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The Earliest Example of Christian Hymnody

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

E. J. Wellesz
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Extract

From Patristic writings ample evidence can be gathered about the important part which hymn-singing held in Early Christianity. Until recently, however, Early Christian hymnography was known only from documents transmitting the text but not the music. The discovery and publication of a Christian hymn in Greek with musical notation was, therefore, bound to change the whole aspect of studies concerned with the history of Early Christian music. This happened, as is well known, in 1922 when, under No. 1786 of the fifteenth volume of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri A. S. Hunt edited a fragment of a hymn, dating from the late third century, together with a transcript of the music by H. Stuart Jones. For the first time it became possible to realize what kind of music Greek-speaking Christians in Egypt sang in praise of the Lord.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 39 , Issue 1-2 , January 1945 , pp. 34 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1945

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References

page 34 note 1 Oxyrhynchus Papyri,Part xv (O.P.), p. 22.

page 34 note 2 Cf. W. Vetter's exaggerated conclusions in Pauly's Real-Encycl. d. cl. Alt., ed. Kroll, W. (1935), c. 874Google Scholar

page 34 note 3 Reinach, Th., ‘Un ancêtre de la Musique d'Église’, Revue Musicale, 07 1922, p. 24Google Scholar, and Musique grecque, 1926. Wagner, R., ‘Der Oxyrhynchos-Notenpapyrus’, Philologus, lxxix (N.F. xxxiii), 1924, pp. 201–21Google Scholar; the transcription is on a separate table. Abert, H., ‘Ein neuentdeckter frühchristlicher Hymnus mit antiken Musiknoten’, Zeitschrifi f#r Musikwissenschaft, iv, 1921–1922, p. 527Google Scholar, and ‘Das älteste Denkmal der christlichen Kirchenmusik’, Die Antike, ii, 1926, pp. 282–90Google Scholar. A reprint of this article in Gesammelte Schriften und Vorträge von Hermann Abert, herausgegeben von Friedrich Blume, 1929, contains a revised version of the transcription on p. 89. The example given in Gérold's, Th.Les Pères de l' Église et la Musique, 1931, p. 45Google Scholar represents an inexact rendering of Th. Reinach's version of the hymn.

page 36 note 1 Cf.Jan, C.MusiciScriptoresGraeci (Tenbner), P. 370.Google Scholar

page 36 note 2 O.P., p. 22. The same notation occurs in the first piece of the rather earlier papyrus published by Schubart, W. in Sitzungsber. preuss. Akad., 1918, pp. 763–8Google Scholar. Cf. Wagner, R., ‘Der Berliner Notenpapyrus’ Philologus, lxxvii (N.F. xxxi), 1922, pp. 256–310Google Scholar, and Abert, H., ‘Der neue griechische Papyrus mit Musiknoten’, Archiv f. Musikwiss. i, 1918, pp. 313–28.Google Scholar

page 36 note 3 Bellermann, F., Die Tonleitern u. Musiknoten d. Griechen, 1847Google Scholar, plate 1.

page 37 note 1 Arist. Quint., ed. Jahn, A., p. 27Google Scholar. 6.

page 37 note 2 Berl. Phil. Woch. xlii, 1922, p. 323.Google Scholar

page 37 note 3 See Philol. lxxvii (N.F. xxxi), pp. 297 ff.

page 39 note 1 Reinach himself was not certain that his suggestion would solve the question and worded it rather cautiously: ‘La seule explication que je puisse concevoir de ce signe mystérieux, c'est d'y voir une tenue, c'est-à-dire l'analogue du point de niveau.…Je ne donne cet essai d'interprétation que sous toute réserve’. Revue Mus., p. 21.

page 39 note 2 Cf. footnote 2 in Wagner's, R. article in Philol., p. 201Google Scholar. Abert, setting the hymn in the key of G# minor, and Wagner, in Ab minor (its equivalent), are following Riemann's, H. deductions in his Handbuch d. Musikgeschichte, i (1904), p. 198Google Scholar, showing that the Dorian mode in A minor was the Greek fundamental scale, contrary to Bellermann's hypothesis that it was the Hypolydian. From the theoretical point of view Abert and Wagner were right in setting the hymn in the key of G# minor or Ab minor. In practice, however, there is no need to write the melody in a key which even in modem music is rarely used. In his second version Abert came back to the simpler way of transcribing used by Stuart Jones.

page 40 note 1 O.P., p. 22.

page 40 note 2 Rev. Mus., p. 17.

page 40 note 3 ‘Zu bezeichnen ist sie als heptameter dactylicus catalecticus in syllabam’. Philol., p. 208.

page 40 note 4 Muenscher, K., ‘Zum christl. Dreifaltig-keitshymnus aus Oxyrhynchus’, Philol. Ixxx (N.F. xxxiv), 1924, p. 212.Google Scholar

page 40 note 5 Christ, W. and Paranikas, M., Anth. gr. carm. Christ., 1871, pp. 38–40.Google Scholar

page 41 note 1 Cf. Baumstaik, A., Liturgie Comparée, 1939, pp. 69Google Scholar ff., and Gérold, Th., Les Pères de l' église et la musique, 1931, pp. 19ff.Google Scholar

page 41 note 2 For a more detailed discussion on this principle of composition I may refer to my study on ‘Eastern Elements in Western Chant’ Mon. Mus. Byz., Amer. Ser., vol. i (in print).

page 41 note 3 An example of this state of transition is given by Wessely, C. in his ‘Les plus anciens monuments du Christianisme’, Patr. orient, iv, pp. 205Google Scholar ff., commenting on the metre of the Christian hymn (third or fourth century) from the Amherst Papyri, i, ed. Grenfell, and Hunt, , pp. 23–8Google Scholar: ‘La construction métrique a pour base deux principes: l'un est celui de l'ancienne poésie grecque, l'emploi alternatif de syllables longues et brèves; l'autre est l'accentuation des syllables.’

page 43 note 1 Zeitschr. f. Mus. Wiss., 1921–2, p. 529.

page 43 note 2 Ibid. 528.

page 43 note 3 Philol., 1924, pp. 213–14.

page 43 note 4 Ibid., p. 213.

page 44 note 1 Cf. Wellesz, E., Trésor de Musique Byzan-tine, i (1936)Google Scholar and ii (1938), ed. C. Höeg, H. J. W. Tillyard, E. Wellesz).

page 44 note 2 Wellesz, E., ‘Über rhythmus u. Vortrag d. byz. Melodien;“, Byz. Zeitschr. xxxiii (1933), pp. 62–6Google Scholar‘Studien z. byz. Musik’, Zeitschr. f. Mus. Wiss. xvi (1934), pp. 217 ff.Google Scholar.

page 44 note 3 Emereau, C., Saint Ephrem le Syrien, 1918, pp. 103 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 44 note 4 Cf. my article on Eastern Church Music in Grov's, Dictionary of Music, Supplem. Vol., 1940Google Scholar.

page 44 note 5 R. Wagner bases his deductions in Philol., loc. cit., on Gevaert's, A.La Melopée antique, published in 1895Google Scholar. We cannon accept the material used by Gevaert as a reliable source, because the melodies are not based upon the MSS. of the best period, such as those published by the monks of Solesmes. Moreover, the Gregorian melodies underwent many transformations when the Roman rite crystalized, and features Characteristic of the pre-Gregorian period were destroyed.

page 44 note 6 Hirmologium Athoum, ed. C. Höeg; Cod. Monast. Hiber. 470; Mon. Mus. Byz. Facs., Vol. ii, 1938Google Scholar.

page 45 note 1 Idelsohn, A. Z., ‘Parallelen zwischen gregor. u. hebr.-orient. Gesangsweisen’, Zeitschr. f. Mus. Wiss. iv, 1921–1922, pp. 514–24Google Scholar.

page 45 note 2 Zeitschr. f. Mus. Wiss. iv, p. 528.

page 45 note 3 Philol., loc. cit. p. 211.

page 45 note 4 Like all other Oriental music, Early Christian music both Eastern and Western was transmitted orally. The signs of Early Byzan-tine notation originally regulated the rhythm and execution. Interval signs were introduced only by degrees, when it became increasingly difficult to store all the melodies in the memory. We may, however, well imagine that a christian in Egypt, trained in music, may have used the system of notation handed down by Alypius, in order to remind him of the hymn.