TAMAR CHKHEIDZE ON THE INTERRELATION OF A LIST OF CHRELI (TYPE OF HYMNS) AND SYSTEM OF NEUMES

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1 399 TAMAR CHKHEIDZE ON THE INTERRELATION OF A LIST OF CHRELI (TYPE OF HYMNS) AND SYSTEM OF NEUMES In scholarly literature the appearance of new manuscripts containing the chreli system may open up new avenues of research of the chreli s unknown aspects. They supplied us with a significantly broader knowledge of the composition of the list of chreli as well as of the terminology it includes and also of the liturgical essence of the chants comprising the list and their structural and intonational peculiarities. New lists have made us see clearly the operation of peculiarities of the eight-voice system in the chants interpreted by the chreli. Furthermore we were able to better study the questions connected with interrelations between neumes and the system of chreli and also the questions concerning the origin and age of the list of chreli. 1 Today few manuscripts containing the list of chreli are known to us. Since the manuscripts Q and H-2282 are well-known in scholarly circles, our attention will be directed to the less studied (Q-103, Q-104) 3 and completely unexplored (Kut-368, Kut-467) 4 sources. The above-mentioned lists of chreli show some degree of resemblance to one another in the distribution of the chant s verbal text. On this basis, chants marked by Q-103, Q-104 and Kut-467 are united in one group, where the verbal text keeps running on as prose, though with pauses, cutting up the text into phrases. The second group is made up of Kut-368 and Q-298. Here every new phrase of the verbal text is located on a new line. As regards the interpretations given in red ink (in 368 green colour also occurs) in the manuscripts dated in the 17 th -18 th centuries one principle is given. The melody tune interpretation is located over the verbal text, on the line above it like the musical notation marks. The phenomenon does not occur in Q-298. In this manuscript, as it is known, the interpretation of the melody in red ink is placed alongside the verbal text of the hymn, on the same line. It is most probable that, owing to the fact that the list of chreli gave no ground for discussion about the difference or resemblance system of neumes and the chreli, the new lists opened up new possibilities of research of the problem. From the data existing today it is difficult to define which of these two systems indicated the primary musical melody. But we are reluctant to share the existing opinion that the chreli replaced the forgotten system of neumes. It is our supposition that they have been coexisting in parallel throughout the centuries. This consideration is strengthened by a feature of the list of the chreli, non-existent in collections of neumes. While comparing the manuscripts containing the chreli it appeared that they are similar as regards composition. This may serve to state that chants having various liturgical and service function were selected and listed together by observing a certain rule. Manana Andriadze was the first musicologist who paid attention to the composition of the lists: The chants included in the list are given in a certain set of succession. The successive order of vesper, matins and liturgy chants are quite clearly observed (Andriadze, 2001:51). Further research in this direction proved that the necessary components of the lists are not only the day and night chants (vesper, matins, liturgy) but also the chants dedicated to the Lord s twelve days and saints lays troparia, gerni and kondakia The presence of the above-mentioned kind of chants as an indispensable component of

2 400 Tamar Chkheidze the chants list is very noteworthy since the presence of the chreli stanzas in these genres testify to their dating back to the ancient times. It should be emphasized that regardless of the resemblance in composition, the structure of the chants in view of their succession is not the same. The lists reveal individual character through the interpretations used in them. In Kutaisi manuscript #467 the principle of genre grouping is observed. Therefore first the festival kondakia are listed, followed by the group of the Christmas, and Good Friday twelve troparia, after which come vesper, matins and liturgy chreli. The manuscript proceeds with the Lord s great festive days gerni (a kind of hymn) in which in its turn, the principle of calendar succession is observed. The last page of the manuscript gives the troparia by the name of Sachikeni, which denotes the hymns to be sung at feasts or hymns to be performed when wine is drunk from a glass (chika). It does not refer to any particular tune. Kutaisi manuscript #368 beginning with a day and night chreli cycle is composed in keeping with the calendar order. It begins with an annunciation chants cycle followed by the Christmas festive chants, then come the presentation chants and so on. It should be stated that this circuit comprises the cycle of chants of both fixed and shiftable holidays. In the final part of the manuscript like in Kutaisi manuscript #467 is given the troparia Sachikeni. 5 The manuscripts Q-298 and H-2282 have a structure that resembles that of Kutaisi manuscript #368, whereas in the Gulani (a book of hymns for the whole year) chreli chants are comparatively short and are characterized by a quality of less orderliness. Hence, each list of chants is individual in its way, but it does not prevent us observing the features they have in common, the resemblance, the system that unites them. The fact that some differences registered in some sources in the interpretations of the chants with parallel texts can be explained by the tradition of different chanting schools. We consider the stability of the list of chreli to be a more significant phenomenon than it may seem at a glance. This characteristic trait substantially distinguishes the list of chreli from the marked by signs chanting collections, the diversity of which in the way of composition is boundless. The analysis of the collections of neumes that reached us have caused us to come to this conclusion. It is not accidental that the manuscripts of different traditions (origin) and epochs have similar compositions. The research gives a basis for ruling out the possibility that these texts were mechanically copied from one another. The stability characteristic of the lists is conditioned by the musical, liturgical meaning of the chants in the lists. The above mentioned leads us to a question: whether or not the chants interpreted by the chreli in view of the modes (stanzas) they included created the certain fund of the rhythmic, intonational models that differed from the eight-voice part chanting modes (belonging to collections of neumes): heirmos, troparion, anthiphonal chants and others, representing the intonational source only of the chants that were part of the list. In corroboration of this consideration we may offer an analysis of the interpretation used in the list of chreli. In the studies of Georgian chanting devoted to the chreli it is more than once mentioned that the interpretation of chants in the list of chreli is carried out in two ways. In some cases the tune is interpreted by the chreli manner (mode): oini (a joke) rejoice, troparion, the tune of all saints, alien, the head (chapter) and so on. In other cases a fragment is indicated which should be imitated. In such a case it is not specified precisely which chant it is or which is its initial phrase. Despite the difficulties in stating the origin of the verbal text used as interpretation we were able to decide that all the interpre-

3 On the Interrelation of a List of Chreli (Type of Hymns) and System of Neumes 401 tations of this kind are taken from the texts of the chants from the list. No interpretation beyond the verbal material of the list occurs in it. It should be specially emphasized that the melody models falling under one and the same interpretation keep recurring frequently not only within one manuscript (in different chants), but in different manuscripts as well. The research carried out clarified that the melodic tunes are united in the chant tunes with law-governed regularity. Here not only their genre is revealed but the effect of eightvoice system peculiarities as well. For example a comparison of interpretations in kondakia and troparia shows that despite some common models they are supplied by different intonational sources. An analysis of the kondakia with a common voice showed that they are characterized by not only intonational, but structural resemblance as well and everywhere retain the regularities characteristic of the voice. Some chreli are of universal character and it can be said that they represent some kind of leit-motif. Thus, it can be stated that a ready-model fund existed supplying all the chants of the list of chreli. And the chants having nothing in common from the musical point of view with the mentioned group of melodic models did not belong to the list of chreli. The fact that the festive troparia and kondakia do not at all occur in the list of chreli (with some exceptions) explains it. Right here we would like to comment on the reason of finding some troparia ( To the Ark of Covenant, Don t Mourn Me, Mother, Shine, Shine New Jerusalem ) in the list of chreli. Their number is so insignificant, that the abovementioned law-governed regularity concerning the composition of the list of chreli is not affected. The reason why these troparia occur among the gerni, stichera and kondakia is explained by the information concerning kinds of chreli in Ioane Batonishvili s Kalmasoba (a tradition of asking for food and wheat at thrashing grounds for their further donation to churches and monasteries). Here is a quotation: To the kind of chreli belong some liturgical chants Romeli Kheruvimta (Of the Cherubs), Da Vitartsa (And Since), Ganitsade (Suffer), the second mode and others. There are also troparia of matins and vesper, which resemble the chreli and Shedzrtsunda Ubitsosgan Sitqva Mdzlavrisa (Was Moved by the Powerful Words of the Virgin), Nu Mtir Me Dedao (Don t Mourn Me, Mother) and others of the same kind (Batonishvili, 1948:69). In the light of this information it can be stated that the Prince considers troparia different from the chreli; he regards them as belonging to a different category and qualifies them as chants resembling the chreli. Regardless of the fact that troparia possessed their own eight voices, it seems that performing the above-mentioned troparia was carried out differently by using those chreli that occur in the list. The latter circumstance became the reason for their existence in the list of chreli. Thus the strictly selected composition of the list of chreli and the original way of tune interpretation (technique), which does not go beyond the frame of the verbal material, indicate the local character of the chreli system and the comparatively narrow scope of usage as opposed to the system of neumes. The above-mentioned factors are the basis for stating that the chreli could not have replaced the neumes. Today it is not known how old the chreli system is. The presented lists have created the prospect of a study of the issue. A fact that deserves special mention is that among the festive chants, be it the Lord s day or the day of a Saint, besides the kondakion, geri and troparion no other chant of any kind occurs in any manuscript 6. Proceeding from this it may be concluded that socalled the chreli stanzas occurred only in the festive chants- kondakion, geri and troparion besides the day and night festive chants. When this phenomenon was found

4 402 Tamar Chkheidze in a number of A-85 notes of the 13 th century manuscript our supposition about the chreli stanzas possessing the intonational particular area and their relation to the system of neumes gains strength. It is known exactly that manuscript A-85 contains the earliest information about the chreli, the chreli stanzas. But until the composition of the chreli list was analysed nobody took into account that the chreli are mentioned in the 13 th century manuscript precisely in relation to the genres which are the principal kernel of the 17 th and 18 th century. They are troparia and gerni. In corroboration of the consideration expressed above a quotation from note 357r of manuscript A-85 can serve: See the chreli stanzas in the gerni and troparia of virgin martyrs. The note concerning the chants devoted to Saint Ekaterine and other virgin martyrs names troparia and gerni as the chants containing the chreli stanzas. The term chreli also occurs on the manuscript page 365 and is about the chreli stanzas that could be found in gerni, Our Lord Christ troparion and sticheron. In manuscript A-85 (239v) another piece of information can be found making evident that the author distinguishes the chreli stanzas from the rest of the chants. It can also be seen that the chreli stanzas are linked to the festive services, the latter serving a proof of the identity of the chreli in the 13 th and 18 th century manuscripts. Thus we may conclude that the chreli is not a replacement for the forgotten system of neumes. Its roots date back to a much earlier period of time. All the more so since the term chreli is found in the 13 th century manuscript in relation to the stanzas of those chants which make up the principal part of the chreli lists in the later period (gerni and sticheron). Neumes and chreli were the systems of a different technique and were used in different areas though they designated functionally resembling musical tunes and could freely coexist. And finally even if we do not take into account the real sphere of usage of the written signs of neumes in the 18 th century, the assertions represented in this work (study) are quite substantial in order to acknowledge the parallel existence of the chreli s and the system of neumes. Notes 1 The chreli system was discussed at the First International Symposium of Polyphony in a report The chreli System in Georgian Chanting Practice co-authored by M. Andriadze (see Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Traditional Polyphony. Tbilisi, 2003, pp in Georgian and English). 2 This sign designates the depository fund of the Kekelidze Institute of Manuscripts and the manuscript s number 3 The lists were found and studied by M. Andriadze. See On the Chreli Preserved in the Book of Hymns (2001) 4 The manuscripts are preserved in the Manuscript Department of Kutaisi State Museum (in Georgian) 5 On the troparia by name Sachikeni see the author s article The Chreli Lists Preserved in the 17 th -18 th -Century Georgian Manuscripts. Belief and Knowledge 4(8), , pp (in Georgian) 6 The question of the presence of heirmos in a number of lists is discussed above. Translated by MARINA KUBANEISHVILI

5 On the Interrelation of a List of Chreli (Type of Hymns) and System of Neumes 403 References Andriadze, Manana (2001). Gulanebshi Daculi Chrelebis shesakheb (On the Chreli Preserved in the Book of Hymns). In Problems of Polyphony in Sacred and Secular Music. Materials of the International Scientific Conference. Rusudan Tsurtsumia (responsible editor). pp Tbilisi: Tbilisi State Conservatoire (in Georgian with English sumarry) Ioane Batonishvili (The Prince Ioane) (1948). Kalmasoba, vol. II. Tbilisi: Merani (in Georgian) The Fund of the Kekelidze Institute of Manuscripts (Georgian Academy of Sciences). Manuscripts Q-298, Q-103, Q-104, A-85 and H-2282 Manuscript Department of Kutaisi State Museum. Manuscripts 368 and 467