Abstract:
The idea of illustrating melodies it’s a given in Byzantine Music Theory; it’s mainly related to the technique of the so-called Cheironomia [gesticulation]; it’s really admirable, for instance, what Kyrillos Marmarinos, former bishop of Tenos, relevantly writes in his theoretical treatise: “cheironomia is the movement of the hands which designs the melody”. Going through analogous Byzantine and post-Byzantine theoretical treatises one can easily find some kind of “Iconographical Instructions” regarding basic elements of Byzantine Music Theory and Practice, such as (for example) musical signs; in the well known anonymous treatise of Questions and Answers on the Interval Signs there are such instructions about Ison sign: “…about how is the beginning and foundation of all the signs, that is because neither a master-builder, nor a painter, nor a copyist can accomplish anything without a point. For when […] a painter is drawing a face, or a hand, or a foot, it is impossible for him not in the beginning to make a point; and when he makes a circle, a point is always being made in the middle of the circle; and how? since the compasses have two parts, he places one part on his piece of paper or on the wall and turns the other and the point is being made […] Thus also the beginning of the Ison is a point, and from the point there is a horizontal stroke going neither up nor down, and for thet reason it is called Ison”. In addition, Ison sign is similarly described in Chrysanthos’ Great Theory of Music [: “The Ison was thus called because it keeps the sound unbending; its cheironomia was done the way we do the sign of the cross, three fingers forming the symbol of the Holy Trinity”], since he is mostly influenced by (and frequently quotes from) a very interesting theoretical text of the 13th century, the Interpretation of the Signs by Michael Blemmydes, where the same sign is known under the following Question-and-Answer form: “What sign is the ison cheironomized by? By the sign of the Holy Trinity; just as the Holy Trinity is trinal – [for] in holiness the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit exceeds [each other]; so is the ison chanted, when the fingers are put together”. This paper will be an attempt to further investigate that phenomenon; an attempt to combine usual theoretical instructions (based on the description of Byzantine Music signs, for instance) with a drawing (designed through some iconographical representations, taken from specific scenes from the life of Christ, well known to Byzantine Iconography), an image that can be considered as a visual example of possible illustrated version of any melody.
Conference title:
Church Music and Icons: Windows to Heaven. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Orthodox Church Music. University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland 3-9 June 2013
Keywords:
Byzantine Music, Byzantine Musicology, Byzantine music (Music), Byzantine musical iconography, Illustration of byzantine musical manuscripts, Hellenic (Byzantine) Music and Musicology, βυζαντινή μουσική, Byzantine Church Music, βυζαντινή εκκλησιαστική μουσική
