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Question 234

How come the Greek Orthodox style of chanting is different from each church? 

 

Answer to Question 234

 

The Greek Orthodox chant is based on Byzantine music and is chanted in all the churches. Basically there are eight tones and each week a different tone is sung in rotation. Most of the hymns are sung to one of the many "prosomia" which are hymns with a fixed melody so really there is no difference from the chanting in one church to the chanting in another. The difference is in the chanters themselves, you have good chanters who have studied and read Byzantine music and can make a hymn sound angelic and then there are those who have no knowledge of Byzantine music yet believe they are chanters, but can induce childbirth in a pregnant woman. The difference between the two can sound like different styles of chanting, but at its root it is the same