Introduction to the theory and practice of Byzantine Chant
(Project held on Saturday June 2 and Sunday June 3 2001, at the Holy
Trinity Romanian Orthodox Church in Los Angeles, by Iosif Bena)
The
purpose of this project was to introduce Byzantine chanting to a group of
parishioners of some of the Romanian Churches in Los Angeles.
This was done with two goals in
mind. First, it was hoped that some of the participants would continue (either
on their own or through further seminars) to learn Byzantine chant, and become involved in the chanting ministry of
the Church. Second, it was hoped that those who are not planing to become
chanters would increase their understanding of and love for Byzantine chant,
which would enable
them to better participate in the
services of the Church.
About
10 people attended the whole or parts of the workshop. Most of them were young
adults.
The teaching was done both in
Romanian and in English, since there were a few participants who could not
chant in one or the other.
Iosif
was involved with planning and leading the project. The teaching and singing
was done by him in collaboration with Costin Popescu (who will start attending
Holy Cross this fall).
Before
the project Iosif prepared a tape with representative melodies of the several
tones he wanted to introduce the participants to (8,5,1 and 4), and prepared a
10-page handout with the texts of the melodies to be taught. He also talked on
the phone with the director of the Boston Byzantine Choir (Charlie Marge) and
asked him question about the methodology he wanted to use, and the format of
the class.
The
original plan was to teach a few melodies in a tone "by the ear", and
after these melodies were mastered by the participants to cover the theory of
the tone with those who knew music. Iosif expected the students to be familiar
with a few melodies on each tone (such as the Evloghitaria, the Resurrection
Troparia, or the Troparion of the Cross), to learn the other melodies and get a
feel for the tone. For this purpose the melodies he chose were very similar,
emphasizing the unitarity of each tone.
He
started teaching in this way, but soon he realized that most of the students
had very little familiarity with any Byzantine melodies. On the other hand most
of them knew music quite well. Therefore, he changed the teaching strategy. He
made copies of the music scores and used them instead of the texts he prepared.
Also, he went more deeply into the music theory of the chant.
Because
of the lack of exposure to Byzantine music, Iosif realized that his original
wish of having the participants "chant from the newspaper" by the end
of the workshop was not realistic, and he settled for a more modest goal -
introducing them to Byzantine music and giving them a few ways to continue
further on their own. Nevertheless, some participants learned the tones quite
well and chanted at the Vespers and Matins services for Pentecost. On the
following day after the Divine Liturgy a large part of the participants went to
a barbecue after which Iosif reviewed some of the songs taught the previous
day.
Since there was a lot of interest in this workshop (from the participants and from 6 other people who could not participate), Iosif plans to continue it in the Fall.