Octoechos
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Octoechos (Greek: Ὀκτώηχος, meaning the "8 echos") is the fundamental structure for classifying and describing modes in Byzantine music.
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[edit] Origins and early theory
According to tradition, the theory and practice of echoi is codified a system comprising eight modes, which is called the Octoechos - meaning literally "(the system of) eight echoi". These eight echoi are the 4 kyrioi (authentes) echoi and the 4 plagal echoi. However, even the earliest theoretical treatises point out that there are two more modes which do not fit into this system: nenano and nana. This early and very simple account of the modal system bears parallels to those of early Arabic music theorists of the 9th century or earlier. Musicological research from the 1960s onwards has stipulated that the Octoechos is based on music theory of the Jewish chant and that this itself has inherited the 8-modes concept of Babylonian origins. The simplicity of a system comprised of 8 modes (plus two ancillary modes) may be a main reason for its persistence throughout Western and Eastern medieval music theory and up to these days in Byzantine chant.
[edit] The question of general (interval-structures of the scales)
The development of musical theoretical concepts and their associated notational signs (neumes) in Byzantine music strongly suggests that nenano and nana stood conjointly for degrees that deviate from the 7 diatonic degrees of the scale and for modes that are associated with these degrees. This raises the question whether music in the near eastern middle ages was entirely diatonic. Some 19th century and early 20th century musicologists claimed that Arab music as well as Western medieval chant and Byzantine music were essentially diatonic and went so far as to challenge the capability of humans to distinguish and to sing microtonal inflections with any accuracy (but see also microtone). However outmoded this view may seem now, it is closely reminiscent of arguments amongst music theorists that started as early as late classical antiquity. Major Hellenistic theorists such as Ptolemy and others stated that the enharmonic genus was extinct since early classical times, while the chromatic genus was only rarely mastered, and on its way to extinction. Also, early Arab theorists such Ibn al Munajjim [1][2] and Ishak al Mawsili base their systems on the diatonic pythagorean scale. The struggle to accommodate microtonal inflections and non-diatonic scales in the modal system is an ongoing topic in near-eastern theory. The mathematical, theoretical and notational tools developed are often confusing and not easy to grasp. Thus on the whole one may say that the subject of non-diatonic scales and microtonal inflections is as difficult to formalize theoretically and to master in practice as it is attractive.
[edit] Extent of the system in practice, other systematization attempts
The system of echoi is far more diverse and developed than a cursory look at the basics of the theory suggests. In practice, the system of echoi is complex and its details are encoded in the notation and in the nomenclature of derived echoi or of echoi variants. An interesting attempt at capturing the full extent of the modal system with a quasi-systematic nomenclature was published by Simon Karas in his multi volume work on the theory and practice of Greek music. Other valuable sources of information are treatises comparing the echoi with their corresponding Ottoman (Turkish) makamlar (see maqam). Such are the works by Kiltzanidis (published in the late 19th century) and Kyrillos Marmarinos (his own original manuscript dated AD 1747, stored in the archives of the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece, Athens).
[edit] Indications of other systems and traditions in classical manuscripts
The diversity of modes and the inadequacy of the Octoechos as underlying model for their classification was explicitly acknowledged in important manuscripts of mature Byzantine music theory such as the Hagiopolites. The Hagiopolites points out that in fact there is a multitude of echoi beyond those of the Octoechos and calls these more numerous and combinatorially complex echoi the modes of the "Asma" (literally: Song). This clearly suggests a distinction of two repertories and/or traditions. While there exist as yet no definitive conclusions as to the nature of these traditions, their names do suggest a possible distinction between repertories of Jewish-religious origin and hellenistic (pagan or mixed multicultural) origin. Music theoretical manuscripts emphasize that the origin of the Hagiopolites ("Hagia Polis" = "Sacred City") is the sacred city (of Jerusalem?), or the City of Saints, which suggests the religious origins of the system of echoi represented in the Octoechos. On the other hand we have no clear indications about the nature of the tradition of the "Asma", whether it was of distinctly "secular" origin or whether it denotes some type of syncretic and enriched musical tradition that developed within the practice of ecclesiastical chant in the Mediterranean basin.
