Cherubikon
The Cherubikon (Greek: χερουβικόν), Cherubic Hymn (χερουβικὸς ὕμνος) or Cherubim Chant (Old Church Sl. Херувімскаѧ пҍснь), is the troparion normally sung at the Great Entrance during the Byzantine liturgy. The hymn is sung in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches.
History
The hymn symbolically incorporates those present at the liturgy into the presence of the angels gathered around God's throne.[1] It concerns the very heart of the Divine Liturgy—the Anaphora, the earliest part which can be traced back to Saint Basil and to John Chrysostom's redaction of Basil's liturgical text.
Exegetic tradition
The trisagion or thrice-holy hymn which was mentioned by John Chrysostom, could only refer to the Sanctus of the Anaphora taken from the Old Testament, from the book of the prophet Isaiah in particular (6:1-3):
“ | [1] Καὶ ἐγένετο τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ, οὗ ἀπέθανεν Ὀζίας ὁ βασιλεύς, εἶδον τὸν κύριον καθήμενον ἐπὶ θρόνου ὑψηλοῦ καὶ ἐπηρμένου, καὶ πλήρης ὁ οἶκος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ. [2] καὶ σεραφὶμ εἱστήκεισαν κύκλῳ αὐτοῦ, ἓξ πτέρυγες τῷ ἑνὶ καὶ ἓξ πτέρυγες τῷ ἑνί, καὶ ταῖς μὲν δυσὶν κατεκάλυπτον τὸ πρόσωπον καὶ ταῖς δυσὶν κατεκάλυπτον τοὺς πόδας καὶ ταῖς δυσὶν ἐπέταντο. [3] καὶ ἐκέκραγον ἕτερος πρὸς τὸν ἕτερον καὶ ἔλεγον Ἅγιος ἅγιος ἅγιος κύριος σαβαώθ, πλήρης πᾶσα ἡ γῆ τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ.[2] | ” |
[1] And it came to pass in the year in which king Ozias died, that I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, and the house was full of his glory. [2] And seraphs stood round about him, each one had six wings, and with two they covered their face, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. [3] And one cried to the other, and they said "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! The whole earth is full of His glory!"
In a homily John Chrysostom interpreted Isaiah and the chant of the divine liturgy in general (neither the cherubikon nor the trisagion existed in his time) as an analogue act which connected the community with the eternal angelic choirs:
“ | Ἄνω στρατιαὶ δοξολογοῦσιν ἀγγέλων· κᾶτω ἐν ἐκκλησίαις χοροστατοῦντες ἄνθρωποι τὴν αὐτὴν ἐκείνοις ἐκμιμοῦνται δοξολογίαν. Ἄνω τὰ Σεραφὶμ τὸν τρισάγιον ὕμνον ἀναβοᾷ· κάτω τὸν αὑτὸν ἠ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀναπέμπει πληθύς· κοινὴ τῶν ἐπουρανίων καὶ τῶν ἐπιγείων συγκροτεῖται πανήγυρις· μία εὐχαριστία, ἕν ἀγγαλλίασμα, μία εὐφρόσυνος χοροστασία.[3] | ” |
While the legions of angels praise above, down the human congregations sing the very same hymn. Above the seraphim jubilate the thrice-holy hymn, from deep down the human crowd raise with the same hymn into a solemn communion of the heavenly with the earthly spheres—a eucharist, one cheerfullness, one acclaim.
Composition during the 6th-century reform
Although its liturgical concept already existed by the end of the 4th century, the cherubikon itself was created 200 years later. The Great Entrance as a ritual act was needed for a procession with the Gifts, coming from outside the church, while simultaneous prayers were celebrated behind the Constantinopolitan altar screen. As processional troparion the cherubikon had to bridge the long way between prothesis, a room outside the apsis, and the sanctuary which had been separated by changes in sacred architecture under Emperor Justin II. The cherubikon was divided into several parts.[4] The first part is sung by the congregation before the celebrant begins his prayers, there were one or two simultaneous parts, and they all followed like a gradual ascent in different steps within the Great Entrance. Verses 2-5 were sung by a soloist called monophonaris from the ambo. The conclusion with the last words of verse 5 and the allelouiarion were sung by the choir in dialogue with the domestikos and the monophonaris.
Today the separation of the prothesis is part of the early history of the Constantinopolitan rite (akolouthia asmatike). With respect to the Constantinopolitan customs there are many different local customs in Orthodox communities all over the world, there are urban and monastic choir traditions in different languages into which the cherubikon was translated.
- Greek
Οἱ τὰ Χερουβεὶμ μυστικῶς εἰκονίζοντες,
καὶ τῇ ζωοποιῷ Τριάδι τὸν Τρισάγιον ὕμνον προσάδοντες,
πᾶσαν τὴν βιοτικὴν ἀποθώμεθα μέριμναν.
Ὡς τὸν Βασιλέα τῶν ὅλων ὑποδεξόμενοι,
ταῖς ἀγγελικαῖς ἀοράτως δορυφορούμενον τάξεσιν.
Ἀλληλούϊα, Ἀλληλούϊα, Ἀλληλούϊα.
- Carolingian transliteration
I ta cherubin mysticos Iconizontes
ke ti zopion triadi ton trisagyon ymnon prophagentes
passa nin biotikin apothometa merinnan·
Os ton basileon ton olon Ipodoxomeni
tes angelikes aoraton doriforumenon taxasin
alleluia.[5]
- English translation
We who mystically represent the Cherubim,
and who sing to the Life-Giving Trinity the thrice-holy hymn,
let us now lay aside all earthly cares
that we may receive the King of all,
escorted invisibly by the angelic orders.
Alleluia[6]
- Georgian
რომელნი ქერუბიმთა საიდუმლოსა ვემსგავსებით,
და ცხოველსმყოფელისა სამებისა, სამგზის წმიდასა გალობასა შენდა შევწირავთ,
ყოველივე აწ სოფლისა დაუტეოთ ზრუნვა.[7]
და ვითარცა მეუფისა ყოველთასა,
შემწყნარებელსა ანგელოსთაებრ უხილავად, ძღვნის შემწირველთა წესთასა.
ალილუია, ალილუია, ალილუია.[8]
- Transliterated Georgian
romelni qerubimta saidumlosa vemsgavsebit,
da tskhovelsmq'opelisa samebisa, samgzis ts'midasa galobasa shenda shevts'iravt,
q'ovelive ats' soplisa daut'eot zrunva.
da vitartsa meupisa q'oveltasa,
shemts'q'narebelsa angelostaebr ukhilavad, dzghvnis shemts'irvelta ts'estasa.
aliluia, aliluia, aliluia
- Church Slavonic
Иже херувимы тайно образующе,
и Животворящей Троицѣ трисвятую пѣснь припѣвающе,
Всякое нынѣ житейское отложимъ попеченіе.
Яко да Царя всѣхъ подъимемъ,
ангельскими невидимо дориносима чинми.
Аллилуіа[9]
The troparion begins as a solemn hymn, and during the 6th century "trisagion hymnon" could also refer to the troparion or refrain of the third antiphon, sung at the beginning of the catechumenoi part. Today it is sung as an own ordinary mass chant after the Small Entrance. Both chants, the trisagion as well as the cherubikon, have the Sanctus as main point of reference.
The cherubikon was added as a troparion to the Divine Liturgy under Emperor Justin II (565 – 578), when a separation of the rooms, where the gifts were prepared and consecrated, made it necessary, that the eucharist part, also known as the part of the baptised during which the others had been excluded, started with a procession.[12] This procession was known as the "Great Entrance", because the celebrants had to enter the choir by the altar screen, later replaced by the iconostasis. The chant genre offertorium in traditions of Western plainchant was basically a copy of the Byzantine custom, but there it was a proper mass chant which changed regularly.
The anti-cherubika
In contrary the cherubikon belongs to the ordinary mass chant, because it has to be sung during the year cycle, however, it was sometimes substituted by other troparia, the so-called "anti-cherouvika". On Holy Thursday, for example, the cherubikon was, and still is, replaced by the troparion "At your mystical supper" (Τοῦ δείπνου σου τοῦ μυστικοῦ), while during the Liturgy of the Presanctified the troparion "Now the powers of the heavens" (Νῦν αἱ δυνάμεις τῶν οὐρανῶν) was sung, and the celebration of Prote Anastasis (Holy Saturday) uses the troparion from the Liturgy of St. James, "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" (Σιγησάτω πᾶσα σὰρξ βροτεία). The latter troparion is also used occasionally at the consecration of a church.[1]
The notated chant sources
Due to the destruction of Byzantine music manuscripts, especially after 1204, when Western crusaders expelled the traditional cathedral rite from Constantinople, the chant of the cherubikon appears quite late in the musical notation of the monastic reformers, within liturgical manuscripts not before the late 12th century. This explains the paradox, why the earliest notated sources which have survived until now, are of Carolingian origin. They document the Latin reception of the cherubikon, the earliest prototype of the mass chant genre offertorium.
The Latin cherubikon of the "Missa greca"
The oldest source survived is a sacramentary ("Hadrianum") with the so-called "Missa greca" which was written at or for the liturgical use at a Stift of canonesses (Essen near Aachen).[13] The transliterated cherubikon in the center like the main parts of the Missa greca were notated with paleofrankish neumes between the text lines. Paleofrankish neumes are adiastematic and no manuscripts with the Latin cherubikon have survived in diastematic neumes. Nevertheless, it is supposed to be a melos of an E mode like the earliest Byzantine cherubika which have the main intonation of echos plagios deuteros.[14]
In this particular copy of the Hadrianum the "Missa greca" was obviously intended as proper mass chant for Pentecost, because the cherubikon was classified as offertorium and followed by the Greek Sanctus, the convention of the divine liturgy, and finally by the communio "Factus est repente", the proper chant of Pentecost. Other manuscripts belonged to the Abbey Saint-Denis, where the Missa greca was celebrated during Pentecost and in honour of the patron within the festal week (octave) dedicated to him.[15] Sacramentaries without musical notation transliterated the Greek text of the cherubikon into Latin characters, while the books of Saint-Denis with musical notation translated the text of the troparion into Latin. Only the Hadrianum of Essen or Korvey provided the Greek text with notation and served obviously to prepare cantors who did not know Greek very well.
The cherubikon asmatikon
In the tradition of the cathedral rite of the Hagia Sophia, there was only one melody in the E mode (echos plagios devteros, echos devteros), which has survived in the Asmatika (choir books) and, in a complete form, as "cherouvikon asmatikon" in the books Akolouthiai of the 14th and 15th century.
In this later elaboration, the domestikos, leader of the right choir, sings an intonation, and the right choir performs the beginning until μυστικῶς. Then the domestikos intervenes with a kalopismos over the last syllable το—το and a teretismos (τε—ρι—ρεμ). The choir concludes the kolon with the last word εἰκονίζοντες. The left choir is replaced by a soloist, called "Monophonaris" (μονοφωνάρις), presumably the lampadarios or leader of the left choir. He sings the rest of the text from an ambo. Then the allelouia (ἀλληλούϊα) is performed with a long final teretismos by the choir and the domestikos.[16]
The cherubikon of the earlier asmatika of the 13th century only contains the parts of the choir and the domestikos, these versions are not identical, but composed realizations, sometimes even the name of the cantor was indicated.[17] Only one manuscript, a 14th-century anthology of the asma, has survived in the collection of the Archimandritate Santissimo Salvatore of Messina (I-ME Cod. mess. gr. 161) with the part of the psaltikon. It provides a performance of the monophonaris together with acclamations or antiphona in honour of the Sicilian King Frederick II and can be dated back to his time.[18]
The cherubikon palatinon
Another shorter version, composed in the echos plagios devteros without any teretismoi, inserted sections with abstract syllables, was still performed during celebrations of the imperial court of Constantinople by the choir during the 14th century.[19] A longer elaboration of the cherubikon palatinon attributed to "John Koukouzeles" was transcribed and printed in the chant books used by protopsaltes today.[20]
Papadic cherubikon cycles
Today the common practice is to perform the cherubikon according to the echos of the week (octoechos). One of the earliest sources with an octoechos cycle is an Akolouthiai manuscript by Manuel Chrysaphes (GR-AOi Ms. 1120) written in 1458. He had composed and written down an own cycle of 8 cherubika in the papadic melos of the octoechos.[21]
Until the present day the protopsaltes at the Patriarchate of Constantinople are expected to contribute their own realization of the papadic cycles.[22] Because the length of the cherubikon was originally adapted to the ritual procession, the transcriptions of the print editions according to the New Method distinct between three cycles. A short one for the week days (since the divine liturgy became a daily service), a longer one for Sundays, and an elaborated one for festival occasions, when a bishop or abbot joined the procession.
Notes
- 1 2 Parry (1999), p. 117.
- ↑ Classical Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. "Isaiah 6". myriobiblos.gr (in Greek). Library of the Church of Greece.
- ↑ PG 56 (1862), col. 97.
- ↑ For a detailed list of all simultaneous ritual acts and the particular celebration at the Hagia Sophia cathedral see Moran (1979, 175-177).
- ↑ Transliteration according to the Carolingian sacramentary of the 10th century (D-DÜl Ms. D2, f. 203v). About the particular orthography of the Latin transliteration and different medieval text versions of the Greek cherubikon (Wanek 2013, 182-185; Moran 1979, 172-173).
- ↑ Raya (1958, p. 82).
- ↑ See the transcription of the cherubikon sung according the tradition of the Gelati monastery: "Georgian cherubikon (school of Gelati Monastery)". Ensemble Shavnabada. According to the school of Vasili and Polievktos Karbelashvili (John Graham about the transcription movement): "First part of the cherubikon (Karbelashvili school)". Anchiskhati Church Choir. A third version with a female Ensemble: "Georgian cherubikon". Sara Qila.
- ↑ Second part of the cherubikon sung according the tradition of the Gelati monastery: "Second part of the Georgian cherubikon (school of Gelati Monastery)". Anchiskhati Church Choir. Another tradition: "Second part of the Georgian cherubikon (school of Karbelashvili)". Anchiskhati Church Choir.
- ↑ Soroka (1999), p. 96. Examples of the Bulgarian tradition are the Cheruvimskaya Pesn sung by the Patriarch Neofit (monodic tradition) and the so-called "Bělgarskiy Razpev", closely related to Ukrainian and Russian traditions (Starosimonovskiy Rozpev, Obihodniy Rozpev, or several arrangements by more or less known composers of the 19th and 20th centuries etc.).
- ↑ "Heruvicul (glas I)". Mănăstirea Cămârzani.
- ↑ "Ca per Împăratul (glas I)". Cathedral of the Patriarchate Bucharest: Gabriel Bogdan.
- ↑ Brightman (1896, p. 532, n. 9).
- ↑ D-DÜl Ms. D2, f. 203v. "Hadrianum" is called the sacramentary which was sent by Pope Adrian I, after Charlemagne asked for the one of Gregory the Great.
- ↑ The cherubikon according to the version of manuscript British Library Ms. Harley 3095 has been reconstructed by Oliver Gerlach (2009, pp. 432-434). A reconstruction of the melody in Ms. D2 (D-DÜl) was done by Marcel Pérès in collaboration with the Orthodox protopsaltes Lycourgos Angelopoulos.
- ↑ Michel Huglo (1966) described the different sources of the cherubikon with musical notation, a Greek mass was held for Saint Denis at the abbey of Paris, the Carolingian mausoleum. Since the patron became identified with the church father Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the time of Abbot Hilduin, when Byzantine legacies had been received to improve the diplomatic relationship between Louis the Pious and Michael II, a Greek mass was held to honour the patron. The services were supposed to be celebrated in Greek and Latin, see the Ordo officii of Saint-Denis (F-Pn lat. 976, f. 137) and the Greek Lectionary (F-Pn gr. 375, ff. 153r-154r, 194v).
- ↑ Konstantinos Terzopoulos (2009) confronted the editions which Konstantinos Byzantios (ca. 1777–1862) and Neofit Rilski both published of the typikon of Constantinople, with sources of the mixed rite during the Palaiologan dynasty. One of the manuscripts he used to illustrate is an Akolouthiai of the 15th century with the cherubikon asmatikon (GR-An Ms. 2406).
- ↑ See the transcriptions by Neil Moran (1975).
- ↑ Moran (1979).
- ↑ GR-An Ms. 2458, ff. 165v-166r [nearly one page] (Akolouthiai written in 1336).
- ↑ A Greek (Kyriazides 1896, pp. 278-287) and a Bulgarian Anthology (Sarafov 1912, pp. 203-210).
- ↑ Cappela Romana (1 February 2013) under direction of Alexander Lingas sings Manuel Chrysaphes' echos protos version with its teretismoi based on a transcription of Iveron 1120 by Ioannis Arvanitis and in the simulated acoustic environment of the Hagia Sophia.
- ↑ Listen to Thrasyvoulos Stanitsas (1961) who sings his own version of the cherubikon for the echos plagios devteros. A huge collection of realisations from different periods had been published by Neoklis Levkopoulos at Psaltologion (2010).
References
Sources
- "Düsseldorf, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Ms. D2". Sacramentary written in Korvey (late 10th century).
- Ruotbert. "London, British Library, Ms. Harley 3095". Glossed anthology dedicated to the death of Boethius and his "De consolatione philosophiae" and a sequentiary, probably written in Cologne (late 10th century), one folio was added after the first part with a resurrection mass, using the symbolum Athanasium and the Latin cherubikon (early 11th century).
- "Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fonds grec, ms. 375". Greek Missal-Lectionary (Pentecostarion with the Divine Liturgy for Easter and stichera heothina, Menaion) of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis (1022).
- "Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, fonds latin, ms. 976, f. 137". Missa greca in the Order of services (Ordo officii) of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis (about 1300).
- Koukouzeles, Ioannes; Korones, Xenos; Kladas, Ioannes (1400). "Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. theol. gr. 185". Βιβλίον σὺν Θεῷ ἁγίῳ περιέχον τὴν ἄπασαν ἀκολουθίαν τῆς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς τάξεως συνταχθὲν παρὰ τοῦ μαΐστορος κυροῦ Ἰωάννου τοῦ Κουκουζέλη. Thessaloniki.
- Panagiotes the New Chrysaphes. "London, British Library, Harley Ms. 5544". Papadike and the Anastasimatarion of Chrysaphes the New, and an incomplete Anthology for the Divine Liturgies (17th century). British Library. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
Editions
- Brightman, Frank Edward (1896). Liturgies, Eastern and Western, being the texts original or translated of the principal liturgies of the church. 1: Eastern Liturgies. Oxford: Clarendon.
- Raya, Joseph (1958). Byzantine Liturgy. Tournai, Belgium: Societe Saint Jean l'Evangelist, Desclee & Cie.
- Soroka, Rev. L. (1999). Orthodox Prayer Book. South Canaan, Pennsylvania 18459 U.S.A.: St. Tikhon's Seminary Press. ISBN 1-878997-34-3.
- John Chrysostom (1862). Migne, Jacques-Paul, ed. "Ἔπαινος τῶν ἀπαντησάντων ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, καὶ περὶ εὐταξίας ἐν ταῖς δοξολογίαις. Καὶ εἰς τὸ, "Εἶδον τὸν Κύριον καθήμενον ἐπὶ θρόνου ὑψηλοῦ καὶ ἐπηρμένου"" [Homilia in laudem eorum, qui comparuerunt in ecclesia, quaeque moderatio sit servanda in divinibus laudibus. Item in illud, vidi dominum sedentem in solio excelso (a) (Isai. 6,1)]. Patrologia graeco-latina. 56: col. 97–107.
- Kyriazides, Agathangelos (1896). Ἓν ἄνθος τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐκκλησιαστικῆς μουσικῆς περιέχον τὴν ἀκολουθίαν τοῦ Ἐσπερινοῦ, τοῦ Ὅρθρου καὶ τῆς Λειτουργίας μετὰ καλλοφωνικῶν Εἱρμῶν μελοποιηθὲν παρὰ διαφόρων ἀρχαίων καὶ νεωτέρων Μουσικοδιδασκάλων. Istanbul: Alexandros Nomismatides.
- Levkopoulos, Neoklis, ed. (2010). "Cherouvikarion of Psaltologion". Thessaloniki. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- Sarafov, Petĕr V. (1912). Рѫководство за практическото и теоретическо изучване на восточната църковна музика ["Manual for the practical and theoretical study of the oriental church music", includes an Anthology of Ioan Kukuzel's compositions, Doxastika of the Miney by Iakovos and Konstantinos the Protopsaltes, a Voskresnik, and Anthologies for Utrenna and the Divine Liturgies]. Sofia: Peter Gluškov.
Studies
- Gerlach, Oliver (2009). Im Labyrinth des Oktōīchos – Über die Rekonstruktion mittelalterlicher Improvisationspraktiken in liturgischer Musik. 2. Berlin: Ison. ISBN 978-3-00-032306-5.
- Huglo, Michel (1966). Westrup, Jacques, ed. "Les chants de la Missa greca de Saint-Denis". Essays presented to Egon Wellesz. Oxford: Clarendon: 74–83.
- Moran, Neil K. (1975). The Ordinary chants of the Byzantine Mass. Hamburger Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft. 2. Hamburg: Verlag der Musikalienhandlung K. D. Wagner. pp. 86–140. ISBN 978-3-921029-26-8.
- Moran, Neil K. (1979). "The Musical 'Gestaltung' of the Great Entrance Ceremony in the 12th century in accordance with the Rite of Hagia Sophia". Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik. 28: 167–193.
- Parry, Ken; David Melling, eds. (1999). The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity. Malden, MA.: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 0-631-23203-6.
- Terzopoulos, Konstantinos (2009). Patriarchal Chant Rubrics from Konstantinos Byzantios' Notebook for the Typikon: 1806–1828. 2nd International Conference of the American Society of Byzantine Music and Hymnography (ASBMH-2009). Presentation (move the cursor on the left side to navigate between the sildes).
- Wanek, Nina-Maria (2013). "Die sogenannte Missa Graeca – Schnittstelle zwischen Ost und West?". Byzantinische Zeitschrift. 106: 175–192. doi:10.1515/bz-2013-0014.
External links
- The Cherubikon in popular compositions of the Catholic-Orthodox Church
- Cherubic Hymns (English and Greek)
Georgian Chant
- Graham, John A. "Georgian Chant History—Transcription Movement". Georgian Chant.
- "CD to learn Georgian Chant of the Divine Liturgies (school of Gelati Monastery)". Shavnabada Net. Tbilisi: Ensemble Shavnabada.
- "Anchiskhati Choir". Tbilisi.
Old Slavonic Cherubim Chant
- "Cheruvimskaya Pesn (5th Glas) sung by Neofit, Metropolit of Russe".
- "Cheruvimskaya Pesn (1st Glas) in Old Bulgarian Razpev". St Petersburg: "Optina Pustyn" Male Choir.
- "Cheruvimskaya Pesn in Obihodniy Rozpev". Regenta Church Choir.
- "Cheruvimskaya Pesn in Starosimonovskiy Rozpev". Minsk: Choir of the St Elisabeth Monastery.
- L'vovsky, Grigory F. "Cheruvimskaya Pesn". Female Ensemble of the Regenta Church Choir.
- Kastalsky, Alexander Dimitriyevich. "Cheruvimskaya Pesn". Saratov: Holy Trinity Choir.
Papadic Cherubika
- Manuel Chrysaphes; Ioannis Arvanitis (2013). "Cherouvikon echos protos with teretismos". Cappella Romana. Retrieved 7 September 2013.
- Phokaeos, Theodoros. "Cherouvikon syntomon (short version) echos varys sung by Dionysios Firfires".
- Stanitsas, Thrasyvoulos (1961). "Cherouvikon echos plagios devteros sung by the composer".