Elements of language in the kalophonic heirmoi of Macarie the Hieromonk and Visarion the Confessor

Abstract

The tradition of kalophonic eirmoi has at least two brand representatives in the Romanian Principalities. First of all, Macarie the Hieromonk, but also one of his disciples, Visarion the Confessor. Both lived or worked in the great lavra of the Neamț Monastery, one of the most important spiritual and cultural centers known to the pan-Orthodox world. The intrigue that gives rise to this material is the fact that these kalophonic eirmoi are not only exegeseis or adaptations in Romanian, but also enrichments, melodic processing that reveals individual or common stylistic features, elements of musical language, characteristics of Neamț Monastery tradition and more. The present study therefore intends to identify some of these stylistic elements and compositional techniques of the two composers who deeply marked the Romanian psaltic tradition, in the compositional genre of kalophony, using as study material some kalophonic eirmoi belonging to the plagal of the fourth mode.