Nenano

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Nenano is the name of one of the two "extra" modes in the Byzantine Octoechos, that is the modal system of the eastern Roman chant. The second "extra mode" is named nana. These two modes were later identified with phthorai, that signs indicating specific modulation or alteration phenomena (see more below).

Nenano is based on a tetrachord of the chromatic genus (containing an augmented second), which is identical to the hicaz tetrachord in Ottoman music theory, followed by a diatonic tetrachord.

[edit] Early theoretical descriptions

Early descriptions of nenano and nana are difficult to translate in modern terms of intervallic structure or degree structure. However, they tell us two things: 1. These two modes are special modes that do not fit within the framework of the Octoechos. 2. Both of them correspond to or can be compared with a certain mode from the Octoechos, but they start from a degree different from that of the corresponding mode. In particular, nenano is said to correspond to the second plagal mode, but it is "apo parallagon" the first mode, which suggests that its main tone is the same tone as the main tone of the first mode.

Around the 15th century, manuscripts such as EBE 899 (Greek National Library, Athens) as well as the treatise of Manuel Chrysaphes on the phthora attempt to conceptualize the difference in status between the other echoi and the "extra" modes by distinguishing between echos proper and phthora. Phthora denotes modulation or alteration. As explained in nana (echoes) the distinctions between echos (mode), modulation and alteration are difficult to describe without any recourse to experimental or mathematical means. As instruments are banned from liturgical chant, the explanations in these treatises remain by necessity vague and correspondences to modern western concepts can only be made indirectly and tentatively. Manuel Chrysaphes (15th century) is the first theoretician to write extensively on the phthorai and to list numerous phthorai signs in addition to those of nana and nenano.

[edit] Actual usage and meaning

Later use of the enechema (initial incantation formula) of nenano as well as the phthora (modulation sign) of nenano in manuscripts makes it clear that it is associated with the main form of the second plagal mode as it survives in the current practice of Byzantine (Greek Orthodox) chant. Furthermore, the phthora sign of nenano has survived in the 19th-century origine neo-Byzantine notation system which is still in use today, as the sign for the chromatic tetrachord of the second plagal mode. Simply speaking, if a pthora of nenano is placed on di, which in Western terms corresponds to the tone "G" (sol), then it indicates a chromatic tetrachord, approximated by the notes: D-E flat-F sharp-G. This is similar to the upper part of a G minor harmonic scale, or of the "Zigeunermoll" (gipsy-minor) scale. In other words, nenano is the prototype of the scale structure that includes an augmented second between two minor seconds and that is nowadays one of the most well known clichés commonly associated with near eastern or middle eastern "oriental" musical color.

Because of its early status as one of the two mysterious extra modes in the system, nenano has been subject of much attention in Byzantine and post-Byzantine music theory. Both the above named EBE 899 and other contemporary late Byzantine manuscripts associate nenano with the enharmonic genus, one of the three genera of tuning of Classical antiquity that fell into early misuse because of its complexity. This theory or myth has persisted amongst Greek music theoreticians such as Simon Karas up to the end of the 20th century. Such theoreticians - including the anonymous author of EBE 899 - maintain that one or both of the minor seconds in the tetrachord of nenano should be smaller than a tempered semitone, approaching the interval of a third or a quarter of a tone. The banishment of instrumental musical practice and its theory from the tradition of Byzantine chant has made it very difficult to substantiate any such claims experimentally. The only possible conclusions can be drawn indirectly and tentatively through comparisons with the tradition of Ottoman instrumental court music, which important church theoreticians such as the Kyrillos Marmarinos, Archbishop of Tinos considered a necessary complement to liturgical chant. However, Ottoman court music and its theory are also complex and diverging versions of modes exist according to different schools, ethnic traditions or theorists. There, one encounters various versions of the "nenano" tetrachord, both with a narrow and with a wider minor second either at the top or at the bottom, depending on the interval structure of the scale beyond the two ends of the tetrachord.

[edit] References

  • Ioannis Zannos: Ichos und Makam - Vergleichende Untersuchungen zum Tonsystem der griechisch-orthodoxen Kirchenmusik und der türkischen Kunstmusik. Bonn: Orpheus Verlag, 1994.