I recall this particular point with fondness for the following reason. When I was teaching Byzantine Music 101 at Holy Cross in Brookline MA back in 1990-2 I had devised a kind of Mode Table for use by the beginning students as a help to learning the modes. It had space for the various modes in their respective genera (i.e. iv had three rows: heirmologic, sticheraric and papadic, etc.). One column would show the basis, another the dominant notes, another would recall a well know melos in that particular mode that could be easily recalled by these neophites; an example would be Phos hilaron for mode II or Christos aneste for mode I plagal, and so on. The last column, however, was blank for each student to fill in him or herself; in that last space they would enter any tune or song that helped then 'get into the mode'. The one that I got the biggest kick out of was when one student wrote in 'the Adam's family tune' for mode III: you know, where it goes "da da da dum; da da da dum; da da da dum [snap snap]"! I'll never forget it; it was his na na.
;-)
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About Me
- FRCJT
- I was born in East St Louis, Illinois in 1961 and grew up in South St Louis, Missouri. I abandoned the music program at Southern Illinois University after deciding to study theology. To this end I enrolled at Hellenic College, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and received the BA and MDiv degrees from these schools. From there I received scholarships to complete a doctoral dissertation in Byzantine Musicology at the School of Theology of the National and Capodistrian University of Athens, Greece, from which I received the ThD in the year 2000; my dissertation was published in the Meletai series of the Institute of Byzantine Musicology. Most dear to my heart is the family I have been blessed with: my wife Diann, my daughter, Maria, and one unborn child God decided to keep for Himself. Presently, I live on the island of Aegina with my family and where I presently sit and write my psaltic musings.