Common scale features of the recent Greek and Serbian church chant traditions

This paper is an attempt to show the similarity between the Serbian and Greek Post-Byzantine chanting traditions, especially those which relate to the scale organization of modes. Three teachers and reformers from Constantinople, Chrisantos, Gregorios and Chourmousios, established a fairly firm theoretical system for the first time during the long history of church chant. One of the main results of their reform, beside changes relating to neums, was the assignment of strict sizes to the intervals in the natural tonal system. There are three kinds of natural scales: diatonic, chromatic and encharmonic. They all have their place in the Greek Anastasimatarion chant book, whose first edition was prepared by Petar Peloponesios, and later edited by Ionnes Protopsaltes. The first, first plagal and forth plagal modes are diatonic in each of their melos, with very few exceptions; the second and second plagal are soft and hard chromatic, while the third and varis are encharmonic. It is important to note that the Greek chanter is very conscious of the scale foundation of the melody, so he begins to chant the apechima foremost, the intonation formula that comprehends all indisposed details to enter the adequate mode, i. e. melos. One mode could use one sort of scale for all groups of melodies - melos. However, in some modes there are different melos, whose scale organisation is not equal at all. That means that it is not proper to equate mode with scale, but rather to look for the specific scale's shape through the melodies that belong to the melos. The absence of formal Serbian church music theory and, especially, the very conservative way in which church melodies are learnt by ear and by heart, has caused significant gaps, which preclude an adequate approach to the essentional principals of Serbian chant. Over the years many Serbian chanters and musicians have noted down church melodies, especially those from the Octoechos, in F or in G, with the key defined as either major or minor. However, it ought to be said that Serbian chanters in the recent past, as well as those who take part in worship today, do not consciously connect the mode, melos or melody with scale progression, but rather with melodic patterns. In other words, neither in the 19th century nor today have Serbian chanters sung characteristic intonation formulae for their respective scale structures, when crossing from one mode to another. The reason this practice has already been mentioned: they learn complete melodies by heart, without thinking about their scale system. In this paper I looked for a p