Ison (music)
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Ison is a
drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...
note, or a slow-moving lower vocal part, used in
Byzantine chant Byzantine music (Greek: Βυζαντινή μουσική) is the music of the Byzantine Empire. Originally it consisted of songs and hymns composed to Greek texts used for courtly ceremonials, during festivals, or as paraliturgical and liturgical ...
and some related musical traditions to accompany the
melody A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...
, thus enriching the singing. It was not considered to transform it into a harmonized or
polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
piece.


History

It is widely believed that ison was first introduced in Byzantine practice in the 16th century.History of Byzantine chant
at the Divine Music Project of St. Anthony Monastery
It stresses or supports the melody.
at the Divine Music Project of St. Anthony Monastery
Before that Greek church chanting was purely
monophonic Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduc ...
(as it still remains in some more archaic traditions, such as Kyiv's_Znamenny_chant)._The_drone_practice_may_have_been_borrowed_from_the_West,_namely_from_
Kyiv's_Znamenny_chant)._The_drone_practice_may_have_been_borrowed_from_the_West,_namely_from_Italy">Znamenny_chant.html"_;"title="Kyiv's_Znamenny_chant">Kyiv's_Znamenny_chant)._The_drone_practice_may_have_been_borrowed_from_the_West,_namely_from_Italy._Traditionally_the_ison_was_not_notated_(see_below)._The_first_example_of_notated_ison_was_not_documented_until_1847,_and_the_practice_of_notating_the_ison_did_not_become_widespread_for_100_years,_or_only_in_the_second_half_of_the_20th_century. There_is_some_evidence_for_a_use_of_a_2nd_"auxiliary"_ison_in_Patriarchate_of_Constantinople.html" "title="Italy.html" ;"title="Znamenny_chant.html" ;"title="Kyiv's Znamenny chant">Kyiv's Znamenny chant). The drone practice may have been borrowed from the West, namely from Italy">Znamenny_chant.html" ;"title="Kyiv's Znamenny chant">Kyiv's Znamenny chant). The drone practice may have been borrowed from the West, namely from Italy. Traditionally the ison was not notated (see below). The first example of notated ison was not documented until 1847, and the practice of notating the ison did not become widespread for 100 years, or only in the second half of the 20th century. There is some evidence for a use of a 2nd "auxiliary" ison in Patriarchate of Constantinople">Patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of Dominance hierarchy, dominance and Social privilege, privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical Anthropology, anthropological term for families or clans controll ...
chanting practice, that would be pitched on a different tone (usually in a 4th of a 5th from the main ison, in a different
tetrachord In music theory, a tetrachord ( el, τετράχορδoν; lat, tetrachordum) is a series of four notes separated by three intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency propo ...
, but in some cases maybe even in a 2nd), and sang more discreetly, at the same time still effectively introducing the 3rd independent tone in the chant.
Simon Karas Simon Karas (3 June 1905 – 26 January 1999) was a Greek musicologist, who specialized in Byzantine music tradition. Simon Karas studied paleography of Byzantine musical notation, was active in collecting and preserving ancient musical manu ...
is known to be interested in a double-ison technique, and he tried to reconstruct how it could sound like in the older 15th- 16th-century practices, when there appeared indeed some first attempts to create a "Native Byzantine alternative to Western polyphony". The mobility of ison seems to gradually increase with time, with modern ison lines being much more mobile than those known from the end of the 19th century. The main reason for this gradual change obviously lies in the influence of Western music over Byzantine chanting practices. Some chanters however tend to emphasize the influence of
Simon Karas Simon Karas (3 June 1905 – 26 January 1999) was a Greek musicologist, who specialized in Byzantine music tradition. Simon Karas studied paleography of Byzantine musical notation, was active in collecting and preserving ancient musical manu ...
, who was a supporter of much more mobile ison. Chanters holding the ison were (and are) called ''isokratima'' (ισοκράτημα) in
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
.


Modern use in Byzantine chant

The use of ison in Byzantine chant is relatively flexible, so the same piece can be performed with isons of various mobility—starting from a stable drone on one note for a whole piece, and up to a more mobile lower tone, changing at least once within each musical phrase. Still ison is never as mobile as the melody, and does not introduce
counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
in the performance, but rather stresses the melody by introducing a base to pitch stressed or consonant (just) intervals against it.Isokratema (Ison, Drone)
at analogion.com (a collection of answers from leading psaltis)
The main logic of ison is the following:Understanding the Byzantine Musical System Using Western Notation and Theory or Name That Tone!
by Stanley Takis
* for each Byzantine tone it has a main stable note (such as D for the 1st tone, G for the 2nd, F for the 3d etc.) * whenever a melody transposes to a different
tetrachord In music theory, a tetrachord ( el, τετράχορδoν; lat, tetrachordum) is a series of four notes separated by three intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency propo ...
, the ison is likely to jump to the base note of this tetrachord, either up or down * whenever a melody goes below the ison for a short time, the ison is likely to follow it down and then back up to the stable note, in order not to be above the melody (which is usually, but not always, undesirable) * in some modes the ison performs phrasing of cadences, following the internal logic of the tone (such as the D-C-D cadence in the Plagal 1st tone, or the G-E interchanging phrasing of the 2nd tone) However, as it was noted above, for the majority of compositions a stable ison staying on the main stable note of the tone would usually work as well. With this in mind, in most traditional Byzantine scores prior to the mid-20th century the ison was not even notated, as it was assumed that to perform it is just too simple to bother to fix it in writing. For really quick, as well as for extremely slow and ornamental pieces the ison is usually sung without words, just as a kind of "humming", while for the majority of pieces performed in normal
tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...
the words are supposed to be produced in synchrony with the melody. There is also an "intermediate" approach, when the ison follows the
vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s of the text, but not the
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
s. The ison is also supposed to be held across the gaps between the phrases, when the leading chanters, singing the melody, catch their breath.


Modern use in other traditions

Apart from Byzantine chant, ison is also used in some Russian traditions, such as
Valaam chant The Valaam Monastery (russian: Валаамский монастырь; Finnish version: ''Valamo Monastery'') is a stauropegic Orthodox monastery in Russian Karelia, located on Valaam, the largest island in Lake Ladoga, the largest lake in Europ ...
. Recently, under the influence of Byzantine chant,
Znamenny chant Znamenny Chant (russian: знаменное пение, знаменный распев) is a singing tradition used by some in the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church. Znamenny Chant is a unison, melismatic liturgical singing that has its own spec ...
also tends to be performed with the ison. This innovation is rather controversial however, as Znamenny chant follows different musical logic than the Byzantine chant, is less ornamental and mobile on its own, and also does not use different scales for different tones. With ison introduced, Znamenny chant tends sometimes to sound rather dull, and the chants of different tones become more similar, which is not always a desirable effect.Ответы на часто задаваемые вопросы о знаменном пении
project "Дьячье Око" (Russian)
Ison is also used in Bulgarian and Serbian chant.


References

{{Byzantine music Byzantine music theory Polyphonic singing