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EARLY CHRISTIAN CHANT 3
be studied in its earliest form in the Byzantine Lectionaria, books
containing the lessons for the day from the Prophets, Epistles, and
1
Gospels. From the rubrics in the Prophetologium we can see how the
'Song of Moses', from Exodus xv. 1-19, was sung on Good Friday.
One of the chanters goes up to the pulpit and announces 'The Song
from Exodus'. Then the deacon says 'Attention! 5
and the precentor
immediately begins:
I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.
People: I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.
Precentor: The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
People: For he hath triumphed gloriously.
Precentor: The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my
salvation.
For he hath triumphed gloriously.
People: I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.
All eighteen verses of the canticle are sung in this way. To the last
verse is appended the Little Doxology, followed by the refrain, sung
by the chanter, and the response, sung by the congregation. Thus,
even in the early days of Christian chant we can see a tendency to
place more emphasis on the music than on the words, by causing the
choir to repeat the musical phrases first sung by the precentor. This
tendency develops more and more in Eastern chant and gives it its
peculiar character.
2. The singing of hymns, like the chanting of psalms and canticles,
was a usage deeply rooted in Jewish liturgy, and consequently familiar
to the first generations of Christians. Because these hymns were free
paraphrases of the biblical text, and not exclusively based on the
words of the Scriptures, there was an orthodox reaction against them
in the third century. All new hymns were condemned, and only those
to be found in the Scriptures were tolerated. This feeling accounts for
the fact that so few hymns survive from the beginnings of Christianity.
But they had played too large and important a part in religious life
to be completely suppressed. They had embellished the liturgy: their
loss was felt to decrease its splendour, and the Church was forced to
change its attitude. By altering passages to which orthodoxy could
take exception the old practice was restored and hymnography deve
loped even more richly than before. Besides these hymns there were
also a few Christian poets influenced by the classical tradition, who
wrote in an archaic style, for example, Synesius of Cyrene (c. 375-
1 Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae, Series Lectionaria; Prophetologium, fasc. 3, ed.
C. Hoeg & G. Zuntz (Copenhagen, 1949).