Phthora nana (
Medieval Greek
Medieval Greek (also known as Middle Greek, Byzantine Greek, or Romaic) is the stage of the Greek language between the end of classical antiquity in the 5th–6th centuries and the end of the Middle Ages, conventionally dated to the Ottoman co ...
) is one of the ten modes of the
Hagiopolitan Octoechos
Oktōēchos (here transcribed ""; Greek: pronounced in koine: ; from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́смь "eight" and гласъ "voice, sound") is the n ...
consisting of 8 diatonic
echoi and two additional
phthorai. It is used in different traditions of
Orthodox chant until today (→
Neobyzantine Octoechos
Oktōēchos (here transcribed "Octoechos"; Greek: ; from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́смь "eight" and гласъ "voice, sound") is the name of the ei ...
). The name "nana" is taken from the syllables (written in ligatures "ʅʅ") sung during the intonation which precedes a melody composed in this mode. The name "phthora" derived from the verb and means "destroy" or "corrupt". It was usually referred to the
diatonic genus
In the musical system of ancient Greece, genus (Greek: γένος 'genos'' pl. γένη 'genē'' Latin: ''genus'', pl. ''genera'' "type, kind") is a term used to describe certain classes of intonations of the two movable notes within a tetracho ...
of the eight mode system and as a sign used in Byzantine chant notation it indicated a "change to another genus" (), in the particular case of phthora nana a change to the enharmonic genus. Today the "nana" intonation has become the standard name of the third authentic mode which is called "echos tritos" () in Greek and "third glas" () in Old Church Slavonic.
The different functions of phthora nana
In the theory and notation of
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and Orthodox chant nana is the name of a special
phthora which had been used in different ways according to its historic context:
#as a phthora which has its proper melos (intonation and cadence formulas), it may denote a special kind of
echos
Echos (Greek: "sound", pl. echoi ; Old Church Slavonic: "voice, sound") is the name in Byzantine music theory for a mode within the eight-mode system (oktoechos), each of them ruling several melody types, and it is used in the melodic and rhy ...
(mode) that has been identified with the ''echos tritos'' (third mode) since the 16th century, but deviates from the later
diatonic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize Scale (music), scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, Interval (music), intervals, Chord (music), chords, Musical note, notes, musical sty ...
''echos tritos'' by the division of its tonal system and its tetrachord. The name "" (ʅʅ) was used for its proper
enechema
Echos (Greek: "sound", pl. echoi ; Old Church Slavonic: "voice, sound") is the name in Byzantine music theory for a mode within the eight-mode system (oktoechos), each of them ruling several melody types, and it is used in the melodic and rhy ...
, and within the
Hagiopolitan Octoechos
Oktōēchos (here transcribed ""; Greek: pronounced in koine: ; from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́смь "eight" and гласъ "voice, sound") is the n ...
whole troparia can be found in the tropologion or the chant book
Octoechos
Oktōēchos (here transcribed "Octoechos"; Greek: ;The feminine form exists as well, but means the book octoechos. from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́см ...
which are composed in the melos of ''phthora nana'' ().
#within the heirmologic or sticheraric melos, it may denote a temporary change to the enharmonic genus () and to the triphonic tone system () within another mode, like ', ' or ' (plagal first mode) for instance, to an intervallic structure and tone system that is proper to phthora nana as an own echos.
#as ', could used as an own mode which had been used in improvised sections like ' or ' which had been sung over abstract syllables. Byzantine composers like Manuel Chrysaphes the Lampadarios mentioned, that the phthora nana always leads to the (fourth plagal mode), before the melos can change into another mode.
#as exoteric "phthora atzem", the sign was used for the transcription of music composed in ''makam acem'', a makam connected to a certain Persian
dastgah
Dastgāh ( fa, دستگاه) is the standard musical system in Persian art music, standardised in the 19th century following the transition of Persian music from the Maqam modal system. A consists of a collection of musical melodies, . In a son ...
.
#as a modulation sign, phthora nana played a crucial role to change between the third to the plagal fourth mode. Hence, there can be found some parallels between the b flat as used by
Guido of Arezzo
Guido of Arezzo ( it, Guido d'Arezzo; – after 1033) was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern staff notation that had a ma ...
, and the temporary use of phthora nana in psaltic compositions which changed between the modes. As such ''phthora nana'' was used as an alteration sign within the heptaphonic solfeggio of Chrysanthos' New Method, which transcribed its triphonic tone system by a frequent use transposition (a certain which turns into similar to the Guidonian mutation memorised as «F fa ut»).
Hagiopolites treatise about phthora nana
It is supposed that the Hagiopolites treatise served during the 9th century as a manual preceding a chant book called ''tropologion''. The book contained a collection of simple hymns
troparia
A troparion (Greek , plural: , ; Georgian: , ; Church Slavonic: , ) in Byzantine music and in the religious music of Eastern Orthodox Christianity is a short hymn of one stanza, or organised in more complex forms as series of stanzas.
The wi ...
as well as
heirmoi which served as melodic models () for the 10 modes of Octoechos.
Nana holds the status one of the two "special" additional
echoi or "mesoi" (medial forms between authentic and plagal echoi) in the system of the
Hagiopolitan Octoechos
Oktōēchos (here transcribed ""; Greek: pronounced in koine: ; from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́смь "eight" and гласъ "voice, sound") is the n ...
. The other one is called
nenano
Phthora nenano (Medieval Greek: , also νενανώ) is the name of one of the two "extra" modes in the Byzantine Octoechos—an eight mode system, which was proclaimed by a synod of . The phthorai nenano and nana were favoured by composers at th ...
. Already in the Hagiopolites treatise the phthorai nana and nenano have been characterized as both echoi and "not echoi, but phthorai" (→
phthora). This means that they were proper modes with their own models, but they had to be integrated within the
Octoechos
Oktōēchos (here transcribed "Octoechos"; Greek: ;The feminine form exists as well, but means the book octoechos. from ὀκτώ "eight" and ἦχος "sound, mode" called echos; Slavonic: Осмогласие, ''Osmoglasie'' from о́см ...
and its eight-week cycle. Thus, phthora nana was subordinated to the , and the treatise also referred to it as "": as a third medial mode of the which was neither authentic (kyrios) nor plagal (plagios).
Phthora nana according to the theory and practice of psaltic art
The concrete intervals of the enharmonic genus are less subject than the explanation of relationships between the modes. Often certain paragraphs of the Hagiopolites concerned about the phthora nana have been re-interpreted again and again according to the current tradition of psaltic art.
Its enechema
In contemporary theoretical explanations the phthora nana had not only been regarded as a melodic model for stichera and heirmoi, but also as a transition model as well, which mainly connected with .
![PhthoraNanaEchosTritos](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/PhthoraNanaEchosTritos.jpg)
According to theoretical explanations of the Papadike, phthora nana was not only defined by its melos like a proper echos itself, as such it had been subordinated to certain echoi already in the Hagiopolites treatise.
Manuel Chrysaphes
Manuel Doukas Chrysaphes ( el, , ) was the most prominent Byzantine musician of the 15th century.
Life and works
A singer, composer, and musical theoretician, Manuel Chrysaphes was called "the New Koukouzeles" by his admirer, the Cretan compos ...
,
Lampadarios
A lampadarius, plural ''Lampadarii'', from the Latin ''lampada'', from Ancient Greek "lampas" λαμπάς (candle), was a slave who carried torches before consuls, emperors and other officials of high dignity both during the later Roman Repub ...
at the Byzantine court, emphasised that is only used as a phthora of the , but within its melos it causes always a change into the echos plagios . Any other changes have to be made after the transition into the :
.
He also mentioned that the phthora had its own solfège (parallage), so that it solved the diatonic echos tritos and binds it to the ( "binding and solving").
.
The distinction, that it was by the own solfège (''apo parallagon'') "like a kyrios echos of its own" (''os echos kyrios''), meant on the surface, that the tritos could be based on the octave on B flat (heptaphonia) with the finalis F, while it had to change into the octave which was based on C and therefore used b natural as seventh degree. The triphonic solfège could be solved again from the enharmonic into the diatonic genus, but it was in fact not just a change of the genus (, ''metavole kata genos''), but also a change from the triphonic into the tetraphonic tone system (, ''metavole kata systema''). It was not organised by separated tetrachords (tetraphonia), but by connected ones (triphonia: C—F—b flat). Hence, the "own triphonic parallage" intermediated between both octave species, which were otherwise very far from each other. Already in this transitional function it formed an alternative melos of the echoi.
Its tone system
The phthora could intermediate, because it was distinct by its triphonic tone system and its enharmonic genus (the minor tone was always on the top of a tetrachord and smaller than a Western half tone—a
diesis
In classical music from Western culture, a diesis ( , plural dieses ( , "difference"; Greek: δίεσις "leak" or "escape"Benson, Dave (2006). ''Music: A Mathematical Offering'', p.171. . Based on the technique of playing the aulos, where p ...
). Ioannis Plousiadinos invented an own system of parallage in shape of a square made up by four X. It was constructed to represent the triphonic combinations of conjunct tetrachords, but only the last two X on the bottom described the triphonia of the phthora nana—the triphonia based on (left) and the triphonia based on the (right). Both possibilities were illustrated at the end of
John Koukouzeles
John Koukouzelis ( gr, Ιωάννης Κουκουζέλης, ''Ioannis Koukouzelis''; ) was a Byzantine composer, singer and reformer of Byzantine chant. He was recognized as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church after his death. Among the mos ...
' didactic chant
Mega Ison.
Its great sign and its dynamis as echos kratema
The Papadikai list between six and ten phthorai which represent the ten modes of the Hagiopolitan Octoechos—the diatonic eight modes (which did not need eight phthorai, since the echoi just represented the four elements of a tetrachord) and the two additional phthorai as their own echoi.
![Phthorai](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Phthorai.jpg)
In this very particular sense, the term "phthora" did neither refer to nenano nor nana, but simply meant the use of a transposition sign in order to indicate the precise place of a temporary transposition ().
.
Note also, that these phthorai and ">/nowiki> and /nowiki> are different from those of , and or , since the phthorai of the latter diatonic">/nowiki>diatonic/nowiki> echoi bind or solve quickly and thus, they only create a temporary change from one echos to another one, this is the only purpose they have.
The list of phthora did not include one to indicate a change into the melos of phthora nana. This change was instead caused by one of the great signs (), the xeron klasma (), like here in the sticherarion of the Biblioteca ambrosiana, where the medial signature of phthora nana (a temporary change into its melos) is prepared by this great sign.
![XeronKlasma](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/XeronKlasma.jpg)
This sticheron could be sung as well by a
protopsaltes
In Christianity, the cantor, sometimes called the precentor or the protopsaltes (; from ), is the chief singer, and usually instructor, employed at a church, with responsibilities for the choir and the preparation of the Mass or worship service ...
in the soloistic kalophonic style. If the medial signature of nana was the end of the section chosen for the realisation of a ''sticheron kalophonikon'', this sign could cause, that a whole kratema, a section in abstract syllables like for instance, was created in the phthora nana as an echos kratema.
Nana as exoteric phthora atzem
The phthora nana was called in various theories "phthora atzem" which referred to perde acem (the fret on the long necked lute
tambur
The ''tambur'' (spelled in keeping with TDK conventions) is a fretted string instrument of Turkey and the former lands of the Ottoman Empire. Like the ney, the armudi (lit. pear-shaped) kemençe and the kudüm, it constitutes one of the four in ...
called "acem" which was a common reference for Ottoman musicians) or even to makam acem—the "Persian makam" or "phthora." Panagiotes Keltzanides' edition offered a seyir—a melodic example to illustrate makam acem—on page 81:
![Acem](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Acem.jpg)
It is close to the melodic models of the Persian
Dastgāh-e Šur Dastgāh-e Šur ( fa, دستگاه شور; az, Şur) is one of the seven ''Dastgāh''s of Persian Music (Classically, Persian Music is organized into seven ''Dastgāhs'' and five '' Āvāz''es, however from a merely technical point of view, one c ...
.
The enharmonic echoi of the current Octoechos
The reform of the Byzantine
neume
A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation.
The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the general shape but not ne ...
notation in the early 19th century redefined the mele according to each genre (troparic, heirmologic, sticheraric, papadic), it also transcribed for the first time the rhythm which was so far part of an oral tradition or method, how to do the thesis of the melos. In these transcriptions the diatonic tritos echoi had little relevance.
Chrysanthos of Madytos Chrysanthos of Madytos ( el, Χρύσανθος ὁ ἐκ Μαδύτων; c. 1770 – 1846) was a Greek poet, chanter, Archimandrite, and Archbishop, born in Madytos. In preparation of the first printed books of Orthodox chant, he was responsible fo ...
, together with
Chourmouzios the Archivist
Chourmouzios the Archivist or Chourmouzios Chartophylax ( gr, Χουρμούζιος ὁ Χαρτοφύλαξ, "Chourmoúzios the Chartophýlax"), also known with the nickname "the Chalkenteros" (, "he with a copper intestine"), born Chourmouzios ...
and Gregorios the Protopsaltes one of the three "great teachers" that undertook the reform, published a treatise explaining the principles of the new system, entitled "Theoretikon Mega tes Mousikes".
While there was once a diatonic form of echos tritos and echos varys, it has no longer any relevance for the current tradition of Orthodox chant, even if it based on Byzantine monodic chant. Orthodox chanters know nowadays only the intonation "nana" (), when they would like to perform melodies composed in echos tritos. Already Papadikai of the 16th century identified "nana" signature in their lists with the diatonic intonation "aneanes." But its long formula was already replaced by the short of in Chrysanthos explanation of the former papadic practice of solfège using the enechemata:
![ChrysanthosTrochos](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/ChrysanthosTrochos.png)
This simple form is used until today, but Chrysanthos also developed its whole melos as a kind of exegesis ("interpretation") of the simple traditional echema of phthora nana:
![ChrysanthosTritos](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/ChrysanthosTritos.png)
Chrysanthos' exegesis of the real nana intonation uses the enharmonic intervals:
.
Hence, if the melos of the enharmonic genus starts on F , F γα and b flat −6">sup>−6should be symphonous, and not the phthongos c νη'. And like the diatonic and chromatic scales are made of tetraphonia, here they are made of triphonia:
:::C νη—D πα—E sharp []—F , F —G —a —b flat [
−6], b flat [
−6]—c —d —e flat [
−6].
Thus, also conjunct similar tetrachords are constructed by the same intervals in the middle ''12+13+3=28 C —D is equal to F —G , D —E sharp [] to G —a , E sharp []—F is equal to a —b flat [−6], etc.
He applied this intonation to the traditional varys
enechema
Echos (Greek: "sound", pl. echoi ; Old Church Slavonic: "voice, sound") is the name in Byzantine music theory for a mode within the eight-mode system (oktoechos), each of them ruling several melody types, and it is used in the melodic and rhy ...
:
![ChrysanthosVarys](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/ChrysanthosVarys.png)
There is also a diatonic form of echos varys, but according to Chrysanthos' adaption to the Ottoman tone system it was no longer based on a pentachord between kyrios tritos and varys, but on a tritonus on a low b natural.
[Oliver Gerlach (]2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
). Panagiotes Keltzanides ( 1881, 131–144) relates the makamlar dügah, evic, acem kürdi, sultanin arak, beste-nigar, beste-isfahan, nihavend and ferahnak, and evic buselik with the mele of echos varys based on fret "arak."
References
Theoretical sources
Hagiopolites
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Dialogue treatises
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Papadikai and their explanations
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Treatises of the New Method (since 19th century)
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Studies
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Nana (Echos)
Byzantine music theory
Modes (music)