A fundamental error in choral arranging is treating all Byzantine chant as a blank canvas. Traditionalists claim Western harmony destroys the chant, while modernists force it everywhere. Both are structurally wrong. Byzantine Music is not exclusively modal. When the Mode dictates functional gravity, execute Western harmony without apology.
One of the most annoying hurdles for Byzantine Polyphony composers and arrangers is the Second Tone’s tendency to snap between the chromatic Byzantine Mode and the Diatonic Mixolydian. This phenomenon is most common in the double Katavasiae when both are in the Second Tone (e.g., on Epiphany), where the plain hymn is chromatic and the Iambic hymn is diatonic. Here is how you harmonize it without losing your mind.
The inherited monophonic chant tradition and the emerging practice of polyphonic Byzantine music share repertoire and modal roots, but differ fundamentally in structure, tuning philosophy, and performance practice.
