Good composition is one of the foundations of Byzantine music.
To learn Byzantine music, you must understand proper uses of good composition, such as vocalization and intervals. Byzantine music is used for festival or church music, and it is based on textual intonation. It has a series of melodic lines that match a particular syllabic pattern. Here you will learn basic music elements for Byzantine music.
Instructions
1. Learn Byzantine music notation for chants. Byzantine notation is a neumatic system, using notational symbols to interpret Byzantine chants into written form. You will use this system to add intervals, to add duration to music, and to show divisions of beats.
2. Use Martyríes Greek signs to show the first chanting note of the Byzantine melody. Martyríes are divided in three groups: diatonics, enharmonics, and chromatics.
3. Familiarize yourself with traditional hymns of the Byzantine music. There are three types of hymns for Byzantine music that are very influential in the Greek culture: troparion hymn, kontakion hymn, and the tropaia. You can choose to purchase the music or visit your local library to either borrow or listen to Byzantine music of the Greek Orthodox church.
4. Study musical instruments of the Byzantine Greek culture, such as the kithara and the aulos. The kithara is a stringed instrument in the lyre family. The aulos is a wind instrument made of two reed pipes that are not joined except at the mouth band. Although many Greek instruments were used, the main instrument of Byzantium was the organ.
