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(. . . Let it be silent, let the luminous stars not shine, let the winds (?) and all the noisy rivers die down; and as we hymn the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let all the powers add 'Amen, amen'. Empire, praise always, and glory to God, the sole giver of all good things. Amen, amen.) |
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This hymn is perhaps the latest in date of the known pieces recorded in the ancient Greek notation; at the same time it is the earliest example of Christian hymnody. Egon Wellesz maintained that it was modelled on melodic patterns deriving from oriental sources, perhaps adapted from a Syriac hymn, and had nothing to do with the native Greek musical tradition. However, I can see no feature of the music that cannot be illustrated from the foregoing documents of the art as it existed in the second- and third-century Empire. It is only a little further along the path towards ever greater ornament, as might be expected from its date. |
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The metre is anapaestic, a favourite form in those centuries.14 The practice of beginning some bars with a rest, as before sigato and hymnounton, is unusual but paralleled in 34. The melody, purely diatonic, has the compass of an octave. The tonal loci are d and g; the final Amen descends from g to d. The two notes next above g are much used, but the outer notes of the octave, c and c', only transitorily. Accord of melody and accent is only partial. We see the standard manifestations of the florid style: occasional division of |
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14 Cf. 30, 34, 40, 41; Greek Metre, 170-2. |
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