Nenano

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Byzantine Culture

Phthora Nenano (gr. φθορά νενανῶ, also νενανὼ) is the name of one of the two "extra" modes in the Byzantine Octoechos—an eight mode system, which was created by a reform of the Monastery Agios Sabas, near Jerusalem, during the seventh century. Today the system of eight diatonic modes and two phthorai ("destroyers") is regarded as the modal system of Byzantine chant, and during the eighth century it became also model for the Latin tonaries—introductions into a proper diatonic eight mode system and its psalmody, created by Frankish cantores during the Carolinigian reform.[1] While φθορά νενανῶ was often called "chromatic", the second phthora was named "nana" (gr. φθορά νανὰ) and called "enharmonic", the names were simply taken from the syllables used for the intonation (enechema). The two phthorai were regarded as two proper modes, but also used as modulation or alteration signs. Within the diatonic modes of the octoechos they cause a change into another (chromatic or enharmonic) genus (metavoli kata genon).[2]

The Phthora Nenano as Part of the Hagiopolitan Octoechos

The earliest description of phthora nenano and of the eight mode system (octoechos) can be found in the Hagiopolites treatise which is known in a complete form through a fourteenth-century manuscript.[3] The treatise itself can be dated back to the ninth century, when it introduced the book of tropologion, a collection of troparic and heirmologic hymns which was ordered according to the eight-week cycle of the octoechos.[4] The first paragraph of the treatise maintains, that it was written by John of Damascus.[5] The hymns of the tropologion provided the melodic models of one mode called echos (gr. ἦχος), and models for the phthora nenano appeared in some meloi of certain echoi like protos and plagios devteros.

The concept of phthora in the Hagiopolites was concerned that the Nenano and Nana were somehow bridges between the modes:

“ φθοραὶ δὲ ὠνομασθήσαν, ὅτι ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων ἤχων  πᾶρχονται, τελειοῦνται δὲ εἰς ἑτέρων ἤχων φθογγὰς αἱ θέσεις αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ  ποτελέσματα. ”
They were called Phthorai (i.e. destroyers), because they begin from their own Echoi, but their endings and cadences are on notes from other Echoi.[6]

Nevertheless they had to be classified according to a certain echos of the eight-week cycle by adding the intonation "nenano" to the intonation of the main diatonic echos (usually abbreviated by a modal signature). For example the intonation formula of echos plagios devteros (E) could be followed by the intonation of nenano which leads to the echos protos (a). Usually the diatonic kyrios protos (a) could end on its plagios (D) in the diatonic genus, but the chromatic phthora nenano makes it end in the plagios devteros (E).

Phthora Nenano (φθορά νενανὼ) in combination with the modal intonation of the Plagal Devteros Echos (ἦχος πλάγιος τοῦ δευτέρου)
Phthora Nenano (φθορά νενανὼ) in combination with the modal intonation of the Plagal Devteros Echos (ἦχος πλάγιος τοῦ δευτέρου) — transcription according to the modal intonation in Mount Athos, Monastery of Agios Dionysios, Ms. 570, fol. 21’.

The Use of Phthora Nenano in the Psaltic Art

In the period of the psaltic art (gr. ψαλτική τέχνη, "the art of chant", 1261-1750) the Late Byzantine Notation used four additional phthorai for each mode, including the eight diatonic echoi, in order to indicate the precise moment of a transposition (metavoli kata tonon).[7] The former system of sixteen echoi (4 kyrioi, 4 plagioi, 4 mesoi, and 4 phthorai) which was still used in the old books of the cathedral rite (asmatikon, kontakarion, etc.), was replaced by the Hagiopolitan octoechos and its two phthorai in the new book akolouthiai, which replaced the former book and established a mixed rite in Constantinople. In rather soloistic chant genres, the devteros echoi were turned into the chromatic genus by an abundant use of the phthora nenano.[8] Hence, it became necessary to distinguish between the proper echos and its phthora, nenano and nana as "extra modes", and their use for temporary changes within the melos of a certain diatonic echos.

The use of six phthorai for all of the ten Hagiopolitan echoi

In his theoretical treatise about psaltic art and in response to the "wrong ideas" that some singers already had some years after the conquest of Constantinople (1458), the famous Maïstoros Manuel Chrysaphes introduced not only into the two phthorai nenano and nana, but also into four phthorai which bind the melos to the diatonic echoi of protos, devteros, tritos, and tetartos. All six phthora could dissolve the former melos and bind it to the melos of the following echos defined by the next medial signature, the phthora was no longer the destruction of the diatonic modes and their genus, it could change each mode and its finalis into another echos, its melos, its genus, and its tonal system:

“ ὅταν δὲ τεθῇ καὶ εἰς ἄλλου ἤχου μέλος, ποιεῖ μέλος ἴδιον παρ’ ὅ ποιοῦσιν αἱ ἄλλαι φθοραὶ καὶ ἡ κατάληξις ταύτης οὐ γίνεται εἰς ἄλλον ἦχον ποτέ, εἰ μὴ εἰς τὸν πλάγιον δευτέρου. εἰ δὲ θήσει τις ταύτην τὴν φθορὰν καὶ οὐ καταλήξει εἰς πλάγιον δευτέρου, ἄλλ’ εἰς ἕτερον ἦχον, τοῦτο οὐκ ἔστιν ἔντεχνον· προείπομεν γάρ, ὅτι ἔστιν  πὸ παραλλαγῶν ἡ αὐτὴ πρῶτος ἦχος·[9] ”
Whenever it stands in the melody [μέλος] of another mode, it creates its own melody [μέλος] and cadence [κατάληξις] which the other phthorai cannot do, and its resolution never closes into another mode apart from the second plagal. If one uses this phthora and it does not resolve [θήσει] into the second plagal mode but into another mode, this is not artistic [ἔντεχνον]; for we said before that this is the first mode by parallage [παραλλαγή].

The early Persian and Latin reception

Already in the thirteenth century, there were interval descriptions in Latin and Arabic treatises which proved that the use of the chromatic phthora was common not only among Greek psaltes.

Quţb al-Dīn al-Shīrīz distinguished two ways of using the chromatic genus in parde hiğāzī, named after a region of the Arabian Peninsula.[10] The exact proportions were used during changes to the diatonic genus. In both diatonic and chromatic divisions the ring finger fret of the oud keyboard was used. It had the proportion 22:21 — between middle and ring finger fret — and was called after the Baghdadi oud player Zalzal. These are the proportions, presented as a division of a tetrachord using the proportions of 22:21 and 7:6:

12:11 x 7:6 x 22:21 = 4:3 (approximate intervals in cents: 151, 267, 80 = 498)

This Persian treatise is the earliest source which tried to measure the exact proportions of a chromatic mode, which can be compared with historical descriptions of phthora nenano.

In his voluminous music treatise Jerome of Moravia described that "Gallian cantores" used to mix the diatonic genus with chromatic and the enharmonic, despite the use of the two latter was excluded according to Latin theorists:[11]

“ Gaudent insuper, cum modum organicum notis ecclesiasticis admiscent, quod etiam non abjicit primus modus, necnon et de admixtione modorum duorum generum relictorum. Nam diesim enharmonicam et trihemitonium chromaticum generi diatonico associant. Semitonium loco toni et e converso commutant, in quo quidem a cunctis nationibus in cantu discordant.[12] ”
Especially when they mix the eclesiastical chant with the organum mode, they like not only to abandon the first mode [simple plainchant in monophonic realization?], but the confusion of both [plainchant and ars organi] includes another [confusion of the diatonic] with the other geni, because they associate the enharmonic diesis and the chromatic trihemitonium with the diatonic genus. They replace the semitonium by the tonus and vice versa, in doing so they differ from the other nations, as far as chant is concerned.

During the seventies of the thirteenth century Jerome met the famous singers in Paris who were well skilled in the artistic performance of ars organi, which is evident by the chant manuscripts of the Abbey Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, of the Abbey Saint-Denis, and of the Notre Dame school. Despite of the fact, that no other Latin treatise ever mentioned that the singers were allowed to use enharmonic or chromatic intervals, and certainly not the transposition practice which was used sometimes by Greek psaltes, they obviously felt free enough to use both during the improvisation of organum — and probably, they became so familiar with the described enharmonic chromaticism, that they even used it during the monophonic performance of plainchant. Jerome as an educated listener regarded it as an unallowed "confusion" between monophonic and polyphonic performance style. Whatever was his opinion about the performance style of Parisian cantores, the detailed description fit well to the use of the phthora nenano as an "echos kratema", as it was mentioned in the later Greek treatises after the end of the Byzantine Empire.

The phthora nenano as kyrios echos and echos kratema

According to a papadike treatise in a sixteenth-century manuscript (Athens, National Library, Ms. 899 [IEE 899], fol.3f), the anonymous author even argues that phthorai nenano and nana are rather independent modes than phthorai, and so they can make up a whole kratema:

“ Εἰσὶ δὲ καὶ φθοραὶ δύο, αἵτινες ψάλλονται σὺν αὐτοῖς, τὸ νανὰ καὶ τὸ νενανὼ. Εἰσί δὲ καὶ ἄλλαι φθοραὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἤχων ἀλλοὐκ εἰσὶ τέλειαι ὡς αὗται. Εκεῖναι γὰρ δεικνύουσιν ἐναλλαγὴν μερικὴν  ἀπὸ ἤχου εἰς ἕτερονἶ αὐταὶ δὲ τέλειαι οὖσαι ἔχουσι καὶ κρατήματα ποινθέντα παρὰ τῶν κατὰ καιροὺς ποιντῶν ὡς εἰς κυρίους ἤχους, καὶ εἰκότως ἄν [τις] καλέσειεν αὐτὰς τελείους ἤχους καὶ οὐ φθορὰς.[13] ”
There are two phthorai which can be sung as those [of the Octoechos]: νανὰ and νενανὼ. There are also phthorai which derived from the other [kyrioi echoi], but those are not as perfect [they have no proper melos like nana and nenano?], because they cause just cause a temporary transition [ἐναλλαγή μερική] from one to another echos, while the former have been used by composers of various epochs to create kratemata like they were [independent] kyrioi echoi. Hence, it is justified to call them rather "perfect echoi" than just "phthorai".

Kratemata were longer sections sung with abstract syllables in a faster tempo. As a disgression used within other forms in papadikan or kalophonic chant genres—soloistic like cherubim chant or a sticheron kalophonikon. From the point of view which is concerned about the modal structure, a kratema could not only recapitulate the modal structure of its model, but also create a change from the diatonic to the chromatic genus, used within a model composed in the echos protos, the phthora nenano will always end the form of the kratema in echos plagios devteros, and then change back to the echos protos. In the later case the kratema was composed so perfectly in the proper melos of phthora nenano, that it could be performed as a separate composition of its own, as they were already separated compositions in the simpler genres like the troparion and the heirmologic odes of the canon since the 9th century.

Gabriel Hieromonachus (mid fifteenth century) already mentioned that the "nenano phone" — the characteristic step (interval) of nenano — seemed to be in some way halved. On folio 5 verso of the quoted treatise (IEE 899), the author gave a similar description of the intervals used with the intonation formula νε–να–νὼ, and it fitted very well to the description that Jerome gave 300 years ago while he was listening to Parisian singers:

“ Ἄκουσον γὰρ τὴν φθορὰν, ὅπως λέγεται: Τότε λέγεται φθορὰ, ὅταν τῆς φωνῆς τὸ ἥμιου εἴπης ἐν ταῖς κατιούσαις, [ἢ κατ’ ἀκριφολογίαν τὸ τρίτον, ἐν δὲ ταῖς ἀνιούσαις] μίαν καὶ ἥμισυ, ὥσπερ εἰς τὸ νενανώ. Ἄκουσον γὰρ:

νε να να νω

Αὕτη ἡ φθορὰ εἰς τὰς ἀνιούσας. Ἰδοὺ γὰρ εἶπε τοῦ νω τὴν φωνὴν τὴν ἥμισυ εἰς τὸ να.[14]

 ”
Please note, what is called "phthora": phthora is called, if you make a half phonic step [of the "great tone" = tonus] in descending [direction], (or more precisely a third of it, while [the second interval] has one and a half [of the whole tone] in ascending [direction],) as you do in nenano. Please listen:
νε - να [small tone] - να [one and a half of the great tone] - νὼ [diesis or quarter tone]
This is the intonation of phthora which is ascending. Concerning the final phonic step [which was a third of tonus in a descending melos], half of it is now part of the [second] να sound and the rest [interval is sung] on νω!

The upper small tone leading to the final note of the protos, has a slightly different intonation with respect to the melodic movement, at least according to the practice among educated psaltes of the Ottoman Empire during the eighteenth century. But Gabriel Hieromonachos described already in the fifteenth century, that the singers tend to stray away from their original intonation while they were singing the melos of phthora nenano:

“ Ὁποπαν γὰρ ψάλλομεν νενανὼ μέλος, οὐκ εἰς ἣν ήρξάμεθα καὶ τελευτῶμεν φωνήν, ἀλλὰ σκοπῶν εὑρήσεις ἐπὶ τὸ κάτω μάλλον ἐρχομένους ἡμᾶς. Αἴτιον δὲ ἡ τοῦ νενανὼ φονή· αὕτη γὰρ ἡμίσεια δοκεῖ πως εἶναι, εἰ καὶ ἡμῖν ἀγνοεῖται· ἄλλως θ' ὅτι ἀσθενεῖς ἐκφέρομεν τὰς τοῦ νενανὼ ἀνιούσας φωνάς, ἵνα ἡ τοῦ νενανὼ ἰδέα χρωματισθῇ τὰς δὲ κατιούσας σῴας, καὶ ἐκ τούτου συμβαίνει τὸ μέλος ὑποχαλᾶν[15] ”
Because when we sing a nenano melody, we don’t end on the tone, from which we started, but if you look at it closer, you will find that we come down to a somewhat lower pitch. The reason for this is the nenano interval; for it seems to be in some way halved, even if we are not aware of it; in other words, we perform the nenano intervals weakly [=flattened] in upward direction, in order to give the characteristic colour of nenano, but in downward direction [we perform them] correctly, and this causes the melody to get out of tune.[16]

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 nineteenth-century 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 phthora of nenano is placed on δι, which in Western terms corresponds to the tone "G" (sol), then it indicates a chromatic tetrachord, approximated by the notes: D-high E flat-high 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 (Jerome of Moravia who had probably been in contact with Greek theorists, already mentioned it during the thirteenth century), 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 twentieth century.[17] 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.[18] 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.

Notes

  1. ↑ Peter Jeffery (2001) compared the Greek and the Latin octoechos and found, that a modal classification of Gregorian chant according to the octoechos was analytically deduced a posteriori.
  2. ↑ See Barbera's entry "Metabolē".
  3. ↑ Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fonds grec, ms. 360.
  4. ↑ Jeffery 2001, Hannick & Wolfram 1997.
  5. ↑ John of Damascus and Cosmas entered the Lavra Agios Sabas about 700, after the reform was already established by a synodal decree in 692, and certain passages paraphrases polemics against the 16 echoi of the Constantinopolitan cathedral rite (Raasted 1983: §8, p.16, Jeffery 2001: pp.186f).
  6. ↑ Raasted 1983: §34, pp.42f.
  7. ↑ See Barbera's entry "Metabolē".
  8. ↑ Makris 2005.
  9. ↑ Conomos 1985: p.64.
  10. ↑ Zannos 1994: pp.105f.
  11. ↑ Oliver Gerlach (Gerlach 2010: p.130) in his discussion of the earliest sources for the practice of phthora nenano pointed out, that Jerome who had an exceptional knowledge of Greek music theory, described the use of chromaticism among Parisian singers as a kind of phthora nenano.
  12. ↑ Cserba 1935: ii, p.187.
  13. ↑ Citation according Zannos 1994: pp.110f.
  14. ↑ Citation according Zannos (1994: p.112). The folio 5 verso of the manuscript was reproduced by Eustathios Makris in his article (2005: Fig.1,p.4), and so he proved that the little addition about the descending intonation cannot be found as quoted by Ioannis Zannos (probably this was the eighteenth-century redaction in Cod. Athos, Xeropotamou 317), so it is written here in rectangular brackets. In fact the standard intonation given in IEE 899 is just ascending.
  15. ↑ Hannick & Wolfram 1985: p.98, lines 680-86.
  16. ↑ English translation by Eustathios Makris (2005: pp.3f).
  17. ↑ Karas 1981.
  18. ↑ Popescu-Judetz 2000.

References

Editions of Music Theory Treatises

  • Raasted, Jørgen, ed. (1983). The Hagiopolites: A Byzantine Treatise on Musical Theory. Cahiers de l'Institut du Moyen-Âge Grec et Latin 45. Copenhagen: Paludan. 
  • Hannick, Christian; Wolfram, Gerda, eds. (1997). Die Erotapokriseis des Pseudo-Johannes Damaskenos zum Kirchengesang. Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae - Corpus Scriptorum de Re Musica 5. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. ISBN 3-7001-2520-8. 
  • Cserba, Simon M., ed. (1935). Hieronymus De Moravia O.P.: Tractatus De Musica. Regensburg: F. Pustet. 
  • Conomos, Dimitri, ed. (1985). The Treatise of Manuel Chrysaphes, the Lampadarios: [Περὶ τῶν ἐνθεωρουμένων τῇ ψαλτικῇ τέχνῃ καὶ ὧν φρουνοῦσι κακῶς τινες περὶ αὐτῶν] On the Theory of the Art of Chanting and on Certain Erroneous Views that some hold about it (Mount Athos, Iviron Monastery MS 1120, July 1458). Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae - Corpus Scriptorum de Re Musica 2. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. ISBN 978-3-7001-0732-3. 
  • Hannick, Christian; Wolfram, Gerda, eds. (1985). Gabriel Hieromonachus: [Περὶ τῶν ἐν τῇ ψαλτικῇ σημαδίων καὶ τῆς τούτων ἐτυμολογίας] Abhandlung über den Kirchengesang. Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae - Corpus Scriptorum de Re Musica 1. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. ISBN 3-7001-0729-3. 
  • Popescu-Județ, Eugenia; Şırlı, Adriana Arabi, eds. (2000). Sources of 18th Century Music: Panayiotes Chalatzoglou and Kyrillos Marmarinos' Comparative Treatises on Secular Music. Pan Yayıncılık. Istanbul: Pan. ISBN 975-8434-05-5. 
  • Karas, Simon (1981). Μέθοδoς τῆς Ἐλληνικῆς Μουσικῆς: Θεωρητικόν. Athens: Association for the Dissemination of National Music. 

Studies

  • Barbera, André. "Metabolē". Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Retrieved 21 October 2011. 
  • Gerlach, Oliver (2010). "Phthora und Tongeschlecht – φθορά καί γένος". Im Labyrinth des Oktōīchos — Über die Rekonstruktion einer mittelalterlichen Improvisationspraxis in der Musik der Ost- & Westkirche (doctoral thesis). Berlin: Ison. pp. 125–134. ISBN 978-3-00-032306-5. Retrieved 21 October 2011. 
  • Jeffery, Peter (2001). "The Earliest Oktōēchoi: The Role of Jerusalem and Palestine in the Beginnings of Modal Ordering". The Study of Medieval Chant: Paths and Bridges, East and West; In Honor of Kenneth Levy. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. pp. 147–209. ISBN 0-85115-800-5. 
  • Makris, Eustathios (2005). "The Chromatic Scales of the Deuteros Modes in Theory and Practice". Plainsong and Medieval Music 14: 1–10. doi:10.1017/S0961137104000075. ISSN 0961-1371. 
  • Zannos, Ioannis (1994). Ichos und Makam - Vergleichende Untersuchungen zum Tonsystem der griechisch-orthodoxen Kirchenmusik und der türkischen Kunstmusik. Orpheus-Schriftenreihe zu Grundfragen der Musik. Bonn: Verlag für systematische Musikwissenschaft. ISBN 978-3-922626-74-9. 

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