Psalm 33 I will bless the Lord - Greek Byzantine Music by NEKTARIA KARANTZI (amazing!)

Nektaria Karantzi is the well-known greek orthodox performer of Byzantine Music.

Elder Paisios, Elder Cleopa and Orthodox music - VIDEO

Constantinople: Orthodox Chant In Agia Sophia - VIDEO (amazing!)

GREECE: Mountain Of A Thousand Monasteries - (VIDEO - great video)

MOUNT ATHOS: Bethlehem make ready - Hymns of the Nativity of Christ" - Vatopedi Monastery (VIDEO)

 

BYZANTINE CHRISTMAS CAROLS - Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity (VIDEO)

Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity

Great song from a great woman: Melina Mercouri a tribute - Sinefiasmeni Kiriaki (eng: "Clouded sunday")

 

Great song from a great woman. "Clouded sunday" is the song of hope....song is similarity to a byzantine hymn known as "Akathistos ymnos"

Cloudy Sunday

Cloudy Sunday,

you're like my heart

that's always cloudy.

Christ and Holy Virgin!

You are a day like that day

in which I lost my joy.

Cloudy Sunday,

you make my heart bleed.

When I see you that rainy,

I can't rest even for a moment.

You make my life black

and I deeply sigh.

National anthem, somehow, for most of greeks! Tsitsanis wrote it during the II World War, talks about a dead person (executed from the Germans). 

H Πόλις Εάλω - The City fell ( the most touching song and video)

 

ΕΝΑ ΤΡΑΓΟΥΔΙ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΑΓΑΠΗ - CHRISTIAN GREEK SONG ABOUT LOVE

WOMEN COMPOSERS IN BYZANTIUM

It is only in recent studies of Byzantine music that composers of medieval Byzantine chant have been examined. Not unlike composers of Western medieval music such as Leonin, Perotin, and Machaut, little is known about most Byzantine musicians. Nevertheless, renowned Byzantine musicians and composers of the late Middle Ages did exist, even though a majority of these musicians will forever remain only as names in the folios of the musical manuscripts. A few of the composers most frequently mentioned are Ioannes Koukouzeles, Ioannes Kladas, Xenos Korones, and Manuel Chrysaphes. As might be expected of medieval times, the composers from both the East and the West were predominantly men. However, women composers did exist.

From antiquity there was a legacy of Greek women composers. Although many of the women were hetairai (the highest class of prostitutes in ancient Greece), there were also respectable women, such as Pythia of Delphi; Telesilla of Argos; Sappho of Lesbos; Polygnota, daughter of Socrates of Thebes; and the daughter of Aristocrates of Cyme. A respectable woman musician was distinguished from hetairai by the occasional citation of her name and by the obligatory citation of her patronymic (father's name) and city of origin. The participation of respectable women performing and composing music was short-lived. The beginnings of Christianity brought great change to Greek culture. In the period of early Christianity in Byzantium, when men dominated all aspects of religious, political, and social philosophies, Byzantine women were considered to be intellectually and spiritually inferior to men.

It can only be surmised that the involvement of Byzantine women in music was minimal during the early centuries of the Empire. Because of its association with prostitution, performance on musical instruments was forbidden to young, unmarried women in the early period of Christianity. This attitude was obviously transmitted from the former role of the hetairai in Antiquity. Furthermore, women of all ages were forbidden to participate in any type of liturgical choir singing. (This attitude had been voiced by the apostle Paul to the Corinthian Greeks in I Corinthians 14:34-35.) Contrary to the position held by the early church, documentation proves that women did participate in congregational singing between the second and fourth centuries in such locales as Samosata, Syria, Jerusalem, and Edessa; this trend probably reached Byzantium as well.

Next to nothing is known about the role of women in liturgical music during the early centuries of the Empire. Most of our information on secular music in the early centuries of the Empire comes from the admonishments of the Church Fathers. In Byzantium we know that there was music for the accompaniment of theatrical performances and other public shows, ballets, and pantomimes in which women participated alongside men in song, dance, and instrumental performance. These activities are documented in chronicles by the Church Fathers who regarded them with contempt for all profane music. During these early centuries female musicians were referred to by the Church Fathers as prostitutes.

The Byzantine Empire existed for more than a thousand years, from its beginnings in the fourth century until its fall in 1453. Throughout this time, there were constraints on the participation of women in all aspects of life. Some of these constraints were legal edicts, while others were implied. From the ninth century until the end of the Empire, the Byzantines were unusually conservative in aspects of relations concerning women, leading to theseclu sion, or at the very least segregation, of women from men. For example, women of the Imperial court were known to be housed in private quarters of the palace away from the men; urban women who attended the large cathedrals of Constantinople were seated on the left side of the cathedral (facing the altar) to separate them from the men seated on the right side. It is from these centuries of constraint that very few names of Byzantine women composers-musicians have survived.

The Byzantine woman composer-musician is much harder to discover than her Western counterpart. In the area of secular music very little has survived and hence no names of women composers have been given. Manuscript sources of liturgical music have survived in great number, but anonymity was so honored in Byzantium that composers' names were often omitted, especially in early sources. For female composers, anonymity was perhaps observed in later periods as well, since they probably wished to be measured by the merit of their music and not by their gender. The absence of compositions attributed to or signed by women might also result from the reticence of Greek scribes. Throughout the Eastern and Western medieval periods, Greek scribes rarely included names or information about themselves. In Byzantium the women composers' names that have survived were associated exclusively with liturgical chant. These women were all literate and of middle- to upper-class social status. With the exception of one they were all nuns: Martha, mother of Symeon the Stylite; Theodosia; Thekla; Kassia; Kouvouklisena; and Palaeologina. The one for whom we have no knowledge is referred to as the daughter of Ioannes Kladas.

Of these women whose names are documented in sources as composers of Byzantine chant, only the music of Kassia and the daughter of Ioannes Kladas is preserved in manuscripts. Since music by only these two of the women hymnographers survives, one might ask whether the other women wrote music as well as the texts for their liturgical poems. Most of these female hymnographers were nuns who wrote their liturgical compositions for use in their nunneries. It is believed that these liturgical compositions were chanted, since liturgical rites were sung throughout in medieval Byzantium. Male Byzantine hymnographers, such as Romanos Melodos and John of Damascus, traditionally wrote both words and music. However, whether women composed their own music or employed contrafacta (preexisting music) is a point for debate.

The surviving information concerning the female composers is easily summarized. Martha was the mother of Symeon the Stylite, a Byzantine saint. Little is known about her: she lived toward the end of the ninth century and was the abbess of a nunnery at Argos. It is assumed that most of her musical works were composed for the nuns of her convent.

Theodosia, a devout abbess of a convent near the Imperial city of Constantinople, also lived during the ninth century. She is known for her composition of Kanons, a poetical form comprising nine odes and found in the Byzantine Morning Office known as Orthros. Another ninth-century composer is Thekla, who was also probably an abbess of a convent near Constantinople. Thekla has been described as a self-confident woman, proud not only of herself, but also of her sex. Her only surviving hymn is a Kanon in honor of the Theotokos (the Byzantine attribution for the Virgin Mary). Since this composition praises the Virgin Mary, it has also been called an encomium, or hymn of praise. In the millennium years of existence of the Empire, this Kanon is the only preserved hymn to the Theotokos by a woman. An examination of Thekla's literary skills in this complex Kanon attests to the fact that she was educated in literature as well as in Scriptures. In the several themes presented in the Kanon, the most significant is Thekla's premise that the Theotokos has emancipated Byzantine women from the guilt of Eve and has given women respect and honor in the Byzantine church. In addition to lauding the Theotokos, the woman most revered in Byzantium, Thekla shows her feminist traits by praising female martyrs, saints, and consecrated virgins of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

A later Byzantine woman musician is Kouvouklisena, a thirteenth-century precentor identified in Lavra MS Gamma 71, a manuscript in the largest monastery of Mount Athos. The citation in the manuscript pertains to the date of her death. More important, it identifies her as a domestikena or chantress and leader of a woman's choir. Although there were other female singers of chant, the acknowledgement of her musical role by a Greek male scribe from a monastery indicates her extraordinary vocal abilities and importance for the period. There is no clear indication that Kouvouklisena was a composer, but since many leading male precentors of the period were composers or at least arrangers of traditional chant, she also probably composed and improvised.

A Byzantine woman composer for whom we have a single musical reference is identified only as "the daughter of Ioannes Kladas." The sole musical composition and inscription in reference to this composer appears in Athens MS 2406, folio 258v. (A published musical transcription by this writer is available in College Music Symposium, volume 24, (Spring, 1984), p. 64.) The composer is identified by the patronymic and the relationship of the composer to the patriarch of the family, following the ancient Greek tradition of identifying respectable women. It is interesting that in the single reference to this female composer no given or Christian name is indicated. In instances where male members of a family are cited, a given name is usually included in addition to a family relationship. From this reference, it appears that the daughter of Ioannes Kladas was probably known as a singer and composer. Her fame, however, is not as great as that of her father, who was a leading composer of Byzantine chant of the late fourteenth century as well as "The Lampadarios" or maistor of the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople. 

 

Based on the known lifespan of Ioannes Kladas, the composition by his daughter would have originated during the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. The composition is included in a section of the manuscript that contains a collection of compositions by Ioannes Kladas. The selection attributed to the daughter is a memorial chant honoring the memory of her late father.

A later Byzantine woman hymnographer that might have lived in the fifteenth century is identified as Palaeologina. This hymnographer was obviously a well-educated, aristocratic woman from the Imperial family and dynasty Palaeologus that ruled from 1259 to 1453. Palaeologina is thought to have been a nun in one of the convents of Constantinople. It was for the convent that she composed Kanons, for which only the texts have survived.

The composer who is the most prominent woman composer and hymnographer in the history of Byzantine music and who has overshadowed the fame of other women composers of the Empire is Kassia. Kassia has the distinction of being the earliest woman composer for whom there is preserved music! She precedes her Western musical counterparts by over two centuries.

Much is known about Kassia, who was born around A.D. 810, probably in Constantinople, and died sometime between 843 and 867. Kassia is known by the various forms of her name found in manuscripts and service books: Kasia (Kasia), Kassia (Kassia), Eikasia (Eikasia), Ikasia (Ikasia), and Kassiane (Kassianh).

Over fifty liturgical chants are attributed to Kassia. (These musical compositions have been transcribed into Western staff notation by this writer and are available through Hildegard Press. ) As a gifted poet, Kassia wrote 261 secular verses in the forms of epigrams, gnomic verses, and moral sentences. Kassia's fame and importance is documented by Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos (a hymnographer and priest in the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople) in his fourteenth-century catalogue of important Byzantine hymnographers, in which she is the only woman composer acknowledged. Kassia is the only woman pictured in the frontispiece of a Triodion, a Lenten liturgical service book, printed in Venice in 1601, which also included pictures of the Byzantine churches leading hymnographers.

Kassia was from a wealthy family in Constantinople. Her father had the title of candidatos at the Imperial Court, which was a military title given to members of the aristocracy. Because of the honor given to her father, it is assumed that Kassia and her family were members of the Imperial Court. Like other aristocratic young girls of the court, Kassia, received a private education that was influenced by Classical Greek studies and which can be observed in her verse and writings.

During her teenage years Kassia became involved in the iconoclastic controversy of the Byzantine Empire. This was a controversy involving the use and abolishment of icons in churches. Kassia, along with other women, clergy, and monks, fought against the imperial edict abolishing the use of icons in churches. Because of her actions, Kassia was persecuted and lashed for helping imprisoned monks and iconodule exiles. It was during this time that Kassia also came under the influence of Theodore the Studite (759-826), abbot of the Studite Monastery of Constantinople, who was also a defender of icons. The correspondence between Kassia and Theodore the Studite reveals her inclination to become a nun, although he tried to dissuade her from such a decision so early in her life. Kassia also sent to Theodore examples of her writings, to which he responded with compliments on her literary skills.

Kassia's documentation in Byzantine chronicles and the popularity that has made her a legend in Byzantine folklore is a result of her participation in the bride-show of Emperor Theophilos, who reigned from 830 to 842. Bride-shows, in which the bride was selected in the ancient Greek classical manner, with a token of a golden apple, were very popular in Byzantium during the eighth and ninth centuries and were also used in oriental empires. The story of the beautiful noblewoman's participation in the bride-show for Theophilos (ca. A.D. 830) has been told many times, and there is proof and authentic documentation of the verbal exchange between Kassia and Emperor Theophilos. The earliest chronicler to have documented the incident is Simeon the Logothete of the tenth century. The following description of the incident was written by the historian Edward Gibbon.

With a golden apple in his hand he [Theophilos] slowly walked between two lines of contending beauties; his eye was detained by the charms of Icasia, and , in the awkwardness of a first declaration, the prince could only observe that in this world, women had been the occasion of much evil [in reference to Eve, the first created woman]; "And surely. Sir," she [Kassia] pertly replied, "they have likewise been the occasion of much good" [in reference to the Virgin Mary]. This affectation of unseasonable wit displeased the imperial lover; he turned aside in disgust; Icasia concealed her mortification in a convent, and the modest silence of Theodora was rewarded with the golden apple.

Kassia's pertinent and bold response to Theophilos was in defiance to the Byzantine tradition of silence and obedience to male supremacy. The Byzantine saying addressed to women was "Silence is an ornament." Kassia paid dearly for her boldness and quickness of wit by losing the opportunity to become empress. It is ironic that Theophilos's choice, Theodora, after the death of her husband, was the empress who restored icons, bringing the final end to the iconoclastic controversy.

In Byzantine society single women could not function easily and freely; as a result, the choices for proper women were either marriage or the monastery. Since Kassia had forfeited her chance to marry and become empress, she accepted the monastic life. In 843 she was said to have founded hew own monastery, named after her, on the seventh hill of Constantinople, the Xerolophos, near the Constantinian Wall. There she spent the remainder of her life as the abbess, composing music for the services in her monastery and writing her liturgical and secular verses.

Known mostly as a hymnographer and composer of sacred poems, Kassia was a comtemporary of the famous Byzantine composers, Theodore of Studite, Joseph of Thessalonika, and St. Theophanes. Her compositions were not acknowledged until recent times. Furthermore, besides composing music to her own liturgical poetry, Kassia also composed music to the poetry and prose of Byzantios, Georgios, Kyprianos, and Marcos Monachos.

Of the over fifty compositions attributed to Kassia, only about twenty-four are considered to be genuine compositions, while the remaining are of doubtful authorship. For the compositions that are of doubtful authorship, it is believed that the original melodies and texts of these were by Kassia but that other composers either embellished or varied her preexisting melodies with their own interpretation.

Most of Kassia's liturgical compositions are Stichera and performed in the evening and morning Office throughout the liturgical year. Although all of Kassia's compositions are notated monophonically, in accord with performance practice of medieval Byzantine liturgical music, it was usually sung by two choirs, one sang the monophonic notated melody, the other provided an unwritten improvisatory drone accompaniment called the isokratema.

Kassia's most famous musical composition which is still in use today is her troparion "The Fallen Woman," sung in the Morning Office of Holy Wednesday but technically celebrated at the end of the Vespers service of Holy Tuesday. This hymn is about Mary Magdalene, a "fallen woman," who washed Christ's Feet, anointed them, and wiped them with her long hair (St. Luke 7:36-50). The hymn is also considered to be in part autobiographical. Emperor Theophilos later regretted his decision not to choose Kassia as his bride, and he attempted to meet with her to express his sorrow and love. Although Kassia avoided him, in her heart she felt she had returned his love and had become a "fallen woman."

The melody and text of this hymn is by Kassia, but verse eight is attributed, according to legend, to Theophilos. Kassia was in the midst of writing this poem when the Emperor was making one of his unexpected stately visits to her monastery. Seeing Theophilos from afar, Kassia fled and left the poem on her desk. When the Emperor entered her monastery cell and saw her unfinished poem, he added the lines: 

The feet whose sound

Eve heard in Paradise

In the afternoon

And hid in fear.

After his departure Kassia returned to complete her poem and found the addition with its double meaning: Eve hiding from God, or Kassia hiding from Theophilos. Although out of context with the theme of a fallen woman, Kassia retained the Emperor's addition. It is this legendary element that has made this hymn so well known.

The next most popular hymn of Kassia's after "The Fallen Woman" is her famous sticheron idiomelon doxastikon "Augustus, the Monarch."

In this picture you see Kassia's "Augustus, the monarch" as it appears in a musical manuscript. On the lower right corner of the manuscript, you can see the attribution to Kassia. This melody was so well known during Byzantine times that it was documented in the chronicles of Byzantium. This hymn was sung during the Vespers service of December 25th, for it glorifies the birth of a new King, Jesus Christ. In this hymn Kassia displays her genius as both a poet and musical composer, for the text interweaves and influences the structure of the melody. In the text Kassia parallels and contrasts the reign of the first Roman Emperor Augustus (27 B.C. -A.D. 14) with the rule of Jesus Christ. Besides the parallelism of the themes, there is a parallel metrical rhyming scheme in the text that corresponds to the parallelism in the music. The sequential structure of this sticheron has led some scholars to believe that the sequence was brought from Byantium to the West.

Kassia's over fifty musical compositions exhibit her talent and originality as a poet and an a composer. Her poetry guides the structure of her musical compositions. Her compositions are far more original than most of her contemporaries'; otherwise, her music might not have been documented in the Byzantine chronicles of the time. Most hymnographers of the period were far less imaginative; their poetry was more verbose and their compositions longer. They gave little attention to musical structure. Kassia's music is concise; her texts set syllabically. Her musical inventiveness and wit is demonstrated by the form of her compositions, which often parallels or contrasts with the text; in musical motives that symbolize and reflect the text (an early use of tone painting); and in her poetic play with words. Furthermore, Kassia is historically important as the only hymnographer who wrote a penitential hymn on the "fallen woman," Mary Magdalene, a subject that no male hymnographer deemed worthy of attention.

These few names of women composers in Byzantium is evidence of women who contributed to the culture of music. Since the participation of women in secular music was condemned, respectable women, with no other outlet for musical participation, turned to sacred music and created new works for the nunneries of Byzantium. These convents served as cultural retreats for those aristocratic, wealthy, and educated women who did not marry. It was for the convents of Byzantium that the few known women composers and hymnographers wrote their compositions, to be chanted in liturgical services by their female peers. Some of these, such as Kouvouklisena, possessed outstanding vocal abilities that were admired by their male counterparts-an extraordinary measure of success. There is no doubt that the convents were centers for much musical activity and productivity by Byzantine women. However, few of the typika from nunneries have survived. More importantly, misogyny taints much of the documentation of Byzantine women's participation in music. Women were measured by the standard Byzantine phrase: ] Ivm=hn de p`antos kef`alhn t=hs gunaik-os ton }andra ["Ismen de pantos kefalin tes gynaikos ton andra"] (Women are always under the head of the man). 

Bibliography

Touliatos, Diane. "Kassia (ca. 810-ca.867)," Women Composer: Music Through the Ages, vol. I Composers Born Before 1599, eds.Martha Furman Schleifer and Sylvia Glickman. New York: G.K. Hall,1996, pp. 1-24.

Idem., "The Traditional Role of Greek Women in Music from Antiquity to the End of the Byzantine Empire," Rediscovering the Muses: Women's Musical Traditions, ed. Kimberly Marshall (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1993), pp. 111-23 and notes 250-53.

Idem., "Medieval Women Composers in Byzantium and the West," Proceedings of the VIth International Congress of Musicology "Musica Antiqua Europae Orientalis" (Bydgoszcz, Poland, 1982) pp. 687-712.

Idem., "Women Composers of Medieval Byzantine Chant," College Music Society Symposium, vol. 24, pt. 1 (Spring, 1984), 62-80.

Kassia's "Using the Apostate Tyrant As His Tool," Transcription and Arrangement by Diane Touliatos for the Kronos String Quartet's Early Music (Lachrimae Antiquae) CD, 3' 51", released September, 1997. 

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Holy Week and St Cassiane hymnographer: A beautiful, outspoken female who became a saint

 

The Iconoclast controversy, which vexed the Church for over a hundred years, coincided with one of the most productive periods in church hymnography. Among those who made significant contributions in this field, the names of St. Andrew of Crete (+740), St John of Damascus (+754), and St Theodore the Studite (+826) are well known. Less familiar are the female hymnographers of this period: the nuns Thecla, Cassiane and Theodosia, who showed considerable talent in this same field. Of these, Cassiane won lasting distinction as the only woman whose works have entered into the liturgical tradition of the Church.

The Early Years
Our holy mother Cassiane was born some time before 805. It is very likely her family came from the small Aegean island of Kassos, hence her name. Her father held a high position at the imperial court in Constantinople. Cassiane’s parents gave her the privilege of receiving an excellent education, which included not only secular knowledge, but also the study of the sacred Scriptures. From her youth, though she was an exquisite beauty, she wished to dedicate her life to Christ and the Church, and often considered becoming a nun.

The Heavenly Bride
With the death of Emperor Michael in 829, Theophilos became Emperor. His stepmother, wishing to find a suitable match for him, arranged a ‘bride show’ where she gathered the most lovely of maidens. Theophilos narrowed the contestants to six semi-finalists. In the final choice, the young Emperor was to use a custom that dated back to ancient times. A golden apple was to be given to the future Empress. With all the maidens lined up, Theophilos was most impressed with Cassiane, and also with Theodora, a beautiful girl of noble birth from Paphlagonia.

Since both were extremely attractive, the choice was not an easy one. One thing, though, that Theophilos wanted to make certain, was that his bride did not exceed him in intellect. He went up to Cassiane and said, “From woman came the worst in the world.” (referring to the fall of Eve). Then the wise Cassiane respectfully but confidently answered the Emperor, saying, “But also from woman came that which is best.” (referring to the Virgin giving birth to God Incarnate). He was unnerved at the boldness and wisdom of Cassiane. He then approached the modest Theodora and offered her the apple as a symbol of his choice.

Emperor Theophilos chooses his wife

Cassiane, far from being disappointed at being eliminated, had no desire to be Empress. Recognising God’s providence in Theophilos’s rejection, she was now free to pursue the monastic life and spiritual scholarship as a bride of the King of kings. Therefore, she departed from the palace, renounced the world, and was tonsured a nun in about the year 820. She built a convent on Xerolophos (“Dry Hill”), the capital’s seventh hill, and according to one observer, “led an ascetic and philosophical life”, pleasing to God. The energetic abbess presided over the sisterhood, regulating their manner of life and the divine offices in the convent.

The Confessor
Emperor Theophilus was an iconoclast (destroyer of icons), and harshly enforced the imperial edict, renewed after the death of Empress Irene, forbidding the veneration of sacred images. Theodora, an iconodule (icon venerator), did not approve of her husband's policy, but she concealed her veneration of icons and kept quiet.

Cassiane, by contrast, openly professed herself in favour of the holy icons. She not only spoke her mind, but she acted on her convictions. She visited banished iconodule monks in prison and would support and comfort them by her letters and gifts. For her defiance of the imperial edict, she suffered persecution and was beaten with the lash. Undaunted, she persisted in resisting the iconoclasts. She expressed her opinion of those that lacked courage and commitment to stand up for the Faith, when she said, “I hate silence, when it is time to speak.” For her strong stand in defence of icons, Cassiane is depicted in the front row of saints in the icon “Triumph of Orthodoxy”. This feast is celebrated on the first Sunday of Great Lent, known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy.

The Hymnographer

St Theodore the Studite

During this time when the Church was embattled, Cassiane, inspired by God, pursued her diverse literary and musical interests. She combined the talents of poet, theologian and musician, writing hymns and composing musical settings for them. Originally sung by her nuns, many of her compositions proved to have enduring value. Even as a young girl, Cassiane impressed St Theodore the Studite (an abbot and fellow confessor of the holy icons) with her learning and literary style, which he found rare at that time in one so young. She maintained a correspondence with St Theodore for many years, and some of these letters have survived to this day.

Her ecclesiastical music drew the attention of the Church Fathers, who recognised her unique gift. She was encouraged to compose hymns for various feasts. This is all the more remarkable, as the world of the 9th century regarded musical pursuits by women to be quite shameful. Her reputation is such that she is Orthodoxy’s only female hymnographer of distinction. Twenty-three hymns ascribed to her exhibit her attention to the many facets of Orthodox liturgical cycles. The most famous poem and musical composition of the saint is found in the Lenten Triodion. It is the doxastikon of the Matins Apostikha of Great and Holy Wednesday (the service being conducted by anticipation on the evening of Holy Tuesday), also known as the Hymn of Cassiane.

The text is based on the sinful woman who is introduced by the Evangelist St Luke in his Gospel (7.36-50). Cassiane contrasts the repentance of the sinful woman with Eve’s fall (Gen. 3.8-11):

Tone 8:
The woman who had fallen into many sins, perceiving Your divinity, O Lord,
Received the dignity of a myrrh-bearer,
For with lamentation she brought fragrant myrrh to You before Your burial.
And she cried: Woe is me, for love of sin and stings of lustful passion envelop me as the night, dark and moonless.
As You cause the clouds to drop down the waters of the sea, accept the fountain of my tears.
As by Your indescribable condescension You bowed down the heavens, so incline to the groaning of my heart.
I shall kiss Your most pure feet and wipe them with the hair of my head,
Those same feet whose sound Eve heard at dusk in Paradise when she hid herself in fear.
Who can count the multitude of my sins? Who can measure the depths of Your judgements, O Saviour of my soul?
Do not turn away from me, Your servant, for You have immeasurable mercy.

Kontakion
Tone 4
I have transgressed far more than the harlot, O Good One, yet have never brought you showers of tears; but entreating in silence, I fall before you, as I kiss your immaculate feet with love, that as Master you may grant me forgiveness of offences, as I cry out, O Saviour: deliver me from the filth of my works.

Other compositions include:

* The Eirmos of the 9th Ode of the Canon of Matins of Holy Saturday, which is also sung at the Matins of the Resurrection:

With these stanzas, Cassiane achieves a taut sense of anticipation, providing a marvellous momentum into the climactic celebration of Our Lord's Resurrection.

Tone 6
Weep not for Me, Mother, as you behold Me in the grave,
The Son you conceived without seed in your womb.
For I shall rise and be glorified, and as God I shall raise to eternal glory
Those who magnify you with faith and love.

* Idiomel Stikheron at Vespers of the Nativity of the Lord:
When Augustus reigned alone on the earth, the many kingdoms of mankind came to an end;
And when You became man from the pure Virgin, the many gods of idolatry were destroyed;
The cities of the world passed under one single rule; and the nations came to believe in a single Godhead;
The peoples were enrolled by decree of Caesar; we the faithful were enrolled in the name of the Godhead,
When You became man, O our God.
Great is Your mercy, Lord, glory to You.

Her Falling Asleep
One of Cassiane’s biographer’s comments, “She lived only for God, to the end of her life.” Thus, after dedicating her life to Christ and the Church, and adorned with the diadem of virginity and the crowns of a confessor, an ascetic, and a hymnographer, our holy mother Cassiane reposed in the Lord.

Venerable Cassiane also left a trove of sacred and secular songs, poems, aphorisms and prose, many of which have survived to this day. Oddly, for a hymnographer-saint, her troparion is the common one for a venerable woman, and not one which has been written specifically for her:

Tone 8:

That which was created in the image of God
Was preserved in you, O Mother;
For taking up the cross you followed after Christ.
By your deeds you have taught us to reject the flesh
For it passes away,
But to care for the soul as a thing immortal.
Therefore, O venerable Cassiane, your soul rejoices with the angels.

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Eleni Karaindrou - Byzantine Psalm (Traditional) + Ulysses' Theme!

This track is built up by using two tracks:
1) "Byzantine Psalm (Traditional)" (0:00 - 1:09)
2.) "Ulysses' Theme" (1:10 - 3:20)

Both tracks are taken from Eleni Karaindrou's Soundtrack album "Ulysses Gaze". A masterpiece movie by the greek director Theo Angelopoulos. Listen & Enjoy it.

Movie: "Ulysses' Gaze" (1995) by Theo Angelopoulos
Actors: Harvey Keitel, Erland Josephson, Maia Morgenstern
Music: composed by Eleni Karaindrou
Recorded Dec 1994, Produced and Published 1995 by Manfred Eicher (ECM Records, Germany)

Musicians:
Viola - Kim Kashkashian
Voice - Georgia Voulvi
Oboe - Vangelis Christopoulos
Accordion - Andreas Tsekouras
Trumpet - Socratis Anthis
French hora - Vangelis Skouras
Violoncello - Christos Sfetsas
Conductor - Lefteris Chalkiadakis

DIMITRIS BASIS - GREEK ORTHODOX MUSIC

Dimitris Basis is a famous popular music singer. He trained in Byzantine Orthodox music before becoming a "pop" star.

 

Flamenco and Byzantine Music - Deep Song by Federico García Lorca

Flamenco Show at an Old Monastary

Flamenco and Byzantine Music by Chryssanthi

Most of us know the flamenco music. As it is otherwise called, the "cante jondo" - the "deep song"- is Andalucia's "national" music and it is principally the jypsies of Spain who have cultivated it.

As I was listening to it one day, it appeared to me that there are some similarities between it and the byzantine music, as far as the musical scales are concerned. Later on I did a research on the Internet and to my surprise, my intuition proved to be right. There are several musicians and musicologists, like Pedre, Manuel de Falla, Turina and even the poet Federico Garcia Lorca who have maintained the idea that one of the factors that have influenced the spanish "cante jondo" was the ecclesiastical music of Byzancium.

I was utterly surprised by reading this, because, apparently these two sorts of music do not seem to have many things in common. The cante jondo is a secular kind of music, whereas the byzantine chant is purely religious.

In this lens I am presenting you a piece of my discoveries and giving you some food for thought.

A COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO APPARENTLY CONTROVERSARY MUSIC GENERS 

In order to satisfy my intellectual curiosity I compared two apparently opposing sorts of music. A piece of religious music with a secular one. I uploaded two pieces that sounded to me as having some sonorous similarities. The first one is a byzantine chant and the spanish one is of the gener of the"seguiriya", the most ancient one in the cante jondo. Then I played both of them at the same time and the result was quite amazing, especially at the places where the musical base coincides.

Since I am not a musicologist, it may be an arbitrary comparison. I leave it up to you to listen to the following two videos and draw your own conclusions...( Taken from Source: )

Deep Song by Federico García Lorca

                                  

"...The historical events which Manuel de Falla refers to, of a magnitude to disproportionately influence our songs, are threefold: the Spanish Church’s adoption of liturgical chant, the Saracen invasion, and the arrival in Spain of numerous bands of Gypsies. They are the mysterious migrant folk who gave cante jondo its definitive form.
The great master Felipe Pedrell, one of the first Spaniards to treat questions of folklore scientifically, writes, in his magnificent Cancionero popular español: ‘Musical orientalism survives in various popular songs and is deeply rooted in our nation through the influence of ancient Byzantine civilization on the ritual used in the Spanish Church, from the conversion of our country to Christianity until the eleventh century when the Roman liturgy can be said to have been fully introduced.’
Manuel de Falla adds to this statement of his old master, specifying the elements of Byzantine liturgical chant revealed in the siguiriya, which are: the tonal modes of primitive systems (not be confused with those known as Greek modes), the enharmony inherent in those modes, and the lack of metric rhythm in the melodic line. ‘These same properties characterize certain Andalusian songs which appeared long after the Spanish Church’s adoption of Byzantine liturgical music, songs which have a close affinity with the music which in Morocco, Algiers and Tunis is still called in a manner that stirs the hearts of all true Granadans, “the music of the Moors of Granada....."

  

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ST. NICHOLAS PLANAS (1851-1932) "The Simple Shepherd Of The Simple Sheep"

 

It is necessary in the materialistic age in which we live, to become acquainted with holy personalities which our long-suffering Lord sends us, so that we can be assured that He has not abandoned us. One such personality is "Papa" (Father) Nicholas Planas, who lived in the beginning of our century.

HIS BIRTH

He was born in Naxos in 1851. His parents, captain John and Augustina, were quite well off but were also good people, with the simple and pure soul which distinguishes island people. They had their own estate, with a little chapel in the middle of it by the name of Saint Nicholas. Very frequently little Nicholas Planas would hide in the chapel wearing a bed sheet, and he would chant whatever he knew, as he was still a small child. At other times he would gather his friends, and they would "celebrate" the Divine Liturgy.

He learned his first letters from his grandfather, Fathe George Melissourgos. Near him, Nicholas learned to read the psalter. He observed his grandfather's every movement in the Holy Altar and followed him in all the liturgies he did in the innumerable country chapels.

One winter night--as Papa Nicholas himself related about his childhood life--they were sitting near the fireplace and he told his father, "Father, at this moment our boat, the Evangelistria, is sinking outside Constantinople."

Trembling, his father said to his wife, "Woman, what is the child saying?"

And truly, at that moment their boat was sinking. Immediately, to dismiss the idea of holy foreknowledge which he had, he said, "All small children have foreknowledge." (And because he didn't have any teeth he spoke like a little child).

His father died young. He had been pained in soul, not only for the loss of their boat, but even more so for the young lads who were lost along with it. Thus he left Nicholas an orphan at forteen years of age. His mother took him and they went--together with his sister--to Athens. At that time Athens began at the Acropolis and reached up to Panaghia Vlassarou Church. They settled somewhere between St. John of Plaka and St. Panteleimon of Ilissou because there were quite a few Naxiotes builders and workers there. Their days were difficult. His mother worked washing other homes so that they could survive. She took her children together with her no matter where she was working, because she was afraid of Athens. She trembled at the idca that they might take the evil path.

HIS ORDINATION

When he reached seventeen years of age, his mother married him off to a good gril from Kythira, Eleni Provelegiou. They had one child. Afterwards he was ordained a deacon in the Church of the Transfiguration, Plaka, on July 28, 1879. Five years later, on March 2, 1884, he was ordained a priest in the church of the Holy Prophet Elisha. In the meantime, however, his wife reposed. And so, carrying the burden of being a widower, he entrusted himself and his son John to God's mercy. He had no estate because had split it with his sister and had put his own portion as collateral on a loan, so that a compatriot of his could be saved from debt.

He was compassionate, and had no care for wordly things or estates. Night and day he was absorbed in divine worship, and with his small parish of St. Panteleimon in Neo Kosmo which was comprised of thirteen families. The people loved him. His simplicity, his island piety, his kindness, his chastity, his lack of love for money, drew everyone to divine worship. Everyone wanted him to bless their homes, their stores. And he ran everywhere joyously. From aristocratic homes down to the poorest homes, he never kept a drachma on him. The poor always waited outside the church for him to distribute whatever he had in his pocket.

However, a certain priest without a parish of his own, in cooperation with the council members of St. Panteleimon, kicked him out of his parish and sent him to the Church of Saint John, ("the Hunter" as they called it then) in Vouliagimeni. The new parish was very poor and was comprised of eight families. His payment as a priest was one piece of meat from the fattened lamb of Meatfare Sunday or Christmas. This did not brother him, however, because fasting was most important in his life. So long as he had a church in which to liturgize, he was happy.

His having been kicked out of St. Panteleimon, however, bothered him a lot. One night, as he was leaving St. John to go home, he was crying on the road. The place was deserted at that hour. Suddenly he saw on his path a young lad said to him, 

"Why are you crying, Father?"....
"I'm crying, my child, because they kicked me out of St. Panteleimon's."
"Don't be said, Father. I am always with you."
"Who are you, my child?"
"I am Panteleimon, who lives in Neo Kosmo."

And immediately he vanished from in front of him.

Every year, on the feast of St. Panteleimon, he would go to the Saint's church in Neo Kosmo and do a vigil. One year, as he himself reated, he was sick and had a fever. His relative did not allow him to go for his customary vigil. But because of the love which Father Nicholas had for the Saint, he went anyway. "That night," he himself said,

"after the Liti, exhausted, I leaned on the edge of the Holy Table. In the delirium of the fever I saw the Saint in front of me, young and vigorous, holding a small glass full of medicine, and he told me, 'Drink it, my Father, to become well.' I took it from the hand and drank it and became completely well. The fever left me. For a whole week out through the Royal Gate and said, 'My children, I was very sick tonight, and at this moment Saint Panteliemon gave me medicine and I drank and became well.' Everyone believed it and knelt down, glorifying the Saint."

HIS LITURGIES

For fifty consecutive years he liturgized daily from 8.a.m. til 2.p.m., in snows, in revolutions. Not even with the invasion of the Anglo-French in 1917 did he interrupt his series of Liturgies. In the narrow streets of the Acropolis at 2:00 in the afternoon in July, he would liturgize in small chapes, as the sweat settled on the sacred vestments of this true laborer in Christ's vineyard.

HIS FASTS

He ate every night. He fasted from oil every lenten period. As a confessor he was not strict about fasting, though when it concerned himself, he was very strick. One day someone gave him a little chocolate and told him it was fastworthy. He took it in his hand, looked at it closely and said, "Just to sure, take it back!"

HIS "BILLS AND CONTRACTS"

He commemorated names for whole hours. First, departed patriarchs, metropolitans, priests, deacons and the .... Naxiotes, and the Ahtenians. The names they gave him, he commemorated for many months. Every now and then his spiritual children, to give him some rest, would take the old papers and secretly rip them up, because he took them with him to all the churches. He would place them in two large handerchiefs and tie them up like a type of package, and place them on his hip. When he would arrive home and take them off his hip--because he had two packages, one with names and the other with holy relics--they would ask him.

"What are these packages?"
And he would respond, "My bills and my contracts."
"Aren't you tired, Father? When will you rest?"
He would cross his hands and humbly respond, "I shall chant to my God as long as I live."

When he would go into church, a stir would occur from the reception people would give him. Some would kiss his hands, others his cassock, others his little head since he was short. Most of the time he liturgized in the church of the Prophet. On feast days he would he would go to his own parish. In the church of St. Johnthere was a caretaker who disliked the elder. One day she swore at him with hand gestures, and at night she saw Saint John saying to her, "What did my servant do to you that you would swear at him like that?" And he gave her a slap on the cheek. In the morning her cheek was black and blue. 

The next day when Father Nicholas went to church the caretaker went in front of him, fell at his feet, asked his forgiveness, and simultaneously asked him to step on her hands. The meek and clam one went off to one side. She shouted, "Step on them, Father!" And again he responded, "But why should I step on them?" This lasted quite a while until he forgave her for what she had done, even though he had not noticed it.

HIS PATIENCE AND FORBEARANCE

His patience and forbearance were unlimited. He had a helper, Michael, who always accompanied him and chanted if no one else was there. Even though he loved the elder a lot, at the same time he tormented him. On freezing days of winter when he was forced to be near Father Nicholas while he commemorated for unending hours, Michael would shout "Come o-o-on, Father-er-er-er! You are looking to take the dead out of hades and bury us with the cold..." Another time, he did not allow him to do a supplication service to the Panaghia at the end of the Liturgy. 

Father Nicholas was pout-faced all day and would say to himself, "Imagine Michael not allowing me to do a supplication service!..." And he would repeat again, "Imagine, he wouldn't allow me." When sometimes they argued in church, the elder would hide in the altar so as not to take part. And once he was advising one of his spiritual children on how to restrain her anger, and would say, "Do you think, my child, that I don't know how to speak out? I know but I think of the result."

HIS SANCTITY

The children who were in church would see him shining with heavenly light, doing unexplainable gestures, or remaining for a long time attentive, as if something were happening to him. Therse were the moments when he was communicating with the saints and being dreanched with the light of Paradise. Many times they would see him not standing on the ground. 

A little eight year old child once came out white from the altar and told his mother "Mo-o-om, Father Nicholas is this high off the ground" and he showed her with his hand a half cubit above the ground. "Don't be afraid, my child, all priests are elevated off the ground that way when they liturgize," his mother responded, doing her cross to settle him down.

The children would see him being elevated to the sky and not stepping upon the ground, because he scorned all earthly and material things. His mind was high up, on Him Who He worshipped, and he would not turn his eyes to look at what the people call material goods.

HIS LACK OF LOVING MONEY

Once some for whom he had read a supplication service gave him a respectable sum of money in a sealed envelope. He gave it away immediately, still sealed, to a poor woman. The man who gave it to him got upset and said, "Why, that blessed one, wouldn't he even look at what I gave him?" He told a spiritual daughter of his that he had cut a payment to eleven families of widows and orphans, and futhermore, he said, the young widows especailly have need, because poverty urges them to corruption. 

A lot of money would pass through his hands, but he would keep nothing. He would immediately give it away to charity. Many times he remained without even a penny for himself. Once he took a horse and carriage to take him somewhere, without noticing that he did not have any money. The carriage driver said to him, "Arent you the parish preist of St. John's, Father Nicholas?"
"Yes, my child, I am."
"Well, I don't want money, just your blessing!" Another time some people where discussing politics at a certain house. "So, what do you say, Father?" they asked him. Once he recovered from the depth of his thought, he wanted to say something. "Who is governing now?"! Imagine how little knowledge he had of secular matters.

THE APPEARANCE OF ANGELS

Once he set out on his own to go to chapel in Peristeri, but he lost his way. He advanced, distressed and praying, without knowing where he was going, until he saw a young lad in front of him, saying to him, "Did you lose your way, Father? I will guide you." The young lad went in front and Father Nicholas went behind, and they reached the door of the church. Here he, himself, relates what happened: "As soon as we reached outside the door, I turned to give him thanks, and immediately he shone brilliantly, and I lost him."

  When he liturgized, he wanted everything to contribute to the majesty of the Divine Liturgy. He chanted with such contrition that he would hear the angels chanting with him. Once, he asked a spiritual daughter of his whether she also heard the angels. "No, my Father, I don't hear them." Immediately he repented and said to himself, "I shouldn't have said it, I shouldn't have said it..." For the duration of the half century in which he liturgized without a break, he never lacked prosphoro (holy bread used for the Holy Divine Liturgy). Always some woman would bring it the night before or some nearby bakery would provide it for him. One day the Matins (Orthros) had proceeded quite a way and no prophoro could be seen anywhere. 

He sent helpers to go to the women he knew always had prosphoro; he looked in the cupboards of the sanctury --nothing. He was distressed to the point that he started to cry. After such a continuance of liturgies for a cessation to occur now! Whereupon they saw him coming out of the Holy Royal Doors holding a prosphoro (the Sea only, not the whole loaf), which was still very warm and which he had found on the altar table. Moved with joy, he said, "My children, what a sign God did for me!" 

 All miracles he called signs. He did not delve too deeply into these phenomena; he considered them natural, out of his great faith. And he did not comment very much about them, so as not to put on himself. One night, the eve of the feast of the Holy Hieromartyr Phocas was dawning. One of his spiritual children saw a majestic priest behind Father Nicholas, who was observing how they were chanting the Holy Divine Liturgy. When she metnioned this to the elder, he said to her, bringing his finger to his lips, "Shhh! It is the Hieromartyr Phocas."

A CORRECTION OF VAINGLORY

Father Nicholas knew how to censure, to correct, to englighten souls, without rhetorical sermons, but merely with his life, his presence. A rich woman got sick, and her cousin suggested that they bring Father Nicholas to read a prayer for health. The daughter of the sick woman liked external propriety. So she said, "Let's bring a more respectable looking priest from the bigger churches, and not him, who will be dusty from church," etc. That night she saw Father Nicholas in her sleep, with all gold vestments, saying to her, "Do I please you, my child?" Startled, she awoke and stove to call father to read a prayer for health. 

When he came, the daughter of the sick woman ran piously, and she knelt down to kiss his hand, he said to her, "Did I please you as you saw me, my child?" Awe and astonishment rushed all through her body. Never did she expect such a rebuke for her vanity. Yet one other incident reveals the unsurpassed faith and piety which he had in the performance of his sacred duties. He went one day to commune a leper, but the illness had destroyed his lips so much that he could not take the Holy Body of the Lord, and it fell a little to the side of his mouth. Without hesitation, Father knelt and took the Divine Pearl which had fallen, and "consumed It"! Those who have a difficult time consuming because they fear germs should see this!! What a blasphemy! The irrational throughts of darkened unbelievers....

In the various churches where he celebrated he was the consolation and refuge of people. He was the "sacred little elder" who comforted every human pain. His reputation had extended to the various eparchies also, and people hastened form everywhere to hear him liturgize, to kiss his hand, for him to bless them... He reached 84 years of age and had never been slandered once, nor did anyone say anything against him. Everyone knew him and respected his holy personality. When he passed by they greeted him, taking off their hats.

On March 2, 1932, however, his holy life reached its end. He liturgized for the last time on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. As soon as he consumed the Holy Cup, he suffered a light fainting and was transported home, where his son John, and his daughter-in-law, Marigoula, offered their last services to their holy father. Like a little bird he gave up his holy soul to Him Whom he had worshipped his whole life long. News of the grievous event spread to all of Athens. People ran to venerate the relic of the vernerable elder. Everyone wanted to kiss his hand for the last time. The Archbishop of Athens, Chrysostom Papadoupoulos, suggested that the burial take place at night so that everyone could embrace him. Thus it happened.

His body was buried in the courtyard of the church of Saint John. His bones were placed in a siler reliquary in the new majestic church of St. John. His whole life was proof of the divine power and wisdom which God the Creator grants to those who love Him and keep His commandments. For this reason the noted writers, Alexandros Papadiamantis and Alexandros Moraitidis, asttached themselves to the disciples of the uneducated but wise priest (they would always chant near Father Nicholas). For this reason great spiritual names such as the Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Longovarda, Paros, the Archimandrite Zervakos, praised him. 

The Church of Greece, with an introduction from His Emience the Metropolitan of Patras, Nikodemos, who personally had met Saint Nicholas was granted to get his blessing, asked the Ecumenical Patriarchate to recognize Father Nicholas Planas' holiness. With a special Synodical Deed, the Patriarchate numbered him in the listing of saints of the Orthodox Church, and appointed that his memory be celebrated on March 2nd. 

The holy Canonization of Father Nicholas Planas took place in 1992.

His feast day is celebrated on March 2.

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