Measurement and analysis of Byzantine chant frequencies and frequency intervals

Abstract

A Byzantine music chant piece performed by a well-recognized chanter is used in order to measure experimentally the mean frequencies of the first five tones (D–A) of the Byzantine music diatonic scale. The experimental frequencies are compared with two traditional theoretical scales. It is found that a scale performed by a traditional chanter is very close to the frequencies of the proposed scales, except for tone F. The performer’s standard deviation from the mean frequencies for each tone is determined. The amount of deviation is not provided by theory. By comparison of these results to the notion of pitch discrimination from psychophysics, it is further established that the frequency differences are small not only physically (frequency), but also in terms of perception (pitch). The attraction effect (secondary tones are higher in frequency when found between a lower and a higher main tone and lower in frequency when between a higher and a lower main tone) is tested for all analyzed tones (D–A); it is found that the sole tone subject to the attraction effect is the only secondary tone (E). The frequencies characterizing the attraction effect have not been explained in theory and are quantified experimentally for the first time.