Tidsskriftet SANG er et forum for kritisk refleksion over sang som udtryksform. Vi bringer både forskning i og formidling om alle typer af sang fra alle faglige vinkler.SANG modtager mange typer indlaeg, f.eks. artikler, anmeld elser, interviews og kommentarer. For vejledning se: https://www.tidsskriftetsang.dk/manuskript. Tidsskriftet støttes af Statens Kunstfond.
This book explores diachronically how the emotion of compunction (κατάνυξις) was presented, performed, and perceived in liturgical hymns. Mellas achieves this by drawing on recent studies in the history of emotions and on recent scholarship in Βyzantine hymnography, as well as thoroughly contextualizing the analyses of the hymns with insights from aesthetics, musicology, theatre studies, and, not least, from the theological treatises on compunction by the fathers of the Byzantine/Orthodox tradition.The book is divided into five chapters. After an introduction focused on the definition of compunction, M. sets out to establish the liturgical context in which the hymns were performed in the second chapter, choosing as time and place for the investigation the Early to Middle Byzantine period and Constantinople. The following three chapters are each devoted to particular poet and hymnic genre: Chapter 3 to Romanos the Melodist and his kontakia (sixth century); Chapter 4 to Andrew of Crete and the Great Kanon (seventh to eighth century); and chapter five to the nun Kassia and her monostrophic sticheron on the sinful woman (ninth century). The book ends with a brief conclusion summing up the results of the investigation. The conclusion is followed by a glossary of words related to Byzantine hymnography and liturgy, a bibliography, and an index. The book is well written, albeit somewhat dense and compressed at times.Overall, this book is a very important contribution to Byzantine hymnography as well as the history of emotions. My criticisms are concerned mainly with M's methodology. M. adapts from Sarah McNamer a method which combines empirical research and 'informed speculation' (p. 25). At times, this informed speculation turns into mere speculation or overinterpretation of the sources. This is especially the case concerning the melodies of the hymns. For instance, M. concludes the section on the melodies of the kontakia with this highly speculative assumption: 'even if a member of the congregation had not talent in singing, the action of listening to the sacred narrative and melody of a hymn, and hearing the voices of its biblical exemplars, opened a shared world of "aural images" that were impressed upon the heart' (p. 111). I think this assumption, sympathetic as it might be, is problematic: would a member of
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