Byzantine Music in Cyprus
E
cclesiastical hymns and music are indissolubly linked to spiritual life and religious worship, and afford precious benefits to the Church, contributing to the devoutness of churchgoers and to their spiritual elevation. It was cultivated during the time of the Byzantine Empire and for this reason it assumed the name of Byzantine Church Music. During the same period it reached a significant peak in Cyprus also, mainly because of the involvement of the great monasteries of the island in its cultivation and broader diffusion. From the study of a large number of Byzantine music manuscripts that have been preserved on the island, one learns that in the Monasteries of Kykkos, Machairas and Agios Neofytos (all founded in the 11th and 12th centuries), as well as in others, workshops functioned as Fig. 35. Ancient musical codex, Machairas Monastery. well as copying centres for Byzantine music manuscripts and hymnologic texts. From the ranks of their brotherhoods came musicians and choristers that played an important role in the transmission and preservation of Byzantine music on the island. Monks from the monasteries of Cyprus contributed, so that the patriarchal (that is, the one developed in the patriarchal church of Constantinople) ecclesiastical style in Cyprus might be preserved, with its peculiarly characteristic features of solemnity and grandeur, and they also played a role in its wider diffusion. The liturgical rigour and precision in sacred chants that prevailed in these monasteries was considered to demonstrate the authentic model to be used in their wider implementation, with the result that many choristers that visited the monasteries acquired first hand practical experience of their psalmody, which they took with them to their towns and villages.
connoisseurs of ecclesiastical music and hymnody. In more recent times (18th-19th centuries), many Cypriots were musically trained in the great centres of Byzantine music that were active in Constantinople and Smyrna, cities with which Cyprus had close spiritual links. During the same period, the setting-up of printing presses in these centres and the publication of ecclesiastical music, much of which has been preserved up to our present time in the libraries of the Archbishopric, bishoprics and monasteries, gave new stimulus to the study of the technique of sacred psalmody. In our time, the Church of Cyprus has focused a large part of its activities on Byzantine musical tradition. Bishoprics, monasteries and parishes of the island have formed choirs of sacred choristers, noted for their devotion to tradition and for the manner in which they interpret the riches of Orthodox psalmody. Furthermore, Schools of Byzantine Music have been founded, with qualified teachers, whose main aim is the teaching of the genuine patriarchal style to candidates, so as to contribute to the patrimony of musical tradition. Finally, it should be pointed out that during recent years several noteworthy editions of music books have been published “It is as if I heard the cherubim when listening to Pieris the cantor, his voice like a warbling nightingale in the month of March. That voice of his swelled out, you thought it a caress; it flowed just like the olive oil of Akanthous”. Charalambous Demosthenous – Poems “Chrysopolitissa” editions, Lefkosia 1998, p. 140. Series editor: Rena Katselli
and which are available for study.
Fig. 36
HYMN OF RESURRECTION (Constantinople 19th century)
¡∂√By the chief priest of the Church of Archangelos Michail Trypiotis, Neofytos Diakonopoulos.
As may be noted from the study of Byzantine music manuscripts, the works of Cypriot musicians are characterized by their profound religious piety, spiritual devotion and scholarly disposition of their creators. Most of them, such as Sophronios Kykkotis and the later Metropolitan Bishop of Ancyra, Seraphim Pisideios (middle 18th century), had sound theological and philological training, and were excellent
26
27