Catalog of Regional Chant Systems: Overview

1) Byzantine Chants (including ethnic varieties)

• This family of Orthodox Chants includes Greek Byzantine chant, as well as the various ethnic adaptations which have attempted to be faithful to the original Byzantine melodies, including Bulgarian and Macedonian, Albanian, Romanian and Arabic Chants (Syrian, Lebanese, etc.).

2) Byzantine-derived South Slavic Chants

• This family of Orthodox Chants includes Serbian Chant, Zhumberak Croatian Chant, Romanian Chants of Transylvania and Banat, etc. These chant systems are originally derived from Byzantine Chant, but have been influenced by regional folk singing in order to adapt to more familiar European scales.

3) East-Slavic Chants

• A) Early Russian Chants (Unison): This family of Orthodox Chants includes Muscovite Znamenny Chant, Great Znamenny Chant, Small Znamenny Chant, Demestvenny Chant, Put' Chant, Strochnoe Penie (pre-western native Russian polyphony), Regional Chants, and various other early chant systems. Roughly speaking, this music belongs to the pre-Nikonian era (mid-1600s), continuing with the traditions of the Old Believers.

• B) Modern Great Russian Chants (Polyphonic): This family of Orthodox Chants includes Early Russian Part-Singing (Partesnoe Penie) and Early Composers, Kievan Chant, Russian "Greek" Chant, Russian "Bulgarian" Chant, Obikhod and Court Chants, Regional Russian Chants (Valaam, Solovetsky, and other Monastery Chants), and newer systems, such as the Finnish Octoechos Chant and Alaskan Chant.

• C) Southwestern Russian Chants: This family of Orthodox Chants includes Carpatho-Rusyn Znamenny Chant (and its regional traditions), Galician ("Samoilka") Chant, and earlier styles of Kievan Chant.

4) Georgian Chant

• Georgian Chant is unique among all the families of Orthodox liturgical music, in that the Georgian Church accepted 3-part polyphony as early as the 10th century, and because it employs an indigenous music theory foreign to any other known type of music. Although Georgian culture and music can be generally divided into Eastern and Western traditions, there are several regions of the nation which have their own distinctive musical styles.

5) Other Traditions of Related Interest

• Music of the Oriental (Pre-Chalcedonian/Monophysitic) Churches, the Latin and Celtic West, etc.