Byzantine Influences of Medieval Serbian Church Music

that enabled easy transmission of literary and musical works. With
the granting of independence to the Serbian church in 1219 C.E. and
the gradual introduction of regional elements into Old Church Slav-
onic, certain vernacular musical characteristics may have found their
way into the subsequent settings of chant.
The most important factor of chant is, first and foremost, function.
Due to the utilitarian position of music in ritual, chant is seen as a
vital part of Orthodox worship. This differs slightly from the Catholic
practice: whereas during the Orthodox rite there is constant chanting
or singing, in the Catholic rite there are parts of the Mass that are
spoken rather than sung. The second important element is text, which
is found in various church books. Even though the text was the pri-
mary focus, this did not mean that the melody was neglected; that is,
the priority of having understandable and clear text was always re-
spected, but did not diminish the richness and depth of the melodic
line in songs. Just like in the Byzantine tradition, medieval Serbian
church music was exclusively vocal – as it is today – and monophonic.
Both Byzantine and medieval Serbian melodies had a tetrachordal
structure: two tetrachords, in the range of a perfect fourth, separated
by a whole step. Melodies were constructed within a two-octave range.
The texts from the Old Testament were sung in a calm, often monotonous
voice, whereas the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, and litanies were sung
in a loud recitation on one, two or three tones. Early neumatic manu-
scripts were written with abbreviations and without repeated vowels,
which leads to the conclusion that early melodies were syllabic. The
first cantors were monks and nuns: they would be located in one of
two apses in a church, under the direction of a domestikos, who was
a teacher and choir director, who would indicate the flow of a melody
that was learned by heart using his hands. Before the start of each song,
the main singer (protospalt) who sang in the right apse, or secondary
singer (lampadarios) in the left apse, would sing the beginning of the
song – that is, the corresponding intonational formulae – and would
begin the melody in unison with the choir. If the melody was melis-
matic, a soloist would sing on top of the ison (drone) of the choir.
The first written manuscripts with neumes are only from the early
15th century, therefore before this time, musical form was limited to oral
transmission. Any evidence of music before this time comes from
other written testimonies, such as biographies, travelogues, chronicles,
and liturgical texts without neumes; in these liturgical texts, there are
often written indications of musical modes and Slavonic musical terms,
which indicate that the texts were sung to memorized melodies. In
spite of the existence of manuscripts, it is important to consider the
role of oral transmission. Oral tradition underwent many changes and
modifications through the centuries, and can therefore only serve as a
partial element in the study of medieval Serbian music. Nevertheless,
the surviving oral tradition of church singing can still give us an idea
of medieval practices with regards to aspects such as treatment of the
ison, the length of breath and the execution of tone.
It is fortunate for posterity that there were Serbian musicians not
only knowledgeable of the Byzantine tradition, but also able to create,
write and sing their own pieces. Because of their musical value, these
works were later copied in contemporary and later musical anthologies
alongside the works of well-known Greek musicians. The discovery of
these various manuscripts shows that works by Kyr Stefan the Serb
(among others) were also known outside the borders of medieval Serb-
ia.32 There are many bilingual manuscripts, and an important element
in every manuscript is the name of the author, particularly where his
nationality is mentioned.
The idea of creativity and composition in the Middle Ages was sig-
nificantly different from that of later centuries. At the time, writers,
composers, and musicians did not even consider themselves creators
nor did they consider their products to be “works.” That kind of phil-
osophy went against the Biblical concept of godly creation and the
translation of nothing into something. The idea of copyright in the
modern sense did not exist, and the individual was only important as
part of the whole; as a representative of something greater than him-
self. The medieval composer was an instrument of God’s will, and not
a creator who established new criteria with his work. In composing a
new hymn, after choosing an appropriate text, the composer chose one
of the eight modes in which to write. Every mode had its own charac-
teristics–melodic segments–and within these segments specific parts
of text were set in order to form one idea or unit. The result of combin-
ing these musical segments, which depended on the length of the text,
was a rounded poetic form.
Many songs from the 15th century demonstrate typical character-
istics of Byzantine musical expression, including the choice of modes,
treatment of text, formulaic elements, and even concrete melodic chor-
uses.36 However, as already stated, many of these Byzantine elements
had already morphed into their Slavic counterparts by this century;
one such piece is Ninja Sili. In the only surviving manuscript, the in-
scription above the hymn says, “the work of domestikos Kyr Stefan
the Serb.” The scribe is unknown, and equally as with most of the
early composers of church music, little is known about Kyr Stefan. The
above-mentioned attribution apparently prompted some scholars to
identify him with “Stefan domestikos in the town of Smederevo,” who
in the mid-15th century copied books for the despot Lazar in the latter’s
court. This is speculative, however, since there is no proof that Stefan
of Smederevo was a composer as well as a scribe, even if he was a singer.
This can be further supported by the fact that in the five manuscripts
which have been copied by Stefan of Smederevo, there is no trace of
notation. The lack of notated Serbian manuscripts earlier than the
mid-15th century prevents any certainty about the period in which
Kyr Stefan lived, but what is certain is that he was known outside of
Serbia, as evidenced by the fact that his manuscripts have been found
in monasteries in Greece and Moldova. Ninja Sili was found in one of
the oldest and most important documents of Serbian chant: a manu-
script called MS 93, which belonged to the Belgrade National Library.
It contained some ten hymns in Old Church Slavonic in the Serbian
redaction, as well as come bilingual Greek and Serbian ones. In 1937,
K.P. Manojlović took twelve photographs of various folios for his own
research purposes, which were subsequently kept in the archives of the
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade. Once again, it is
fortunate that he took these pictures, since the Library burnt down
when it was bombed by the Germans during World War II on April 6th,
1941, and this manuscript was destroyed along with countless others.40
Ninja Sili was meant to be sung instead of the Cherubic hymn at
the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. The text is as follows:

Now the Celestial Powers with us invisibly do minister. For lo! the
King of Glory entereth now. Behold – the Mystical Sacrifice, all ac-
complished, is ushered in. Let us with faith and love draw near,
that we may become partakers of life everlasting. Alleluia, alleluia,
alleluia.

Ninja Sili belongs to the second plagal mode, typical for this song in
Byzantine anthologies as well. The melismatic treatment of the text,
the repetition and insertion of certain textual syllables and the formal
profile established on two alternating patterns (which, of course, vary)
are very much in accordance with Byzantine songs of the 14th century.
The similarity of the melodic formulae with those found in the works