Improvizația în muzica de cult de tradiție bizantină
Improvisation in religious music of Byzantine tradition

Summary/Abstract: The sources that fueled Byzantine sacred music, mostly oriental, as well as the multi-secular orality of its circulation, made this art possess a vast and rich spectrum of improvisational forms. The improvisational spirit manifests itself especially in the solo intonation and the more evolved melodic idioms, i.e. in the stihiraric and papadic singing, but also the irmologic singing leaves the psalmists a margin for individual contribution and invention. In all traditional musical cultures - and even more so in Byzantine music - improvisation starts from established patterns, predetermined laws, and parameters to be respected. First of all, the Byzantine monody presupposes the fixation of improvisational procedures on a precise modal framework. The hymnist and the performer will graft their additions/retouches on the initial, middle and final formulas of the chosen ihos while respecting the prescriptions of the given style (irmologic, stihiraric, papadic) and genre (diatonic, chromatic, enharmonic). The long practice of improvisational insertions (compositional, interpretative) has continuously refreshed the Byzantine monodic discourse, has cultivated its appetite for melodic eloquence, refined melodic sound paths, the generous and polymorphic ornamentation, the colors and savory modal nuances.

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