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PSALOM
Traditional Eastern Orthodox Chant Documentation Project |
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Samoglasny: Slavic
Melodic Formulas for the Octoechos Hymns
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In the Greek Orthodox Church, many of the hymns of the Octoechos (the Book of 8 Tones) and of the feasts (from the Menaia and Triodia) have unique melodies that are used only for the particular hymn; these "Idiomela" (unique melodies) are notated with neumes in special chant books. However, when the Slavs were converted to Orthodoxy and began to use their own language (Church Slavonic), they found that they could not replicate the complex rhythmic meters of the Greek text. Since it was too difficult to adapt the entire repertoir of Byzantine Chant melodies for their own use, Slavic chanters adapted the most essential parts of the repertoir (the Great Chant stichera melodies of the Sunday services and of the Great Feasts, etc.), and then devised a Small Chant system of melodic formulas (called "Samoglasny", the translation of the word "Idiomela") to be able to sing the remainder of the hymns. ("Podobny", the Slavic versions of the Greek "Prosomoia", follow the same formulaic principles as the Samoglasny.)
The Samoglasen melodies have two types of sequences: simple repetition, such as: [1-2-3] (repeated as necessary, always ending on 3), and complex repetition, such as A-[1-2-3]-B, where A is an introductory phrases, 1-2-3 repeat as necessary, and B is the final phrase. (This is only one example of possible patterns).
Various geographical regions within the Slavic world have preserved the centuries-old system of "Samoglasen singing" through an oral tradition which displays a great amount of melodic variation. Comparison of these melodies using modern analytical methods reveals that the majority of these "raspevy" (chant repertoirs or systems) have similar melodic structures and are derived from a common ancestor. The following "raspevy" have systems of Samoglasen singing which are related:
Small Znamenny Chant (central and northern Russia) - Preserved mostly by the Old Believers, but also to some small degree in the modern Russian Church.
Valaam Chant (northern Russia) - This is a variant of Small Znamenny Chant.
Kievan Chant (southern Russia) - The 17th century versions of these melodies were incorporated into the Muscovite Church following the annexation of Kiev and Patriarch Nikon's liturgical reforms in the mid-17th century.
Carpatho-Rusyn Chant (southwestern Russia) - There are several regional variants, notably in the Uzhorod and Preshov districts.
Galician Chant (southwestern Russia) - This is used by both Orthodox and Uniates (Eastern Catholics).
The Small Znamenny (Samoglasen) Chant is a method of singing printed text according to melodic formulas in each of the Eight Tones. This repertoire of melodies is intended for use with stichera, but occasionally troparia and kontakia are sung with these melodies. (In pre-Nikonian practice, Troparia, Kontakia and Sessional Hymns are usually intoned by a reader, and the final phrase is repeated by the singers using the set of 8 melodies currently associated with the Prokeimena and Alleluia.) The Small Znamenny Chant is commonly called "Samoglasen" (after the Greek "Idiomelon", meaning to have its own unique melody), but this is a misuse of the word caused by misunderstanding the Greek concept.
The Russian "Greek" Chant was introduced into the Russian New Rite in the late 17th century as a means of singing Troparia and Kontakia according to the 8 Tones, because the Znamenny repertoir has no system of melodies for these categories of hymns. This separate repertoir of melodies was adapted from Byzantine Chant in such a manner as to lose the distinctive modalities of the Byzantine scales. (The precise history of the origins and development of the Russian "Greek" Chant have yet to be accurately researched.)
The Kievan Chant was ...
The Russian "Bulgarian" Chant was ...
Bakhmetev, Lvov, Court Chant, etc. ...