With the voice of Singing-Part 2
We should talk a little about the Hymns and the writers. Generally
Hymns are New Testament songs, and the Psalms in general are the prayer book
for the early church. Some of the early composed Hymns are, ‘To Jesus the Son
of God’, ‘O, Gladsome Light’, and ‘Glory be to the Father’. Even though some
Hymns were written to promote heretical views, in general Hymns presented the
theology and were written to promote Orthodox values and ideas. Hymns in
general were syllabic and that is one note per syllable, and is not melismatic
which has many notes per syllable. Hymn writing was natural in Greek culture,
and Ephraim the Syrian, Hilary Poitiers, Jerome, and Ambrose are early Hymn
writers. Spiritual songs are generally melismatic and that is having many notes
per syllable, and jubilations are songs based on ‘Alleluia’. Vocal music
became central to the celebrations of Eucharist and Agape.
When we look at the first 1000 years that is from Cathedral to
hermitage period the standard of Constantinople became accepted throughout the
Christian East. Liturgies became common in church worships and the Liturgy of
St. John, St. James, and Coptic and Nestorian liturgies are in use especially
within the schismatic groups. It is indeed surprising to know that signing is
part of their prayer at worship services and also the Armenian churches
retained the ancient music.
The Great Church at that time period was ‘Hagia Sophia’ at Turkey
which I recently visited, and generally the conquered countries adopted their
liturgies. Liturgy being the common language spoken by the people during those
times, it was easier to adopt St. John Chrysostom or of St. Basil the Great. Later
developments were the Vladimir of Kiev to move towards the Byzantine type of
worship. During the period of Byzantine Empire, Byzantine Hymns were the norm,
and they were sung in different styles. Sometimes there were responsive singing
between the Psalms (Troparia), sometimes sermons were sung (Kontakia) and some
of it is still retained today, and Odes which is a lyric Poem addressing a
particular subject at an elevated manner with different or irregular meter was
sung corresponds to specific Biblical canticle (Kanones). Monasticism sought in
general a simpler musical practice and fostered the use of a simple chant. The
point I am making here using church history and tradition, is that music and
songs was the part of prayer in church History.
It has been extremely interesting for me to study how the Roman
Church practice became paramount in the West. As early as 5th
century for training men and boys, they used to form school choir (‘Schola
cantorum’) and St. Benedict helped to establish musical traditions and Gregory
1 (The Great) Pope during the period of 590-604, recodified the liturgy and
reorganized the school choir (schola cantorum). Up to 16th century
the Gregorian chant has become the large proportion of the Western music.
Gregorian chant was established in France and British Empires before the end of
8th century.
Gregorian chants are
simply revised plain chant and different portions of the chant are assigned for
different parts of the year for use. When the Moslem conquest happened, the
center of the European Christian culture tended to move towards the North of
Alps. Latin language became the unifying language and this becomes the official
language of the liturgy. Alleluia melodies became very popular during the time
period and ‘church modes’ were catalogued and from the neums of medieval
notations, modern music notations were developed.
Great Schism
schisms (k)izəm
noun
1. a split or division between strongly opposed
sections or parties, caused by differences in opinion or belief.
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synonyms:
|
o the formal separation of a church into two
churches or the secession of a group owing to doctrinal and other differences.
Music in Western Christianity took a different wave length after
the Great Schism and this was the beginning of the period of Polyphonic music
around 11th century. This could be primarily a Western movement and
some may even say that this began because many of the monks were monotones and
there could be a possibility they dropped the melody. The earlier polyphony
(ororganum) contains a lower voice and an upper voice. The lower voice carried
the chant and the upper voice and voices carried the melismatic material. With
the dawning of the Renaissance period and the motets reflected and the trend
was to increasing secularization in the church music. For example one line
could be in Latin language and the other in vernacular; or one line could be
the Mass and the other could be a love song. We could well imagine this could
be very confusing partly due to the complication of the polyphony and also due
to the confusion of texts. This leads to understanding of what is sung very
difficult. Pope John XX11 complained that the complicated music was distorted
by the multitude of notes and it was not soothing to the ears and the devotion
is on contempt. So it became increasingly necessary to introduce large
instruments and organs were being installed in churches.
ep·och
noun
1. a period of time in history or a person's
life, typically one marked by notable events or particular characteristics.
"the Victorian
epoch"
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synonyms:
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"England's Tudor epoch"
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The Renaissance: The fall of Constantinople at 1453, ended the
period of time in history when the above notable events took place. Many of the
Byzantine scholars fled to Italy and Russia became the new center for Byzantine
culture and the musical traditions continued.
1450-1600’s brought explosive changes to Western music and four-pan
writing progressed rapidly, major and minor modes were implied by the use of
triads. German lied came as the
precursor of the chorale and used
extensively in the Protestant worship.
Briefly after the period of Renaissance, new musical forms were
used for Protestant worship services. This was the period of Martin Luther when
he used both Latin and German languages in masses for worship and his heart’s
motive was for all the congregation to take part. Very often Chorales gave rise
to the distinctive styles of the Lutheran Motets. When Jean Calvin between the
time periods 1509-1564 opposed the retention of Catholic liturgy Psalms were
chosen and they became the newly composed popular music. They were sung at
homes and also the use of Psalters spread throughout the Reformed tradition.
The Anglican tradition and services and Anthems gave rise to early morning and
evening prayers followed by Holy Communion was full of Liturgies, Psalters, and
prayers were in the form of singing.
This period was followed by counter-Reformation which sought to
correct the abuses in the composition and performance of Roman Catholic Church
music and came up with the following.
The Council of Trent (1545-1563) in this time period insisted the
words must be understandable, rejected the works of improper works and secular
tunes, criticized noisy instruments, and condemned carelessness. St. Mark’s,
Venice became the great musical center for Europe and became the home for renowned
choir masters in Italy and the best known composer at this time period was
Giovanni Gabrielli. This was followed by the Baroque period which gave rise to
Oratorio and drama and the great composers of the 18th and 19th
centuries enriched the Christian music and worship services.
Songs
noun
plural noun: songs
1. a short poem or other set of words set to
music or meant to be sung.
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synonyms:
|
air, strain, ditty, melody, tune, number, show
tune, track, anthem, hymn,chanty, chantey, ballad, aria;
"a beautiful song"
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singing or vocal music.
"the young
airmen broke into song"
a musical composition suggestive of a song
The New Testament talks about singing Hymns
during the Last Supper. “And when they had sung an hymn, they went out
into the mount of Olives”; Matt:
26:30.The
point I am making emphatically is that songs are indeed prayers and they flow out
of our heart which is the seat of
emotions. They are inspirations of our heart and the words are formed, and it
can be sung when one is happy or can lament and that is when one is sad. When
music is laid the words of our heart becomes a song and this is also a form of
prayer. In a corporate setting in a church we can raise our voices together in
words or singing and this is prayer to God.
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/song
Simple Definition of song. : a short piece of music with words that are
sung. : the act of singing. : a series of musical sounds that are produced by a
bird or an animal (such as a whale)
Website
References:
www.songsofpeace.com/ncmcmusic/history_of_Music.htm
We have found that the
Early Church was a singing church - that song was not an ...
This brief outline of the history of Christian music
though the 19th century is ... “Hours of Prayer” were observed, and the Psalms were the “prayerbook”. a. ... Throughout “Christendom” the rites were
varied, especially in pre-Nicene times. b.
justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/276.html
One of the great
treasures of the Christian church is its hymns, and one of the
greatest... remembers three outstanding hymn-writers from Germany in the 1600's. ... to the Marriage Feast (Matthew 25:1-13), and of
the Song of Triumph in
Heaven .... Johann Heermann, Paul Gerhardt, and Joachim Neander; and
we pray that .
www.lwbc.co.uk/davids_psalms.htm
The Psalms Written By David. There are fourteen psalms that were written by Davidto commemorate some
event in his life. These are: Psalm 59. King Saul, in ...
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/song
Simple Definition of song. : a short piece of music with words that are
sung. : the act of singing. : a series of musical sounds that are produced by a
bird or an animal (such as a whale)
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