The future of church music if nothing changes
Byzantine chant is considered “safe” because it’s ancient, preserved, and protected by tradition. In 2019 it was inscribed on the UNESCO list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, carelessly reinforcing a global image of the tradition as an exclusively monophonic art form, while overlooking documented polyphonic practices from Kefallonia, Zakynthos, Smyrna, medieval Crete, and other regions.
But preservation is not the same as vitality. Just like all living organisms, musical systems either develop new structure or slowly weaken, and eventually become dependent on nostalgia rather than strength.
So what actually happens if Byzantine music never develops structurally, if it remains permanently monophonic? We have seen this pattern in other musical cultures that stopped building (Gregorian, traditional Middle Eastern).
I. The Choir Becomes Redundant.
When ten people sing the same melody in unison, that’s not a choir but a volume knob. Unison creates loudness and that’s all. There’s no structure, no harmony, no interlocking parts, no vertical architecture. Musically it’s just one line. If one skilled chanter can sing it, having ten chanters sing it only serves to amplify the volume. But we have microphones for that.
The inevitable result is loss of purpose and cuttings. Parishes cannot sustain this for long; they conclude they don’t need multiple singers, they withdraw support and the choir scatters. In the end, the soloist + ison remains, the ison being a luxury. More often than not, the ison is also replaced by a cheap synthesizer.
Result: The communal musical craft dissolves through redundancy.
II. Musical Skill Declines for Lack of Structural Demand
Polyphony forces musical growth. Monophony does not.
Without independent parts:
- Basses never learn harmonic foundation
- Inner voices never develop tuning awareness
- Singers never practice voice leading
- No one learns how tones behave vertically
The system stops demanding high-level musicianship. What was once an ensemble art becomes a niche skill for solo specialists.
Result: The musical culture narrows instead of expanding.
III. When Structure Weakens, Authority Fills the Void
Strong musical systems are governed by acoustics and function.
You can ask:
- Is this in tune?
- Does this voicing balance?
- Does the structure support the mode?
But when a system lacks harmonic structure, technical discussions become harder to ground. So the basis of decision-making shifts. From acoustics to authority. From analysis to obedience.
Result: The cult of the infallible guru-teacher, decade-long apprenticeships, the involvement of hierarchy.
IV. Pitch Drift Gets Rebranded as “Tradition”
In a monophonic environment, pitch center relies on memory, vocal stamina, and individual habit.
There’s no vertical reference stabilizing the system. Pitch drifts between regions, teachers, and even recordings of the same piece. Instead of being identified as a structural weakness, this instability gets romanticized:
- “Microtonal intervals”
- “Living tradition”
- “Expressive flexibility”
It’s none of those. It’s just instability. Teaching becomes imitation-based instead of structurally grounded. Each generation drifts a little further from any shared tonal center.
Result: The system becomes harder to teach and easier to distort.
V. Historical Layers Turn Into Untouchable Dogma
All musical traditions absorb influences and that’s normal. But without structural analysis, you can’t distinguish:
- What is foundational
- What is regional
- What is late performance style
- What is historical accident
Ottoman inflections, late ornament habits, 19th-century vocal aesthetics: everything gets flattened into “ancient purity.” Questioning any layer feels like attacking identity, not refining craft.
Result: Scholarship becomes suspect, and emotional attachment replaces musical reasoning.
VI. Zero Evolution Means Shrinking
If there’s no vertical development, the horizontal material doesn’t stay grand and complex but it contracts. Modern parish life pressures music toward:
- Shorter hymns
- Simplified melodies
- Repetitive formulas
Long, intricate solo repertoire becomes impractical. Instead of building structure to support complexity, communities reduce the material.
Result: The repertoire becomes smaller and, more often than not, is performed badly.
VII. Talented Musicians Leave
Anyone with basic musical education today thinks in harmony. They understand:
- Chords
- Voice leading
- Texture
- Ensemble interaction
A permanently monophonic system feels:
- Structurally incomplete
- Educationally limiting
- Artistically narrow
So strong musicians drift toward:
- Western choral traditions
- Early sacred polyphony
- Secular ensemble music
Byzantine chant becomes a specialization that dangerously deviates from acoustic principles to hierarchical cosplay, rather than a living musical culture that attracts serious talent.
Result: The very people capable of sustaining the tradition go elsewhere.
What Structural Development Changes
With vertical development:
- The choir is needed and cannot be ditched
- Pitch stabilizes through harmonic reference
- Modes become teachable through structure
- Singers develop real ensemble musicianship
- Talented musicians have a reason to stay and build
- Western music also benefits by incorporating the new modal harmony techniques
Tradition is not a freezer. If we aren’t building, we are dismantling. The question is no longer whether Byzantine music should be preserved. UNESCO inscription alone cannot prevent distortion or decline. It can only document what exists, not sustain what lives. The real question is whether we are willing to give it the structural tools required to survive as a living, demanding, and musically serious art. Because systems that refuse to grow become obsolete.