$ some- thin$ so unfami iar# and /oteBorthy Composer 3i not a o3 non-standard si$natures in any %ase1 .in%e the s%a e is the same re$ard ess of 3hi%h of these t3o si$natures is used# ( ha0e not %han$ed the so mi7ation 3ith the si$nature; do is on the b f at in either %ase1 - of 26 Mode 1 2his me ody %onsists of t3o a ternatin$ phrases 3ith a uniAue %on% udin$ phrase1 2hese 3e 3i desi$nate as C# B# and <1 5hrase C has an e8tra openin$ fi$ure or intonation in its initia o%%urren%e; this form ( 3i desi$nate Ca1 2he Da i%ian 0ersion? Aa' ' f k k k a k j k k k k k k k j k k j j j B ' a f k k k k k j k k j A ' ' k a f k k k k k k k k k j k k j Z = B ' y a f k k k k k j k k i Be may s%hemati7e the main features of the phrases as fo o3s? C? tenor on la# fina on la; B? tenor on do# fina on la? < E B 2he Basi ian 0ersion has 0ariant forms of the %aden%es? Aa' ' f k k k a k j k k k k k k k j k k j k k j j B ' a f k k k k k j k k j j j A ' ' k a f k k k k k k k k k j k k j k k j j Z = B ' y a f k k k k k j k k j j i 4 of 26 The versicle consists simply of Aa + Z: Aa ' ' k a f k j k k k k k k k k k j k k j j j Z = B ' y a f k k k k k j k k i Or in the Basilian version: V =' Aa + Z ' f k k k a k j k k k k k k k j k k j k k j j ' y a f k k k k k j k k j k k i The Irmologion of 19 4 has a short form: ' y a f k k k k k k k k k j k k i !irst the versicle "if any# is s$ng% the the sticheron& 'eginning (ith phrase Aa& procee)* ing to B% an) then A an) B alternate $ntil the last phrase of the te+t& s$ng to Z, The pro* cedure is essentially the same as in any lesser*chant melo)y% the same a)-$stments to the scansion of the te+t m$st 'e ma)e an) so on, .olot/$0 also provi)es the version from 1rystynopol& (hich is of interest in vie( of the 2arpatho*3$syn pec$liarities that (e shall enco$nter shortly: Aa ' ' k k a f k j k k k k k k k j k k k j B j' k k k k k ' k a f k k j k j A j' z ' a f k k k k k k k j k k j j j Z = B ' ' y j k k k k j k k a f i 5 of 26 A: tenor on do, final on do; B: tenor on mi, final on do; Z = B It will be seen that the melody, except for the ery be!innin!, has been raised a third, with the res"ltin! tonal alterations# $olot%"& does not s"pply the ersicle in this case; we m"st pres"me that it "nder!oes the same transformation: V = 'A + Z ' k k a f k j k k k k k k k j k k k j ' ' y j k k k k j k k a f i 'he short form of the ersicle wo"ld then simply omit the recitin! note and cadence of phrase Aa: V =' A + Z ' y f k k k k k k k j k k i a k j k 'he (arpatho)*"syn ersion as !i en by Bo&+a,: Aa (Slavonic) ' ' ' f k k k k [ k k k k k ] s k k k j j j a k k j k k k k j dk k k Aa (Hungarian) t t t ' ' [ ] s s j a f k j k k k k k k k k k k j dk k k k j B ' f k k k k k k k k k k j k k k j a t t A (Slav' onic) ' [ ] a f k k k k k k k k k k k k k kz dks k k j j j A (Hun'garian) ' k [ ] j a f k k k k k k k k k k k kz dks k k j j Z ' y a f k k k k k k d k k k k k k k k i A: tenor on do, final on do; B: tenor on mi, final on la; Z: tenor on do -./, final on la.

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