Status pojačke knjige u srpskoj pojačkoj tradiciji

The status of chanting codices, which is directly associated with the phenomenon of musical literacy, is examined in this paper by means of the examples of a few scarce neumed manuscripts that represent a primary source for the reconstruction of the Serbian music past. The following reasons have been stated in the Serbian musicological literature as an explanation for the lack of a larger number of preserved neumed books: 1) melodies were transmitted orally, 2) an intensive liturgical practice, in which chanting had a primary place and 3) historical circumstances due to which manuscripts were exposed to decay. For the sake of an objective evaluation of the probable level of chanting skill in the Middle ages in Serbia, the aforementioned reasons have been reconsidered and revised.Tokom zlatnog perioda srpske srednjovekovne kulture (od sredine XIII do polovine XV veka) poduhvati na polju arhitekture, monumentalnog slikarstva, ikonopisa i primenjene umetnosti, kao i u domenu pisarske delatnosti, potvrdili su da je vizantijski civilizacijski model, koji je vladarima svetorodne dinastije Nemanjić bio trajni uzor, u potpunosti bio dostignut. Brojni su, premda posredni, razlozi zbog kojih se može pretpostaviti da je i srpska crkvenopojačka umetnost u istom razdoblju bila na zavidnom nivou. Pa ipak, notirane pojačke knjige, kao glavni izvori za rekonstrukciju srpske muzičke prošlosti, posve su retke u našim fondovima. Nedostatak, tačnije, sporadično prisustvo neumskih zbornika u srpskim rukopisnim riznicama, zadugo je u domaćoj naučnoj literaturi dovođeno u vezu sa usmenim načinom prenošenja crkvenih melodija, sa učitelja na učenike, sa živom bogoslužbenom praksom, u kojoj crkveno pojanje ima svoje primarno mesto, kao i sa istorijskim okolnostima u kojima je umetničko, pokretno i nepokretno blago, bivalo izloženo uništenju. Navedeni razlozi su u radu stavljeni pod lupu. Proporcionalni odnos između sačuvane srpske bogoslužbene - nenotirane knjige (oktoisi, mineji, psaltiri i dr.) i one u kojoj su neumama zabeleženi i tekstovi i melodije za odgovarajuća bogosluženja više nego rečito govori o tome da istorijske okolnosti nikako nisu mogle biti presudne za to što danas ne posedujemo veći broj muzičkih spomenika srednjeg veka. U pojačkoj tradiciji koja nije svedena na elementarni nivo pojačke veštine, usmeni način prenošenja znanja sa učitelja na učenike nikako nije dovoljan da se u praksi primene složeniji napevi koji bi trebalo da prate svečana praznična bogosluženja. Drugim rečima, melodijski repertar koji podrazumeva viši nivo pojačke tehnike i izrazitije glasovne sposobnosti pojaca nije moguće naprosto memorisati. Neophodna je ispomoć u notnom - neumskom zapisu kako bi interpretacija bila dosledna i tačna. Takođe, bogatstvo određene pojačke tradicije ogleda se i u brojnim varijantama melodija na isti tekst, dakle, na stvaralačku - kompozitorsku produkciju, što već u XIII, a naročito tokom XIV i XV veka potvrđuju grčki neumski zbornici tipa akolutije, psaltike, antologije, matimatariona i dr. Osvrtom na postojeće izvore koji svedoče o srpskoj srednjovekovnoj crkvenoj muzici u radu je razmotren status pojačke knjige u tradiciji koja je za uzor, a i u praksi imala svečana dvojezična bogosluženja čiji su učesnici bili i srpski i grčki služašči, kao i srpski i grčki arhondi. Studija predstavlja prilog sagledavanju fenomena muzičke (ne)pismenosti kod Srba, ali i model za istraživanja pojačkih tradicija naroda koji su činili vizantijski komonvelt, a u kojima takođe nema primarnih muzičkih izvora

Byzantine church music between tradition and innovation

There is hardly any relevant musicological and theological literature regarding the content and meaning of terms such as canon and Holy Tradition, on the one hand, and creativity and innovation in connection with ecclesiastical psalmody on the other. The focus of our attention here is a specific phenomenon of kalophony (“beautified” chant) which Edward Williams rightly described as an Eastern Christian musical Ars Nova in an age of political, but not cultural and artistic, twilight in the Byzantine Empire. Theodore Metochites (c. 1260-1332), one of the most famous polymaths and patrons of late Byzantine art, wrote sadly that his age “has nothing more to say”. However, it is well known that the Palaiologan era was actually an age in which art and science flourished, despite the fact that its result, as Viktor Lazarev notes, was the end of something old, and not the beginning of something new. Was the movement towards kalophony during the artistic renaissance of the Palaiologoi termed “conservative traditionalism” by historians of art, an innovation that was originally supposed to enrich the “traditional sound” that followed prayer? Or, on the contrary, was kalophony a mark of a more radical modernism that deprived the Church music of its primary liturgical function by making it an independent artistic entity? Did late Byzantine composers, who not incidentally carryied the title of master of the art of singing, and who consciously moved away from the anonymity of their many predecessors,6 want to transcend or nullify the unwritten, but nevertheless accepted and ancient rule that melody should follow, emphasize, and interpret the text of prayer or, in other words, to be in its service? Even more important, what was the reason behind this liberated artistic creativity and can it possibly be justified in a theological and liturgical context

The post-Byzantine psaltic origin of the recent Serbian church chant

During the difficult years in an enslaved Serbia under Turkish rule, there were no favourable circumstances for the development of the psaltic art, and neither can one talk about any centre of psaltic art, something that might have been for the Serbs what the Great Church of Constantinople was for the Greeks. Church music was learnt only orally, and one can speak hardly at all about musical training during this period. On account of the lack of musical MSS, we cannot be sure which genre of ecclesiastical melody the Serbians brought with them to the cities of Sremski Karlovci, Szentendre, Komoran etc., or to the newly founded monasteries of Fruška Gora, which under the new circumstances would become centres for a renaissance of Serbian spirituality. The opinions of the first scholars of Serbian church music disagree when it comes to the origins of ecclesiastical melody before and just after the period of the great migrations. The majority of them, correctly, supported the idea that church music before the 18th century derived from the Byzantine tradition, with certain special characteristics deriving from the use of the Church Slavonic language. There existed also, nevertheless, the baseless opinion that before the uprooting there was a special Serbian melodic tradition, which one might have heard in Serbian churches and monasteries, since the so called Srbulje – liturgical books written in an older Serbian form of the Church Slavonic language – were used. However, later, and rather more analytical, studies of later Serbian church music proved its close relationship with the melodic tradition that was recorded using the New Method, something that confirms precisely the present author’s opinion that we are dealing with a unified Orthodox psaltic tradition. The indisputable contribution of Greek teachers to the formation of Serbian psaltic music is confirmed by the surviving information concerning the first organized schools of Byzantine music, as well as from the Greek musical codices preserved in several places in Serbia, which were, as I shall demonstrate, certainly also used on the analogia by Serbian psaltai

Kosta P. Manojlović and Serbian Church Chanting

Ecclesiastical singing was one of Manojlovic's principal interests. His works reveal that he was preoccupied with discovering the origins and historical development of singing that accompanies worship in the Serbian Church, and that he was also interested in melographic works. Due to his extensive experience with singing, acquired at the Belgrade Seminary, he developed an excellent method for redacting the unpublished works of Stevan Stojanovic Mokranjac. He truly admired Mokranjac, who introduced him to the knowledge of music, which is why he always subscribed to the manner of singing perpetuated by Mokranjac in his works (in singing practice, this manner was known as "Belgrade" variant). Manojlovic's efforts in searching for and preserving Serbian musical monuments were not without results; one can also mention his pioneering effort in the field of musical paleography. Each of these roles of Manojlovic's deserves separate study. This paper might be seen as a prolegomenon in that it envisions more complete reviews of Kosta P. Manojlovic's contributions in the future.This collective monograph has been published owing to the financial support of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbi

O napevu u pravoslavnom crkvenom pojanju - prilog tipologiji crkvenih napeva

Many unresolved questions related to post-Byzantine church chanting present obstacles to understanding some aspects of church music since the 19th century. One of those problems concerns the need for strict definitions of criteria according to which a church melody is classified as "melos" (Serb. napev). In this article the actual classifications of new Greek and Serbian chants are given. The most important Greek theoretical sources (theoretikon) are taken into consideration, as well as writings in which Serbian theoreticians and chanters explain the classification of hymns in Serbian church singing. The terminology related to "melos" in Greek and Serbian church chanting practice is critically examined. Attention is also drawn to elements common to new Greek (neumatic) and Serbian (staff notation) "melos". This article is an introduction to more detailed research whose aim will be to establish similarities and distinctions between the two church singing traditions that have the same origins in Byzantine church music.Melodije srodne po svojim ritmičkim i melodijskim karakteristikama, u okviru svakog glasa osmoglasja, grupišu se u napeve. Razmatranje pre svega terminoloških određenja napeva i kriterijuma po kojima se melodije svrstavaju u različite napeve u novijoj grčkoj i srpskoj pojačkoj tradiciji predstavlja temu ove studije

Kosta P. Manojlović: A Portrait of the Artist and Intellectual in Turbulent Times

Although Kosta P. Manojlovic was one of the most influential figures in interwar Yugoslav musical life, his numerous efforts initiated at the time and later, during World War II and the first years of the communist Yugoslavia, have not been in the focus of music historians until recently. Apart from attempts at reconstructing his biography and various activities in the local and national public, cultural, and music spheres at a rudimentary level, an in-depth analysis of his general endeavors and views, which were reflected and reinforced in his different undertakings, was mostly lacking. Moreover, a significant portion of Manojlovic's work in the national (Yugoslav) and international arenas was left unexamined.This collective monograph has been published owing to the financial support of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbi

From Myth to Reality: Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac and Serbian Church Music

V prispevku se bomo osredotočili na zgodovinsko rekonstrukcijo dela Stevana Stojanovića Mokranjca na področju melografije (melography) in peda-gogike srbskih cerkvenih napevov. O prestižnem statusu, ki ga je kot melograf (melographer) in strokovnjak za srbske cerkvene napeve pridobil tako v očeh svojih sodobnikih kot pri današnjih muzikologih in zgodovinarjih glasbe, je redko kdo podvomil ali ga obravnaval objektivno, zato sva se odločili ponovno pretresti nekaj prevladujočih interpretacij njegovih dejavnostih na tem področju. V ta namen sva temeljito raziskali arhivske vire in tisk od konca 19. stoletja naprej, pri čemer sva želeli kritično proučiti Mokranjčevo vlogo pri populari-zaciji konceptov karlovškega in beograjskega sloga cerkvenega petja, njegove poskuse zapisovanja enoglasnih cerkvenih napevov, nazadnje pa še njegov pristop k poučevanju cerkvenega petja na Semenišču Sv. Save. Poudarili bova neskladje med ustvarjeno podobo Mokranjca kot nesporne avtori-tete na tem področju in zgodovinskimi podatki, ki kažejo na pomen, ki ga je imel njegov simbolni (in socialni) kapital v procesu pridobivanja širokega pripoznanja.In this paper, we will focus on the historical recon-struction of Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac’s work in the field of melography and pedagogy of Serbian church chant. Since the prestigious status he rea-ched among his contemporaries, as well as musi-cologists and music historians of the recent past, both as a melographer and expert in Serbian church chant of his time, has rarely been questioned or objectively approached, we decided to reconsider some of the dominant interpretations of his activi-ties in this domain. For that purpose, we conducted a thorough research of archival resources and press material from the late 19th century onward aiming at a critical examination of Mokranjac’s role in the popularization of concepts of the Karlovac and Belgrade church chant styles, his undertakings in the documentation of monophonic church chants, and, finally, his approach to the teaching of chant singing in Saint Sava’s Seminary. We will underline the discrepancy between the created image of Mokranjac as an indisputable authority in the field and historical data, which point to the significance of his symbolic (and social) capital in the process of gaining broader recognition

Byzantine Church Music Between tradition and Innovation

There is hardly any relevant musicological and theological literature regarding the content and meaning of terms such as canon and Holy Tradition, on the one hand, and creativity and innovation in connection with ecclesiastical psalmody on the other. The focus of our attention here is a specific phenomenon of kalophony (“beautified” chant) which Edward Williams rightly described as an Eastern Christian musical Ars Nova in an age of political, but not cultural and artistic, twilight in the Byzantine Empire. Theodore Metochites (c. 1260-1332), one of the most famous polymaths and patrons of late Byzantine art, wrote sadly that his age “has nothing more to say”. However, it is well known that the Palaiologan era was actually an age in which art and science flourished, despite the fact that its result, as Viktor Lazarev notes, was the end of something old, and not the beginning of something new. Was the movement towards kalophony during the artistic renaissance of the Palaiologoi termed “conservative traditionalism” by historians of art, an innovation that was originally supposed to enrich the “traditional sound” that followed prayer? Or, on the contrary, was kalophony a mark of a more radical modernism that deprived the Church music of its primary liturgical function by making it an independent artistic entity? Did late Byzantine composers, who not incidentally carryied the title of master of the art of singing, and who consciously moved away from the anonymity of their many predecessors,6 want to transcend or nullify the unwritten, but nevertheless accepted and ancient rule that melody should follow, emphasize, and interpret the text of prayer or, in other words, to be in its service? Even more important, what was the reason behind this liberated artistic creativity and can it possibly be justified in a theological and liturgical context

The Structural Transformation of the Sphere of Musical Amateurism in Socialist Yugoslavia : a Case Study of the Beogradski Madrigalisti Choir

In this paper we focused on investigating how the sphere of musical amateurism functioned in Yugoslavia in the decades following the end of WWII. Observing through changes in the role and significance of amateur music ensembles, specifically choirs, in Yugoslav society from the late 1940s until the late 1960s / early 1970s that were manifest in their de-massification, gradual professionalisation and extensive use in cultural diplomacy, we sought to explain that this involved multiple factors – above all, the shifts in Yugoslav international policy after the confrontation with the Soviet Union in 1948, and, consequently, the revisions of its cultural policies. Their influence was observed through a detailed examination of the activities of the Beogradski madrigalisti choir, from its foundation in 1951 until the late 1960s / early 1970s. Although it was unique among Yugoslav choirs in many respects, the early history of this ensemble clearly reflected the demand for excellence in the sphere of amateur performance from the 1950s onwards, one of the most prominent indicators of its deep structural transformation