Keeping the chant alive: Byzantine Church Music in Istanbul

Stelyos Berber sang in the choir of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Istanbul for 20 years, having first attended services there as a child. He discusses the Patriarchate’s importance in the development of Greek Orthodox Church music and the central role this musical tradition has played in Greek Orthodox culture since the Byzantine era.

Greek Orthodox music is also called ‘Byzantine Church Music’ because the tradition dates back to the Byzantine times. After the Conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, the Patriarchate of Constantinople remained as the central church of the Orthodox Christians, and they continued the Byzantine music tradition. 

Orthodox music is very different from the music of the Catholic Church, which belongs to a Western tradition. The Orthodox tradition has more of an Eastern Culture. This music is kept alive in churches. This is a vocal, monophonic, a cappella tradition without instruments. To learn this, you have to work with a teacher. It is not a kind of music to be learned from a book. Because you cannot write this music one hundred per cent, you cannot transmit it in writing, but you can transmit it verbally. You probably saw that we had small children in our choir. In such an environment, we help those children absorb both the aura and the music at a subconscious level. Afterwards, we reinforce this with the lessons we do and the training we give them, and we pull it up [to the next level]. So, this is the characteristic of this music, roughly.

In this tradition, there are two choirs, each with male singers, standing on the two sides of the soleas, which is the sanctuary platform in Orthodox Churches. The music has complex and specific modal and tonal characteristics.

Stelyos says that it’s hard to continue this tradition in Istanbul, since the city’s Greek population has diminished dramatically. Although the presence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople helps preserve this historic tradition in its homeland, its future survival is at risk due to population decreases.

Here you can hear hymns from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Istanbul. The Patriarch Bartholomew I attended and sang during this service. The recording was made by sound artist Tim Shaw during our 2018 visit to Istanbul. We are grateful to the Patriarchate for their permission to record this.